Everyone needs quotes in their lives. They are advices from friends for when your friends aren't around. They're the words of wisdom from people of the past. They're the words of fictional people that bring our reality into perspective. The right quotes always seem to find us at the right times. Quotes evoke different emotions from people. A quote could mean nothing to you and everything to the next person. It is all about what the words mean to you and what emotions they awaken within you.
As a college student, quotes are essential. We are at a point in our lives when we're trying to figure out who we are and where we are going. This results in mental breakdowns and existential crises. But it's not just college students that need quotes. There are quotes for every point in life. There are quotes for new jobs, finding a new path, family, parenting, death. Quotes have a way of popping up when we need them the most. So, here are some of my favorite quotes that I hope speak to you and will help you in whatever stage of life you're at.
1. Gayle Forman, "If I Stay"
We are born in one day. We die in one day. We can change in one day. And we can fall in love in one day. Anything can happen in just one day.
2. Helen Keller
The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched–they must be felt with the heart.
3. Victor Hugo, "Les Miserables"
Even the darkest night will end and the sun will rise.
4. Alexandra K. Trenfor
The best teachers are those who show you where to look, but don't tell you what to see.
5. Lemony Snicket, A Series of Unfortunate Events
At times the world may seem an unfriendly and sinister place, but believe that there is much more good in it than bad. All you have to do is look hard enough and what might seem to be a series of unfortunate events may in fact be the first steps of a journey.
6. J.K. Rowling, "Harry Potter"
We've all got both light and dark inside us. What matters is the part we choose to act on. That's who we really are.
7. Albert Einstein
Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it's stupid.
8. Stephen Chbosky, "The Perks of Being a Wallflower"
We accept the love we think we deserve.
9. Jacques Benigne Bossuel
The heart has reasons that reason does not understand
10. William G.T. Shedd
A ship is safe in the harbor, but that's not what ships are for.
11. Nicholas Cage
If a guy wants you for your breasts, thighs, and legs send him to KFC. You're a lady, not a cheap value meal.
12. Oscar Wilde
To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people just exist.
13. Socrates
Sometimes you put walls up not to keep people out, but to see who cares enough to break them down.
14. Azar Nafasi
You get a strange feeling when you leave a place, like you'll not only miss the people you love, but you miss the person you are at this time and place because you'll never be this way ever again.
15. George R.R. Martin
A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies. The man who never reads lives only one.
16. C.S. Lewis
Hardships often prepare ordinary people for extraordinary destiny.
17. Lewis Carroll, "Alice in Wonderland"
You know what the issue is with this world? Everyone wants a magical solution to their problems and everyone refuses to believe in magic.
18. Charlie Chaplin
A day without laughter is a day wasted.
19. Edwin Louis Cole
You don't drown by falling in the water; you drown by staying there.
20. Sarah Dessen, "The Truth About Forever"
But I'd long ago learned not to be picky in farewells. They weren't guaranteed or promised. You were lucky, more than blessed, if you got a goodbye at all.
There is a perfect quote for whatever life throws at you. Sometimes we're more likely to believe words on a page rather than our own thoughts or the people around us. Whatever quotes you find that awaken something in you, keep them forever.
