It takes great goals to lead us out of our everyday limits into accomplishing more than we ever thought we could or would.
—Robert Cooper (b.1947) British Diplomat
Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
There is no greater valor nor no sterner fight. He who would be what he ought to be must stop being what he is.
—Meister Eckhart (c.1260–1327) German Christian Mystic
This must be your point of view: that the world and all it contains is perfect, though not completed.
—Wallace Wattles (1860–1911) American New Thought Author
Always do what you feel deeply in the within to be the true thing to do.
—Wallace Wattles (1860–1911) American New Thought Author
In truth, the only difference between those who have failed and those who have succeeded lies in the difference of their habits. Good habits are the key to all success. Bad habits are the unlocked door to failure. Thus, the first law I will obey, which precedes all others, is—“I will form good habits and become their slaves.”
—Og Mandino (1923–96) American Self-Help Author
As used in economics the term “capital” would be defined as follows: Capital refers to resources withheld from immediate consumption in the expectation of greater future returns. However controversial a topic this has been, capital has been the main—if not the only—way of achieving progress, even in violently anticapitalist, socialist countries. A dam, a hospital, a university, a cathedral, or a national park cannot be built without using up resources that would be easier to consume immediately, and none of them would be built at all unless they were believed to provide some greater returns in the future.
—Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (1934–2021) Hungarian-American Psychologist
No man has yet become so great in any faculty but that it is possible for some one else to become greater.
—Wallace Wattles (1860–1911) American New Thought Author
You will come to know that what appears today is to be a sacrifice will prove instead to be the greatest investment that you will ever make.
—Gordon B. Hinckley (1910–2008) American Mormon Religious Leader
Cast out envy; you can have all that you want, and you need not envy any man what he has. Above all things, see to it that you do not hold malice or enmity toward any one; to do so cuts you off from the mind whose treasures you seek to make your own. Lay aside all narrow personal ambition and determine to seek the highest good.
—Wallace Wattles (1860–1911) American New Thought Author
I write because it gives me the greatest possible artistic pleasure to write. If my work pleases the few I am gratified. As for the mob, I have no desire to be a popular novelist. It is far too easy.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.
—William Arthur Ward (1921–94) American Author
I will obey my soul and be true to that within me which is highest.
—Wallace Wattles (1860–1911) American New Thought Author
The way you talk about yourself and your life—your story—has a great deal to do with what shows up in your day-to-day experience. Your thoughts create filters through which you view your life. If you think of yourself as a Victim, you filter all that happens to you through the lens of DDT, and you find plenty of evidence to support that viewpoint. That’s why the orientation you adopt is so important: it exerts a powerful influence on your life direction.
—David Emerald
When God lets loose a great thinker on this planet, then all things are at risk. There is not a piece of science but its flank may be turned tomorrow; nor any literary reputation or the so-called eternal names of fame that may not be refused and condemned.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
It is easier to forgive an enemy than a friend.
—Dorothee Luzy Dotinville (1747–1830) French Dancer, Actress
I have learned that there is always more to learn. And experience is our greatest teacher.
—Susan Jeffers (1938–2012) American Psychologist, Self-Help Author
Every negative event contains within it the seed of an equal or greater benefit.
—Napoleon Hill (1883–1970) American Author, Journalist, Attorney, Lecturer
Do not talk about your greatness; you are really, in essential nature, no great than those around you.
—Wallace Wattles (1860–1911) American New Thought Author
You must learn to see the world as being produced by evolution; as a something which is evolving and becoming, not as a finished work.
—Wallace Wattles (1860–1911) American New Thought Author
The spiritual force transcends all.—I feel this great creative and spiritual force within me that is greater than faith, greater than ambition, greater than confidence, greater than determination, greater than vision. It is all these combined. My brain becomes magnetized with this dominating force which I hold in my hand.
—Bruce Lee (1940–73) American Martial Artist, Actor, Philosopher
The brain does not make the man; the man makes the brain.
—Wallace Wattles (1860–1911) American New Thought Author
The really great man is often considered selfish by a large group of people who are connected with him and who feel that he might bestow upon them more benefits than he does.
—Wallace Wattles (1860–1911) American New Thought Author
Genius is the union of man and God in the acts of the soul. Great men are always greater than their deeds. They are in connection with a reserve power that is without limit.
—Wallace Wattles (1860–1911) American New Thought Author
Too many of those with unrealized aspirations have set them aside due to fear of failure. The bigger the dream, the greater the fear. Doing less than our best allays this fear. I could have done better if I’d tried, we assure ourselves. Among the least appreciated reasons for doing superficial, second-rate work of any kind is the comfort of knowing it’s not our best that’s on the line. By not trying too hard, we avoid learning what our true potential is, and having to fulfill it. Doing our best can be deeply threatening. It forces us to consider what we’re actually capable of accomplishing. Once we learn that lesson, we can’t unlearn it. Our true potential becomes both a shining light we can follow and an oppressive burden of expectation that might, or might not, be met.
—Unknown
To exercise some sort of control over others is the secret motive of every selfish person.
—Wallace Wattles (1860–1911) American New Thought Author
After climbing a great hill, one finds that there are many more hills to climb. I have taken a moment here to rest, to steal a view of the glorious vista that surrounds me, to look back on the distance I have come. But I can only rest for a moment, for with freedom comes responsibilities, and I dare not linger, for my long walk has not yet ended.
—Nelson Mandela (1918–2013) South African Political leader
Do not merely think that you are great; think that you are great now. Do not think that you will begin to act in a great way at some future time; begin now.
—Wallace Wattles (1860–1911) American New Thought Author
The purpose of life for man is growth, just as the purpose of life for trees and plants is growth. Trees and plants grow automatically and along fixed lines; man can grow as he will. Trees and plants can only develop certain possibilities and characteristics; man can develop any power which is or has been shown by any person anywhere. Nothing that is possible in spirit is impossible in flesh and blood. Nothing that man can think is impossible. Nothing that man can imagine is impossible of realization.
—Wallace Wattles (1860–1911) American New Thought Author
A thought-form held in thinking substance is a reality; it is a real thing, whether it has yet become visible to mortal eye or not.
—Wallace Wattles (1860–1911) American New Thought Author