Ellen Hopkins Quotes

Our past is not our potential.

You can't change where you come from, but you can change where you go from here. Just like a book. If you don't like the ending, you make up a new one.

I do not want to live more from the past. I have my present and a great future that is on the other side.

I know my past is not what my future holds.

We are all affected by our pasts, but it is within our power not to let what we have done to dictate what we will do.

Shaking the past, making my break, taking control, that's what it takes.

Until a person takes responsibility for where he is, there is no basis for moving on. The bad news is that the past was in your hands, but the good news is that the future, my friend, is also in your hands.

Don't use the hardships of your past as excuses to deny the possibilities of your future.

Remember, the past need not become our future as well.

No matter how difficult the past, you can always begin again today.

I can't change the past, but I can try to make a better future for me.

You don't have to stay where you are; you can make a change.

You are always free to change your mind and choose a different future, or a different past.

There was a certain point in my life where I had to decide that I was going to take my future and Nicole's and not wallow in what happened to me because when you do that, you just keep repeating what's been happening and at some point you have to make a choice.

You don't have to fight for your life anymore. You're starting a new one.

I'd been in a vicious cycle and circle of people and couldn't see my way out. So I picked myself up one day about 15 years ago and moved where I didn't know anyone.

When you lose everything, and I mean everything, you sit there in this empty room in the dark, and the only person who can get you out is you.

I was set free because my greatest fear had been realized, and I still had a daughter who I adored, and I had an old typewriter and a big idea. And so rock bottom became a solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.

Wherever we are in life is where destiny has brought us. It doesn't mean we have to stay there.

Create your future from your future not your past.

You can't change what happened. But you can still change what will happen.

We must remember that the people for whom this change represents a first taste of freedom and a new and brighter future did not allow their resolution to falter, no matter how great the suffering by which they bought this independence.

My message always is: No matter where you are from, no matter what past you have, it is all about your future and your goals.

We need to empower ourselves and believe in ourselves, and not allow the world to take that away from us. No matter how dark we may think our world is, it's been much darker in the past, and we will make it through this.

When you begin to realize that your past does not necessarily dictate the outcome of your future, then you can release the hurt. It is impossible to inhale new air until you exhale the old.