My Favorite Quotes:

This list of my favorite quotes is here more for me than you, but I’m very pleased if you also get something out of it. Feel free to share any quotes you love in the comments. In no particular order:

We deem those happy who from the experience of life have learnt to bear its ills without being overcome by them.

– Carl Jung

Part of the problem with the word disabilities is that it immediately suggests an inability to see or hear or walk or do other things that many of us take for granted. But what of people who can’t feel? Or talk about their feelings? Or manage their feelings in constructive ways? What of people who aren’t able to form close and strong relationships? And people who cannot find fulfillment in their lives, or those who have lost hope, who live in disappointment and bitterness and find in life no joy, no love? These, it seems to me, are the real disabilities.

– The World According to Mister Rogers

More people worry themselves to death than bleed to death.

– Robert Heinlein “Tunnel in the Sky”

We cannot change anything until we accept it. Condemnation does not liberate, it oppresses.

– Carl Jung

Adopt an attitude of gratitude.

I am in an extended self-directed course of study. That is, I am in control of my own life.

– Amber Benson

Forgiveness: Giving up all hope for a better past.

You can’t start the next chapter of your life if you keep re-reading your last one.

One man’s religion is another man’s belly laugh.

– Robert Heinlein

Bless them, Change me.

If there’s no great glorious end to all this, if nothing we do matters… then all that matters is what we do. ‘Cause that’s all there is. What we do. Now. Today.

– Angel the Series, Episode 2.16 “Epiphany” written by Tim Minear

Some stories are true that never happened.

– Elie Weisel

There’s no ‘should’ or ‘should not’ when it comes to having feelings. They’re part of who we are and their origins are beyond our control. When we can believe that, we may find it easier to make constructive choices about what to do with those feelings.

– From The World According to Mister Rogers

Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.

– Carl Jung

First mend yourself, and then mend others.

– Jewish Proverb

Only criminals and adulterers should have to hide who they are.

– Aaron Sorkin

How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.

– Anne Frank

Look at everything as though you were seeing it either for the first or last time.

– Betty Smith

It all depends on how we look at things, and not how they are in themselves.

– Carl Jung

When one door of happiness closes, another opens, but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one that has been opened for us.

– Helen Keller

Knowing your own darkness is the best method for dealing with the darknesses of other people.

– Carl Jung

Think higher, feel deeper.

– Elie Wiesel

Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.

– Carl Jung

Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars.

– Kahlil Gibran

Every form of addiction is bad, no matter whether the narcotic be alcohol or morphine or idealism.

– Carl Jung

You could move.

– Abigail Van Buren, “Dear Abby,” in response to a reader who complained that a gay couple was moving in across the street and wanted to know what he could do to improve the quality of the neighborhood

Our obligation is to give meaning to life and in doing so to overcome the passive, indifferent life.

– Elie Wiesel

Knowledge rests not upon truth alone, but upon error also.

– Carl Jung

Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind.

– Dr. Seuss

The nice thing about citing god as an authority is that you can prove anything you set out to prove.

– Robert A. Heinlein

The greatest and most important problems of life are all fundamentally insoluble. They can never be solved but only outgrown.

– Carl Jung

Nothing in the world can take the place of Persistence. 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. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan ‘Press On’ has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.

– Calvin Coolidge

Fear less, hope more

Most folks are as happy as they make up their minds to be.

-Abraham Lincoln

Sometimes it’s hard to find the right people in life if you won’t let go of the wrong ones.

Only one thing has to change for us to know happiness in our lives: …where we focus our attention.

– Greg Anderson

Your life does not get better by chance, it gets better by change.

– Jim Rohn

Whatever you’re thinking about is like planning a future event. When you’re worrying, you are planning. When you are appreciating, you are planing… What are you planning?

Funny thing about guilt: There’s nothing so bad that you can’t add a little guilt to it and make it worse; and there’s nothing so good you can’t add guilt to it and make it better. Guilt distracts us from a greater truth: we have an inherent ability to heal. We seem intent on living through even the worst heartbreak.

– Latter Days

Did you ever read the Sunday comics? When I was a little kid, I used to put my face right up to them and I was just amazed because it was just this mass of dots. I think life is like that sometimes. But I like to think that, from God’s perspective, life, everything – even this… it makes sense. It’s not just dots. And instead we’re all connected, and it’s beautiful and it’s funny and it’s good. From this close we can’t expect it to make sense right now.

– Latter Days

A pessimist is correct oftener than an optimist, but an optimist has more fun, and neither can stop the march of events.

– Robert Heinlein

How do you / Greet the day / With sunshine in your eyes / And a smile that seems to say / Hey, it’s ok.? / Because with me every morning / Its like I’m raising the dead / I’ve got to fool my heart / So I can fool my head / To lift out of bed / Lift out of bed / Miles of water / Oceans worrying me when I wake up / It’s over my head / Over my head / Over my head / The weather of worry / And the freeze of fear / Keep my hands on the wheel / But still I’m too scared to steer / So, I stay here / But you’re an explorer / Of the unmapped and grey / With fear in your eyes / You look at me and say, / It’s ok. / Miles of water / Oceans worrying me when I wake up / It’s over my head / Over my head / Over my head / Learning to live is so simple / But simple ain’t easy / And easy ain’t worth your time / I should be fearless / But still now I fear this / I keep looking down while I climb / All these lessons / Seem so simple to me if I’d just look up / It’s over my head / Over my head / Over my head

– Over My Head by Chris Dallman

You say you wanna get away / Feel the sun on your back / Forget the race / Just get off the track / Well that’s alright… / ‘Cause I feel that way too / Yeah, I’ve been there before / You don’t have to go far / To lose what you do / And find who you are / Yeah that’s alright… / Start livin’ the good life / Just wanna feel right / And it’s cool coming down / Cool coming down / This is the real life / Forget the headlines / And it’s cool all around / Cool you down, cool me down / So now you got it in your head / But you’re wondering why / You’re still so afraid / Well that’s part of the high / Yeah that’s alright… / (Chorus) / Losing the war in the battle somehow / Look for yourself in the here and the now / The love of our lives can escape us it seems / Where is the life that we live in our dreams? / (1st verse) / (Chorus)

– Cool Me Down by Venice

I think of you / of you too much / Of where you are and who you touch / I think too much… too much of you / Like it could save my life if I spent one night with you / It took some time but I’m coming around / They had my vibe down at the lost and found / I know who I was before / I was down but I’m not down anymore / I was down but I’m not down anymore / I was away for way too long / I didn’t know my day from my week, my weak from my strong / The way I was was in my way / Oh I was breaking my own rules just to stay in the game / I learned to stand when I learned to fall / The way to win was not to play at all / I know who I was before / I was down but I’m not down anymore / I was down but I’m not down anymore / Couldn’t see what was taking over me / All the thrill of having you there under my skin / Every time was a different crime / Trying to learn how to make you mine / So conditioned, finally I learned / I learned to stand when I learned to fall / The way to win was not to play at all / I know who I was before / I was down but I’m not down anymore / I was down but I’m not down like before / I was down but I’m not down anymore

– Not Down Anymore by Venice

When I go walking I count the shadows / I always have, since I was a child / She calls it wisdom, says it’s my ‘old soul’ / I think it’s the soul’s suicide / Give it up to me / I want to be just like you / Living out of my head / Living out of my mind / Out of my head / Out of my mind / How do you measure the difference between / The way you play and the hand you’re dealt / I must confess that every single day / I want to keep my cards face down on the felt / Give it up to me / I want to be just like you / Living out of my head / Living out of my mind / Out of my head / Out of my mind / Oh, there’s a fire every night in the sky / the stars, I can see ’em / I’m convinced I can be ’em / If I just learn how not to try / how not to try / When I go walking I count the shadows / I always have, since I was a child / She calls it wisdom, says it’s my ‘old soul’ / I think it’s the soul’s suicide

– Count The Shadows by Chris Dallman

Illusions end in theatrical noise. Real love ends only in death.

– Surprising Myself by Christopher Bram

You can chose to let it define you, confine you, refine you, outshine you, or you can chose to move on & leave it behind you.

Spend so much time improving yourself that you have no time left to criticize others.

– Norman Vincent Peale

Strength isn’t always a physical thing but it is always a mental attitude.

Attitude is a choice. It’s a statement of free will. No matter how tough, we are not slaves to our circumstances. We are masters of our spirit.

Happiness is not something ready made. It comes from your own actions.

– Dalai Lama XIV

Don’t speak to me about your religion; 
first show it to me in how you treat other people. 
Don’t tell me how much you love your God; 
show me in how much you love all God’s children. 
Don’t preach to me your passion for your faith; 
teach me through your compassion for your neighbors. 
In the end, I’m not as interested in what you have  to tell or sell as I am in how you choose to live and give.

– Cory Booker

The right attitude can transform a barrier into a blessing, an obstacle into an opportunity or a stumbling block into a stepping stone.

– Cory Booker

Everyone you will ever meet knows something you don’t.

– Bill Nye

You must remember, family is often born of blood, but it doesn’t depend on blood. Nor is it exclusive of friendship. Family members can be your best friends, you know. And best friends, whether or not they are related to you, can be your family.

– Trenton Lee Stewart

Things do not change. We change.

– Henry David Thoreau

What you allow is what will continue.

So many of us are not living our lives because we are too busy living our fears.

Worry is a total waste of time. It doesn’t change anything. All it does is steal your joy and keep you very busy doing nothing.

Until you make the unconscious conscious it will rule your life and you will call it fate.

– Carl Jung

The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitudes.

-William James