50 Times That People Spoke Words So Profound, They Literally Changed Lives

"You are not required to set yourself on fire to keep other people warm".

Really hit home for me, since I grew up trying to mediate my parents' issues and had multiple friends in and out of the ER for mental health crises during my teen years, among other things. As someone who spent the majority of her life feeling like she had to take care of others at all costs, it was kinda a shock to the system to hear that I was allowed to have my limits even with people who truly needed help.

People won't remember the words you say but how it made them feel.

My old boss, the CEO of a small hospital, told me a story from back when he was a lab technician (for simplicity, let's call him Dan). Dan had forgotten to check some sort of mechanism on a piece of equipment he used, it malfunctioned and broke the equipment which ended up having around a $250,000 repair bill. The next day Dan's boss called him in to talk about it, and he was sure he was going to be fired. His boss asked him why he didn't do a proper check, made sure he understood what happened and sent him back to work. Dan asked him "Am I not getting fired? I was almost sure that's what this was about." His boss said "No way, I just spent $250,000 teaching you a lesson you'll never forget. Why would I fire you now?"

It seems silly, but that attitude always resonated with me. Don't make professional decisions based on emotional responses. Always know what your goal is when dealing with someone, and what exact problem you are trying to solve. Everyone makes mistakes, and yelling at them just makes them resent you and become defensive. Being calm and understanding will make people look up to you.

My dad was/is a deacon of a church, and one part of his duties was to visit with people in retirement homes and bring them communion. He couldn't go one day, and he asked me (I was in high school at the time) to go in his place.

Perhaps obviously, with me being young and the people in the homes being elderly, age was a frequent topic of conversation. One old man told me, "the hardest thing about getting old is running out of people who understand you." That is, each generation has a unique way of looking at the world and what it means to be alive in it, and as new generations come and redefine what the world is, one's world gets smaller and smaller as there are fewer people around who understand your world in the same way.

We are all marching toward obsolescence. I think I became much more of a realist that day.

"Education is expensive, but no education is more expensive". Definitely took school more seriously after someone said that to me.

"There will be something you hate in every job. The trick is finding a job where you love the good parts enough to make up for the crappy parts."

That might sound like a dumb one to list here, but whenever I have problems related to work (which seems to be where I need most of my motivation) I like to think back on this and take a deep breath. It's ok to hate where you are sometimes. The trick is to remind yourself what else you like, and power through.

"Depression presents itself in the guise of rational thought." Said by my uncle.

"Shouting a person into silence does not mean you have shouted them into agreement."

Forgot who originally said this, so I cannot give proper credit.

"I learned to give... not because I have too much. But because I know how it feels to have nothing."

"It's only embarrassing if you're embarrassed." Changed my life forever.

'Your job will never love you."

It made me really reconsider being so emotionally invested in it.

My dad once gave me and my brother each a dollar out of nowhere. I scoffed and said "Dad its just a dollar, you keep it." He got really mad and said "Never try to give anything back that someone gives you. It could be all they have to give and a huge sacrifice to them." I felt like such a dick. And I could really use that dollar right now.

There is no harder, only hard.

Helped me to realize that it doesn't matter if someone's problems are bigger or smaller than mine. At some point, everyone goes through the hardest thing they've ever had to deal with.

When I was a young kid and did really well on some tests at school I came home and boasted about it. "Mom! Guess what?! I'm really really smart!"

Mom: "So what are you going to do about it?"

It's been 20 years and I still don't know the right answer to that question.

Having grown up somewhat poor, I was always insecure when going to nice places...felt out of place and not as good as the other people there.

Out on a date at a nice restaurant once and the guy I was with said something along the lines of, "You're paying for your meal just like everyone else here...You deserve to be here just as much as they do."

I still get insecure sometimes, but I always think back to this and feel instantly better about myself.

We're all tired, we all just want to sit on our couch in front of our TV's. But that's not living, man.

-My buddy, when I told him I didn't want to go out because I'd had a long day.

This is a philosophy I live by now. My life is so much better for it.

"Isn't it funny how day by day nothing changes but, when we look back everything is different..." - C.S Lewis

On the subject of healthy eating/losing weight etc; a bald and muscly gay man once said to me... "Don't treat yourself with food, you are not a dog."

I rather live a life of 'oh wells' than 'what ifs?'

"Never point out your flaws. Let others figure them out on their own."