"MOTIVATIONAL QUOTES FOR TEENS"
SUBMITTED BY TEENS
"Everyone deserves at least one chance, and even sometimes a second.
So, allow yourself to meet people and have fun with them.
The more friends you make, the happier you will be.
Life is too short to sit around and wonder what if?
Get out there and live already!
Time will not slow down not matter how much you want it to.
I think that sometimes we need to be reminded
That our time here is precious and we should make the best of it."
Kimberly S., Age 13 --- Florida
"Wherever you are, I am there too."
Ludwig Van Beethoven --- Submitted by Erin C., Age 16 --- Minnesota
"Love is like a flower.
It has a beginning when it grows,
Then it blossoms to become a beautiful thing.
Then one day it begins to die,
But its memory lives on forever."
Author Unknown --- Sent in by Kate, Age 13
"In life, you don't find too many people
With the ability to give you butterflies.
So when you do, tell that person,
Otherwise life would be like living in your own personal prison."
Doug from "Dawson's Creek" --- Sent in by Breanna, Age 15 --- Minnesota
"I just want real reactions.
I want people to laugh from the gut,
Be sad from the gut - or get angry from the gut."
Andy Kaufman --- Sent in by Steve H., Age 15 --- Pennsylvania
"Friendship is the hardest thing in the world to explain.
It's not something you can be taught in school;
And if you haven't learned the value of friendship,
You haven't really learned anything at all."
Muhammad Ali --- Sent in by Megan B., Age 15 --- Illinois
"Those who say sunshine brings happiness
Have never danced in the rain."
Author Unknown --- Sent in by Rachel, Age 16 --- New York
My One True Friend
I know that we will be friends to the end.
I know that we will always be there for each other.
I know that we will do anything to stay friends.
I know that I found you for a purpose. I needed you.
I know that through the hard times we always make each other laugh.
I know that you are one of a kind and nothing can change you.
I know that anything that is bothering me,
I can always turn you for help.
I know that even if some hot boy comes into our lives,
We will still stay together.
I know that all these things are true,
That's why you are my one true friend.
I know that we will grow old together,
And I thank you for being my friend.
Copyright © 2000 Carrie Austin
"Failure isn't failure if a lesson is learned."
Mr. Chiberta --- Sent in by Nicole T., Age 14 --- Ohio
"Things don't change. You change your way of looking, that's all."
Carlos Castaneda --- Sent in by Jessica Lynn, Age 14 --- South Carolina
"Live life to the fullest!
You're only young once
And that excuse won't last forever!"
Author Unknown --- Sent in by Megan, Age 15 --- Oregon
"Until you do what you believe in,
You don't know whether you believe in it or not."
Leo Tolstoy --- Sent in by Rebecca, Age 14 --- New York
My Sister
She was always the center of attention,
She partied every night
She was always moving around,
From every place she would take flight
I always admired her
Though I worried about her so,
But as I grew up I realized
The pain she didn't let show
Drugs gave her peace
Made her feel like she belonged
But there was no way to show her
She was tremendously wrong
Then one day everything changed
And the world as she knew it came down
And in the depths of her womb
A tiny baby was found
In three short years
I've seen it all
I've seen her rise
And I've seen her fall
To look at her now
Would blow your mind
There's hardly a trace of her old self
That you could find
She's still her out-going self
But she knows wrong from right
She's a young woman and a mother
And I'm glad she found her light.
Name withheld, Age 15 --- Florida
"It is such a lonely place, the land of tears."
Antoine de Saint-Exupery --- Submitted by Kali, Age 14 --- Michigan
MYSELF
I have to live with myself, and so,
I want to be fit for myself to know;
I want to be able as days go by
Always to look myself straight in the eye;
I don't want to stand with the setting sun
And hate myself for the things I've done.
I don't want to keep on a closet shelf
A lot of secrets about myself,
And fool myself as I come and go
Into thinking that nobody else will know
The kind of person I really am;
I don't want to dress myself up in a sham.
I want to go out with my head erect,
I want to deserve all man's respect;
But here in the struggle for fame and self,
I want to be able to like myself.
I don't want to think as I come and go
That I'm bluster and bluff and empty show.
I never can hide myself from me,
I see what others may never see,
I know what others may never know,
I never can fool myself and so,
Whatever happens,I want to be
Self-respecting and conscience free.
Edgar Albert Guest (1881-1959) Sent in by Katie D., Age 16 --- Pennsylvania
(I would like to dedicate this poem to one of my friends, Joanne Rowland,who always taught me to smile and have courage when things are down. Sheherself had courage when she died of cancer one year ago. She fought a goodfight but it was her time to go. And I believe that this poem stands forwhat she was, is, and believed in.)
"Bad times, hard times,
And all the clouds you've got to walk through are nothing.
They just make the sun that much brighter
When you finally come through."
Anonymous --- Sent in by Faustina D., Age 15 --- South Carolina
"What happened, happened; what is done is done.
Nothing can change it, no one can bring them back,
So move on with your life.
You are bound to see them sometime, you just never know when."
Author Unknown --- Sent in by Rachael, Age 14 --- New York
"Isn't it weird that day by day nothing seems to change,
But over time everything is different?"
From Calvin and Hobbes --- Sent in by Maureen, Age 17 --- New Jersey
"It's better to know and want the cause of your hardships
Than to not know and hate the cause."
David, Age 17 --- Pennsylvania
"The minute is passing and no matter how hard you try
You'll never be able to bring it back."
Author Unknown --- Sent in by Stephanie L., Age 15 --- Singapore
"Don't trip over dimes picking up pennies."
Author Unknown --- Sent in by Jennie K., Age 17 --- Pennsylvania
"Ideas are like waves, you can't stop them from coming,
So just sit back and let them flow."
Copyright © 2000 Meredith Lindhorst --- Nebraska
"If something bad happens, just remember this;
God has reasons for everything that happens, it wouldn't happen if he didn't.
Tell yourself this if you think you can't make it anymore."
Author Unknown --- Sent in by Josi F., Age 16 --- Nebraska
"If you help others, you will be helped,
Perhaps tomorrow, perhaps in one hundred years,
But you will be helped.
Nature must pay off the debt;
It is a mathematical law and all of life is mathematics."
Gurdjieff --- Sent in by Kim, Age 17 --- Wisconsin
"Happiness is like jam:
You can't spread even a little of it without getting it on yourself!"
Angela W., Age 16 --- Ontario, Canada
"And life is what we make it.
Always has been, always will be."
Grandma Moses --- Sent in by Ronny B., Age 17 --- California
"It's too easy just to try."
Kristine Lilly (US Women's National Soccer Team Member, and WWC champion)
--- Sent in by Ang, Age 17 --- Massachusetts
"That is, attention must be paid to not only what is said but how it is said; to what we wear, as well as how we wear it. In fact, we should be aware of all we do and of how we do all that we do."
Maya Angelou --- Sent in by Cara Joan D., Age 15 --- New York
"To seek the future is to have courage;
To seek the past is to be scared of your ability."
Copyright © 1999 Kendra Faith Ford
"Thirty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things you didn'tdo than by the ones you did. So, throw up the bowlines. Sail away form thesafe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream.Discover."
Author Unknown --- Sent in by Jessie, Age 15 --- Pennsylvania
"I lose my temper, but it's all over in a minute, said the student.
So is the atom bomb, the teacher replied,
But think of the damage it produces."
Author Unknown --- Sent in by Breanna, Age 15 --- Minnesota
"There is nothing more difficult,
And therefore more precious,
Than the ability to decide."
Author Unknown --- Sent in by Stephanie I., Age 16 --- Pennsylvania
"Love yourself first and everything else falls into line.
You really have to love yourself to get anything done in this world."
Lucille Ball --- Sent in by Anna H., Age 16 --- Canterbury, New Zealand
Working hard
Late at night
Mind keeps wand'ring
No end in sight
Nothing coming
Going blind
Thoughts of you
Drift through my mind
Patience wearing
Work not done
Mem'ries flooding
Up comes the sun
Hours spent
On work not done
Reason? Simple -
My love won
Copyright © 1999 Rachel Dahl
"Promise me Pooh that you won't forget me, ever,
Because if I thought you might, I would never leave."
Christopher Robin, Winnie The Pooh
--- Sent in by Nicole L., Age 17 --- Ohio
"Always focusing on your faults is like focusing on the rain.
You are unable to see the rainbow in front of you."
Marisa Joy, Age 16 --- California
"It must be borne in mind that tragedy of life doesn't lie in reaching yourgoal. The tragedy lies in having no goal to reach. It isn't calamity to diewith dreams unfulfilled, but it is a calamity not to dream. It is not adisaster to be unable to capture your ideal, but it a disaster to have noideal to capture. It is not a disgrace not to reach the stars, but it is adisgrace to have no stars to reach for. Not failure, but low aim is a sin."
Benjamin E. Mayes --- Sent in by Robin, Age 15 --- New York
"Everything happens for a reason.
Either you can use your heart and desire to fight the bad,
Or you can choose the easy way; feel sorry for yourself
And miss out on opportunities that present a lifetime of excitement."
Copyright © 1999 Tracy Dumais, Age 17
"Everything has God's fingerprints on it."
Author Unknown --- Sent in by Ellie L., Age 18 --- Pennsylvania
"You never know what you're missing out on until you take a risk."
Carey Tinkelenberg --- Sent in by Chad, Age 16 --- Massachusetts
"Life is too short to wonder what other people are thinking,
Or saying about you.
The only person that has the right to judge you is God.
On the other hand, when you make a comment about someone,
Think of how bad it hurts when someone makes a comment about you."
Nick Andrew H., Age 15 --- Ohio
"A man is a success if he gets up in the morning
And goes to bed at night
And in between does what he wants to do."
Bob Dylan --- Sent in by Emily S., Age 15 --- Connecticut
"Optimism is the cheerful frame of mind
That enables a teakettle to sing, though in water up to it's nose."
Author Unknown --- Sent in By Adam, Age 15 --- Missouri
"Looking into the future is so bright, it's burning my eyes!"
Author Unknown --- Sent in by Jenine, Age 17 --- Alberta, Canada
"Trust in God. Why would he give you a dream that you would never be able toreach. So if your given a dream then chase after it, for God wouldn't have givenit to you if he was going to take it away with no sign of hope."
Copyright © 2000 Amber E.
"Offense wins games, defense wins championships."
Author Unknown --- Sent in by Allix Dawn S., Age 15 --- Saskatchewan, Canada
"Don't let your past hold you down and don't let the fire of your spirit fade out because someone is cold.If you got it --you've got it. If you don't...know that there is something there.. real special.. & you keep trying."
JayTee --- Sent in by Jenny T., Age 17 --- Ohio