When you examine the lives of the most influential people who have ever walked among us, you discover one thread that winds through them all. They have been aligned first with their spiritual nature and only then with their physical selves.
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born Physicist
People call me a perfectionist, but I’m not. I’m a “rightist.” I do something until it’s right, and then I move on to the next thing.
—James Cameron (b.1954) Canadian Film Director, Environmentalist
The number one reason most people don’t get what they want is that they don’t know what they want. Rich people are totally clear that they want wealth. They are unwavering in their desire. They are fully committed to creating wealth. As long as it’s legal, moral, and ethical, they will do whatever it takes to have wealth. Rich people do not send mixed messages to the universe. Poor people do.
—T. Harv Eker (b.1954) American Motivational Speaker, Lecturer, Author
Local assemblies of the people con stitute the strength of free nations.—Municipal institutions are to liberty, what primary schools are to science: they bring it within the people’s reach, and teach them how to use and enjoy it—A nation may establish a system of free government, but without the spirit of municipal institutions it cannot have the spirit of liberty.
—Alexis de Tocqueville (1805–59) French Historian, Political Scientist
How would you feel if you had no fear? Feel like that. How would you behave toward other people if you realized their powerlessness to hurt you? Behave like that. How would your react to so-called misfortune if you saw its inability to bother you? React like that. How would you think toward yourself if you knew you were really all right? Think like that.
—Vernon Howard (1918–92) American Spiritual Teacher, Philosopher
I’ve always been interested in people, but I’ve never liked them.
—W. Somerset Maugham (1874–1965) British Novelist, Short-Story Writer, Playwright
Your life is not just about you. It’s also about contributing to others. It’s about living true to your mission and reason for being here on this earth at this time. It’s about adding your piece of the puzzle to the world. Most people are so stuck in their egos that everything revolves around me, me, and more me. But if you want to be rich in the truest sense of the word, it can’t only be about you. It has to include adding value to other people’s lives.
—T. Harv Eker (b.1954) American Motivational Speaker, Lecturer, Author
In general, of course, a stranger who tries to get you into an automobile is anything but noble, and in general a person who quotes great American novelists is anything but treacherous, and in general a man who says you needn’t worry about money, or a man who smokes cigarettes, is somewhere in between.
—Lemony Snicket (Daniel Handler) (b.1970) American Novelist
There used to be a thing or a commodity we put great store by. It was called the People. Find out where the People have gone. I don’t mean the square-eyed toothpaste-and-hair-dye people or the new-car-or-bust people, or the success-and-coronary people. Maybe they never existed, but if there ever were the People, that’s the commodity the Declaration was talking about, and Mr. Lincoln.
—John Steinbeck (1902–68) American Novelist, Short Story Writer, Journalist
There are some people who live in a dream world, and there are some who face reality; and then there are those who turn one into the other.
—Douglas Hugh Everett (1916–2002) British Physical Chemist, Academic
Poor people choose to play the role of the victim.
—T. Harv Eker (b.1954) American Motivational Speaker, Lecturer, Author
Some people regret that they have poor memories. Alas! It is much more difficult to forget.
—Dorothee Luzy Dotinville (1747–1830) French Dancer, Actress
Self-actualizing people must be what they can be.
—Abraham Maslow (1908–70) American Psychologist, Academic, Humanist
If you follow your bliss, you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you, and the life that you ought to be living is the one you are living. When you can see that, you begin to meet people who are in your field of bliss, and they open doors to you. I say, follow your bliss and don’t be afraid, and doors will open where you didn’t know they were going to be.
—Joseph Campbell (1904–87) American Mythologist, Writer, Lecturer
Rich people do not back away from problems, do not avoid problems, and do not complain about problems. Rich people are financial warriors.
—T. Harv Eker (b.1954) American Motivational Speaker, Lecturer, Author
Taking a new step, uttering a new word, is what people fear most.
—Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1821–81) Russian Novelist, Essayist, Writer
When superior people hear of the Way, they carry it out with diligence. When middling people hear of the Way, it sometimes seems to be there, sometimes not. When lesser people hear of the Way, they ridicule it greatly. If they didn’t laugh at it, it wouldn’t be the Way.
—Laozi (fl.6th Century BCE) Chinese Philosopher, Sage
Close your ears to all adverse suggestions. Never mind if people call you a fool and a dreamer. Dream on.
—Wallace Wattles (1860–1911) American New Thought Author
When you do The Work, you see who you are by seeing who you think other people are. Eventually you come to see that everything outside you is a reflection of your own thinking. You are the storyteller, the projector of all stories, and the world is the projected image of your thoughts.
—Byron Katie (b.1942) American Speaker, Author
There is a secret psychology of money. Most people don’t know about it. That’s why most people never become financially successful. A lack of money is not the problem; it is merely a symptom of what’s going on inside of you.
—T. Harv Eker (b.1954) American Motivational Speaker, Lecturer, Author
Spiritual superiority only sees the individual. But alas, ordinarily we human beings are sensual and, therefore, as soon as it is a gathering, the impression changes—we see something abstract, the crowd, and we become different. But in the eyes of God, the infinite spirit, all the millions that have lived and now live do not make a crowd, He only sees each individual.
—Soren Kierkegaard (1813–55) Danish Philosopher, Theologian
He who loves 50 people has 50 woes; he who loves no one has no woes.
—Buddhist Teaching
If it has to choose who is to be crucified, the crowd will always save Barabbas.
—Jean Cocteau (1889–1963) French Poet, Playwright, Film Director
Most people would sooner die than think; in fact, they do so.
—Bertrand A. Russell (1872–1970) British Philosopher, Mathematician, Social Critic
The most important single ingredient in the formula of success is knowing how to get along with people.
—Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American Head of State, Political leader, Historian, Explorer
He was a sociologist; he had got into an intellectual muddle early on in life and never managed to get out.
—Iris Murdoch (1919–99) British Novelist, Playwright, Philosopher
No matter where or what, there are makers, takers, and fakers.
—Robert A. Heinlein (1907–88) American Science Fiction Writer
Rich people are wiling to act in spite of fear. Poor people let fear stop them.
—T. Harv Eker (b.1954) American Motivational Speaker, Lecturer, Author
I don’t want an epitaph on my gravestone that says, ‘He would have pursued some big dreams in his life, but other people wouldn’t let him.
—Tom Peters (b.1942) American Management Consultant, Author
Rich people…take responsibility for the results in their lives and act upon the mind-set “It will work because I’ll make it work”.
—T. Harv Eker (b.1954) American Motivational Speaker, Lecturer, Author