The trick is in what one emphasizes. We either make ourselves miserable, or we make ourselves strong. The amount of work is the same.
—Carlos Castaneda (1925–98) Peruvian-born American Anthropologist, Author
A journalist is a grumbler, a censurer, a giver of advice, a regent of sovereigns, a tutor of nations. Four hostile newspapers are more to be feared than a thousand bayonets.
—Napoleon I (1769–1821) Emperor of France
What’s the good of dragging up sufferings which are over, of being unhappy now just because you were then.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca) (c.4 BCE–65 CE) Roman Stoic Philosopher, Statesman, Tragedian
Become a possibilitarian. No matter how dark things seem to be or actually are, raise your sights and see the possibilities—always see them, for they’re always there.
—Norman Vincent Peale (1898–1993) American Clergyman, Self-Help Author
The perplexity of life arises from there being too many interesting things in it for us to be interested properly in any of them.
—G. K. Chesterton (1874–1936) English Journalist, Novelist, Essayist, Poet
Simple creatures, whose thoughts are not taken up, like those of educated people, with the care of a great museum of dead phrases, are very quick to see the live facts which are going on about them.
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809–94) American Physician, Essayist
It is not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–62) American Philosopher
If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to treat everything as if it were a nail.
—Abraham Maslow (1908–70) American Psychologist, Academic, Humanist
Being born in a duck yard does not matter, if only you are hatched from a swan’s egg.
—Hans Christian Andersen (1805–75) Danish Author, Poet, Short Story Writer
I am talking about the power within the self. This means power over your perceptions of the world, power over how you react to situations in your life, power to do what is necessary for your own self-growth, power to create joy and satisfaction in your life, power to act, and power to love.
—Susan Jeffers (1938–2012) American Psychologist, Self-Help Author
Man’s mind stretched by a new idea, never goes back to its original dimensions.
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809–94) American Physician, Essayist
We like to divine others, but do not like to be divined ourselves.
—Francois de La Rochefoucauld (1613–80) French Writer
However, no two people see the external world in exactly the same way. To every separate person a thing is what he thinks it is—in other words, not a thing, but a think.
—Penelope Fitzgerald (1916–2000) British Novelist, Short-Story Writer, Biographer
Some people see the cup as half empty. Some people see the cup as half full. I see the cup as too large.
—George Carlin (1937–2008) American Stand-up Comedian
The basic difference between an ordinary man and a warrior is that a warrior takes everything as a challenge, while an ordinary man takes everything as a blessing or a curse.
—Carlos Castaneda (1925–98) Peruvian-born American Anthropologist, Author
Psychoanalysis is confession without absolution.
—G. K. Chesterton (1874–1936) English Journalist, Novelist, Essayist, Poet
This girl doesn’t, it seems, have a special perception or feeling which would lift that book above the “curiosity” level.
—Unknown
Observation more than books, experience rather than persons, are the prime educators.
—Amos Bronson Alcott (1799–1888) American Teacher, Writer, Philosopher
Man is an over-complicated organism. If he is doomed to extinction he will die out for want of simplicity.
—Ezra Pound (1885-1972) American Poet, Translator, Critic
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
Very few men are wise by their own counsel, or learned by their own teaching; for he that was only taught by himself had a fool as his master.
—Ben Jonson (1572–1637) English Dramatist, Poet, Actor
To see, to hear, means nothing. To recognize (or not to recognize) means everything. Between what I do recognize and what I do not recognize there stands myself. And what I do not recognize I shall continue not to recognize.
—Andre Breton (1896–1966) French Poet, Essayist, Critic
The heart has eyes which the brain knows nothing of.
—Charles Henry Parkhurst (1842–1933) American Clergyman, Civic Reformer
There are in life as many aspects as attitudes towards it; and aspects change with attitudes… Could we change our attitude, we should not only see life differently, but life itself would come to be different. Life would undergo a change of appearance because we ourselves had undergone a change in attitude.
—Katherine Mansfield (1888–1923) New Zealand-born British Author
People only see what they are prepared to see.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Nothing is a waste of time if you use the experience wisely.
—Auguste Rodin (1840–1917) French Sculptor
The man who is aware of himself is henceforward independent; and he is never bored, and life is only too short, and he is steeped through and through with a profound yet temperate happiness.
—Virginia Woolf (1882–1941) English Novelist
Penetration seems a kind of inspiration; it gives me an idea of prophecy.
—George Greville, 2nd Earl of Warwick (1746–1816) British Nobleman, Politician
What you see and hear depends a good deal on where you are standing; it also depends on what sort of person you are.
—C. S. Lewis (1898-1963) Irish-born British Academic, Author, Literary Scholar
What does not destroy me makes me stronger.
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German Philosopher, Scholar, Writer
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