Julie Vasquez > Julie's Quotes

“Courage is not something that you already have that makes you brave when the tough times start. Courage is what you earn when you’ve been through the tough times and you discover they aren’t so tough after all.”
― Malcolm Gladwell, David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants

“The Nazis were anti-Christian, but they would pretend to be Christians as long as it served their purposes of getting theologically ignorant Germans on their side against the Jews.”
― Eric Metaxas, Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy

“If you board the wrong train it is no use running along the corridor in the opposite direction. —DIETRICH BONHOEFFER”
― Eric Metaxas, Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy

“Self-respect is not the same as self-confidence or self-esteem. Self-respect is not based on IQ or any of the mental or physical gifts that help get you into a competitive college. It is not comparative. It is not earned by being better than other people at something. It is earned by being better than you used to be, by being dependable in times of testing, straight in times of temptation. It emerges in one who is morally dependable. Self-respect is produced by inner triumphs, not external ones.”
― David Brooks, The Road to Character

“Humility is a virtue of self-understanding in context, acquired by the practice of other centeredness.”
― David Brooks, The Road to Character

“Moral improvement occurs most reliably when the heart is warmed, when we come into contact with people we admire and love and we consciously and unconsciously bend our lives to mimic theirs.”
― David Brooks, The Road to Character

“People who are committed to mastery don’t freak out (as much) when they hit an obstacle. They reassess and then get going again, thinking they can get better.”
― Henry Cloud, The Power of the Other: The startling effect other people have on you, from the boardroom to the bedroom and beyond-and what to do about it

“Self-control is a big deal in human performance. Getting better depends upon it. You cannot get better if it’s not you who has to get better. You are the performer, period. You are the only thing you can control.”
― Henry Cloud, The Power of the Other: The startling effect other people have on you, from the boardroom to the bedroom and beyond-and what to do about it

“Whether you’re leading other people or leading the follower in you, the obstacles to achieving your goals are the same.”
― Marshall Goldsmith, Triggers: Creating Behavior That Lasts--Becoming the Person You Want to Be

“Whether the subject is climate change or the life span of unicorns, when you cite demonstrable facts to counter another person’s belief, a phenomenon that researchers call “the backfire effect” takes over. Your brilliant marshaling of data not only fails to persuade the believer, it backfires and strengthens his or her belief. The believer doubles down on his or her position—and the two of you are more polarized than ever. If”
― Marshall Goldsmith, Triggers: Creating Behavior That Lasts--Becoming the Person You Want to Be

“inside each of us are two separate personas. There’s the leader/planner/manager who plans to change his or her ways. And there’s the follower/doer/employee who must execute the plan.”
― Marshall Goldsmith, Triggers: Creating Behavior That Lasts--Becoming the Person You Want to Be

“The most thankless decision I make is the one that prevents something bad from happening, because I can never prove that I prevented something even worse.”
― Marshall Goldsmith, Triggers: Sparking positive change and making it last

“Accepting is most valuable when we are powerless to make a difference. Yet our ineffectuality is precisely the condition we are most loath to accept. It triggers our finest moments of counterproductive behavior.”
― Marshall Goldsmith, Triggers: Creating Behavior That Lasts--Becoming the Person You Want to Be

“Every decision in the world is made by the person who has the power to make the decision. Make peace with that.”
― Marshall Goldsmith, Triggers: Creating Behavior That Lasts--Becoming the Person You Want to Be

“Integrity is an all-or-nothing virtue (like being half pregnant, there’s no such thing as semi-integrity).”
― Marshall Goldsmith, Triggers: Sparking positive change and making it last

“We can’t admit that we need to change—either because we’re unaware that a change is desirable, or, more likely, we’re aware but have reasoned our way into elaborate excuses that deny our need for change.”
― Marshall Goldsmith, Triggers: Creating Behavior That Lasts--Becoming the Person You Want to Be

“Structure not only increases our chance of success, it makes us more efficient at it.”
― Marshall Goldsmith, Triggers: Sparking positive change and making it last

“People frequently lie—to themselves and to others. In 2008, Americans told surveys that they no longer cared about race. Eight years later, they elected as president Donald J. Trump, a man who retweeted a false claim that black people are responsible for the majority of murders of white Americans, defended his supporters for roughing up a Black Lives Matters protester at one of his rallies, and hesitated in repudiating support from a former leader of the Ku Klux Klan. The same hidden racism that hurt Barack Obama helped Donald Trump.”
― Seth Stephens-Davidowitz, Everybody Lies: Big Data, New Data, and What the Internet Can Tell Us About Who We Really Are

“Love in action is a harsh and dreadful thing compared to love in dreams.”
― Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov

“When we deny our pain, losses, and feelings year after year, we become less and less human. We transform slowly into empty shells with smiley faces painted on them. Sad to say, that is the fruit of much of our discipleship in our churches. But when I began to allow myself to feel a wider range of emotions, including sadness, depression, fear, and anger, a revolution in my spirituality was unleashed. I soon realized that a failure to appreciate the biblical place of feelings within our larger Christian lives has done extensive damage, keeping free people in Christ in slavery.”
― Peter Scazzero, Emotionally Healthy Spirituality: Unleash a Revolution in Your Life In Christ

“Ignoring our emotions is turning our back on reality. Listening to our emotions ushers us into reality. And reality is where we meet God. . . . Emotions are the language of the soul. They are the cry that gives the heart a voice. . .”
― Peter Scazzero, Emotionally Healthy Spirituality: Unleash a Revolution in Your Life In Christ

“The Bible does not spin the flaws and weaknesses of its heroes. Moses was a murderer. Hosea’s wife was a prostitute. Peter rebuked God! Noah got drunk. Jonah was a racist. Jacob was a liar. John Mark deserted Paul. Elijah burned out. Jeremiah was depressed and suicidal. Thomas doubted. Moses had a temper. Timothy had ulcers. And all these people send the same message: that every human being on earth, regardless of their gifts and strengths, is weak, vulnerable, and dependent on God and others.”
― Peter Scazzero, Emotionally Healthy Spirituality: Unleash a Revolution in Your Life In Christ

“Every time I make an assumption about someone who has hurt or disappointed me without confirming it, I believe a lie about this person in my head. This assumption is a misrepresentation of reality. Because I have not checked it out with the other person, it is very possible I am believing something untrue. It is also likely I will pass that false assumption around to others.”
― Peter Scazzero, Emotionally Healthy Spirituality: Unleash a Revolution in Your Life In Christ

“I am struck by how sharing our weakness and difficulties is more nourishing to others than sharing our qualities and successes.”
― Jean Vanier, Community and Growth

“To be in communion means to be with someone and to discover that we actually belong together. Communion means accepting people just as they are, with all their limits and inner pain, but also with their gifts and their beauty and their capacity to grow: to see the beauty inside of all the pain. To love someone is not first of all to do things for them, but to reveal to them their beauty and value, to say to them through our attitude: “You are beautiful. You are important. I trust you. You can trust”
― Jean Vanier, From Brokenness to Community

“The world will tell you how to live, if you let it. Don’t let it. Take up your space. Raise your voice. Sing your song. This is your chance to make or remake a life that thrills you.”
― Shauna Niequist, Present Over Perfect: Leaving Behind Frantic for a Simpler, More Soulful Way of Living

“What kills a soul? Exhaustion, secret keeping, image management.

And what brings a soul back from the dead? Honesty, connection, grace”
― Shauna Niequist, Present Over Perfect: Leaving Behind Frantic for a Simpler, More Soulful Way of Living

“Bless them. But don’t spend too much time with them. Draw close to people who honor your no, who cheer you on for telling the truth, who value your growth more than they value their own needs getting met or their own pathologies celebrated. Our”
― Shauna Niequist, Present Over Perfect: Leaving Behind Frantic for a Simpler, More Soulful Way of Living

“It's easy to be liked by strangers. It's very hard to be loved and connected to the people in your home when you're always bringing them your most exhausted self and resenting the fact that the scraps you're giving them aren't cutting it.”
― Shauna Niequist, Present Over Perfect: Leaving Behind Frantic for a Simpler, More Soulful Way of Living

“One time I saw a tiny Joshua tree sapling growing not too far from the old tree. I wanted to dig it up and replant it near our house. I told Mom that I would protect it from the wind and water it every day so that it could grow nice and tall and straight. Mom frowned at me. "You'd be destroying what makes it special," she said. "It's the Joshua tree's struggle that gives it its beauty.”
― Jeannette Walls, The Glass Castle