When evil times prevail, take care to preserve the serenity of your heart.
—Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus) (65–8 BCE) Roman Poet
Imaginary obstacles are insurmountable. Real ones aren’t. But you can’t tell the difference when you have no real information. Fear can create even more imaginary obstacles than ignorance can. That’s why the smallest step away from speculation and into reality can be an amazing relief. The Reality Solution means: Do it before you’re ready.
—Barbara Sher (1935–2020) American Career Coach
Die when I may, I want it said of me by those who know me best, that I always plucked a thistle and planted a flower when I thought a flower would grow.
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–65) American Head of State
Don’t wish it were easier. Wish you were better.
—Jim Rohn (1930–2009) American Entrepreneur, Author, Motivational Speaker
Hold on to the center and make up your mind to rejoice in this paradise called life.
—Laozi (fl.6th Century BCE) Chinese Philosopher, Sage
If you look for the positive things in life; you will find them.
—Unknown
Forgiveness is not an occasional act: it is an attitude.
—Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–68) American Civil Rights Leader, Clergyman
An optimist may see a light where there is none, but why must the pessimist always run to blow it out?
—Michel de Saint Pierre (1916–87) French Novelist, Journalist
Why should we be in such desperate haste to succeed, and in such desperate enterprises? If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured and far away. It is not important that he should mature as soon as an apple tree or an oak.
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–62) American Philosopher
The person who says it cannot be done should not interrupt the person doing it.
—Chinese Proverb
I feel that a genuine, affectionate smile is very important in our day-to-day lives. How one creates that smile largely depends on one’s own attitude. It is illogical to expect smiles from others if one does not smile oneself. Therefore, one can see that many things depend on one’s own behaviour.
—The 14th Dalai Lama (b.1935) Tibetan Buddhist Leader, Civil Rights Advocate, Author
The conduct of men depends upon the temperament, not upon a bunch of musty maxims.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
Wherever you go, no matter what the weather, always bring your own sunshine.
—Anthony J. D’Angelo
It’s not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters.
—Epictetus (55–135) Ancient Greek Philosopher
A cloudy day is no match for a sunny disposition.
—William Arthur Ward (1921–94) American Author
The only way to keep your health is to eat what you don’t want, drink what you don’t like, and do what you’d druther not.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us.
—Helen Keller (1880–1968) American 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
If we are always arriving and departing, it is also true that we are eternally anchored. One’s destination is never a place but rather a new way of looking at things.
—Henry Miller (1891–1980) American Novelist
We all need a daily check up from the neck up to avoid stinkin’ thinkin’ which ultimately leads to hardening of the attitudes.
—Zig Ziglar (1926–2012) American Author
Some people find fault like there is a reward for it.
—Zig Ziglar (1926–2012) American Author
Success or failure in business is caused more by the mental attitude even than by mental capacities.
—Walter Scott (1771–1832) Scottish Novelist, Poet, Playwright, Lawyer
How things look on the outside of us depends on how things are on the inside of us. Stay close to the heart of nature and forget this troubled world. Remember, there is nothing wrong with nature; the trouble is in ourselves.
—Parks Cousins
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
My riches consist not in the extent of my possessions, but in the fewness of my wants.
—Joseph Brotherton (1783–1857) English Politician, Reformer
I never saw a pessimistic general win a battle.
—Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) American Head of State, Military Leader
Somebody said that it couldn’t be done,
But he with a chuckle replied
That maybe it couldn’t, but he would be one
Who wouldn’t say so till he’d tried.
So he buckled right in with the trace of a grin
On his face. If he worried he hid it.
He started to sing as he tackled the thing
That couldn’t be done, and he did it.
—Edgar Guest (1881–1959) British-born American Poet
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
It is not the failure of others to appreciate your abilities that should trouble you, but rather your failure to appreciate theirs.
—Confucius (551–479 BCE) Chinese Philosopher
I have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go. My own wisdom and that of all about me seemed insufficient for the day.
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–65) American Head of State
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