Inspirational quotations for survivors

[HealingHearts]

Never be afraid to fall apart because it is an opportunity to rebuild yourself the way you wish you had been all along
--Rae Smith

[Beachlady]

A couple I LOVE from Elie Weisel, a Holocaust survivor:

"The opposite of love is not hate, it is indifference."

"Life is not a fist; life is an open hand, waiting for another hand to grasp it in friendship"

"Every moment counts, every second matters"

{he is a really amazing author and teacher, too}

[HealingHearts]

...you must always remember:
You are braver than you believe,
stronger than you seem,
and smarter than you think.

Winnie the Pooh to Christopher Robin

[Beachlady]

Healing Hearts,
Those are great!!! Gotta love Pooh.....

Beachlady

[fightinback]

My care worker keeps saying to me

"It is what it is"

no idea where it comes from, but it helps me to get some perspective

[HealingHearts]

You can't start the next chapter of your life if you keep rereading the last one.

However ... For those of us with dissociation ... It's hard to comprehend when you skip chapters...you have to go back and read these, then it will all make sense.

HH

[lonelylife]

I have a few--

The peace you seek is there, it's there between all the traffic in your mind, stop and rest for peace will find you if you let it. ~Mike Dolan

Renew thyself completely each day; do it again, and again, and forever again. ~Chinese inscription cited by Thoreau in Walden

My flag is raised high today. For others to see, sure. But more so to find which way my wind is blowing. Almost time to chart a course. ~Jeb Dickerson

We must be our own before we can be another's. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

And--

We have all a better guide in ourselves, if we would attend to it, than any other person can be. ~Jane Austen

Looking back, you realize that a very special person passed briefly through your life, and that person was you. It is not too late to become that person again. ~Robert Brault

It is not easy to find happiness in ourselves, and it is not possible to find it elsewhere. ~Agnes Repplier

I took a deep breath and listened to the old bray of my heart. I am. I am. I am. ~Sylvia Plath

A few more--

Once your awareness becomes a flame, it burns up the whole slavery that the mind has created. ~Osho

A wise man never loses anything if he have himself. ~Michel de Montaigne, translated

The finest thing in the world is knowing how to belong to oneself. ~Michel de Montaigne, Of Solitude

He that respects himself is safe from others. He wears a coat of mail that none can pierce.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow


And this one gives me thought, reminds me of the abusers, and how they try to dumb us down emotionally and often intellectually--

What a distressing contrast there is between the radiant intelligence of the child and the feeble mentality of the average adult.

[Beachlady]

Another one I just got:
"The enemy of healing is not only trauma; the even more subversive enemy of healing is detatchment, trivialization, stagnation, and the loss of feeling and meaning." - Diana Fosha

and, I like this one even better:

"We need to be held in the heart and mind of another" - Diana Fosha
(love this one because I think it's what we do for each other here on this site)

Beachlady

[greyeyed]

This one's always encouraged me:

“Be a first rate version of yourself, not a second rate version of someone else” -Judy Garland

[Harmony]

Dear Isurvivors,
This is a very ancient thread but has so much wisdom. Feel free to add to it. Maybe it should be a sticky at the top.

Harmony