Right Attitudes

You will see your life for what it really is: a small blip on the canvas of eternity. And you will come to see clearly who you are and the ultimate purpose of your life. “Which is?” “To serve, of course.”
—Robin Sharma (Canadian Writer, Motivational Speaker)

I love the challenge of starting at zero every day and seeing how much I can accomplish.
—Martha Stewart (American Businesswoman)

Several studies have shown that people prefer a pundit who is confident to one who is accurate. Pundits are happy to oblige.
—Morgan Housel (American Financial Journalist, Investor)

A dream is a daring adventure, a journey to carry you far—for when you can hold a dream in your heart, you surely can reach any star! A dream is a beautiful vision that looks beyond what you can see, then lifts you and guides you and grows strong inside you to help you be all you can be. A dream is your door to tomorrow, a secret reflection of you, a threshold that leads to a wonderful future where nothing’s too good to be true.
—Amanda Bradley (American Poet)

A liberal is a man or a woman or a child who looks forward to a better day, a more tranquil night, and a bright, infinite future.
—Leonard Bernstein (American Composer, Conductor)

The wife when danger or dishonor lurks, safest and seemliest by her husband stays, who guards her, or with her the worst endures.
—John Milton (English Poet)

The two elements the traveler first captures in the big city are extra human architecture and furious rhythm. Geometry and anguish. At first glance, the rhythm may be confused with gaiety, but when you look more closely at the mechanism of social life and the painful slavery of both men and machines, you see that it is nothing but a kind of typical, empty anguish that makes even crime and gangs forgivable means of escape.
—Federico Garcia Lorca (Spanish Poet)

Conflict can and should be handled constructively; when it is, relationships benefit. Conflict avoidance is *not* the hallmark of a good relationship. On the contrary, it is a symptom of serious problems and of poor communication.
—Harriet B. Braiker (American Psychologist)

An idealist believes the short run doesn’t count. A cynic believes the long run doesn’t matter. A realist believes that what is done or left undone in the short run determines the long run.
—Sydney J. Harris (American Essayist, Drama Critic)

For once a thing is known, it can never be unknown. It can only be forgotten.
—Anita Brookner (English Novelist, Art Historian)

Points become games become sets become tournaments, and it’s all so tightly connected that any point can become the turning point. It reminds me of the way seconds become minutes become hours, and any hour can be our finest. Or darkest. It’s our choice.
—Andre Agassi (American Tennis Player)

It is an undoubted truth, that the less one has to do the less time one finds to do it in. One yawns, one procrastinates, one can do it when one will, and, therefore, one seldom does it all; whereas those who have a great deal of business, must (to use a vulgar expression) buckle to it; and then they always find time enough to do it in.
—Earl of Chesterfield (English Statesman, Man of Letters)

The wise man bridges the gap by laying out the path by means of which he can get from where he is to where he wants to go.
—J. P. Morgan (American Financier, Philanthropist)

The most difficult thing in life is to know yourself.
—Thales of Miletus (Greek Philosopher, Mathematician)

Housework is work directly opposed to the possibility of human self-actualization.
—Ann Oakley (English Sociologist, Feminist)

Every man is to be respected as an absolute end in himself; and it is a crime against the dignity that belongs to him as a human being, to use him as a mere means for some external purpose.
—Immanuel Kant (Prussian German Philosopher)

When you smoke the herb, it reveals you to yourself.
—Bob Marley (Jamaican Musician)

Perhaps one did not want to be loved so much as to be understood.
—George Orwell (English Novelist, Essayist, Journalist)

A work of art is not valued because it changes itself for each person who views it, it retains its own integrity and thus means something unique and marvelous to those who see it.
—Charles A. Reich (American Jurist, Author)

To gain knowledge, we must learn to ask the right questions; and to get answers, we must act, not wait for answers to occur to us.
—Anatol Rapoport (American Mathematical Psychologist)

Look up at the stars, and not down at your feet. Try to make sense of what you see, and wonder about what makes the universe exist. Be curious.
—Stephen Hawking (English Theoretical Physicist)

Dare to be honest and fear no labor.
—Robert Burns (Scottish Poet, Songwriter)

I’m not totally mad at you. I’m just sad. You’re all locked up in that little world of yours, and when I try knocking on the door, you just sort of look up for a second and go right back inside.
—Haruki Murakami (Japanese Novelist)

Travel is the frivolous part of serious lives and the serious part of frivolous lives.
—Sophie Swetchine (Russian Mystic, Writer)

Strong reasons make strong actions.
—William Shakespeare (British Playwright)

Necessity knows no law except to conquer.
—Publilius Syrus (Syrian-born Latin Writer)

Have no fear of moving into the unknown. Simply step out fearlessly knowing that I am with you, therefore no harm can befall you; all is very, very well. Do this in complete faith and confidence.
—Pope John Paul II (Polish Catholic Religious Leader)

Not often in the story of mankind does a man arrive on earth who is both steel and velvet, who is as hard as rock and soft as drifting fog, who holds in his heart and mind the paradox of terrible storm and peace unspeakable and perfect.
—Carl Sandburg (American Poet, Historian)

What shall I do with this ageing me? Neither floating nor sinking, I drift, tossed by the waves of years.
—Takuboku Ishikawa (Japanese Poet)

A judicious silence is always better than truth spoken without charity.
—Francis de Sales (French Catholic Saint)

The real thinking of woman is pre-eminently practical and applied. It is something we describe as sound common sense, and is usually directed to what is close at hand and personal. In general, it can be said that feminine mentality manifests an undeveloped, childlike, or primitive character; instead of the thirst for knowledge, curiosity; instead of judgment, prejudice; instead of thinking, imagination or dreaming; instead of will, wishing. Where a man takes up objective problems, a woman contents herself with solving riddles; where he battles for knowledge and understanding, she contents herself with faith or superstition, or else she makes assumptions.
—Emma Jung (Swiss Psychoanalyst, Author)

People tend to dwell more on negative things than on good things. So the mind then becomes obsessed with negative things, with judgments, guilt and anxiety produced by thoughts about the future and so on.
—Eckhart Tolle (German Spiritual Writer)

Question with boldness even the existence of a god; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blindfolded fear.
—Thomas Jefferson (American Head of State)

You are one of those obsessed demoniacal creatures who ought to be avoided at all costs; they bring misfortune into the lives of others; they ruin the lives of others. The real good people are humble and silent (like your Kitty is.) But beware, God sees all vanity and pride and you cannot fool him.
—Svetlana Alliluyeva (Russian Defector, Memoirist)

Reason can no longer restrain one who is lured by the fury of ambition.
—Karl Marx (German Philosopher, Economist)

Only a very bad theologian would confuse the certainty that follows revelation with the truths that are revealed. They are entirely different things.
—Denis Diderot (French Philosopher, Writer)

Confidence in a forecast rises with the amount of information that goes into it. But the accuracy of the forecast stays the same.
—Dean Williams (Australian Leadership Consultant)

Love is so short, forgetting is so long.
—Pablo Neruda (Chilean Poet)

As a rock on the seashore he standeth firm, and the dashing of the waves disturbeth him not. He raiseth his head like a tower on a hill, and the arrows of fortune drop at his feet. In the instant of danger, the courage of his heart here, and scorn to fly.
—Akhenaten (Egyptian Monarch)

Prayer is first of all listening to God. It’s openness. God is always speaking; he’s always doing something. Prayer is to enter into that activity. … Convert your thoughts into prayer. As we are involved in unceasing thinking, so we are called to unceasing prayer. The difference is not that prayer is thinking about other things, but that prayer is thinking in dialogue, … a conversation with God.
—Henri Nouwen (Dutch Catholic Priest)

The ideals and objectives of yesterday was still ideals of today, but they lost some of their luster and even, as one seemed to go towards them, they lost the shining beauty which had warmed the heart and vitalized the body. Evil triumphed often enough, but what was far worse was the coarsening and distortion of what seemed so right. Was human nature so essentially bad that it would take ages of training, through suffering and misfortune, before it could behave reasonably and raise man above the creature of lust and violence and deceit that he now was? And, meanwhile, was every effort to change radically in the present or the near future doomed to failure.
—Jawaharlal Nehru (Indian Head of State)

Despite some of the horrors and barbarisms of modern life which appall and grieve us, life in the twentieth century undeniably has—or has the potentiality of—such richness, joy and adventure as were unknown to our ancestors except in their dreams.
—Arthur Compton (American Physicist)

A human life is a story told by God.
—Hans Christian Andersen (Danish Author)

It is strange that men will talk of miracles, revelations, inspiration, and the like, as things past, while love remains.
—Henry David Thoreau (American Philosopher)