Rolling Up Your Sleeves

Life without idealism is empty indeed.  We just hope or starve to death.  ~ Pearl S. Buck

Idealism is the noble toga that political gentlemen drape over their will to power.  ~ Aldous Huxley

Words without actions are the assassins of idealism.  ~ Herbert Hoover

That glorious vision of doing good is so often the sanguine mirage of so many good minds.  ~ Charles Dickens

We are inclined to judge ourselves by our ideals; others, by their actions.  ~ Harold Nicolson

Idealism detached from action is just a dream.  But idealism allied with pragmatism, with rolling up your sleeves and making the world bend a bit, is very exciting.  It's very real.  It's very strong.  ~ Bono

Quotes about ideals, idealism

The Treasure you Seek

Thinking will not overcome fear but action will.  ~ W. Clement Stone

Fear is a darkroom where negatives develop.  ~ Usman B. Asif

Fear makes us feel our humanity.  ~ Benjamin Disraeli

That man is prudent who neither hopes nor fears anything from the uncertain events of the future.  ~ Anatole France 

Nothing in life is to be feared.  It is to be understood.  ~ Marie Curie 

The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek.  ~ Joseph Campbell

Quotes about fear

The Sturdiest Tree

Resilience is accepting your new reality, even if it's less good than the one you had before.  ~ Elizabeth Edwards

My life was my life; I would have to stare it down, somehow, and make it work for me.  ~ Paula McLain

Bless are the hearts that can bend, for they can never be broken.  ~ Albert Camus

I can be changed by what happens to me, but I refuse to be reduced by it.  ~ Maya Angelou

Sometimes resilience arrives in the moment you discover your own unshakeable goodness.  ~ Gregory Boyle

The greatest glory in living
lies not in never falling,
but in rising every time we fall.  ~ Nelson Mandela

The sturdiest tree is not found in the shelter of the forest but high upon some rocky crag, where its daily battle with the elements shapes it into a thing of beauty.  ~ unknown

Quotes about resilience

Those Who Bring Sunshine

We are what we believe we are.  ~ C. S. Lewis

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

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

We see the brightness of a new page where everything yet can happen.  ~ Rainer Maria Rilke

Those who bring sunshine to the lives of others cannot keep it from themselves.  ~ James Matthew Barrie

Quotes about bright, brightness in life

Magic in It

Every day do something that will inch you closer to a better tomorrow.  ~ Doug Firebaugh

Doing what needs to be done may not make you happy, but it will make you great.  ~ George Bernard Shaw

What one does is what counts. Not what one had the intention of doing.  ~ Pablo Picasso

Do what you love and you will find the way to get it out to the world.  ~ Judy Collins

Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it.  Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.  ~ Goethe

Quotes about doing

By Three Methods

You know my method. It is founded upon the observation of trifles.  ~ Arthur Conan Doyle 

Be firm on principle but flexible in method.  ~ Zig Ziglar

The true method of knowledge is experiment.  ~ William Blake

Take a method and try it.  If it fails, admit it frankly and try another.  But, above all, try something.  ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt  

My method is to take the utmost trouble to find the right thing to say, and then to say it with the utmost levity.  ~ George Bernard Shaw

Man must evolve for all human conflict, a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation.  The foundation of such a method is love.  ~ Martin Luther King Jr.

By three methods we may learn wisdom: first by reflection which is the noblest, second by imitation which is the easiest, and third by experience which is the bitterest.  ~ Confucius

Quotes about methods

To Push for What we Need

I have learned to seek my happiness by limiting my desires, rather than by attempting to satisfy them.  ~ John Stuart Mill

A life directed chiefly towards the fulfillment of personal desires sooner or later always leads to bitter disappointment.   ~ Albert Einstein

Manifest plainness, embrace simplicity, reduce selfishness, have few desires.  ~ Lao Tzu

Every man is rich or poor in proportion between his desires and his enjoyments.  ~ Samuel Johnson

Boredom:  the desire for desires.  ~ Leo Tolstoy

Needs cause motivation.  Deep-rooted desires for esteem, affection, belonging, achievement, self-actualization, power, and control motivate us to push for what we want and need in our lives.  ~ Lorii Myers

Quotes about desires

Live By Them

Appreciation is a wonderful thing. It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well.  ~ Voltaire

Next to excellence is the appreciation of it.  ~ William Thackeray

Hopeful thinking can get you out of the fear zone and into your appreciation zone.  ~ Martha Beck

Trade your expectation for appreciation and the world changes instantly.  ~ Tony Robbins

As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.   ~John Fitzgerald Kennedy

Quotes about appreciation

Things that Matter

Enjoy the little things for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.  ~ Robert Brault

In the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter, and sharing of pleasures.  For in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed.  ~ Kahlil Gibran

In the end these things matter most: How well did you love? How fully did you live? How deeply did you let go?  ~ Jack Kornfield

Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.  ~ Martin Luther King Jr. 

Things that matter most must never be at the mercy of things that matter least.  ~ Goethe

Quotes about things that matter

Sunbeam of the Soul

Order and simplification are the first steps toward mastery of a subject.

Speech is civilization itself.  

Art is the funnel, as it were, through which spirit is poured into life.

Distance in a straight line has no mystery. The mystery is in the sphere.

Laughter is a sunbeam of the soul.

Quotes by Thomas Mann

The Desire to Go Forward

Be willing to take the first step, no matter how small it is.  Concentrate on the fact that you are willing to learn.  Absolute miracles will happen.  ~ Louise Hay

The first step toward success is taken when you refuse to be a captive of the environment in which you find yourself.  ~ Mark Caine

The first step in the evolution of ethics is a sense of solidarity with other human beings.  ~ Albert Schweitzer

Faith is taking the first step, even when you don't see the whole staircase.  ~ Martin Luther King Jr.

But you can build a future out of anything. A scrap, a flicker. The desire to go forward, slowly, one foot at a time.  ~ Lauren Oliver

Quotes about taking the first step

Something to Believe In

We are each other's harvest; we are each other's business; we are each other's magnitude and bond.  ~ Gwendolyn Brooks

We were born to unite with our fellow men, and to join in community with the human race.  ~ Cicero

We have all known the long loneliness and we have learned that the only solution is love and that love comes with community.  ~  Dorothy Day

We cannot live only for ourselves.  A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow man.  ~ Herman Melville

I want to work for a company that contributes to and is part of the community.  I want something not just to invest in.  I want something to believe in.  ~ Anita Roddick

Quotes about community

Coaxed Downstairs

When you change your habits, you change your life.  ~ Gretchen Rubin

Ill habits gather by unseen degrees-
As brooks make rivers, rivers run to seas.  ~ John Dryden

Habit is habit, and not to be flung out of the window by any man, but coaxed downstairs a step at a time.  ~ Mark Twain

Habits are at first cobwebs, then cables. ~ Spanish proverb

Good habits are worth being fanatical about.  ~ John Irving

Men's natures are alike; it is their habits that separate them.  ~ Confucius

Quotes about habits

Nourish your Courage

Mistakes are the portals of discovery.  ~ James Joyce

The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing.   ~John Powell

Experience is the name everyone gives to their mistakes.   ~Oscar Wilde

Success seems to be connected with action. Successful people keep moving. They make mistakes, but they don't quit.   ~Conrad Hilton

Take chances, make mistakes. That's how you grow. Pain nourishes your courage. You have to fail in order to practice being brave.   ~Mary Tyler Moore

Quotes about mistakes

Creative Force

We were meant to be masters of destiny, not victims of fate.  ~ Ronald Reagan 

Destiny is not a matter of chance; it is a matter of choice. It is not a thing to be waited for; it is a thing to be achieved.  ~ William Jennings Bryan

The greatest use of life is to spend it for something that will outlast it.  ~ William James

Strong lives are motivated by dynamic purposes.  ~ Kenneth Hildebrand

Find a purpose in life so big it will challenge every capacity to be at your best.  ~ David McKay

Thought allied fearlessly to purpose becomes creative force.  ~ James Allen

Quotes about destiny and purpose

Only to be Understood

Inaction breeds doubt and fear.  Actions breeds confidence and courage.  If you want to conquer fear, do not sit at home and think of it.  Go out and get busy.  ~ Dale Carnegie

There is no illusion greater than fear.  ~ Lao Tzu

To escape fear, you have to go though it, not around.  ~ Richie Norton

Thinking will not overcome fear, but action will.  ~ W. Clement Stone

Fear is only as deep as the mind allows.  ~ Japanese proverb

Nothing in life is to be feared.  It is only to be understood.  ~ Marie Curie

Quotes about overcoming fear

Clean and Bright

Life is your art. An open, aware heart is your camera. A oneness with your world is your film.   ~Ansel Adams

Let us not look back in anger or forward in fear, but around in awareness.  ~ James Thurber

Rather than being your thoughts and emotions, be the awareness behind them.  ~ Eckhart Tolle

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

Quotes about life and perspective

A Funny Thing about Life

Do all things with love, passion, and dedication.  ~ Patrick Driessen

Without involvement, there is no commitment. Mark it down, asterisk it, circle it, underline it.  ~ Stephen Covey

I know the price of success: dedication, hard work, and an unremitting devotion to the things you want to see happen.  ~ Frank Lloyd Wright

A goal casually set and lightly taken is freely abandoned at the first obstacle.  ~ Zig Ziglar

It's a funny thing about life : if you refuse to accept anything but the best you very often get it.  ~ W. Somerset Maugham

Quotes about dedication, commitment

Hand-in-hand

I have made a career of bumbling around places, stumbling on landmarks and generally being quite shambolic about the way I go about things.  ~ Bill Bryson

Flops are a part of life's menu and I've never been a girl to miss out on any of the courses.  ~ Rosalind Russell

Sometimes it takes a good fall to really know where you stand.  ~ Hayley Williams

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

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

Quotes about falling, stumbling

Our Proper Work

Do stuff; be clenched, curious, not waiting for inspiration's shove or society's kiss on your forehead. Pay attention. It's all about paying attention. Attention is vitality. It connects you with others. It makes you eager. Stay eager.  ~ Susan Sontag

To pay attention, this is our endless and proper work.  ~ Mary Oliver

Where attention goes, energy flows and results show.  ~ T. Harv Eker

You learn something every day if you pay attention.  ~ Ray LeBlond

The greatest gift you can give someone is the purity of your attention.  ~ Richard Moss

Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work at hand.  The sun's rays do not burn until brought to a focus.  ~Alexander Graham Bell

Quotes about attention

Make you Great

Do more than belong: participate.
Do more than care: help.
Do more than believe: practice.
Do more than be fair: be kind.
Do more than forgive: forget.
Do more than dream: work.  ~ William Arthur Ward

To practice five things under all circumstances constitutes perfect virtue; these five are gravity, generosity of soul, sincerity, earnestness, and kindness.  ~ Confucius

Doing what needs to be done may not make you happy, but it will make you great.  ~ George Bernard Shaw

Act as if what you do makes a difference; it does.  ~ William James

Quotes about doing

Everything is Practice

To practice any art no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow.  So do it.  ~ Kurt Vonnegut

What I have achieved by industry and practice, anyone else with tolerable natural gift and ability can also achieve.  ~ Johann Sebastian Bach

Practice doesn't make perfect.
Practice reduces the imperfection.  ~ Toba Beta

Tomorrow's victory is today's practice.  ~ Chris Bradford

Everything is practice.  ~ Pele

Quotes about practice

The Wise Choice

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

The quality of your life will be determined by the quality of your contribution.  ~ Kurek Ashley

Quality means doing it right when no one is looking.  ~ Henry Ford

I believe empathy is the most essential quality of civilization.  ~ Roger Ebert

Quality is never an accident; it is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, intelligent direction and skillful execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives.  ~ William A. Foster

Quotes about quality

The Beauty of Life

The adventure of life is to learn.
The purpose of life is to grow. 
The nature of life is to change. 
The challenge of life is to overcome. 
The essence of life is to care. 
The opportunity of life is to serve. 
The secret of life is to dare. 
The spice of life is to befriend. 
The beauty of life is to give.

The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails.

The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.

It is wise to direct your anger towards problems - not people; to focus your energies on answers - not excuses.

God gave you a gift of 86,400 seconds today.  Have you used one to say thank you?

Quotes by William Arthur Ward

A Feat of Association

Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor. ~ Truman Capote
 
I want to change my punctuation. I long for exclamation marks, but I'm drowning in ellipses (...). ~ Isaac Marion
 
Life is a journey. Time is a river. The door is ajar. ~ Jim Butcher
 
Laughter is the sun that drives winter from the human face. ~ Victor Hugo
 
Happiness is a china shop; love is the bull. ~ H. L. Mencken
 
An idea is a feat of association, and the height of it is a good metaphor.  ~ Robert Frost

Quotes about metaphors and life

Where You Need It

The world is full of people looking for spectacular happiness while they snub contentment.

The trouble with learning from experience is that you never graduate.

Instead of giving a politician the keys to the city, it might be better to change the locks.

Nostalgia is a file that removes the rough edges from the good old days.

Wisdom is the quality that keeps you from getting into situations where you need it.

Quotes by Doug Larson