"Start by doing what's necessary; then do what's possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible." - Francis of Assisi

"You will never be free until you free yourself from the prison of your own false thoughts." - Philip Arnold

"All roads that lead to success have to pass through hard work boulevard at some point." - Anon

"Don't quit. You're already in pain. You're already hurt. Get a reward from it." - Anon

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." ― H. Jackson Brown Jr

"Follow the fire in your heart. Your passion is your purpose." - Anon

"Sometimes you find exactly what you were looking for before you even realized you were looking for it. Stay open. Stay positive. Things can change overnight." - Doe Zantamata

"You will never reach your destination if you stop and throw stones at every dog that barks." - Winston Churchill

"Don't be concerned about reaching your destination. Enjoy the journey and the destination will take care of itself." Jenny Marie

"The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty." ― Winston Churchill

"Don't waste your beautiful life on wallowing in sadness. Take control of your life and make it extraordinary!" - Anon

"Forgiveness is giving up all hope of having had a better past." - Anne Lamott

"Sometimes you have to step outside the person you've been and remember the person you were meant to be. The person you want to be. The person you are." - H.G. Wells

"Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life." - Steve Jobs

"Magic is believing in yourself. If you can do that, you can make anything happen." - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

"No one has traveled the bridge of success without ever crossing the streets of failure." - Anon

"Never give up. When your heart becomes tired, just walk with your legs, but move on." - Paul Coelho

"Stop waiting for things to happen. Go out and make them happen." - Anon

"Worry often gives a small thing a big shadow." - Anon (Swedish proverb)

"We all have two lives. The second one starts when we realize that we only have one." ― Tom Hiddleston

"There is always a way." - Anon

"The only thing that matters in life is your own opinion about yourself, your own respect for yourself. Nobody can destroy your dignity then." - Anon

"By being yourself, you put something in the world that was not there before." - Anon

"If it is important to you, you will find a way. If not, you'll find an excuse." ― Ain Eineziz

"You always have a choice." ― Michelle Hodkin

"Life has many chapters; one bad chapter doesn't mean it's the end of the book." ― Edenia Archuleta

"The past cannot be changed, forgotten, edited, or erased. It can only be accepted." - Anon

"In the end, people will judge you anyway. So don't live your life impressing others. Live your life impressing yourself." - Anon

"F-E-A-R has two meanings: 'Forget Everything And Run' or 'Face Everything And Rise'. The choice is yours." - Zig Ziglar

"Lost time is never found again." ― Benjamin Franklin

"To believe in something and not live it is dishonest." - Mahatma Ghandi

"You may have made some mistakes and you may not be where you want to be, but that's got nothing to do with your future." - Zig Ziglar

"The imagination is not a state: it is the human existence itself." - William Blake

"Embrace the struggle and let it make you stronger. It won't last forever." - Tony Gaskins

"Until you are broken, you don't know what you are made of." ― Ziad K. Abdelnour

"If you have a dream, give it a chance to happen." - Richard M. Devos

"The best preparation for tomorrow is doing your best today." - H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

"To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance." - Oscar Wilde

"You can't do a good job if your job is all you do." - Jenna Walker, co-founder, Artifact Uprising

"My experience has taught me that all of us have a reservoir of untapped strength that comes to the fore at moments of crisis." - Gerda Weissmann Klein

"A negative mind will never give you a positive life." - Ziad K. Abdelnour

"That which you believe becomes your world." — Richard Matheson

"Healing doesn't mean the damage never existed. It means the damage no longer controls our lives." - Akshay Dubey

"Maybe it's not always about trying to fix something broken. Maybe it's about starting over and creating something better." - Anon

"What you feel is what you get." - Anon

"Attract what you expect, reflect what you desire, become what you respect, mirror what you admire." - Anon

"Courage starts with showing up and letting ourselves be seen." - Brene Brown

"It's not what you do, it's how you do it. It's not what you see, it's how you look at it. It's not how your life is, it's how you live it." - Anon

"One small crack doesn't mean that you are broken. It means that you were put to the test and you didn't fall apart." - Linda Poindexter

"Every excuse is a choice to fail." - Anon

"I've never met a strong person with an easy past." - Anon

"A mistake should be your teacher, not your attacker. A mistake is a lesson, not a loss. It is a temporary necessary detour, not a dead end." - Anon

"The soul always knows what to do to heal itself. The challenge is to silence the mind." - Caroline Myss

"Sometimes we have to let go in order for something truly amazing to happen." - Anon

"Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart." — Steve Jobs

"When you feel like quitting, think about why you started." - Anon

"Kindness has a beautiful way of reaching down into a weary heart and making it shine like the rising sun." - Anon

"You can lie to the world, but you can't lie to yourself." - Anon

"Confidence is something you create within yourself by believing in who you are." - Anon

"If you are always trying to be normal, you will never know how amazing you can be." - Maya Angelou

"Don't stress about closed doors behind you. New doors are opening if you keep moving forward." - Anon

"We do not believe in ourselves until someone reveals that deep inside us something is valuable, worth listening to, worthy of our trust, sacred to our touch. Once we believe in ourselves we can risk curiosity, wonder, spontaneous delight or any experience that reveals the human spirit." ― E.E. Cummings

"Almost every successful person begins with two beliefs; the future can be better than the present, and I have the power to make it so." ― David Brooks

Here are two that have been getting me lately...

"If you've got a today, you don't wear it tomorrow." -Janis Joplin  Ball and Chain (Live)

This next song almost made me fall off my bike yesterday on the way home from work.

I find it hard to believe that you don't know
The beauty that you are
But if you don't, let me be your eyes
A hand in your darkness, so you won't be afraid

When you think the night has seen your mind
That inside you're twisted and unkind
Let me stand to show that you are blind
Please put down your hands
'Cause I see you

I'll be your mirror

-The Velvet Underground and Nico

Also...

"When you look in the mirror do you see yourself?" -Polly Styrene of the X Ray Specs in the song Identity

Thank you, Kellam! I find these daily or nearly daily help keep me focused forward, aware that all of us have challenges to face, and that we all can choose to persevere or give up. The Janis Joplin quote is succinct but powerful. And the song is beautiful.

Again, thank you.


"Trust the vibes you get, energy doesn't lie." - Anon

"You can't live a positive life with a negative mind." - Anon

"In the end, we only regret the chances we didn't take." ― Lewis Carroll

"Sometimes you have to stop thinking so much and just go where your heart takes you." - Anon

"I have come to accept the bumpy roads of life; they seem to lead to the best places." - Steve Maraboli

"Knowing is not enough, we must apply. Willing is not enough, we must do." - Bruce Lee

Thank you LizMarie, for this thread. I spent a good chunk of time reading through it yesterday. Laughing and crying!

These are all posted to my Facebook and Google+ feeds as well, but with associated graphics. Most of the time I am just sharing someone else's share but rarely I combine a graphic and quote myself when I can't find one I like. The goal is always to uplift, make us smile, make us believe that we can, and help us each move forward each day. The last few years for me have taken me from the depths of despair and "I can't" to a new happiness and "Yes I can! Watch me!" as I've changed. If I can help just a few of our family here at Susans to grasp that optimism and drive for the future, then I will have succeeded.

Please feel free to add whenever you want. I never intended this to be just my thread but rather a collection of what quotes, ideas, lyrics, poetry each of us have encountered that helps lift us up each day.

"Be who you want to be, not who you are labeled." - Anon

"He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life." - Muhammad Ali

"Be confident in who you are. You aren't a one in a million kind of person. You are once in a lifetime." - Anon

"Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving." ― Albert Einstein

"To move the world we must move ourselves." - Socrates

"You must always be yourself, no matter what the price. It is the highest form of morality." -Candy Darling

Some people think little girls should be seen and not heard, but I think...oh bondage, up yours! - Polly Styrene