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Hey guys, I’ve spent the last 7 years compiling this list. It's helped me tremendously and I hope it will do the same for you. Please enjoy. Few are guilty, but all are responsible.—Abraham Joshua Heschel We're all puppets, Laurie. I'm just a puppet who can see the strings.—Alan Moore Don't walk behind me; I may not lead. Don't walk in front of me; I may not follow. Just walk beside me and be my friend.—Albert Camus Fiction is the lie through which we tell the truth.—Albert Camus In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.—Albert Camus There’s a time when a man needs to fight, and a time when he needs to accept that his destiny is lost, that the ship has sailed, and that only a fool would continue. The truth is, I've always been a fool.—Albert Finney If only it were all so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?—Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Own only what you can carry with you; know language, know countries, know people. Let your memory be your travel bag.—Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn In everything, there is a share of everything.—Anaxagoras We thought: we're poor, we have nothing, but when we started losing one after the other so each day became remembrance day, we started composing poems about God's great generosity and — our former riches.—Anna Akhmatova How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.—Anne Frank He who is unable to live in society, or who has no need because he is sufficient for himself, must be either a beast or a god.—Aristotle If men were born free, they would, so long as they remained free, form no conception of good and evil.—Baruch Spinoza I would never die for my beliefs because I might be wrong.—Bertrand Russell That which you most need will be found where you least want to look.—Carl Jung No one is useless in this world who lightens the burden of it for anyone else.—Charles Dickens The brave man is he who overcomes not only his enemies but his pleasures.—Democritus Laugh, and the world laughs with you; Weep, and you weep alone.—Ella Wheeler Wilcox I'd rather be optimistic and wrong than pessimistic and right.—Elon Musk If true confessions are written with tears, then my tears would drown the world, as the fire in my soul would reduce it to ashes.—Emil Cioran Freedom is secured not by the fulfilling of one's desires, but by the removal of desire.—Epictetus Deep in the human unconscious is a pervasive need for a logical universe that makes sense. But the real universe is always one step beyond logic.—Frank Herbert And those who were seen dancing

I was born in the rice fields of Vietnam on June 14, 1985. Our family was very poor as the country was still recovering from the war. There was a massive food shortage and times when we went days without access to meat. In 1988, when mom was pregnant with her third son — dad being the risk taker that he is, decided to take a chance at escaping a war-torn country in search of a better future. After hearing through the grapevine that America was accepting refugees, he managed to convince a dozen of his friends to put money together for a 20 foot fishing boat and sail West. The only memory I have of Vietnam was when mom took me to a small shack in the middle of a rice field, we knocked on the door and told a very old lady that we were leaving and we may never see her again. I later asked mom about this, she said she didn’t remember, because she had told no-one except for close family. This was my oldest memory and I have no idea where it came from. Imagine having to tell your family and friends that you were leaving everyone and everything you’ve ever known to travel to unknown lands, in the hopes that the grass is greener on the other side. Approximately 500,000 Vietnamese refugees died at sea, or 50% of the people who embarked on this journey. It was in the middle of the night, we had packed enough food and water for the trip; and at the very last moment, the family decided that my uncle (who was a troublemaker and wasn’t doing anything with his life) would join us to take a chance at turning his life around. But his story would end tragically as you will soon find out. We uncovered the boat buried underneath some trees — then off we went. The trip was gruesome, and mom was very sick while pregnant. We ran out of food and had to land on shore to steal from locals, usually in the middle of the night so we wouldn’t be detected. After 3 months at sea, the boat was leaking badly so we decided to land on the shores of Hong Kong and swam the final few meters — we had finally made it. As soon as we touched land, everyone was taken into refugee camps where mom and dad lied about their age to be better suited for work on foreign land. After a few months we were released from camp, dad found work in construction and we stayed on the 2nd floor of a one-room wooden apartment. My brother Tac and I started attending school where we would learn Chinese. And this was where my youngest brother Tien was born. I remember one rainy night, dad was extremely sick so mom gave me some money to run to the store to buy him cigarettes. I ran through the streets of Hong Kong,