Over the years I've come across various quotes that stood out to me and were helpful or enlightening in some way. Here are the ones I most often share with clients.

Mental health is the ongoing process of dedication to reality at all costs.

~ M. Scott Peck, The Road Less Traveled

The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The next best time is now.

~ Chinese Proverb

It is never too late to be what you might have been.

~ George Eliot

We would worry less about what others think of us if we realized how seldom they do.

~ Ethel Barrett

Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.

~ Winston Churchill

Don't believe everything you think.

~ Unknown

Be yourself. Everyone else is already taken.

~ Oscar Wilde

Going to the hardware store to get milk.

~ 12 step saying to describe repeatedly pursuing a person or activity that can't possibly meet our needs.

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that frightens us most. We ask ourselves, "Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and famous?" Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that people won't feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in all of us. And when we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

~ Nelson Mandela

The great command will never be obsolete

Know thyself

New life bubbles in, we become something else,

Something we have not been, and therefore cannot know.

We shall go on finding out about ourselves

Forever and ever, and never come to the end.

~D.H. Lawrence

An old farmer had worked his crops for many years. One day his horse ran away. Upon hearing the news, his neighbors came to visit. "Such bad luck," they said sympathetically. "May be," the farmer replied. The next morning the horse returned, bringing with it three other wild horses. "How wonderful," the neighbors exclaimed. "May be," replied the old man. The following day, his son tried to ride one of the untamed horses, was thrown, and broke his leg. The neighbors again came to offer their sympathy on his misfortune. "May be," answered the farmer. The day after, military officials came to the village to draft young men into the army. Seeing that the son's leg was broken, they passed him by. The neighbors congratulated the farmer on how well things had turned out. "May be," said the farmer.

~ Taoist parable

If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you.

~ The Book of Thomas

Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans.

~ John Lennon