“Sometimes we all need to be reminded the best parts of life wouldn’t be as sweet without intermittent struggle. The key to survival is learning to laugh at the universe’s inherent chaos.” ~ John Haltiwanger, Elite Daily
“When it comes to love, you should be your own best friend before you try to be someone else’s one and only. You should always know yourself the best before getting to know someone else.” ~ Gigi Engle, Elite Daily
“Finding the right person for you is finding another soul that can jive along with yours. It doesn’t have to be a flawless love; it just has to be the right love.” ~ Gigi Engle, Elite Daily
“The person who is perfect for you is far from perfect. That’s the way it should be. You can’t have a healthy, robust relationship with someone who has never tasted life. You can’t have a lasting love without having a past that has shaped you. You can’t handle a person who is so vacuous he came out of life unscathed. In the end, we’re all just trying to find someone as f*cked up as we are.” ~ Gigi Engle, Elite Daily
“Despite what you may think, there’s nothing wrong with being messed up. The person who is messed up is actually the best person you can date. This person’s baggage and experience is what makes him or her beautiful. He or she can still function in society despite having seen what life is about and how ugly things can get.” ~ Gigi Engle, Elite Daily
“Happiness is only real when shared.” ~ Chris McCandless, Into the Wild
“I have lived through much, and now I think I have found what is needed for happiness. A quiet secluded life in the country, with the possibility of being useful to people to whom it is easy to do good, and who are not accustomed to have it done to them; then work which one hopes may be of some use; then rest, nature, books, music, love for one’s neighbor – such is my idea of happiness. And then, on top of all that, you for a mate, and children, perhaps – what more can the heart of a man desire?” ~ Leo Tolstoy, Into the Wild
“You are at the source of being fat, sick, tired, broke, angry, depressed, and lonely. Stop blaming your boss, family, neighbor, lover, government, society, or God. You are the one at the scene of the crime every time something goes wrong in your life. Stop looking for a fall guy, a scapegoat, or an innocent bystander to pin your problems on. Until you take ownership for your life, you will always be chasing happiness.” ~ Sean Stephenson, Get Off Your “But”
“Just as a goldfish swimming in a tank of diseased water inevitably becomes sick, a human hanging out in a toxic peer group eventually becomes toxic. When you place yourself in an environment, you eventually become the environment. It’s inevitable.” ~ Sean Stephenson, Get Off Your “But“
“Fairness is an illusion. Fairness never existed and never will. No one in life gets less or more than anyone else. We just get different stuff. That’s right. No one is dealt a bad or a good hand in life; we’re just dealt cards. It’s up to us to stay in the game and play. Sure, some cards look ‘better,’ but they’re really not. If you look closely, you’ll see that anything you feel has been taken from you – or never given to you at all – was replaced with other amazing opportunities and gifts. It’s up to you to find them.” ~ Sean Stephenson, Get Off Your “But”
“In my years of traveling the world, I’ve heard hundreds of tear-filled stories. I’ve hugged complete strangers as they’ve sobbed in my arms. I always whisper the same thing to them: ‘Look for the gift in your pain.’ If you look for that gift, believe me, you will find it. If you don’t look, it’s all too easy to become enslaved by your misery.” ~ Sean Stephenson, Get Off Your “But”
“It’s silly to worry about what others might be saying and thinking about you. Whatever they’re saying, it’s not really about you – it’s about them. In fact, what people say or think about you is a direct reflection of what they may be feeling about themselves. Don’t even think about it. If you want something to concentrate on, concentrate on treating yourself with more respect.”
Sean Stephenson, Get Off Your “But”
“It’s no coincidence that good words make us feel good and that hurtful or angry words make us feel bad. There is a 100 percent correlation between the words we choose and how we feel.” ~ Sean Stephenson, Get Off Your “But”
“I truly believe that our major social ills would disappear if we just spent our lives perfecting the art of connecting with each other.” ~ Sean Stephenson, Get Off Your “But”
“Communication is merely an exchange of information, but connection is an exchange of our humanity.” ~ Sean Stephenson, Get Off Your “But”
“He who devotes himself to service with a clear conscience, will day by day grasp the necessity for it in greater measure, and will continually grow richer in faith… If we cultivate the habit of doing this service deliberately, our desire for service will steadily grow stronger, and will make not only for our own happiness but that of the world at large.” ~ Mahatma Gandhi
“[Ludwig van] Beethoven came to see that complete surrender to his situation in life – to his deafness, to his various neuroses – was absolutely essential for his own spiritual development and for the development of his art. He accepted the apparent mystery that his art and his suffering were inextricably linked.”
Stephen Cope, The Great Work Of Your Life
“Blessed is the man who, having subdued all his passions, performeth with his active faculties all the functions of life, unconcerned about the event… Be not one whose motive for action is the hope of reward. Perform thy duty, abandon all thought of the consequence, and make the event equal, whether it terminate in good or evil; for such an equality is called yoga.” ~ Bhagavad Gita
“When you first start to study a field, it seems like you have to memorize a zillion things. You don’t. What you need is to identify the core principles – generally three to twelve of them – that govern the field. The million things you thought you had to memorize are simply various combinations of the core principles.” ~ John T. Reed, James Clear Blog
“Gratitude isn’t just a feeling, it’s an action. Expressing gratitude by writing in a journal, taking a photo, or shooting a video creates a lasting impression that can bring more gratitude into the world—for children and adults.” ~ Janice Kaplan, Greater Good in Action