Sayings to Support You in Turning the Page to the Adventure Story You are Meant to Live Now

Perhaps like me, you feel you are near a tipping point, on the cusp of some life changes to live a more meaningful life, with and for others. Perhaps you, too, seek some pithy insights to nudge you to turn the page to that next chapter – and carry you farther forward too.  Here are some I’ve gathered for my “Hundred Foot Journey”out of my comfort zone and into the fresh situations, and purpose. I hope some of these help you too: 

“Sometimes we have to travel to the edge of ourselves to find our center.”?~ Buck Ghosthorse

"Life is always walking up to us and saying, 'Come on in, the living's fine,' and what do we do? Back off and take its picture."?~ Russell Baker

"Some things emerge from so deep inside us they appear to come from an outside source.”?~ Dr. Marty Grothe

"The greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another."?~ William James

"When you cease to make a contribution, you begin to die."?~ Eleanor Roosevelt

“What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others.”?~ Pericles

"I do not 'get' ideas; ideas get me."?~ Robertson Davies

"Nothing is more dangerous than an idea, when it's the only one we have."?~ Emile Augusta Chartier

“To be successful you can't show up to the potluck with just a fork.”?~ Dave Liniger, co-founder and chairman of RE/MAX

“We all want a partner to witness our lives, so that our lives will matter to someone.”?~ Susan Sarandon’s character in the movie “Shall We Dance?”

"Lots of people want to ride with you in the limo, but what you want is someone who will take the bus with you when the limo breaks down." ~ Oprah Winfrey

"A relationship is like a shark. You know, it has to constantly move forward or it dies."?~ Woody Allen, said in “Annie Hall”

“I don't want life to imitate art. I want life to be art.”?~ Carrie Fisher

 “I wanted a perfect ending... Now, I've learned, the hard way, that some poems don't rhyme, and some stories don't have a clear beginning, middle and end. Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what's going to happen next. Delicious ambiguity.“ ~ Gilda Radner

“There came a time when the risk to remain tight in the bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.”?~ Anais Nin

“I was on a search -- I wanted to discover woman-ness. I never had a female role model. My mother killed herself when I was 12, and I was very frightened of what it meant to be a woman because I thought it meant being a victim and dying.”?~ Jane Fonda

"Always remember that you are absolutely unique. Just like everyone else."?~ Margaret Mead

"Never let formal education get in the way of your learning."?~ Mark Twain

 “Forgiveness means giving up all hope for a better past“?~ Lily Tomlin

“Criticize the act, not the person.”?~ Mary Kay Ash

“The more I like me, the less I want to pretend to be other people.”?~ Jamie Lee Curtis

“I just have to keep going back to the core and think that we're all afraid of it and when we're afraid of it, you run to something much easier, something that looks like candy.”?~ Diane Keaton

“I remember asking Rosemary (Clooney, his aunt) why she’s a better singer at 70 than she was at 21. …She said, ‘because I don’t have to prove I can sing anymore.’ That was a good acting lesson: not having to show off now.”?~ George Clooney, 

(On her long marriage to Michael Williams) "We were just happy to be in the same room together."?~ Judy Dench

"There are two kinds of truth--trivial truths and profound truths. The opposite of a trivial truth is false, but the opposite of a profound truth is also true."?~ Niels Bohr

"Fearlessness is not the absence of fear. Rather, it's the mastery of fear. It’s getting to the point where our fears do not stop us from daring to think new thoughts, try new things, take risks, fail, and start again. Fearlessness is all about getting up one more time than we fall down.”?~ Arianna Huffington

 “Never place a period where God has placed a comma.“?~ Gracie Allen

 “A crank is someone with a new idea – until it catches on.”?~ Mark Twain

 “We only keep what we lose.“?~ May Sarton

"An average tool in the best hands will always produce better results than the best tool in average hands.”?~ Don Groves

 “Bloom where you are planted.”?~ Nancy Reader

“Language is magic: it makes things appear and disappear. “?~ Nicole Brossard

"In a relationship, it's hard to sustain the passion; in a passionate affair, it's hard to sustain the relationship."?~ Dr. Mardy Grothe

“Not knowing when the dawn will come, I open every door. “?~ Emily Dickinson

 “If you haven't forgiven yourself something, how can you forgive others? “?~ Dolores Huerta

“Grace is available for each of us every day - our spiritual daily bread - but we've got to remember to ask for it with a grateful heart and not worry about whether there will be enough for tomorrow. “?~ Sarah Ban Breathnach

"In times of profound change, the learners inherit the earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists." ~ Al Rogers

“It is only through disruptions and confusion that we grow, jarred out of ourselves by the collision of someone else's private world with our own.” ~ Joyce Carol Oates

"Connections are made slowly, sometimes they grow underground."?~ Marge Piercy, quoted in Something Moreby Sarah Ban Breathnach

 “You know you've created God in your own image when he hates the same people you do.”?- Annie Lamott

“Never give up, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn.“ ~ Harriet Beecher Stowe

?“Absence becomes the greatest Presence. “?~ May Sarton

"There is the same difference in a person before and after he is in love, as there is in an unlighted lamp and one that is burning."?~ Vincent van Gogh

“Sometimes I feel like a figment of my own imagination.”?~ Lily Tomlin

 “When the night has been too lonely, and the road has been too long, and you think that love is only for the lucky and the strong, just remember, in the winter, far beneath the bitter snow, lies the seed that with the sun's love in the spring becomes the rose.”?~ Amanda McBroom

“The trouble is that once you see it, you can’t unsee it. And once you’ve seen it, keeping quiet, saying nothing, becomes as political an act as speaking out. There’s no innocence. Either way, you’re accountable. “?~ L Arundhati Roy

"Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them."?~ James Baldwin

“Love often leads to healing, while fear and isolation breed illness. And our biggest fear is abandonment. “?~ Candace Pert

"I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody." Bill Cosby

“Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.”?- anonymous Chinese philosopher

“Don't be afraid of missing opportunities. Behind every failure is an opportunity somebody wishes they had missed."?~ Lily Tomlin

"You can't have it both ways. You can't have both free will and a benevolent higher power who protects you from yourself.?~ Arthur C. Clarke

"Passionate hatred can give meaning and purpose to an empty life."?~ Eric Hoffer

"Follow your dreams,'' a message spray-painted on a concrete abutment near the interchange of highways in the San Francisco area, was painted over quickly several times during April and May, probably by our state agency, Caltrans. About a month ago, a new message appeared: "Fine, live in despair!'' This one has been left alone. ~ Leah Garchek quoted in her column in the San Francisco Chronicle

"The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances: if there is any reaction, both are transformed."?~ Carl Jung

"When they are alone they want to be with others, and when they are with others they want to be alone. After all, human beings are like that."?~ Gertrude Stein

“All my life I've wanted to be someone; I guess I should have been more specific". ~ Lily Tomlin

"One may have a blazing hearth in one's soul and yet no one ever comes to sit by it. Passers by see only a wisp of smoke from the chimney and continue on the way."?~ Vincent van Gogh

“Walk with the light.” ~ Kare Anderson

"Great talents are the most lovely and often the most dangerous fruits on the tree of humanity. They hang upon the most slender twigs that are easily snapped off."?~ Carl Jung

“All sins are attempts to fill voids. “?~ Simone Weil

"We can never truly understand people when we hate them, and we can never truly hate people when we understand them” ~ anonymous

“There are years that ask questions and years that answer. “?~ Zora Neale Hurston

"Considering how dangerous everything is, nothing is really very frightening."?~ Gertrude Stein

"If you are too careful, you are so occupied in being careful that you are sure to stumble over something."?- Gertrude Stein

“The only thing you take with you when you are gone is what you left behind.”?~ John Allston

“How wonderful is it that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world? “?~ Anne Frank

"The search for happiness is one of the chief sources of unhappiness."?~ Eric Hoffer

“One is happy as a result of one’s own efforts, once one knows of the necessary ingredients of happiness—simple tastes, a certain degree of courage, self-denial to a point, love of work, and, above all, a clear conscience. Happiness is no vague dream, of that I now feel certain.” ~ George Sand

"A shoe that fits one person pinches another; there is no recipe for living that suits all cases."?~ Carl Jung

 “The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances. If there is any reaction then both are changed.?~ Carl Jung

“Things are going to get a lot worse before they get worse.”?~ Lily Tomlin

“When you long for a life without difficulty, it helps to remember that oak trees grow strong in contrary winds and that diamonds are made under pressure.”?~ Peter Marshall

 “Growth in wisdom may be exactly measured by decrease in bitterness.”?~ Friedrich Nietzsche

“My second favorite household chore is ironing. My first one being -- hitting my head on the top bunk bed until I faint.”?~ Erma Bombeck

“In a combat between wisdom and feeling wisdom never wins.”?~ Merlin - Mort d'Artur

"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits."?~ Albert Einstein

 “I've got to the age now where the only things I'm proud of are my mistakes.”?~ Robert Altman

 “Every time I close the door on reality, it comes in through the windows.’?~ Jennifer Unlimited

“You can tell whether a man is clever by his answers. You can tell whether a man is wise by his questions.”?~ Naguib Mahfouz

“I try to take one day at a time -- but sometimes several days attack me at once.”?~ Jennifer Unlimited

"There ain't no answer. There ain't going to be any answer. There never has been an answer. That's the answer."?~ Gertrude Stein

”If you can't be a good example -- then you'll just have to be a horrible warning.”?~ Catherine (scrawled on the wall in a women’s bathroom)

“The trouble with the rat race is that even if you win, you're still a rat.”?~ Lily Tomlin

"Sex is about appetite. Love is about endurance." – Jack Valenti

"The deepest principle of human nature is the craving to be appreciated."?~ William James

 “Forget your perfect offering. There is a crack, a crack in everything. That's how the light gets in.”?~ Leonard Cohen

”Nobody can make you feel inferior without your permission. ”?~ Eleanor Roosevelt

"Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves."?~ Carl Jung

"Each day, and the living of it, has to be a conscious creation in which discipline and order are relieved with some play and pure foolishness."?~ May Sarton

"For fast acting relief, try slowing down."?~ Lily Tomlin

“Example is not the main thing in influencing others. It is the only thing.”?~ Albert Schweitzer

"To keep a lamp burning we have to keep putting oil in it."?~ Mother Teresa

"If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else."?~ Booker T. Washington

"You take your life in your own hands, and what happens? A terrible thing: no one to blame."?~ Erica Jong

"We can be absolutely certain only about things we do not understand."?~ Eric Hoffer

"We must not allow other people's limited perceptions to define us."?~ Virginia Satir

"We forfeit three-quarters of ourselves in order to be like other people."?~ Arthur Schopenhauer

“Edna Ferber was fond of wearing tailored suits before they became fashionable among professional women. One day she arrived at the Algonquin Hotel wearing a suit that was very similar to one that English actor Noel Coward was wearing. Coward looked Ferber up and down and said, "You look almost like a man." She replied simply: "So do you."? 

"You can't be truly rude until you understand good manners."?~ Rita Mae Brown

“If love is the answer, could you rephrase the question?” ~ Lily Tomlin

“Say what you will about the Ten Commandments, you must always come back to the pleasant fact that there are only ten of them.” ~ Henry Mencken

“Only when the clamor of the outside world is silenced will you be able to hear the deeper vibration.”?~ Sarah Ban Breathnach

“All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered—the trick is to discover them.”?~ Galileo

"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage."?~ Anais Nin

"Excellence is to do a common thing in an uncommon way."?~ Booker T. Washington

“A true leader is not one you look up to because they are the best. A true leader is one that draws the best out in you. “?~ Anne Warfield

"When people are free to do as they please, they usually imitate each other."?~ Eric Hoffer

“The minute one utters a certainty, the opposite comes to mind. “?~ May Sarton

“I want to stay as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all kinds of things you can't see from the center. ~ Kurt Vonnegut

“We are people with lives, not consumers with lifestyles."?~ Lily Tomlin

“Whatever we are waiting for - peace of mind, contentment, grace, the inner awareness of simple abundance - it will surely come to us, but only when we are ready to receive it with an open and grateful heart. “?~ Sarah Ban Breathnach

"After great pain a formal feeling comes. The nerves sit ceremonious like tombs."?~ Emily Dickinson

“Men kick friendship around like a football but it doesn’t seem to break. Women treat it like glass and it goes to pieces.”?~ anonymous

"Loneliness is a word to express the pain of being alone ... solitude is a word to express the glory of being alone."?~ Paul Tillich

"A vision without the ability to execute is a hallucination."?- Steve Case

“We cannot hold a torch to light another's path without brightening our own.”?~ Ben Sweetland

"To love someone is to see a miracle invisible to others."?~ Francois Mauriac

"To love is to admire with the heart; to admire is to love with the mind."?~ Theophile Gautier

"At the moment you are most in awe of all there is about life that you don't understand, you are closer to understanding it all than at any other time."?~ Lily Tomlin

"In times of profound change, the learners inherit the earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists." ~ Al Rogers

"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy."?~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

"After great pain a formal feeling comes. The nerves sit ceremonious like tombs."?- Emily Dickinson

"Why can’t somebody give us a list of things that everybody thinks and nobody says, and another list of things that everybody says and nobody thinks?"?~ Oliver Wendell Holmes

"Considering how dangerous everything is, nothing is really very frightening."?~ Gertrude Stein

"Passionate hatred can give meaning and purpose to an empty life."?~ Eric Hoffer

“A bird doesn't sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song. “?~ Maya Angelou

“It is easy to be heavy: hard to be light.” ~ G. K. Chesterton

“If I just work when the spirit moves me, the spirit will ignore me.”?- Carolyn Forche

“Growth in wisdom may be exactly measured by decrease in bitterness.” ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

"Force may make hypocrites, but it can never make converts."?~ William Penn

"Living in the lap of luxury isn't bad, except that you never know when luxury is going to stand up."?~ Orson Welles

"When all things are considered, happiness is a better indicator of success?than success has ever been of happiness."?~ anonymous

 “Sometimes we have to travel to the edge of ourselves to find our center.”?~ Buck Ghosthorse,

"The object of life's journey is not to arrive at the grave safely in a well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, totally worn out, shouting, 'Holy Shit, What a Ride!!!’?~ Mavis Leyrer

"Political freedom cannot exist in any land where religion controls the state, and religious freedom cannot exist in any land where the state controls religion."?~ Sam Ervin

"Praise out of season, or tactlessly bestowed, can freeze the heart as much as blame."?~ Pearl S. Buck

"The value of marriage is not that adults produce children, but that children produce adults."?~ Peter De Vries

"I think the reward for conformity is that everyone likes you except yourself."?~ Rita Mae Brown

"The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it's indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it's indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it's indifference."?~ Elie Wiesel

"To have a good third act you need to understand what the first two have been about. I don't want to die without knowing who I am."?~ Jane Fonda

“Love is metaphysical gravity; it holds us and the universe together.”?~ Buckminster Fuller

“We're all in this alone.”?~ Lily Tomlin

 “The same boiling water hardens the egg and softens to the carrot.”?~ anonymous

"Sex is about appetite. Love is about endurance." ~ Jack Valenti

 “What a wonderful life I’ve had! I only wish I’d realized it sooner.” ~ Colette

"Success is getting what you want. Happiness is wanting what you get."?~ Will Rogers