The secret of happiness lies not in events, but in our responses to them.
— Barry Neil Kaufman
If you keep thinking what you’ve always thought, you’ll keep getting what you’ve always got.
— Michael Ryce
Suffering is optional.
— Byron Katie
Most people have never really been listened to. They live in a lonely silence—no one knowing what they feel, how they live, or what they have done…There are no words to adequately describe what it is to be free with another person. It is most often a sensing that someone will let us be all of what we are at that moment. We can talk about whatever we wish, express in any way whatever feelings are in our hearts. We can take as much time as we need. We can sit, stand, pace, yell, cry, pound the floor, dance or weep for joy. Whatever and however we are at the moment is accepted and respected.
— Carl Faber
Events in our lives are like turnings in a labyrinth. If we understand these events correctly, if we pass the tests given us, we are allowed to continue on towards the next turning, the next test.
— Lisa Goldstein
The past does not have to equal the future.
— Tony Robbins
Man needs difficulties; they are necessary for health.
— Carl Jung
What we can’t face looks for us anyway.
— John Trudell
“…life is not supposed to go smoothly. Things are not supposed to be perfect. We are supposed to experience challenges. We are supposed to undergo difficulty. We are here to learn. The problem is that we have forgotten this great truth, this purpose of our lives. It’s as if we sign up to come to earth thinking it is going to be some fabulous vacation spot. Then we arrive here, and begin to discover that things aren’t the way we thought they’d be. We encounter difficulty, we encounter pain, we encounter obstacles, and we become confused and disoriented. Surely there has been some mistake! The brochure said it was paradise. So why are we being forced to go through these hardships. Many of us never recover from the shock of discovering that life on earth is more like a classroom than Club Med…When you think the purpose of life is to do or get or accomplish you will always feel like a failure when things don’t turn out as planned. When you understand that life is a classroom in which success means growing into the best human being possible, you begin evaluating yourself and your experiences from a totally different point of view.
— Barbara DeAngelis
Some people wish for a life of no problems, but I would never wish such a life for any of you. What I wish for is the great inner strength to solve your problems meaningfully and grow. Problems are learning and growing experiences.
— Peace Pilgrim
You’re always free to change your mind and choose a different future.
— Richard Bach
Every happening great and small is a parable whereby God speaks to us, and the art of life is to get the message.
— Malcom Muggeridge
What we do not admit to consciousness appears in our life as fate.
— Carl Jung
We don’t receive wisdom; we must discover it for ourselves after a journey that no one can take for us or spare us.
— Marcel Proust