Writer and free spirit Brenda Ueland (1891–1985) lived by two unshakable rules: to be truthful, and never do anything she did not want to do. Her motto was memento vivere—remember to live.

"The true self is always in motion," she believed—like music, a river of life, changing, moving, failing, suffering, learning, shining. A passionate advocate for creativity, she called us to embrace the flame of spirit within.

Born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Ueland had a lifelong passion for exercise and walked nine miles a day. “The best way to know the truth or beauty is to try to express it,” she believed—and wrote as she lived, with zest and love.

Esteemed poet Carl Sandburg praised her timeless book If You Want to Write as “the best book about writing” because she approached writing not as a rigid craft, but as a soulful, liberating act of self-expression.

Ueland’s words called out for self-confidence and boldness. She urged writers to trust their inner voice and live by their own truth.

“It is only by expressing all that is inside that purer and purer streams come,” she said. “You do not know what is in you—an inexhaustible fountain of ideas waiting to be shared with the world.”