Quotes
Why a quotes section?
So often we are subjected to listening to negative comments, even to ourselves, that it is so refreshing to read positive, inspiring, life-affirming quotes from people all over the world. Having a positive attitude has been shown to also help us to lead healthier lives and increase our self-esteem. I believe it also helps us by seeing that things (and people!) just aren’t always “so bad”… I have included some of my favorites. You never know where you will hear or read them! Some are from wonderful leaders or poets, some are from movies or songs, from friends or self-inspired. They could be from your book of worship, or even from children’s books, cartoons, or commercials! I have even seen a book just on positive quotes!
Once you decide to be open to all of the positive messages out there they seem to begin to just flow to you in abundance! I hope you enjoy these as much as I do. Whenever possible I give credit where it is due. For some I had written down years ago and neglected to get the writer’s names, so in the event of an “anonymous”, if you know the rightful person, please let me know! If you have a favorite that you would like to pass along, I look forward to reading those too!
Be sure to scroll through to the end where I have also included a few inspirational poems/excerpts as well.
~Life is not measured by the amount of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.

~Go confidently into the direction of your dreams!
Live the life you
always imagined. -Thoreau

~Press on: Nothing can take the place of Perseverance. Talent will not; Nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent.
Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb.
Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts.
Perseverance and Determination alone are omnipotent.
Press on! -Calvin
Coolidge

~Every minute of your life is a promise made at birth and the spiritual adventure of a lifetime.

~When we come to the edge of all the light we have, and must take a step into the darkness of the unknown, we must believe two things.
Either we will find something firm to stand on or we will be taught to fly.

~Our greatest glory is not in the never falling, but rising every time we fall.

~When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on.

~Choose a job you love and you will never have to "work" a day in your life.

~Great people are those who make others feel that they, too, can become great. - Mark Twain

~When we do the best we can, we never know what miracle is wrought in our life, or in the life of another. - Helen Keller

~One can never be content to creep when one feels an impulse to soar! -Helen Keller

~If you want to get the best out of someone, you must look for the best that is in them.

~A moment's insight is sometimes worth a life's experience. -Oliver Wendell Holmes


~Every individual has a place to fill in the world and is important in some respect, whether he chooses to be or not. Nathaniel Hawthorne

~Dance as if no one is watching, Love as if you've never been hurt, Sing as if no one is listening, and live everyday as if it were your last!

~Great minds have always found violent opposition from mediocre minds.
The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary prejudices but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence. - Albert Einstein

~Don't wait for your ship to come in swim out to it!

~It often requires more courage to dare to do right than to fear to do wrong. Abraham Lincoln

~That which you resist, persists.

~BE the change we wish to see in the world. - Ghandi

~To move the world we must first move ourselves. - Socrates

~Keep your eyes on the stars and your feet on the ground. Theodore Roosevelt

~The worst prison would be a closed heart.

~Simply being different isn't wrong. Don't try to be a duckling if you're born to be a swan.

~We're not meant to fit in. We're meant to stand out.
- Sarah Ban Breathnach

~And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.

~The sun is always shining even when the clouds are in the way.


~Be mindful of how you approach time. Watching the clock is not the same as watching the sun rise. - Sophia Bedford Pierce

~Live as if you are already living for the second time and as if you had acted wrongly the first time as wrongly as you are about to act now.
-Viktor Frankl

~To dream of the person you would like to be is a waste of the person you are.

~Great minds have purposes, others have wishes.
-Washington Irving

~Success~
To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. That is to have succeeded. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

~You can make excuses or you can go out and make a difference!

~Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

~The pessimist looks at opportunities and sees difficulties; the optimist looks at difficulties and sees opportunities.

~It is never too late to be what you might have been.
- George Elliot

~Do not follow where the path may lead. Go, instead, where there is no path and leave a trail.

~Inactivity is one of the great indignities of life.
Through inactivity
people lose their self-respect, their integrity. - Joan Crawford

~The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quite alone with the heavens, nature, and God. Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be and that God wishes to see people happy, amidst the simple beauty of nature. As long as this exists, and it certainly always will, I know that then there will always be comfort for every sorrow, whatever circumstances may be. - Anne Frank

~If we want to develop an attitude of reverence for life, we need to begin with awareness, which in turn can lead to loving empathy. As we begin to feel our common bond of life with living things around us, our actions become more harmonious in an unforced, natural way, and we become concerned for the need and well-being of all creatures. - Joseph Cornell

~The first peace, which is the most important, is that which comes within the souls of people when they realize their relationship, their oneness, with the universe and all its powers, and when they realize that at the center of the universe dwells the Great Spirit, and that this center is really everywhere, it is within each of us. - Black Elk

~No person is your friend who demands your silence, or denies your right to grow. - Alice Walker

~We should be careful to get out of an experience only the wisdom that is in it - and stop there; lest we be like the cat that sits down on a hot stove lid. The cat will never sit down on a hot stove lid again, and that is well; but it will never sit down on a cold one any more. Mark Twain

~What I hear I forget
What I see I remember
What I do I know
-Chinese proverb

~Do not try to satisfy your vanity by teaching a great many things.
Awaken people's curiosity. It is enough to open minds; do not overload them. Put there just a spark. If there is some good flammable stuff it will catch fire. - Anatole France

~If we go down into ourselves we find that we possess exactly what we desire. - Simone Weil

~When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.

~If you're never scared or embarrassed or hurt, it means you never take chances. - Julia Sorel

~Regret is the only wound from which the soul never recovers. -Sarah Ban Breathnach


~One knows what one has lost, but not what one may find. - George Sand

~Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of somebody else. - Judy Garland


~"We can't measure out goodness by what we don't do, by what we deny ourselves, by what we resist, and who we exclude...
We should measure our goodness by what we embrace, what we create, and who we include.--From the movie "Chocolat"

~"...Keep breathing--the Sun will rise tomorrow and you never know what the tide will bring in...."-From the movie "Cast Away", with Tom Hanks

~"Teachers open the door- but you must enter yourself. - [Old Chinese Proverb]

~"The measuring of things lies not in the things themselves, but in our attitude toward them"-Antoine de Saint Exupery

~"Making a Living is not the same as Making a Life."

~"...We know who we are, even if we sometimes forget..."-From the movie "Men in Black 2"(Doesn't it seem as though we are always looking outside of ourselves for "the answer" when often it was within us all along?)

~"Living well has little to do with comfort and speed, but much to do with direction."

~"Sometimes we may learn more from a man's errors, than from his virtues."-Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

~"Let me win, but if I cannot win, let me be brave in the attempt."
(Someone gave this to me as the motto for the Special Olympics. I had also heard a story that could teach us all so much. When one of the athletes fell during a competition, the others, without hesitation, stopped to help him get up so they could finish it
together....)

~"To be faithful to your instincts and the impulses that carry you in the direction of the excellence you most desire and value...Surely that is to lead the noble life."-George E. Woodberry

~"A trembling in the bones may carry a more convincing testimony then the dry, documented deductions of the brain."-Llewelyn Powers

~"When nobody around you seems to measure up, its time to check your yardstick." -Bill Lemly


~"Life guarantees a chance-not a fair shake." - Anon.

~"Learn as if you were going to live forever. Live as if you were going to die tomorrow." -Anon.

---------------

~Eleanor Roosevelt~
-One's philosophy is not best expressed in words; it is expressed in the choices one makes.
-Nothing alive can stand still, it goes forward or back. Life is interesting only as long as it is a process of growth.
-There is a wonderful word, why?, that children use...When they stop using it, the reason, too often, is that no one bothered to answer them...
every child's 'why' should be answered with care-and with respect.
-If you are interested, you never have to look for new interests. They come to you.
-Once you have met and lived through [an impossible situation] you find that forever after you are freer than you ever were before.
You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop and look fear in the face.
-I have only two remedies for weariness: one is change and the other is relaxation.
~The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.
~You must do the thing you think you cannot do.
~No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.
~"One phase of life has ended and another has begun, or rather, one has emerged into another and broadened...The encouraging thing is that every time you meet a situation, though you may think at the time it is an impossibility-Once you have met it and lived through it you find that forever after you are freer than you ever were before...You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop and look fear in the face".
~Eleanor Roosevelt is my absolute favorite lady! If you would like to read more of her wisdom, read her book, "You Learn By Living".

Poems/Excerpts
Found at a Native American Festival, Author Unknown
I'm Not Here Don't stand by my grave and weep For I'm not there, I do not sleep I am a thousand winds that blow I am the diamonds glint on snow I am the sunlight on ripened grain I am the gentle autumn's rain When you awaken in morning's hush I am the swift uplifting rush Of quiet birds in circle flight I am the soft stars that shine at night Do not stand by my grave and cry I am not there, I did not die.

Marianne Williamson (also used by Nelson Mandela.)
"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of
God. Your playing small doesn't serve the world.
There's nothing
enlightening about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do.
We are born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we're liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others. "

Nita Keesler "Just One Moment"

The angels looking upon us,
Tears streaming from their eyes
Two Souls to be united
Knowing that one day they must say Goodbye

Such beauty between us
Savoring each second
As though it may be our Last
Wonder and Joy, Strength and Respect
No Regrets, No Selfish Demands

In your eyes I have found Heaven
In your arms I have found Home
We have awakened the Magic within us
And our Memories will sustain us,
When we must once again travel this Journey Alone

Your laughter lightens my heart
Your smile has set me free
Just One Moment with you in my life
Has meant the world to me

We have been gifted such a treasure
To love unconditionally, to learn and grow And we will meet again, my love When the time is right, the angels will smile upon us and let us know....


Benjamin Hoff The Te of Piglet
"Animal so shy and small
Wishing you were bold and tall
You hesitate all sensitive
Waiting for a chance to Live
Time is swift, it races by;
Opportunities are born and die...
Still you wait and will not try-
A bird with wings who dares not rise and fly.
But that "You" you want to see
Is not YOU and will never be.
No one else will ever do
The special things that wait inside of you
You can be a guiding star
If you make the most of Who You Are
And the sensitivity that you're now ashamed to see
Can be developed even more.
So you can find the hidden doors
To places no one's been before
And the pride you ll feel inside
Is not the kind that makes you fall-
its the kind that recognizes
the Bigness found in being Small...."

Maya Angelou Caged Bird
A free bird leaps on the back of the wind
and floats down stream til the current ends
and dips his wing in the orange sunrays
and Dares To Claim The Sky
But a bird that stalks down his narrow cage
Can seldom see through his bars of rage
His wings are clipped and his feet are tied
So he opens his throat to sing
The caged bird sings with a fearful trill
Of things unknown but longed for still
And his tune is heard on a distant hill
For The Caged Bird Sings For Freedom
The free bird things of another breeze
And the tradewinds soft through the sighing trees
And the fat worms waiting on the dawn bright lawn
And Names The Sky His Own
But a caged bird stand on the grave of his dreams
His shadow shouts on a nightmare scream
His wings are clipped and his feet are tied
So He Opens His Throat To Sing
The caged bird sings with a fearful trill
of things unknown but longed for still
and his tune is heard on a distant hill
For The Caged Bird Sings For Freedom

Phenomenal Woman
Pretty women wonder-where my secret lies
I'm not cute, or built to suit-a fashion model's size
But when I start to tell them they think I'm telling lies
I say, it's in the reach of my arms-the span of my
hips-the stride of my step-the curl of my lips
I am a woman, phenomenally
Phenomenal Woman, that's me
I walk into a room, just as cool as you please
And to a man, the fellows stand -or-fall down on their knees
They swarm around me, a hive of honey bees
I say, it's in the fire in my eyes
and the flash of my teeth
the swing of my waist, the joy in my feet
I am a woman. Phenomenally.
Phenomenal Woman, that's me.
Men themselves have wondered-
what they see in me.
They try so much-but they can't touch
my Inner Mystery
When I try to show them-they say
they still don't see.
I say, it's in the arch of my back,
The sun of my smile
The ride of my breasts, the grace of my style
I am a woman phenomenally.
Phenomenal Woman, that's me.
Now you understand-just why my heads not bowed.
I don't shout-or jump about,
or have to talk real loud
When you see me in passing-
it ought to make you proud
I say, its in the click of my heels-
the bend in my hair
The palm of my hand-the need for my care
'Cause I'm a woman. Phenomenally.
Phenomenal Woman. That's me

"Desiderata" Written by Max Ehrmann

Go placidly amid the noise and the haste, and remember
what peace there may be in silence.

As far as possible, without surrender, be on good
terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly;
And listen to others,
Even to the dull and the ignorant;
they too have their story.
Avoid loud and aggressive persons;
they are vexatious to the spirit.

If you compare yourself with others,
you may become vain or bitter,
for always there will be greater and lesser persons
than yourself.
Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.
Keep interested in your own career, however humble; it
is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.
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