Simon Gibson

“I'm sorry," he says, his fingers closing around mine. "You shouldn't be looking at such..."

"Such what?" I ask, a question that is rapidly chased by another. "And why not?"

He glances down at the pictures, then tears his gaze away, dragging it back to my face. "Well, because it's improper, for one thing."

How cruel it would be of me to ask for a second thing, if only to watch him stumble and stammer while his gaze struggles not to dip down to those portraits a second time. "It may have escaped your notice at some point during our acquaintance, but I am a woman. And as shocking as it may be for you to believe, I have seen myself naked on more than one occasion, so you'll pardon me if I am not offended by anything these ladies have to offer.”
― Quenby Olson, The Half Killed

“He who stands on tiptoe
doesn't stand firm.
He who rushes ahead
doesn't go far.
He who tries to shine
dims his own light.
He who defines himself
can't know who he really is.
He who has power over others
can't empower himself.
He who clings to his work
will create nothing that endures.

If you want to accord with the Tao,
just do your job, then let go.”
― Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

“Only a fool lets somebody else tell him who his enemy is.”
― Assata Shakur, Assata: An Autobiography

“Lies the beauty of your walk in the way you walk it … or in the journey’s end?”
― Wytze Keuning, Ashoka the Great