Eleven Quotes that will Actually Change your Life for the Slightly Better:

Or, as Buzzfeed would put it, THE ELEVEN MOST POWERFUL SENTENCES THAT WILL CHANGE THE WAY YOU LOOK AT LIFE FOREVER…

 

Quotes are, too often, used like monkey-mind-enabling dopamine hits. But to gain wisdom, to grow up…we actually have to slow down (if we’re speedy) or wake up (if we’re out of it).

So please take these quotes in the spirit of contemplation. Turn them over in your hands, feeling their texture, applying their lesson to your life.

Enjoy:

“Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is who you really are, while your reputation is merely what people think you are.” ~ John Wooden

“We would worry less about what others think of us if we realized how seldom they do.” ~ Ethel Barrett

“In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: it goes on.” ~ Robert Frost.

Or, “This too shall pass.” ~ Abraham Lincoln

“With guns you can kill terrorists; with education you can kill terrorism.” ~ Malala Yousafzai

“All that you are is the result of all that you have thought.” ~ maybe the Buddha

That’s not a good thing, even if you’ve thought good things (winky smiley emoticon). Because our fundamental nature is intrinsically open, decent, and awake, we can relax all thoughts. So, meditate, and be present, and wake up from our preconceptions to full, vivid, magical, ordinary, wonderful life and it’s full, compassionate potential.

Bonus, a relephant Buddha quote:

“The thought manifests as the word. The word manifests as the deed. The deed develops into habit. And the habit hardens into character. So watch the thought and its ways with care. And let it spring from love born out of concern for all beings.”

“The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt.” ~ Bertrand Russell

We always think it’ll happen to someone else. But: “We’re all someone else to someone else.” ~ Calvin & Hobbes

“You’re not stuck in traffic, you are the traffic.”

“Right now, you are both the youngest you’ll ever be again and the oldest you’ve ever been.”

“You have no friends. You have no enemies. You only have teachers.”

“If you are depressed you are living in the past. If you are anxious you are living in the future. If you are at peace you are living in the present.” ~ Lao Tzu

“Never attribute a person’s level of intelligence to the amount of money in their paycheck.”

“You’re a ghost driving a meat-coated skeleton made from stardust.”

“When fascism comes to America [etc], it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross.”

“The reason we struggle with insecurity is because we compare our behind-the-scenes with everyone else’s highlight reel.”

“Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.” ~ Ian MacLaren (widely misattributed to Plato)

“Be the Change you wish to see in the World.” ~ (Not) Gandhi

And, finally, the most re-readable poem ever:

If you can fill the unforgiving minute

With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,

Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,

And – which is more – you’ll be a Man, my son!

‘If’ by Rudyard Kipling.

Full Poem.

And, finally-finally, “Don’t worry about numbers in top 10 lists.”

Or, “Don’t look for answers to life online, leave your computer and explore the world to solve life’s mysteries.”

May it be of benefit!

Relephant reads:

10 Life Quotes from Dr. Seuss.

10 Super Awesome, Totally Hit-the-Mark Quotes About Gratitude.

The Dalai Lama has a Message for You. {13 Quotes to Steer your Life by}