Funny Quotes About Life in General Welfair

Eloquent and meaningful quotes have inspired people since ancient times.

Quotes cover a wide range of topics, and many are focused on psychology, wellness, counseling, and the pursuit of happiness.

Some quotes are powerful motivators, or in the words of Polish author Tadeusz Borowski, "What a curious power words have" (Goodreads). And with modern technology, quotes are more accessible than ever before.

This article will highlight some particularly poignant and often famous quotes related to counseling. Given the power and breadth of quotes in general, we will dig a little deeper and explore the truth behind those displayed here. After all, no matter its eloquence, a quote is only as good as the truth it conveys.

Before you read on, we thought you might like to download our three Positive Psychology Exercises for free. These science-based exercises explore fundamental aspects of positive psychology, including strengths, values, and self-compassion, and will give you the tools to enhance the wellbeing of your clients, students, or employees.

You can download the free PDF here.

7 Famous Counseling Quotes

No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.

Eleanor Roosevelt

If I were to try to read, much less answer, all the attacks made on me, this shop might as well be closed for any other business.

Abraham Lincoln

Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.

Confucius

Lose not yourself in a far off time, seize the moment that is thine.

Friedrich Schiller

When the well is dry, we know the worth of water.

Benjamin Franklin

If there is any one secret of success, it lies in the ability to get the other person's point of view and see things from that person's angle as well as from your own.

Henry Ford

If you cannot get rid of the family skeleton, you may as well make it dance.

George Bernard Shaw

Do these quotes ring true? Yes! For example, Franklin's words convey the importance of gratitude. Positive psychologists concur, as gratitude is related to optimism, resilience, and other positive emotions (Young & Hutchinson, 2012). Additionally, lack of gratitude is linked to increased depression and stress. These ideas also are in sync with Confucius's quote about the power of resilience.

Loving-kindness counseling seeks to promote connected relationships by enhancing acceptance, openness to other perspectives, and awareness of the present moment (Leppma, 2012) – ideas expressed by Schiller and Ford. This counseling approach, along with quotes by Lincoln and Roosevelt, conveys the importance of self-care (e.g., not allowing others to diminish one's self-esteem).

Shaw seems to be expressing the value of viewing difficult family experiences as colorful, positive, and amusing. Along with the benefits of a positive outlook, humor has also been linked to positive counseling processes and outcomes (Vereen, Butler, Williams, Darg, & Downing, 2006).

Read more about the Benefits of Counseling for discussions on this topic.

7 Inspiring Phrases for Your Practice

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 have failed by default.

J. K. Rowling

We accept the love we think we deserve.

Stephen Chbosky

We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are.

Anaïs Nin*

Anger is an acid that can do more harm to the vessel in which it is stored than to anything on which it is poured.

Mark Twain

I declare to you that woman must not depend upon the protection of man, but must be taught to protect herself, and there I take my stand.

Susan B. Anthony

When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.

Maya Angelou

I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.

Maya Angelou

These quotes contain immense wisdom and truth. For example, caring, compassionate, and empathetic connections with others are important aspects of meaningful relationships, including within helping professions (Miller, 2018).

These ideas are beautifully articulated in Angelou's second quote. Additionally, self-esteem and self-regulation of emotions (e.g., anger) are known to promote resilience (Toland & Carrigan, 2011) – themes inherent in quotes by Chbosky and Twain.

Embracing strength in women, as expressed by Anthony, is also fundamental to relationships characterized by cooperation and autonomy (McBride, 1990).

Again, resilience, which is so essential for happiness (Young and Hutchinson, 2012), is expressed by Rowling. She conveys the critical message that living with meaning and contentment is only possible when we continue to move forward regardless of prior failures.

The sage advice of accepting others is also noted in the words of Angelou (first quote). Finally, there is wisdom in Nin's words about understanding that our perceptions and emotions are filtered through our experiences. These words are encouraging, as they imply that the power to change our beliefs is within each of us.

For Positive Counselors

If you look the right way, you can see that the whole world is a garden.

Frances Hodgson Burnett

There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power or our will.

Epictetus

Do not set aside your happiness. Do not wait to be happy in the future. The best time to be happy is always now.

Roy T. Bennett

The human race has only one really effective weapon, and that is laughter.

Mark Twain

More smiling, less worrying. More compassion, less judgment. More blessed, less stressed. More love, less hate.

Roy T. Bennett

You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, 'I lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.'

Eleanor Roosevelt

We know what we are, but know not what we may be.

William Shakespeare

These quotes truthfully reflect the concerns of positive counselors for whom helping individuals to flourish and enjoy positive wellbeing is the prominent objective. Positive counseling also focuses on the promotion of strength, resilience, and human potential (Raskin, Rogers, & Witty, 2014) – qualities articulated by Roosevelt and Shakespeare.

In general, theses quotes encourage a positive outlook in which the world is viewed through an optimistic lens, or in the words of Burnett, "as a garden." Similarly, Epictetus, Bennett, and Twain understand the importance of acceptance, seizing the moment, and laughter as essential tools for living a good life – one of the underlying tenets of positive psychology (Compton, 2005).

Quotes for School Counselors and Students

Children must be taught how to think, not what to think.

Margaret Mead

It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.

Aristotle

We cannot teach people anything; we can only help them discover it within themselves.

Galileo Galilei

Ability is what you're capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it.

Lou Holtz

A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies. The man who never reads lives only one.

George R.R. Martin

I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.

Albert Einstein

Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.

Nelson Mandela

These lovely quotes represent excellent tools for school counselors, educators, and students of all ages. They express the power of positive education to promote a life well lived and even to change the world.

Quotes by Einstein and Holtz convey many of the same constructs that are important to educational psychologists, such as nourishing creativity and guiding students in reaching their potential (Tsai, 2012).

Similarly, Holtz's words regarding the value of ability, motivation, and attitude are consistent with positive psychologists' emphasis on perseverance as a predictor of academic success (Laursen, 2015).

Critical thinking, as expressed by Aristotle, Meade, and Galilei, is another key predictor of school success among children (White, 2010). Lastly, Martin's quote conveying the power of reading is easily supported by research demonstrating the many educational benefits of reading (Cox & Guthrie, 2001).

7 Career Counseling Phrases

What would you do if you weren't afraid?

Sheryl Sandberg

You never change your life until you step out of your comfort zone; change begins at the end of your comfort zone.

Roy T. Bennett

The crowning fortune of a man is to be born to some pursuit which finds him employment and happiness, whether it be to make baskets, or broadswords, or canals, or statues, or songs.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

To handle yourself, use your head; to handle others, use your heart.

Eleanor Roosevelt

Our chief want is someone who will inspire us to be what we know we could be.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

The goal, then, is to uncouple fear and failure—to create an environment in which making mistakes doesn't strike terror into your employees' hearts.

Ed Catmull

He who masters the power formed by a group of people working together has within his grasp one of the greatest powers known to man.

Idowu Koyenikan

Career development research is consistent with quotes by both Bennett and Sandberg, in which courage is expressed as necessary for achieving career growth and satisfaction (Walston, 2003). Career development writers also stress the importance of deriving meaning and happiness from one's work (Scott, 2008; Walston, 2003) – ideas echoed by Emerson.

Roosevelt and Catmull speak to the vital role of inspiring leaders who foster productive and satisfying work environments. They suggest a leadership style that involves the use of both head and heart, without eliciting the fear of making mistakes – ideas that are in sync with academic writing on courageous leadership (Walston, 2003).

Finally, a healthy collaborative style that promotes cooperation, trust, and commitment is also fundamental to career success (Williams, 2012), as expressed by Koyenikan.

Marriage and Relationship Counseling Quotes

It is not a lack of love, but a lack of friendship that makes unhappy marriages.

Friedrich Nietzsche

Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.

Lao Tzu

I find the best way to love someone is not to change them, but instead, help them reveal the greatest version of themselves.

Steve Maraboli

I'm not upset that you lied to me, I'm upset that from now on I can't believe you.

Friedrich Nietzsche

Silence is the most perfect expression of scorn.

George Bernard Shaw

Every couple needs to argue now and then. Just to prove that the relationship is strong enough to survive. Long-term relationships, the ones that matter, are all about weathering the peaks and the valleys.

Nicholas Sparks

The most painful thing is losing yourself in the process of loving someone too much, and forgetting that you are special too.

Ernest Hemingway

There are many truthful concepts conveyed in these marriage and relationship quotes. As a whole, they express the importance of trust, acceptance, friendship, identity, courage, resilience, and communication in cultivating meaningful relationships.

In her extensive study of the key ingredients of satisfying relationships, Wallerstein (2017) similarly describes these and other related constructs. More specifically, she notes that satisfying marriages are not without conflict or anger, but involve the ability to establish meaningful connections within the context of everyday relationship challenges.

Inherent in such relationships is the ability to communicate effectively and retain friendship – ideas that are especially congruent with the words of Shaw and Nietzsche.

Wallerstein (2017) further notes that happy couples can weather storms together, as well as recognize and value each person's identity, as indicated by Sparks and Hemingway.

Other studies also have reported that the core qualities of marital satisfaction include compassion, humility, and positivity (Wallace, Olson, Galovan, Schramm, & Marshall, 2016), concepts that ring true throughout these relationship quotes.

A Look at 7 Carl Rogers Quotes

The curious paradox is that when I accept myself just as I am, then I can change.

In my early professional years I was asking the question: 'How can I treat, or cure, or change this person?' Now I would phrase the question in this way: 'How can I provide a relationship which this person may use for his own personal growth?'

People are just as wonderful as sunsets if you let them be. When I look at a sunset, I don't find myself saying, 'Soften the orange a bit on the right-hand corner.' I don't try to control a sunset. I watch with awe as it unfolds.

When a person realizes he has been deeply heard, his eyes moisten. I think in some real sense he is weeping for joy. It is as though he were saying, 'Thank God, somebody heard me. Someone knows what it's like to be me.'

True empathy is always free of any evaluative or diagnostic quality. This comes across to the recipient with some surprise. If I am not being judged, perhaps I am not so evil or abnormal as I have thought.

A person is a fluid process, not a fixed and static entity; a flowing river of change, not a block of solid material; a continually changing constellation of potentialities, not a fixed quantity of traits.

I'm not perfect… But I'm enough.

Client-Centered Therapy promotes a safe climate in which the therapist is both empathetic and nonjudgmental (Raskin et al., 2014).

In this way, the client experiences a sense of acceptance, openness, and unconditional positive regard. It is an approach that is consistent with the ever-changing nature of the human experience in which individuals are continually striving to feel and do better.

These ideas are clearly conveyed in Carl Rogers's quotes in which the therapist's role is to guide clients in a non-authoritarian, accepting way, to see the beauty within them, and to truly listen with empathy, openness, and flexibility. It is in this way that self-acceptance and self-worth are enhanced during the therapeutic relationship (Raskin et al., 2014).

Motivational Quotes on Counseling Skills

I'm a very strong believer in listening and learning from others.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Listening is active. At its most basic level, it's about focus, paying attention.

Simon Sinek

Slouching or leaning back may send the wrong signals. When you sit down for a formal interview, lean forward to show interest and active listening.

Kathryn Minshew

If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.

Dalai Lama

Anyone who is practicing understanding and compassion can exemplify true power. Anyone can be a Buddha.

Thich Nhat Hanh

No one cares how much you know, until they know how much you care.

Theodore Roosevelt

I believe empathy is the most essential quality of civilization.

Roger Ebert

These motivational quotes again elucidate the essential counseling skills of active listening, along with the expression of both empathy and compassion.

Active listening is often described as one of the most critical skills of a good counselor. This involves listening with purpose and responding in a way in which clients feel understood (Stebnicki, 2011).

This type of listening also has been described as the ability to perceive and communicate the client's feelings in an empathetic and sensitive way (Miller, 2018) – ideas articulated by Ebert, Roosevelt, Hanh, the Dalai Lama, Ginsberg, and Sinek.

Additionally, Minshew describes the importance of body language as a way of showing deep listening and interest, which is similarly noted by Stebnicki (2011). Other aspects of truth in these quotes, such as the value of establishing respectful client–therapist relationships in which the client's resilience is appreciated, are reiterated within the counseling literature (Stebnicki, 2011).

7 Quotes About Humanistic Counseling

It is impossible to build one's own happiness on the unhappiness of others. This perspective is at the heart of Buddhist teachings.

Daisaku Ikeda

The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.

Mahatma Gandhi

At the end of life we will not be judged by how many diplomas we have received, how much money we have made, how many great things we have done. We will be judged by 'I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat, I was naked and you clothed me. I was homeless, and you took me in.'

Mother Teresa

I'm inspired by the people I meet in my travels—hearing their stories, seeing the hardships they overcome, their fundamental optimism and decency. I'm inspired by the love people have for their children. And I'm inspired by my own children, how full they make my heart. They make me want to work to make the world a little bit better. And they make me want to be a better man.

Barack Obama

Around here, however, we don't look backwards for very long. We keep moving forward, opening up new doors and doing new things, because we're curious… and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.

Walt Disney

You can't use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.

Maya Angelou

I believe in intuitions and inspirations… I sometimes FEEL that I am right. I do not KNOW that I am.

Albert Einstein

Humanistic counseling, which is consistent with Rogers's approach, espouses the importance of compassion, service to others, kindness, and optimism. In this way, humanistic counseling embraces creativity, humility, empathy, and altruism (Robbins, 2008), as well as recognition of each person's uniqueness.

Robbins (2008, p. 97) further describes the history of humanistic psychology as focusing "its attention on what it means to flourish as a human being." The altruistic focus of humanistic counseling is overwhelmingly apparent in these quotes, with those by Mother Teresa and Gandhi representing stellar examples.

A humanistic approach is also one that encourages curiosity and intuition (Giorgi, 2005). The idea that intuition should be embraced is especially evident in the words of Einstein. And finally, Angelou beautifully articulates the value of creativity, as it is indeed an ever-flowing capacity and only gets stronger the more you use it.

A Take-Home Message

Quotes represent excellent tools for expressing many key aspects of counseling. Of course, not all quotes accessible on the internet are accurate, but the inquisitive reader may easily find many that are beautiful, inspiring, and truthful.

The quotes included here reflect numerous qualities that are integral to wellbeing and happiness, such as resilience, compassion, optimism, gratitude, curiosity, acceptance, creativity, and courage.

Although the use of others' words should never replace free thinking, using them wisely may enhance the counselor's objective to inspire and motivate. So, don't be afraid to draw from the wise and insightful words of others in a way that enriches yourself and your relationships, as, in the words of Leo Buscaglia (aka 'Dr. Love'), "Our only salvation is in knowledge, in learning."

If you enjoyed reading these quotes as much as we enjoyed capturing them, check out our related article with inspirational Coaching Quotes.

* The origin of this quote is discussed here.

We hope you enjoyed reading this article. Don't forget to download our three Positive Psychology Exercises for free.

• Compton, W. (2005). Introduction to positive psychology. Thomson Wadsworth.
• Cox, K., & Guthrie, J. (2001). Motivational and cognitive contributions to students' amount of reading. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 26, 116–131.
• Giorgi, A. (2005). Remaining challenges for humanistic psychology. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 45, 204–216.
• Laursen, E. (2015). The power of grit, perseverance, and tenacity. Reclaiming Children & Youth, 23, 19–24.
• Leppma, M. (2012). Loving-kindness meditation and counseling. Journal of Mental Health Counseling, 34, 197–204.
• McBride, M. (1990). Autonomy and the struggle for female identity: Implications for counseling women. Journal of Counseling & Development, 69, 22–26.
• Miller, W. (2018). Listening well: The art of empathic understanding. Wipf & Stock.
• Raskin, N., Rogers, C., & Witty, M. (2014). Client-centered therapy. In D. Wedding & R. J. Corsini, Current psychotherapies (10th ed.). Brooks/Cole.
• Robbins, B. (2008). What is the good life? Positive psychology and the renaissance of humanistic psychology. The Humanistic Psychologist, 36, 96–112.
• Scott, D. (2008). Happiness at work. Nursing that Works. Retrieved February 19, 2020, from http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.605.2406&rep=rep1&type=pdf
• Stebnicki, M. (2011). Empathy fatigue: Healing the mind, body, and spirit of professional counselors. In S. Culley and T. Bond (Eds.) Integrative counseling skills in action (Counseling in action series). Sage.
• Toland, J., & Carrigan, D. (2011). Educational psychology and resilience: New concept, new opportunities. School Psychology International, 32, 95–106.
• Tsai, K. C. (2012). Play, imagination, and creativity: A brief literature review. Journal of Education & Learning, 1(2), 15–20.
• Vereen, L., Butler, S., Williams, F., Darg, J., & Downing, T. (2006). The use of humor when counseling African American college students. Journal of Counseling & Development, 84, 10–15.
• Wallace, H., Olson, J., Galovan, A., Schramm, D., & Marshall, J. (2016). Qualities of character that predict marital wellbeing. Family Relations, 65, 424–438.
• Wallerstein, J. (2017). The good marriage how & why love lasts. Plunkett Lake Press.
• Walston, S. (2003). Courage leadership: How to claim your courage and help others do the same. Talent Development, 8, 58–60.
• White, D. (2010). Through another's eyes: Gifted education: Thinking (with help from Aristotle) about critical thinking. Gifted Child Today, 33, 14–19.
• Williams, K. (2012). Core qualities of successful marketing relationships. Journal of Management and Marketing Research, 10. Retrieved February 19, 2020, from https://aabri.com/manuscripts/111023.pdf
• Young, M., & Hutchinson, T. (2012). The rediscovery of gratitude: Implications for counseling practice. The Journal of Humanistic Counseling, 51, 99–113.

wilsonsprour.blogspot.com

Source: https://positivepsychology.com/counseling-quotes/

Share this post