The
world is filled with all kinds of people. Let’s place them in three categories:
optimistic, pessimistic and realistic. It’s not that difficult to determine in
which category you are. Optimists see a glass half full and pessimists see it
half empty. The realist drinks it. That’s me, but only if I’m responsible for
pouring and leaving the water in the glass. There’s absolutely no way that I’m
drinking a random glass of “water”.
Yes,
I’m a realist. I have the easy task in life to see things the way
they really are. My greatest challenge in life is to see things as I would like
them to be. I don’t like anything that is vague, so I can’t dream of a future.
To me, the future is empty and serves absolutely no purpose until I get there.
My best endeavour is to plan ahead and make sure that I’m prepared for the
future, but that’s it. I leave it untouched!
The past is a different story. I hold on to it because it
bears knowledge. I know where I’ve been and I know what I’ve done. I know what
I’ve experienced. I have enough memories to cherish and that’s okay because I
don’t obsess over them. What’s done is done! There’s no use in going back in
mental pursuit of happiness, peace or answers. I see everything done as
stepping stones of learning experiences. I have developed and I have survived
to the present day.
The present is probably the most disturbing phase of my life.
I don’t want to wait for tomorrow to have my every day questions answered. I
want to control certain things and find solutions now. While I prefer to think
of it as my “planning” and “preparing” phases for what needs to be done in the
future, other people may call it “fear for the unknown”, “unnecessary worrying”
or “impatience”. The thing about being like this tends to rob me of present-day
peace. I’m always contemplating solutions rather than enjoying the here and now.
My compass through life has always been my natural instinct
or my senses. They have always directed and guided me along the way. If
something didn’t feel right, I avoided it. Whenever I stumbled over too many
obstacles to achieve something only to fail gaining whatever it was I was
seeking, I would accept that “it just wasn’t meant to be”. On the other hand,
if things were sailing smoothly towards a resolution, it would be obvious that
“it was meant to be”. Yes! These are life signs to me. I believe in these
signs. Relying on instinct and my senses can be rather precarious, though,
because I tend to be sensitive. Often, I interpret things inaccurately because
I allow my emotions to control my better judgement.
I’ve always been able to find a sense of calmness through my passion for writing. I love words and
beautiful sentences, reading motivational and inspirational quotations, and
poems! I simply love Dr. Seuss and I spent most of my teen years reading the
beautiful poems of Helen Steiner-Rice. I still remember wanting to write just
like her.
Words have the power to make a difference. Over the years,
I’ve discovered many nuggets of wisdom hidden in the pages of stories that were
written by extraordinary people. Today I’ve decided to write down and share
with you 50 of the best sentences I’ve ever read. These chosen lines inspired
me at some point in my life. When I first read them, they were moments of
epiphany because the very words touched me and made a difference to how I
perceived things at that time. These words are from books that I’ve had the
pleasure of reading. I used to keep a diary every year since 1980 and wrote all
the beautiful sentences down so that I would always remember them.
I hope you
enjoy these quotes as much as I did when I first read them. You may even find
me reflected in each one.
50. Opportunities
Tomorrow is always fresh, with no mistakes in it yet. — L. M.
Montgomery, Anne of Green
Gables.
49. Goodness
Despite everything, I believe that people are really good at
heart. ― Anne Frank, The Diary
Of Anne Frank.
48. Laziness
There are people, who the more you do for them, the less
they will do for themselves. ― Jane Austen, Emma.
47. Procrastination
My advice is, never do tomorrow what you can do today.
Procrastination is the thief of time. ― Charles Dickens, David
Copperfield.
46. Loyalty
For me you are only a little boy just like a hundred
thousand other little boys. And I have no need of you. And you have no need of
me, either. For you, I’m only a fox like a hundred thousand other foxes. But if
you tame me, we’ll need each other. You’ll be the only boy in the world for me
and I’ll be the only fox in the world for you. — Antoine
De Saint Exupery, The Little
Prince.
45.
Waiting
Each moment that I wait feels like a year, an eternity.
Each moment is as slow and transparent as glass. Through each moment I can see
infinite moments line up, waiting. ― Audrey Niffenegger, The Time
Traveler's Wife.
44. Love
But love is this really powerful thing that everyone's
got if they'd just learn how to accept it ... If it's something we all have to
give, and if it's something we all want, doesn't that mean there's exactly
enough to go around? ― Philip
Beard, Dear Zoe.
43. Perfection
If you look for perfection, you'll never be content. ― Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina.
42. Sadness
Heaven knows we need never be ashamed of our tears, for
they are rain upon the blinding dust of earth, overlying our hard hearts. ― Charles
Dickens, Great Expectations.
41. Bewilderment
I'll be all right in a minute. I'm just bewildered – by
life ... ― Tennessee Williams, The Glass Menagerie.
40. Loneliness
Loneliness is the human condition. Cultivate it. The way it
tunnels into you allows your soul room to grow. Never expect to outgrow
loneliness. Never hope to find people who will understand you, someone to fill
that space. An intelligent, sensitive person is the exception, the very great
exception. If you expect to find people who will understand you, you will grow
murderous with disappointment. The best you’ll ever do is to understand
yourself, know what it is that you want, and not let the cattle stand in your
way. – Janet Fitch, White
Oleander.
39. Memories
We can never go back again, that much is certain. The
past is still close to us. The things we have tried to forget and put behind us
would stir again, and that sense of fear, of furtive unrest, struggling at
length to blind unreasoning panic – now mercifully stilled, thank God – might
in some manner unforeseen become a living companion as it had before. ― Daphne du Maurier, Rebecca.
38. Pessimism
Men who look on nature, and their fellow-men, and cry
that all is dark and gloomy, are in the right; but the sombre colours are
reflections from their own jaundiced eyes and hearts. ― Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist.
37. Desire
Do not let your fire go out, spark by irreplaceable
spark, in the hopeless swamps of the not-quite, the not-yet, and the
not-at-all. Do not let the hero in your soul perish in lonely frustration for
the life you deserve and have never been able to reach. The world you desire
can be won. It exists ... it is real ... it is possible ... it's yours. ― Ayn
Rand, Atlas Shrugged.
36. Heartbreak
The broken heart. You think you will die, but you just
keep living day after day after terrible day. ― Charles Dickens, Great Expectations.
35. Experiences
Something did happen to me somewhere that robbed me of
confidence and courage and left me with a fear of discovery and change and a
positive dread of everything unknown that may occur. ― Joseph
Heller, Something Happened.
34. Planning
The future becomes the present, the present the past, and
the past turns into everlasting regret if you don't plan for it! ― Tennessee Williams, The
Glass Menagerie.
33. Work
I don't like work – no man does – but I like what is in
the work – the chance to find yourself. Your own reality – for yourself not for
others – what no other man can ever know. They can only see the mere show, and
never can tell what it really means. ―
Joseph Conrad, Heart of
Darkness.
32. Life
Live all you can; it’s a mistake not to. It doesn’t so
much matter what you do in particular, so long as you have your life. — Henry James, The Ambassadors.
31. Difficulties
You're trying to escape from your difficulties, and there
never is any escape from difficulties, never. They have to be faced and fought. — Enid
Blyton, Six Cousins at
Mistletoe Farm.
30. Ambition
Sometimes I can hear my bones straining under the weight of
all the lives I’m not living. — Jonathan Safran Foer, Extremely Loud And Incredibly Close.
29. Reality
Imagination is the only weapon in the war against
reality. — Lewis Caroll, Alice in Wonderland.
28. Optimism
The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad
to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time,
the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like
fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars. ― Jack
Kerouac, On The Road.
27. Departure
It is so hard to leave – until you leave. And then it is
the easiest goddamned thing in the world. ― John Green, Paper
Towns.
26. Possessions
For what are your possessions, but things you keep and
guard for fear you may need them tomorrow? ― Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet.
25. Acceptance
Love covers a multitude of sins … ― Louisa May Alcott, Little
Women.
24. Simplicity
Let your boat of life be light, packed with only what you
need – a homely home and simple pleasures, one or two friends, worth the name,
someone to love and someone to love you, a cat, a dog, and a pipe or two,
enough to eat and enough to wear, and a little more than enough to drink; for
thirst is a dangerous thing.― Jerome K. Jerome, Three Men in a
Boat.
23. Friendships
Friendships, even the best of them, are frail things. One
drifts apart. ― Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse.
22. Truths
Unwelcome truths are not popular. ― Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Valley of Fear.
21. Excitement
I like it when somebody gets excited about something.
It's nice. ― J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye.
20. Suffering
I believe there is a theory that men and women emerge
finer and stronger after suffering, and that to
advance in this or any world we must endure ordeal by fire. ― Daphne du Maurier, Rebecca.
19. Change
I knew who I was this morning, but I've changed a few
times since then … — Lewis Caroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.
18. Clarity
I like breakfast-time better than any other moment in the
day … No dust has settled on one's mind then, and it presents a clear mirror to
the rays of things. — George Eliot, Adam Bede.
17. Religion
There is no religion without love, and people may talk as
much as they like about their religion, but if it does not teach them to be
good and kind to man and beast it is all a sham. — Anna Sewell, Black Beauty.
16. Living
Just breathing isn't living! — Eleanor H. Porter, Pollyanna.
15. Power
The mind of man is capable of anything. ― Joseph
Conrad, Heart of Darkness.
14. Fear
You wouldn’t be normal if you were never afraid. Even the
bravest men experience fear. One of the biggest jobs we all face in combat is
to overcome fear. ― Joseph Heller, Catch-22.
13. Peace
'If you love me as you say you do,' she whispered, 'make
it so that I am at peace.' ― Leo
Tolstoy, Anna Karenina.
12. Instinct
Remember, everything is right until it's wrong. You'll
know when it's wrong.
― Ernest Hemingway, The Garden of Eden.
11. Thinking
Everything seems simple until you think about it. ― Audrey
Niffenegger, The Time Traveler's Wife.
10. Ego
… you can’t get away from yourself. You can’t decide not
to see yourself anymore. You can’t decide to turn off the noise in your head. — Jay Asher, Thirteen Reasons Why.
9. Hope
I always think incipient miracles surround us, waiting
only to see if our faith is strong enough. We won't have to understand it; it
will just work, like a beating heart, like love. Really, no matter how
frightened and discouraged I may become about the future, I look forward to it.
In spite of everything I see all around me every day, I have a shaky assurance
that everything will turn out fine. I don't think I'm the only one. Why else
would the phrase "everything's all right" ease a deep and troubled
place in so many of us? We just don't know, we never know so much, yet we have
such faith. We hold our hands over our hurts and lean forward, full of yearning
and forgiveness. It is how we keep on, this kind of hope. ― Elizabeth
Berg, Talk Before Sleep.
8. Parting
It's hard being left behind. ... It's hard to be the one
who stays. ― Audrey Niffenegger, The Time Traveler's Wife.
7. Honesty
And that's the thing about people who mean everything
they say. They think everyone else does too. … There is only one sin and that
is theft ... when you tell a lie, you steal someone’s right to the truth. ―
Khaled Hosseini, The
Kite Runner.
6. Thoughts
Human minds are more full of mysteries than any written
book and more changeable than the cloud shapes in the air. ― Louisa May
Alcott, The Abbot's Ghost: A Christmas Story.
5. Vulnerability
… there is all this time between when the cracks start to
open up and when we finally fall apart. And it’s only that time that we see one
another, because we see out of ourselves through our cracks and into others
through theirs. When did we see each other face to face? Not until you saw into
my cracks and I saw into yours. Before that we were just looking at ideas of
each other, like looking at your window shade, but never seeing inside. But
once the vessel cracks, the light can get in. The light can get out. ― John
Green, Paper Towns.
4. Happiness
Happiness is not a possession to be prized; it is a
quality of thought, a state of mind. ― Daphne du Maurier, Rebecca.
3. Beauty
The most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or
touched; they are felt with the heart. — Antoine De Saint
Exupery, The Little Prince.
2. Emptiness
Trees are poems the earth writes upon the sky. We fell
them down and turn them into paper that we may record our emptiness. ― Kahlil
Gibran, Sand and Foam.
1. Influence
One must be careful of books,
and what is inside them, for words have the power to change us. — Cassandra
Clare, The Infernal Devices.
This is a list of some of the books that I have read.
Each book contains beautiful messages that have made a difference in my life. My personal choice of a book rich in
wisdom is The Time Traveler’s
Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. A
book that really intrigued me and kept me wondering for years was The Little Prince by Antoine
De Saint Exupery. Kahlil Gibran’s The
Prophet and Daphne Du
Maurier’s Rebecca are also all time favourites.
We
all have our own perspectives and interpretations. “Sometimes, you read a book
and it fills you with this weird evangelical zeal, and you become convinced
that the shattered world will never be put back together unless and until all
living humans read the book.” ― John
Green, The Fault in Our Stars. The art is to value diversity in taste rather than conformity and to
share our experiences with people
who also love to read.
