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Sometimes, a single sentence can change the way you look at the world. It’s something you want to share with every person you meet, hoping they get the same kind of horizon-expanding, “I’ve never looked at it that way!” eureka moment. (Sadly, all too often you’ll be met with blank stares and a polite “that’s nice,” because that wasn’t the advice they needed at that moment. It was for you.) These quotes may not change your life, but in the off chance they get you thinking about the universe and your place in it in a fresh way, read on, friend.
“The greatest mistake we make in life is to try to control the things we have no control over and to relinquish control over the things we can affect and change.” — Erwin McManus, The Last Arrow
“Follow your curiosity. It might lead you to your passion or it might not. You might get nothing out of it at all except a beautiful, long life where all you did was follow your gorgeous curiosity. And that should be enough too.” — Liz Gilbert, speech during Oprah’s The Life You Want Tour
The root of so many misunderstandings:
“When we have limited information, we immediately start filling in the gaps to help us make sense of what’s going on.” — Brene Brown, Rising Strong
“We can choose to be perfect and admired, or real and loved. We must decide.” — Glennon Doyle, Love Warrior
“There are two paths in life: Should and Must. We arrive at this crossroads over and over again. And each time, we get to choose. … Should is how others want us to show up in the world — how we’re supposed to think, what we ought to say, what we should or shouldn’t do. It’s the vast array of expectations that others layer upon us. … Must is who we are, what we believe, and what we do when we are alone with our truest, most authentic self.” — Elle Luna, Medium essay (More on that here too.)
“Fear is like a leprosy that eats away at our souls, and it will lead us to build fortresses that look like security and safety. Fear convinces us that we have locked out the dangers that would befall us, all the while blinding us to the fact that it hasn’t locked the world out at all. Instead, fear has trapped us inside itself.” — Erwin McManus, The Last Arrow
“There are times when the actual experience of leaving something makes you wish desperately that you could stay, and then there are times when the leaving reminds you a hundred times over why exactly you had to leave in the first place.” — Shauna Niequist, Bittersweet
“Failures are how we grow, and they’re only problematic if they are not instructive.” — Adam Jeske, Relevant article