The mind grows narrow in proportion as the soul grows corrupt.
—Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–78) Swiss-born French Philosopher
It’s a damn poor mind that can only think of one way to spell a word.
—Andrew Jackson (1767–1845) American Head of State
When you are not willing to fully receive, you are training the universe not to give to you! It’s simple: if you aren’t willing to receive your share, it will go to someone else who is.
—T. Harv Eker (b.1954) American Motivational Speaker, Lecturer, Author
You can be a victim or you can be rich, but you can’t be both. Listen up! Every time, and I mean every time, you blame, justify, or complain, you are slitting your financial throat.
—T. Harv Eker (b.1954) American Motivational Speaker, Lecturer, Author
The mind conceives with pain, but it brings forth with delight.
—Joseph Joubert (1754–1824) French Writer, Moralist
Remember, your motto is, if they can do it, I can do it!
—T. Harv Eker (b.1954) American Motivational Speaker, Lecturer, Author
It’s better to give than to receive. Let me put this as elegantly as possible: “What a crock!” That statement is total hogwash, and in case you haven’t noticed, it’s usually propagated by people and groups who want you to give and them to receive. The whole idea is ludicrous. What’s better, hot or cold, big or small, left or right, in or out? Giving and receiving are two sides of the same coin. Whoever decided that it is better to give than to receive was simply bad at math. For every giver there must be a receiver, and for every receiver there must be a giver.
—T. Harv Eker (b.1954) American Motivational Speaker, Lecturer, Author
All things tend to corrupt perverted minds.
—Cicero (106BCE–43BCE) Roman Philosopher, Orator, Politician, Lawyer
Words are more powerful than perhaps anyone suspects, and once deeply engraved in a child’s mind, the are not easily eradicated.
—May Sarton (1912–95) American Children’s Books Writer, Poet, Novelist
The components of anxiety, stress, fear, and anger do not exist independently of you in the world. They simply do not exist in the physical world, even though we talk about them as if they do.
—Wayne Dyer (1940–2015) American Self-Help Author
It is the mind that makes one wise or ignorant, bound or emancipated.
—Ramakrishna Paramahamsa (1836–86) Indian Hindu Philosopher
The mind is the most capricious of insects – flitting, fluttering.
—Virginia Woolf (1882–1941) English Novelist
One of the most important, but one of the most difficult things for a powerful mind is, to be its own master. A pond may lie quiet in a plain; but a lake wants mountains to compass and hold it in.
—Joseph Addison (1672–1719) English Essayist, Poet, Playwright, Politician
Frivolous curiosity about trifles, and laborious attentions to little objects which neither require nor deserve a moment’s thought, lower a man, who from thence is thought, and not unjustly, incapable of greater matters.
—Earl of Chesterfield (1694–1773) English Statesman, Man of Letters
Some minds seem almost to create themselves, springing up under every disadvantage and working their solitary but irresistible way through a thousand obstacles.
—Washington Irving (1783–1859) American Essayist, Biographer, Historian
Success is a learnable skill. You can learn to succeed at anything. If you want to be a great golfer, you can learn how to do it. If you want to be a great piano player, you can learn how to do it. If you want to be truly happy, you can learn how to do it. If you want to be rich, you can learn how to do it. It doesn’t matter where you are right now. It doesn’t matter where you’re starting from. What matters is that you are willing to learn.
—T. Harv Eker (b.1954) American Motivational Speaker, Lecturer, Author
Mind is a light which the Gods mock us with To lead false those who trust it.
—Matthew Arnold (1822–88) English Poet, Critic
Thinking doesn’t seem to help very much. The human brain is too high-powered to have many practical uses in this particular universe.
—Kurt Vonnegut (1922–2007) American Novelist, Short Story Writer
If you were to fault yourself in one of three areas, which would it be: (1) the inability to prioritize; (2) the inability or desire to organize around those priorities; or (3) the lack of discipline to execute around them? … Most people say their main fault is a lack of discipline. On deeper thought, I believe that is not the case. The basic problem is that their priorities have not become deeply planted in their hearts and minds. They haven’t really internalized Habit 2 [Begin with the end in mind].
—Stephen Covey (1932–2012) American Self-help Author
The trouble with most people is that they think with their hopes or fears or wishes, rather than their minds.
—William C. Durant (1861–1947) American Industrialist
Have the daring to stop doing the things you really don’t want to do. Can you see them? Look closely. Can you observe the many things you do because you reluctantly feel you should or must? Watch closely. Examine every action and reaction. Do you act naturally or do you act because you feel compelled? If you feel compelled, stop. Compulsion is slavery. Example: Refuse to go along with the crowd.
—Vernon Howard (1918–92) American Spiritual Teacher, Philosopher
Guilt is never a rational thing; it distorts all the faculties of the human mind, it perverts them, it leaves a man no longer in the free use of his reason, it puts him into confusion.
—Edmund Burke (1729–97) British Philosopher, Statesman
Enlighten the people generally, and tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will vanish like evil spirits at the dawn of day.
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) American Head of State, Lawyer
The mind is not a hermit’s cell, but a place of hospitality and intercourse.
—Charles Cooley (1864–1929) American Sociologist
All the resources we need are in the mind.
—Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American Head of State, Political leader, Historian, Explorer
Every master was once a disaster.
—T. Harv Eker (b.1954) American Motivational Speaker, Lecturer, Author
Do you know anyone who hasn’t changed his mind? This door was a tree, then it will be firewood for someone, then it will return to air and earth. We’re all like that, constantly changing. It’s simply honest to report that you’ve changed your mind when you have. When you’re afraid of what people will think if you speak honestly, that’s where you become confused.
—Byron Katie (b.1942) American Speaker, Author
Poor people will do almost anything to avoid problems. They see a challenge and they run … the secret to success, my friends, is not to try to avoid or get rid of or shrink from your problems; the secret is to grow yourself so that you are bigger than your problems.
—T. Harv Eker (b.1954) American Motivational Speaker, Lecturer, Author
We may be very busy, we may be very efficient, but we will also be truly effective only when we begin with the end in mind.
—Stephen Covey (1932–2012) American Self-help Author
The mind is never satisfied with the objects immediately before it, but is always breaking away from the present moment, and losing itself in schemes of future felicity. The natural flights of the human mind are not from pleasure to pleasure, but from hope to hope.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist