Look (At These) Before You Leap: 29 Inspiring Quotes To Jumpstart Your Mojo

We’re in a rut somewhere between New Year optimism and general winter malaise. And when we feel ourselves drifting a little, we remember that others have gone before us, experiencing the same doubts, frustrations, hangnails and hang-ups. So maybe we should stop talking and start listening. Sometimes it takes seeing things through another’s eyes to get a better view. A little inspiration as you prepare to leap into the next new thing in your life:our time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.

STEVE JOBS Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people.

ELEANOR ROOSEVELT You can’t please everyone, and you can’t make everyone like you.

KATIC COURIC The great acts of love are done by those who are habitually performing small acts of kindness.

VICTOR HUGO Be patient with yourself. Self-growth is tender; it’s holy ground. There’s no greater investment.

STEVEN COVEY And now that you don’t have to be perfect, you can be good.

JOHN STEINBECK Knowing what must be done does away with fear.

ROSA PARKS The way we talk to our children becomes their inner voice.

PEGGY O’MARA Take a chance, take a risk, find that passion. Rekindle it. Fall in love all over again. It’s really worth it

.BRYAN CRANSTON Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another: ‘What! You too? I thought I was the only one.

’C.S. LEWIS If you’re creating anything at all, it’s really dangerous to care about what people think

.KRISTEN WIIG Do not become a stranger to yourself by blending in with everyone else.

DODINSKY Begin challenging your assumptions. Your assumptions are the windows on the world. Scrub them off every once in a while or the light won’t come in.

ALAN ALDA Sometimes you just have to put on lip-gloss and pretend to be psyched.

MINDY KALINGI had to resign myself, many years ago, that I’m not too articulate when it comes to explaining how I feel about things. But my music does it for me, it really does. There, in the chords and melodies, is everything I want to say.

DAVID BOWIE Leave every place you go, everything you touch, a little better for your having been there.

JULIE ANDREWS People will make a life in their own terms, whether they are deaf or colorblind or autistic or whatever. And their world will be quite as rich and interesting and full as our world.

OLIVER SACKS If you’re someone people count on, particularly in difficult moments, that’s a sign of a life lived honorably

RACHEL MADDOW There are two kinds of people, those who do the work and those who take the credit. Try to be in the first group; there is less competition there.

INDIRA GANDHI Don’t ask kids what they want to be when they grow up but what problems do they want to solve. This changes the conversation from who do I want to work for, to what do I need to learn to be able to do that.

JAIME CASAP You want to perform a miracle? Forgive yourself.

RUNE LAZULI Give people high fives just for getting out of bed. Being a person is hard sometimes.

KID PRESIDENT Don’t say ‘maybe’ if you want to say ‘no.’

PAULO COELHOI do take my work seriously and the way to do that is not to take yourself too seriously.

ALAN RICKMAN You could certainly say that I’ve never underestimated myself, there’s nothing wrong with being ambitious.

CHANCELOR ANGELA MERKEL I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.

MICHAEL JORDAN Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do, so throw off the bowlines, sail away from safe harbor, catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore, Dream, Discover.

MARK TWAIN They said you can’t go to the moon. They said you can’t put cheese inside the pizza crust, but NASA did it. They had to, because the cheese kept floating off in space.

STEPHEN COLBERT People who love to eat are always the best people.

JULIA CHILD