Who/What Inspires YOU?

[Dachs]

 

[Japanrocks12]

^ him


Also, literature of any kind. Modern classical music, piano music.

 

[Theige]

This short video really does it for me

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pfwY2TNehw&feature=channel_page

Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors, so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light.

Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand. It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known. - Carl Sagan

 

[Dachs]

This short video really does it for me

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pfwY2TNehw&feature=channel_page

"Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors, so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light." - Carl Sagan

That doesn't inspire me, that rather depresses me. What the deuce, dude.

 

[Theige]

That doesn't inspire me, that rather depresses me. What the deuce, dude.

Watch the damn video, its 6 minutes long and you posted after 1 minute so you definitely didn't watch it!

 

[Dachs]

Watch the damn video, its 6 minutes long and you posted after 1 minute so you definitely didn't watch it!

I was talking about the quote dude. But I have heard the talk before, though not set to that tune or those clips. I still think that it's a very sobering and depressing thing that all of the great accomplishments of humanity are relegated, ultimately, to a corner of something less than a speck on the scale of the universe. Maybe it's because I'm a historian, and I usually have been spurred by what has happened here. The knowledge that it's so comparatively irrelevant doesn't particularly put a spring in my step, as it were.

Just my take on it, that's all.

 

[Agent327]

I mean on an everyday basis, lifestyle choices, your interests/hobbies, when you're feeling down, your personal heroes, whatever. For me, my father is the greatest guy I've ever known. I wouldn't be who I am today without him. I'm also inspired by the works of Jean Shepherd, as well as many forms of jazz, especially blues music.

Let's hear your stories friends!

Music, poetry, history, nature. That's it in a nutshell, really.

 

[Tee Kay]

Friends (all without exception are better people than me) and music.

 

[Elta]

Watch the damn video, its 6 minutes long and you posted after 1 minute so you definitely didn't watch it!

It is inspiring to me. It put humanity into prospective.


Carl Sagan, smartest man of the 20th century perhaps.


I am inspired by the sun coming up every morning. If you can count on anything you can count on the light of the sun. It sounds dumb but very little is truly constant and dependable in life.

 

[Camikaze]

As much as I would like it to be such things as friends, God, cute little puppies, it is really those people who are just better than me, but are really annoying pricks, that inspire me to better myself.

 

[King of Town]

I'm reading a book called Working by Studs Terkel. the interviews in there about everyday working people and what they had to go through always inspire me to make the most out of myself and not settle.

 

[gangleri2001]

I'm really inspired by this guy:

need I say more?

THIS MAN IS A GENIUS!!!

Why can't we switch our avatars the whole year?

On topic: I find this song really inspirational:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vlci-kCEaKE

 

[Perfection]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIiplTlZNTI

 

[eastsidebagel]

Well, guys like Einstein, Hawking or Penrose were always sources of motivation for me. But inspiration? Music, paintings, sculptures in general. I can't give any examples, because it all depends where I am at this moment and in which mood I am.

 

[warpus]

Beauty



And the pictures I took in Torres del Paine national park.. This one isn't mine, but I'm at work and don't have time to find/post a good one.. besides, some of you have already seen them in the cool pictures thread. AND this one's just awesome

 

[El_Machinae]

Stars and mountains.

 

[Chukchi Husky]

Sometimes seeing other people's drawings can inspire me to draw. One thing that really did was Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns. When I saw the drawings in that I felt I could do better than that. Now I don't draw as much or as well as I did, and my eyesight is getting worse.

 

[Heretic_Cata]

Friends (all without exception are better people than me) and music.

I love you. Those are my thoughts exactly.

 

[Fugitive Sisyphus]

The url suggests that that is Constantine XII. I assume that is the last Eastern Roman emperor who supposedly threw off his royal robes and joined in the last ditch defense of the city and empire. Cool stuff. I thought that was Constantine XI though.

 

[Rossiya]

Transgressions against me inspire me.