We asked the community to share their favorite quotes and affirmations with us. Check some of those out below.

Nicole Redd-McIntosh | Pastry Chef & Cake Designer

One of my favorite quotes ( I have so many) is from the book Like Water for Chocolate: “Each of us is born with a box of matches inside us but we can’t strike them all by ourselves; we need oxygen and a candle to help. In this case, the oxygen for example, would come from the breath of the person you love; the candle would be any kind of food, music, caress, word, or sound that engenders the explosion that lights one of the matches. For a moment we are dazzled by an intense emotion. A pleasant warmth grows within us, fading slowly as time goes by, until a new explosion comes along to revive it. Each person has to discover what will set off those explosions in order to live, since the combustion that occurs when one of them is ignited is what nourishes the soul. That fire, in short, is its food. Read more>>

Ilene Yang | Comedian, Stand-up show Producer & Student

“Try again. Fail again. Fail better.” -Samuel Beckett. The best part of this quote is the ending. Learning to fail better is such are great mindset to have. Failing without effort is a loss and not trying at all is a tragedy. I love this quote because it reminds me to enjoy the falls and to continue trying. I used to allow my failures to deter me from trying again. I would be very emotional about my failures and let it define me in a negative way. Now, I allow it to define my potential which I realize is limitless. Read more>>

Pouria Safa | Photographer

“You  can bring into your life more power, more wealth, more health, more happiness and more joy by learning to contact and release the hidden power of your subconscious mind” By believing in ourselves and setting our mind to success we can achieve our goals, we must stop all negative thoughts and keep the positive attitude and move forward. when I started my business few years ago I believed and set my mind to help realtors and homeowners, small business with creative and eye catching photos and videos. Read more>>

Taylor Donsker | Furniture Designer & Craftsman

“The world is bound with secret knots” – Anthanasius Kircher. This quote has guided my attitude towards design, friendship, business relationships, and community. In regards to design, it has influenced my belief that every material has a grain, a strength and a weakness, an origin and an end. Knowing the qualities of materials allows me to combine them in new and unique ways while exploiting their aesthetic and physical strengths. I believe that the combination of materials such as glass, bronze, wood, and stone in my work produce a freshness in otherwise familiar forms. Read more>>

Melissa McFarlane | Business Coach for Creative Entrepreneurs

My favorite saying is, “When you have an idea, the means to achieve it come with it.” Society somehow teaches us to feel fear in the unknown and one way we tend to avoid that fear is to re-create what we already have, rather than truly and fully leaning into an unrealized idea that we have. I love the perspective that our ideas are always taking care of us, pulling us into something that is waiting for us to meet up with it and play, and that there are clues for us to follow that will help us meet up with the vision, living and breathing as we imagined it could be. It’s such a friendly and calming thought: “I’ve had an idea. That means it exists in form somewhere – the parts are all available to assemble. I MUST be able to achieve it! I just have to learn to see and hear the clues – this is going to be a great adventure! I cannot fail if I keep the idea in mind, front and center.” Read more>>

Alfred Nomad | Artist, Activist & Curator

My favorite current affirmation is “everything will be alright.” This was an affirmation I kept telling myself over the last 3-4 years when I was going through rough times, and couldn’t see the light at the end of the darkness. I would tell myself this affirmation that everything will be alright to keep me going, and get me through. That is how the “Everything Will Be Alright” project and initiative was birthed. This affirmation represents hope. It represents faith. Hope and faith in yourself, in the purpose of it all, in the process to grow in one’s journey. Life truly moves forward in seasons. Not all seasons will be fun or pleasurable. But you have to believe it will all work for the better in the end. Read more>>

Mirit & Meirav

“Vision is the true creative rhythm”. by Robert Delaunay. We feel that this sentence represent the way our company was created and built. Our customers vision is our origin point. Their imagination and passion will lead us, step by step, to a piece of art that will be customized for their unique desires. Read more>>

Lisa Arnett | Creative Director & Entrepreneur

My grandfather, who purchased a struggling shoe store during the Depression and went on to create a successful chain of stores, shared his favorite quote with me (Theodore Roosevelt’s “The Man in the Arena”) that I have always taken to heart. “The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly;… so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.” The key is to get in the game and never give up – persevere! Remember why you started! Read more>>

Jason James | Artistic Director

In my very first semester of undergraduate work in New York City, my acting teacher at the time, Mark Riherd said “there is a great discrepancy between the perception of acting and its reality.” I didn’t know what that meant at the time, however almost twenty years later, I think I am starting to figure it out. The craft of acting is a process. It is never ending. We must constantly be studying, reading, training, and discovering new things. With social media being such a priority in our industry’s eyes and on our culture as a whole, the perception of what acting is has become diluted. The art itself isn’t about followers or likes, it is about doing good work. And good work takes time, focus, patience, and determination. It is a quote I have carried with me all these years. It reminds me of why I do the work, why I continue to study hard, work hard, and keep my own view of the work in focus. Read more>>