1.
Promise me you will not spend so much time treading water and trying to keep your head above the waves that you forget, truly forget, how much you have always loved to swim.
Tyler Knott Gregson, Typewriter Series #61
2.
This body is resilient. It can endure all kinds of things. My body offers me the power of presence. My body is powerful.
Roxane Gay, Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body
3.
Wanna fly, you got to give up the sh*t that weighs you down.
Toni Morrison, Song of Solomon
4.
Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.
Samuel Beckett, Worstward Ho
5.
Doubt kills more dreams than failure ever will.
Suzy Kassem, Rise Up and Salute the Sun
6.
The world only exists in your eyes. You can make it as big or as small as you want.
F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Crack Up
7.
And now that you don’t have to be perfect, you can be good.
John Steinbeck, East of Eden
8.
I took a deep breath and listened to the old bray of my heart. I am. I am. I am.
Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar
9.
There is a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in
Leonard Cohen, “Anthem”
10.
Now that I knew fear, I also knew it was not permanent. As powerful as it was, its grip on me would loosen. It would pass.
Louise Erdich, The Round House
11.
It’s not your job to be likable. It’s your job to be yourself.
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Washington Post
12.
The moment you doubt whether you can fly, you cease forever to be able to do it.
J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan
13.
I want you to remember who you are, despite the bad things that are happening to you. Because those bad things aren’t you. They are just things that happen to you. You need to accept that who you are and the things that happen to you, are not one and the same.
Colleen Hoover, Hopeless
14.
No need to hurry. No need to sparkle. No need to be anybody but oneself.
Virginia Woolf, A Room Of One’s Own
15.
Tomorrow is always fresh, with no mistakes in it yet.
L. M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables
16.
We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.
Oscar Wilde, Lady Windermere’s Fan
17.
Fear is what makes us human and it is in overcoming fear that we show our strength.
Bianca Marais, Hum If You Don’t Know the Words
18.
Failure is an answer. Rejection is an answer. Regret is an eternal question you will never have the answer to. ‘What if…’ ‘If only…’ ‘I wonder what would have…’ You will never, never know, and it will haunt you for the rest of your days.
Trevor Noah, Born a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood
19.
The true hero is flawed. The true test of a champion is not whether he can triumph, but whether he can overcome obstacles — preferably of his own making — in order to triumph.
Garth Stein, The Art of Racing in the Rain
20.
I never confused what I had with what I was.
Jonathan Safran Foer, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
21.
Do your thing and don’t care if they like it.
Tina Fey, Bossypants
H/T BuzzFeed, Preview photo credit: BuzzFeed