Words To Live By, Thoughts To Fill Your Mind

Reddit readers construct a massive 1500 comment thick thread based on the question :

What Is The Most Life Altering Quote You've Heard Or Read?

I read them all, gladly, to bring you these choice quotes from beautiful mass of inspiration and 'wow man, that's like totally heavy' brain food :

"Honor is doing the right thing, even when nobody is looking..."
- Anonymous

"Yes, I will do the opposite. I used to sit here and do nothing and regret it for the rest of the day. So now I will do the opposite, and I will do something."
- George Costanza

"Don't ever say stuff just because you think you should. That's the definition of an asshole."
- ShitMyDadSayz

"Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle."
- Plato

"For billions of years since the onset of time, Every single one of your ancestors survived. Every single person on your mum and dads side, Successfully looked after and passed on to you life. What are the chances of that, like. It comes to me once in a while. And everywhere I tell folk, it gets the best, smile."
- Mike Skinner, The Streets

"Don't Panic!"
- Douglas Adams

"You know life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop once in a while and look around, you might miss it."
- Ferris Bueller

"Follow your bliss"
- Robert Campbell

"No one can make you feel inferior without your consent."
- Eleanor Roosevelt

"I like it when a flower or a little tuft of grass grows through a crack in the sidewalk. It's so fuckin' heroic." - George Carlin

"Hat is baggage. It's just not worth it. Life's too short to go around pissed off all the time."
- American History X

"Hey - don’t worry, don’t be afraid, ever, because, this is just a ride…"
- Bill Hicks

"I would love to believe that when I die I will live again, that some thinking, feeling, remembering part of me will continue. But much as I want to believe that, and despite the ancient and worldwide cultural traditions that assert an afterlife, I know of nothing to suggest that it is more than wishful thinking. The world is so exquisite with so much love and moral depth, that there is no reason to deceive ourselves with pretty stories for which there's little good evidence. Far better it seems to me, in our vulnerability, is to look death in the eye and to be grateful every day for the brief but magnificent opportunity that life provides."
- Carl Sagan

"All great truths begin as blasphemies."
- George Bernard Shaw

"The Truth shall set you free"
- Jesus

"Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic. Authenticity is invaluable; originality is non-existent."
- Jim Jarmusch

"The Universe tends to unfold as it should"
- Harold & Kumar

"Life is so hard. How can we be anything but kind?"
- Buddha

A thousand and more here.

A few decades ago, a friend told me the story of his dying grandfather, a man who never chased down the dreams he dreamed as a youth. Didn't even really try, for a whole lot of reasons. On his deathbed, one of his final sentences to his grandson was this :

"What? So that was it?"

His grandson made sure he didn't live a life filled with regret, and unchased dreams.