Sarita’s Top 20 Favorite Quotes on
Communication, Teamwork, Hope & Optimism, Adapting & Thriving
“The biggest communication problem is we do not listen to understand. We listen to reply.”
–Stephen Covey
“Who you are speaks so loudly I can’t hear what you’re saying.” –Ralph Waldo Emerson
“The most important thing in communication is to hear what isn’t being said.” –Peter Drucker
“Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless.” –Mother Teresa
“Wise men speak because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something.” –Plato
“Speak when you are angry, and you’ll make the best speech you’ll ever regret.”
–Laurence J. Peter
“If you don’t like something change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude. Don’t complain.” –Maya Angelou
“Don’t let what you can’t do stop you from doing what you can do.” –John Wooden
“We cannot hold a torch to light another’s path without brightening our own.” –Martin Luther King, Jr.
“I believe that every single event in life that happens is an opportunity to choose love over fear.” –Oprah Winfrey
“Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the power to turn a life around.” –Leo Buscaglia
“Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.” –Neale Donald Walsch
“A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity. An optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.” –Winston Churchill
“With the new day comes new strengths and new thoughts.” –Eleanor Roosevelt
“Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see a shadow.” –Helen Keller
“Now and then it’s good to pause in our pursuit of happiness and just be happy.” –Guillaume Apollinaire
“You must either modify your dreams or magnify your skills.” –Jim Rohn
“You can’t change the people around you, but you can change the people you choose to be around.” –Anonymous
“People don’t change until the pain of staying the same is greater than the pain of change.”
–Tony Robbins
“It’s not the load that breaks you down, it’s the way you carry it.” –Lena Horne
Sarita’s Favorite Inspirational Verses
Anyway
People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered;
Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives;
Be kind anyway.
If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies;
Succeed anyway.
If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you;
Be honest and frank anyway.
What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight;
Build anyway.
If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous;
Be happy anyway.
The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow;
Do good anyway.
Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough;
Give your best anyway.
You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and God;
It was never between you and them anyway.
–Mother Teresa Community Member
(Also shared as closing page in Sarita’s 2nd book Say What You Mean in a Nice Way.)
Don’t Quit
When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,
When the road you’re trudging seems all uphill,
When funds are low and the debts are high,
And you want to smile but you have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit,
Rest if you must, but don’t you quit.
Life is queer with its twists and turns,
As every one of us sometimes learns,
And many a failure turns about,
When he might have won if he’d stuck it out.
Don’t give up, though the pace seems slow –
You may succeed with another blow.
Often the goal is nearer than
It seems to a faint and faltering man;
Often the struggler has given up
When he might have captured the victor’s cup,
And he learned too late, when the night slipped down,
How close he was to the golden crown.
Success is failure turned inside out –
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt,
And you never can tell how close you are –
It may be near when it seems afar;
So stick to the fight when you’re hardest hit –
It’s when things seem worst that you mustn’t quit.
-Author Unknown
I Know Something Good About You
Wouldn’t this old world be better,
if the folks we meet would say;
I know something good about you,
and then treat us just that way!
Wouldn’t it be fine and dandy,
if each hand-clasped warm and true,
carried with it this assurance,
I know something good about you!
Wouldn’t things here be more pleasant
if the good that’s in us all,
were the only thing about us
that folks bothered to recall!
Wouldn’t life be lots more happy
if we’d praise the good we see,
for there’s such a lot of goodness
in the worst of you and me.
Wouldn’t it be nice to practice
this fine way of thinking too;
You know something good about me,
I know something good about you!
-This poem shared by Lisa Carroll, participant in Sarita’s 9/11/11 seminar in Washington, DC
Finish Each Day and Be Done with It
“Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities have crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day. You shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.”
-Ralph Waldo Emerson
Doubt – Faith
Doubt sees the obstacles, faith sees the way.
Doubt sees the darkest night, faith sees the day.
Doubt dreads to take a step, faith soars on high.
Doubt questions “Who believes?” Faith answers “I.”
-Anonymous
Live With Intention
Live with intention.
Walk to the edge.
Listen hard.
Practice wellness.
Play with abandon.
Laugh.
Choose with no regret.
Continue to learn.
Appreciate your friends.
Do what you love.
Live as if this is all there is.
-Mary Anne Radmacher