Right Attitudes

Real success is finding your life work in the work that you love. That’s it. Don’t worry about making a living, don’t worry about popularity or fame. Make what you do and what you make count more than what you own.
—David McCullough (American Historian)

Our virtues are dearer to us the more we have had to suffer for them. It is the same with our children. All profound affection admits a sacrifice.
—Luc de Clapiers, marquis de Vauvenargues (French Moralist)

Who has never tasted what is bitter does not know what is sweet.
—German Proverb

Unhappy the land that is in need of heroes.
—Bertolt Brecht (German Poet)

How much more grievous are the consequences of anger than the causes of it.
—Marcus Aurelius (Emperor of Rome, Stoic Philosopher)

The monument of a great man is not of granite or marble or bronze. It consists of his goodness, his deeds, his love and his compassion.
—Alfred A. Montapert (American Engineer, Philosopher)

A good question is never answered. It is not a bolt to be tightened into place but a seed to be planted and to bear more seed toward the hope of greening the landscape of idea.
—John Ciardi (American Poet)

It is no use trying to tug the glacier backwards.
—Tibetan Proverb

Politics can be relatively fair in the breathing spaces of history; at its critical turning points there is no other rule possible than the old one, that the end justifies the means.
—Arthur Koestler (British Writer, Journalist)

Liberty is to the collective body, what health is to every individual body. Without health no pleasure can be tasted by man; without liberty, no happiness can be enjoyed by society.
—Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke (English Politician)

To expect defeat is nine-tenths of defeat itself.
—Francis Marion Crawford (Italian-born American Novelist)

One man lies in his work, and gets a bad reputation; another in his manners, and enjoys a good one.
—Henry David Thoreau (American Philosopher)

The man who is kind and practices righteousness, who remains passive in the affairs of the world, who considers creatures of the world as his own self, he attains the immortal Being; the true God is ever with him.
—Kabir (Indian Mystic)

A meal without flesh is like feeding on grass.
—Indian Proverb

Effective leaders delegate, but they do not delegate the one thing that will set the standards. They do it.
—Peter Drucker (Austrian-born Management Consultant)

An important scientific innovation rarely makes its way by gradually winning over and converting its opponents; it rarely happens that Saul becomes Paul. What does happen is that it opponents gradually die out and that the growing generation is familiarized with the idea from the beginning.
—Max Planck (German Theoretical Physicist)

Only the liberation of the natural capacity for love in human beings can master their sadistic destructiveness.
—Wilhelm Reich (Austrian Psychoanalyst)

If you are sitting on a felled tree in a pine forest enjoying the sunshine you can easily forget what time it is. Not that you could forget your gold watch, just the time of day.
—Elfriede Jelinek (Austrian Author)

Since nothing is settled until it is settled right, no matter how unlimited power a man may have, unless he exercises it fairly and justly his actions will return to plague him.
—Frank A. Vanderlip (American Banker)

Repeat anything often enough and it will start to become you.
—Tom Hopkins (American Sales Coach)

Even after all this time the sun never says to the earth,’You owe me.’ Look what happens with a love like that, it lights the whole sky.
—Hafez (Persian Poet)

Our greatest responsibility is to be good ancestors.
—Jonas Salk (American Virologist)

Before you know it, if you’re not careful, you can get to feeling sorry for everybody and there’s nobody left to hate.
—William Wharton (American Novelist, Painter)

There is hope for that genius who must overcome poverty, but there is almost none for that one who must overcome wealth.
—Muriel Strode (American Author, Businesswoman)

I think you have to have a real point of view that’s your own. You have to tell it your way. And, I think that it’s a mistake to shoot for a specific magazine’s point of view because it’s never going to be as good. You have to shoot for yourself and photograph the way you believe it.
—Mary Ellen Mark (American Photojournalist)

We will always be hungry, will always want. Our bodies and minds will always crave something, even if we don’t recognize it.
—Carmen Maria Machado (American Author, Essayist)

A panic is the stampede of our self-possession.
—Antoine de Rivarol (French Writer)

Humility leads to strength and not to weakness. It is the highest form of self-respect to admit mistakes and to make amends for them.
—John J. McCloy (American Diplomat)

The names that do the serious damage are the ones we call ourselves. The stereotypes we give ourselves are the ones that matter in the long run, not the ones imposed on us by other people.
—Judith Rich Harris (American Psychologist)

Subdue fate by exerting human strength to the maximum; and if, when the effort has been made and success is not achieved, no one else can be blamed.
—The Hitopadesha (Indian Collection of Fables)

Nothing is so contemptible as the sentiments of the mob.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca) (Roman Stoic Philosopher)

Relationships based on obligation lack dignity.
—Wayne Dyer (American Self-help Author)

The main function of a university is not to grant degrees and diplomas, but to develop the university spirit and advance learning. The former is impossible without corporate life, the latter without honours and post-graduate.
—Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan (Indian Philosopher, Political Leader)

Nowhere are prejudices more mistaken for truth, passion for reason and invective for documentation than in politics.
—John Mason Brown (American Drama Critic)

Whenever, therefore, people are deceived and form opinions wide of the truth, it is clear that the error has slid into their minds through the medium of certain resemblances to that truth.
—Socrates (Ancient Greek Philosopher)

Truth, self control, asceticism, generosity, non-injury, constancy in virtue—these are the means of success, not caste or family.
—The Mahabharata (Hindu Religious Text)

Trying and failing isn’t a small part of life, it’s much of life. The rest is just learning how to grow from it.
—Bob Goff (American Philanthropist)

Deals are my art form. Other people paint beautifully on canvas or write wonderful poetry. I like making deals, preferably big deals. That’s how I get my kicks.
—Donald Trump (American Businessperson, Head of State)

Faith is a permanent and vital endowment of the human mind—a part of reason itself. The insane alone are without it.
—Eden Phillpotts (British Writer)

But I recognize no infallible authority, even in special questions; consequently, whatever respect I may have for the honesty and the sincerity of such or such an individual, I have no absolute faith in any person.
—Mikhail Bakunin (Russian Anarchist)