Our author Sidonie has asked our editing team to tell the stories behind their favourite life quotes – read them here!

There exist uncountable life quotes or as others will call it inspirational or motivational quotes whatever the name might be. It is such a hard task when we are asked to choose the one we love most because they inspire us in different ways. Despite the challenge, some members of the magazine managed to select one out of the many life quotes they hold dearly and also told us why that quote makes a difference.

 

 

Martin Scherbakov – “To Travel is to Live”  by Hans Christian Andersen.

The reason why I chose it is because I’m a very passionate globetrotter (or rather Europe-trotter, as I have only been once outside Europe until now). I love collecting capital cities (I have been in 35 and that is only the beginning!). I use each possibility to go somewhere, even in Corona times travelling is possible – a one-day bicycle trip is also like a little journey, too, because in the end, travelling is also a state of our mind and soul and not only the action itself. ?

 

 

 

Svenja – “Dum spiro spero, dum spero amo, dum amo vivo” (Latin for “As long as I breathe, I hope, as long as I hope, I love, as long as I love, I live”) by Cicero.

I had a brief obsession with Scottish clans after watching the first season of “Outlander” and borrowed a book from our local library which listed Scotland’s clans, their history, tartans, badges and mottos. Every Scottish clan has one, and quite a lot of them are in Latin, my chosen quote among them. It’s clan MacLennan’s motto, although they shortened it to only “dum spiro spero”. It is so important to me because I am easily discouraged by failure and often hounded by nigh on crippling self-doubt.

This quote reminds me that no matter how dire my situation appears, no matter how often it appears otherwise, no matter how often it is crushed in the most painful ways possible, hope is still here. I am still here. I am still breathing, and I know that if I have beaten back the dark once, I can do it again.

 

 

Henrik – “Sometimes you lose and sometimes the others win” by Otto Rehhagel.

I like the quote very much because even if you have the worst day in your life, it tells you to always keep smiling and to take things with humour – which is something I personally try to do as often as possible.

 

 

 

Celina – “Do I contradict myself?” Very well then, I contradict myself, I am large, I contain multitudes” by Walt Whitman.

I think I like it because it kind of gives me a feeling of owning myself, like I don’t have to explain myself or my feelings, but that I can just be who I want and that nobody gets to limit me ?. That feeling of – I am me and no one else!!

 

 

Bhagyashree – “Be brave enough to be bad at something new” by Jon Acuff.

What it means to me: In the past I have been guilty of being excited and filled with anticipation before doing anything new and then that feeling was immediately met by frustration. I wasn’t good immediately and I quit a couple of things before I actually started. Moving to a new country, my current motto is, I shouldn’t be afraid to suck at something new.

 

 

Jannick Tröbs – “The primary cause of unhappiness is never the situation but your thoughts about it” by Eckart Tolle.

This quote offers a different perspective on the mechanisms behind your emotions. Usually, you assume that your feelings are directly affected by the things around you and that, if you want to change your feelings, you have to change those things. But how we feel is linked much more directly with what we think, although we often don’t pay much active attention to our thoughts and so they might seem like feelings. Maybe some of the things we have bad feelings about need to be changed, but by taking a step back and not letting them overwhelm us we can be happier and thus acquire strength that helps with managing our problems.

 


Sidonie Mankah“The only person you should strive to be better than, is the person you were yesterday” by Matty Mullins.

This quote is among my favorite life quotes because it reminds me and others that, in life’s journey we are not to be in competition with others but ourselves. It is great and perfectly okay to hope to achieve something that someone has, or others have achieved, to wish to be wealthy and impact lives like others have – by working hard and smart and not by trying to compete with them.

 

 

 

Compiled by Sidonie Mankah

Pictures: pixabay & courtesy of the participants