Today is my 23rd birthday, otherwise known as the beginning of my Jordan year. (As far as I know, everyone still likes me.) I’ve talked about it on the blog before, but I love to take holidays and life milestones as an opportunity to reflect on how beautiful my life really is — even during the trying times — and to think about what makes me Zoë. As the last hurrah of a great day (bagels + ice cream + margaritas), I’ll share 23 of my favorite quotes that inspire me throughout the year, every single day.

Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes, including you.
Anne Lamott

There are always flowers for those who want to see them.
Henri Matisse

Someone will always be prettier. Someone will always be smarter. Someone will always be younger. But they will never be you.
Kanye West

There is not enough time for hating yourself. Too many things to make. Go.
Tavi Gevinson

You are allowed to be alive. You are allowed to be somebody different. And you are allowed to not say good-bye to anybody or explain a single thing to anyone, ever.
Augusten Burroughs

The ability to think for one’s self depends upon one’s mastery of the language.
Joan Didion

Style is knowing who you are, what you want to say, and not giving a damn.
Orson Welles

Good artists copy, great artists steal.
Pablo Picasso

I must have flowers, always and always.
Claude Monet

I’m a woman phenomenally. Phenomenal woman, that’s me.
Maya Angelou

I didn’t know what I wanted to do, but I always knew the woman I wanted to be.
Diane Von Furstenberg

You see things; and you say “Why?” But I dream things that never were; and I say, “Why not?”
George Bernard Shaw

Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.
Ira Glass

If it is right, it happens — the main thing is not to hurry. Nothing good gets away.
John Steinbeck

Where your talents and the needs of the world cross there in lies your vocation.
Aristotle

In spite of everything I shall rise again: I will take up my pencil, which I have forsaken in my great discouragement, and I will go on with my drawing.
Vincent van Gogh

The whole culture is telling you to hurry, while the art tells you to take your time. Always listen to the art.
Junot Diaz

Nothing is a waste of time if you use the experience wisely.
Auguste Rodin

Body like the mountain, Heart like the ocean, Mind like the sky.
Dogen

I am still learning.
Michelangelo

Maybe young women don’t wonder whether they can have it all any longer, but in case of you are wondering, of course you can have it all. What are you going to do? Everything, is my guess. It will be a little messy, but embrace the mess. It will be complicated, but rejoice in the complications. It will not be anything like what you think it will be like, but surprises are good for you. And don’t be frightened: you can always change your mind. I know: I’ve had four careers and three husbands.
Nora Ephron

You are not a drop in the ocean. You are the entire ocean in a drop.
Rumi 

Do I contradict myself? Very well then I contradict myself. (I am large, I contain multitudes.)
Walt Whitman