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
Some individuals have developed such strong internal standards that they no longer need the opinion of others to judge whether they have performed a task well or not. The ability to give objective feedback to oneself is in fact the mark of the expert.
—Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (1934–2021) Hungarian-American Psychologist
Do you want a sign that you’re asleep? Here it is: you’re suffering. Suffering is a sign that you’re out of touch with the truth. Suffering is given to you that you might open your eyes to the truth, that you might understand that there’s falsehood somewhere, just as physical pain is given to you so you will understand that there is disease or illness somewhere. Suffering occurs when you clash with reality. When your illusions clash with reality, when your falsehoods clash with truth, then you have suffering. Otherwise there is no suffering.
—Anthony de Mello (1931–87) Indian-born American Theologian
It’s amazing how someone’s IQ seems to double as soon as you give them responsibility and indicate that you trust them.
—Tim Ferriss (b.1977) American Self-help Author
In the fall, you don’t grieve because the leaves are falling and dying. You say, “Isn’t it beautiful!” Well, we’re the same way. There are seasons. We all fall sooner or later. It’s all so beautiful. And our concepts, without investigation, keep us from knowing this. It’s beautiful to be a leaf, to be born, to fall, to give way to the next, to become food for the roots. It’s life, always changing its form and always giving itself completely. We all do our part. No mistake.
—Byron Katie (b.1942) American Speaker, Author
Nobody can give you freedom. Nobody can give you equality or justice or anything. If you’re a man, you take it.
—Malcolm X (1925–65) American Civil Rights Leader
Most of the stone a nation hammers goes toward its tomb only. It buries itself alive. As for the Pyramids, there is nothing to wander at in them so much as the fact that so many men could be found degraded enough to spend their lives constructing a tomb for some ambitious booby, whom it would have been wiser and manlier to have drowned in the Nile, and then given his body to the dogs.
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–62) American Philosopher
Give yourself the gift of time in coming to answers for your life…It takes time, and a lot of introspection and soul-searching, to get clear about what you really want to manifest in your life.
—David Emerald
To excel means to reach beyond the best you have ever given because doing so matters to you personally, for its own sake. It means to run your own race—as an individual, team, or organization. To excel is to know your greatest strengths and passions, and to emphasize them while honestly admitting and managing your weaknesses.
—Robert Cooper (b.1947) British Diplomat
The key ingredient to any kind of happiness or success is to never give less than your best.
—Russell Simmons (b.1957) American Music Promoter
Choose to be in close proximity to people who are empowering, who appeal to your sense of connection to intention, who see the greatness in you, who feel connected to God, who live a life that gives evidence that Spirit has found celebration through them.
—Wayne Dyer (1940–2015) American Self-Help Author
From a hundred cultures, [there is] one culture which does what no culture has ever done before—gives a place to every human gift.
—Margaret Mead (1901–78) American Anthropologist, Social Psychologist
When running up a hill, it is all right to give up as many times as you wish—as long as your feet keep on moving.
—Dan Millman (b.1946) American Children’s Books Writer, Sportsperson
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
The only service that you can render God is to give expression to what he is trying to give to the world, through you. The only service you can render God is to make the very most of yourself in order that God may live in you to the utmost of your possibilities.
—Wallace Wattles (1860–1911) American New Thought Author
So, instead of wanting to throttle your loved ones when they give you a hard time, it is better to look at them as mirrors of what you still need to work on in terms of our personal growth.
—Susan Jeffers (1938–2012) American Psychologist, Self-Help Author
Sit down before fact as a little child, be prepared to give up every preconceived notion, follow humbly wherever and whatever abysses nature leads, or you will learn nothing.
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95) English Biologist
We automatically give to each person we meet, but we choose what we give. Our words, our actions, must consciously set the stage for the life we wish to lead.
—Marlo Morgan (1937–98) American Novelist, Author
You are goodness and mercy and compassion and understanding. You are peace and joy and light. You are forgiveness and patience, strength and courage, a helper in time of need, a comforter in time of sorrow, a healer in time of injury, a teacher in times of confusion. You are the deepest wisdom and the highest truth; the greatest peace and the grandest love. You are these things. And in moments of your life you have known yourself to be these things. Choose now to know yourself as these things always.
—Neale Donald Walsch (b.1943) American Spiritual Writer
Simple, clear purpose and principles give rise to complex and intelligent behavior. Complex rules and regulations give rise to simple and stupid behavior.
—Dee Hock (b.1929) American Businessman
If only God would give me some clear sign! Like making a large deposit in my name at a Swiss bank.
—Woody Allen (b.1935) American Film Actor, Director
Whatever we feel we most need is what we most need to give.
—Unknown
I came to see that there was nothing to forgive, that I was the one who caused my own problems.
—Byron Katie (b.1942) American Speaker, Author
I believe that traditional wisdom is incomplete. A composer can have all the talent of Mozart and a passionate desire to succeed, but if he believes he cannot compose music, he will come to nothing. He will not try hard enough. He will give up too soon when the elusive right melody takes too long to materialize.
—Martin Seligman (b.1942) American Psychologist, Author
When we give from a place of love, rather than from a place of expectation, more usually comes back to us than we could have ever imagined.
—Susan Jeffers (1938–2012) American Psychologist, Self-Help Author
Power is what they want, not candy—power to execute their design, power to give legs and feet, form and actuality to their thought; which, to a clear-sighted man, appears the end for which the universe exists, and all its resources might be well applied.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
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
Give me a museum, and I’ll fill it.
—Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) Spanish Painter, Sculptor, Artist
So what is the difference between “power thinking” and “positive” thinking? The distinction is slight but profound. To me, people us positive thinking to pretend that everything is rosy, when they really believe that it’s not. With power thinking, we understand that everything is neutral, that nothing has meaning except for the meaning we give it, and that we are going to make up a story and give something it’s meaning.This is the difference between positive thinking and power thinking. With positive thinking, people believe that their thoughts are true. Power thinking recognizes that our thoughts are not true, but since we’re making up a story anyway, we might as well make up a story that supports us. We don’t do this because our new thoughts are “true” in an absolute sense, but because they are ore useful to us and feel a heck of a lot better than nonsupportive ones.
—T. Harv Eker (b.1954) American Motivational Speaker, Lecturer, Author
If you want something done, ask a busy person to do it. The more things you do, the more you can do.
—Lucille Ball (1911–89) American Actor, Comedian, Model
Never give in — never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.
—Winston Churchill (1874–1965) British Head of State, Political leader, Historian, Journalist, Author
People are smarter than you think. Give them a chance to prove themselves.
—Tim Ferriss (b.1977) American Self-help Author
Since the beginning of time, people have been trying to change the world so that they can be happy. This hasn’t ever worked, because it approaches the problem backward. What The Work gives us is a way to change the projector—mind—rather than the projected. It’s like when there’s a piece of lint on a projector’s lens. We think there’s a flaw on the screen, and we try to change this person and that person, whomever the flaw appears on next. But it’s futile to try to change the projected images. Once we realize where the lint is, we can clear the lens itself. This is the end of suffering, and the beginning of a little joy in paradise.
—Byron Katie (b.1942) American Speaker, Author
A friend is a gift you give yourself.
—Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–94) Scottish Novelist
Ask and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock and it shall be opened unto you. For every one that asketh, receiveth; and he that seeketh, findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.
—The Holy Bible Scripture in the Christian Faith
If you are not willing to receive, then you are “ripping off” those who want to give to you.
—T. Harv Eker (b.1954) American Motivational Speaker, Lecturer, Author
You want to change your life? Control the only thing you can control: the meaning you give something.
—Tony Robbins (b.1960) American Self-Help Author, Entrepreneur
To this military attitude of the soul we give the name of Heroism… It is a self-trust which slights the restraints of prudence, in the plenitude of its energy and power to repair the harms it may suffer. The hero is a mind of such balance that no disturbances can shake his will…
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
The experiences of camp life show that a man does have a choice of action. There were enough examples, often of a heroic nature, which proved that apathy could be overcome, irritability suppressed. Man can preserve a vestige of spiritual freedom, of independence of mind, even in such terrible conditions of psychic and physical stress. We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken away from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s way. The way in which a man accepts his fate and all the suffering it entails, the way in which he takes up his cross, gives him ample opportunity—even in the most difficult circumstances—to add a deeper meaning to life.
—Viktor Frankl (1905–97) Austrian Psychiatrist, Psychotherapist
There is absolutely nothing that you desire that you cannot achieve.
—Abraham Hicks
Your automatic creative mechanism is teleological. That is, it operates in terms of goals and end results. Once you give it a definite goal to achieve, you can depend upon its automatic guidance system to take you to that goal much better than “you” ever could by conscious thought. “You” supply the goal by thinking in terms of end results. Your automatic mechanism then supplies the means whereby.
—Maxwell Maltz (1899–1975) American Surgeon, Motivational Writer
Thoreau decided to give up his large ambition of knowledge and action for any narrow craft or profession, aiming at a much more comprehensive calling, the art of living.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
I am not more gifted than the average human being. If you know anything about history, you would know that is so—what hard times I had in studying and the fact that I do not have a memory like some other people do… I am just more curious than the average person and I will not give up on a problem until I have found the proper solution. This is one of my greatest satisfactions in life—solving problems—and the harder they are, the more satisfaction do I get out of them. Maybe you could consider me a bit more patient in continuing with my problem than is the average human being. Now, if you understand what I have just told you, you see that it is not a matter of being more gifted but a matter of being more curious and maybe more patient until you solve a problem.
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born Physicist
When we wake up to the potential power within, our impulse is to grab it all “quick”. The more we grab, the more it seems to elude us. There is no quick. There are quick—and wonderful—seminars, workshops, books, and audios that give you tools, but they are not quick tools. They are to be used and mastered throughout a lifetime.
—Susan Jeffers (1938–2012) American Psychologist, Self-Help Author
You’re never given more pain than you can handle. You never, ever get more than you can take.
—Byron Katie (b.1942) American Speaker, Author
Nothing outside you can ever give you what you’re looking for.
—Byron Katie (b.1942) American Speaker, Author
I believe that the very purpose of life is to be happy. From the very core of our being, we desire contentment. In my own limited experience I have found that the more we care for the happiness of others, the greater is our own sense of well-being. Cultivating a close, warmhearted feeling for others automatically puts the mind at ease. It helps remove whatever fears or insecurities we may have and gives us the strength to cope with any obstacles we encounter. It is the principal source of success in life. Since we are not solely material creatures, it is a mistake to place all our hopes for happiness on external development alone. The key is to develop inner peace.
—The 14th Dalai Lama (b.1935) Tibetan Buddhist Religious Leader, Civil Rights Leader, Philosopher, Author
The more you struggle to live, the less you live. Give up the notion that you must be sure of what you are doing. Instead, surrender to what is real within you, for that alone is sure. As stars high above earth, you are above everything distressing. But you must awaken to it. Wake up!
—Baruch Spinoza (1632–77) Dutch Philosopher, Theologian
When you give your subsconscious the message “I can’t,” your subconscious really believes you and registers on its computer: WEAK… WEAK… WEAK…
—Susan Jeffers (1938–2012) American Psychologist, Self-Help Author
It was a high counsel that I once heard given to a young person, “Always do what you are afraid to do”.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher