Life Quotes

I looked at my life and for the first time felt like I could hold it all. That I didn’t need to let go of anything in order to be whole. That even those things I’d been clinging to had a place in my freedom. That every single thing played its role.

~ Scott Stabile

It’s easy to rebuke each other’s opinions, but can we honor each other’s pain? Can we make the effort to see beyond the portraits we’ve painted of one another, and to connect to the humanity that thrives beneath our own assumptions? Can we be relentless in our desire to tear down walls, and to build bridges? Can we be brave and stay committed to the conversations that need to be had?The only thing I know about these questions is that I need to replace the we with I, and begin to answer them from there.One thing I know for sure: I want to become the example I wish to see in others. That's a good place to start.Another thing I know for sure: I love you. You're beautiful. You rock.

~ Scott Stabile

Aren’t you tired of shutting up? Aren’t you sick of choking down your truth?Aren’t you over nodding yes when you mean no?Then stop—shutting and choking and nodding.You have not come this far to stay silent.You have not endured so much to give up now.You have not awakened just to go back to sleep.Right now is the time to announce yourself. Who are you? What do we need to know?Only you make claim to who you are.Only you decide what’s right, and not, for you.Only you choose how you want to shine.You—only you—get to create your singular life.

~ Scott Stabile

Friends...we can paralyze ourselves with the need to have all the details in order, with the desire to know all of the hows, with the reasons why we're not quite ready, and whatever other story we tell ourselves to keep from diving into the changes/dreams/goals we know we need to go after in our lives. At some point, though, we have to dive in. You'll never have all the details worked out, and they'll change along the way. You'll never know all the hows, and you don't need to. Nobody does. There will always be reasons you're not ready enough, and always fears that will beg you not to do a thing. Sometimes the only way we can overcome all of these obstacles is by starting, wherever we are, with whatever we have to offer in the moment. Really, just begin.

~ Scott Stabile

We decide how much we want our past to be a part of our present.I stopped inviting the past into my life.It took the hint and stopped showing up.

~ Scott Stabile

Enjoy small moments as they come. At the end, That's what makes life worthwhile...

~ Nadun Lokuliyanage

Today, I choose not to take my life for granted. I choose not to look upon the fact that I am healthy, have food in my refrigerator and have clean water to drink as givens. They are not givens for so many people in our world. The fact that I am safe and (relatively) sane are not givens. That I was born into a family who loves me and into a country not ravaged by war are not givens. It is impossible to name all of the circumstances in my life I’ve taken for granted. All of the basic needs I’ve had met, all of the friendships and job opportunities and financial blessings and the list, truly, goes on and on. The fact that I am breathing is a miracle, one I too rarely stop to appreciate. I’m stopping, right now, to be grateful for everything I am and everything I’ve been given. I’m stopping, right now, to be grateful for every pleasure and every pain that has contributed to the me who sits here and writes these words. I am thankful for my life. This moment is a blessing. Each breath a gift. That I’ve been able to take so much for granted is a gift, too. But it’s not how I want to live—not when gratitude is an option, now when wonder and awe are choices. I choose gratitude. I choose wonder. I choose awe. I choose everything that suggest I’m opening myself to the miraculous reality of simply being alive for one moment more.

~ Scott Stabile

Don’t ever lose your smile. Don’t ever let anything take away the joy from your laugh. You never know when the taste of laughter on the tongue or the scent of happiness in the air might save one’s life.

~ Emory R. Frie

I’m super fucking sensitive. I love this about myself only slightly more than I can’t stand it. Sometimes I wish I were an unfeeling stone who didn’t take everything so personally and didn’t need so much space all the time. Feeling can get exhausting fast. Mostly, though, I know my sensitivity is a superpower, perhaps my greatest, and it’s the thing that keeps me loving our world in a profound way, when I’m not too busy hiding from it, that is.

~ Scott Stabile

Living life without a goal is like sailing the sea without a compass.

~ Auliq Ice

Be free, my friend.Cry, scream, rage, collapse.Your pain is not too much for us.And though it’s hard to believe right now,your pain is not too much for you, either.Fall apart into a thousand frightened pieces,question everything you’ve always trusted,grieve however you need to grieve.We’ll still be here. So will you.Yes, you will survive this.Changed but stronger.Wounded but alive.Seen, and loved. So very loved.

~ Scott Stabile

Everywhere I look I see people doing their best to make sense of this overwhelming reality, and to be kind, authentic human beings despite the many invitations we all receive to be phony, unkind assholes. Sometimes their best doesn’t look like much to me, and I remind myself that my best doesn’t look like much a lot of the time, too. I empathize. We’re all human, and we’re all struggling. Every single one of us, every single day. It’s not my job to police the paths of others, not when it takes so much effort to light my own.

~ Scott Stabile

I can’t tell you anything about yourself you don’t already know…WAIT…unless you don’t know you’re an incredibly freaking amazing person with boundless gifts to share…then I can tell you that.

~ Scott Stabile

Well, I don't want to be anyone but myself, even if I go uncomforted by diamonds all my life,' declared Anne. 'I'm quite content to be Anne of Green Gables, with my string of pearl beads.

~ L.m. Montgomery

Grow your courage by remembering each day is a gift.

~ Auliq Ice

If you can’t forget about all the great pains you’ve endured, as many of us can’t, at least take some time to celebrate the fact that you’ve somehow kept going, in spite of it all. And you’ve certainly kept growing, because of it all.

~ Scott Stabile

and then there was that time you sucked down your fear, breathed into it, faced it with a courage that moves mountains, and you stepped right into that thing, that situation, that experience moments and forever before had crippled and controlled you, and had you believing you could never rise up to meet it. but you did, because you could. and you will again, because you can. yes, you can.

~ Scott Stabile

A wise man is one who creates a harmony between head, heart, and body. In this harmony one comes to the revelation of the source of one’s life, the very center, the soul. And that is the greatest ecstasy possible – not only to human beings but in this whole universe, nothing more is possible. It is already too much.

~ Osho

That’s not our role here, provide our parents with a “success story” to share at gatherings. Our role here is to contribute the best we can to the society. Use our talents and make sure we add the greatest value possible to other people’s lives.

~ Lukasz Laniecki

An approach, according to which children should fulfil their parents’ dreams/ do everything in order to make their parents happy/ provide their parents with a peace of mind, or whatever they want for themselves - because they owe it to them for all those years in which their parents took care of them - is utterly selfish.

~ Lukasz Laniecki

...they're here for a moment and then gone. At best they have liftoff power, or, to use a different analogy, they are like periodic flashes of lightning on a dark road, with no guiding power.

~ Ravi Zacharias

Longfellow smiled. A great part of the happiness of life consists not in fighting battles, my dear Lowell, but in avoiding them. A masterly retreat is in itself a victory.

~ Matthew Pearl

Whoever said that money didn't buy happiness was a damn fool. A damn fool who'd never been poor.

~ Tom Cooper

Parents were good to us, gave us a lot, took care for us when we couldn’t have taken care for ourselves, wanted the best for us, continue to care about us and our future, but none of it is good enough a reason to fulfil their dreams/ do everything in order to make them happy/ provide them with a peace of mind, or whatever they want for themselves.

~ Lukasz Laniecki

We grow up in a belief system according to which children should always make their parents proud and happy (instead of making themselves proud and happy) - and that’s unfortunately the belief system in most cultures.

~ Lukasz Laniecki

People have a much greater chance of finding something they’ll enjoy doing and making those greatest contributions when they trust themselves and are free to make their own life choices (are not marionettes in the hands of their parents).

~ Lukasz Laniecki

It’s a mistake to believe that they (parents) are responsible for their children’s best future. This responsibility is on their children, and that’s the message they should be conveying to their children on a daily basis.

~ Lukasz Laniecki

The worldly life means a market place of sensual pleasures. Worldly life means false (temporary) happiness all the time. And moksha (liberation) means permanent happiness all the time.

~ Dada Bhagwan

Pushing them (children) into a career that is “practical”/ “safe”/ prestigious/ well-paying doesn’t count as help. It’s how parents satisfy their own needs.

~ Lukasz Laniecki

The time to build your future is in your teenage years and your 20s, but equally, in your 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s and beyond.

~ Lukasz Laniecki

You don’t need to provide your parents with a “success story” to share at gatherings.

~ Lukasz Laniecki

...Realization is born from error...

~ Janvier Chouteu-Chando

…the purpose of life is to nurture joy, which involves those aspects of humanity that enrich the soul.

~ Janvier Chouteu-Chando

...Past joys and achievements give us the outlines of how to get to a state of happiness again. That memory is a treasure that can never be taken away. At least we know where we were, what we have lost, what we miss and what more to add to our experiences.

~ Janvier Chouteu-Chando

… a person who tries to use reasoning to explain faith gets lost in the wilderness of incomprehension.

~ Janvier Chouteu-Chando

...Hope is a ridiculous failing that we need to harbour in order to lead a serene life…

~ Janvier Chouteu-Chando

...No reformer is worthy of the name if he fails to be the ultimate pacesetter in his own reform drive...

~ Janvier Chouteu-Chando

...The people’s hero does not only have to be someone in possession of the scepter of power. It can be anyone capable of giving unity, prosperity, security, peace and a sense of worthiness to his people. Such a figure gets elevated to the status of a revered hero with the human touch if he imparts a sense of oneness on a multi-racial, multi-ethnic and multi-religious group; especially a diverse people who have been fighting one another for years and centuries...

~ Janvier Chouteu-Chando

...An ethnically heterogeneous society without a unifying hero is bound to be torn apart by internal strife. Only a man capable of bringing about a workable consensus between the diverse people is truly a hero. Such a man has to be a true disciple of peace, unity, solidarity and justice.

~ Janvier Chouteu-Chando

...There is no greater dividing force in this world than self-interest....

~ Janvier Chouteu-Chando