Quotes that influenced you

[Yuki-Anne]

So, what quotes have you heard lately (or still remember from years and years ago) that have really changed the way you look at things or helped you in some way?

Here's one of mine:

"Discipline is remembering what you want."
-David Campbell


What are yours?

[Ante Bellum]

"Just shut up!"

Words to live by, yes.

[Yamamaya]

"Beneath this mask there is more than flesh, beneath this mask there is an idea, and ideas are bulletproof"-V from V for Vendetta

[Okami]

"Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail." ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

This was my graduation quote. And it pretty much fits into my life perfectly.

[Furen]

"If you cared for someone enough to like them, if it doesn't work out don't hate them, I am still close friends with every one of the people I went out with" Brett Ullman (I may have spelled the name wrong)

[Roy Mustang]

"Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it."

"As selfishness and complaint pervert the mind, so love with its joy clears and sharpens the vision."

"Faith is the strength by which a shattered world shall emerge into the light."

"No pessimist ever discovered the secret of the stars or sailed an uncharted land, or opened a new doorway for the human spirit."

“When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us.â€

[Atria35]

“Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.” Martin Luther King, Jr.

"Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." Benjamin Franklin

“Every human has four endowments- self awareness, conscience, independent will and creative imagination. These give us the ultimate human freedom... The power to choose, to respond, to change.” Stephen R. Covey

“Bad politicians are sent to Washington by good people who don't vote.” William E. Simon

“In most places in the country, voting is looked upon as a right and a duty, but in Chicago it's a sport.” Dick Gregory

[Beau Soir]

Apart from many Bible verses...


"Love all, trust few, do wrong to no one." -William Shakespeare

"Justice and love will always win!" -Dwarven Vow #7 (Tales of Symphonia)

“For every beauty there is an eye somewhere to see it. For every truth there is an ear somewhere to hear it. For every love there is a heart somewhere to receive it.” -Ivan Panin

"Everyone does relationships wrong until they know how to do them right." -my father

"If the stars should appear but one night every thousand years how man would marvel and stare." -Ralph Waldo Emerson

[KagayakiWashi]

Check out my signature. Taught me to really listen to music, not just hear it.

[Mr. SmartyPants]

I'll give a long list... haha. Copypasted from my facebook.

"Here is my secret. It is very simple: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."
-The Fox

"What makes the desert beautiful," says the little prince, "is that somewhere it hides a well."
-The Little Prince

"Where there is ruin, there is hope for treasure."
-Rumi

..."Our job is to love others without stopping to inquire whether or not they are worthy. That is not our business and, in fact, it is nobody's business. What we are asked to do is to love, and this love itself will render both ourselves and our neighbors worthy if anything can."
-Thomas Merton

"To say that I am made in the image of God is to say that love is the reason for my existence, for God is love. Love is my true identity. Selflessness is my true self. Love is my true character. Love is my name."
-Thomas Merton

"Do not depend on the hope of results. You may have to face the fact that your work will be apparently worthless and even achieve no result at all, if not perhaps results opposite to what you expect. As you get used to this idea, you start more and more to concentrate not on the results, but on the value, the rightness, the truth of the work itself. You gradually struggle less and less for an idea and more and more for specific people. In the end, it is the reality of personal relationship that saves everything."
-Thomas Merton

"People are like stained-glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in their true beauty is revealed only if there is light from within."
-Elisabeth Kübler-Ross

"The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths. These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity, and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, and a deep loving concern. Beautiful people do not just happen."
-Elisabeth Kübler-Ross

“Christian hope does not promise successful days to the rich and the strong, but resurrection and life to those who must exist in the shadows of death."
-Jurgen Moltmann

"It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets."
-Voltaire

"The things you own end up owning you."
-Chuck Palahniuk: Fight Club

"If I am capable of grasping God objectively, I do not believe, but precisely because I cannot do this I must believe. If I wish to preserve myself in faith I must constantly be intent upon holding fast the objective uncertainty, so as to remain out upon the deep, over seventy fathoms of water still preserving my faith."
-Søren Kierkegaard

"When one has once fully entered the realm of love, the world — no matter how imperfect — becomes rich and beautiful, it consists solely of opportunities for love."
-Søren Kierkegaard

"Seek first God's Kingdom, that is, become like the lilies and the birds, become perfectly silent — then shall the rest be added unto you."
-Søren Kierkegaard

"Doubt is not the opposite of faith; it is one element of faith."
-Paul Tillich

"Vitality that can stand the abyss of meaninglessness is aware of a hidden meaning within the destruction of meaning."
-Paul Tillich

"My entire soul is a cry, and all my work is a commentary on that cry."
-Nikos Kazantzakis

"The soul is healed by being with children."
-Fyodor Dostoevsky

"Love in action is a harsh and dreadful thing compared to love in dreams."
-Fyodor Dostoevsky

"Do you know I've been sitting here thinking to myself: that if I didn't believe in life, if I lost faith in the woman I love, lost faith in the order of things, were convinced, in fact, that everything is a disorderly, damnable, and perhaps devil-ridden chaos, if I were struck by every horror of man's disillusionment - still I should want to live and, having once tasted of the cup, I would not turn away from it till I had drained it!"
-Fyodor Dostoevsky

"Happiness is an attitude of the soul, and can be found even in discontentment."
-Hannah Kahn

"But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.'"
-2 Corinthians 12:9-10

"Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art, like the universe itself. It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things which give value to survival.”
-C.S. Lewis

"When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty I read them openly. When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up."
-C.S. Lewis

"If there is to be peace in the world,
There must be peace in the nations.
If there is to be peace in the nations,
There must be peace in the cities.
If there is to be peace in the cities,
There must be peace between neighbors.
If there is to be peace between neighbors,
There must be peace in the home.
If there is to be peace in the home,
There must be peace in the heart."
-Lao Tzu

[Warrior 4 Jesus]

“It (the unopened Mystery Box) represents infinite possibility. It represents hope; it represents potential… mystery is the catalyst for imagination… maybe there are times where mystery is more important than knowledge.”
----J.J. Abrams - TED Conference 2007----

"The value of myth is that it takes all the things you know and restores to them the rich significance which has been hidden by the veil of familiarity."

..."I'm on Aslan's side even if there isn't any Aslan to lead it. I'm going to live as like a Narnian as I can even if there isn't any Narnia."

"What saves a man is to take a step. Then another step."

"To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you."

"Christianity is the story of how the rightful King has landed, you might say in disguise, and is calling us all to take part in His great campaign of sabotage."
---- C.S. Lewis

[KhakiBlueSocks]

[font="Trebuchet MS"][SIZE="4"][color="RoyalBlue"]"Be well, do good work, and keep in touch." - Garrison Keillor

I know it's a weird little quote, but I find it to be the basis of what I should do each and every day to make my life worth living and to make others happy. [/color][/SIZE][/font]

[Mr. SmartyPants]

"Pleasure disappoints, possibility never. And what wine is so sparkling, who so fragrant, what so intoxicating, as possibility."
-Kierkegaard

[Nate]

I do what I want! You have problem?!

[Cognitive Gear]

"When I despair, I remember that all through history the ways of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants, and murderers, and for a time they can seem invincible, but in the end they always fall. Think of it--always."

"A coward is incapable of exhibiting love; it is the prerogative of the brave. "

-Mahatma Gandhi

[Rusty Claymore]

"There are two kinds of pain. The short term physical pain, and then the long term pain of regret." SEALs
"Machines break, eyes don't." Halo: Fall of Reach
"You can not be anyone you want, until you can be everyone you want."
"Sell the car." Dave Ramsey (didn't have to use this one, but keeping it in mind. XP)

[Yuki-Anne]

"What God cares about is not exactly our actions. What he cares about is that we should be creatures of a certain kind or quality -- the kind of creatures He intended us to be -- creatures related to Himself in a certain way."

"[The Christian] does not think God will love us because we are good, but that God will make us good because He loves us."

-CS Lewis

[armeck]

absence makes the heart grow fonder - i don't know, if you do, please tell me!

[Sammy Boy]

"An empty stomach is the best seasoning."
- Sandman, Gravion

"Even if you successfully took all religion from this world we'd still have selfish, arrogant, violent, psychotic, megalomaniacal nutters who ruin the fun for everyone else, including, but not limited to, the people who say all religion should be wiped from the face of the Earth."
- Part of a comment posted on an internet news site

And Gandalf's quote (see my signature).

[rocklobster]

All of these are from my Facebook:
1."Nothing's perfect, the world is not perfect. But it's there for us and it's doing the best that it can. That's what makes it so beautiful"--Roy Mustang, Full Metal Alchemist
2."I reject your reality and substitute my own!"--Mythbusters (Ok, this one really hasn't influenced me in any way. I just like the sound of it)
3."If you want to know the truth, you must have the wisdom to accept it."--Bear, .hack//sign
4."It's not what I am, It's what I do that defines me."--Batman in Batman Begins
5.We're all a little crazy, some more than others.
6. "Do or do not. There is no try"--Yoda, The Empire Strikes Back
7. "Leave the past to God's forgiveness. Leave the future to God's Providence. Live in the present. It's God's gift to us. That's why it's called the present."--Father John Corapi
8. "When truth is called a lie, the lights go out. Darkness falls. And indeed, if your light is darkness, how very deep will the darkness be."--also from Father John Corapi
9."Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you. I appointed you to be a prophet of all nations."
--Jeremiah 1:5
10."We are all angels with one wing and we must embrace each other in order to fly."--Xenogears
11."Now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read: which goes on for ever: in which every chapter is better than the one before."--The Last Battle C.S. Lewis
12. "Do you know how your story ends, princess?"--Dustfinger in Inkheart
13. "Strange, isn't it? Each man's life touches so many other lives. When he isn't around he leaves an awful hole, doesn't he?"--Clarence Oddbody in It's a Wonderful Life

[choklit]

"I could not love thee so much, loved I not honor more."

"He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep, to gain what he cannot lose."
-Jim Elliot

[TheSubtleDoctor]

"You teach people how to treat you."

I don't know the source on this (and don't care if it's a lame one), but over the last year to eighteen months this one has influenced me greatly. By remembering this, I am able to take better care of myself and maintain healthioer boundaries in my relationships, leading to overall better health (mental, physical and spiritual). I find it is good to remind myself of the share of the responsibility I bear in how other people interact with me.

[Yuki-Anne]

"You teach people how to treat you."

I don't know the source on this (and don't care if it's a lame one), but over the last year to eighteen months this one has influenced me greatly. By remembering this, I am able to take better care of myself and maintain healthioer boundaries in my relationships, leading to overall better health (mental, physical and spiritual). I find it is good to remind myself of the share of the responsibility I bear in how other people interact with me.

This reminds me of what my friend Jessie used to say. She was talking about girls who would always say, "Men are just idiots," and she would say, "Of course, they're going to act like that if you treat them like that's all they are." I think that's kind of along the same lines: if you treat people like you expect them to be horrible to you, they probably will be, because you're not being anything but horrible to them.

[armeck]

for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction - Isaac Newton

[firestorm]

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light not our darkness that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous,
talented and fabulous?
Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God.
Your playing small does not serve the world.
There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other
people won't feel insecure around you.
We were born to make manifest the glory of
God that is within us.
It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone.
And as we let our own light shine,
we unconsciously give other people
permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our own fear,
Our presence automatically liberates others.
—Marianne Williamson

[Yuki-Anne]

I don't love God. I don't want to love God. I want to want to love God.

Teresa of Avila (I think. I'm a bit hazy on the specifics, so it might be somebody else)

[Icarus]

"WHAT CAN THE HARVEST HOPE FOR IF NOT THE CARE OF THE REAPER MAN?" -Death, Reaper Man, by Terry Pratchett.

Sing like no-one's listening,
Dance like no-one's watching,
Love like you've never been hurt before,
And live like it's Heaven on Earth.
-Unknown.

I didn't know this one was a quote, but: "Sometimes you have to laugh to keep from crying," -Madonna.

[ich1990]

Quotes by themselves don't influence me very much. Rather, people influence me. The only time I find quotes to have real meaning is when the quotes describe or remind me of the actions of the people who utter them. In this respect, I find the words of Kierkegaard, Martin Luther King, Viktor Frankl, and Ghandi, among others, to be incredibly powerful. No two-sentence quote can describe their life's meaning or their profundity, so I won't even try. Do yourself a favor, though, and look them up. Wiki their lives and let their examples change you.

[Paul]

ok, I'll bite.

"He who fights and runs away, may live to fight another day." -Baron Von Stoop! from Blake Edwards movie "The Great Race"

"Me lie...never! Truth is far too much fun"- Captain J.S. Hook from the movie "Hook".

"There comes a time when we all must learn to stand up and fight, or sit and burn." -This one came from me, straight off the cuff.

Paul

[Beau Soir]

"What I do today is important because I am exchanging a day of my life for it." (anonymous)