People Are Sharing The Quotes That Permanently Changed The Way They Look At Things, And You Need To Read Them All (2024)

Every once in a while, you hear a quote — whether in a movie, book, song, or heck, just in conversation with a buddy — that stops you in your tracks and alters your thought process.

Well, this week, redditor u/internallyskating asked, "What’s a quote that permanently changed the way you look at things?" and every single quote shared in the viral thread was pure gold.

So, with that in mind, here are just a few of the incredible nuggets of wisdom shared:

1. "You might be the sweetest peach on the tree, but some people just don’t like peaches."

"This helped me get over my lifelong desire to be liked by everyone, and allowed me to focus on becoming someone I actually liked."

—u/sansaspark

2. "Let go or be dragged."

"It's an old Zen proverb I heard at a meditation class. It really changed the way I let myself worry about things."

—u/Reagan99

3. "You don't notice your progress in life because you are always raising the bar."

"A long time ago, I was meeting two women on the sidewalk, and — just as we passed each other — I heard one of them say this."

—u/limpid_space

4. "Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it."

"I had a professor in college who called it the '10/90 rule.' It changed my life."

—u/normalman714

5. "Living in the future is anxiety. Living in the past is depression. The only good way is to live in the present moment."

"My therapist once told me that."

—u/Punkydactual

6. "Don't set yourself on fire to keep others warm."

"This quote helped me a lot with my guilt and burgeoning martyr complex."

—u/suck-me-beautiful

7. "Courage doesn't always roar. Sometimes, it is a quiet voice at the end of the day saying, 'I will try again tomorrow.'"

"It's a quote by Mary Anne Radmacher that I came across a long time ago, at a point in my life when I really needed that lesson. It's okay if I feel sad and resigned, if my depression beat me for today and I wasn't able to function. I didn't fail, I'm not weak — I will try again tomorrow."

—u/IAmTheAsteroid

8. "Graveyards are full of irreplaceable people."

"That quote helped me stop going down the path of working myself to death because 'my job needs me.'"

—u/FyL777

9. "That mountain you've been carrying, you were only suppose to climb."

"This one really helped me overcome a lot of traumatic experiences and difficult chapters in my life. I hope it helps someone else out there."

—u/youssless

10. "How old will you be in four years if you don't get your degree? You're going to be 40 anyway — with or without your degree."

"This was Dear Abby’s response to a writer who was thinking of going back to school, but worried because she'd be 40 by the time she finished and got her degree. It reminded me that letting age stop me from my plans was just silly."

—u/Coconut-bird

11. "The axe forgets; the tree remembers."

"It's a Zimbabwean proverb. People don’t forget how they were treated; that’s why it’s so important to be kind."

—u/drawoha19

12. "The first draft is just you telling yourself the story."

"It's a Terry Pratchett quote. I'm not sure why this one struck me so hard, but it completely changed the way I approach my writing. Just get your ideas down in run-on sentences and asides to yourself and loads of [???] at parts you haven't figured out yet. It took me more than 30 years to realize that a first draft isn't just a rough version of the final draft — it's a map for yourself, and no one else."

—u/lavendercapybara

13. "There were many acts of heroism that day, not all of them recorded."

"I visited Pearl Harbor this week, and I saw this quote, and it really struck me. It reminded me that, even when nobody is watching, it's still important to put forward your best."

—u/drgmaster909

14. "Don’t play chess with a pigeon. It’ll just knock over the pieces, sh*t all over the board, and then strut around like it won the game."

"It's a quote I heard in reference to arguing with unreasonable people who refuse to and/or are incapable of considering viewpoints outside their own and employ logical fallacies to justify their position."

—u/ResplendentShade

15. "Honey, I hope it’s the worst thing that ever happens to you."

"My dad said this to me while I was complaining about something. He probably didn’t intend for it to be deep or anything, but it put things into perspective. I think about it all the time."

—u/laurakeet1209

16. "They'll post your job before you even reach the morgue."

"My coworker said this while they were telling everyone to call out if the storm the next day was actually as bad as they said it was going to be. It really put into perspective how much your employer really 'cares' about you."

—u/Epsilia

17. "Socializing is just like any skill. You need to practice before you're good at it."

"This was said by my mum, while she was comforting me when I was struggling to make friends."

—u/World_Wide-Weeb

18. "Don’t let a wishbone grow where a backbone should be."

"I've been living up to this ideal recently, and I feel like I have only just started living."

—u/sanelib

19. And finally: "Whoever fights can lose. Whoever doesn't fight has already lost."

"It's originally in German ('Wer Kämpft, kann Verlieren. Wer nicht Kämpft, hat schon Verloren.') and translates to this."

—u/BeerMan_HTX

So, you've read theirs — but now it's your turn. What's a quote that changed the way you thought about things, or even changed the way you live your life? Share yours in the comments below!