A cheerful heart
and a smiling face
Put sunshine
In the darkest place.
A good thing to have up your sleeve is a funny bone.
A human being is part of the whole called by us the `universe', a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separate from the rest ... A kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting to our personal desires and to affections for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of understanding and compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and its beauty. Albert Einstein
A human being's first responsibility is to shake hands with himself.
A kind act is never lost.
A life spent worthily should be measured by deeds, not by years.
A little kindness from person to person is better than a vast love for all mankind.
A long life may not be good enough,
But a good life is long enough.
A man must seek his happiness and inward peace from objects which cannot be taken away from him.
A man shows what he is
by what he does
with what he has.
A man who is satisfied both with what he has and what he hasn't is happy.
A smile is something nice to see, it doesn't cost a cent.
A smile is something all our own, it never can be lent.
A smile is welcome anywhere, it does away with frowns.
A smile is good for everyone, to ease the ups and downs.
A sunny disposition
is the very soul of success.
It enables a man
to do double the labor
that he could without it,
and to do it
with half the physical and mental exhaustion.
A pessimist is one who makes difficulties of his opportunities; an optimist is one who makes opportunities of his difficulties.
A sure way to a great day is to have enthusiasm. It contains a tremendous power to produce vitality, vigor, joyousness. So great is enthusiasm as a positive motivational force that it surmounts adversity and difficulty and, moreover, if cultivated, does not run down. It keeps one going strong even when the going is tough. It may even slow down the aging process for, as Henry Thoreau said, "None are so old as those who have outlived enthusiasm."
Ability is what you're capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it.
Achievement is the knowledge that you have studied and worked hard and done the best that is in you. Success is being praised by others, and that's nice, too, but not as important or satisfying. Always aim for achievement and forget about success.
Acknowledging that you (not your parents; not your kids; not drugs; not alcohol; not fate; not God; not present circumstances; not previous hurts, disappointments or trauma) but YOU are responsible for your own life gives you the power to change it.
Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience.
Age is a matter of the mind. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter.
All of the animals, excepting man, know that the principal business of life is to enjoy it.
Always have something beautiful in sight,
even if it's just a daisy in a jelly glass.
Always remember
To forget
The troubles
that passed away,
But never forget
to remember
The joys
that come each day.
An inexhaustible good nature is one of the most precious gifts, spreading itself like oil over the troubled sea of thought, and keeping the mind smooth and equable in the roughest weather.
And Then Some...
These three little words are the secret to success. They are the difference between average people and top people in most companies. The top people always do what is expected...and then some. They are thoughtful of others, they are considerate and kind... and then some. They meet their obligations and responsibilities fairly and squarely...and then some. They are good friends and helpful neighbors...and then some. They can be counted on in an emergency...and then some. I am thankful for people like this, for they make the world more livable. Their spirit of service is summed up in these little words...and then some.
As a man walked the beach at dawn, he noticed another man ahead of him picking up starfish and flinging them into the sea. Finally catching up with him, he asked him why he was doing this. The answer was that the stranded starfish would die if left until the morning sun.
"But the beach goes on for miles and there are millions of starfish," countered the other. "How can your effort make any difference?"
The man looked at the starfish in his hand and then threw it to safety in the waves. "It makes a difference to this one," he said.
At any given moment in your life, you are the very best you can possibly be at that point in time. Therefore, be accountable for the consequences of your past actions, but do not waste time in regret. You are the person you are now, not the person you were then.
At some time during every day, I find it good to observe a period of absolute quiet, for there is healing power in silence. To find this power, do not talk; do not do anything; throw the mind into neutral; keep the body still; maintain complete silence. This is the practice of creative quiet.
Attitude is more important than age. Don't tell people how old you are, tell them what's happening with your life - and what's going to happen. Whether you're nine or 109, you have a lifetime ahead of you!
Attitudes are more important than facts. Certainly, you can't ignore a fact, but the attitude with which you approach it is all-important. The secret of life isn't what happens to you but what you do with what happens to you.
Baby philosophy: If it stinks, change it.
Be curious always! For knowledge will not acquire you: you must acquire it.
Be glad of life because it gives you the chance to love and to work and to play and to look up at the stars.
Be happy and considerate.
Its the one thing you can do
even if you are broke.
Courtesy is contagious.
Be Happy. It is a way of being wise.
Be happy with what you have and are,
be generous with both,
and you won't have to hunt for happiness.
Be kind, compassionate and gentle....WITH YOURSELF.
Be master of your petty annoyances and conserve your energies for the big, worthwhile things. It isn't the mountain ahead that wears you out...it's the grain of sand in your shoe.
Be yourself. Being a slave to conformity is one of the most fundamental of all dishonesties. When we reject our specialness, water down our individuality and uniqueness, we begin to lose our freedom. The conformist is in no way a free man. He has to follow the herd. We need more "characters" among us, who do not weakly conform to standardized ways of behaving, people not afraid to be "different." Men and women who accomplish the most in this world are almost always "characters" in the sense that they are not afraid to be themselves regardless of what fashion or the "in" attitude dictates.
Believe that you possess significant reserves of health, energy, and endurance, and your belief will help create the fact.
But if I'm content with a little,
Enough is as good as a feast.
Calmness is the rarest quality in human life.
It is the poise of a great nature, in harmony with life and its ideals.
Carry your own lantern and you need not fear the dark.
Cherish your yesterdays,
dream your tomorrows,
and love your todays.
Content makes poor men rich;
Discontent makes rich men poor.
Contentment comes not so much from great wealth as from few wants.
Develop a train of thought on which to ride. The nobility of your life as well as your happiness depends upon the direction in which that chain of thought is going.
Do more than exist - live.
Do more than touch - feel.
Do more than look - observe.
Do more than read - absorb.
Do more than hear - listen.
Do more than listen - understand.
Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it. – Buddha
Do not confuse notoriety and fame with greatness. Many of the titled in today's world obtained their fame and fortunes outside their own merit.
On the other hand, I have met great people in the most obscure roles in life. For, you see, greatness is a measure of one's spirit, not a result of one's rank in human affairs. Nobody, least of all mere humans, confers greatness upon another, for it is not a price but an achievement. And greatness can crown the head of a janitor just as readily as it can come to someone of high rank.
Do not dismiss humor. Once you've laughed at something - even something as enormous as disease, murder, death, disaster, horror, etc. - you can never be quite so afraid of it again. That's why so many gods in so many religions laugh rather than growl or thunder at evil; if there is anything evil can't stand, it's being laughed at.
Do not follow where the path may lead. Go, instead, where there is no path and leave a trail.
Do your best in all things.
You cannot do more.
You should never wish to do less.
Don't aim for success if you want it; just do what you love and believe in, and it will come naturally.
Don't be afraid to talk to yourself. It's a good way to find out what you think.
Don't fight gray hair and wrinkles -
A lot of people admire them,
Knowing it takes lots of laughs and tears,
And also years, to acquire them.
Don't follow any advice, no matter how good, until you feel as deeply in your spirit as you think in your mind that the counsel is wise.
Don't lose your head
To gain a minute
You need your head
Your brains are in it.
Don't put off for tomorrow what you can do today, because if you enjoy it today you can do it again tomorrow.
Don't refuse to go on an occasional wild goose chase. That is what wild geese are made for.
Each day, silently affirm that you are the type of person with whom you would want to spend the rest of your life.
Each day we need to nourish our bodies and our minds. Ask yourself what does my mind feed upon? The mind is formed by what it takes in. Do not make it a trash basket. Feed your mind with beauty, electrify your mind with enthusiasm. Absorb whatever truth you find in opinions which differ from your own. Develop an appetite for what is next, a desire for adventure over ease. Change of work is better than retirement, creativity better than growing old while resting.
Easy rule. To keep a fire burning brightly there's one easy rule: keep the two logs together, near enough to keep each other warm, and far enough apart - about a finger's breadth - for breathing room.
Good fire, good marriage - same rule.
Eat your bread and you will be fed.
Share your bread and you will taste its flavor.
Emancipate yourself from mental slavery,
None but ourselves can free our minds.
Enjoy when you can, and endure when you must.
Every man has in himself a continent of undiscovered character. Happy is he who acts the Columbus to his own soul.
Every man who knows how to read has it in his power to magnify himself, to multiply the ways in which he exists, to make his life full, significant and interesting.
Everybody needs a hero. I'm mine.
Everyone is crazy but me and thee, and sometimes I suspect thee a little. - Unknown Quaker
Everyone should keep a mental wastepaper basket and the older he grows the more things he will consign to it.
Everyone should own a really comfortable bed and a truly good pair of shoes, for he is in one or the other most of his life.
Faced with a challenging new project at work, I sought our manager's advice on how to proceed. After we had gone over his suggestions, I asked him to tell me his formula for success. "What I DO, I do very well," he answered with a smile. "And what I don't do well, I don't do at all!"
Fantasies are good! Enjoy them, but appreciate them for what they are.
Far away there in the sunshine are my highest aspirations. I may not reach them, but I can look up and see their beauty, believe in them, and try to follow where the lead.
Fate is what life gives to you. Destiny is what you do with it. If you are five-four, you ain't ever going to be six-two. If you have trouble putting the cap on your toothpaste tube in the morning, mechanical engineering is not for you. That's fate.
But the way a person accepts the things he can't change and then goes 105 percent for the things he can, that's destiny. What most people tend to forget is that we have unbelievable control over our destiny.
Feed your faith, and starve your doubts to death.
Feel warm and loving toward yourself, for you are a unique and precious person, ever doing the best your awareness permits, ever growing in wisdom and love.
First the bad news: The good old days are gone forever. Now the good news: THESE are the good old days.
Foods are not good or bad. Eating habits are.
For all the inexplicable mysteries of life I have a compartment, a sort of deed box, which is seldom opened except to add to its contents. Very occasionally I have a rummage around in it. I take out perhaps the mystery of the universe, or even the mystery of survival after death; but they are soon back again. I am not, I tell myself, expected to solve that one, and I am grateful not to have to bother.
For every minute you are angry
you lose 60 seconds of happiness.
Frame your mind to mirth and merriment, which bar a thousand harms and make life enjoyable.
Frisbeetarianism is the belief that when you die, your soul goes up on the roof and gets stuck.
Give me a bed and a book and I'm happy.
Go placidly amid the noise and the haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence. As far as possible without surrender be on good terms with all persons. Speak your truth quietly and clearly and listen to others, even the dull and ignorant; they too have their story. Avoid loud and aggressive persons, they are vexatious to the spirit. If you compare yourself with others you may become vain and bitter; for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.
Enjoy your achievements and your plants. Keep interested in your own career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time. Exercise caution in your business affairs, for the world is full of trickery. But let this not blind you to what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals and everywhere life is full of heroism. Be yourself. Especially do not feign affection. Neither be cynical about love; for in the face of aridity and disenchantment, it is as perennial as the grass.
Take kindly to the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth. Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune. But do not distress yourself with imaginings. Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness. Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself.
You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should. Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive him to be, and whatever your labours and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul.
With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be careful. Strive to be happy.
Good character, like good soap, is usually homemade.
Happiness is a butterfly, which when pursued, is always just beyond your grasp, but which, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you.
Happiness is a conscious choice, not an automatic response.
Happiness is a journey, not a destination.
Happiness is a perfume you cannot pour on others without getting a few drops on yourself.
Happiness is a slice of bread -
only buttered.
Happiness is like potato salad - when you share it with others, it's a picnic.
Happiness is not a state to arrive at, but a manner of traveling.
Have pride in your past performance, and positive expectations for the future. Approach each new situation with confidence.
Hold a weekly "unhappy-thought burning." Drop into an urn pieces of paper on which you have written things that you want to forget. Then watch your unhappy thoughts burn and curl into ashes. This act helps to forget them.
"How did you keep yourself from crying," someone asked a little girl who had fallen and hurt her knee. She answered firmly, "I just said to myself, `Stop that,' and made myself mind me."
I am a slow walker, but I never walk backwards.
I consider myself very fortunate to be living in a time when there's always a future for a woman, no matter what her age. So if you put on a little weight, find that you need glasses, get a little pain in your knees, notice a few brown spots on your hands, don't despair. There IS a fountain of youth; it is your mind, your talents, the creativity you bring to your life and the lives of ones you love. When you learn to tap this source, you will truly have defeated age.
I couldn't wait for success...so I went ahead without it.
I do not know what I may appear to the world; but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, and diverting myself now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.
I do not read advertisements or listen to commercials - I would spend all my time wanting things.
I do not take a single newspaper, nor read one a month, and I feel myself infinitely the happier for it.
I expect to pass through this world but once. Any good therefore that I can do, or any kindness that I can show to any fellow creatures, let me do it now. Let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.
I feel there's a voice down inside of me, inside of all of us. Call it God speaking to us, call it the soul, call it conscience or whatever you like. If we turn to it, we can find help in knowing how to make the most of our lives. But that voice doesn't speak very loud. If we aren't still, if we don't provide solitude for listening - if we don't TRY to listen, then we can't hear it. It's easy to drown that voice. Just the bustle and noise of everyday living can drown it out. A man can be so busy making a living, he puts off making his life.
I find, by experience, that the mind and the body are more than married, for they are most intimately united; and when one suffers, the other sympathizes.
I find it wholesome to be alone the greater part of the time. To be in company, even with the best, is soon wearisome and dissipating. Had recently visited some of the most cultivated people I know. They travel a good deal, and each of them can speak two or three languages besides English. They read the best books and see the best movies and disregard those which are said to be inferior. Some friends were there and I was entertained with intelligent criticism of literature, music, pictures, etc, and learned much that was worth knowing. But I came away unsatisified, and rather dazed and feeling that society is commonly too cheap and superficial.
My preference for company is just one close friend, quietly sharing pleasant conversation or thoughts. But I love to be alone also. I am no more lonely than a single dandelion in a pasture or a bumblebee, or a star, or the south wind, or an April shower, or a January snow.
I have a personal antipathy for the concept of deductibility as a bribe for inducing charity. The spacious doctrine that "it doesn't cost you anything anyhow" grants the donor absolution from the cosharing of suffering, and from willing self-denial on behalf of another self. It deducts both the pain and the grace of sacrifice. Giving was intended as a moral mandate, not as a tax gimmick.
I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.
I have no romantic feelings about age. There is nothing particularly interesting about being old - or being young, for that matter.
I have three chairs in my house: one for solitude, two for friendship, three for company.
- Thoreau
I never vote. It's quite a relief not to feel responsible for what goes on in Washington.
I seldom think about my limitations, and they never make me sad. Perhaps there is just a touch of yearning at times; but it is vague, like a breeze among flowers.
I would rather read slowly and explore all the dungeons and secret passages than be a speed reader who bounds from parapet to parapet and thinks he has seen the castle.
I would rather sit on a pumpkin, and have it all to myself, than to be crowded on a velvet cushion.
Ice cream cures all ills. Temporarily.
Ideals are like stars; you will not succeed in touching them with your hands. But, like the seafaring men on the desert of waters, you choose them as your guide, and following them reach your destiny.
If a person habitually thinks optimistically and hopefully he activates life around him positively and thereby attracts to himself positive results. What you mentally project reproduces in kind. Positive thinking sets in motion positive and creative forces and success flows toward you.
If I cannot do great things,
I can do small things
in a great way.
If they try to rush me, I always say, "I've only got one other speed, and it's slower."
If we have not quiet in our minds, outward comfort will do no more for us than a golden slipper on a gouty foot.
If you cannot find happiness along the way, you will not find it at the end of the road.
If you can't find the time to do it right.
how will you find the time to do it over.
If you ever find happiness by hunting for it, you will find it, as the old woman did her lost spectacles, safe on her own nose all the time.
If you laugh a lot, when you get older your wrinkles will be in the right places.
If you make friends with yourself, you will never be alone.
If you wish to travel light. Take off all your envies, jealousies, unforgiveness, selfishness and fears.
If you're going to be able to look back on something and laugh about it, you might as well laugh about it now.
Imagination is as good as many voyages - and how much cheaper.
Immerse yourself in people, books, magazines and films that accentuate the positive and the possible. Go with the radio station that reports the weather as "partly sunny" rather than the one that reports it as "partly cloudy" - because BOTH are right.
It has been my philosophy of life that difficulties vanish when faced boldly.
It is easier to accept the message of the stars than the message of the salt desert. The stars speak of man's insignificance in the long eternity of time, the desert speaks of his insignificance right now.
It is more important to know where you are going than to get there quickly. Do not mistake activity for achievement.
It is possible to own too much. A man with one watch knows what time it is; a man with two watches is never sure.
It is the greatest of all mistakes to do nothing because you can only do a little. Do what you can.
It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.
I've done the research, and I hate to tell you, but everybody dies - lovers, joggers, vegetarians and nonsmokers. I'm telling you this so that some of you who jog at 5 am and eat vegetables will occasionally sleep late and have an ice cream cone.
Joy is not in things; it is in us.
Just as a cautious businessman avoids tying up all his capital in one concern, so, perhaps, worldly wisdom will advise us not to look for the whole of our satisfaction from a single aspiration.
Keep cool, but do not freeze. - Hellmann's Principle
(Discovered on the side of a jar of mayo.)
Laughter is the shock absorber that softens and minimizes the bumps of life.
Life is hard by the yard, but a cinch by the inch.
Life is not a having and a getting,
but a being and a becoming.
Life is not a 100 yard dash, but more a cross-country run. If we sprint all the time, we not only fail to win the race, but never even last long enough to reach the finish line.
Life is 10 percent what you make it and 90 percent how you take it.
Life itself can't give you joy
Unless you really will it;
Life just gives you time and spare,
It's up to you to fill it.
Like a welcome summer rain, humor may suddenly cleanse and cool the earth, the air, and you.
Look well into yourself; there is a source of strength which will always spring up if you will always look there.
Make the best use of what is in your power, and take the rest as it happens.
May You Have:
Enough happiness to keep you happy,
Enough trials to keep you strong,
Enough sorrow to keep you human,
Enough hope to keep you happy,
Enough failure to keep you humble,
Enough success to keep you eager,
Enough friends to give you comfort,
Enough wealth to meet your needs,
Enough enthusiasm to look forward,
Enough faith to banish depression,
Enough determination to make each day
better than yesterday.
Make yourselves nests of pleasant thoughts. None of us know what fairy palaces we may build of beautiful thought - proof against all adversity. Bright fancies, satisfied memories, noble histories, faithful sayings, treasure house of precious and restful thoughts, which care cannot disturb, nor pain make gloomy, nor poverty take away from us - houses built without hands, for our souls to live in.
Moderation in all things, including moderation.
Morality is not a set of external dictates.
It doesn't matter if you love the people society says you shouldn't love, or do or don't have children with more than one of them.
It doesn't matter if you have money, go to church or obey the law.
What matters is that you are not cruel or wasteful, that you don't keep the truth from those who need it, suppress someone's will or talent, take more than you need from nature, or fail to use your own talent.
It's an organic morality of dignity, autonomy, nurturing and balance.
Never, never read the fine print. There ain't no way you're gonna like it... otherwise, it would be printed in large print.
No spiritual exercises can be compared to that of silence for those who wish to acquire inner peace.
Nothing that grieves us can be called little: by the eternal laws of proportion a child's loss of a doll and a king's loss of a crown are events of the same size.
One reason I love dogs more than people: they way their tails instead of their tongues.
One ship drives east, and another west
With the self-same winds that blow;
'Tis the set of the sails
And not the gales,
Which decides the way to go.
Like the winds of the sea are the ways of fate;
As the voyage along through life;
'Tis the will of the soul
That decides its goal,
And not the calm or the strife.
Our idea of a contented man is the one who enjoys the scenery along the detour.
Peace is not the absence of conflict,
it's the ability to cope with it.
People have seasons too, I think. There is something steadfast about people who withstand the chilling winds of trouble, the storms that assail the heart, and have the endurance and character to wait quietly for an April time.
Prosperity is a great teacher;
adversity, a greater.
Regret is an appalling waste of energy; you can't build on it; it's only good for wallowing in.
Remember This:
Be good, but not too good - a little naughty, but not too naughty; say a prayer if you feel that way, say "Damn" if it gives you consolation.
Be kind to the world always, if possible - yet if you must be unkind, smash right and left, get it over with and forget it.
Smile, always smile, have a smile ready even though something hurts. Grab all the happiness you can - wherever and whenever you can - don't let even a wee bit slip past you. Live, above all things - live, don't simply exist.
Live your life so that at any hour you will be able to shake hands with yourself and try to accomplish at least one thing worthwhile each day. Then when your nights come you will be able to pull up the covers and say to yourself: "I've done my best."
Self-confidence and courage hinge on the kind of thoughts you think. Nurture negative thoughts over a long period of time and you are going to get negative results. Your subconscious is very accommodating. It will send up to you exactly what you send down to it. Keep on sending it fear and self-inadequacy thoughts and that is what it will feed back to you. Take charge of your mind and begin to fill it with healthy, positive, and courageous thoughts.
Self-discipline is when your conscience tells you to do something and you don't talk back.
Seven deadly sins:
Wealth without work.
Pleasure without conscience.
Knowledge without character.
Business without morality.
Science without humanity.
Worship without sacrifice.
Politics without principle.
Slow down, simplify and be kind.
So plant your own gardens and decorate your own soul instead of waiting for someone to bring you flowers.
Stricken with a fatal disease, Norman Cousins watched Laurel & Hardy movies each day and finally laughed himself well. Recent research on "attitudinal healing" explains the connection: Daily stress and worry tear down the immune system, but even 15 minutes of daily joy and laughter help restore it.
The Art of Shedding.
One learns first of all how little one can get along with, not how much. Physical shedding to begin with, which then mysteriously spreads into other fields. Clothes, first. One usually needs less. One does not need a closet-full. And what a relief it is! Less mending, less washing, and - best of all - less worry about what to wear. One finds one is shedding not only clothes - but vanity.
Next, shelter. One needs basics, not luxuries. I don't bustle about with unnecessary cleaning and mending of gadgets here. I am not much aware of the dust. I have shed my Puritan conscience about absolute tidiness and cleanliness. It is possible that, too, is a material burden. I begin to shed my anxiety about many things. I don't worry about the impression it makes on other people. I am shedding pride. As little furniture and furnishings as possible; I shall not need much. I shall ask into my shell only those friends with whom I can be completely honest. I find I am shedding hypocrisy in human relationships. What a rest that will be! The most exhausting thing in life, I have discovered, is being insincere. That is why so much of social life is exhausting; one is wearing a mask. I have shed my mask...
Is it not rather ugly, one may ask? One collects material possessions not only for security, comfort or vanity, but for beauty as well. Is not your house ugly and bare? No, it is beautiful, my house. It is bare of the furnishings of most houses, but my family shine through the bareness and bring in light, laughter and joy. The walls looked forbidden at first. So I gathered my treasures of pictures and sayings and with these tacked to the walls, I am satisfied.
The best place to find a good helping hand is at the end of your arm.
The calorie isn't a unit of energy. It's a unit of taste.
The food that enters the mind must be watched as closely as the food that enters the body.
The foolish person seeks happiness in the distance;
the wise person grows it under his feet.
The fullness of life does not come from the things outside us. We ourselves must create the beauty in which we live.
The good life is a happy life. I do not mean that if you are good you will be happy; I mean that if you are happy you will be good.
The most completely lost of all days is that on which one has not laughed.
The most pleasant and useful persons are those who leave some of the problems of the universe for others to worry about.
The process of tranquilizing the mind is important in assuring a condition of body, mind, and spirit that will induce perfect rest. Deliberately conceive of the mind as completely quiet, like the surface of a pond on which there is not even a ripple. Picture the mind as motionless and filled with deep quietness. Think silence until an atmosphere of silence seems to surround you. Suggest tranquil ideas to the mind, remembering that your thoughts respond to suggestion. Slowly, deliberately imagine peace at the center.
The reason so many people never get anywhere in life is because, when opportunity knocks, they are out in the backyard looking for four-leaf clovers.
The survival of the fittest is the ageless law of nature, but the fittest are rarely the strong. The fittest are those endowed with the qualifications for adaptation, the ability to accept the inevitable and conform to the unavoidable, to harmonize the existing or changing conditions.
The worst sorrows in life are not in its losses and misfortunes, but its fears.
There are no shortcuts to any place worth going.
There are parts of a ship which taken by themselves would sink. The engine would sink. The propeller would sink. But when the parts of a ship are built together, they float.
So with the events of life. Some are tragic, some are happy. But when they are built together, they form a craft that floats and is going someplace.
There are two days in the week about which I never worry. Two carefree days kept sacredly free from fear and apprehension. One of these days is yesterday - and the other day I do not worry about is tomorrow.
There is a proverb, "As you have made your bed, so you must lie in it," which is simply a lie. If I have made my bed uncomfortable, I will make it again.
There is more simplicity in the man who eats caviar on impulse than in the man who eats Grape Nuts on principle.
There were about 8000 cars in the United States, only ten miles of concrete pavement, few spray cans to destroy the ozone layer. Everyone ate natural foods. The air was relatively unpolluted, and the ground was free of aluminum cans. There were no sugar substitutes and no artificial coloring. We had no atomic waste or PCBs, and our average life expectancy was 47 years. The year was 1900.
Today we are doing everything wrong, and the life expectancy is up to 75 years, and, if we are not careful, it could hit 90.
Those who bring sunshine to the lives of others cannot keep it from themselves.
Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not.
To have great days, it helps to be a tough-minded optimist. Tough doesn't mean swaggering, sneering, hard-boiled. The dictionary definition is a masterpiece: "Tough - having the quality of being strong or firm in texture, but flexible; yielding to force without breaking, capable of resisting great strain without coming apart." And Webster defines optimism as "the doctrine that the goods of life overbalance the pain and evil of it, to minimize adverse aspects, conditions, and possibilities, or anticipate the best possible outcome; a cheerful and hopeful temperament."
Trust the instinct to the end, though you can render no reason.
Trust your hunches. They're usually based on facts filed away just below the conscious level.
Try everything in life once...
and the fun things twice!!!
We act as though
comfort and luxury
were the chief requirements
of life,
when all we need
to make us really happy
is something
to be enthusiastic about.
We don't need sacred places, things, etc. to find our special wisdom. We don't need anything. If we needed something else, there would have been a little scroll of instructions attached to our ankle as we passed through the birth canal. All we need is within the consciousness of the human being.
"What is the real good?"
I asked in musing mood,
"Order," said the law court;
"Knowledge," said the school;
"Truth," said the wise man;
"Pleasure," said the fool;
"Love," said the maiden;
"Beauty," said the page;
"Freedom," said the dreamer;
"Home," said the sage;
"Fame," said the soldier;
"Religion" said the seer,
Spake my heart full sadly
"The answer is not here."
Then within my bosom
Softly this I heard;
"Each heart holds the secret,
Kindness is the word."
What some call health, if purchased by the perpetual anxiety about diet, isn't much better than tedious disease.
Work and live enthusiastically. Take successes gratefully. Face failure phlegmatically - that is, with a "so what?" attitude. And aim to take life as it comes, philosophically.
You can be made tired by your thoughts - thoughts of weariness, fear, anxiety, or resentment. But when you hold thoughts of hopefulness, confidence, positiveness, and good will, a constant flow of energy develops. Do not think tired thoughts. Think lively ones.
You must never regret what might have been. The past that did not happen is as hidden from us as the future we cannot yet see.