The power of words!

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.