Lived Experience

I like good strong words that mean something.  ~Louisa May Alcott (Little Women)

Our words should be purrs instead of hisses.  ~Kathrine Palmer Peterson

Words do two major things: They provide food for the mind and create light for understanding and awareness.  ~Jim Rohn

Words ought to be a little wild, for they are the assaults of thoughts on the unthinking.  ~John Maynard Keynes

For me, words are a form of action, capable of influencing change. Their articulation represents a complete, lived experience.  ~Ingrid Bengis

Quotes about words

Faithful Mentor

The ultimate test of man's conscience may be his willingness to sacrifice something today for future generations whose words of thanks will not be heard.  ~Gaylord Nelson

The conscience interprets life honestly and realistically. The same cannot be said about the ego.  ~Shantidasa

Conscience is the window of our spirit, evil is the curtain.  ~Doug Horton

A disciplined conscience is a man's best friend. It may not be his most amiable, but it is his most faithful mentor.  ~Austin Phelps

The inner voice that warns us somebody may be looking.  ~H. L. Mencken

Quotes about conscience

To Stir Blood

Choose to live life on purpose, to love intentionally and to plan accordingly!  ~Wayne Cordeiro

Make big plans, but change your plans as time changes.  ~Marchant

Planning is bringing the future into the present so that you can do something about it now.  ~Alan Lakein

You need a plan ... but don't become consumed by it. Winds change.  ~Joseph Ehrhard

Make no little plans. They have no Magic to stir Men's blood.  ~D.B. Hudson

Quotes about planning, plans

More Life

They know enough who know how to learn.   ~Henry Adams

The beautiful thing about learning is nobody can take it away from you.  ~B. B. King

The excitement of learning separates youth from old age. As long as you're learning you're not old.  ~Rosalyn S. Yalow

It is learning, individually and collectively, which makes us strong, gives us hope, and carries us forward.  ~Barbara Viniar

The more learning, the more life.  ~Pirkei Avot

Quotes about learning

What Can You Do?

When work, commitment, and pleasure all become one and you reach that deep well where passion lives, nothing is impossible.  ~Nancy Coey

Unless commitment is made, there are only promises and hopes...but no plans.  ~Peter Drucker

Individual commitment to a group effort--that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work.  ~Vince Lombardi

It takes a deep commitment to change and an even deeper commitment to grow.  ~Ralph Ellison

If you deny yourself commitment, what can you do with your life?  ~Harvey Fierstein

Quotes about commitment

Not to Yield

Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old.~Franz Kafka

I suppose real old age begins when one looks backward rather than forward.  ~Mary Sarton

In my old age there is a coming into flower. My body wanes; my mind waxes.  ~Victor Hugo

Those who love deeply never grow old; they may die of old age, but they die young.  ~Sir Arthur Wing Pinero

Though much is taken, much abides; and though
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are--
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.  ~Alfred, Lord Tennyson (Ulysses)

Quotes about aging

More Vivid

Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren't used to an environment where excellence is expected.  ~Stephen Jobs

Advice may be wrong, but examples prove themselves.  ~Henry Wheeler Shaw

Children have more need of models than of critics.  ~Carolyn Coats

People seldom improve when they have no other model but themselves to copy. ~Oliver Goldsmith

Human models are more vivid and more persuasive than explicit moral commands.  ~Daniel J. Boorstin

Quotes about example

Fire in our Hearts

A goal properly set is halfway reached.  ~Zig Ziglar

To realize our goals, we must first imagine them fully.  ~Siew Hwa Beh

Goals are dreams with deadlines.  ~Diana Scharf Hunt

Act like you expect to get into the end zone.  ~Joe Paterno

Each of us has a fire in our hearts for something. It's our goal in life to find it and to keep it lit.  ~Mary Lou Retton

It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end.  ~Ursula K. LeGuin

Quotes about goals

Given with Love

There are two sides to every story and TRUTH lies somewhere in the middle.  ~Jean Gati

It takes two to speak the truth: one to speak, and another to hear.  ~Henry David Thoreau

The shortest distance between a human being and Truth is a story.  ~Anthony de Mello 

Truth is what stands the test of experience.  ~Albert Einstein

The truth is always exciting. Speak it, then. Life is dull without it.  ~Pearl S. Buck

Whenever you have truth it must be given with love, or the message and the messenger will be rejected.  ~Mahatma Gandhi

Quotes about truth

Write your Name

The quality of mercy is not strained;
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath. It is twice blessed-
It blesseth him that gives, and him that takes.  ~William Shakespeare (The Merchant of Venice)

Teach me to feel another's woe,
To hide the fault I see,
That mercy I to others show,
That mercy show to me.  ~Alexander Pope

Write your name in kindness, love and mercy on the hearts you come in contact with year by year, and you will never be forgotten.  ~Thomas Chalmers

Sweet mercy is nobility's true badge.  ~Shakespeare (Titus Andronicus)

We all need the waters of the Mercy River...for the extravagance of our lives.  ~Jonis Agee 

Quotes about mercy

Demands never Cease

Ability is what you're capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it.  ~Lou Holtz

You have to have confidence in your ability, and then be tough enough to follow through.  ~Rosalynn Carter

Discipline is the refining fire by which talent becomes ability.  ~Roy L. Smith

You are the only one who can use your ability. It is an awesome responsibility.  ~Zig Ziglar

Our desires are things of the moment, often harmful even to ourselves, but our abilities are permanent, and their demands never cease.  ~Madame de Stael

Quotes about ability

For What We Have

The sea always filled her with longing, though for what she was never sure.  ~ Cornelia Funke

There is a space between man's imagination and man's attainment that may only be traversed by his longing.  ~Khalil Gibran

We look before and after,
And pine for what is not;
Our sincerest laughter
With some pain is fraught;
Our sweetest songs are those that tell
Of saddest thought.   ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley

We would give anything for what we have.  ~Tony Hoagland

Quotes about longing

The Kind of Person

With the new day comes new strength and new thoughts.  ~Eleanor Roosevelt

Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will.  ~Mahatma Gandhi

I'm not going to lie down and let trouble walk over me.  ~Ellen Glasgow

Nothing is so strong as gentleness, and nothing is so gentle as true strength.  ~Ralph Sockman

Some people strengthen others just by being the kind of people they are.  ~John M. Gardener

Quotes about strength

Fearing to Attempt

You're not obligated to win. You're obligated to keep trying to do the best you can every day.  ~Marian Wright Edelman

You may be disappointed if you fail, but you are doomed if you don't try.  ~Beverly Sills

Most people live and die with their music still unplayed. They never dare to try.  ~Mary Kay Ash

Anyone who doesn't make mistakes isn't trying hard enough.  ~Wess Roberts

Our doubts are traitors; and make us lose the good we oft might win, by fearing to attempt.  ~William Shakespeare

Quotes about trying

The Most Important Things

Initiative is to success what a lighted match is to a candle.   ~Orlando Battista

Initiative is doing the right thing without being told.   ~ Victor Hugo

Hold up a mirror and ask yourself what you are capable of doing, and what you really care about. Then take the initiative - don't wait for someone else to ask you to act.   ~ Sylvia Earle

Success depends in a very large measure upon individual initiative and exertion, and cannot be achieved except by a dint of hard work.   ~ Anna Pavlova

The key is taking responsibility and initiative, deciding what your life is about and prioritizing your life around the most important things.   ~ Stephen Covey

Quotes about initiative

A Lovely Light

You don't have to blow out the other fellow's light to let your own shine.  ~Bernard Baruch

We cannot hold a torch to light another's path without brightening our own.  ~Ben Sweetland

Never fear shadows. They simply mean that there's a light somewhere nearby.  ~Ruth E. Renkei

All I know to do is to light the candle that has been given to me.  ~Fred Rogers

My candle burns at both ends;
It will not last the night;
But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends -
It gives a lovely light--Edna St Vincent Millay

Quotes about light

Anchor in a Storm

No vision and you perish;
No Ideal, and you're lost;
Your heart must ever cherish
Some faith at any cost.
Some hope, some dream to cling to,
Some rainbow in the sky,
Some melody to sing to,
Some service that is high.  ~Harriet Du Autermont

Acts of courage shape human history. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope.  ~Robert F. Kennedy

Don't part company with your ideals. They are anchors in a storm.  ~Arnold Glasgow

The world has always been betrayed by decent men with bad ideals.  ~Sydney J. Harris

To have striven, to have made the effort, to have been true to certain ideals - this alone is worth the struggle.  ~Sir William Osler

Quotes about ideals

My Private Measure

Commitment unlocks the doors of imagination, allows vision, and gives us the "right stuff" to turn our dreams into reality.  ~James Womack

Committing yourself is a way of finding out who you are. A person finds his identity by identifying.  ~Robert Terwilliger

My private measure of success is daily. If this were to be the last day of my life would I be content with it? To live in a harmonious balance of commitments and pleasures is what I strive for.  ~Jane Rule

It takes a deep commitment to change and an even deeper commitment to grow.  ~Ralph Ellison

When work, commitment, and pleasure all become one and you reach that deep well where passion lives, nothing is impossible.  ~Nancy Coey

Quotes about commitment

Surround Us Every Day

We are here to help one another along life’s journey.  ~William J. Bennett

In helping others, we shall help ourselves, for whatever good we give out completes the circle and comes back to us.  ~Flora Edwards

The winner asks, "May I help?" The loser asks, "Do you expect me to do that?"  ~William Arthur Ward

Give of your hands to serve and your hearts to love.  ~Mother Teresa

Great opportunities to help others seldom come, but small ones surround us every day.  ~Sally Koch

Quotes about helping

Join the dance

To stand still is to lose,
To move is to gain,
To change is to grow.  ~Gene E. Megiveron

Change is the end result of all true learning. ~Leo Buscaglia

The power of love and caring can change the world.  ~James Autry

When we are no longer able to change a situation … we are challenged to change ourselves.  ~Victor Frankl

The only way to make sense of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance. ~ Alan W. Watts

Quotes about change

Liberates the Soul

You must give to get; you must sow the seed, before you can reap the harvest.  ~Scott Reed

We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.  ~Norman MacEwen

No one has ever become poor by giving.  ~Anne Frank

If you find that life is flat,
Full of this, with none of that,
Try giving!  ~Margaret Gordon Kuhlman

Giving opens the way for receiving.  ~Florence Scovel Shinn

Among its other benefits, giving liberates the soul of the giver.  ~Maya Angelou

Quotes about giving

Best Nurtured

You cannot be lonely if you like the person you're alone with.  ~Wayne Dyer

What a lovely surprise to discover how unlonely being alone can be.  ~Ellen Burstyn

Women need real moments of solitude and self-reflection to balance out how much of ourselves we give away.  ~Barbara De Angelis

The thoughtful soul to solitude retires.  ~Omar Khayyam

Solitude is as needful to the imagination as society is wholesome for the character.  ~James Russell Lowell

Talents are best nurtured in solitude: character is best formed in the stormy billows of the world.  ~Goethe

Quotes about solitude

Inner Necessity

Sometimes you gotta create what you want to be a part of. ~Geri Weitzman

The principle mark of genius is not perfection but originality, the opening of new frontiers.  ~Arthur Koestler

Only when people are connected to large, universal goals are they really happy - and one result of their happiness is a rush of creative activity.  ~Joyce Carol Oates

Creativity is inventing, experimenting, growing, taking risks, breaking rules, making mistakes, and having fun.  ~Mary Lou Cook

The creation of something new is not accomplished by the intellect but by the play instinct acting from inner necessity. The creative mind plays with the objects it loves.  ~Carl Jung

Quotes about creativity

The Greatest Accomplishment

The doors we open and close each day decide the lives we live.  ~Flora Whittemore

In a moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing to do. The worst thing you can do is nothing.  ~Theodore Roosevelt

Stay committed to your decisions, but stay flexible in your approach.  ~ Tom Robbins

The greatest accomplishment began as a decision once made.  ~Michael Rawls

No trumpets sound when the important decisions of our life are made. Destiny is made known silently.  ~Agnes de Mille

Quotes about decisions

A Little Bit of Each Other

It is not our purpose to become each other; it is to recognize each other, to learn to see the other and honor him for what he is.  ~Hermann Hesse

As we grow as unique persons, we learn to respect the uniqueness of others.  ~Robert H. Schuller

No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of continent, a part of the main.  ~John Donne

We all take different paths in life, but no matter where we go, we take a little of each other everywhere.  ~Tim McGraw

Independence? That's middle class blasphemy. We are all dependent on one another, every soul of us on earth.  ~George Bernard Shaw

Quotes about humanity

The Scales Balance

Quiet minds can't be perplexed or frightened, but go on in fortune or misfortune at their own private pace, like a clock during a thunderstorm.  ~Robert Louis Stevenson

Learn to pause ... or nothing worthwhile will catch up to you.  ~Doug King

So few the grains of happiness
measured against all the dark
and still the scales balance.   ~Jane Hirshfield

When you can't have what you want, it's time to start wanting what you have.  ~Kathleen A. Sutton

Expect the best, plan for the worst, and prepare to be surprised.  ~Denis Waitley

I believe in rainbows and all of that. But there are darker colors … and it's the shade that defines the light.   ~Tori Amos

Quotes about balance

Gives Radiance

Tomorrow lurks in us, the latency to be all that was not achieved before.  ~Loren Eiseley

When any great design thou dost intend,
Think on the means, the manner, and the end.  ~Sir John Denham

Expecting is the greatest impediment to living. In anticipation of tomorrow, it loses today.  ~Seneca

There is one thing which gives radiance to everything. It is the idea of something around the corner.  ~G. K. Chesterton

It takes little talent to see what lies under one's nose, a good deal to know in what direction to point that organ.  ~W.H. Auden

Quotes about foresight

Discover the Treasure

One must think like a hero to behave like a merely decent human being.  ~May Sarton

We are the hero of our own story.  ~Mary McCarthy

We can all be heroes in our virtues, in our homes, in our lives.  ~James Ellis

Who is a hero? He who turns his enemy into a friend.  ~The Talmud

Without heroes, we're all plain people and don't know how far we can go.  ~Bernard Malamud

Heroes take journeys, confront dragons, and discover the treasure of their true selves.  ~Carol Pearson

Quotes about heroes

Where is the Wisdom?

Applicants for wisdom, do what I have done: Inquire within.  ~Heraclitus

I hold those wise who know how to be happy.  ~Ninon de Lenclos

A loving heart is the truest wisdom.  ~Charles Dickens

There is little room left for wisdom when one is full of judgment.  ~Malcolm Hein

Wisdom is nothing more than healed pain.  ~Robert Gary Lee

Nine-tenths of wisdom is appreciation. Go find someone's hand and squeeze it, while there's still time.  ~Dale Dauten

The invariable mark of wisdom is to see the miraculous in the common.  ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Quotes about wisdom

If We Only Knew

All sorrows can be borne if you put them into a story or tell a story about them.  ~Isak Dinesen

Every life comes with a story ... and a possibility for a great adventure.  ~Kobi Yamada

In the book of life we are chapters in one another's stories.   ~unknown

The stories that you tell about your past shape your future.  ~Eric Ransdell

The best teachers are the best storytellers. ~Frank Smith

Is there anyone we wouldn't love if we only knew their story?  ~Mary Lou Kownacki

Quotes about story telling

Even if You Lose

The difference in winning and losing is most often, not quitting.  ~Walt Disney

The next best thing to winning is losing! At least you've been in the race.  ~Nellie Hershey Tullis

Remember, nobody wins unless everybody wins.  ~Bruce Springsteen

Victory is won not in miles but in inches. Win a little now, hold your ground, and later, win a little more.  ~Louis L'Amour

There are victories of the soul and spirit. Sometimes, even if you lose, you win.  ~Elie Wiesel

Quotes about winning

Completes the Circle

He that does good to another does good also to himself.~Seneca

The best portion of a good person's life is his little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and of love.  ~William Wordsworth

No longer forward nor behind
I look in hope or fear;
But, grateful, take the good I find,
The best of now and here.  ~John Greenleaf Whittier

The greatest pleasure I know is to do a good action by stealth and have it found out by accident.  ~Charles Lamb

In helping others, we shall help ourselves, for whatever good we give out completes the circle and comes back to us.  ~Flora Edwards

Quotes about goodness

Too Sweet to Lose

What was any art but a mould in which to imprison for a moment the shining elusive element which is life itself - life hurrying past us and running away, too strong to stop, too sweet to lose. ~ Willa Cather

A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write, if he is to be ultimately at peace with himself.  ~Abraham Maslow

For art is order, but it is born out of the chaos of life.  ~May Sarton

All the arts we practice are apprenticeship. The big art is our life.  ~M. C. Richards

Each of us is an artist of our days; the greater our integrity and awareness, the more original and creative our time will become.  ~John O'Donohue

Quotes about life and art

Continuous Growth

What makes life dreary is the want of a motive.  ~George Eliot

'Tis the motive exalts the action; 'Tis the doing, and not the deed.  ~Margaret Preston

The Light of Lights
Looks always on the motive, not the deed,
The Shadow of Shadows on the deed alone.  ~William Butler Yeats

The soul that has no established aim loses itself.  ~Michel de Montaigne

A feeling of continuous growth is a wonderful source of motivation and self-confidence.  ~Brian Tracey

Quotes about motivation

A Running Stream

Happiness is not a station to arrive at, but a manner of traveling.  ~Margaret Lee Runbeck

The grand essentials of happiness are: something to do, something to love, and something to hope for.  ~Allan K. Chalmers

Growth itself contains the germ of happiness.  ~Pearl S. Buck

Happiness consists in activity. It is a running stream, not a stagnant pool.  ~John Mason Good

Quotes about happiness

The Wick in the Candle

Satisfaction of one's curiosity is one of the greatest sources of happiness in life.  ~Linus Pauling

Curiosity is the wick in the candle of learning.  ~William Arthur Ward

One of the secrets of life is to keep our intellectual curiosity acute.  ~William Lyon Phelps

Be less curious about people and more curious about ideas.  ~Marie Curie

I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious.   ~Albert Einstein

Once we believe in ourselves, we can risk curiosity, wonder, spontaneous delight or any experience that reveals the human spirit.  ~e. e. cummings

Quotes about curiosity

The Best Therapist

The diamond cannot be polished without friction, nor man perfected without trials.  ~Confucius

A clay pot sitting in the sun will always be a clay pot. It has to go though the white heat of the furnace to become porcelain.  ~Mildred White Struven

With any trial and circumstance, a person's true color either shines or darkens.  ~Shannon Walker

Wise are they who have learned these truths: Trouble is temporary. Time is tonic. Tribulation is a test tube.  ~William Arthur Ward

To be tested is good. The challenged life may be the best therapist.  ~Gail Sheehy

Quotes about testing

Create Light

If you would be pungent, be brief; for it is with words as with sunbeams -the more they are condensed, the deeper they burn.  ~Robert Southey

All our words are but crumbs that fall down from the feast of the mind.  ~Kahlil Gibran

But words are things, and a small drop of ink,
Falling like dew, upon a thought, produces
That which makes thousands, perhaps millions, think.  ~George Gordon Byron

For me, words are a form of action, capable of influencing change. Their articulation represents a complete, lived experience.  ~Ingrid Bengis

Words do two major things: they provide food for the mind and create light for understanding and awareness.  ~Jim Rohn

Quotes about words

Guided by its Light

Communication is a continual balancing act, juggling the conflicting needs for intimacy and independence.  ~Deborah Tannen

Increase your personal power through positive and powerful communication. Recognize and eliminate negative self talk.  ~Caterina Rando

Life is worth being lived, but not being discussed all the time.  ~Isabelle Adjani

Too much agreement kills a chat.  ~Eldridge Cleaver

Put it before them briefly so they will read it, clearly so they will appreciate it, picturesquely so they will remember it and, above all, accurately so they will be guided by its light.  ~Joseph Pulitzer

Quotes about communication

The Best in Ourselves

Love what you do. Believe in your instincts. And you'd better be able to pick yourself up and brush yourself off every day.  ~Mario Andretti

Our way is not soft grass; it's a mountain path with lots of rocks. But it goes upwards, forward, toward the sun.  ~Ruth Westheimer

I've always tried to go a step past wherever people expected me to end up.  ~Beverly Sills

Satisfaction lies in the effort, not in the attainment; full effort is full victory.  ~Mahatma Gandhi

When we seek to discover the best in others, we somehow bring out the best in ourselves.  ~William Arthur Ward

Quotes about doing your best

Abundance Mentality

True abundance isn't based on our net worth, but our self-worth. ~ Gabrielle Bernstein

Abundance is, in large part, an attitude. ~ Sue Patton Thoele

An abundance mentality springs from internal security, not from external rankings, comparisons, opinions, possessions, or associations. ~Stephen Covey

I keep the telephone of my mind open to peace, harmony, health, love and abundance. Then whenever doubt, anxiety, or fear try to call me, they keep getting a busy signal and soon they'll forget my number.  ~Edith Armstrong

Your diamonds are not in far distant mountains or in yonder seas; they are in your own backyard, if you but dig for them. ~Russell H. Conwell

Quotes about abundance

Full Life

To the mind that is still, the whole universe surrenders.  ~ Zhuangzi

The western mind is linear, the eastern mind is circular.  ~ Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh

Open your eyes to the beauty around you;
open your mind to the wonders of life;
open your heart to those who love you;
and always be true to yourself.  ~ Donna Davis

Associate reverently, and as much as you can, with your loftiest thoughts.  ~Henry David Thoreau

Every thought is a seed. If you plant crab apples, don't count on harvesting Golden Delicious.   ~Bill Meyer

Live the full life of the mind, exhilarated by new ideas, intoxicated by the romance of the unusual.  ~ Ernest Hemingway

Quotes about the mind

Always There

We have no idea what tomorrow will bring, but today is overflowing with potential.  ~Allan Lokos

Potential is a priceless treasure, like gold. All of us have gold hidden within, but we have to dig to get it out.  ~ Joyce Meyer

Let your imagination release your imprisoned possibilities.  ~Robert H. Schuller

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

You can't take the sky from me.  ~ Joss Wehdon

Quotes about possibilities, potential

Pay 'In Kind'

Wise people count their blessings; fools their problems.  ~unknown

Who does not thank for little will not thank for much.  ~Estonian Proverb

Thanksgiving was never meant to be shut up in a single day.  ~Robert C. Linter

Thanksgiving is a sure index of spiritual health.  ~Maurice Dometz

A thankful heart is not only the greatest virtue, but the parent of all other virtues.  ~Cicero

One can never pay in gratitude; one can pay "in kind" somewhere else in life.  ~Anne Morrow Lindbergh

Quotes about thankfulness (on this Canadian Thanksgiving)

A Little Courage

When love and skill work together, expect a masterpiece.   ~John Ruskin

Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it.  ~ Maya Angelou

The only way to do great work is to love what you do. ~ Steve Jobs

There is a fountain of youth: it is your mind, your talents, the creativity you bring to your life, and the lives of people you love.  ~ Sophia Loren

A great deal of talent is lost to the world for the want of a little courage.  ~ Sydney Smith

Quotes about talents and skill

Shared Values

Your attitude is an expression of your values, beliefs and expectations.  ~Brian Tracey

The only thing of value we can give kids is what we are, not what we have.  ~Leo Buscaglia

Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value.  ~Albert Einstein

There can be no high civility without a deep morality.  ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Tough times expose shared values.  ~John Haas

Quotes about values

Makes you a Winner

You can get all A's and flunk life.  ~Walker Percy

Welcome to reality! Our time is limited. We might as well get on with it; so why not choose now to live the life of our dreams?  ~Seth David Chernoff

Reality is something you rise above.  ~Liza Minnelli

The true purpose is to see things as they are, to observe things as they are, and to let everything go as it goes.  ~Shunryu Suzuki

Too many people miss the silver lining because they're expecting gold.  ~Maurice Setter

Reality is a product of our dreams, decisions and actions, you have to believe in yourself when no one else does. That makes you a winner right there.  ~Venus Williams

Quotes about realism

Right Results

Let us realize that:
the privilege to work is a gift,
the power to work is a blessing,
the love of work is success!  ~David O. McKay

A man who gives his children habits of industry provides for them better than by giving them fortune.  ~Richard Whately

The highest reward for a person's toil is not what he gets for it but what he becomes by it.  ~John Ruskin

I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work the more I live. I rejoice in life for its own sake.  ~George Bernard Shaw

Far and away the best prize that life has to offer is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.  ~Theodore Roosevelt

Work joyfully and peacefully, knowing that right thoughts and right efforts will inevitably bring about right results.  ~James Allen

Quotes about work

Our Splendid Failure

Every life comes with a story ... and a possibility for a great adventure.  ~Kobi Yamada

Without leaps of imagination, or dreaming, we lose the excitement of possibilities. Dreaming, after all, is a form of planning.  ~Gloria Steinem

The possibilities are numerous once we decide to act and not react.  ~Gloria Anzaldua

The future belongs to people who see possibilities before they become obvious.  ~Ted Levitt

All of us failed to match our dreams of perfection. So I rate us on the basis of our splendid failure to do the impossible.  ~William Faulkner

Quotes about possibilities

To be Experienced

The best way to escape from a problem is to solve it.  ~Brendan Francis

Don't find fault, find a remedy.  ~Henry Ford

Problems are only opportunities in work clothes.  ~Henry J. Kaiser

For every complex problem, there is a solution that is simple, neat, and wrong,  ~H.L. Mencken

If I had sixty minutes to solve a problem, I'd spend 55 minutes defining it, and 5 minutes solving it.  ~ Albert Einstein

Too often we give our children answers to remember rather than problems to solve.  ~Roger Lewin

Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced.  ~ Soren Kierkegaard

Quotes about problem solving

Your Playground

To the art of working well a civilized race would add the art of playing well.  ~George Santayana

Every time I see an adult on a bicycle, I no longer despair for the future of the human race.  ~H. G. Wells

Whenever you trace the origin of a skill or practice which played a crucial role in the ascent of man, we usually reach the realm of play.  ~Eric Hoffer

It is paradoxical that many educators and parents still differentiate between a time for learning and a time for play without seeing the vital connection between them.  ~Leo Buscaglia

Each day, and the living of it, has to be a conscious creation in which discipline and order are relieved with some play and some pure foolishness.  ~May Sarton

The world is your playground. Why aren't you playing?  ~Ellie Katz

Quotes about play

Fine Mingling

Some of us think holding on makes us strong, but sometimes it is letting go.  ~Herman Hesse

Forgiveness means letting go of the past.  ~Gerald Jampolsky

All the art of living lies in a fine mingling of letting go and holding on.  ~Havelock Ellis

To let go is to release the images and emotions, the grudges and fears, the clingings and disappointments of the past that bind our spirit.  ~Jack Kornfield
  

Open your arms to change, but don’t let go of your values.  ~Dalai Lama

Quotes about letting go

Becoming More

It is our responsibilities, not ourselves, that we should take seriously.  ~Peter Ustinov

I take care of myself, because I learned early on that I am the only person in life who's responsible for me.  ~Halle Berry

Responsibility is the most important ability that a person can possess.  ~John Maxwell

My philosophy is that not only are you responsible for your life, but doing the best at this moment puts you in the best place for the next moment.  ~Oprah Winfrey

Life is a gift, and it offers us the privilege, opportunity, and responsibility to give something back by becoming more.  ~Anthony Robbins

Quotes about responsibility

Nothing else

Every accomplishment starts with the decision to try.  ~unknown

In the end, the only people who fail are those who do not try.  ~David Viscott

Most people live and die with their music still unplayed. They never dare to try.  ~Mary Kay Ash

Make voyages. Attempt them. There's nothing else.  ~Tennessee Williams

To have striven, to have made the effort, to have been true to certain ideals - this alone is worth the struggle.  ~Sir William Osler

Quotes about trying

A Fire from Within

May every sunrise hold more promise, and every sunset hold more peace.  ~ blessing

Success is not final, failure is not fatal; it is the courage to continue that counts.  ~ Winston Churchill

The greatest motivational act one person can do for another is to listen. ~Roy E. Moody

The simple act of paying attention can take you a long way. ~Keanu Reeves

Live your truth. Express your love. Share your enthusiasm. Take action towards your dreams. Walk your talk. Dance and sing to your music. Embrace your blessings. Make today worth remembering. ~ Steve Maraboli

Quotes about motivation

Building Us

Fear less, hope more; eat less, chew more; whine less, breathe more; talk less, say more; love more, and all good things will be yours.  ~ Swedish proverb

Good things happen to those who hustle.  ~ Anais Nin

Good order is the foundation of all good things.  ~ Edmund Burke

The best way to not feel hopeless is to get up and do something. Don’t wait for good things to happen to you. If you go out and make some good things happen, you will fill the world with hope, you will fill yourself with hope.  ~ Barack Obama

Whatever good things we build, end up building us.  ~ Jim Rohn

Quotes about good things

Swerve from your Path

Always meet petulance with gentleness and perverseness with kindness. A gentle hand can lead even an elephant by a hair. Reply to thine enemy with gentleness.  ~Zoroaster

As perfume to the flower, so is kindness to speech. ~Katherine Francke

The best portion of a good person's life is the little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and of love. ~William Wordsworth

A gentle word, a kind look, a good-natured smile can work wonders and accomplish miracles. ~William Hazlitt

If you stop to be kind, you must swerve often from your path. ~Mary Webb

Quotes about kindness

Go Along

If you want to get along, go along. ~ Sam Rayburn

The most important single ingredient in the formula of success is knowing how to get along with people. ~ Theodore Roosevelt

We rise by lifting others.  ~ Robert Ingersoll

A peron's a person no matter how small. ~ Dr. Seuss

People fail to get along because they fear each other; they fear each other because they don’t know each other; they don’t know each other because they have not communicated with each other. ~ Martin Luther King

Quotes about getting along

Sprinkled around Us

There are no seven wonders of the world in the eyes of a child. There are seven million.  ~Walt Streightiff

Be aware of wonder. Live a balanced life; learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some.  ~Robert Fulghum

The grand show is eternal. It is always sunrise somewhere; the dew is never dried all at once; a shower is forever falling; vapor is ever rising. Eternal sunrise, eternal dawn and gloaming, on sea and continents and islands, each in its turn, as the round earth rolls.  ~John Muir

Everything has its wonders, even darkness and silence, and I learn, whatever state I may be in, therein to be content.  ~Helen Keller

In every single moment there is significance. Wonder is sprinkled all around us.  ~Flavia Weedn

Quotes about wonder

Strong to Live

Outside show is a poor substitute for inner worth. ~Aesop

Character develops itself in the stream of life. ~Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Wealth stays with us a little moment if at all: only our characters are steadfast, not our gold. ~Euripides

Everyone tries to define this thing called Character. It's not hard. Character is doing what's right when nobody's looking. ~J.C. Watts

Reputation is what you have when you come to a new community; character is what you have when you go away. ~William Hersey Davis

Character is higher than intellect. A great soul will be strong to live as well as think. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

The law of the harvest is to reap more than you sow. Sow an act...reap a habit. Sow a habit ... reap a character. Sow a character ... reap a destiny. ~George D. Boardman

Quotes about character

Give It Away

The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience. ~ Eleanor Roosevelt

The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Many persons have a wrong idea of what constitutes true happiness. It is not attained through self-gratification but through fidelity to a worthy purpose. ~ Helen Keller

The purpose of life is to contribute in some way to making things better. ~ Robert F. Kennedy

The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away. ~ Pablo Picasso

Quotes about purpose in life

Your Motivation

Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery.  And today?  Today is a gift.  That's why we call it the present.  ~ B. Olatunji

Look not mournfully into the past. It comes not back again. Wisely improve the present. It is thine. Go forth to meet the shadowy future, without fear. ~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Happiness is not something you postpone for the future; it is something you design for the present.  ~ Jim Rohn

The past, the present, and the future walked into a bar.  It was tense.  ~ unknown

The past is your lesson.  The present is your gift.  The future is your motivation.  ~ unknown

Quotes about past, present, and future.

The Ultimate Sophistication

For every minute spent in organizing, an hour is earned. ~ Benjamin Franklin

Good order is the foundation of all things. ~ Edmund Burke

Organize; don't agonize. ~ Nancy Pelosi

Organizing is what you do before you do something, so that when you do it, it is not all mixed up. ~ A.A. Milne

The Zen of Organizing philosophy refers to the creation of a calm, peace-filled, and joyous environment.  ~ Regina Leeds

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. ~ Leonardo DaVinci

Quotes about organizing

Kindle a Light

Man- a being in search of meaning.  ~ Plato

Every human being is a problem in search of a solution.  ~ Ashley Montagu

Man is the only animal for who his own existence is a problem which he has to solve.   ~ Erich Fromm

Man is the only creature who refuses to be what he is.   ~ Albert Camus

As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light in the darkness of mere being.  ~Carl Jung

Quotes about humanity

Something Imperfect

Perfection is the death of possibilities.  ~ Mary Kay Hamm

Perfection is highly overrated. Real learning and growth come with imperfection.  ~ Felicia Watlington

I’m careful not to confuse excellence with perfection. Excellence I can strive for; perfection is God’s business. ~ Michael J. Fox

The maxim ‘Nothing but perfection’ may be spelled ‘Paralysis.’  ~ Winston Churchill

Better to do something imperfectly than to do nothing flawlessly.  ~ Robert H. Schuller 

Quotes  about perfection

Between You and Life

Clutter-clearing is modern day alchemy.   ~ Denise Linn

Bottom line is, if you do not use it or need it, it's clutter, and it needs to go.   ~Charisse Ward

Out of clutter, find simplicity. From discord, find harmony.   ~ Albert Einstein

Clutter is not just the stuff on your floor- it's anything that stands between you and the life you want to be living.   ~ Peter Walsh

When you have cleared all of your clutter, you can be of greater service to those around you.   ~Michael B. Kitson

Quotes about clutter

In the Making

You hit home runs not by chance but by preparation. ~ Roger Maris

Before anything else, preparation is the key to success. ~ Alexander Graham Bell

The will to win is worthless if you do not have the will to prepare.  ~Thane Yost

None of us becomes something overnight. The preparations have been in the making for a lifetime. ~ Gail Godwin

The first forty years of life give us the text; the next thirty supply the commentary on it. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer

Quotes about preparation

The Birds of Hope

Hope begins in the dark, the stubborn hope that if you just show up and try to do the right thing, the dawn will come.  ~Anne Lamott

Hope is that thing with feathers that perches in the soul and sings the tune without the words and never stops… at all.   ~ Emily Dickinson

Grace is all around us, not just in the hopeful future but in the miracle of now.  ~Richard Paul Evans

Hope is like a road in the country; there was never a road, but when many people walk on it, the road comes into existence.  ~Lin Yutang

The birds of hope are everywhere; listen to them sing.  ~Terri Guillemets

Quotes about hope

Far more Potent

True strength lies in gentleness.  ~ Irish proverb

Only the weak are cruel. Gentleness can only be expected from the strong.  ~ Leo Buscaglia

I choose gentleness... Nothing is won by force. I choose to be gentle. If I raise my voice may it be only in praise. If I clench my fist, may it be only in prayer. If I make a demand, may it be only of myself.  ~ Max Lucado

In a gentle way you can shake the world.  ~ Gandhi

Oh! that gentleness! how far more potent is it than force!   ~ Charlotte Bronte

Quotes about gentleness

Make Each Day Count

Blessed is he who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed.  ~ Alexander Pope

Try not to have any expectations.  In this way everything will open to you.  ~ unknown

High expectations are the key to everything.  ~ Sam Walton

The secret of happiness is low expectations.  ~ Barry Schwartz

Our environment, the world in which we live and work, is a mirror of our attitudes and expectations.  ~ Earl Nightingale

Make each day count by setting specific goals to succeed, then putting forth every effort to succeed your own expectations.  ~ Les Brown

Quotes about expectations

A Shady Tree

The world belongs to the Enthusiast who keeps cool.  ~ William Mcfee

Keep cool; anger is not an argument.  ~ Daniel Webster

Remain calm in every situation because peace equals power.  ~ Joyce Meyer

There is a calmness to a life lived in gratitude, a quiet joy.  ~ Ralph H. Blum

A person of calm is like a shady tree.  People who need shelter come to it.  ~ Toba Beta

Quotes  about calmness

On My Way

Be not afraid of going slowly; be afraid only of standing still.  ~ Chinese proverb

I am a slow walker, but I never walk back.  ~ Abraham Lincoln

I don't know where I am going, but I am on my way.   ~ Carl Sandburg

If it is to be,
It is up to me.  ~ unknown

If there is no struggle, there is no progress.  ~ Frederick Douglass

Behold the turtle; he makes progress only when he sticks his neck out.  ~ James Bryant Conant

Quotes about personal progress

Grasp Life

The journey is the reward.   ~ Chinese proverb

The end is not the reward; the path you take, the emotions that course through you as you grasp life - that is the reward.   ~ Jamie Magee

The reward is in the risk.  ~ Rachel Cohn

The reward of a thing well done is to have done it.   ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

We will receive not what we idly wish for but what we justly earn. Our rewards will always be in exact proportion to our service.  ~Earl Nightingale

Quotes about rewards

More Fulfilling

This above all:
To thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.   ~Hamlet, Shakespeare

The authentic self is soul made visible.   ~Sarah Ban Breathnach

Best keep yourself clean and bright; you are the window through which you see the world.  ~George Bernard Shaw

Only the truth of who you are, if realized, will set you free.   ~Eckhart Tolle

I can be a better me than anyone can.   ~ Diana Ross

Being right doesn't make us safe or happy. It is more fulfilling to aim for authenticity and transparency.   ~ Donna M. Thomas

Quotes about genuineness, authenticity

Why Not Me?

Tiger got to hunt, bird got to fly;
Man got to sit and wonder 'why, why, why?'
Tiger got to sleep, bird got to land;
Man got to tell himself he understand.  ~Kurt Vonnegut

I don't know why we are here, but I'm pretty sure that it is not in order to enjoy ourselves.   ~Ludwig Wittgenstein

He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.  ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

In terms of doing things I take a fairly scientific approach to why things happen and how they happen. I don't know if there's a god or not...   ~Bill Gates

There is always the question why
And there is always life,
Which doesn't need an answer.   ~Dejan Stojanovic

For true success ask yourself these four questions: Why? Why not? Why not me? Why not now?   ~ James Allen

Quotes about why

The Furnace of Achievement

Reach high, for stars lie hidden in your soul. Dream deep, for every dream precedes the goal. ~Pamela Vaull Starr

A dream is just a dream.  A goal is a dream with a plan and a deadline.  ~ Harvey Mackay

Goals are the fuel in the furnace of achievement.  ~ Brian Tracey

Most people would succeed in small things if they were not troubled with great ambitions.  ~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Arriving at one goal is the starting point to another.  ~ John Dewey

Quotes about reaching goals

White Heat

Sometimes there's not a better way. Sometimes there's only the hard way.   ~ Mary E. Pearson

No matter how much falls on us, we keep plowing ahead. That's the only way to keep the roads clear.   ~ Greg Kincaid

Stamina is the force that drives the drumming; it's not really a sprint.   ~ Neal Peart

A clay pot sitting in the sun will always be a clay pot. It has to go through the white heat of the furnace to become porcelain.  ~ Mildred Stouven

What destiny sends, bear! Whoever perseveres will be crowned.  ~ Johann Gottfried Herder

Endurance is not just the ability to bear a hard thing, but to turn it into glory.   ~ William Barclay

Quotes about endurance, stamina

The Love of Life

It's always the challenge of the future, the feeling of excitement, what drives me.  ~ Yoshihisa Tabuchi

Flaming enthusiasm, backed up by horse sense and persistence, is the quality that most frequently makes for success.  ~ Dale Carnegie

Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.  ~ Ralph Waldo  Emerson

It's faith in something and enthusiasm for something that makes a life.  ~ Oliver Wendell Holmes

The love of life is necessary to the vigorous prosecution of any undertaking.  ~ Samuel Johnson

Quotes about enthusiasm for life

Travelling toward Light

I thought the most beautiful thing in the world must be shadow.  ~ Sylvia Plath

Some people seem to get all sunshine, and some all shadow…  ~ Louisa May Alcott

There is strong shadow where there is much light.  ~ Goethe

Fancies are like shadows...you can't cage them, they're such wayward, dancing things.  ~ L. M. Montgomery

When walking through the valley of shadows, remember a shadow is cast by a Light.  ~ Austin O'Malley

I wear my shadows where they're harder to see, but they follow me everywhere. I guess that should tell me I'm travelling toward light.  ~ Bruce Cockburn

Quotes about shadows

Leave it alone

I learned never to empty the well of my writing, but always to stop when there was still something there in the deep part of the well, and let it refill at night from the springs that fed it.  ~ Ernest Hemingway

The poet is at the disposal of the night. His role is humble, he must clean house and await its due visitation.  ~ Jean Cocteau

One should never impose one’s views on a problem; one should rather study it, and in time a solution will reveal itself.  ~ Albert Einstein

Reverie is when ideas float in our mind without reflection or regard of the understanding.  ~ John Locke

I waited for the idea to consolidate, for the grouping and composition of themes to consolidate and settle themselves in my brain.  ~ Claude Monet

Muddy water is best cleared by leaving it alone.  ~ Alan Watts

Quotes about incubation, creativity

Uncommon Results

TEAM: Together Everyone Achieves More.  ~ unknown

Teamwork makes the dream work.  ~ Bang Gae

Teamwork: simply stated, it is less me and more we.  ~ unknown

Teamwork is the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results.  ~ Andrew Carnegie

Gettin' good players is easy.  Gettin' em to play together is the hard part.  ~ Casey Stengel

No member of a crew is praised for the rugged individuality of his rowing.  ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Quotes about teamwork

There's your Treasure

Was it you or I who stumbled first? It does not matter. The one of us who finds the strength to get up first, must help the other. ~ Vera Nazarian

Remember we all stumble, everyone of us. That's why it's a comfort to go hand-in-hand. ~ Emily Kimbrough

I believe God lets us stumble along, slowly finding our way, and giving us chances to pick each other up. ~ Anna White

In the end it all comes to choices to turn stumbling blocks into stepping stones. ~ Amber Frey

Where you stumble, there your treasure lies.  ~Joseph Campbell

Quotes about stumbling

A Little Voice

Courage is being afraid but going on anyhow.  ~ Dan Rather

Courage is the power to let go of the familiar.  ~ Raymond Lindquist

Courage is fear holding on a minute longer.  ~ George Smith Patton

We must build dikes of courage to hold back the flood of fear.  ~ Martin Luther King Jr.

Courage doesn't always roar.  Sometimes courage is the little voice at the end of the day that says I'll try again tomorrow.  ~ Mary Anne Radmacher

Quotes about courage

Made some Marmalade

I am not  afraid of storms for I am learning how to sail my ship.  ~Louisa May Alcott

There are few monsters who warrant the fear we have of them.  ~ Andre Gide

When there is no enemy within, the enemies outside cannot hurt you.  ~ African proverb

I got the blues thinking of the future, so I left off and made some marmalade.  It's amazing how it cheers one up to shred oranges and scrub the floor.  ~ D. H. Lawrence

If you surrender to the wind, you can ride it.  ~ Toni Morrison

Quotes about overcoming fears

A Stepping Stone

Find a place where there is joy and the joy will burn out the pain.   ~ Joseph Campbell

Use pain as a stepping stone, not a camp ground.  ~Alan Cohen

Your pain is an opportunity for you to learn about yourself.   ~ Gary Zukav

Be patient and tough; some day this pain will be useful to you.  ~ Ovid

Behind every beautiful thing, there's some kind of pain.  ~ Bob Dylan

Pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our consciences, but shouts in our pains. It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.  ~ C. S. Lewis

Quotes about pain

Emotional Awareness

What really matters for success, character, happiness and life long achievements is a definite set of emotional skills – your EQ — not just purely cognitive abilities...   ~Daniel Goleman

It is very important to understand that emotional intelligence is not the opposite of intelligence, it is not the triumph of heart over head — it is the unique intersection of both.  ~David Caruso

Emotional intelligence is the ability to sense, understand, and effectively apply the power and acumen of emotions as a source of human energy, information, connection, and influence.  ~Robert K. Cooper. 

When awareness is brought to an emotion, power is brought to your life.  ~Tara Meyer Robson

Quotes about emotional intelligence

Igniting the Circuits

It's never too late to be who you might have been.  ~ George Eliot

It's not enough just to have potential.  You also need to know what to do with it.  ~ Susan Gale

Sometimes success is due less to ability than zeal.  The winner is he who gives himself to his work, body and soul.  ~  Charles Buxton

There comes that mysterious meeting in life when someone acknowledges who we are and what we can be, igniting the circuits of our highest potential.  ~ Rusty Berkus 

Thought is the sculptor who can create the person you want to be.  ~ Henry David Thoreau

Quotes about potential

A Wordless Song

It's not the length of life, but the depth of life. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

If you think you can grasp me, think again: my story flows in more than one direction, a delta springing from the river bed with its five fingers spread. ~ Adrienne Rich

I love thee to the depth and breadth and height my soul can reach. ~ Elizabeth Barrett Browning

In the depth of winter I finally learned that there was in me an invincible summer. ~ Albert Camus

In the depth of my soul there is a wordless song. ~ Kahlil Gibran

Quotes about depth

Be the One

Be the one who nurtures and builds. Be the one who has an understanding and a forgiving heart, one who looks for the best in people.  Leave people better than you found them. ~ Marvin J. Ashton

The few things that work fantastically well should be identified, cultivated, nurtured, and multiplied. ~ Richard Koch

A dream doesn't die because it has no truth. It dies because you fail to nurture it. ~Susie Clevenger

While human nature largely determines how we hear the notes, it is nurture that lets us hear the music. ~ Jonah Lehrer

Quotes about nurture

Holding On

Memory is a way of holding on to the things you love, the things you are, the things you never want to lose.  ~Kevin Arnold

We do not remember days; we remember moments.  ~ Cesare Pavese

There are lots of people who mistake their imagination for their memory.  ~ Josh Billings

Memory is the diary that we all carry about with us.  ~ Oscar Wilde

It's surprising how much memory is built around things unnoticed at the time.  ~ Barbara Kingsolver

Quotes about memory

The Most Sublime Act

In this world it is not what we take up, but what we give up, that makes us rich.  ~ Henry Ward Beecher

Nothing so much enhances a good as to make sacrifices for it.  ~ George Santayana

Sacrifice is a part of life.  It's not something to regret.  It's something to aspire to.  ~ Mitch Albom

The most sublime act is to set another before you.  ~ William Blake

Once there was a tree, and she loved a little boy...  ~ Shel Silverstein, The Giving Tree

Quotes about sacrifice

Strength and Growth

The most important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle. The essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well.   ~Pierre de Courbertin

Art allows people a way to dream their way out of their struggle. ~ Russell Simmons

Writing is a struggle against silence.  ~ Carlos Fuentes

Strength and growth come only through continuous effort and struggle.  ~ Napoleon Hill

But the struggles make you stronger and the changes make you wise...And happiness has its own way of taking its sweet time.  ~ Gary Allen

Quotes about struggle

Who You Are

Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.  ~Viktor E. Frankl

What we call the secret of happiness is no more a secret than our willingness to choose life.  ~ Leo Buscaglia

Today I choose life. Every morning when I wake up I can choose joy, happiness, negativity, pain... To feel the freedom that comes from being able to continue to make mistakes and choices - today I choose to feel life, not to deny my humanity but embrace it.  ~ Kevyn Aucoin

To live is to choose. But to choose well, you must know who you are and what you stand for, where you want to go, and why you want to get there.  ~ Kofi Annan

Quotes about choosing life

Our Natural Capacity

What worries you masters you.   ~Haddon Robinson

Worrying is like sitting in a rocking chair. It gives you something to do, but it doesn't get you anywhere.    ~ English proverb

Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow; it empties today of its strength.   ~Leo Buscaglia

Worry ducks when purpose flies overhead.   ~Terri Guillemets

Meditation can help us embrace our worries, our fear, our anger; and that is very healing. We let our natural capacity of healing do the work.  ~ Thich Nhat Hanh

Quotes about worries

Set off Sparks

Each of us has a spark of life inside us, and our highest endeavor ought to be to set off that spark in one another.   ~Kenny Ausubel

Oh what is life, if we must hold it thus as wind-blown sparks hold momentary fire?  ~ Ada Cambridge

Our highest endeavor must be to develop free human beings who are able of themselves to impart purpose and direction to their lives. The need for imagination, a sense of truth, and a feeling of responsibility—these three forces are the very nerve of education.  ~Rudolf Steiner

Daylight in the Mind

I have always felt that laughter in the face of reality is probably the finest sound there is and will last until the day when the game is called on account of darkness. In this world, a good time to laugh is any time you can.   ~Linda Ellerbee

I will follow the upward road today; I will keep my face to the light. I will think high thoughts as I go my way; I will do what I know is right. I will look for the flowers by the side of the road; I will laugh and love and be strong. I will try to lighten another’s load this day as I fare along.   ~Mary S. Edgar

Mirth is like a flash of lightning that breaks through a gloom of clouds and glitter for the moment. Cheerfulness keeps up a daylight in the mind, filling it with steady and perpetual serenity.   ~Samuel Johnson

Quotes about laughter

Love Cures

I wonder how many people I have looked at all my life and never seen.  ~John Steinbeck

How people treat you is their karma; how you react is yours.   ~Wayne W. Dyer

People need loving the most when they deserve it the least.   ~John Harrigan

Love cures people- both the ones who give it and the ones who receive it.  ~Karl A. Menninger

Quotes about people

Take off your Shoes

Each morning when I open my eyes I say to myself; I, not events, have the power to make me happy or unhappy today. I can choose which it shall be. Yesterday is dead, tomorrow hasn’t arrived yet. I have just one day, today, and I’m going to be happy in it.  ~ Groucho Marx

This is the real secret of life ― to be completely engaged with what you are doing in the here and now. And instead of calling it work, realize it is play.  ~Alan Wilson Watts

Earth’s crammed with heaven… But only he who sees, takes off his shoes.  ~Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Quotes about mindfulness

A Healthy Combination

The precision of naming takes away from the uniqueness of seeing.  ~ Pierre Bonnard

Be precise.  A lack of precision is dangerous when the margin of error is small.  ~ Donald Rumsfeld

Everything is vague to a degree you do not realize until you have tried to make it precise.  ~ Bertrand Russell

The most important rule is to formulate, clearly and precisely, the goal to be reached, and then to retain it unswervingly in mind.  ~ Roberto Assagiolli 

See if you can approach life with a healthy combination of mindfulness, playfulness, precision, and curiosity.  ~  Cyndi Lee

Quotes about precision

You Can Ride It

Surrender to what is.
Let go of what was.
Have faith in what will be.  ~ Sonia Ricotti

I will surrender to the moment today.  ~Karen Casey

Change is the essence of life.  Be willing to surrender what you are for what you could become.  ~ Reinhold Niebuhr

Love conquers all things; let us surrender to love.  ~ Virgil

If you surrender to the wind, you can ride it.  ~ Toni Morrison

Quotes about surrender