21 Quotes to Live an Extraordinary Life

There is something to be learned everyday and lessons to be reviewed.  I truly believe that we don’t have to reinvent the wheel in this ever evolving world.  Instead, I think we should learn from the wise men and women who have left their mark in this world.  

I’d like to share with you some of my favorite words of wisdom that are timeless and applicable even in today’s culture.

1. “You must be the change you wish to see in the world.” - Gandhi

2. “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 is stupid.” - Albert Einstein

3. “A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.” - George Bernhard Shaw

4. “He who fears he will suffer, already suffers because he fears.” - Michel De Montaigne

5. “We think sometimes that poverty is only being hungry, naked and homeless. The poverty of being unwanted, unloved and uncared for is the greatest poverty.” - Mother Theresa

6. “Love is a verb. Love — the feeling — is a fruit of love, the verb.” - Stephen Covey

7. “Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.” - Confucius

8. “If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change the way you think about it.” - Mary Engelbreit

9. “In seeking happiness for others, you will find it in yourself.” - Unknown

10. “God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.” - Reinhold Niebuhr

11. “Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is a gift of God, which is why we call it the present.” - Bill Keane

12. “Life is never made unbearable by circumstances, but only by lack of meaning and purpose.” - Viktor Frankl

13. “If you want happiness for an hour — take a nap. If you want happiness for a day — go fishing. If you want happiness for a year — inherit a fortune. If you want happiness for a life time — help someone else.” - Chinese proverb

14. “When one door of happiness closes, another opens, but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one that has been opened for us.” - Helen Keller

15. “Most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply.” - Stephen Covey

16. “Before you diagnose yourself with depression or low self-esteem, first make sure that you are not, in fact, just surrounded by assholes.” - Sigmund Freud”

17. “Challenges are what make life interesting and overcoming them is what makes life meaningful.” - Joshua J. Marine”

18. “A mind that is stretched by a new experience can never go back to its old dimensions.” - Oliver Wendell Holmes

19. “The only way that we can live is if we grow. The only way we can grow is if we change. The only way we can change is if we learn. The only way we can learn is if we are exposed. And the only way that we are exposed is if we throw ourselves into the open.” - C. Joybell

20. “Time is too slow for those who wait, too swift for those who fear, too long for those who grieve, too short for those who rejoice, but for those who love, time is eternity.” - Henry van Dyke

21. “I would rather die a meaningful death than to live a meaningless life.” - Corazon Aquino”

22. "Impossible is a word to be found only in the dictionary of fools." - Napoleon Bonaparte

23. "There is nothing impossible to him who will try.” -  Alexander the Great

24. "Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up." - Thomas Edison 

25. "It had long since come to my attention that people of accomplishment rarely sat back and let things happen to them. They went out and happened to things." - Leonardo da Vinci

26. "It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change." - Charles Darwin

27. "Whether you think you can, or think you can't, you're probably right." - Henry Ford 

28. "In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity." - Albert Einstein

29. "The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short; but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our mark." - Michelangelo

30. "Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that." - Martin Luther King

You only have one life to live so why not make it unforgettable?  Each day you have the opportunity to make a difference and be grateful.  There’s also an opportunity each day to strive for greatness.  Living by these few yet undeniably life changing mantras could make the difference between an ordinary life and an extraordinary one.

Choose the latter.  I’m here to help.