Right Attitudes

Hope is the thing with feathers|That perches in the soul|And sings the tune without the words|And never stops at all,||And sweetest in the gale is heard;|And sore must be the storm|That could abash the little bird|That kept so many warm.||I’ve heard it in the chillest land|And on the strangest sea,|Yet never, in extremity,|It asked a crumb of me.
—Emily Dickinson (American Poet)

High station in life is earned by the gallantry with which appalling experiences are survived with grace.
—Tennessee Williams (American Playwright)

The quality of our expectations determines the quality of our action.
—Jean-Baptiste Andre Godin

Some men have thousands of reasons why they cannot do what they want to, when all they need is one reason why they can.
—Willis R. Whitney (American Chemist)

Each of us is given a pocketful of time to spend however we may. We use what we will. We waste what we will. But we can never get back a day.
—Unknown

If you want to make good use of your time, you’ve got to know what’s most important and then give it all you’ve got.
—Lee Iacocca (American Businessperson)

A challenge gives you the opportunity to flex your spiritual muscles.
—Unknown

The fact that I can plant a seed and it becomes a flower, share a bit of knowledge and it becomes another’s, smile at someone and receive a smile in return, are to me continual spiritual exercises.
—Leo Buscaglia (American Motivational Speaker)

The life that is unexamined is not worth living.
—Plato (Ancient Greek Philosopher)

Working hours are never long enough. Each day is a holiday, and ordinary holidays are grudged as enforced interruptions in an absorbing vocation.
—Winston Churchill (British Head of State)

Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; but remember that what you now have was once among the things only hoped for.
—Epicurus (Ancient Greek Philosopher)

It takes a person who is wide awake to make his dream come true.
—Roger Babson (American Entre)

Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.
—Abraham Lincoln (American Head of State)

It’s not what you are that holds you back, it’s what you think you’re not.
—Unknown

Many people dream of success. To me success can only be achieved through repeated failures and introspections. In fact, success represents 1% of your work that results from the 99% that is called failure.
—Soichiro Honda (Japanese Inventor)

The best portion of a good man’s life: his little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and love.
—William Wordsworth (English Poet)

You can’t behave in a calm, rational manner. You’ve got to be out there on the lunatic fringe.
—Jack Welch (American Businessperson)

The greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches, but to reveal to him his own.
—Benjamin Disraeli (British Head of State)

Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler.
—Albert Einstein (German-born Theoretical Physicist)

How important it is to recognize and celebrate our heroes and she-roes.
—Maya Angelou (American Poet)

Hate the sin & not the sinner is a percept which, though easy enough to understand, is rarely practiced, and therefore the poison of hatred spreads in the world.
—Mohandas K. Gandhi (Indian Hindu Political leader)

Those who are fired with an enthusiastic idea and who allow it to take hold and dominate their thoughts find that new worlds open for them. As long as enthusiasm holds out, so will new opportunities.
—Norman Vincent Peale (American Clergyman, Self-Help Author)

Fear collides with our most conservative self and allows us to stop before we try, dismiss before we think, mock before we imagine.
—Carol Lloyd

A prudent question is one-half of wisdom.
—Francis Bacon (English Philosopher)

Chance favors the prepared mind.
—Louis Pasteur (French Biologist)

The delight we inspire in others, has this enchanting peculiarity. That, unlike any other reflection, returns to us more radiant than ever.
—Victor Hugo (French Novelist)

Practice no vice because it’s trivial… Neglect no virtue because it’s so.
—Chinese Proverb

To be able to stand not knowing long enough for something alive to take shape.
—Lynda Barry (American Cartoonist)

It is better to live rich than to die rich.
—Samuel Johnson (British Essayist)

A person should contemplate the workings of the universe with reverence and introspection. In this way expression is given to the effects of these laws upon his own person. This is the source of a hidden power.
—I. Ching

Everywhere in the universe, what we call life and movement results from a continual conflict of forces or impulses. Whenever that active antagonism ceases, the immobility and inertia, which are death, result.
—Albert Pike (American Military Leader)

Life is pleasant. Death is peaceful. It’s the transition that’s troublesome.
—Isaac Asimov (Russian-born American Children’s Books Writer)

When we feel love and kindness toward others, it not only makes others feel loved and cared for, but it helps us also to develop inner happiness and peace.
—The 14th Dalai Lama (Tibetan Buddhist Religious Leader)

You have not converted a man because you have silenced him.
—John Morley, 1st Viscount Morley of Blackburn (British Political leader)

If you want to test your memory, try to recall what you were worrying about one year ago today.
—E. Joseph Cossman

The mind has to be empty to see clearly.
—Jiddu Krishnamurti (Indian Philosopher)

We are fallible. We certainly haven’t attained perfection. But we can strive for it, and the virtue is in the striving.
—Carlos P. Romulo (Philippine Diplomat)

Love is energy of life.
—Robert Browning (English Poet)

It is better to live richly than to die rich.
—Muriel Strode (American Author, Businesswoman)

As a toy fruit or a toy elephant reminds one of the real fruit and the living animal, so do the images that are worshipped remind one of the God who is formless and eternal.
—Ramakrishna Paramahamsa (Indian Hindu Philosopher)

Man must cease attributing his problems to his environment, and learn again to exercise his will – his personal responsibility in the realm of faith and morals
—Albert Schweitzer (French Theologian)

The quality of your work, in the long run, is the deciding factor on how much your services are valued by the world.
—Orison Swett Marden (American New Thought Writer)

How can I be useful. Of what service can I be. There is something inside me. What can it be?
—Vincent van Gogh (Dutch Painter)

One doesn’t discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time.
—Andre Gide (French Novelist)

As rain breaks through an ill-thatched house, passion will break through an unreflecting mind. As rain does not break through a well-thatched house, passion will not break through a well-reflecting mind.
—The Dhammapada (Buddhist Anthology of Verses)

I believe that you control your destiny, that you can be what you want to be. You can also stop and say, “No, I won’t do it, I won’t behave his way anymore. I’m lonely and I need people around me, maybe I have to change my methods of behaving and then you do it.”
—Leo Buscaglia (American Motivational Speaker)

The time which we have at our disposal every day is elastic; the passions that we feel expand it, those that we inspire contract it; and habit fills up what remains.
—Marcel Proust (French Novelist)

I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.
—Thomas Edison (American Inventor)

If you have made mistakes, even serious ones,
there is always another chance for you. What we call failure is
not the falling down, but the staying down.
— Mary Pickford

Health is the greatest possession.
Contentment is the greatest treasure.
Confidence is the greatest friend.
Non-being is the greatest joy.
— The Dhammapada

Hatred is an affair of the heart;
contempt that of the head.
— Arthur Schopenhauer

It’s kind of fun to do the impossible.
— Walt Disney

If I keep a green bough in my heart, the singing bird will come.
— Chinese Proverb

Great doubts deep wisdom… Small doubts little wisdom.
— Chinese Proverb

One of the most tragic things I know about human nature is that all
of us tend to put off living.
We are all dreaming of some magical rose garden over the horizon-
instead of enjoying the roses blooming outside our windows today.
— Dale Carnegie

You can get everything in life you want if
you will just help enough other people get what they want.
— Zig Ziglar

There was never a night or a problem that could defeat sunrise or hope.
— Bern Williams

Five great enemies to peace inhabit with us:
vice, avarice, ambition, envy, anger, and pride.
If those enemies were to be banished,
we should infallibly enjoy perpetual peace.
— Petrarch