Life is no joke.
Whether it’s work, school, or personal, certain situations and problems can seem so insurmountable that we seem powerless against them. On a particularly challenging day, charging ahead, getting things done – and even getting up from bed – can be difficult. Nowadays, the daily news, politics, and even social media can sometimes leave us feeling lost, confused, and unhappy.
When I feel this way, I often browse through quotes. Some of them seem now to be so generic, some of them maybe just too cheesy, but a few diamonds in the rough would really lift my spirits and just infect me with a little more “You can do it”. Here are some of those.
(Note: For best effect, read as slowly as you can. Pause. Then read the next one.)
“When you come to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on.” – Franklin D. Roosevelt
“And once the storm is over, you won’t remember how you made it through, how you managed to survive. You won’t even be sure whether the storm is really over. But one thing is certain. When you come out of the storm, you won’t be the same person who walked in. That’s what this storm’s all about.” – Haruki Murakami
“No person has the power to have everything they want, but it is in their power not to want what they don’t have, and to cheerfully put to good use what they do have.” – Seneca
“You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it.” – Maya Angelou
“The brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something. Because the brick walls are there to stop the people who don’t want it badly enough. They’re there to stop the other people.” – Randy Pausch
“There are no great people in this world, only great challenges which ordinary people rise to meet.” – William Frederick Halsey, Jr.
“What man actually needs is not a tensionless state but rather the striving and struggling for some goal worthy of him.” – Viktor Frankl
“I judge you unfortunate because you have never lived through misfortune. You have passed through life without an opponent—no one can ever know what you are capable of, not even you.” – Seneca
“I learned there are troubles of more than one kind. Some come from ahead, others come from behind. But I’ve bought a big bat. I’m all ready, you see. Now my troubles are going to have trouble with me.”
“I will love the light for it shows me the way, yet I will endure the darkness for it shows me the stars.”
“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.”
“When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it.” – Henry Ford
“People are always blaming circumstances for what they are. I don’t believe in circumstances. The people who get ahead in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and if they can’t find them, make them.”
“It is under the greatest adversity that there exists the greatest potential for doing good, both for oneself and others.” – Dalai Lama
“A difficult time can be more readily endured if we retain the conviction that our existence holds a purpose – a cause to pursue, a person to love, a goal to achieve.” – John Maxwell
The Pursuit of Excellence 