Great quotes can inspire us, motivate us, and give us that extra dose of 'boost' we need. It's time to put the past behind and look forward to the future with renewed vitality.
The below is a collection of my favourite quotes that have impacted me deeply over the past few years. I hope these quotes inspire and challenge you as well.
1. "Great people talk about new ideas, average people talk about their achievements, and small people talk about faults in others." - Anonymous
2. "Reputation is what men and women think of us; character is what God and angels know of us." - Thomas Paine
3. "Lots of people want to ride with you in the limo, but what you want is someone who will take the bus when the limo breaks down." - Oprah Winfrey
4. "A mediocre person tells. A good person explains. A superior person demonstrates. A great person inspires others to see for themselves." - Harvey Mackay
5. "Change is the law of life. Those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future." - John F. Kennedy
6. "Worrying does not empty tomorrow of its troubles, it empties today of its strength." - Corrie ten Boom
7. "Whether you prevail or fail depends more on what you do to yourself than on what the world does to you." - Jim Collins
8. "Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value. There are only two ways to live life: one is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is." - Albert Einstein
9. "Every problem has in it the seeds of its own solution. If you don't have any problems, you don't get any seeds." - Norman Vincent Peale
10. "We don't see the things the way they are. We see things the way we are." - Talmud
11. "If I had six hours to chop down a tree, I'd spend the first four hours sharpening the axe." - Abraham Lincoln
12. "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever does." - Margaret Mead
13. "Besides the noble art of getting things done, there is the noble art of leaving things undone. The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of non-essentials." - Lin Yutang
14. "When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace." - Jimi Hendrix
15. "At the heart of racism is the religious assertion that God made a mistake when He brought some people into being." - Friedrich Otto Hertz
16. "Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves or we know where to find information on it." - Samuel Johnson
17. "The biggest difficulty with mankind today is that our knowledge has increased so much faster than our wisdom." - Frank Whitmore
18. "Wise men speak because they have something to say, fools because they have to say something." - Plato
19. "There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it." - Edith Wharton
20. "I make the most of all that comes and the least of all that goes." - Sara Teasdale
21. "Life is like a library owned by the author. In it are a few books which he wrote himself, but most of them were already written for him." - Harry Emerson Fosdick
22. "Once the game of chess is over, the king and the pawn go back in the same box." - Italian Proverb
23. "Action springs not from thought, but from a readiness for responsibility." -Dietrich Bonheoffer
24. "The time is always right to do what is right." - Martin Luther King Jr.
25. "In our timidity and our shoddy opportunism we are always stirred when a man appears on the horizon willing to stake his all on a conviction." -Clyde Kilby
26. "The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart." - Helen Keller
27. "The visionary who is serving God ceases to live for personal ambitions, but rather for God's ambitions." - George Barna
28. "I used to pray that God would feed the hungry, or do this or that, but now I pray that he will guide me to do whatever I'm supposed to do, what I can do. I used to pray for answers, but now I'm praying for strength. I used to believe that prayer changes things, but now I know that prayer changes us and we change things." - Mother Teresa
In closing…
A purpose is different from a goal. It does not have a definite beginning or an end; it is the meaning of the journey, not the destination in itself. Purpose is bigger than any achievement or success; because it is about our calling. Living with purpose is the only way to really live.
King Solomon observed that nothing is truly new under the sun and there are only endless repackagings in this world (Ecclesiastes 1 verse 9). Yet I noticed that every caterpillar is born with the potential to become a brand new creation during its lifetime - a beautiful butterfly flying in a new world with hope and purpose. Are you one of those beautiful butterflies?
Daniel Jang is a Wellington-based consultant, writer and theology student at Laidlaw College.
Daniel Jang's previous articles may be viewed at www.pressserviceinternational.org/daniel-jang.html