Happy National OT Month to all the Occupational Therapists out there. You’ve chosen a challenging career that requires meticulous attention to detail – as well as perseverance, patience, and a cheerful, selfless attitude. In honor of your commitment, we’ve mined the web and curated 20 inspirational quotes for occupational therapists to encourage you in your work and inspire you in your life. Thank you for all you do!
Inspirational Quotes About Perseverance
Children receiving services might feel frustrated or exasperated at times…Occupational Therapists (OTs) might gently help them persevere in their therapeutic exercises and tasks. With occupational therapy services as a conduit, you are integral to helping children to develop a character attribute that will build their optimism and resilience throughout life.
“That’s the reason they’re called lessons,” the Gryphon remarked. “Because they lessen from day to day.”
― Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
“I am a slow walker, but I never walk back.”
― Abraham Lincoln
“Kites rise highest against the wind, not with it.”
― Winston S. Churchill
“It is not that I’m so smart. But I stay with the questions much longer.”
― Albert Einstein
“Trees that are slow to grow bear the best fruit.”
― Molière
Inspirational Quotes About Hope
Hope does not disappoint. When you, as an OT, see the oft-hidden treasure of a child’s future ability, the journey through therapy is halfway complete. An optimistic spirit focused on accomplishing therapeutic goals is very detectable by the students you serve and very important because you (yes, you!) are helping them develop confidence as they perform various tasks. And imagine – if you’re conducting online occupational therapy, you can even help build hope in a child hundreds or thousands of miles away!
“And will you succeed? Yes indeed, yes indeed! Ninety-eight and three-quarters percent guaranteed!”
― Dr. Seuss
“Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”
― Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland
“I’m a success today because I had a friend who believed in me, and I didn’t have the heart to let him down.”
― Abraham Lincoln
“What makes the desert beautiful,’ said the little prince, ‘is that somewhere it hides a well…”
― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince
“A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.”
― Winston S. Churchill
Inspirational Quotes About Patience
When positive change happens gradually, it sticks. Your example of patience with children needing therapy actually helps them be patient with themselves – fostering a sense of self-acceptance and the will to persevere through their occupational therapy (and life).
“It does not matter how slowly you go so long as you do not stop.”
― Andy Warhol
“Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.”
― Robert Louis Stevenson
“One can never consent to creep when one feels an impulse to soar.”
― Helen Keller, The Story of My Life
“…We are impatient of being on the way to something unknown, something new. And yet it is the law of all progress that it is made by passing through some stages of instability – and that it may take a very long time…”
“Patience is also a form of action.”
Inspirational Quotes About Service
As an OT, you spend so much time in service to others. Students reap the benefits of the therapy you provide, and you often give more than the required work – establishing trusted connections with people who need you to believe in them.
“Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much”
― Helen Keller
“Those who are happiest are those who do the most for others.”
― Booker T. Washington, Up from Slavery
“You have not lived today until you have done something for someone who can never repay you.”
― John Bunyan
“Not for ourselves alone are we born.”
― Marcus Cicero
“Whatever you are, be a good one.”
― Abraham Lincoln
Are there any inspirational quotes that have impacted YOUR life in your work as an OT? If so, both Therapy Source and your fellow school-based occupational therapists would love to read them, so please share below!