“The main condition for the achievement of love is the overcoming of one's narcissism. The narcissistic orientation is one in which one experiences as real only that which exists within oneself, while the phenomena in the outside world have no reality in themselves, but are experienced only from the viewpoint of their being useful or dangerous to one. The opposite pole to narcissism is objectivity; it is the faculty to see other people and things as they are, objectively, and to be able to separate this objective picture from a picture which is formed by one's desires and fears.”

I squeezed my eyes shut and took several deep breaths, trying not to smell Jace in front of me, not to taste him on my lips. But it was useless. In that moment, Jace was everywhere. He was in my mind, he was in my heart, and he was in my memory. He smelled good. He tasted good. And the blissful aftershock still throbbing in my most sensitive places felt wonderful, when everything else in my life was an obstacle to be overcome.

“This survey found that while compliance is an important business driver for scanning and capture technologies, it is not the primary business driver. Users are looking for these technologies to drive both productivity and efficiency. We also found that the primary obstacles to deploying scanning and capture center both on hard dollar issues (how do I justify the investment?), and soft dollar issues (how will I deal with the change management issues associated with implementing these technologies?). Successful solution providers will help users overcome these obstacles.”

“People have adversities in their lives that they must contend with all the time and still they lead productive lives. And it is not just illness that creates adversity. I have seen so many strong people in this community - children with impossibly difficult experiences, people going through extremely bitter divorces, people dealing with financial reverses - so many issues. Luckily we live in an open society. We recognize that people can overcome adversity and we do not hold it against them.”

Life teaches us invaluable lessons through our experiences and I treasure these. If I’ve been hurt, humiliated, shunned or sidelined I have grown that much stronger by learning precious lessons from them. If I’ve experienced spells of failures and disappointments, I’ve had my moments of sunshine too. But the best gift that experiences have given me is that I don’t commit the same mistake twice. They have taught me to overcome even the most difficult obstacles…

“I think on the one hand, women should believe in their own rights as being equal under law to men, but men should also commit themselves to accepting women as equal partners in society. It's going to take time, but it can be done through long-term educational programs in Afghanistan and positive campaign by the press and also with the help of clerics. It requires a long-term struggle with the support of the international community. We women can overcome our problems and the [negative] view of society.”

I understand we all have our differences. But while learning about history I've read about white people coming together, Jews coming together, Spanish coming together, different cultures and religions understanding and coming together despite their differences. Slavery was never something that shocked me. What shocks me is how black people have not yet overcome the odds and we're such strong smart people. Why we can't just stand together?

I think for a time I was unsure what love meant. And now at least I AM sure that a very big part of it involves caring about someone SO much, that you find yourself using Your energy to make their life the BEST it can possibly be. And in turn they do the same for you. Until you both are strong enough to overcome whatever struggles you might have battled on your own, and also struggles you still have yet to face.

Now that science has helped us to overcome the awe of the unknown in nature, we are the slaves of social pressures of our own making. When called upon to act independently, we cry for patterns, systems, and authorities. If by enlightenment and intellectual progress we mean the freeing of man from superstitious belief in evil forces, in demons and fairies, in blind fate--in short, the emancipation from fear--then denunciation of what is currently called reason is the greatest service reason can render.

The master potter was trying to create the perfect piece each time, and he would discard even the ones with the slightest flaw. So I chose to create new forms from them, because perhaps, I don’t believe completely in that kind of perfection."To me, a piece of broken ceramic finds another piece, and they come to rely on one another. The cracks between them symbolise the wound... The work is a metaphor of the struggle of life that makes people more mature and beautiful as they overcome their sufferings.