Quotes For When You're Feeling Like A 20-Something F*#k Up

You know that life isn't easy, and that mistakes are inevitable – but usually, it's hard to forgive ourselves for our imperfections. Here, a series of quotes that will remind you that you're not only doing better than you think you are, but that mistakes

“We often need to lose sight of our priorities in order to see them.”

— John Irving, Avenue of Mysteries

“And a step backward, after making a wrong turn, is a step in the right direction.”

— Kurt Vonnegut, Cat's Cradle: A Novel

“You have a right to experiment with your life. You will make mistakes. And they are right too. No, I think there was too rigid a pattern. You came out of an education and are supposed to know your vocation. Your vocation is fixed, and maybe ten years later you find you are not a teacher anymore or you're not a painter anymore. It may happen. It has happened. I mean Gauguin decided at a certain point he wasn't a banker anymore; he was a painter. And so he walked away from banking. I think we have a right to change course. But society is the one that keeps demanding that we fit in and not disturb things. They would like you to fit in right away so that things work now.”

— Anaïs Nin, Delta of Venus. Erotica By Anais Nin

“I sometimes react to making a mistake as if I have betrayed myself. My fear of making a mistake seems to be based on the hidden assumption that I am potentially perfect and that if I can just be very careful I will not fall from heaven. But a 'mistake' is a declaration of the way I am, a jolt to the way I intend, a reminder I am not dealing with the facts. When I have listened to my mistakes I have grown.”

— Hugh Prather, The Little Book of Letting Go: A Revolutionary 30-Day Program to Cleanse Your Mind, Lift Your Spirit and Replenish Your Soul

“If you lose a leg, be the kind of person who becomes determined to live boldly and well, who uses their arms to carry themselves, who competes in the Special Olympics, who carries on. Even if you were at fault for the accident, you are not defined by the loss – you are defined by what you do afterwards. ”

— Anonymous, Loss

“He believed in himself, believed in his quixotic ambition, letting the failures of the previous day disappear as each new day dawned. Yesterday was not today. The past did not predict the future if he could learn from his mistakes.”

— Daniel Wallace, Big Fish: A Novel of Mythic Proportions

“Mistakes are painful when they happen, but years later a collection of mistakes is what is called experience.”

— Denis Waitley, The Psychology of Winning

“It's not a persons mistakes which define them - it's the way they make amends.”

— Freya North, The Turning Point