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

When I was 19/20 my mum started taking out loans to build houses abroad, which I thought was a silly and expensive waste of money but she told me it had always been her dream to own land/be a landlady. Which I thought was strange considering she was a nurse and she'd never once mentioned it in all the years I'd known her.

A few months later it dawned on me that it had coincided perfectly with the time my younger sister (who was the lastborn) had left the house to go off to school. Now considering she had four kids it hit me that she'd basically put her entire life on hold just to take care of us, and this wasn't just old school got a job, it was full on move to a different country/move heaven and hell to make sure we'd had a good life. And after over thirty years of putting the work in for us, she'd finally turned around and started working on her dream.

Absolutely floored me and was the first "Whoa my mum's an actual person (and not just my mum) who'd done all this for me." Appreciate your parents people and hopefully do the same for your kids.

The first female leader of the Cherokee Nation came to my college campus years ago. She gave a speech, talking about how her life had been formed by always striving for more, never turning away from the challenge. Her advice was simple: "Go where the fear is" -Wilma Mankiller. When confronted with two roads I always choose what scares me more.

In an episode of Louie he tells one of his daughters, "The only time you should look in your neighbor's bowl is to make sure he has enough." I'm sure Louis CK didn't invent that on his own, but it was the first time I'd heard it, and it's stuck with me.

I was having a bad day one time and being all "Why me?" when a coworker said "Why not you?". I had never thought about it before, but it was a good point. So I shut up and got over it.

"If you're scared of doing it because you're afraid that people will judge you, trust me they won't even remember it after a year."
Something like that. Made me a little daredevillish.

When I was in college a friend of mine told me I was gentle.

After being called sensitive all my life up until that point, and not in a good way, hearing that made me feel a lot better about myself.

"You aren't IN traffic, you ARE traffic."

I had just opened up to a good friend of mine about how, after 10+ years of intractable treatment-resistant depression, I was completely exhausted and really did not want to be alive anymore. At the time, I had kind of accepted that things would eventually get better, but I thought that it would be years until my life was what I wanted/needed it to be, and I just felt incredibly frustrated at everyone telling me to "wait it out".

Instead of giving lame advice, he asked me more about my plans, and it came out that the only thing that's ever kept me going is a drive to contribute something meaningful to humanity, and I just couldn't stand the idea of giving up and essentially leaving the world a little worse off. That's when he busted out this one:

"You know, I think it's almost tragically beautiful that you keep putting yourself through this just for the sake of other people. I know it's hard to believe it'll ever be worth 15 years of suffering, but once you're on the other side of it I think you'll see what an incredible person that makes you."

It still makes me tear up every time I think about it. It was one of the most important things anyone's said to encourage me, and it helped get me through some of my worst times. Thankfully, it was only about a year after that that I finally found a treatment that worked. No updates yet on the giant ego I'm supposed to be growing, though ;)

My psychologist gave me a print of a picture of Winnie the Pooh and Piglet in the forest. This is the quote that went with it:

"Supposing a tree fell down, Pooh, when we were underneath it?"
"Supposing it didn't," said Pooh, after careful thought.
Piglet was comforted by this.

I think about it when I'm catastrophising and it is really helpful for calming down and thinking rationally about whatever situation I'm in.

We judge others by their actions and ourselves on our intentions. Really made me think about people and I try telling myself that when the f*cking idiot in front on me doesn't indicate when merging.