A.J. Darkholme Quotes & Sayings

Like waking up in our home one night to find ourselves in a blazing fire, we must be arsonists of emotion, forcing ourselves to grab only what is truly important to us before our life-rafters collapse in on us and we can no longer escape alive. — A.J. Darkholme

Sometimes we exist long enough to lead the next generation; other times, only to plant a seed and let its resonations of our time here on Earth ripple into new waves. — A.J. Darkholme

No army is comprised of all the same kinds of units or types of troops. There is power in diversity. If you always see only one choice, or use only one option, you will surely lose more than you win. — A.J. Darkholme

[Everything you write is] not simply a collection of words, but a means of influence not to be taken lightly. Let your recipient's emotions be the gondola, and your words, its gondolier. — A.J. Darkholme

Always hear others out and remain open-minded; the day you think you know everything is the day you have the most yet to learn. — A.J. Darkholme

Sometimes the best way to learn a lesson isn't just hearing the words, but putting it into practice by experimenting with it and finding its truth for yourself instead of taking someone else's word for it. — A.J. Darkholme

When life brings you mountains, you don't waste your time asking why; you spend your time climbing over them. — A.J. Darkholme

Where there is desire, the means to fulfill it are endless. — A.J. Darkholme

Greatness is not a gift that one can give to another, but rather is a thief's relic that we must take for ourselves. — A.J. Darkholme

To get to where you need to be, you have to go where you don't feel prepared to go. — A.J. Darkholme

If you choose to keep your true face secret, then the people who know you by one mask, must never meet those who know you by another. — A.J. Darkholme

When you're looking for a needle in a haystack, don't afraid to burn the haystack to save yourself from spending half your life picking through strands of straw. — A.J. Darkholme

What's the use in prolonging life if you don't do anything with it? — A.J. Darkholme

People are more willing to change based on their perceived insecurities than by an attack on their beliefs. — A.J. Darkholme

My happiness with the future and the present depends on my ability to let the past go and make peace with it. — A.J. Darkholme

Gaining satisfaction through accomplishments is and will always be a slippery slope, because there will come a time when you realize you have accomplished all that is within your power to accomplish in the realm of good, and will have nowhere else to turn but to the realms of greed and powerlust to find the satisfaction you crave. — A.J. Darkholme

All things are possible; if something seems like it's not, it's only because enough people aren't being deceived into the possibilities yet. — A.J. Darkholme

Let your fear drive you to evolve into greatness. — A.J. Darkholme

The world is changeable, and its ability to change is so fragile that a single person can be responsible for it. — A.J. Darkholme

The strong will always rule the weak. — A.J. Darkholme

Where excess lies, usually someone had to give something up for the other to get it. — A.J. Darkholme

Greed robs you of more value than the price of what you've gained. — A.J. Darkholme

Our lives consist of a series of internal battles, deep within us, where weapons don't exist and technology is unable to create devices that better the best of yesterday. Our knowledge is our only defense; caution, our only friend. — A.J. Darkholme

Memories are meant to serve you, not enslave you. — A.J. Darkholme

Though there is much we still want, there is much we already have, and that means we have much to lose as well. It's that potential loss that can keep us bound so tightly that we never reach our biggest dreams, because the biggest dreams require the most risk. — A.J. Darkholme

Your biggest dreams can become reality, not by brute-forcing the end-goal, but breaking it down into smaller, more manageable parts. If your goal takes years, breaking it down into months and days will let you improve your lot little bits at a time. — A.J. Darkholme

Admiration provides no saving grace for the inconvenient. — A.J. Darkholme

You don't have to keep living in a dystopia simply because you're strong and noble enough to accept it. — A.J. Darkholme

Far too many people allow broken egos and wounded prides to convince them to seek justice before they seek understanding. — A.J. Darkholme

Emperors are not made from cowards; they are made from those who take great risk where there stands to be even greater gain. — A.J. Darkholme

A man shouldn't bite the hand that feeds him, even if another holds out a golden spoon to him as reward after his betrayal. — A.J. Darkholme

Words give inspiration, nothing more. You want redemption? The very thing you seek inspiration for? Fight for it like your life depended on it, because it always does. — A.J. Darkholme

The most inefficient and self-harming thing a person can do is go out looking for love. Let it find you when the time is right and you're out doing what you love to do. Only then will you find it in its truest form. — A.J. Darkholme

Remain open-minded, even when you believe yourself to be a king among peasants. You never know what blessings can be gained or crises averted just by listening. — A.J. Darkholme

When you give people a choice, they believe they have power. — A.J. Darkholme

Express [yourself] without worrying what everyone else will think. Those people are your limits. Ignore them. — A.J. Darkholme

Perspective alone can make an experience positive or negative, but regardless of which you let it become, it can only have as much power over your outlook on life as you give it. — A.J. Darkholme

Don't let realism keep you from doing what you feel you need to do, even if you think it's hopeless. — A.J. Darkholme

The older you get, the faster time passes in your mind, so use your time according to what is most important. — A.J. Darkholme

Things happen, and nothing is for sure, but you just have to keep going, believing that one day, you'll find something that is. — A.J. Darkholme

You believe stealing is wrong, but if your family was starving and could not afford bread, wouldn't you say it's okay to steal a loaf to feed them? — A.J. Darkholme

The more a mind thinks upon something, the deeper it will take root and affect all subsequent and related thought. — A.J. Darkholme

Sometimes you just need to know when a fight is best saved for another day when the odds are more in your favour. — A.J. Darkholme

Without purpose and meaning in our lives, we banish ourselves to wander this plane of existence with self-destructive tendencies until the bell tolls and our breath capsizes in our lungs, snatching our chance to redeem ourselves forever. — A.J. Darkholme

In the grand scheme of life, nobody grows old keeping their soul unblemished. — A.J. Darkholme

We all need to humble ourselves from time to time and expose ourselves to new perspectives and ideas, even those of the non-experts, or else our growth potential gets weighed down with the ignorance of ego and habit. — A.J. Darkholme

Never judge a woman by her age. — A.J. Darkholme

Significant change requires significant sacrifice. — A.J. Darkholme

Sometimes to submit is to know you have a life worth living for a higher purpose, worth seeing through. — A.J. Darkholme

You must always focus on and pursue the good, but when that darkness surges up from within, you need to know how to handle it, use it, and release it wisely, not just deny its presence or acceptability as you suppress it within you. — A.J. Darkholme

Our unity will always be a greater force with mixed ideals than if we demand that others change for us, to what we believe. — A.J. Darkholme

If something needs to be done, do it. If something needs to be said, say it. — A.J. Darkholme

Some people are born to hold keys, while others are born to use them. — A.J. Darkholme

We are united by something greater and more valuable than our beliefs alone: the freedom to have those beliefs, and believe what we want without persecution - we must protect that at all costs. — A.J. Darkholme

If someone was going to kill someone dear to you, and you could stop that person by killing them instead, would you kill them, knowing it was an effective way to save your loved one? — A.J. Darkholme

Time doesn't always heal all wounds. — A.J. Darkholme

A man is no more than breath until his breath fashions the words that others cannot forget. — A.J. Darkholme

The only way we succeed as a group is not simply following directions, but in keeping each other accountable for our actions. — A.J. Darkholme

The questions we don't ask become the puzzles we don't solve. — A.J. Darkholme

Never give up on the possibilities or accept what is when you can see it for what it could be. — A.J. Darkholme

Don't let the fact you haven't done something before convince you that you can't do it, or that it cannot be done perfectly the first time you try your hand at it. — A.J. Darkholme

If you plan for failure, then you are expecting to fail. If you plan for success, you'll be successful. Once you start making a 'Plan B', you distract from 'Plan A', and the moment you start believing there are other options, you start settling for less. — A.J. Darkholme

Most physical battles begin once mental ones have been lost, anyway. Conquer the mind, conquer the body. — A.J. Darkholme

Once you start settling, and letting others control your life, it can quickly become a habit, so it's best to avoid such things altogether. — A.J. Darkholme

People respond more to the authority of status, than the authority of truth. — A.J. Darkholme

Sometimes it's best to trade an ideal for something more practical that you can guarantee. — A.J. Darkholme

Being an authority on paper does not immediately grant you authority over a group until it is earned by you and given by them. — A.J. Darkholme

Awareness is not a prerequisite for change. — A.J. Darkholme

Being a leader is not about finding ways to get others to serve you, but knowing how to serve your followers. — A.J. Darkholme

Life is what you make it and legacy is what you leave it. Stop trying to be perfect, stop waiting for perfection to find you, and start making your environment a product of you instead of the other way around. — A.J. Darkholme

The path of destiny is not always paved smooth with gold. — A.J. Darkholme

If we are to be truly free, that freedom will come through cooperation and tolerance with one another. — A.J. Darkholme

It is unwise to waste in thought what could be earned and secured in action. — A.J. Darkholme

We are creatures of habit more than we are creatures of change. — A.J. Darkholme

Mistake this day as being like any other, and your deaths will go as unmourned as the insects of the field. — A.J. Darkholme

Sometimes the heart can hear what the ears do not. — A.J. Darkholme

Love is not a purpose, it's a paradox; it's not an end-goal, it's an auxiliary fuel source to help get there. — A.J. Darkholme

The power of an idea is never to be underestimated. Many a thought has survived long after its host has ceased to be. It is the power of an idea that no shield can defend against, nor sword divide, nor poison infect. As such, we must aspire to create ideas, rather than preserve life. In a sense, this is how we achieve true immortality and live on past our time. — A.J. Darkholme

Emotional states change like the wind, and to indulge them only gives them more power over a person. — A.J. Darkholme

It's amazing how just dressing differently can affect your influence; dress like a beggar and your assumed poverty gains you looks of contempt; dress in gold-lined robes and people are more willing to accommodate you; sport armour and you look strong, dutiful, and prepared. — A.J. Darkholme

We must humble ourselves before [others] so we may learn from what others have lived. It is only when we have added their expertise to our own that we can truly excel towards our most ambitious goals and reach our fullest potential. — A.J. Darkholme

When all seems hopeless and all has gone silent, that's Destiny turning down the music so that all may hear our response to life's great storms, giving our response the chance to echo throughout eternity with the level of greatness it deserves. — A.J. Darkholme

A good leader must have the wisdom to know when a pursuit is no longer worthy of being pursued - a time when the losses of the present must be accepted - and cut - to preserve the gains and providence of the future. — A.J. Darkholme

Anything you dream [can] be yours simply because you've focused on the steps you could take instead of the distance to get there. — A.J. Darkholme

When all is said and done, everyone should be able to look back on their life and know that they made it exactly as they wanted it to be. — A.J. Darkholme

Love is one of the most motivating and self-defining forces in our lives, whether we turn from it or allow ourselves to be drawn to it. If you allow romantic possibilities with others to consume all your time and energy, they will distract you from the things of interest that fill your life with passion and purpose. — A.J. Darkholme

When you give meaning to even the most meaningless of things around you, you will always stand to be taught something new, have what you already know reinforced, or be reminded of what you've forgotten. — A.J. Darkholme

Some only follow the holy man while others only follow the warlord. But the truth is, both sides are within all of us, and if people could only see that, they wouldn't have to wear masks, or pretend to be holy like a holy man, or pretend that nothing can hurt them like a warlord. They could just be themselves, unjudged. — A.J. Darkholme

Sometimes it feels like you have nothing, or aren't going anywhere, but while you're waiting for fortune to deliver you, there is always something you can do to help yourself, or teach yourself to better your situation. — A.J. Darkholme

Your life is not a countdown to your death, but a stepping stone for the lives that will live after you. Squander today, and you will find yourself useless tomorrow. — A.J. Darkholme

We are not slaves of the past, nor servants of the present, but masters of the future. — A.J. Darkholme

There is stability in walking an uncertain path, because you never allow yourself to be misled by what you think you know. — A.J. Darkholme

Time spent worrying - about anything - provides no emotional or physical benefit to us; such things only weaken us for the fights we must endure in our lives. — A.J. Darkholme

We must always be careful never to make more enemies than we could handle if they were all to attack at once. — A.J. Darkholme

What we don't often realize is that the rebirth and collapse of grand things do not begin with grand things at all, like the things we see, but with the small, like the things we are - in the things we do - in the things we say. — A.J. Darkholme

If your heart, mind, and actions are selfish, they will ultimately divide you, others, or entire [establishments]. When motivation is pure and selfless, it will result in helping bring others together. — A.J. Darkholme

Always think at least two steps ahead [in everything, with everyone]. — A.J. Darkholme

Our knees get dusty from time to time, but when they touch the ground, we must never allow the dust to convince us that our submission in that moment is the acceptance of our defeat for an entire lifetime. — A.J. Darkholme

The amount of gold someone has is never the issue, but rather the love of it and the want of more for personal gain that consumes the hearts of many good people. — A.J. Darkholme

Sometimes you can grow more in a shorter amount of time with the right company than years of soul-searching alone, or by living the same patterns you've lived for your entire life. — A.J. Darkholme