Words of wisdom are often only appreciated when you’ve hit rock bottom and you’re looking for a way to claw your way back up. But this needn’t be the case. Here are some golden nuggets of advice from 10 great women to lift your spirits and help you soldier on into that upward spiral.
1. “Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood.” – Marie Curie
Apply this advice to summatives. Deep breaths. No fear. Up and at ‘em.
2. “Try to be a rainbow in someone’s cloud.” – Maya Angelou
If you’re having a tough day – chances are someone else is too. People remember kindness.
3. “It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all – in which case, you fail by default.” – J.K Rowling
J.K Rowling knows a thing or two about failure. Harry Potter was rejected 12 times before becoming what is today. She didn’t give up and neither will you.
4. “It took me quite a long time to develop a voice, and now that I have it, I am not going to be silent.” – Madeleine Albright
Heed the words of the first female US secretary of state.
5. “When you’ve worked hard, and done well, and walk through that doorway of opportunity, you do not slam it shut behind you. You reach back.” – Michelle Obama
Michelle Obama. Need I say more?
6. “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.” – Eleanor Roosevelt.
A classic line from a classy FLOTUS; which many of us should recall from Princess Diaries. It inspired Anne Hathaway, so it can inspire us too.
7. “Every day may not be good…but there’s something good in every day”― Alice Morse Earle
So that summative isn’t done. So you said something really stupid out loud when you thought it was inside your head. None of that matters, because there was chocolate cake at dinner. Silver linings.
8. “I could not, at any age, be content to take my place by the fireside and simply look on. Life was meant to be lived. Curiosity must be kept alive. One must never, for whatever reason, turn her back on life.”– Eleanor Roosevelt
So Eleanor Roosevelt is in here once more; what can I say she’s just extra-inspirational.
9. “One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman.”– Simone de Beauvoir
Deep. Powerful. Think about it. Earn your stripes.
10. “A man’s got to do what a man’s got to do. A woman must do what he can’t.”– Rhonda Hansome
Hell yeah.