Right Attitudes

Some have an idea that the reason we in this country discard things so readily is because we have so much. The facts are exactly opposite—the reason we have so much is simply because we discard things so readily. We replace the old in return for something that will serve us better.
—Alfred P. Sloan, Jr. (American Businessman, Philanthropist)

Everybody, my friend, everybody lives for something better to come. That’s why we want to be considerate of every man—Who knows what’s in him, why he was born and what he can do?
—Maxim Gorky (Russian Writer)

History teaches that wars begin when governments believe the price of aggression is cheap. To keep the peace, we and our allies must be strong enough to convince any potential aggressor that war could bring no benefit, only disaster.
—Ronald Reagan (American Head of State)

Among all human pursuits, the pursuit of wisdom is more perfect, more noble, more useful, and more full of joy.
—Thomas Aquinas (Italian Catholic Priest)

Work has a greater effect than any other technique of living in the direction of binding the individual more closely to reality; in his work, at least, he is securely attached to a part of reality, the human community.
—Sigmund Freud (Austrian Psychiatrist)

Rings and jewels are not gifts, but apologies for gifts. The only gift is a portion of thyself.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (American Philosopher)

I wish it were possible to obtain a single amendment to our constitution. I would be willing to depend on that alone for the reduction of the administration of our government to the genuine principles of its constitution; I mean an additional article, taking from the federal government the power of borrowing.
—Thomas Jefferson (American Head of State)

It is really very impressive how many excuses we can invent for why we aren’t sitting. This idea we have that when things are perfect, then we’ll start practicing … things will never be perfect. This is samsara!
—Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo (British Buddhist Teacher, Nun)

An ambitious person should overcome the following six weaknesses—resting (oversleeping), lethargy, fear, anger, laziness and procrastination.
—The Mahabharata (Hindu Religious Text)

There are no speed limits on the road to excellence.
—David W. Johnson (American Business Executive)

Well, youth is the period of assumed personalities and disguises. It is the time of the sincerely insincere.
—V. S. Pritchett (British Short Story Writer)

The contemplation of truth and beauty is the proper object for which we were created, which calls forth the most intense desires of the soul, and of which it never tires.
—William Hazlitt (English Essayist)

We must live for the few who know and appreciate us, who judge and absolve us, and for whom we have the same affection and indulgence. The rest I look upon as a mere crowd, lively or sad, loyal or corrupt, from whom there is nothing to be expected but fleeting emotions, either pleasant or unpleasant, which leave no trace behind them.
—Sarah Bernhardt (French Actress)

The memories of long love gather like drifting snow, poignant as the mandarin ducks who float side by side in sleep.
—Murasaki Shikibu (Japanese Diarist, Novelist)

The test of all beliefs is their practical effect in life. If it be true that optimism compels the world forward, and pessimism retards it, then it is dangerous to propagate a pessimistic philosophy.
—Helen Keller (American Author)

Each of us, face to face with other men, is clothed with some sort of dignity, but we know only too well all the unspeakable things that go on in the heart.
—Luigi Pirandello (Italian Dramatist)

A rolling stone can gather no moss.
—Publilius Syrus (Syrian-born Latin Writer)

No matter how complicated a problem is, it usually can be reduced to a simple, comprehensible form which is often the best solution.
—An Wang (Chinese-born American Engineer)

Now is now. It can never be a long time ago.
—Laura Ingalls Wilder (American Author of Children’s Novels)

Better remain silent, better not even think, if you are not prepared to act.
—Annie Besant (British-born Indian Theosophist)

Do not give way to useless alarm; though it is right to be prepared for the worst, there is no occasion to look on it as certain.
—Jane Austen (English Novelist)

I do not believe in a fate that falls on men however they act; but I do believe in a fate that falls on them unless they act.
—G. K. Chesterton (English Journalist)

Sympathy is never wasted except when you give it to yourself.
—John W. Raper (American Journalist, Aphorist)

As long as I am back in my military life for a second, I should like to observe one thing about leadership that one of the great has said—Napoleon. He said, the great leader, the genius in leadership, is the man who can do the average thing when everybody else is going crazy.
—Dwight D. Eisenhower (American Head of State)

May we agree that private life is irrelevant? Multiple, mixed, ambiguous at best—out of it we try to fashion the crystal clear, the singular, the absolute, and that is what is relevant; that is what matters.
—May Sarton (American Children’s Books Writer)

The water drop playing on a lotus petal has an extremely uncertain existence; so also is life ever unstable. Understand, the very world is consumed by disease and conceit, and is riddled with pangs.
—Adi Shankaracharya (Indian Hindu Philosopher)

The nice thing about egotists is that they don’t talk about other people.
—Lucille S. Harper (American Freelance Writer)

There’s a difference between a philosophy and a bumper sticker.
—Charles M. Schulz (American Cartoonist)

Without moral and intellectual independence, there is no anchor for national independence.
—David Ben-Gurion (Russian-born Israeli Head of State)

Where there is charity and wisdom, there is neither fear nor ignorance. Where there is patience and humility, there is neither anger nor vexation. Where there is poverty and joy, there is neither greed nor avarice. Where there is peace and meditation, there is neither anxiety nor doubt.
—Saint Francis of Assisi (Italian Monk)

We Japanese enjoy the small pleasures, not extravagance. I believe a man should have a simple lifestyle—even if he can afford more.
—Masaru Ibuka (Japanese Entrepreneur, Engineer)

Silence accompanies the most significant expressions of happiness and unhappiness: those in love understand one another best when silent, while the most heated and impassioned speech at a graveside touches only outsiders, but seems cold and inconsequential to the widow and children of the deceased.
—Anton Chekhov (Russian Short Story Writer)

A lie told often enough becomes truth.
—Vladimir Lenin (Russian Revolutionary Leader)

To be or not to be is not a question of compromise. Either you be or you don’t be.
—Golda Meir (Israeli Head of State)

The art of leadership is saying no, not yes. It is very easy to say yes.
—Tony Blair (British Statesman)

I know no better augury of a young man’s future than true filial devotion. Very rarely does one go morally wrong, whose passionate love to his mother is a ruling force in his life, and whose continual desire is to gladden her heart. Next to the love of God, this is the noblest emotion. I do not remember a single instance of a young fellow going to the bad who was tenderly devoted to his parents.
—John Thain Davidson (British Presbyterian Preacher)

Look for the woman in the dress. If there is no woman, there is no dress.
—Coco Chanel (French Fashion Designer)

The opposite of good is not evil, it is indifference.
—Abraham Joshua Heschel (American Jewish Rabbi)

Maybe it was because like not only finds like; it can’t even escape from being found by its like. Even when it’s just like in one thing, because even them two with the same like was different.
—William Faulkner (American Novelist)

From the Hindu perspective, each soul is divine. All religions are branches of one big tree. It doesn’t matter what you call Him just as long as you call. Just as cinematic images appear to be real but are only combinations of light and shade, so is the universal variety a delusion. The planetary spheres, with their countless forms of life, are naught but figures in a cosmic motion picture. One’s values are profoundly changed when he is finally convinced that creation is only a vast motion picture and that not in, but beyond, lays his own ultimate reality.
—George Harrison (English Singer)

There are two kinds of people who lose money: those who know nothing and those who know everything.
—Henry Kaufman (American Economic, Financial Consultant)

Hatred ever kills, love never dies; such is the vast difference between the two. What is obtained by love is retained for all time. What is obtained by hatred proves a burden in reality for it increases hatred.
—Mohandas K. Gandhi (Indian Hindu Political leader)

Rhythm is the basis of life, not steady forward progress. The forces of creation, destruction, and preservation have a whirling, dynamic interaction.
—Kabbalah Teaching (Jewish Mystical, Theosophical Tradition)

That man is richest whose pleasures are the cheapest.
—Henry David Thoreau (American Philosopher)

A wise man will make haste to forgive, because he knows the full value of time and will not suffer it to pass away in unnecessary pain.
—Samuel Johnson (British Essayist)

The man who questions opinion is wise; the man who quarrels with fact is a fool.
—Frank A. Garbutt (American Inventor, Movie Pioneer)

Failure is, in a sense, the highway to success, inasmuch as every discovery of what is false leads us to seek earnestly after what is true, and every fresh experience points out some form of error which we shall afterward carefully avoid.
—John Keats (English Poet)

Rarely do more than three or four variables really count. Everything else is noise.
—Marty Whitman (American Investment Advisor)

The problem in this world is to avoid concentration of power—we must have a dispersion of power.
—Milton Friedman (American Economist)

Really, in the end, the only thing that can make you a writer is the person that you are, the intensity of your feeling, the honesty of your vision, the unsentimental acknowledgment of the endless interest of the life around and within you. Virtually nobody can help you deliberately-many people will help you unintentionally.
—Santha Rama Rau (Indian-American Novelist, Travel Writer)

Three things you can be judged by, your voice, your face and your disposition.
—Ignaz Bernstein (Russian-Jewish Bibliophile, Philanthropist)

It is far better to know our own weaknesses and failings than to point out those of another.
—Jawaharlal Nehru (Indian Head of State)

Hope is like a road in the country; there was never a road, but when many people walk on it, the road comes into existence.
—Lu Xun (Chinese Writer)

Ideas are somewhat like babies—they are born small, immature, and shapeless. They are promise rather than fulfillment. In the innovative company executives do not say, “This is a damn-fool idea.” Instead they ask, “What would be needed to make this embryonic, half-baked, foolish idea into something that makes sense that is an opportunity for us?”
—Peter Drucker (Austrian-born Management Consultant)

I detest that man, who hides one thing in the depths of his heart, and speaks forth another.
—Homer (Ancient Greek Poet)

A vigorous five-mile walk will do more good for an unhappy but otherwise healthy adult than all the medicine and psychology in the world.
—Paul Dudley White (American Cardiologist)

On the outside one is a star. But in reality, one is completely alone, doubting everything. To experience this loneliness of soul is the hardest thing in the world.
—Brigitte Bardot (French Film Star)

When the ox is down, many are the butchers.
—The Talmud (Sacred Text of the Jewish Faith)

The capacity of man himself is only revealed when, under stress and responsibility, he breaks through his educational shell, and he may then be a splendid surprise to himself no less than to his teachers.
—Harvey Williams Cushing (American Neurosurgeon, Biographer)