20 Life lessons from literature

20 Life lessons from literature.

1.  “It’s up to us how we get from A to B to C to D. I might never light up the sky. None of us might. It doesn’t matter. What matters is: did you do the best you could with the tools you had at hand?”
― Christina Patterson, The Art of Not Falling Apart

2. “The only thing you should be faking is confidence. If you don’t have it yet, pretend that you do. Pretend you’re not nervous, pretend you’re not scared, and after a while, the pretend part disappears.”
― Patricia V. Davis, The Diva Doctrine: 16 Universal Principles Every Woman Needs to Know

3. “‘Are you ready?’ Klaus asked finally.
‘No,’ Sunny answered.
‘Me neither,’ Violet said, ‘but if we wait until we’re ready we’ll be waiting for the rest of our lives, Let’s go.’”
— Lemony Snicket, The Ersatz Elevator

4. “To be rejected by someone doesn’t mean you should also reject yourself or that you should think of yourself as a lesser person. It doesn’t mean that nobody will ever love you anymore. Remember that only ONE person has rejected you at the moment, and it only hurt so much because to you, that person’s opinion symbolized the opinion of the whole world, of God.”
― Jocelyn Soriano, Mend My Broken Heart

5. “The truth is, what you do matters. What you do today matters. What you do every day matters. Successful people just do the things that seem to make no difference in the act of doing them and they do them over and over and over until the compound effect kicks in.”
― Jeff Olson, The Slight Edge

6. “I firmly believe that we are all given signs and dreams and put in situations that define who we were and who we are to become. All of it points towards our destiny. All we need to do is listen carefully to the messages and follow our dreams. It is in our dreams that we find our true identities and where our destiny awaits.”
― Isaiah Washington, A Man from Another Land: How Finding My Roots Changed My Life

7. “My dad always said that when you’re struggling with something, look at all the people around you and realise that every single person you see is struggling with something, and to them, it’s just as hard as what you’re going through.”
— Nicholas Sparks, Dear John

8. “This is an important lesson to remember when you’re having a bad day, a bad month, or a shitty year. Things will change: you won’t feel this way forever. And anyway, sometimes the hardest lessons to learn are the ones your soul needs most. I believe you can’t feel real joy unless you’ve felt heartache. You can’t have a sense of victory unless you know what it means to fail. You can’t know what it’s like to feel holy until you know what it’s like to feel really fucking evil. And you can’t be birthed again until you’ve died.”
― Kelly Cutrone, If You Have to Cry, Go Outside: And Other Things Your Mother Never Told You

9. “People look for greatness only in the extraordinary and completely overlook the wonder of the ordinary.”
― Ann Tatlock, Promises to Keep

10. “Whenever you feel like criticizing any one…just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had.” 
― F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

11. “First, let no one rule your mind or body. Take special care that your thoughts remain unfettered… Give men your ear, but not your heart. Show respect for those in power, but don’t follow them blindly. Judge with logic and reason, but comment not. Consider none your superior whatever their rank or station in life. Treat all fairly, or they will seek revenge. Be careful with your money. Hold fast to your beliefs and others will listen.”
― Christopher Paolini, Eragon

12. “If you stumble about believability, what are you living for? Love is hard to believe, ask any lover. Life is hard to believe, ask any scientist. God is hard to believe, ask any believer. What is your problem with hard to believe?”
― Yann Martel, Life of Pi

13. “Love, like everything else in life, should be a discovery, an adventure, and like most adventures, you don’t know you’re having one until you’re right in the middle of it.”
― E.A. Bucchianeri, Brushstrokes of a Gadfly

14. “Sometimes just getting through each day requires almost superhuman strength.”
― Jojo Moyes, After You

15. “Don’t let others tell you what you can’t do. Don’t let the limitations of others limit your vision. If you can remove your self-doubt and believe in yourself, you can achieve what you never thought possible.”
― Roy T. Bennett, The Light in the Heart

16. “Bran thought about it. ‘Can a man still be brave if he’s afraid?’
‘That is the only time a man can be brave,’ his father told him.”
― George R.R. Martin, A Game of Thrones

17. “Certain things in life simply have to be experienced -and never explained. Love is such a thing.”
― Paulo Coelho, Maktub

18. “And I just think that if you believe in something and you want it so much and you’re not hurting anyone else, you have to go for it. Which sometimes means taking a risk, even if it’s scary. But the thing you want most to happen doesn’t stand a chance unless you give it one.”
― Susane Colasanti, Take Me There

19.“There’s always going to be bad stuff out there. But here’s the amazing thing — light trumps darkness, every time. You stick a candle into the dark, but you can’t stick the dark into the light.” 
― Jodi Picoult, Change of Heart

20. “To choose doubt as a philosophy of life is akin to choosing immobility as a means of transportation.”
― Yann Martel, Life of Pi