Right Attitudes

Some one speaks admirably of the well-ripened fruit of sage delay.
—Honore de Balzac (French Novelist)

A man who has not passed through the inferno of his passions has never overcome them.
—Carl Gustav Jung (Swiss Psychologist)

Many speak the truth when they say that they despise riches, but they mean the riches possessed by other men.
—Charles Caleb Colton (English Clergyman, Aphorist)

How often in the various amusements of the world is one tempted to pause a moment and ask oneself whether one really likes it!
—Anthony Trollope (English Novelist)

Power without principle is barren, but principle without power is futile. This is a party of government and I will lead it as party of government.
—Tony Blair (British Statesman)

Good nature is more agreeable in conversation than wit, and gives a certain air to the countenance which is more amiable than beauty.—It shows virtue in the fairest light; takes off, in some measure, from the deformity of vice; and makes even folly and impertinence supportable.
—Joseph Addison (English Poet, Playwright, Politician)

Always live up to your standards – by lowering them, if necessary.
—Mignon McLaughlin (American Journalist)

Whether a man is burdened by power or enjoys power; whether he is trapped by responsibility or made free by it; whether he is moved by other people and outer forces or moves them – this is of the essence of leadership.
—Theodore H. White (American Journalist)

If you suppress grief too much, it can well redouble.
—Moliere (French Playwright)

Profundity of thought belongs to youth, clarity of thought to old age.
—Friedrich Nietzsche (German Philosopher, Scholar)

Only when the clamor of the outside world is silenced will you be able to hear the deeper vibration. Listen carefully.
—Sarah Ban Breathnach (American Self-help Author)

Laughter and levity habituate a man to lewdness.
—The Talmud (Sacred Text of the Jewish Faith)

We are all of us the worse for too much liberty.
—Terence (Roman Comic Dramatist)

Art distills sensations and embodies it with enhanced meaning.
—Jacques Barzun (American Cultural Historian)

Comfort and prosperity have never enriched the world as much as adversity has. Out of pain and problems have come the sweetest songs, and the most gripping stories.
—Billy Graham (American Baptist Religious Leader)

What rules the world is idea, because ideas define the way reality is perceived.
—Irving Kristol (American Political Writer)

What you are will show in what you do.
—Thomas Edison (American Inventor)

There are no mistakes or failures, only lessons.
—Denis Waitley (American Motivational Speaker)

There is a mean in everything.—Even virtue itself hath its stated limits, which, not being strictly observed, it ceases to be virtue.
—Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus) (Roman Poet)

There is no liberty to men whose passions are stronger than their religious feelings; there is no liberty to men in whom ignorance predominates over knowledge; there is no liberty to men who know not how to govern themselves.
—Henry Ward Beecher (American Protestant Clergyman)

If you want to annoy your neighbors, tell the truth about them.
—Pietro Aretino (Italian Author)

Bread of flour is good; but there is bread, sweet as honey, if we would eat it, in a good book.
—John Ruskin (English Art Critic)

Never ascribe to malice that which can adequately be explained by incompetence.
—Napoleon I (Emperor of France)

To accuse others for one’s own misfortunes is a sign of want of education. To accuse oneself shows that one’s education has begun. To accuse neither oneself nor others shows that one’s education is complete.
—Epictetus (Ancient Greek Philosopher)

The extremes of vice and virtue are alike detestable; absolute virtue is as sure to kill a man as absolute vice is, let alone the dullnesses of it and the pomposities of it.
—Samuel Butler

Nothing happens by itself. It all will come your way, once you understand that you have to make it come your way, by your own exertions.
—Ben Stein (American Writer)

Pride, which inspires us with so much envy, serves also to moderate it.
—Francois de La Rochefoucauld (French Writer)

History is the devil’s scripture.
—Lord Byron (George Gordon Byron) (English Romantic Poet)

The essence of pleasure is spontaneity.
—Germaine Greer (Australia Academic)

He is incapable of a truly good action who finds not a pleasure in contemplating the good actions of others.
—James Joyce (Irish Novelist)

I am a lie who always speaks the truth.
—Jean Cocteau (French Poet, Artist)

If we are not ashamed to think it, we should not be ashamed to say it.
—Cicero (Roman Philosopher)

Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth.
—Buddhist Teaching

Candor and generosity, unless tempered by due moderation, leads to ruin.
—Tacitus (Roman Orator, Historian)

When you set goals, something inside of you starts Saying, “Let’s go, let’s go,” and ceilings start to move up.
—Zig Ziglar (American Author)