Thou mayest as well expect to grow stronger by always eating, as wiser by always reading. Too much overcharges Nature, and turns more into disease than nourishment. ‘Tis thought and digestion which make books serviceable, and give health and vigor to the mind.
—Thomas Fuller (1608–61) English Cleric, Historian
I am a woman in process. I’m just trying like everybody else. I try to take every conflict, every experience, and learn from it. Life is never dull.
—Oprah Winfrey (b.1954) American TV Personality
When I am grown to man’s estate I shall be very proud and great. And tell the other girls and boys Not to meddle with my toys.
—Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–94) Scottish Novelist
Ever since I was a child I have had this instinctive urge for expansion and growth. To me, the function and duty of a quality human being is the sincere and honest development of one’s potential.
—Bruce Lee (1940–73) American Martial Artist, Actor, Philosopher
The rain-weeping and the sun burning twine together to make us grow. Keep your intelligence white-hot and your grief glistening, so your life will stay fresh. Cry easily like a little child.
—Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi (1207–73) Persian Muslim Mystic
Five Truths about FearTruth 1. The fear will never go away as long as I continue to grow.Truth 2. The only way to get rid of the fear of doing something is to go out and do it.Truth 3. The only way to feel better about myself is to go out… and do it.Truth 4. Not only am I going to experience fear whenever I’m on unfamiliar territory, but so is everyone else.Truth 5. Pushing through fear is less frightening than living with the underlying fear that comes from a feeling of helplessness.
—Susan Jeffers (1938–2012) American Psychologist, Self-Help Author
The greatest mistake we make is living in constant fear that we will make one.
—John C. Maxwell (b.1947) American Christian Professional Speaker, Author, Clergyman
Shedding one’s skin. The snake that cannot shed its skin perishes. So do the spirits who are prevented from changing their opinions; they cease to be spirit.
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German Philosopher, Scholar, Writer
A tree trunk the size of a man grows from a blade as thin as a hair. A tower nine stories high is built from a small heap of earth.
—Laozi (fl.6th Century BCE) Chinese Philosopher, Sage
One must still have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star.
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German Philosopher, Scholar, Writer
A man must be big enough to admit his mistakes, smart enough to profit from them, and strong enough to correct them.
—John C. Maxwell (b.1947) American Christian Professional Speaker, Author, Clergyman
The need of expansion is as genuine an instinct in man as the need in a plant for the light, or the need in man himself for going upright. The love of liberty is simply the instinct in man for expansion.
—Matthew Arnold (1822–88) English Poet, Critic
Time ripens all things; no man is born wise.
—Miguel de Cervantes (1547–1616) Spanish Novelist
A feeling of continuous growth is a wonderful source of motivation and self-confidence.
—Brian Tracy (b.1944) American Author, Motivational Speaker
Everything will change. The only question is growing up or decaying.
—Nikki Giovanni (b.1943) American Poet, Writer, Activist, Educator
Little by little, wean yourself.This is the gist of what I have to say.
—Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi (1207–73) Persian Muslim Mystic
Rich people see opportunities. Poor people see obstacles. Rich people see potential growth. Poor people see potential loss. Rich people focus on rewards. Poor focus on the risks.
—T. Harv Eker (b.1954) American Motivational Speaker, Lecturer, Author
The acorn becomes an oak by means of automatic growth; no commitment is necessary. The kitten similarly becomes a cat on the basis of instinct. Nature and being are identical in creatures like them. But a man or woman becomes fully human only by his or her choices and his or her commitment to them. People attain worth and dignity by the multitude of decisions they make from day by day. These decisions require courage.
—Rollo May (1909–94) American Philosopher
He who is not everyday conquering some fear has not learned the secret of life.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
If you are irritated by every rub, how will you be polished?
—Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi (1207–73) Persian Muslim Mystic
The harvest of old age is the recollection and abundance of blessing previously secured.
—Cicero (106BCE–43BCE) Roman Philosopher, Orator, Politician, Lawyer
When a man has fulfilled all four of these requisites—to be wide awake, to have fear, respect, and absolute assurance—there are no mistakes for which he will have to account; under such conditions his actions lose the blundering quality of the acts of a fool. If such a man fails, or suffers a defeat, he will have lost only a battle, and there will be no pitiful regrets over that.
—Carlos Castaneda (1925–98) Peruvian-born American Anthropologist, Author
Find out what a person fears most and that is where he will develop next.
—Carl Gustav Jung (1875–1961) Swiss Psychologist, Psychiatrist, Philosopher
Don’t go through life, grow through life.
—Eric Butterworth (1916–2003) American Spirituality Writer
We are born princes and the civilizing process makes us frogs.
—Publilius Syrus (fl.85–43 BCE) Syrian-born Roman Latin Writer
You cannot hope to build a better world without improving the individuals. To that end, each of us must work for our own improvement and, at the same time, share a general responsibility for all humanity, our particular duty being to aid those to whom we think we can be most useful.
—Marie Curie (1867–1934) Polish-born French Physicist, Chemist
There was that law of life, so cruel and so just, that one must grow or else pay more for remaining the same.
—Norman Mailer (1923–2007) American Novelist Essayist
Brother stand the pain;Escape the poison of your impulses.The sky will bow to your beauty, if you do.Learn to light the candle. Rise with the sun.Turn away from the cave of your sleeping.That way a thorn expands to a rose.A particular glows with the universal.
—Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi (1207–73) Persian Muslim Mystic
Every Warrior of the Light has felt afraid of going into battle. Every Warrior of the Light has, at some time in the past, lied or betrayed someone. Every Warrior of the Light has trodden a path that was not his. Every Warrior of the Light has suffered for the most trivial of reasons. Every Warrior of the Light has, at least once, believed he was not a Warrior of the Light. Every Warrior of the Light has failed in his spiritual duties. Every Warrior of the Light has said ‘yes’ when he wanted to say ‘no.’ Every Warrior of the Light has hurt someone he loved. That is why he is a Warrior of the Light, because he has been through all this and yet has never lost hope of being better than he is.
—Paulo Coelho (b.1947) Brazilian Songwriter, Novelist
Sensuality often hastens the growth of love so much that the roots remain weak and are easily torn up.
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German Philosopher, Scholar, Writer
Climb mountains to see lowlands.
—Chinese Proverb
A man goes to knowledge as he goes to war: wide-awake, with fear, with respect, and with absolute assurance. Going to knowledge or going to war in any other manner is a mistake, and whoever makes it might never live to regret it.
—Carlos Castaneda (1925–98) Peruvian-born American Anthropologist, Author
There is no growth without discontent.
—Unknown
In the end, it is important to remember that we cannot become what we need to be, by remaining what we are.
—Max De Pree (1924–2017) American Businessman
You will either step forward into growth or you will step back into safety.
—Abraham Maslow (1908–70) American Psychologist, Academic, Humanist
When a difficult situation comes into your life, it is possible to tune in to your mind and say, “Okay, choose”. Are you going to make yourself miserable or content? Are you going to visualize scarcity or abundance? Are you going to put yourself down for getting angry with your husband or are you simply going to notice what insecurity you were feeling at the time and discuss it with him? The choice is definitely yours. Pick the one that contributes most to your aliveness and growth.
—Susan Jeffers (1938–2012) American Psychologist, Self-Help Author
It is the greatest good for an individual to discuss virtue (aka Kindness, Virtue, Goodness) every day…for the unexamined life is not worth living.
—Socrates (469BCE–399BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher
However, a good life consists of more than simply the totality of enjoyable experiences. It must also have a meaningful pattern, a trajectory of growth that results in the development of increasing emotional, cognitive, and social complexity.
—Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (1934–2021) Hungarian-American Psychologist
The spiritual journey does not consist in arriving at a new destination where a person gains what he did not have, or becomes what he is not. It consists in the dissipation of one’s own ignorance concerning one’s self and life, and the gradual growth of that understanding which begins the spiritual awakening. The finding of God is a coming to one’s self.
—Aldous Huxley (1894–1963) English Humanist, Pacifist, Essayist, Short Story Writer, Satirist
Love didn’t grow very well in place where there was only fear, just as plants didn’t grow very well in a place where it was always dark.
—Stephen King (b.1947) American Novelist, Short-Story Writer, Screenwriter, Columnist, Film Director
To sin is to be off the mark, that is, to inhibit development, contracting backward into regression rather than expanding forward into growth.
—Connie Zweig (b.1949) American Minister, Columnist, Psychotherapist
Life doesn’t do anything to you. It only reveals your spirit.
—John C. Maxwell (b.1947) American Christian Professional Speaker, Author, Clergyman
Every man comes into the world with a predisposition to grow along certain lines, and growth is easier for him along those lines than in any other way.
—Wallace Wattles (1860–1911) American New Thought Author
I will grow. I will become something new and grand, but no grander than I now am. Just as the sky will be different in a few hours, its present perfection and completeness is not deficient, so am I presently perfect and not deficient because I will be different tomorrow. I will grow and I am not deficient.
—Wayne Dyer (1940–2015) American Self-Help Author
Then bless thy secret growth, nor catch At noise, but thrive unseen and dumb; Keep clean, be as fruit, earn life, and watch, Till the white-wing’d reapers come.
—Henry Vaughan (1621–95) Anglo-Welsh Metaphysical Poet
Mere change is not growth. Growth is the synthesis of change and continuity, and where there is no continuity there is no growth.
—C. S. Lewis (1898-1963) Irish-born British Academic, Author, Literary Scholar
I teach you the Overman. Man is something that shall be overcome. What have you done to overcome him? … The time has come for man to set himself a goal. The time has come to plant the seed to his highest hope.
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German Philosopher, Scholar, Writer
I exhort you also to take part in the great combat, which is the combat of life, and greater than every other earthly conflict.
—Plato (428 BCE–347 BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher, Mathematician, Educator
Truth, like gold, is to be obtained not by its growth, but by washing away from it all that is not gold.
—Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910) Russian Novelist
I’ve watched a lot of mid-career people, and Yogi Berra says you can observe a lot just by watching. I’ve concluded that most people enjoy learning and growing. And many are dearly troubled by the self-assessments of mid-career. Such self-assessments are no great problem at your age. You’re young and moving up. The drama of your own rise is enough. But when you reach middle age, when your energies aren’t what they used to be, then you’ll begin to wonder what it all added up to; you’ll begin to look for the figure in the carpet of your life. I have some simple advice for you when you begin that process. Don’t be too hard on yourself. Look ahead. Someone said that Life is the art of drawing without an eraser. And above all don’t imagine that the story is over. Life has a lot of chapters.
—John W. Gardner (1912–2002) American Activist