75 Things to Remember When Life Gets Tough

For some reason the past few weeks have been filled with heartache for several of my friends. All unrelated, but each one no more or less difficult for those involved.

Inspirational Quotes

While offering a patient and un-judging ear, I remembered that when I was younger, I used to collect quotes and sayings that I enjoyed in a journal. I dug up that journal and found some more tonight to create this list for you. I hope you find a few to keep in the back of your mind the next time you or someone you care about needs it. My personal favorites are at the top of this list.

I have given credit when known. Please let me know if you can assist with any that remain uncredited.

1. Take the thing you love and make it your life.
2. We must let go of the life we had planned so as to have the life that is waiting for us. Joseph Campbell
3. Sometimes good things fall apart so better things can fall together.
4. If you want to test your memory, try to recall what you were worrying about one year ago today. E. Joseph Cossman
5. 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. Mark Twain
6. In the end, it’s not going to matter how many breaths you took, but how many moments took your breath away. Shing Xiong
7. The uglier the truth, the truer the friend that tells it.
8. If you’re going through hell, keep going. Winston Churchill
9. Do or Do Not. There is no Try. Yoda
10. Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted. Albert Einstein
11. If you’re not gonna go all the way, why go at all? Joe Namath
12. You must be the change you want to see in the world.  M.K. Gandhi
13. All our dreams can come true – if we have the courage to pursue them. Walt Disney
14. Be smart enough to hold on, be brave enough to let go.
15. It is never too late to be what you might have been. George Eliot
16. If opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door. Milton Berle
17. What you do speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what you say. Ralph Waldo Emerson
18. People who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do. Apple Computers
19. If you cannot do great things, do small things in a great way. Napoleon Hill
20. You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take. Wayne Gretzky
21. Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things. Robert Brault
22. The only way to have a friend is to be one. Ralph Waldo Emerson
23. We do not remember days, we remember moments.
24. Bad decisions make great stories.
25. Laugh as much as you breathe and love as much as you live.
26. Dance the dance you dance. Don’t dance the dance people who dance dance.
27. Learn from yesterday and live for today.
28. Collect moments, not things.
29. The best dreams happen when you are awake.
30. Sometimes the wrong choices lead us to the right places.
31. Some days you’re the bug. Some days you’re the windshield.
32. Fall down 7 times, stand up 8.
33. When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves. Viktor Frankl
34. No one can cheat you out of ultimate success but yourself. Ralph Waldo Emerson
35. Life isn’t about finding yourself, it’s about creating yourself. George Bernard Shaw
36. Happiness is a journey, not a destination.
37. The best way to predict the future is to create it.  Abraham Lincoln
38. When you stop chasing the wrong things you give the right things a chance to catch you.
39. The reason people find it so hard to be happy is that they always see the past better than it was, the present worse than it is, and the future less resolved than it will be. Marcel Pagnol
40. Never let success get to your head, and never let failure get to your heart.
41. I haven’t failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work. Thomas Edison
42. The difference between ordinary and extraordinary is that little extra. Jimmy Johnson
43. Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass, it’s about learning to dance in the rain.
44. A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Lao Tzu
45. Grudges are a waste of perfect happiness.  Let it go.
46. Every man dies. Not every man really lives. William Ross Wallace
47. Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it.
48. There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle. Albert Einstein
49. Spend more time with those who make you smile and less time with those who you feel pressured to impress.
50. It’s less distracting to chase a dream than to chase the competition. Besides, wouldn’t you rather reach your dream than reach your competition?
51. Not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of good luck.
52. You cannot solve a problem with the same mind that created it. Albert Einstein
53. Happiness always sneaks in a door you did not think was open.
54. The best revenge is happiness, because nothing drives your adversaries more insane than seeing you smile.
55. Whatever you do, you should do it with feeling. Yogi Berra
56. Being happy doesn’t mean that everything is perfect. It means that you’ve decided to look beyond the imperfections.
57. If a person wants to be a part of your life, they will make an obvious effort to do so. Don’t bother reserving a space in your heart for people who do not make an effort to stay.
58. Be helpful. When you see a person without a smile, give them yours. Zig Ziglar
59. What lies before us and behind us are tiny matters when compared to what lies within us.
60. Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life. Confucius
61. Forgiving yourself is far more important than getting others to forgive you.
62. If you cannot get rid of the family skeleton, you may as well make it dance. George Bernard Shaw
63. No matter what, no matter how, where or who – you can almost always turn around and get a second chance.
64. If you spend 80% of your time focusing on the problem and only 20% on the solution, what do you think is going to happen?
65. When one door closes, another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us. Alexander Graham Bell
66. Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail. Ralph Waldo Emerson
67. Stop thinking of what could go wrong, and start thinking of what could go right.
68. If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito. The Dalai Lama
69. Every accomplishment starts with the decision to try.
70. I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel. Maya Angelou
71. Not all those who wander are lost.
72. You don’t take a photograph, you make it.
73. Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.
74. 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
75. You never regret being kind. Nicole Shepherd