Wisdom of the Past: Life Changing Quotes

This is a list of quotes that I use to stay focused and inspired. I'd like this to be a collaborative project that we can all benefit from so bookmark this page and put any quotes that you'd like to add in the comments below. Together, we can harness the wisdom of the past to apply to the present, molding our future. 

“Because you are alive, everything is possible.”
Thích Nhất Hạnh, Living Buddha, Living Christ

“At first dreams seem impossible, then improbable, then inevitable.”
Christopher Reeve

"Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes."

Carl Jung

“Remembering 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

"Man cannot remake himself without suffering, for he is both the marble and the sculptor." 
Alexis Carrel

"Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever." 
Mahatma Gandhi

After all these years, I am still involved in the process of self-discovery. It's better to explore life and make mistakes than to play it safe. Mistakes are part of the dues one pays for a full life.
Sophia Loren

“Don’t ask yourself what the world needs, ask yourself what makes you come alive. And then go and do that. Because what the world needs is people who are alive.” 
Howard Thurman

“All our dreams can come true – if we have the courage to pursue them.”
Walt Disney

“Don’t be afraid of the space between your dreams and reality. If you can dream it, you can make it so.”
Belva Davis

“Make no small plans for they have no power to stir the soul.”
Niccolo Machiavelli

"We cannot all do great things, but we can do small things with great love."
Mother Teresa

"When you feel in your gut what you are and then dynamically pursue it - don't back down and don't give up - then you're going to mystify a lot of folks."
Bob Dylan

"If you're still looking for that one person who will change your life, take a look in the mirror."
Roman Price

“In a gentle way, you can shake the world.”
Mahatma Gandhi

“What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.”
Henry Stanley Haskins

“Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value.”
Albert Einstein

“Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, ‘I will try again tomorrow.'"
Mary Anne Radmacher

“The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Instead of thinking about what you are going to do when you retire, think about how you can do that now and make a living from it.”
Anonymous

“Build your own dreams, or someone else will hire you to build theirs.”
Farrah Gray

“Everything is always created twice, first in the mind and then in reality.”
Anonymous

“Every moment is a fresh beginning.”
T.S. Eliot

"A man is but the product of his thoughts what he thinks, he becomes."
Mahatma Gandhi

“Expose yourself to your deepest fear; after that, fear has no power, and the fear of freedom shrinks and vanishes. You are free.”
Jim Morrison

“There is only one way to avoid criticism: do nothing, say nothing, and be nothing.”
Aristotle

“You will not do incredible things without an incredible dream.”
John Eliot

“I am not my memories. I am my dreams.”
Terry Hostetler

“When another person makes you suffer, it is because he suffers deeply within himself, and his suffering is spilling over. He does not need punishment; he needs help. That's the message he is sending.”
Thích Nhất Hạnh

"He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it."
Martin Luther King, Jr.

"The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong."
Mahatma Gandhi

"You must be the change you wish to see in the world."
Mahatma Gandhi

"The power for creating a better future is contained in the present moment: You create a good future by creating a good present."
Eckhart Tolle

"The future depends on what we do in the present."
Mahatma Gandhi

"You can always cope with the present moment, but you cannot cope with something that is only a mind projection - you cannot cope with the future."
Eckhart Tolle 

“Life is available only in the present moment.”
Thích Nhất Hạnh

"Realize deeply that the present moment is all you ever have. Make the Now the primary focus of your life."
Eckhart Tolle

"Life will give you whatever experience is the most helpful for the evolution of your consciousness."
Eckhart Tolle

“Don’t be pushed by your problems; be led by your dreams.”
Anonymous

"Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony."
Mahatma Gandhi

“Your imagination is your preview of life’s coming attractions.”
Albert Einstein

"The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination."
Albert Einstein

"We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them."
Albert Einstein

"Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds."
Albert Einstein

“If you don’t design your own life plan, chances are you’ll fall into someone else’s plan. And guess what they have planned for you? Not much.”
Jim Rohn

“People with clear, written goals, accomplish far more in a shorter period of time than people without them could ever imagine.”
Anonymous

You cannot control what happens to you, but you can control your attitude toward what happens to you, and in that, you will be mastering change rather than allowing it to master you.
Sri Ram

“The greatest advantage of speaking the truth is that you don’t have to remember what you said.”
Anonymous

“Everything in the universe is within you. Ask all from yourself.”
Rumi

“One of the most tragic things I know about human nature is that all of us tend to put off living. We are all dreaming of some magical rose garden over the horizon-instead of enjoying the roses blooming outside our windows today.”
Dale Carnegie

Ideas can be life-changing. Sometimes all you need to open the door is just one more good idea.
Jim Rohn

"We meet ourselves time and again in a thousand disguises on the path of life."
Carl Jung

"I looked in temples, churches and mosques, but I found the divine in my heart."
Rumi

This is my simple religion. There is no need for temples; no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is kindness.
Dalai Lama

“A human being is a part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feeling as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.”
Albert Einstein

I hope you've enjoyed this list of life changing quotes. Be sure to put your favorite quotes in the comments below if they aren't listed here.

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