Through time there has been so many influential people that has come and gone. And with the beauty of the internet we’ve had the opportunity to discover a lot of famous words. In this post i have picked out 8 famous quotes that i have seen throughout my life, and i know that you will recognize some of these too.

These quotes have deep meaning and show wisdom about life that we may forget from time to time. Therefore it’s nice with a little reminder sometimes, helping us along the way. Providing a spark of hope, joy, and wonder to our experience.

This will be my interpretation of these quotes, and of course I might miss a few things, or you may not agree 100% with what i say here, and that is how it should be. Learn your own lessons from these quotes, and maybe I inspire a new perspective.

“Be like water making it’s way through cracks. Do not be assertive, but adjust to the object, and you shall find a way around or through it. If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves.

Empty your mind, be formless. Shapeless, like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle and it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now, water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend.”

– Bruce Lee

This famous quote by Bruce Lee can be applied to life in general, although it was his way of fighting, and a principle of his martial arts discipline.

Water is in constant flow, a fluid form that can go anywhere. It shapes continents, carves through rock yet so soft and light. You find yourself flowing through life, meeting obstacles and bumps in the road. No matter how big the obstacle, don’t be aggressive, stay in flow and you can always find a way around it. You adjust to the obstacle and you will find the path of least resistance, sometimes even dragging the object with you, until it falls away.

If you have an open mind and stay malleable, accepting everything as it is, you will learn from these obstacles and see why they are placed in your path.

Be silent and formless, adapting to anything that might come your way. Choose how and what you want to be, whatever makes you happy and what creates the most flow in your life. Adapting to all obstacles without tension. Leave your judgement, beliefs and emotions behind, just simply be. It is up to you if you want to flow or crash, both can be valuable in different scenarios, but crashing comes with a backlash.

“The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.” 

– Nelson Mandela

Going through life you will always have ups and downs, you will always fall, just to rise again, growing stronger and wiser. You might tell yourself you have never fallen, but this is an illusion, because you will always meet obstacles that will bring you down, feeling emotional despair and anxiety. Being ignorant of this fact ,or not, is up to you. But when life knocks you down, you don’t stay down feeling sorry for yourself, you find a way to get back up, learning from the experience, and moving on. This is where growth happens.

You might stay down for a while, it all depends on how hard you fell, but facing your fears and taking what you learned onwards, is what brings great transformation.

“You must be the change you wish to see in the world.”

– Mahatma Gandhi

You reap what you sow, you create the life you live. If you want happiness, gratitude and abundance in your life, you must create it. Take responsibility for your own happiness. If you’re going to wait for someone else to create it for you, it will never happen. Start to lead by being an example, some will follow you, some won’t, that is nothing to stay focused on.

If you’re happy, leading a life that makes you happy, that is beautiful. People will start to follow, because happiness is contagious and people want to feel the same way. If you want to create more abundance in the world, be the abundance, show everyone that they can share what they have and everything will come back to them. Give with love, and don’t expect anything in return.

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.”

–Martin Luther King Jr.

If you know someone that thrives on hate, anger and spite, manipulating others and tearing them down, do you think it will benefit them to be treated the same way? Together it will only multiply, and it will be a competition of who can bring the other one down until they give up. This creates internal conflicts and suppressed emotions, which will be used in the next confrontation to project negative emotions unto each other. This is a cycle of hate and violence, which will continue until the cycle is broken.

The only way is to take the high road, leading with love and compassion. Showing understanding without being dragged down and resorting to the same behavior. This way you will protect your own energy, reveal that there is another way, and most importantly, showing that you care. You will stop the internal conflict in yourself and stating the example that there is a way out of this.

“There is nothing permanent except change.”

–Heraclitus

This one kind of explains itself. The only constant in life is change, and it always will be. Nature is in constant change, your body changes, your mind changes, the world changes, the universe changes. The only option is to give up the illusion of control and bend to the flow of life. Accepting changes, and creating amazing changes of your own. Constantly learning, always growing, going on forever. Just like an immortal spiritual baby, learning the way of the universe.

“Love the life you live. Live the life you love.”

-Bob Marley

If you have the opportunity to choose to love your life, why wouldn’t you? If this is not possible for you, maybe you should change the life you live, change it to a life that you can love. This way you don’t have to be miserable working a job you dont like. Make the choices in your life that lays the groundwork for you to be able to love it. Create a daily life in which you do only things that you love. Loving your hobbies, loving your job, loving the people around you and loving your home.

With this implementation you can lead a life where you love every aspect, and not be miserable or depressed a single day for the rest of your life.

The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.”

–Socrates

It doesn’t matter which subject you deep dive into, you will always have more to learn, and you’ll never get to the stage of being all-knowing in this life, which is a good thing. In a video game where you have achieved all that you can achieve, and there is nothing more to gain, you would get bored. It is the same with your life. If you knew everything there is to know, what would you do?

In the universe it’s an infinite amount of knowledge, and you can’t possibly know it all until you turn into the all-knowing source itself. So why not enjoy the life you live, learn and grow, always knowing that there is something more for you out there. In my eyes that is a beautiful existence.

If you look at what you have in life, you’ll always have more. If you look at what you don’t have in life, you’ll never have enough.”

-Oprah Winfrey

If what you focus on in life is simply what you don’t have, and what is possible for you to acquire, you will never be satisfied. Most people grow up with this mindset, taught through generations where money, status and possessions equals success in life. This is something you can never get enough of, and there is always more to acquire, which keeps you away from experiencing gratitude and contentment.

If you instead focus on everything that you do have, you see that you have a lot to be grateful for. A family to love, a roof over your head, clean water, food, a steady income, and so on. This way it’s easier to compare yourself to others that aren’t as fortunate, who doesn’t have clean food and water, have lost family, not having a house with electricity or a stable country, perhaps. It really puts things into perspective, and you gain a new level of gratitude for your life.

Quotes can be a great thing. Small bitesize pieces of wisdom that you can sprinkle throughout your day, reminding you of things that are important to remember. They can be easily forgotten, so if you have some favorite quotes that you want to live by, you should write them down and keep them somewhere you will notice them every day. In this manner they will have more of an impact on your life.