Life Quotes and Sayings, Photo credit: Unsplash
Over 100 Life Quotes and Sayings
#1 Twitter
1. No matter what is going on in your life today, remember, it is only preparation. It’s all preparation for better things. [S]
Life must begin within. Stress will not go away until you decide it no longer has a place in your life. [S]
That thing which you do with all of your heart and soul, which brings joy into your heart, satisfaction into your life: that is your purpose. [S]
Accept and acknowledge your own brilliance. Stop waiting for others to tell you how great you are! Believe it for yourself. [S]
Change is an inside job. Any lasting or meaningful change in your life must begin with your heart and mind. [S]
Everything takes time. A delay is not a denial! Be patient. Nothing that is yours can be held from you. [S]
We must not limit ourselves by defining how our good or success must come. Be open. Be clear. Be ready. And you will be rewarded accordingly. [S]
– Iyanla Vanzant
2. Hold yourself responsible for a higher standard than anybody expects of you. Never excuse yourself.
3. Life, as I see it, is not a location, but a journey. Life flows.
Greatest thing in life is experience. Even mistakes have value. (American Magazine, Beverly Smith interview, October 1934)
Greatest thing we can produce is character. Everything else can be taken from us, but not our character. (Cincinnati Times Star, Beckman interview, 11 November 1937)
– Henry Ford
4. You will never regret what you do in life; you will only regret what you don’t do.
5. The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.
6. Life is filled with pain and sufferings, but also with hope and love.
There are three poisons in life: greed, anger, and ignorance. Giving cures greed. Compassion cures anger. Wisdom cures ignorance.
Every day is a blank page in life, every person, every thing is a vivid essay.
The four treasures in life are sleeping soundly, eating happily, laughing joyfully and working healthily.
What matters is not how much teachings one listens to but how one applies them in daily life.
Life is like walking on a tightrope. We are sure to fall if we keep looking back instead of focusing on what is ahead.
7. To try is to risk failure, but risks must be taken, because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing.
8. Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.
9. Life is a succession of lessons which must be lived to be understood.
The best and most beautiful things in this world cannot be seen or even heard, but must be felt with the heart.
10. Life does not have to be perfect to be wonderful.
– Annette Funicello
11. Don’t let one cloud obliterate the whole sky.
#12 The Traveler’s Gift: Seven Decisions that Determine Personal Success
12. The bad news is that the past was in your hands, but the good news is that the future, my friend, is also in your hands. [S]
– Andy Andrews
13. Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving.
Try not to become a man of success, but rather a man of value.
The life of the individual has meaning only in so far as it aids in making the life of every living thing nobler and more beautiful.
14. Stop thinking about life and choose to live it!
One day you will wake up and there won’t be any more time to do the things you’ve always wanted. Do it now.
Life is short! Kiss slowly, laugh insanely, love truly and forgive quickly.
There comes a point in your life when you realize what really matters, what never did, and what always will. (Twitter, 25 July 2017)
15. The purpose of life is a life of purpose.
– Robert Byrne
16. Life is like a mirror. It will smile at you, if you smile at it.
One of the best lessons you can learn in life is to master how to remain calm.
Pain is meant to wake you up. Some of life’s best changes come from pain.
17. Life is not meant to be a burden. Life is not a problem to be solved. It is a blessing to be celebrated.
– Joan Chittister
18. The difference between school and life. In school, you’re taught a lesson and then given a test. In life, you’re given a test that teaches you a lesson.
– Tom Bodett
19. We must be willing to let go of the life we have planned, so as to accept the life that is waiting for us.
The problem is not to blame or to explain but to handle the life that arises.
20. The mark of your ignorance is the depth of your belief in injustice and tragedy. What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly.
I do not exist to impress the world. I exist to live my life in a way that will make me happy.
21. Only when we are no longer afraid do we begin to live.
– Dorothy Thompson
22. There’s so many things that life is, and no matter how many breakthroughs, trials will exist and we’re going to get through it. Just be strong.
– Mary J. Blige
#23 Letter to a Japanese Animal Welfare Society, 1961
23. Any religion or philosophy which is not based on a respect for life is not a true religion or philosophy.
24. He who is not everyday conquering some fear has not learned the secret of life.
It is not length of life, but depth of life.
25. Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?’
26. The bad news is time flies. The good news is you’re the pilot.
– Michael Altshuler
27. Life isn’t a matter of milestones, but of moments.
– Rose Kennedy
#28 The Autobiography of Malcolm X, 1964
28. So early in life, I had learned that if you want something, you had better make some noise.
– Malcolm X
29. The tragedy of life is not death but what we let die inside of us while we live.
– Norman Cousins
30. You do not live each day to discover what it holds for you, but to create it.
The best things in life are free. It is important never to lose sight of that. So look around you. Wherever you see friendship, loyalty, laughter and love … there is your treasure.
Remember, life is an ongoing process of creation. You are creating your reality every moment.
The deepest secret is that life is not a process of discovery, but a process of creation.
Life begins now – not tomorrow or the next day or the next. It means you can have a new beginning whenever you want. (Twitter, 8 July 2017)
Life’s wonder is that it is a process in which you have the opportunity to recreate yourself as you wish to be. (Twitter, 18 March 2020)
31. The future cannot be predicted, but futures can be invented. It was man’s ability to invent which has made human society what it is.
– Dennis Gabor
32. All the works of nature are miracles, and nothing makes them appear otherwise but our familiarity with them.
– Samuel Butler
33. Life is growth. If we stop growing, technically and spiritually, we are as good as dead.
– Morihei Ueshiba
34. Life has its own hidden forces which you can only discover by living.
Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.
– Søren Kierkegaard
#35 The Soul of Man under Socialism, 1891
35. To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.
36. You must take life the way it comes at you and make the best of it.
37. We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand.
38. If life were predictable it would cease to be life, and be without flavor.
39. In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life – It goes on.
40. The greatest lesson in life is that you are responsible for your life.
You get in life what you have the courage to ask for.
The more you praise and celebrate your life, the more there is in life to celebrate.
41. Accept responsibility for your life. Know that it is you who will get you where you want to go, no one else.
42. Take life on life’s terms – one day at a time. And have fun while you’re doing it.
– Joe Perry
43. You cannot expect to live a positive life if you hang with negative people.
Life is short. Don’t miss opportunities to spend time with people that you love.
44. You cannot have a positive life and a negative mind.
45. Your life is your story. Write well. Edit often.
– Susan Statham
46. The true meaning of life is to plant trees, under whose shade you do not expect to sit.
– Nelson Henderson
47. Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass … it’s about learning to dance in the rain.
– Vivian Greene
48. Life is like a rainbow, you need both the sun and the rain to make its colors appear.
We are not given a good life or bad life. We are given a life. It’s up to use to make it good or bad.
One of the biggest mistakes we make is assuming that other people think the way we think.
Sometimes the thing that hurts us the most, can teach us the greatest lesson in life.
When your intentions are pure, you don’t lose anyone. People lose you.
Everything in your life is a reflection of a choice you have made. If you want a different result, make a different choice.
And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music.
When you let go, you create space for better things to enter into your life.
When the past calls, let it go to voicemail. Believe me, it has nothing new to say.
– Author Unknown
49. Life’s like a boomerang. The more good you throw out, the more you receive in return.
– Josh Hinds
50. It’s not what you have in your life, it’s who you have in your life that really counts.
50. Believe that life is worth living and your belief will help create the fact.
51. Sometimes the heart sees what is invisible to the eyes.
52. Life is too deep for words, so don’t try to describe it, just live it.
53. Life is not about avoiding pain. It is how you handle pain when it crosses your path.
Don’t fret about others leaving you behind; they have different destinations. Follow your unique path. [S]
– Dodinsky
54. Life is not a solo act; it’s an ensemble piece. You’re in this with other actors, whose lines are just as important as yours.
55. Life is a miracle and being aware of simply this can already make us very happy.
56. The true purpose is to see things as they are, to observe things as they are, and to let everything go as it goes.
– Shunryu Suzuki
57. I find ecstasy in living—the mere sense of living is joy enough. (The Life of Emily Dickinson, Volumes 1-2 by Richard Benson Sewall)
If I can stop one heart from breaking,
I shall not live in vain;
If I can ease one life the aching,
Or cool one pain,
Or help one fainting robin
Unto his nest again,
I shall not live in vain. (Complete Poems by Emily Dickinson)
– Emily Dickinson
58. I finally figured out the only reason to be alive is to enjoy it.
– Rita Mae Brown
59. The trick is to enjoy life. Don’t wish away your days, waiting for better ones ahead.
– Marjorie Pay Hinckley
60. Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.
Why try to explain miracles to your kids when you can just have them plant a garden?
– Robert Brault
61. When you see the beauty in little things, life suddenly becomes extraordinary!
Sometimes, when the only thing you can do is to wait, breathe and let go.
Be the one who leaves a light in dark corners.
Life only happens here and now, not in the past, not in the future.
The learning comes only when we are able to admit what we do not know.
Make the most of today. Let not the troubles of yesterday or the worries of tomorrow steal the gift of today.
If we never learn to let go of what could be, we will never be at peace with what is.
Be your own support when no one is there to support you.
I am never flawless to begin with but I can always choose to better myself.
Don’t wait for the light at the end of the tunnel. Let the light within you shine.
– Symphony of Love
62. Open your eyes to the beauty around you, open your mind to the wonders of life, open your heart to those who love you, and always be true to yourself.
– Donna Davis
63. Life is full of beauty. Notice it. Notice the bumble bee, the small child, and the smiling faces. Smell the rain, and feel the wind. Live your life to the fullest potential, and fight for your dreams.
– Ashley Smith
64. Sometimes even to live is an act of courage.
– Seneca
65. Many of us have road maps we envision for the course we think our lives should take. It’s important to get headed in the right direction, but don’t get so caught up in the concerns over your destination that you forget to delight in the scenery of each new day. Remember that some of the secret joys of living are not found by rushing from point A to point B, but by inventing some imaginary letters along the way.
– Douglas Pagels
66. Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.
– Leonardo da Vinci
67. One of the best lessons you can learn in life is to master how to remain calm.
– Catherine Pulsifer
#68 Wild Mind: Living the Writer’s Life
68. This is your life. You are responsible for it. You will not live forever. Don’t wait.
– Natalie Goldberg
69. The secret to living well and longer is: to eat half, walk double, laugh triple and love without measure …
– Tibetan Proverb
70. Don’t hold together what must fall apart. The familiar life crumbles so the new life can begin.
– Bryant McGill
71. For one minute, walk outside, stand there, in silence, look up at the sky, and contemplate how amazing life is.
72. Life is a mural that you create. Every action you take is another brush stroke. Make yours beautiful.
– Anthony Gucciardi
#73 Seriously…I’m Kidding
, p. 92
73. My point is, life is about balance. The good and the bad. The highs and the lows. The pina and the colada.
– Ellen DeGeneres
#74 Twitter
74. Your life is your autobiography. Write an epic.
Don’t live the same year 75 times and call it a life. [S]
The more you go to the edge of your limits the more your limits will expand. [S]
The change you resist is the growth you miss. Progress comes via the unexpected. Welcome it. [S]
Be so good at what you do that you leave people breathless by your performance. [S]
– Robin Sharma
75. I think of life as a good book. The further you get into it, the more it begins to make sense.
– Harold S. Kushner
#76 Festus, 1839
76. We live in deeds, not years; in thoughts, not breaths; in feelings, not in figures on a dial. We should count time by heart-throbs.
– Philip James Bailey
77. You life but once; you might as well be amusing.
– Coco Chanel
78. One of the most important things I’ve learned in life is to ignore most of what people say. I watch what they do instead.
– Amanda Patterson
79. When we get too caught up in the busyness of the world, we lose connection with one another – and ourselves.
Everything that has a beginning has an ending. Make your peace with that and all will be well.
There are ten thousand joys and sorrows in every life, and at one time or another we will be touched by all of them.
80. My life completely changed the moment I took responsibility for everything that happens to me.
Deep in my heart I know I am a loner. I’ve tried to blend in with the world and be sociable, but the more people I meet the more disappointed I am. So I’ve learned to enjoy myself, my family, and a few good friends. [S]
– Steven Aitchison
#81 Bell Telephone Talk, 1901
81. A man, as a general rule, owes very little to what he is born with – a man is what he makes of himself.
– Alexander Graham Bell
82. Make your life a story worth telling.
– Adam Braun
83. There’s treasure hidden in every moment. The joy of life is finding it!
– Katrina Mayer
84. Knowledge comes from learning. Wisdom comes from living.
– Anthony Douglas Williams
#85 Twitter [S]
85. Tomorrow, is the first blank page of a 365 page book. Write a good one.
– Brad Paisley
86. The only way to get through life is to laugh your way through it. You either have to laugh or cry. I prefer to laugh. Crying gives me a headache.
– Marjorie Pay Hinckley
#87 Twitter, 18 September 2015
87. Life is about making an impact, not making an income.
– Kevin Kruse
#88 Twitter, 25 Feb 2017
88. You create an entire movie in your mind, and in that picture you are the director, producer, the main actor or actress.
– Don Miguel Ruiz
#89 Wisdom from the Four Agreements
89. Do not expect people to tell you the truth because they also lie to themselves. Even if others lie to you, it is okay. They are lying to you because they are afraid you will discover that they are not perfect.
– Don Miguel Ruiz
#90 Madame Curie : A Biography, 1937, Eve Curie Labouisse
90. Life is not easy for any of us. But what of that? We must have perseverance and above all confidence in ourselves. We must believe that we are gifted for something, and that this thing, at whatever cost, must be attained
– Marie Curie
#91 Pierre Curie, Translated by Charlotte and Vernon Kellogg [S]
91. You cannot hope to build a better world without improving the individuals. To that end each of us must work for his own improvement, and at the same time share a general responsibility for all humanity, our particular duty being to aid those to whom we think we can be most useful.
– Marie Curie
#92 TED Talks
92. No matter what life had served you, you could find a way to shape it, and in so doing make a difference for others too.
– Chris Anderson
93. The best way to predict the future is to invent it.
– Alan Kay
#94 Twitter, 23 February 2015
94. A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory.
– Leonard Nimoy
95. Life is pure adventure, and the sooner we realize that, the quicker we will be able to treat life as art.
96. By plucking her petals you do not gather the beauty of the flower.
97. Life is simple. It’s what we believe about life that complicates it.
#98 Booker T. Washington Papers Volume 3: 1889-95. Assistant Editors, Stuart B. Kaufman and Raymond W. Smock
98. Let us all strive to do this: The life worth living is giving one’s life for the good of others, to forget ourselves and do something for others.
– Booker T. Washington
#99 Make Your Bed: Little Things That Can Change Your Life…And Maybe the World
99. Know that life is not fair and that you will fail often, but if you take some risks, step up when the times are toughest, face down the bullies, lift up the downtrodden, and never, ever give up… if you do these things, then the next generation and the generations that follow will live in a world far better than the one we have today. And what started here will indeed have changed the world, for the better.
– William H. McRave
100. Life is beautiful not because of the things we see or do, it is beautiful because of the people we meet.
101. The use of travelling is to regulate imagination by reality, and instead of thinking how things may be, to see them as they are.
It is better to live rich, than to die rich.
102. Sometimes it’s hard in the moment, but life is always giving you exactly what you need to grow to your next level. [S]
Rather than searching for life’s meaning, know that you always have the power to create it. [S]
Life doesn’t demand perfection. Life doesn’t require you to be constantly fearless, confident, or self-assured. Life simply requires that you keep showing up. [S]
Trust the timing of your life, and enjoy the process. [S]
It’s not about overnight success, it’s about getting great over time. [S]
– Marie Forleo
#103 Quoted here
103. Lack of direction, not lack of time, is the problem. We all have 24-hour days
– Zig Ziglar
104. There is nothing in the world, I venture to say, that would so effectively help one to survive even the worst conditions, as the knowledge that there is a meaning in one’s life.
Ever more people today have the means to live, but no meaning to live for.
#105 Twitter, 15 November 2017
105. I would like my life to be a statement of love and compassion–and where it isn’t, that’s where my work lies.
– Ram Dass
106. Never do anything that means you can’t sleep at night.
#107 Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike
107. I had an aching sense that our time is short, shorter than we ever know, short as a morning run, and I wanted mine to be meaningful. And purposeful. And creative. And important. Above all … different. I wanted to leave a mark on the world.
– Phil Knight
#108 December 13, 2017
108. Actual shortcuts often appear to be detours. The crowd doesn’t understand this. They’re always looking for a shortcut that looks like a shortcut. If you’re merely following them, you probably won’t get anywhere interesting. It’s the detours that pay off.
– Seth Godin
#109 Linchpin: Are You Indispensable? How to drive your career and create a remarkable future
109. The act of the gift is in itself a reward.
– Seth Godin
110. We are the authors of our lives. We write our own daring endings.
111. You have exactly one life in which to do everything you’ll ever do. Act accordingly.
112. How am I going to live today in order to create the tomorrow I’m committed to?
#113 On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
113. I did it for the buzz. I did it for the pure joy of the thing. And if you can do it for the joy, you can do it forever.
…you can, you should, and if you’re brave enough to start, you will.
– Stephen King
#114 Introduction, The Shining
114. That truth is that monsters are real, and ghosts are real, too. They live inside us, and sometimes they win.
That our better angels sometimes – often! – win instead, in spite of all odds, is another truth of The Shining.
– Stephen King
115. Life, like art, is ever evolving…Take your time, make bold strokes, use brilliant colors, and make your life the most beautiful masterpiece you can.
– Jim Rohn
116. Life teaches us to be less harsh with ourselves and with others.
#117 The Beginning of the Journey
117. We lived our lives as if life was forever. To live one’s life without a sense of time is to squander it.
We lived the whole of our early lives under the rule of postponement: life was not in the present, it was always ahead of us. Somewhere in the future we would be the people we intended to be.
– Diana Trilling
118. The older I get, the more I understand that it’s okay to live a life others don’t understand.
– Author Unknown
#119 Kintsugi, Translated by Jennifer Adcock
119. Ceramics and life can break into a thousand pieces, but that should be no reason to stop living life intensely, working intensely and keeping alive all our hopes and dreams. Far from avoiding living, we must learn to repair ourselves after an adversity…The broken pieces can be put back together again, and when you do this, don’t try to hide your fragility, because your apparent fragility has become an evident strength.
You are not a prisoner of your fate, mistakes or misfortunes. You are the creator of your own life, the leading actor.
– Tomás Navarro
120. You are not separate from the whole. You are one with the sun, the earth, the air. You don’t have a life. You are life.
121. Only staying active will make you want to live a hundred years.
– Japanese Proverb
#122 Instagram
122. To continue to grow and learn, you must be willing to update, expand, and edit your identity. [S]
People gravitate toward the standard you set, not the standard you request. [S]
“There is an endless list of obligations and expectations, desires and ambitions, and worries and fears that will always be ready to insert themselves between you and the feeling of peace.
If you never learn to let them go, there will never be enough.” [S]
– James Clear
#123 Atomic Habits [S]
123. And I knew that if things were going to improve, I was the one responsible for making it happen
Success is the product of daily habits—not once-in-a-lifetime transformations.
Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become.
– James Clear
#124 Norwegian Wood [S]
124. I have a million things to talk to you about. A million things we have to talk about. All I want in this world is you. I want to see you and talk. I want the two of us to begin everything from the beginning.
– Haruki Murakami
#125 Kafka on the Shore
125. Memories warm you up from the inside. But they also tear you apart.
– Haruki Murakami
#126 1Q84
126. If you can love someone with your whole heart, even one person, then there’s salvation in life. Even if you can’t get together with that person.
– Haruki Murakami
#127 Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage: A novel
127. And you’ll return to real life. You need to live it to the fullest. No matter how shallow and dull things might get, this life is worth living. I guarantee it.
– Haruki Murakami
#128 After Dark
128. …what seems like a reasonable distance to one person might feel too far to somebody else.
– Haruki Murakami
#129 Stanford Rathbun Lecture 2017
129. …to make life a little better for people less fortunate than you. That’s what I think a meaningful life is. One lives not just for oneself but for one’s community.
– Ruth Bader Ginsburg
#130 Worlds of You: Poetry & Prose
And You
There are a few things in life
so beautiful they hurt:
swimming in the ocean while it rains,
reading in empty libraries,
the sea of stars that appears
when you are miles away from the city,
bars after 2am,
a bed of roses in bloom,
all the things we do not yet know
about the universe, and you.
Life Stories
Everyone you meet has a part to play in your story. And while some may take a chapter, others a paragraph, and most will be no more than scribbled notes in the margins, someday you’ll meet someone who will become so integral to your life, you’ll put their name in the title.
– Beau Taplin
#131 Here at Dawn: Poetry & Prose
A Needle and Thread
The secret is to never lose sight
of the simple, everyday miracles of life:
good food, literature,
laughter, music,
compelling conversation,
nature, and art.
Look for them in every day,
and even when it feels like your
whole world is unravelling,
you will never be too far from a
needle and thread.
– Beau Taplin
#132 Olivia Wilde’s New Fairy Tale: Interview
132. But I think it’s very healthy to spend time alone. You need to know how to be alone and not be defined by another person. [S]
– Olivia Wilde
#133-134 The essence of Alan Watts, 1977
133. Tea ceremony is completely living in the present, being absolutely with what you’re doing, but in a kind of relaxed, easy way. Living in the eternal now, which is actually the only place there is to be.
– Alan Watts
134. This is the real secret of life—to be completely engaged with what you are doing in the here and now. And instead of calling it work, realize it is play.
– Alan Watts
#135 The Best Corporate Strategy? None, Of Course, 11 July 1994 [S]
135. Life is pretty simple: You do some stuff. Most fails. Some works. You do more of what works. If it works big, others quickly copy it. Then you do something else. The trick is in the doing something else.
– Tom Peters
#136 Look To This Day
136. Look to this day:
For it is life, the very life of life.
In its brief course
Lie all the verities and realities of your existence.
The bliss of growth,
The glory of action,
The splendour of achievement
Are but experiences of time.
For yesterday is but a dream
And tomorrow is only a vision;
And today well-lived, makes
Yesterday a dream of happiness
And every tomorrow a vision of hope.
Look well therefore to this day;
Such is the salutation to the ever-new dawn!
– Kālidāsa
137. And into the forest I go, to lose my mind and find my soul.
– Author Unknown
#138 Jane Eyre, T. Y. Crowell and Company, 1890
138. It is in vain to say human beings ought to be satisfied with tranquillity. They must have action, and they will make it if they cannot find it.
– Charlotte Brontë
#139 Twitter, 8 June 2021 [S]
139. Meaning is your inner compass. As you feel meaning in your life, you are beginning to align yourself with your soul, you’re beginning to move in the direction that your soul wants to move.
#140 Twitter, 20 June 2021 [S]
140. You reshape the world by reshaping yourself. The question is not how to change others, but how to change yourself.
#141 Gabriel’s Rapture
141. Don’t wait too long. Life takes unexpected turns, and we don’t always have the time we think we have.
– Sylvain Reynard
#142 The Shelter of Life, The Heart’s Domain, 1919, Author: Georges Duhamel, Translation: Eleanor Stimson Brooks [S]
142. We do not know the true value of our moments until they have undergone the test of memory.
#143 On the Reign of the Heart, The Heart’s Domain, 1919, Author: Georges Duhamel, Translation: Eleanor Stimson Brooks [S]
143. My work is finished. It begins to withdraw from me. If it can bring any consolation to a single one of these suffering souls, let me believe that it has fulfilled its destiny.
#144 Time Must Have a Stop
144. …there’s only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that’s your own self.
– Aldous Huxley
#145 Instagram
145. You were not given life just to have a job or career. You were given life to discover the wildly creative power and resources of your soul… [S]
Change is constant. Learn to go with its flow, whether it’s peaceful or difficult. [S]
Whatever is in me is stronger than what is out there to defeat me. [S]
– Caroline Myss
#146 Anatomy of the Spirit
146. …change inevitably means letting go of familiar people and places and moving on to another stage of life.
– Caroline Myss
#147 Money, and the Law of Attraction: Learning to Attract Wealth, Health, and Happiness
147. It is not your job to transform the world for others—but it is your job to transform it for you.
– Esther and Jerry Hicks
#148 He Went to Paris
148. …some of it’s magic, some of it’s tragic but I had a good life all the way.
– Jimmy Buffett
#149 Instagram [S]
149. Learning is how you evolve. Unlearning is how you keep up as the world evolves.
– Adam Grant
#150 Instagram [S]
150. The purpose of education isn’t only to impart knowledge and skills. It’s to instill a love of learning.
– Adam Grant
#151 Instagram [S]
151. Who you become is not about the traits you have. It’s what you decide to do with them.
– Adam Grant
#152 Twitter
152. Growth is not just about embracing new ideas. It’s also about rethinking old ones. [S]
The best way to support others is not to cheer them up. It’s to show up. [S]
The best way to open people’s minds isn’t to argue with them. It’s to listen to them. [S]
– Adam Grant
#153 Hidden Potential
153. Growth is less about how hard you work than how well you learn.
Children pay attention to our attention: where we focus tells them what we prize.
– Adam Grant
#154 Daily Birth [S]
154. Day by day we are born as night retires, no more possessing aught of our former life, estranged from our course of yesterday, and beginning to-day the life that remains. Do not then call thyself, old man, abundant in years; for to-day thou hast no share in what is gone.
– Palladas, Greek poet
#155 Passenger
155. …it’s our choices that matter in the end. Not wishes, not words, not promises.
– Alexandra Bracken
#156 Twitter [S]
156. The Sun will rise and set regardless. What we choose to do with the light while it’s here is up to us. Journey wisely.
– Alexandra Elle
#157 Introduction, Tales of adventure, 1956 [S]
157. I would rather be ashes than dust! I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry-rot. I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet. The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time.
– Jack London (He is known to have said these words, just two months before his death, to a group of friends with whom he was discussing life and living.—The Bulletin, San Francisco, California, December 2, 1916)
#158 Louisa May Alcott: Her Life, Letters, and Journals, Roberts Brothers, 1890
158. Busy life teaching, writing, sewing, getting all I can from lectures, books, and good people. Life is my college. May I graduate well, and earn some honors!
#159 Poetry: My Kingdom
159. I do not ask for any crown
But that which all may win;
Nor seek to conquer any world
Except the one within.
160. Just because someone carries it well, doesn’t mean it isn’t heavy.
– Author Unknown
#161 Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland [S]
161. …but it’s no use going back to yesterday, because I was a different person then.
– Lewis Carroll
#162 The Works of Mons. de la Bruyere: The characters, or Manners of the age, D. Browne, 1752 [S]
162. Children think not of what is past, nor what is to come; but enjoy the present time, which few of us do.
– Jean de La Bruyère
#163 Twitter, 8 August 2018 [S]
163. Life will often test you. How you respond shows your character and your character determines your destiny.
– Jon Gordon
#164 How Successful People Win: Using Bunkhouse Logic to Get What You Want in Life [S]
164. The indispensable first step to getting the things you want out of life is this: Decide what you want.
– Ben Stein
#165-170 31 May 1899, Letter to the class in history and social science in the Educational Alliance, New York, Chapter V: The Underlying Spirit As Shown In The Weekly Letters to the Class, The Education of the Wage-Earners by Thomas Davidson, Edited by Charles M. Bakewell [S]
165. Rely upon yourself and your own energies, and do not wait for, or depend upon, other people.
166. Remember that your worth consists in what you are, and not in what you have. What you are will show in what you do.
167. If the world despise you because you do not follow in its ways, pay no heed to it. But be sure your way is right.
168. Be on earth what good people hope to be in heaven.
169. Let not your goodness be professional; let it be the simple, natural outcome of your character. Therefore, cultivate character.
170. If you do wrong, say so, and make what atonement you can. That is true nobleness. Have no moral debts.
– Thomas Davidson
#171 Faith That Matters: 365 Devotions from Classic Christian Leaders
171. Here is the world. Beautiful and terrible things will happen. Don’t be afraid.
– Frederick Buechner
#172 “Partaking in Other Men’s Sins”, an address at St. Margaret’s Church, Lothbury, England, 12 June 1855, printed in Golden Lectures, 1855
172. Ye cannot live for yourselves; a thousand fibres connect you with your fellow-men, and along those fibres, as along sympathetic threads, run your actions as causes, and return to you as effects.
– Henry Melvill
#173 Instagram [S]
173. you do not just wake up and become the butterfly
growth is a process
– rupi kaur
174. Sometimes, change isn’t what we want. Sometimes, change is what we need. Change is vital for our growth. [S]
– Nichola Stephenson
#175 The Nectar of Pain
175. These mountains that you are
carrying,
you were only supposed to
climb.
– Najwa Zebian
#176 Thread
176. Their love for you might not save you. But your love for you will. [S]
Lose as many people as you need to in order to not lose yourself. No one worth keeping in your life is worth you losing yourself. [S]
Change is hard because we focus so much on how hard change is instead of seeing it as a path to the life we want. [S]
– Najwa Zebian
#177 Then & Now: Jane Goodall, Sunday, 19 June 2005 [S]
177. I think to be fully human, we need to have meaning in our lives, and that’s what I am trying to help these young people to find.
– Dr. Jane Goodall
#178 With Love [S]
178. Every individual matters
Every individual has a role to play
Every individual makes a difference
– Dr. Jane Goodall
#179 Radical Acceptance
179. Imperfection is not our personal problem—it is a natural part of existing.
– Tara Brach
#180 As Simple as Snow
180. You have your whole life ahead of you…don’t spend all your time in the past.
– Gregory Galloway
#181 The Hunger Games (Hunger Games, Book One)
181. I realize, for the first time, how very lonely I’ve been in the arena. How comforting the presence of another human being can be.
– Suzanne Collins
#182 Julie Andrews: An Intimate Biography by Richard Stirling [S]
182. Some people regard discipline as a chore. For me, it is a kind of order that sets me free to fly.
– Julie Andrews
#183 University of Pennsylvania 248th Commencement Address to the Class of 2004 [S]
183. The world is more malleable than you think and it’s waiting for you to hammer it into shape.
– Bono
#184 Twitter [S]
184. You can’t change your reality as long as you think someone else is responsible for it.
– Gordana Biernat
#185 Wind-Wafted Wild Flowers
185. I will not follow where the path may lead, but I will go where there is no path, and I will leave a trail.
– Muriel Strode
#186 I have abandoned my search for truth, and am now looking for a good fantasy [S]
186. Sometimes it seems life is just a series of interruptions.
– Ashleigh Brilliant
#187 Where the Crawdads Sing
187. Autumn leaves don’t fall; they fly. They take their time and wander on this, their only chance to soar.
– Delia Owens
#188 To Kill a Mockingbird
188. People generally see what they look for, and hear what they listen for.
– Harper Lee
#189 Their Eyes Were Watching God
189. There are years that ask questions and years that answer.
– Zora Neale Hurston
#190 The Single Woman: Life, Love, and a Dash of Sass
190. Take responsibility for your own life today. It’s empowering. It’s freeing. It’s necessary for becoming who you were born to be. [S]
Being brave enough to be alone frees you up to invite people into your life because you want them, not because you need them. [S]
– Mandy Hale
#191 Twitter [S]
191. Most of what we’re concerned with doesn’t really matter. And most of what really matters, we aren’t at all concerned with.
– Yasmin Mogahed
192. This journey is yours, take charge of it. Stop giving other people the power to shape your life.
#193 Poem: ‘HELLDUNKLE STUNDE’ by Anton Wildgans
193. What is to give light must endure burning. (In German: Was leuchten soll, muß dulden, daß es brennt.)
– Anton Wildgans
#194 What to Believe: An Ethical Creed [S]
194. Remember that there is nothing noble in being superior to some other man. The true nobility is in being superior to your previous self.
– W. L. Sheldon, Lecturer of The Ethical Society of St. Louis.
#195 Twitter [S]
195. The trees are about to show us how beautiful it is to let come, let go, let be.
– Lama Surya Das
#196 The Big Questions: How to find your own answers to life’s essential mysteries
196. Learn to accept, to let go, and let be. Allow. [S]
– Lama Surya Das
#197 Twitter
197. It takes strength to remain kind in a world that mistreats you. [S]
the sooner
you reach for the end
the sooner
something better
can start [S]
When you are fully present, you will find happiness and peace in the smallest of moments and places. [S]
People come and go; what may feel like a loss is a space gained for something more. [S]
The trouble with love is that too often we fall for people who never intended to love us back. [S]
– r.h. Sin
#198 My New Year Wish, 31 DECEMBER 2011 [S]
198. I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes.
Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world. You’re doing things you’ve never done before, and more importantly, you’re Doing Something.
– Neil Gaiman
#199 Twitter
199. There is no finish line to learning. Never become satisfied with everything you know. [S]
Change is inevitable. Adaptation is your choice. [S]
– Bruce Van Horn
#200 A Million Miles in a Thousand Years: What I Learned While Editing My Life
200. When you stop expecting people to be perfect, you can like them for who they are.
– Donald Miller
#201 Full Catastrophe Living: How to cope with stress, pain and illness using mindfulness meditation
201. The real mindfulness practice is how we live our lives from moment to moment, whatever we are doing, whatever our circumstances.
– Jon Kabat-Zinn
#202 Journal: Worpswede, July 26, 1900, The Letters and Journals, Edited and Translated by Arthur S. Wensinger and Carole Clew Hoey [S]
202. I know that I shall not live very long. But I wonder, is that sad? Is a celebration more beautiful because it lasts longer? And my life is a celebration, a short, intense celebration.
– Paula Modersohn-Becker
#203 Leadership is an Art [S]
203. In the end, it is important to remember that we cannot become what we need to be by remaining what we are.
– Max De Pree
#204 Introduction: Adam II, The Road to Character [S]
204. Recently I’ve been thinking about the difference between the résumé virtues and the eulogy virtues. The résumé virtues are the ones you list on your résumé, the skills that you bring to the job market and that contribute to external success. The eulogy virtues are deeper. They’re the virtues that get talked about at your funeral, the ones that exist at the core of your being—whether you are kind, brave, honest or faithful; what kind of relationships you formed.
– David Brooks
#205 Why not try God? [S]
205. And supposing you have tried and failed again and again, you may have a fresh start any moment you choose, for this thing that we call “failure” is not the falling down, but the staying down.
– Mary Pickford
#206 Simple Abundance: A Daybook of Comfort of Joy
206. Take a leap of faith and begin this wondrous new year by believing. Believe in yourself.
– Sarah Ban Breathnach
#207 Falling Down and Getting Up
207. …life keeps shaping us relentlessly until only what is essential and unbreakable remains.
– Mark Nepo
#208 Seven Thousand Ways to Listen
208. Life is both storm and calm, and the challenge of living is how to use the calm to endure the storm, not bypass it.
– Mark Nepo
#209 Half Life of Angels
209. Sometimes, when things
break, life begins.
– Mark Nepo
#210 The happiest man on earth: 99 year old Holocaust survivor
210. Tomorrow will come, but first enjoy today!
– Eddie Jaku
#211 Viola Davis’ Battle with Low Self-Esteem [S]
211. I don’t have any time to stay up all night worrying about what someone who doesn’t love me has to say about me.
– Viola Davis
#212 Eldest
212. Live in the present, remember the past, and fear not the future, for it doesn’t exist and never shall. There is only now. [S]
– Christopher Paolini
#213 The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
213. Most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply.
– Stephen R. Covey
#214 Poem: Hallowed Ground, The Complete Poetical Works of Thomas Campbell
214. To live in hearts we leave behind,
Is not to die. [S]
– Thomas Campbell
#215 Letter to John Quincy Adams [S]
215. …Learning is not attained by chance, it must be sought for with ardour and attended to with diligence.
– Abigail Adams
#216 Twitter
216. If I could tell my younger self one thing, it would be this:
There are many things in life you can postpone, but love isn’t one of them. [S]
– Lang Leav
#217 Memoirs of the Life Writings, and Discoveries of Sir Isaac Newton Volume II, by Sir David Brewster [S]
217. I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the sea-shore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.
– Sir Isaac Newton
#218 Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times
218. Life meanders like a path through the woods. We have seasons when we flourish, and seasons when the leaves fall from us, revealing our bare bones. Given time, they grow again.
– Katherine May
219. Come to the edge.
We might fall.
Come to the edge.
It’s too high!
COME TO THE EDGE!
And they came
And he pushed
And they flew.
– Christopher Logue
#220 Letters from New York
220. Misfortune is never mournful to the soul that accepts it; for such do always see that every cloud is an angel’s face. Every man deems that he has precisely the trials and temptations which are the hardest of all others for him to bear; but they are so, simply because they are the very ones he most needs. [S]
– Lydia Maria Child
#221 The Phenomenon of Man [S]
221. A universal love is not only psychologically possible ; it is the only complete and final way in which we are able to love.
– Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
#222 My Relapse Years
222. But change is not a bolt of lightning that arrives with a zap. It is a bridge built brick by brick, every day, with sweat and humility and slips. It is hard work, and slow work, but it can be thrilling to watch it take shape. [S]
– Sarah Hepola
#223 The Unbearable Lightness Of Being
223. We can never know what to want, because, living only one life, we can neither compare it with our previous lives nor perfect it in our lives to come. [S]
– Milan Kundera
#224 The Proud Highway, The Fear and Loathing Letters, Volume I
224. But beware of looking for goals: look for a way of life. Decide how you want to live and then see what you can do to make a living WITHIN that way of life. [S]
– Hunter S. Thompson
#225 I Am the Messenger
225. Sometimes people are beautiful.
Not in looks.
Not in what they say.
Just in what they are.
– Markus Zusak
#226 Six Hours with Rudyard Kipling, Author: Arthur Gordon
226. The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. To be your own man is a hard business. If you try it, you’ll be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself.
– Rudyard Kipling
#227 Thread
227. Staying calm in a situation that used to stress you out is a powerful sign of growth. [S]
When you have nothing but pure intentions, and move with love. you don’t lose anyone…they lose you. [S]
– Jagjit Singh
#228 Love, Stargirl
228. Live today. Not yesterday. Not tomorrow. Just today. Inhabit your moments.
– Jerry Spinelli
#229 Twitter [S]
229. You might not be able to change them, but you can always change your reaction to them. Your energy is your choice.
– Brendon Burchard
#230 The Falling Leaves, Under the Maples
230. How beautifully the leaves grow old! How full of light and color are their last days! [S]
– John Burroughs
#231 Lessons from Europe for American Business by Leon C. Megginson, June 1963, Southwestern Social Science Quarterly, Volume 44, Number 1
231. …the species that survives is the one that is able best to adapt and adjust to the changing environment in which it finds itself. [S]
– Leon C. Megginson
#232 It Ends with Us: A Novel
232. All humans make mistakes. What determines a person’s character aren’t the mistakes we make. It’s how we take those mistakes and turn them into lessons rather than excuses.
– Colleen Hoove
#233 Facebook
233. Carry good with you wherever you go. [S]
– Harpreet M Dayal
#234 X
234. One moment at a time, one small step to the next, at your own pace. [S]
when it is time things will fall into places. [S]
– Harpreet M Dayal
#235 Dreams
235. Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.
Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow.
– Langston Hughes
#236 Instagram
236. You are allowed to be both a masterpiece and a work in progress, simultaneously. You are. [S]
– Sophia Bush