"MOTIVATIONAL QUOTES FOR TEENS"
SUBMITTED BY TEENS
"Some see things as they are and ask why;
I dream of things that never were and ask why not!"
Robert Kennedy --- Contributed by QA
"The only place SUCCESS comes before WORK is in the dictionary."
Vidal Sassoon
--- Contributed by Matt K., Age 16 --- Ohio
--- Contributed by Katie, Age 17 --- Oregon
--- ( Author identified by Ronn Blaha --- thanks! )
"If you do not want to be forgotten,
When you are dead and rottin,
Either write things worth reading,
Or do things worth the writing."
Benjamin Franklin --- Contributed by Glenn S., Age 14 --- Pennsylvania
"If you waste your days with your tongue silent,
You'll never know what it's like to talk.
If you keep your heart behind a wall,
You'll never know what it's like to love.
If you spend your life on the edge of the cliff,
You'll never know what it's like to fly."
Daniel O'Shea
"If all the world is a stage... I want better lighting!"
Sarah, Age 15 --- Pennsylvania
"I make it a rule of Christian duty
Never to go to a place
Where there is not room
For my Master as well as myself."
Unknown --- Contributed by Katie F., Age 17 --- Florida
"You must have faith and believe in yourself
Before you can accomplish your goal."
Joe G., Age 17 --- Pennsylvania
The Champion
"She does a little more.
The average runner runs until
The breath in her is gone,
But the champion has a goal in mind,
That makes her carry on.
For rest, the average runner begs
When limp, her muscles grow
But the champion runs on leaden legs.
Her spirit makes them go.
The average Runners complacent
When she's done her best to score
But the champion does her best -
Then she does a little more."
Author Unknown --- Contributed by Tricia G., Age 17 --- Ohio
"You may be the Maker of Music...but I,
I am the Dreamer of DREAMS."
Author Unknown --- Contributed by Abbey M., Age 14 --- Indiana
"Do not go gentle into that dark night
Old age should burn and rave at close of day
Rage, Rage against the dying of the light."
Dylan Thomas --- Submitted by Holly E., Age 17 --- Iowa
Fire Dance
" Anyone can play with fire.
But to learn to dance with it,
It has to become a part of you.
Sometimes you will get burned,
There are those who like it."
Shannon O, Age 18 --- Utah
"Wherever there is a human being,
There is an opportunity for kindness."
Seneca --- Contributed by Jamie W., Age 16 --- Kentucky
"You can complain because rosebushes have thorns
Or rejoice because the thornbush has a rose..
It is all up to you!"
Found on a calendar --- Author Unknown
--- Submitted by Emily R., Age 16 ---South Carolina
--- Sent to us courtesy of Charles Nelson
--- West Florence High School, South Carolina
"Never frown even when you're sad,
Because you never know
When someone's falling in love with your smile."
Author Unknown --- Dhalya, Age 18 --- New York
"I am a glorious being. A miracle.
That which is in GOD, is also in me.
I survive all storms,
And like a tree planted by the water,
I shall not be moved."
Susan L. Taylor --- Submitted By Concitta C., Age 19
"Heal the past, live the present, Dream the future."
Author Unknown --- Contributed by Ruby M., Age 16 --- Hawaii
"If you always do what you always did,
You'll always get what you always got."
Unknown --- Contributed by Mandy W., Age 17 --- Virginia
"I was once told that love is blind
And when you can't see what's coming,
You can't protect yourself, from the broken heart."
Robert S., Age 18 --- Nova Scotia, Canada
"When the bell tolls,
Most will not have fully experienced life.
Be true to yourself, not others.
Follow your dreams, not expectations.
Live for the day, as if you were a child.
We must all remain young at heart to attain true happiness."
Angelo B., Age 19 --- British Columbia, Canada
"We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark;
The real tragedy is when men are afraid of the light."
Plato --- Contributed by Amy Y., Age 19 --- Texas
"Failure is not falling down;
It is remaining there when you have fallen."
Author Unknown --- Contributed by Julie, Age 15 --- Michigan
"I'll never use that phrase again,
That I first learned a way back when,
That ties me up so I don't win.
"I can't" - a phrase that's not for me!
It's not the goal that I will see,
For I determine what will be.
If I by accident forget and say "I can't"
Then it's a bet
That I will quickly add a "yet."
There's nothing here that I can't do,
My dreams I know can all come true.
"Can't yet" is what I choose to do.
I can and so can you!!!"
Author Unknown --- Contributed by Tricia G., Age 17
"You must always push the limits
Because if you never fail
You will never succeed."
Sent in by Kristen L., Age 15 --- Colorado
"Your toughest opponent is the little voice inside you
Telling you to stop."
Unknown --- ( our track team's quote this year )
--- Submitted by Tara W., Age 15
"Courage is not the absence of fear,
But rather the judgment that something else
Is more important than fear."
Ambrose Redmoon --- Contributed by Shannon O., Age 18 --- Utah
"A dream is a wish your heart makes."
Contributed by Lisa H., Age 13 --- Michigan
"Sunshine is delicious,
Rain is refreshing,
Wind braces us up,
Snow is exhilarating;
There's really no such thing as bad weather,
Only different kinds of good weather."
Author Unknown --- Contributed by Ashley W., Age 14 --- Virginia
"Whoever you are,
There is someone younger who thinks you are perfect.
There is some job that will go undone
If you don't do it.
There is someone who would miss you
If you were gone.
There is a space that you alone can fill."
Jacob Brande --- Contributed by Karen T., Age 17 --- Tennessee
"Study, review, practice, succeed...
It's in that order you can truly achieve."
My psychology professor
--- Contributed by Casandra R., Age 17 --- Hawaii
" A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable,
But more useful than a life spent doing nothing."
George Bernard Shaw --- Contributed by Erin D., Age 16 --- Arizona
"I looked up at the clouds one day
And noticed they keep going,
No matter how bad the weather gets,
Nothing can possess the clouds to stop."
Angie C., Age 14 --- Pennsylvania
"If you can't sleep,
Don't count sheep,
Talk to the shepherd."
Jennifer T., Age 18 --- Kentucky
"There are many things in life
That will catch your eye,
But only a few will catch your heart...
Pursue those."
Unknown --- Submitted by Dana G., Age 17 --- Michigan
"Your words are heard with the ears,
But understood with the heart."
Amanda K., Age 15 --- Wisconsin
"Friendship is two souls in one body."
Unknown --- Contributed by Hanim, Age 18 --- Malaysia
"I am not what I think I am....I am not what you think I am.
I am what I think you think I am."
Unknown --- Contributed by Neisha B., Age 15 --- North Carolina
"If a window of opportunity appears,
Don't pull down the shade."
Author Unknown --- Contributed by Julie, Age 15 --- Michigan
"When it is dark enough, you can see the stars."
Charles A. Beard --- Sent by Laurie P., Age 19 --- California
"If you don't fight the battle today, when will you fight it?"
Unknown --- Helen T., Age 15 --- Texas
"Always keep something beautiful in sight,
even if it is just a daisy in a jam jar."
Amy Y., Age 19 --- Texas
"I'd rather fall flat on my face than on my butt
Because at least I'm still going forward."
Author Unknown --- Submitted by Lianne H., Age 14 --- Hawaii
IF by Rudyard Kipling
"If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too:
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give away to hating
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;
If you can dream-and not make dreams your master;
If you can think-and not make thought your aim,
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same:
If you can hear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools;
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a work about your loss:
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the will which says to them: "Hold on!"
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kinds-nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much:
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the earth and everything that's in it,
And-which is more-you'll be a man, my son!"
Contributed by Bethany J., Age 18 --- Kansas
"To dream is to pave an unwinding road to your future."
John P., Age 19
"The best way to make your dreams come true ...
Is to wake up."
J.M. Power --- Contributed by Amanda G., Age 15
"I asked God for health; that I might do greater things;
I was given infirmity, that I might do better things.
I asked for strength, that I might achieve;
I was made weak, that I might learn to obey.
I asked for riches, that I might be happy;
I was given poverty, that I might be wise.
I asked for power, that I might have the praise of men;
I was given weakness, that I might feel the need of God.
I asked for all things, that I might enjoy life;
I was given real life that I might enjoy all things.
I got nothing I asked for, but everything I had hoped for;
Almost despite myself, my unspoken prayers were answered.
I am, among all men, most richly blessed."
A prayer found in the pocket of a young, Unknown, confederate soldier
--- Who met his death on a Civil War battlefield:
--- Contributed by Becky R., Age 16, Ohio
"It takes as much courage to have tried and failed
As it does to have tried and succeeded."
Unknown --- Contributed by Katie P., Age 18 --- Maine
"Fill your life with great music,
Great friends and great fun
And it'll be a party."
Vicki J., Age 16 --- London, England
"Pain is the discomfort created by disorder.
It is not your enemy
But merely the proof that you exist."
Brandon P., Age 17 --- Michigan
"Keep your head and your heart going in the right direction,
And you won't have to worry about you feet."
Author Unknown --- Submitted by Mark F., Age 17 --- Indiana
"The minute you start talking
About what you're going to do if you lose,
You've lost."
Author Unknown --- Contributed by Ashley W., Age 14 --- Virginia
"With three words
I can sum up everything I've learned about life:
It goes on."
Robert Frost --- Contributed by Karen T., Age 17 --- Tennessee
--- Author's name supplied by Jill G., Age 18 --- Pennsylvania
"Always take a chance.
Never say you can't."
Unknown --- Contributed by Casandra R., Age 17 --- Hawaii
"Be kind,
For everyone you meet is fighting a harder battle."
Plato --- Contributed by Erin D., Age 16 --- Arizona
"Value your friends more than you value the friendship."
Angie C., Age 14 --- Pennsylvania
"Dream as if you'll live forever.
Live as if you'll die today."
James Dean
--- Submitted by Dana G., Age 17 --- Michigan
--- Contributed by Billy H., Age 15 --- South Carolina
"If there be sorrow
Let it be for things
Undone
Undreamed
Unrealized
Unattained
To these add one:
Love withheld...
..Restrained."
Mari Evans --- Contributed by Jamie B., Age 17 --- Massachusetts
"Of all the beautiful things I have seen,
Those things which lie unseen
Amaze and inspire me far more."
Contributed by Jason Q. --- Brookstone School --- Georgia
"Sometimes you must stand alone just to make sure you still can."
Unknown --- Contributed by Leslie H., Age 17 --- Missouri
"Even the most difficult things can be accomplished...
as long as you have the courage to start."
Contributed by Brian D., Age 17 --- New Jersey
"Do not spoil what you have
By desiring what you have not;
But remember that what you have now
Was once among the things you only hoped for."
The Vatican Sayings, Epicures
--- Contributed by Amy Y.s, Age 19 --- Texas
"To gain that which is worth having,
It may be necessary to lose everything else."
Bernadette Devlin --- Submitted by Michael M., Age17 --- Ohio
"Mistakes are a fact of life.
It is the response to the error that counts."
Nikki Giovanni --- Contributed by Lianne H., Age 14 --- Hawaii
"The answers to everything lie within our hearts,
And cannot be understood by our heads."
Contributed by Brian D., Age 17 --- New Jersey
"Nothing ventured, nothing gained."
Contributed by Jason Q. --- Brookstone School --- Georgia
"All our dreams,
All our hopes,
All our aspirations,
They all add up to equal one thing;
Our life.
Without them,
Life isn't what it was meant to be."
Aaron T., Age 17 --- Michigan