Right Attitudes

A man that studieth revenge keeps his own wounds green, which otherwise would heal and do well.
—Francis Bacon (English Philosopher)

It is literally true that you can succeed best and quickest by helping others to succeed.
—Napoleon Hill (American Author)

Obviously, there is little you can learn from doing nothing.
—Zig Ziglar (American Author)

We should know what our convictions are, and stand for them. Upon one’s own philosophy, conscious or unconscious, depends one’s ultimate interpretation of facts. Therefore it is wise to be as clear as possible about one’s subjective principles. As the man is, so will be his ultimate truth.
—Carl Jung (Swiss Psychologist)

No problem can withstand the assault of sustained thinking.
—Voltaire (French Philosopher)

Arise, transcend thyself. Thou art man and the whole nature of man is to become more than himself.
—Sri Aurobindo (Indian Yogi, Nationalist)

Happiness comes when you believe in what you are doing, know what you are doing, and live what you are doing.
—Brian Tracy (American Author)

When you affirm big, believe big, and pray big, big things happen.
—Norman Vincent Peale (American Clergyman, Self-Help Author)

The torment of precautions often exceeds the dangers to be avoided. It is sometimes better to abandon one’s self to destiny.
—Napoleon I (French Monarch)

The smallest act of kindness is worth more than the grandest intention.
—H. Jackson Brown, Jr. (American Author)

It is foolish to tear one’s hair in grief, as though sorrow would be made less by baldness.
—Cicero (Roman Philosopher)

A leader is best when people barely know he exists, not so good when people obey and acclaim him, worse when they despise him. But of a good leader who talks little when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: “we did it ourselves.”
—Laozi (Chinese Philosopher)

There must be a reason why some people can afford to live well. They must have worked for it. I only feel angry when I see waste. When I see people throwing away things that we could use.
—Mother Teresa (Albanian Catholic Humanitarian)

Life, as it is called, is for most of us one long postponement.
—Henry Miller (American Novelist)

The smallest act of kindness is worth more than the grandest intention.
—Khalil Gibran (Lebanese-born American Philosopher)

The happiness of any given life is to be measured not by its joys and pleasures, but by the extent to which it has been free from suffering, from positive evil.
—Arthur Schopenhauer (German Philosopher)

A leader is best|When people barely know he exists,|When his work is done, his aim fulfilled,|They will say:|We did it ourselves.
—Laozi (Chinese Philosopher)

People may not remember exactly what you did, or what you said, but, they will always remember how you made them feel.
—Maya Angelou (American Poet)

It is often the failure who is the pioneer in new lands, new undertakings, and new forms of expression.
—Eric Hoffer (American Philosopher)

Maturity is a bitter disappointment for which no remedy exists, unless laughter can be said to remedy anything.
—Kurt Vonnegut (American Novelist)

If you would civilize a man, begin with his grandmother.
—Victor Hugo (French Novelist)

Be slow to fall into friendship; but when thou art in, continue firm and constant.
—Socrates (Anceient Greek Philosopher)

Continuity of purpose is one of the most essential ingredients of happiness in the long run, and for most men this comes chiefly through their work.
—Bertrand A. Russell (British Philosopher)

I am always doing things I can’t do, that’s how I get to do them.
—Pablo Picasso (Spanish Painter)

Short as life is, some find it long enough to outlive their characters, their constitutions and their estates.
—Charles Caleb Colton (English Angelic Priest)

Most people never run far enough on their first wind to find out they’ve got a second. Give your dreams all you’ve got and you’ll be amazed at the energy that comes out of you.
—William James (American Philosopher)

Friendship is nothing else than an accord in all things, human and divine, conjoined with mutual good-will and affection.
—Cicero (Roman Philosopher)

England has two books, one which she has made and one which has made her: Shakespeare and the Bible.
—Victor Hugo (French Novelist)

Man becomes man only by his intelligence, but he is man only by his heart.
—Henri Frederic Amiel (Swiss Philosopher)

Being unwanted, unloved, uncared for, forgotten by everybody, I think that is a much greater hunger, a much greater poverty than the person who has nothing to eat. We must find each other.
—Mother Teresa (Albanian Catholic Humanitarian)

Everybody has to be somebody to somebody to be anybody.
—Malcolm Forbes (American Publisher)

Do more than belong: participate. Do more than care: help. Do more than believe: practice. Do more than be fair: be kind. Do more than forgive: forget. Do more than dream: work.
—William Arthur Ward (American Author)

Many a man has finally succeeded only because he has failed after repeated efforts. If he had never met defeat he would never have known any great victory.
—Orison Swett Marden (American New Thought Writer)

Orators are most vehement when they have the weakest cause, as men get on horseback when they cannot walk.
—Cicero (Roman Philosopher)

If a window of opportunity appears, don’t pull down the shade.
—Tom Peters (American Management Consultant)

People who bite the hand that feeds them usually lick the boot that kicks them.
—Eric Hoffer (American Philosopher)

Don’t take life too serious. You’ll never escape it alive anyway.
—Elbert Hubbard (American Writer)

Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.
—Pablo Picasso (Spanish Painter)

We are not altogether here to tolerate. We are here to resist, to control and vanquish withal.
—Thomas Carlyle (Scottish Writer)

He who allows his day to pass by without practicing generosity and enjoying life’s pleasures is like a blacksmith’s bellows; he breathes, but does not live.
—Indian Proverb

The average person puts only 25% of his energy and ability into his work. The world takes off its hat to those who put in more than 50% of their capacity, and stands on its head for those few and far between souls who devote 100%.
—Andrew Carnegie (Scottish-American Industrialist, Philanthropist)

Which of our methods of measuring could we apply to this eddying mass that is the universe? In the presence of the profundities our sole ability is to dream. Our conception, quickly winded, cannot follow creation, that vast breath.
—Victor Hugo (French Novelist)

The common man is not concerned about the passage of time, the man of talent is driven by it.
—Arthur Schopenhauer (German Philosopher)

There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest.
—Elie Wiesel (Romanian-born American Writer)

Someone’s sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.
—Warren Buffett (American Investor)

You have to accept whatever comes and the only important thing is that you meet it with courage and with the best that you have to give.
—Eleanor Roosevelt (American First Lady)

Prayer enlarges the heart until it is capable of containing God’s gift to himself.
—Mother Teresa (Albanian Catholic Humanitarian)

Men who are occupied in the restoration of health to other men, by the joint exertion of skill and humanity, are above all the great of the earth. They even partake of divinity, since to preserve and renew is almost as noble as to create.
—Voltaire (French Philosopher)

Change the way you look at things and the things you look at change.
—Wayne Dyer (American Motivational Writer)

Those who give too much attention to trifling things become generally incapable of great ones.
—Francois de La Rochefoucauld

Responsibilities gravitate to the person who can shoulder them; power flows to the man who knows how.
—Elbert Hubbard (American Writer)

He who refuses to embrace a unique opportunity loses the prize as surely as if he had failed.
—William James (American Philosopher)

Be like a sponge when it comes to each new experience. If you want to be able to express it well, you must first be able to absorb it well.
—Jim Rohn (American Entrepreneur)

Real generosity toward the future consists in giving all to what is present.
—Albert Camus (Algerian-born French Philosopher)

With some people solitariness is an escape not from others but from themselves. For they see in the eyes of others only a reflection of themselves.
—Eric Hoffer (American Philosopher)

One who never asks either knows everything or nothing.
—Malcolm Forbes (American Publisher)

A word, a look, an accent, may affect the destiny not only of individuals, but of nations. He is a bold man who calls anything a trifle.
—Andrew Carnegie (Scottish-American Industrialist, Philanthropist)

Can you really explain to a fish what it’s like to walk on land? One day on land is worth a thousand years of talking about it, and one day running a business has exactly the same kind of value.
—Warren Buffett (American Investor)

People who fly into a rage always make a bad landing.
—Will Rogers (American Actor)

Observe how soon, and to what a degree, a mother’s influence begins to operate! Her first ministration for her infant is to enter, as it were, the valley of the shadow of death, and win its life at the peril of her own! How different must an affection thus founded be from all others!
—Lydia H. Sigourney

God gave us memory that we might have roses in December.
—J. M. Barrie (Scottish Novelist)

The wise man thinks of fame just enough to avoid being despised.
—Epicurus (Ancient Greek Philosopher)

Plenty of people miss their share of happiness, not because they never found it, but because they didn’t stop to enjoy it.
—William Feather (American Publisher)

All the adversity I’ve had in my life, all my troubles and obstacles, have strengthened me… You may not realize it when it happens, but a kick in the teeth may be the best thing in the world for you.
—Walt Disney (American Entrepreneur)

One of the first businesses of a sensible man is to know when he is beaten, and to leave off fighting at once.
—Samuel Butler

No one can tell you what is right for you except yourself. So start telling yourself what to do. If you blunder for ten years while thinking for yourself, that is rich treasure when compared with living these ten years under the mental domination of another.
—Vernon Howard

Obstacles are like wild animals. They are cowards but they will bluff you if they can. If they see you are afraid of them… they are liable to spring upon you; but if you look them squarely in the eye, they will slink out of sight.
—Orison Swett Marden (American New Thought Writer)

Don’t count your chickens before they are hatched.
—Aesop (Greek Fabulist)

Goals. There’s no telling what you can do when you get inspired by them. There’s no telling what you can do when you believe in them. There’s no telling what will happen when you act upon them.
—Jim Rohn (American Entrepreneur)

With begging and scrambling we find very little, but with being true to ourselves we find a great deal more.
—Rabindranath Tagore (Indian Hindu Polymath)

I have always been among those who believed that the greatest freedom of speech was the greatest safety, because if a man is a fool, the best thing to do is to encourage him to advertise the fact by speaking.
—Woodrow Wilson (American Head of State)

Welcome everything that comes to you, but do not long for anything else.
—Andre Gide (French Novelist)

There can be no real freedom without the freedom to fail.
—Eric Hoffer (American Philosopher)

The perfect amount of money to leave children is enough money so that they would feel they could do anything, but not so much that they would do nothing.
—Warren Buffett (American Investor)

Learning is finding out what you already know. Doing is demonstrating that you know it. Teaching is reminding others that they know just as well as you. You are all learners, doers, teachers.
—Richard Bach (American Novelist)

We say that the hour of death cannot be forecast, but when we say this we imagine that hour as placed in an obscure and distant future. It never occurs to us that it has any connection with the day already begun or that death could arrive this same afternoon, this afternoon which is so certain and which has every hour filled in advance.
—Marcel Proust (French Novelist)

Punishment is now unfashionable… because it creates moral distinctions among men, which, to the democratic mind, are odious. We prefer a meaningless collective guilt to a meaningful individual responsibility.
—Thomas Szasz (Hungarian Psychiatrist)

One way to get the most out of life is to look upon it as an adventure.
—William Feather (American Publisher)

There are obstinate and unknown braves who defend themselves inch by inch in the shadows against the fatal invasion of want and turpitude. There are noble and mysterious triumphs which no eye sees. No renown rewards, and no flourish of trumpets salutes. Life, misfortune, isolation, abandonment, and poverty and battlefields which have their heroes.
—Victor Hugo (French Novelist)

A sense of duty is useful in work, but offensive in personal relations. People wish to be liked, not endured with patient resignation.
—Bertrand A. Russell (British Philosopher)

The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing you will make one.
—Elbert Hubbard (American Writer)

Of all the diversions of life, there is none so proper to fill up its empty spaces as the reading of useful and entertaining authors.
—Joseph Addison (English Essayist)

The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.
—Walt Disney (American Entrepreneur)

Many books require no thought from those who read them, and for a very simple reason: they made no such demand upon those who wrote them. Those works, therefore, are the most valuable, that set our thinking faculties in the fullest operation. understand them.
—Charles Caleb Colton (English Angelic Priest)

I trust that everything happens for a reason, even when we’re not wise enough to see it.
—Oprah Winfrey (American TV Personality)

Success is counted sweetest by those who ne’er succeed.
—Emily Dickinson (American Poet)

So long as a person is capable of self-renewal, he is a living being.
—Henri Frederic Amiel (Swiss Philosopher)

Man is a rational animal—so at least I have been told. Throughout a long life, I have looked diligently for evidence in favor of this statement, but so far I have not had the good fortune to come across it, though I have searched in many countries spread over three continents.
—Bertrand A. Russell (British Philosopher)

It is easier to forgive an enemy than to forgive a friend.
—William Blake (English Poet)

Four things come not back: the spoken word, the sped arrow, the past life, and the neglected opportunity.
—Arabic Proverb

Discipline yourself to do the things you need to do when you need to do them, and the day will come when you will be able to do the things you want to do when you want to do them!
—Zig Ziglar (American Author)

Sensitiveness is closely allied to egotism. Indeed, excessive sensitiveness is only another name for morbid self-consciousness. The cure for it is to make more of our objects, and less of ourselves.
—Christian Nestell Bovee

If the will is fixed on the purpose it sets itself to accomplish, then circumstances will suggest the right course; but the schemer finds himself always tripped up by the unexpected.
—Sri Aurobindo (Indian Yogi, Nationalist)

The truth that makes men free is for the most part the truth which men prefer not to hear.
—Herbert Agar

The older I get, the more centered I become and the more I think I really know about myself. What I know is that what other people do doesn’t really have any effect on me.
—Oprah Winfrey (American TV Personality)

At thirty a man should know himself like the palm of his hand, know the exact number of his defects and qualities … And above all, accept these things.
—Albert Camus (Algerian-born French Philosopher)

Time destroys the speculation of men, but it confirms nature.
—Cicero (Roman Philosopher)

Laughter and tears are both responses to frustration and exhaustion … . I myself prefer to laugh, since there is less cleaning up to do afterward.
—Kurt Vonnegut (American Novelist)

Fools take to themselves the respect that is given to their office.
—Aesop (Greek Fabulist)

Our heritage and ideals, our codes and standards – the things we live by and teach our children – are preserved or diminished by how freely we exchange ideas and feelings.
—Walt Disney (American Entrepreneur)