A Discussion With Dr. Seuss – 16 Quotes By Dr. Seuss

“Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.” ~ Dr. Seuss ~

Having someone in your life until they grow old and die = smile because they were in your life.

Having someone in your life and then the love relationship ends = cry lots of tears, have a broken heart and wishing you never met them.

Obviously, me and Dr. Seuss do not agree on everything.

“You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You’re on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the one who’ll decide where to go…”~ Dr. Seuss ~

Living in the United States of America provides us with a priceless gift…freedom. Being able to choose everything about our lives empowers us to progress, learn and experience new things all the time. Our choices lead us to a particular kind of life with the accompanying opportunities. Our choices and attitude make a difference with how we not only perceive life, but how other people perceive us as we live each day.

When we feel trapped by people, our environment or life experiences, it is critical to realize that we ALWAYS have a choice. Maybe all the choices “feel” or “seem” undesirable, but there is always an option to escape our misery and nightmare. Right now I am thinking of experiences in my life where I felt so boxed in and I stalled in doing anything. However, by stalling, I really perpetuated the boxed in feeling. I had a choice. Actually, looking back, I had lots of choices. Granted, none of them really turned me on, but there were still choices I could have made instead of just remaining trapped.

You can’t create a future by looking into the depths of Hell in the past. There are lessons to be learned and actions not to be repeated, but we will once again stagnate if we harbor the feelings of grief and allow them to overwhelm us with disappointment and regret.

So with our brains in our head and feet in our shoes, we choose the path we will walk. Everything around us can influence our decision, but within our self we are making all the choices. Remaining miserable and stagnating is a choice that we can consciously make just as we can choose to get up out of the ashes, look toward the sun and start all over again on a new path.

“Today you are You, that is truer than true.There is no one alive who is Youer than You.” ~ Dr. Seuss ~

Yes, I am definitely me no matter how many times I wished to be someone else and I have wished it more times than I can count.

When I went to therapy last week, my therapist said that some people never progress to the point that I have and that in a relatively short time, I had come far in healing my PTSD and the wreckage it left behind. She said, “I remember the woman who came into my office a year ago and you are nothing like her anymore.” I took it as a great compliment and it was the pat on the back that I really needed.

I’m not saying that I no longer have any issues because, believe me, the PTSD dug up every issue I’ve ever possessed, but I have conquered just about all of the biggest Goliaths. That’s the weird thing about PTSD – You would think that the only thing the person would have to cope with was the “one” experience that tipped them over, but that’s not the reality. Every issue that got the person to the tipping over point has to be dealt with and the emotions can’t be masked or restuffed deep into the corners of their soul.

That, my friends, is one of the worst parts of PTSD.

So being me is fine because I’m the only one who can be me and I’m doing a great job at it!

“Why fit in when you were born to stand out?”~ Dr. Seuss ~

Imagine some of the great minds in history. What if they had chosen to fit in with the norm of society instead of doing what their soul was driving them towards. Would we have electricity? Would we have automobiles? Would there be airplanes? Heck, would the Internet exist? Maybe not. Maybe it would have been discovered years and years later by someone else.

It still stands that those people had something unique to offer the world that no one at that time had offered. Being true to yourself is vital in maximizing the happiness in your life.

“I have heard there are troubles of more than one kind. Some come from ahead and some come from behind. But I’ve bought a big bat. I’m all ready you see. Now my troubles are going to have troubles with me!” ~ Dr. Seuss ~

A big bat? Really? If only it were that easy to get rid of troubles and hard times.

However.

You knew there was going to be a “however” after a sentence like that one.

However, we have to refer to the explanation of the first quote about how we have choices and can choose our attitude towards any and everything. By keeping an attitude of success as we go through hard times, it is exactly like carrying a bat to beat our troubles down and/or away. Personally, I would like to beat the hard times to death, but then again, I do everything passionately and wholeheartedly.

“Today is your day!Your mountain is waiting, So… get on your way!” ~ Dr. Seuss ~

I’m not even halfway through the list of Dr. Seuss quotes and I’m already sick of his positive attitude. LOL

“I meant what I said and I said what I meant.” ~ Dr. Seuss ~

This was a shocking quote to discover. I always say, “I say what I mean and mean what I say,” and I thought it was my own original saying!

“Only you can control your future.” ~ Dr. Seuss ~

On the one hand, I think Dr. Seuss went too far with this one. On the other hand, I actually understand the meaning he was probably trying to convey.

We are the captain of our ship, writer of our book, chef in the kitchen, driver of the car…okay, you get the point. The only person who decides which course to take is you.

My brain thinks about all the outside forces that weigh in on my life, but that wasn’t the intention of the quote by Dr. Seuss. There are going to be outside influences, but we will always have the choice of how we will react to them.

“You’ll miss the best things if you keep your eyes shut.” ~ Dr. Seuss ~

Sometimes if you keep your eyes shut long enough the bad things will pass.

Just saying.

If you hide in cave like I do, many wonderful experiences will pass you by and you’ll miss the opportunity to enjoy them.

However, if you hide in a cave away from everyone, you’re less likely to have your feelings hurt.

Just saying again.

“They say I’m old-fashioned, and live in the past, but sometimes I think progress progresses too fast!” ~ Dr. Seuss ~

I was talking to someone the other day about how fast technology has progressed in my lifetime. I think with the constant advancement in technology, there are many “new” things to occupy our time, attention and talents. However, there are so many things that we can do that if we are not careful, we are spread too thin and miss the joy in everything we try to accomplish or experience.

It is so important to find time during each day to be silent, to slow down and contemplate the present and make plans for the future. Without carving out some time to think about our life, we will simply wander aimlessly where others push or pull us. Our dreams will not come to pass because we will be living everyone else’s dream and not our own.

“It’s not about what it is, it’s about what it can become.”~ Dr. Seuss ~

Once again, this quote could be taken two ways.

It does matter “what it is” because some things don’t change and some people don’t want to change. Keeping the blinders off is a big help in making sure that you don’t set yourself up for disappointment or heartbreak. It really is a waste of time to try and turn the frog into a prince or make the mud puddle turn into the ocean.

“And this mess is so big And so deep and so tall, We cannot pick it up.There is no way at all!”~ Dr. Seuss ~

I’ve experienced a few of those types of messes too.

“I do not like green eggs and ham I do not like them Sam-I-Am. “~ Dr. Seuss ~

I do not like green eggs and ham because they are covered in mold.

“When you’re in a Slump, you’re not in for much fun. Un-slumping yourself is not easily done.” ~ Dr. Seuss ~

Amen Dr. Seuss!!!

Do you know how often depression becomes so awful that the person commits suicide? I’m not going to dig up statistics, but people die by their own hand far too often.

It is really hard to move out of the muck of a deep depression. Really, really hard to see happiness in the future.

“Be who you are and say what you feel because the ones who mind don’t matter, and the ones who matter don’t mind.” ~ Dr. Seuss ~

“To thine own self be true.”

When it gets right down to it, the only person who will be with you NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENS is yourself. So if you have something to say, just say it.

“You do not like them.SO you say. Try them! Try them! And you may. Try them and you may I say.” ~ Dr. Seuss ~

I do believe that there are great advantages in stepping outside your comfort zone which is why I wrote a post listing 16 very good reasons to do so.

The past year has been filled with practically living outside my comfort zone and it has been really uncomfortable. LOL However, by stretching myself, I have healed and grown in ways that no one thought possible considering the amount of wreckage that surrounded me. So yes, yes and yes, I totally believe in trying new things because you WILL discover many things you like and want to incorporate in your life.

Okay, so that’s the end of my list of quotes by Dr. Seuss. He wrote very upbeat and inspirational books. Although they were geared for children, I believe his writings have great messages for all ages and hopefully you do too.