Sometimes you need a line or two of poetry or creative writing to remotivate you and keep you steady during difficult times. Words have always been reassuring to me, as seen in the cover photo of my sister and I reading together (or her reading to me). These quotes help me to refocus and reorient myself before heading back to work, to troubles, or to living my life. I hope that they can bring a little calm or understanding to your life.

1. “I’m not lookin’ for someone who can save me. Life rafts might keep you afloat but they rarely get you anywhere and I’ve got places I wanna go. So break me in two, peel back my rib cage and cover every page of my heart with love poems, you will burn someday." - Andrea Gibson

2. “What is stronger than the human heart, which shatters over and over and still lives?” - Rupi Kaur

3. "Break often - not like porcelain, but like waves." - Scherezade Siobhan

4. "You see yourself as a fragile thing. Like a little broken bird sloshing around in a bottle. But if you trust me, if we trust each other.. you’ll be all right. Because, basically, I think you’re a pretty tough cookie." - Kester from My Mad Fat Diary

5. "They have been through the fire, and what fire does not destroy, it hardens." -Oscar Wilde

6. "Infuse your life with action. Don't wait for it to happen. Make it happen. Make your own future. Make your own hope. Make your own love. And whatever your beliefs, honor your creator, not by passively waiting for grace to come down from upon high, but by doing what you can to make grace happen... yourself, right now, right down here on Earth." - Bradley Whitford

7. "But all the magic I have known, I’ve had to make myself." - Shel Silverstein

8. "I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear." -Nelson Mandela

9. "If it makes you nervous, you’re doing it right." - Donald Glover

10. "Water does not resist. Water flows. When you plunge your hand into it, all you feel is a caress. Water is not a solid wall, it will not stop you. But water always goes where it wants to go, and nothing in the end can stand against it. Water is patient. Dripping water wears away a stone. Remember that, my child. Remember you are half water. If you can't go through an obstacle, go around it. Water does." - Margaret Atwood

11. "I am blooming from the wound where I once bled." - Rune Lazuli

12. “you tell me to quiet down cause my opinions make me less beautiful but i was not made with a fire in my belly so i could be put out i was not made with a lightness on my tongue so i could be easy to swallow i was made heavy half blade and half silk difficult to forget and not easy for the mind to follow” - Rupi Kaur

13. “I said to the sun, ‘Tell me about the big bang.’ The sun said, ‘it hurts to become.” -Andrea Gibson

14. "Surround yourself with people who make you happy. People who make you laugh, who help you when you’re in need. People who genuinely care. They are the ones worth keeping in your life. Everyone else is just passing through." - Karl Marx

15. "Tonight I’ve learned that when someone comes to you as who they really are, flaws are seen, shames are told. Respect them more, it takes humility and courage to show up in such a vulnerable imperfect way." - Reza Rusandi

16. “You cannot protect yourself from sadness without protecting yourself from happiness.” - Jonathan Safran Foer