2021: Quotes I Liked from Books I Read
Here are quotes I found interesting from books I read by athletes, activists, scholars, entertainers, preachers, businesspeople, Holocaust survivors and more in 2021.
“More often than not, our values are what lead us to the arena door—we’re willing to do something uncomfortable and daring because of our beliefs. And when we get in there and stumble or fall, we need our values to remind us why we went in, especially when we are facedown, covered in dust and sweat and blood.”
Brené Brown, Dare to Lead
“For in the end, the one thing where you must never settle for less is the calling that God has on your life, the purpose for which he has created you, the impact he designed you to make in the world.”
Erwin McManus, The Last Arrow
“When work is the primary orientation for life, the rest of life gets left behind.”
Michael Hyatt & Megan Hyatt Miller, Win at Work & Succeed at Life
“A coherent life is one lived in such a way that you can clearly connect the dots between three things: who you are; what you believe; what you are doing…It simply means you are living in alignment with your values and have not sacrificed your integrity along the way.”
Bill Burnett & Dave Evans, Designing Your Life
“We don’t need to do what we’re merely capable of doing. The trick is to figure out what we were made to do and then make some changes to keep current with who we’ve become.”
Bob Goff, Live in Grace, Walk in Love
“The beauty is not in poverty but in the courage that the poor still smile and have hope, in spite of everything. I do not admire hunger, damp or cold, but the disposition to face them, to smile and live on. ”
Mother Teresa
“Finding your true identity is a process of rooting out the lies and shedding layers that don’t serve you well in creating the life you were meant to live.”
John Ramstead, On Purpose with Purpose
“According to top researchers who reviewed hundreds of studies on this subject, the defining features of a meaningful life are ‘connecting and contributing to something beyond the self.’”
Tom Rath, Life’s Great Question
“Whether we acknowledge it or not, [our] decisions are being steered by the principles we believe in and consider to be most important: values that are working away in our subconscious.”
Mandeep Rai, The Values Compass
“Whenever there was an opportunity for it, one had to give them a why—an aim—for their lives, in order to strengthen them to bear the terrible how of their existence. Woe to him who saw no more sense in life, no aim, no purpose, and therefore no point in carrying on. He was soon lost.”
Viktor Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning
“Purpose in life is concerned with what we most deeply value, and purposeful living is concerned with whether we’re living for what matters most.”
Victor J. Strecher, Life on Purpose
“Igniting God’s vision starts with becoming more acutely aware of God’s presence in your life. Not just generally believing that God is present in the universe but understanding how He’s present in your ordinary situation, desiring to do extraordinary work in your life.”
Steven Furtick, Greater
“Life itself is a state of siege. But a sense of calling helps because it provides the bull’s-eye at the center of the widening concentric circles that are life’s possibilities. Modern life assaults us with an infinite range of things we could do, we would love to do, or some people tell us we should do.”
Os Guinness, The Call
“Once you’ve begun to cultivate an emerging passion, it’s only a matter of time before you’re liable to ask yourself some simple yet significant questions: How can I spend more of my time and energy pursuing this new passion? How can I make it a bigger part of my life?”
Brad Stulberg & Steve Magness, The Passion Paradox
“To best fulfill her destiny, Tubman realized she must actively seek a role in God’s plan, rather than letting others dictate her path.”
Catherine Clinton, Harriet Tubman
“The promise of love and grace in our lives is this: Our worst day isn’t bad enough, and our best day isn’t good enough. We’re invited because we’re loved, not because we earned it.”
Bob Goff, Everybody Always
“Give me the courage to live!
Really live—not merely exist.
Live dangerously,
Scorning risk!
Live honestly,
Daring the truth—
Particularly the truth of myself!”
Howard Thurman, "What Shall I Do With My Life?"
“God wasn’t asking me to stop doing business and replace my daily work with prayer. He was inviting me to run my business through the power of prayer.”
Kim Avery, The Prayer-Powered Entrepreneur
“A lot of swimmers I trained with said they wanted to achieve something great but didn’t truly put time, energy, dedication, and heart into it.”
Michael Phelps, No Limits
“In your life there will be things you like to do, things you have to do and from time-to-time even things you hate to do that may nonetheless be unavoidable. However, you owe it to yourself and to the people who mean the world to you that you also do the things that give you joy and purpose.”
Keith Abraham, It Starts With Passion
“The area where you are more well equipped to suffer is the work you were meant to do.”
Jennifer Fulwiler, Your Blue Flame
“Living coherently doesn’t mean everything is in perfect order all the time. It simply means you are living in alignment with your values and have not sacrificed your integrity along the way.”
Bill Burnett & Dave Evans, Designing Your Life
“If you don’t embrace the fact that you think about the world in a wide variety of ways, you severely limit your chances of finding the person that you were meant to be.”
Ken Robinson, The Element
“People with Callings find that their work is inseparable from their life. A person with a Calling works not for financial gain or Career advancement, but instead for the fulfillment that doing the work brings to the individual.”
Amy Wrzesniewski, "Jobs, Careers, and Callings"