Great Throughts Treasury

"Our problem is to become acquainted with our own selves, letting our personalities loose upon the world for the sheer adventure of their full development and in the positive hope that they may in their own way lift the level of humanit"

"The purpose of writing inspirational notes is simply to build others up because there are too many people in the demolition business."

"A primary method for gaining a mind full of peace is to practice emptying the mind."

"The first step is to fill your life with positive faith that will help you through anything. The second is to begin where you are."

"The mind quickly responds to teaching and discipline. You can make the mind give you back anything you want."

"Resentment or grudges do no harm to the person against whom you hold these feelings but every day and every night of your life, they are eating at you."

"We tend to get what we expect."

"Four things for success: Work and pray, think and believe."

"One of the greatest moments in anybody's developing experience is when he no longer tries to hide from himself but determines to get acquainted with himself as he really is."

"The person who sends out positive thoughts activates the world around him positively and draws back to himself positive results."

"If you put off everything till you're sure of it, you'll never get anything done."

"Problems are to the mind what exercise is to the muscles, they toughen and make strong."

"Throw your heart over the fence and the rest will follow."

"Watch your manner of speech if you wish to develop a peaceful state of mind. Start each day by affirming peaceful, contented and happy attitudes and your days will tend to be pleasant and successful."

"Be interesting, be enthusiastic... and don't talk too much."

"Don't take tomorrow to bed with you."

"When you become detached mentally from yourself and concentrate on helping other people with their difficulties, you will be able to cope with your own more effectively. Somehow, the act of self-giving is a personal power-releasing factor."

"If you paint in your mind a picture of bright and happy expectations, you put yourself into a condition conducive to your goal."

"It is of practical value to learn to like yourself. Since you must spend so much time with yourself you might as well get some satisfaction out of the relationship."

"Age-based retirement arbitrarily severs productive persons from their livelihood, squanders their talents, scars their health, strains an already overburdened Social Security system, and drives many elderly people into poverty and despair. Ageism is as odious as racism and sexism."

"Part of the happiness of life consists not in fighting battles, but in avoiding them. A masterly retreat is in itself a victory."

"We struggle with the complexities and avoid the simplicities."

"A person with a hundred interests is twice as alive as one with only fifty and four times as alive as the man who has only twenty-five."

"Drop the idea that you are Atlas carrying the world on your shoulders. The world would go on even without you. Don't take yourself so seriously."

"It is a fact that you project what you are."

"Picturize, prayerize, actualize."

"The power of positive thinking."

"You can have peace of mind, improved health and an ever-increasing flow of energy. Life can be full of joy and satisfaction."

"Whenever a negative thought concerning your personal power comes to mind, deliberately voice a positive one to cancel it out."

"I really believe kids want to do well. It's a coach's job to create an environment for them to be successful."

"We've all heard that we have to learn from our mistakes, but I think it's more important to learn from successes. If you learn only from your mistakes, you are inclined to learn only errors."

"And now we get down to two magic words that tell us how to accomplish just about anything we want to accomplish, two powerful words that can change any situation, two dynamic words that all too few people use. And what are these two amazing words? Do it!"

"Getting people to like you is merely the other side of liking them."

"Promises are like crying babies in a theater, they should be carried out at once."

"The tests of life are not meant to break you, but to make you."

"Joy increases as you give it, and diminishes as you try to keep it for yourself. In giving you will accumulate a deposit of joy greater than you ever believed possible."

"Every problem has in it the seeds of its own solution. If you don't have any problems, you don't get any seeds."

"When life hands you a lemon, make lemonade."

"A masterful retreat is itself a victory."

"Act as if, and that which you practice will tend to be."

"All successful people have a goal. No one can get anywhere unless he knows where he wants to go and what he wants to be or do."

"Always keep on surpassing yourself."

"Always remember that problems contain values that have improvement potential."

"Americans are so tense and keyed up that it is impossible even to put them to sleep with a sermon."

"And finally, believe that you can solve them."

"Beauty," I countered, "is a necessity of the human spirit, especially when it speaks of romance and abiding affection. And that is even more important when times are hard."

"Begin to listen for the deeper sounds of harmony and beauty that are to be found in the essence of silence"

"A basic law of human nature is that you lose your own depression by taking on that of others."

"Believe and create is a basic fact of successful living."

"Believe that problems do have answers. Believe that they can be overcome. Believe that they can be handled. And finally, believe that you can solve them."