Right Attitudes

The status quo is the only solution that cannot be vetoed.
—Clark Kerr (American Educator)

The mark of a well educated person is not necessarily in knowing all the answers, but in knowing where to find them.
—Douglas Hugh Everett (British Physical Chemist)

A man never reaches that dizzy height of wisdom that he can no longer be lead by the nose.
—Mark Twain (American Humorist)

Be unselfish. That is the first and final commandment for those who would be useful and happy in their usefulness. If you think of yourself only, you cannot develop because you are choking the source of development, which is spiritual expansion through thought for others.
—Charles William Eliot (American Educator)

You largely constructed your depression. It wasn’t given to you. Therefore, you can deconstruct it.
—Albert Ellis (American Psychologist)

A certain amount of opposition is a great help to a man; it is what he wants and must have to be good for anything. Hardship and opposition are the native soil of manhood and self-reliance.
—John Neal (American Author, Critic)

The blackest despair that can take hold of any society is the fear that living honestly is futile.
—Corrado Alvaro (Italian Novelist)

There is much of economic theory which is pursued for no better reason than its intellectual attraction; it is a good game. We have no reason to be ashamed of that, since the same would hold for many branches of mathematics.
—John Hicks (English Economist)

In questions of science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual.
—Galileo Galilei (Italian Astronomer)

People wish to be poets more than they wish to write poetry, and that’s a mistake. One should wish to celebrate more than one wishes to be celebrated.
—Lucille Clifton (American Poet)

Death was afraid of him because he had the heart of a lion.
—Arabic Proverb

Butterflies… not quite birds, as they were not quite flowers, mysterious and fascinating as are all indeterminate creatures.
—Elizabeth Goudge (English Novelist)

Hitch your wagon to a star. Let us not fag in paltry works which serve our pot and bag alone.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (American Philosopher)

A man can do all things if he but wills them.
—Leon Battista Alberti (Italian Architect)

Some lives drift here and there like reeds in a stream, depending on changing currents for their activity. Others are like swimmers knowing the depth of the water. Each stroke helps them onward to a definite objective.
—Margaret Sanger (American Social Reformer)

Better to trust the man who is frequently in error than the one who is never in doubt.
—Eric Sevareid (American Broadcast Journalist)

Hope never abandons you, you abandon it.
—George Weinberg (American Psychologist)

To me success means effectiveness in the world, that I am able to carry my ideas and values into the world—that I am able to change it in positive ways.
—Maxine Hong Kingston (American Novelist, Memoirist)

Man is the most intelligent of the animals—and the most silly.
—Diogenes Laertius (Greek Biographer)

Regret is an odd emotion because it comes only upon reflection. Regret lacks immediacy, and so its power seldom influences events when it could do some good.
—Edward William O’Rourke (American Catholic Priest)

Remember that there is a meaning beyond absurdity. Be sure that every little deed counts, that every word has power. Never forget that you can still do your share to redeem the world in spite of all absurdities and frustrations and disappointments.
—Abraham Joshua Heschel (American Jewish Rabbi)

Reason is the director of man’s will, discovering in action what is good, for the laws of well-doing are the dictates of right reason.
—Thomas Hooker (American Clergyman)

The difference between the impossible and the possible lies in a man’s determination.
—Tommy Lasorda (American Baseball Player, Coach)

Thinking is like loving and dying. Each of us must do it for himself.
—Josiah Royce (American Philosopher)

God gives to us according to the measure of our hearts.
—Persian Proverb

Life is neither a good nor an evil, but simply the scene of good and evil.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca) (Roman Stoic Philosopher)

Every great work of art has two faces, one toward its own time and one toward the future, toward eternity.
—Daniel Barenboim (Israeli Pianist, Conductor)

To know how to dispense with things is to possess them.
—Jean-Francois Regnard (French Dramatist)

Fulfill all your obligations, attend to your daily duties, be attached to nothing, no one—and be ever ready to depart when the call comes!
—Dada J. P. Vaswani (Indian Hindu Philosopher)

Of all the passions of mankind, the love of novelty most rules the mind. In search of this, from realm to realm we roam. Our fleets come loaded with every folly home.
—Shelby Foote (American Novelist, Historian)

Jazz today, as always in the past, is a matter of thoughtful creation, not mere unaided instinct.
—Duke Ellington (American Musician)

An autobiography is a book a person writes about his own life and it is usually full of all sorts of boring details.
—Roald Dahl (British Short-Story Writer, Playwright)

I may be crazy but it keeps me from going insane.
—Waylon Jennings (American Country Musician)

When Nike says, just do it, that’s a message of empowerment. Why aren’t the rest of us speaking to young people in a voice of inspiration?
—Naomi Klein (Canadian Author, Activist)

Abiding faith does not depend on borrowed concepts. Rather, it is the magnetic force of a bone-deep, lived understanding, one that draws us to realize our ideals, walk our talk, and act in accord with what we know to be true.
—Sharon Salzberg (Buddhist Teacher)

No man has a home unless he is master of a place where he must please no one—a place where he can go and lock the door behind him.
—Gene Wolfe (American Science Fiction, Fantasy Writer)

Confront the dark parts of yourself, and work to banish them with illumination and forgiveness. Your willingness to wrestle with your demons will cause your angels to sing. Use the pain as fuel, as a reminder of your strength.
—August Wilson (American Playwright)

The rich man in his castle, the poor man at his gate, God made them, high or lowly, and ordered their estate.
—Cecil Frances Alexander (Irish Hymn Writer)

Try as much as possible to be wholly alive, with all your might, and when you laugh, laugh like hell and when you get angry, get good and angry. Try to be alive. You will be dead soon enough.
—William Saroyan (American Playwright, Novelist)

High achievers dwell on what they do well and spend very little time evaluating themselves and their performances.
—John Eliot (American Psychologist)