Lines Worth Keeping: A Collection of Quotes

I’ve never been an avid collector. Mainly just memories, things like my friends’ coffee orders, or the meal they crave when a cold hits, or perhaps printed photographs from my travels in case catastrophe strikes and my only hope for remembering the truffle pasta I adored in Italy, is to hold a printed photograph to my heart and think really hard. Maybe the exception is collections I coveted as a child. I, of course, was a part of the Silly Bandz generation, as well as the abolition of the penny, so those were prized possessions for a good while.

As I’ve grown older, I’ve increasingly disliked collecting physical items. Partly because of overconsumption (do we really need 3+ of the same item?), and partly because of my ever growing desire to pack everything I own into three bags and prance across the planet, hoping the airines don't lose the only things I have to my name. It would of course be more difficult to do that if I had a collection of sorts to bring with me (though I surely won’t forget my teddy bear- yes, I’m 24 and I still sleep with a teddy bear, my favorite eastfork bowl, and of course, my salt lamp. Priorities, right?). But one thing, less so physical, I’ve enjoyed collecting this past year is quotes—lines worth keeping. Lines worth taking up multiple gigabytes of space in my slowly declining iPhone 11 (I have faith in it).

So, what makes a quote worth holding onto? Does it matter if it’s cliché? Is it okay to keep if it’s a quote we’ve all heard 10,000 times, just re-done to seem brand new? What if it’s a quote that really only applies to very niche facets of life? I'd like to think that no matter the quote, even if it's "live laugh love" (because let's be real, living, laughing, and loving really are the keys to life), are worth a potential line in your notes app. Here’s my criteria for whether a quote, which I stumbled upon in books, on social media, via music, or in passing conversations, is deemed “keepable”:

1. It made me cry. Not hard to do, but as a self-proclaimed "sensitive observer of emotions" (I can't bring myself to type the words "empath"), I think this point stands.

2. It described a feeling or scenario I’ve struggled to put into words, and this quote did it perfectly.

3. It genuinely changed my perspective and drove me to create change in my life.

4. It touched something within me that resonated with my soul and who I am in this life.

   
   

The importance of quotes, I think, is exactly that: they’re a way for us to discover, verbalize, understand, and communicate parts of ourselves that maybe we’ve struggled with in the past. They motivate and inspire us to become better people, work towards our dreams, or tap into a part within us that always existed, but needed a little push. They connect us across time, cultures, and backgrounds, and can be catalysts for knowing ourselves more deeply.

Without further ado (that's a hard word to spell, by the way—the variations I came up with before finding the correct one include: adou, adue, a-do, and adu), here is my collection of the last 730 days:

1. "All feelings are welcomed guests, but they don’t have permission to redecorate my home."

2. "Leap and a big net will appear."

3. "You either make yourself happy, or you make yourself miserable, and the amount of work is about the same."

4. "The degree to which someone can grow is directly proportional to the amount of truth they’re willing to accept about themselves without running away."

5. "We come into this world naked and we leave naked, and everything in between is a gift."

6. "Treat yourself with the grace you treat those you love with."

7. "If a flower doesn’t grow, you don’t blame the flower, you change the environment in which it grows."

8. "Do it scared."

9. "You’ll either get what you want, or you’ll learn something from the experience."

10. "Welcome to sadness; the temperature is unbearable until you feel it."

11. "Love is not burning red, it’s golden and it serves itself warm and often."

12. "If you are compassionate only to the good, are you really compassionate?"

13. "Move with love."

I gravitate towards quotes that focus on self-compassion and understanding the deeper truths of life, highlighting that adversity, love, and vulnerability are essential parts of growth and expansion. Really, they're quotes that to me, remind me to take risks, spread love and kindness, appreciating every little caveat that life has to offer, and ultimately really know who I am and what I strive to be.

The one I truly live by every single day is “move with love.” I stumbled upon this quote four years ago now, and it resonated deeply within me. It aligns with how I view a large part of my mission in this life: to spread love in everything I do, with everyone I speak to, and with everything I create. Love is incredibly powerful, and I’ve found that living my life in this way has allowed me to be a more optimistic person who is excited for what each day can bring. (Don’t get me wrong, we all have sad days or chapters, but choosing love despite it all has been a core part of my being.)

These were the quotes I collected mainly throughout 2023 and 2024. With my mission for 2025 being “do it now,” I’m excited to see what I collect and add to my bursting-at-the-seams notes app over the next 364 days.

I hope one of these resonated with you, and if they didn’t, keep your eye out for something that feels right. There’s something out there—promise.

xx,

Olivia