Sometimes you have to crawl through shit.

 

“In 1966, Andy Dufresne escaped from Shawshank prison. All they found of him was a muddy set of prison clothes, a bar of soap, and an old rock hammer, damn near worn down to the nub. I remember thinking it would take a man six hundred years to tunnel through the wall with it. Old Andy did it in less than twenty. Oh, Andy loved geology. I imagine it appealed to his meticulous nature. An ice age here, million years of mountain building there. Geology is the study of pressure and time. That’s all it takes really, pressure, and time. That, and a big goddamn poster. Like I said, in prison a man will do most anything to keep his mind occupied. Turns out Andy’s favorite hobby was totin’ his wall out into the exercise yard, a handful at a time. I guess after Tommy was killed, Andy decided he’d been here just about long enough. Andy did like he was told, buffed those shoes to a high mirror shine. The guards simply didn’t notice. Neither did I… I mean, seriously, how often do you really look at a mans shoes? Andy crawled to freedom through five hundred yards of shit smelling foulness I can’t even imagine, or maybe I just don’t want to. Five hundred yards… that’s the length of five football fields, just shy of half a mile.” - Shawshank Redemption.

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• These walls are funny. First you hate 'em, then you get used to 'em. Enough time passes, you get so you depend on them. That's institutionalized.
• They send you here for life, and that's exactly what they take. The part that counts, anyway.
• There are places in this world that aren't made out of stone. That there's something inside... that they can't get to, that they can't touch. That's yours....
• Hope.
• Hope is a dangerous thing. Hope can drive a man insane but sometimes hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.
• I find I'm so excited, I can barely sit still or hold a thought in my head. I think it's the excitement only a free man can feel, a free man at the start of a long journey whose conclusion is uncertain. I hope I can make it across the border. I hope to see my friend and shake his hand. I hope the Pacific is as blue as it has been in my dreams.
  
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• I HOPE.
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• Are you willing to crawl through a river of shit to come out clean on the other side. I guess it comes down to a simple choice, really. Get busy living, or get busy dying. Some birds aren't meant to be caged. Their feathers are just too bright. And when they fly away part of you know it is a sin to lock them up.