Growl all day and you’ll feel dog tired all night.
—Unknown
It isn’t our position, but our disposition, that makes us happy.
—Unknown
It has been said that our anxiety does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow, but only empties today of its strength.
—Charles Spurgeon (1834–92) English Baptist Preacher
To be interested in the changing seasons is, in this middling zone, a happier state of mind than to be hopelessly in love with spring.
—George Santayana (1863–1952) Spanish-American Poet, Philosopher
Nothing is interesting if you’re not interested.
—Helen MacInnes (1907–85) Scottish-born American Novelist
I don’t like that man. I must get to know him better.
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–65) American Head of State
Things turn out best for the people who make the best out of the way things turn out.
—Art Linkletter (1912–2010) Canadian-born American Radio Personality, TV Personality
Your enthusiasm will be infectious, stimulating and attractive to others. They will love you for it. They will go for you and with you.
—Norman Vincent Peale (1898–1993) American Clergyman, Self-Help Author
It is our attitude at the beginning of a difficult undertaking which, more than anything else, will determine its successful outcome.
—William James (1842–1910) American Philosopher, Psychologist, Physician
We hardly ever realize that we can cut anything out of our lives, anytime, in the blink of an eye.
—Carlos Castaneda (1925–98) Peruvian-born American Anthropologist, Author
You can do anything if you have enthusiasm. Enthusiasm is the yeast that makes your hopes rise to the stars. With it, there is accomplishment. Without it there are only alibis.
—Henry Ford (1863–1947) American Businessperson, Engineer
We awaken in others the same attitude of mind we hold toward them.
—Elbert Hubbard (1856–1915) American Writer, Publisher, Artist, Philosopher
If your daily life seems poor, do not blame it; blame yourself, tell yourself that you are not a poet enough to call forth its riches; for to the creator there is no poverty and no poor indifferent place.
—Rainer Maria Rilke (1875–1926) Austrian Poet
Science may have found a cure for most evils; but it has found no remedy for the worst of them all—the apathy of human beings.
—Helen Keller (1880–1968) American Author
People only see what they are prepared to see.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
What the caterpillar calls the end, the rest of the world calls a butterfly.
—Laozi (fl.6th Century BCE) Chinese Philosopher, Sage
Your mind will be like its habitual thoughts; for the soul becomes dyed with the color of its thoughts. Soak it then in such trains of thoughts as, for example: Where life is possible at all, a right life is possible.
—Marcus Aurelius (121–180) Emperor of Rome, Stoic Philosopher
Obstinacy is the strength of the weak. Firmness founded upon principle, upon truth and right, order and law, duty and generosity, is the obstinacy of sages.
—Johann Kaspar Lavater (1741–1801) Swiss Theologian, Poet
Got no checkbooks, got no banks,
Still I’d like to express my thanks –
I got the sun in the morning and the moon at night.
—Irving Berlin (1888–1989) American Songwriter, Composer
The greater part of our happiness or misery depends on our dispositions and not on our circumstances. We carry the seeds of the one or the other about with us in our minds wherever we go.
—Martha Washington (1731–1802) American First Lady
Truth will have no gods before it.- The belief in truth begins with the doubt of all truths in which one has previously believed.
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German Philosopher, Scholar, Writer
The greatest thing a man can do in this world is to make the most possible out of the stuff that has been given him. This is success, and there is no other.
—Orison Swett Marden (1850–1924) American New Thought Writer, Physician, Entrepreneur
Surrounded by people who love life, you love it too; surrounded by people who don’t, you don’t.
—Mignon McLaughlin (1913–83) American Journalist, Author
If you are going to achieve excellence in big things, you develop the habit in little matters. Excellence is not an exception, it is a prevailing attitude.
—Colin Powell (b.1937) American Military Leader
People who soar are those who refuse to sit back, sigh and wish things would change. They neither complain of their lot nor passively dream of some distant ship coming in. Rather, they visualize in their minds that they are not quitters; they will not allow life’s circumstances to push them down and hold them under.
—Chuck Swindoll (b.1934) American Evangelical Christian Pastor, Author
Sooner or later, those who win are those who think they can.
—Richard Bach (b.1936) American Novelist, Aviator
Adopt an attitude of “It’s all happening perfectly. Let’s see what good I can create from the situation”.
—Susan Jeffers (1938–2012) American Psychologist, Self-Help Author
The way you see people is the way you treat them.
—Zig Ziglar (1926–2012) American Author
Misery is a communicable disease.
—Martha Graham (1894–1991) American Choreographer
Impossible is a word only to be found in the dictionary of fools.
—Napoleon I (1769–1821) Emperor of France
Everyone is given the key to the gates of Heaven. The same key opens the gates of Hell.
—Latin Proverb
I never really look for anything. What God throws my way comes. I wake up in the morning and whichever way God turns my feet, I go.
—Pearl Bailey (1918–1990) American Jazz Singer, Actress, Writer
We find things where we look for them, which is why I never look for a golf ball out of bounds.
—Robert Brault
Most of us would be upset If we were accused of being ‘silly’, yet it comes from the old English word ‘seilig’ and it’s literal definition is ‘to be blessed, happy, healthy and prosperous.’
—Zig Ziglar (1926–2012) American Author
Be as an cup, and the universe flows into you. Be as an arrow, and the universe retreats from you.
—Zen Proverb Japanese School of Mahayana Buddhism
Getting used to our blessings is one of the most important nonevil generators of human evil, tragedy and suffering.
—Abraham Maslow (1908–70) American Psychologist, Academic, Humanist
We talk to ourselves incessantly about our world. In fact we maintain our world with our internal talk. And whenever we finish talking to ourselves about ourselves and our world, the world is always as it should be. We renew it, we rekindle it with life, we uphold it with our internal talk. Not only that, but we also choose our paths as we talk to ourselves. Thus we repeat the same choices over and over until the day we die, because we keep on repeating the same internal talk over and over until the day we die. A warrior is aware of this and strives to stop his internal talk.
—Carlos Castaneda (1925–98) Peruvian-born American Anthropologist, Author
Take the attitude of a student: never be too big to ask questions, never know too much to learn something new.
—Og Mandino (1923–96) American Self-Help Author
I am sure that nothing has such a decisive influence upon a man’s course as his personal appearance, and not so much his appearance as his belief in its attractiveness or unattractiveness.
—Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910) Russian Novelist
Our judgments judge us, and nothing reveals us, exposes our weaknesses, more ingeniously than the attitude of pronouncing upon our fellows.
—Paul Valery (1871–1945) French Critic, Poet
Attitudes are contagious. Is yours worth catching?
—Anonymous
Nothing will work unless you do.
—Unknown
Generosity is giving more than you can, and pride is taking less than you need.
—Kahlil Gibran (1883–1931) Lebanese-born American Philosopher, Poet, Painter, Theologian, Sculptor
The thing always happens that you really believe in; and the belief in a thing makes it happen.
—Frank Lloyd Wright (1867–1959) American Architect
I would rather be first in a little Iberian village than second in Rome.
—Julius Caesar (c.100–44BCE) Roman Statesman, Military General
There has never been a statue erected to honor a critic.
—Zig Ziglar (1926–2012) American Author
In all the work we do, our most valuable asset can be the attitude of self-examination. It is forgivable to make mistakes, but to stand fast behind a wall of self-righteousness and make the same mistake twice is not forgivable.
—Dale Turner (1917–2006) American Priest, Columnist, Epigrammist
Certain thoughts are prayers. There are moments when, whatever be the attitude of the body, the soul is on its knees.
—Victor Hugo (1802–85) French Novelist
Cling tooth and nail to the following rule: Not to give in to adversity, never to trust prosperity, and always to take full note of fortune’s habit of behaving just as she pleases, treating her as if she were actually going to do everything it is in her power to do. Whatever you have been expecting for some time comes as less of a shock.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca) (c.4 BCE–65 CE) Roman Stoic Philosopher, Statesman, Tragedian
I am an optimist, unrepentant and militant. After all, in order not to be a fool an optimist must know how sad a place the world can be. It is only the pessimist who finds this out anew every day.
—Peter Ustinov (1921–2004) British Actor, Playwright, Director