Compiling my 28 the most favorite quotes on the occasion of completing 28 revolutions around the fireball. These quotes have played an important role in defining my tiny footprints on the blue marble. And I hope they continue to do so. Amen!
1.
“Things change and they are never the same again. This looks like one, of those times, Hem. That’s life! Life moves on. And so should we.” ― Spencer Johnson, Who Moved My Cheese?
2.
“What you are afraid of is never as bad as what you imagine. The fear you let build up in your mind is worse than the situation that actually exists.” ― Spencer Johnson, Who Moved My Cheese?
3.
“The one thing that doesn’t abide by majority rule is a person’s conscience.” ― Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird
4.
“Atticus, he was real nice.”
“Most people are, Scout, when you finally see them.”, said Atticus. ― Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird
5.
“You just hold your head high and keep those fists down. No matter what anybody says to you, don’t you let ’em get your goat. Try fightin’ with your head for a change. -Atticus Finch” ― Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird
6.
“If you’re offered a seat on a rocket ship, don’t ask what seat! Just get on.” ― Sheryl Sandberg, Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead
7.
“Women need to shift from thinking “I’m not ready to do that” to thinking “I want to do that- and I’ll learn by doing it.” ― Sheryl Sandberg, Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead
8.
“We cannot change what we are unaware of, and once we are aware, we cannot help but change.” ― Sheryl Sandberg, Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead
9.
“For every door that’s been opened to me, I’ve tried to open my door to others. And here is what I have to say, finally: Let’s invite one another in. Maybe then we can begin to fear less, to make fewer wrong assumptions, to let go of the biases and stereotypes that unnecessarily divide us. Maybe we can better embrace the ways we are the same. It’s not about being perfect. It’s not about where you get yourself in the end. There’s power in allowing yourself to be known and heard, in owning your unique story, in using your authentic voice. And there’s grace in being willing to know and hear others. This, for me, is how we become.” ― Michelle Obama, Becoming
10.
“One of the lessons that I grew up with was to always stay true to yourself and never let what somebody else says distract you from your goals. And so when I hear about negative and false attacks, I really don’t invest any energy in them, because I know who I am.” ― Michelle Obama, Becoming
11.
“We should always have three friends in our lives-one who walks ahead who we look up to and follow; one who walks beside us, who is with us every step of our journey; and then, one who we reach back for and bring along after we’ve cleared the way.” ― Michelle Obama, Becoming
12.
“It’s forgiveness that makes us what we are. Without forgiveness, our species would’ve annihilated itself in endless retributions. Without forgiveness, there would be no history. Without that hope, there would be no art, for every work of art is in some way an act of forgiveness. Without that dream, there would be no love, for every act of love is in some way a promise to forgive. We live on because we can love, and we love because we can forgive.” ― Gregory David Roberts, Shantaram
13.
“There is only one sin, only one. And that is theft. Every other sin is a variation of theft. When you kill a man, you steal a life. You steal his wife’s right to a husband, rob his children of a father. When you tell a lie, you steal someone’s right to truth. When you cheat, you steal the right to fairness.” ― Khaled Hosseini, The Kite Runner
14.
“Children aren’t coloring books. You don’t get to fill them with your favorite colors.” ― Khaled Hosseini, The Kite Runner
15.
“And that’s the thing about people who mean everything they say. They think everyone else does too.” ― Khaled Hosseini, The Kite Runner
16.
“Small wins are a steady application of a small advantage.” ― Charles Duhigg, The Power Of Habit: Why We Do What We Do In Life And Business
17.
“Highly self-disciplined adolescents outperformed their more impulsive peers on every academic-performance variable,” the researchers wrote. “Self-discipline predicted academic performance more robustly than did IQ. Self-discipline also predicted which students would improve their grades over the course of the school year, whereas IQ did not.… Self-discipline has a bigger effect on academic performance than does intellectual talent.” ― Charles Duhigg, The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do and How to Change
18.
“One could not count the moons that shimmer on her roofs, Or the thousand splendid suns that hide behind her walls.” ― Khaled Hosseini, A Thousand Splendid Suns
19.
“Sow a thought, reap an action; sow an action, reap a habit; sow a habit, reap a character; sow a character, reap a destiny.” ― Stephen Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
20.
“It is one thing to make a mistake, and quite another thing not to admit it. People will forgive mistakes, because mistakes are usually of the mind, mistakes of judgment. But people will not easily forgive the mistakes of the heart, the ill intention, the bad motives, the prideful justifying cover-up of the first mistake.” ― Stephen Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
21.
“You don’t get to choose if you get hurt in this world, old man, but you do have some say in who hurts you.” ― John Green, The Fault in Our Stars
22.
“And the air was full of Thoughts and Things to Say. But at times like these, only the Small Things are ever said. Big Things lurk unsaid inside.” ― Arundhati Roy, The God of Small Things
23.
“As Estha stirred the thick jam he thought Two Thoughts and the Two Thoughts he thought were these: a) Anything can happen to anyone. and b) It is best to be prepared.” ― Arundhati Roy, The God of Small Things
24.
“If you have ever, sir, been through a breakup of a romantic relationship that involved great love, you will perhaps understand what I experienced. There is in such situations usually a moment of passion during which the unthinkable is said; this is followed by a sense of euphoria at finally being liberated; the world seems fresh as if seen for the first time then comes the inevitable period of doubt, the desperate and doomed backpedaling of regret; and only later, once emotions have receded, is one able to view with equanimity the journey through which one has passed.” ― Mohsin Hamid, The Reluctant Fundamentalist
25.
“Refusal to accept the flow of the world is the root of all misery.” ― Devdutt Pattanaik, Jaya: An Illustrated Retelling of the Mahabharata
26.
“Vengeance will never take away sorrow. It will breed more anger.” ― Devdutt Pattanaik, Jaya: An Illustrated Retelling of the Mahabharata
27.
“It is not about making the world a peaceful place; it is about us being at peace with the world.” ― Devdutt Pattanaik, Jaya: An Illustrated Retelling of the Mahabharata
28.
“Everybody dies—some suddenly, some slowly, some painfully, some peacefully. No one can escape death. The point is to make the most of life—enjoy it, celebrate it, learn from it, make sense of it, share it with fellow human beings—so that when death finally comes, it will not be such a terrible thing.”
― Devdutt Pattanaik, Jaya: An Illustrated Retelling of the Mahabharata
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