I love quotes. So much so that I have a notebook full of my favorite quotes. Whenever I read one that strikes a particular chord I make sure to write it down – If I don’t have my notebook, I’ll take a picture of it or write it down in the Notes section of my iPhone. Quotes that stand the test of time always impress me. The amount of incredbly profound, insightful and witty quotes that came from people like Winston Churchill, Abraham Lincoln, or Maya Angelou is amazing.
“The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and live without fear for richer and newer experience.”
Eleanor Roosevelt
“Nothing is either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.”
William Shakespeare
“Live isn’t meant to be lived perfectly… but merely to be LIVED. Boldly, wildly, beautifully, uncertainly, imperfectly, magically, LIVED.”
Mandy Hale
“You’re getting exactly what you’re feeling about, not so much what you’re thinking about.”
Bob Doyle
“If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude.”
Maya Angelou
“All our life, so far as it has definite form, is but a mass of habits”
William James
“Decide what your want and act as if it were impossible to fail.”
Brian Tracy
“Success consists of going from failure to failure without the loss of enthusiasm”
Winston Churchill
“A person’s success in life can be measured by the number of uncomfortable conversations he or she is willing to have.”
Tim Ferriss
“People rarely change, but all too often become ‘more so’ of a quality they always possessed but never expressed.”
Unkown
“Be less, do more.”
Unknown
“What your are thinking about, you are becoming.”
Muhammad Ali
“When I do good, I feel good. When I do bad, I feel bad. That’s my religion.”
Abraham Lincoln
“Everything you can imagine is real.”
Pablo Picasso
And finally, a great piece of advice for anyone trying out something new. I read a great book called Linchpin by Seth Godin where he explains the concept of differentiating yourself to stand out. Don’t just be another cog – you have to be unique and a bit crazy in order to be recognized and ultimately have success. Here’s his quote about singing which I’ve actually taken to heart as I’ve tried to learn to sing better, but it applies to anything you take on in life:
“If you’re going to all the trouble of learning a song and performing it, then SING IT. Sing it LOUD and WITH FEELIG and like you mean it. DELIVER IT.” – Seth Godin
-KB