Memorable Quotes

Here are some of my favorite quotes:

“When you judge another, you do not define them, you define yourself.” - Wayne Dyer

“  ‘Give ‘em an inch and they’ll take a mile’ mostly describes the behavior of people who have hitherto been given only inches.” — Alfie Kohn, “Beyond Discipline”

“We women need to learn to be more gentle with ourselves, or else, how will our children learn to be gentle with themselves?” - Anne Wilson Shaef

“It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken adults.” - Frederick Douglass

"Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space lies our freedom and power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and freedom." — Victor Frankl

 “Bravery is allowing ourselves to feel pain to prevent someone else’s pain.” — Lisa Stroyan

"Problems cannot be solved at the same level of awareness that created them." — Albert Einstein

“You cannot simultaneously feel bad about what you have done and focus on what you must do differently.” — Becky Bailey

“Never do to yourself what you would never do to your child.” — Martha Beck

“Mutual respect is not ‘I respect you, and you respect me’; rather, it is ‘I respect you, and I respect myself, and I allow you to do the same.’” — My Positive Discipline Instructor

"Only non-parents can think they are experts [at parenting]". — My Positive Discipline Instructor

"Disobedience is not an issue if obedience is not the goal." - Daron Quinlan

"Play is children's main way of communicating. .... Playing is connection.  ... Boys especially need empathy and emotional connection.  You can't communicate to them that what they want to play is stupid and violent and antisocial, and then expect them to talk to you about their inner feelings."  Paraphrased from Playful Parenting, by Lawrence Cohen

“Connection Trumps Everything.” Lawrence Cohen

"Pay attention and stay centered.  You carry the mantle of 'Mother,' the eternal principle of balance and stability.  When your children's energy is scattered, be grounded.  When your children throw tantrums, be still.  Know what you stand for.  Be firm and consistent to teach your children about
boundaries.  Thus you will root them in health and release their souls to limitless." Vimala McClure, in The Tao of Motherhood.

“Rewards and punishments are the lowest form of education.” -Chuang-Tzu, philosopher (4th c. BCE)

“Rewards and punishment are two sides of the same coin...and that coin doesn’t buy very much.” - Alfie Kohn

"When a child hits a child, we call it aggression.
When a child hits an adult, we call it hostility.
When an adult hits an adult, we call it assault.
When an adult hits a child, we call it discipline." - Haim Ginott

“Expectations are resentments under construction." -- Anne Lamott

“Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.
You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,
Which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.” — Kahlil Gibran

“Consciousness-raising doesn’t work so well lecture-style.” — Faulkner Fox

“Judgments prevent us from seeing the good that lies beyond appearances.” — Wayne Dyer

Misbehavior and punishment are not opposites that cancel each other; on the contrary, they breed and reinforce each other." - Haim Ginott

“Don't ask yourself what the world needs; ask yourself what makes you come alive, and then do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” — Harold Whitman

“It doesn't matter where we come from, what we've done or suffered, or even if we make a difference. We live as though the world were as it should be, to show it what it can be.” — ?? Steven DeKnight of “Buffy”

Laugh and the world laughs with you.  Cry and you cry with your girlfriends. — Unknown

If Barbie is so popular, why do you have to buy her friends?

Experience is that marvelous thing that enables you to recognize a mistake when you make it again.   -- F. P. Jones

I try to take one day at a time, but sometimes several days attack me at once.  - Jennifer Unlimited

Whenever I feel blue, I start breathing again.

 

Lisa Stroyan