An old belief is like an old shoe. We so value its comfort that we fail to notice the hole in it.
—Robert Brault
Topics: Belief
It is hard to resist a flatterer who gets it right.
—Robert Brault
Topics: Compliments
You do not wake up one morning a bad person. It happens by a thousand tiny surrenders of self-respect to self-interest.
—Robert Brault
Topics: Integrity
No matter how reclusive we tend to be, we picture the after-life as a community of souls. It is one thing to seek privacy in this life; it is another to face eternity alone.
—Robert Brault
Topics: Solitude
You can spend too much time wondering which of identical twins is the more alike.
—Robert Brault
Success is a tale of obstacles overcome, and for every obstacle overcome, an excuse not used.
—Robert Brault
Topics: Excuses
We are kept from our goal not by obstacles but by a clear path to a lesser goal.
—Robert Brault
Topics: Goals
If you can’t forgive and forget, pick one.
—Robert Brault
Topics: Forgiveness
Family life is a bit like a runny peach pie – not perfect but who’s complaining?
—Robert Brault
Topics: Family
Love is the greatest touch-up artist of all.
—Robert Brault
Topics: Love
Optimist: someone who figures that taking a step backward after taking a step forward is not a disaster, it’s a cha-cha.
—Robert Brault
Topics: Optimism
Alexandros of Antioch took a block of marble and chiseled away from it everything that was not his masterpiece, the Venus de Milo. If you will chisel away one fault from your character every day, you may discover –
a) that you’re actually a statue of Margaret Thatcher.
b) that you’re still just a block of marble.
c) that there are pigeon droppings on your shoes.
d) that you, too, are a hidden masterpiece.
—Robert Brault
Topics: Self-Discovery
There is no effect more disproportionate to its cause than the happiness bestowed by a small compliment.
—Robert Brault
Topics: Kindness, Compliments
There is an ongoing battle between conscience and self-interest in which, at some point, we have to take sides.
—Robert Brault
Topics: Integrity
I believe in a real, physical world. I figure if the world existed only in my mind, it would pay more attention to me.
—Robert Brault
Topics: Reality
Where the loser saw barriers, the winner saw hurdles.
—Robert Brault
Topics: Attitude
A rule that cannot be bent will certainly be broken.
—Robert Brault
Topics: Justice
Learning is a lifetime process, but there comes a time when we must stop adding and start updating.
—Robert Brault
Topics: Learning
Some say that true love is a mirage; seek it anyway, for all else is surely desert.
—Robert Brault
Topics: Love
In a houseful of toddlers and pets, you can start out having a bad day, but you keep getting detoured.
—Robert Brault
Topics: Family
Present yourself always
As who you would be,
And that is the person
The world will see.
—Robert Brault
Topics: Self-Discovery
Just once it might be instructive to pretend you’re accepting an award for failure, just to see who you would thank.
—Robert Brault
Topics: Failure
Nothing reduces the odds against you like ignoring them.
—Robert Brault
Topics: Confidence
People are resilient. After all, every person born has recovered from nine months on life support.
—Robert Brault
Topics: Adversity
Everything we possess that is not necessary for life or happiness becomes a burden, and scarcely a day passes that we do not add to it.
—Robert Brault
Topics: Simplicity
When compiling his great dictionary, the young Noah Webster travels to the Himalayas, where he climbs to the cave of the world’s wisest man. “O, great sage,” he says, “tell me the meaning of life”. The sage sits Noah at his feet and, with great solemnity, commences to unfold the meaning of life. When finished, he places a hand on the young man’s shoulder and says, “Do you have any other questions, my son?” Noah flips a page in his notebook and says, “You wouldn’t know the meaning of lift, would you?”
—Robert Brault
Topics: Life
To find someone who will love you for no reason, and to shower that person with reasons, that is the ultimate happiness.
—Robert Brault
Topics: Love
Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.
—Robert Brault
Topics: One Step at a Time, Happiness, Attitude
Leash: n, a means by which animals, formerly running wild, are prevented from running tame, also.
—Robert Brault
Topics: Civilization
Time is a figure eight, at its center the city of Deja Vu.
—Robert Brault
Topics: Time