These handful of quotes have come into life at points when I have needed them the most. They helped me regroup, rethink, reimagine and find my path again. Words are powerful enough to open closed doors, reopen old ones, and find new ones.
These quotes have helped me along my growing path, and I hope they help you in some way.
1. “Don’t be in such a hurry to condemn a person because he doesn’t do what you do or think as you think. There was a time when you didn’t know what you know today.” -Malcom X
We are all inherently different. Not all knowledge is common. Educate each other before you judge. Understand that each person was raised different, their core values are different. What has come to you today may come to another tomorrow.
2. “I am not what happened to me. I am who I choose to become.” -Carl Jung
Don't let your circumstances define you, let them better you. Do not use your past as a crutch, use them to empower each of your following steps.
3. “Imagining the future is a kind of nostalgia. (…) You spend your whole life stuck in a labyrinth, thinking about how you’ll escape it one day, and how awesome it will be, and imagining that future keeps you going, but you never do it. You just use the future to escape the present.” -John Green
If you plan to do tomorrow, do it today. Tomorrow can be our today.
4. “We live in an age where we feel guilt whenever we have to cut someone off but the reality is that some relationships do need to die, some people do need to be unfollowed and de-friended. We aren’t meant to be tethered to the people in our past. The Internet mandates that we don’t burn bridges and keep everyone around like relics but those expectations are unrealistic and unhealthy. Simply put, we don’t need to know what everyone else is up to. We’re allowed to be choosy about who we surround ourselves with online and in real life, even if it might hurt people’s feelings.” -Ryan O’Connell
It's not childish or dramatic to cut ties with those who pull you down or bring out a part of you you don't like. Do what is best for you, the rest of the world will just have to fall in line.
5. “Breathe. It’s okay. You’re going to be okay. Just breathe. Breathe, and remind yourself of all the times in the past you felt this scared. All of the times you felt this anxious and this overwhelmed. All of the times you felt this level of pain. And remind yourself how each time you made it through. Life has thrown so much at you, and despite how difficult things have been, you’ve survived. Breathe and trust that you can survive this too. Trust that this struggle is part of the process. And trust that as long as you don’t give up and keep pushing forward, no matter how hopeless things seem, you will make it. – Daniell Koepke
You are stronger than you could have ever imagined yourself.
6. “So little of what could happen does happen.” -Salvador Dali
We often get caught up in the "what ifs." If it was meant to happen, it would have.
7. “As time goes on, you’ll understand. What lasts, lasts; what doesn’t, doesn’t. Time solves most things. And what time can’t solve, you have to solve yourself.” -Haruki Murakami
Give everything time, but don't rely on time to fix everything.
8. “If you inherently long for something, become it first. If you want gardens, become the gardener. If you want love, embody love. If you want mental stimulation, change the conversation. If you want peace, exude calmness. If you want to fill your world with artists, begin to paint. If you want to be valued, respect your own time. If you want to live ecstatically, find the ecstasy within yourself. This is how to draw it in, day by day, inch by inch.” – Victoria Erickson
Be what you wish to see.
9. “One of the hardest lessons in life is letting go. Whether it’s guilt, anger, love, loss or betrayal. We fight to hold on and we fight to let go.” – Mareez Reyes
Sometimes it may seem like giving up, but sometimes its knowing when it is time to close a chapter.
10. “When you focus on your problems, you’ll have more problems. When you focus on the possibilities you’ll have opportunities.” -Zig Ziglar
There is always, always, always some water in the glass.
11. “When you start to feel like things should have been better this year, remember the mountains and valleys that got you here. They are not accidents, and those moments weren’t in vain. You are not the same. You have grown and are growing. You are breathing, you are living, you are wrapped in endless, boundless grace. And things will get better. There is more to you than yesterday.” -Morgan Harper Nichols
Believe in yourself, believe that good is to come.
12. “We are made to persist. That’s how we find out who we are.” – Tobias Wolff
You will never discover more about yourself than when you are growing through hardships.
I hope these quotes find you on a day your exam didn't go as planned, or a day that you got an interview for a job, or a day you've fought with your friends, or a day that you feel beyond joyful. But I do hope that somehow and some way, these quotes find their way to you.
