A change of fortune hurts a wise man no more than the change of the moon.
Anything can happen to anybody. So expect the unexpected and, when it hits, hold your head up. Don't look back. Forward march. you'll be surprised at how much strength you have.
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.
Built into you is the inner fortitude and strength to stand up to things - to anything. The best lightening rod for your own protection is your own spine. That means, stand up straight and handle difficulties with faith in yourself.
Difficulties can be and often are blessings in disguise. Horace, the great Roman, said, "Difficulties elicit talents that in more fortunate circumstances would lie dormant." And Disraeli wrote, "Difficulties constitute the best education in life."
Fear of self is the greatest of all terrors, the deepest of all dread, the commonest of all mistakes. From it grows failure. Because of it, life is a mockery. Out of it comes despair.
Genius is commonly developed in men by some deficiency that stabs them wide awake and becomes a major incentive. Obstacles can be immensely arousing and kindling.
Go forward confidently, energetically attacking problems, expecting favorable outcomes. When obstacles or difficulties arise, the positive thinker takes them as creative opportunities. He welcomes the challenge of a tough problem and looks for ways to turn it to advantage. This attitude is a key factor in impressive careers and great living.
Go right up to it. Face it squarely for what it is, not lying to yourself, or applying labels that you know to be untrue. If something is to be done, let it be done; whether you like it or not is quite irrelevant. Look at it, do it and drop it.
Have a positive expectancy of reaching your goals, and bounce back quickly from temporary setbacks.
Hold a weekly "unhappy-thought burning." Drop into an urn pieces of paper on which you have written things you want to forget. Then watch your unhappy thoughts burn and curl into ashes. This act helps you forget.
Humans always have fear of an unknown situation - this is normal. The important thing is what we do about it. If fear is permitted to become a paralyzing thing that interferes with proper action, then it is harmful. The best antidote to fear is to know all we can about the situation.
I do not believe that sheer suffering teaches. If suffering alone taught, then all the world would be wise, since everyone suffers. To suffering must be added mourning, understanding, patience, love, openness and the willingness to remain vulnerable.
In Kyoto there is a shrine famous for its stone garden. For centuries, fifteen stones of different shapes and sizes have been resting in a garden of carefully raked sand. By tradition, the stones represent the fifteen basic problems of mankind - every person names his or her own. But all the stones cannot be seen at the same time. The message I take away from the enigmatic stones at Kyoto is that no one can or should try to contemplate, much less solve, all his problems at once. People should instead make a deliberate mental effort to block out all their problems except one, and concentrate on solving that one - this way there is more mental strength to apply.
People are like stained-glass windows; they sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within.
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.
Quiet minds can not be perplexed or frightened, but go on in fortune or misfortune at their own private pace, like a clock during a thunderstorm.
Socrates thought that if all our misfortunes were laid in one common heap, whence every one must take an equal portion, most persons would be contented to take their own and depart.
- Plutarch
Sweet are the uses of adversity;
Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous,
Wears yet a precious jewel in his head;
And this our life, exempt from public haunt,
Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,
Sermons in stones, and good in every thing.
- William Shakespeare, As You Like It
The tests of life are to make, not break us. Trouble may demolish a man's business but build up his character. The blow at the outward man may be the greatest blessing to the inner man. With anything hard in our lives, be sure that the real peril, the real trouble, is that we shall lose if we flinch or rebel.
Theodore Roosevelt, a strong and tough-minded man, said: "I have often been afraid. But I would not give into it. I simply acted as though I was not afraid and presently the fear disappeared." Fear is afraid itself and backs down when you stand up to it.
There are two days in the week about which and upon 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. - Robert Burdette
We are told, "Let not the sun go down on your wrath": but I would add, never act or write till it has done so. This rule has saved me from many an act of folly. It is wonderful what a different view we take of the same event four-and-twenty hours after it has happened.
When faced with great difficulties, hold clearly and tenaciously in your mind the thought that you can marshal your powers of concentration, reason, self-discipline, and imagination. And keep on believing that you actually do have the power to beat back circumstance. In so doing, you are bound to win.
When life hands you a lemon, make lemonade. Remember, there is no situation so completely hopeless that something constructive cannot be done about it. When faced with a minus, ask yourself what you can do to make it a plus. A person practicing this attitude will extract undreamed-of outcomes from the most unpromising situations. Realize that there are no hopeless situations; there are only people who take hopeless attitudes.
When you get into a tight place and everything goes against you, till it seems as though you could not hold on a minute longer, never give up then, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn.
You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, "I have lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along." ...You must do the thing you think you cannot do.
You Mustn't Quit
When things go wrong as they sometimes will,
When the road you're trudging seems all uphill,
When funds are low and the debts are high,
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh.
When care is pressing you down a bit,
Rest if you must, but don't you quit.
Life is queer with its twists and turns,
As every one of us sometimes learns,
And many a failure turns about
When he might have won had he stuck it out.
Don't give up though the pace seems slow -
You may succeed with another blow!
Success is failure turned inside out -
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt,
And you never can tell just how close you are,
It may be near when it seems so far.
So stick to the fight when you're hardest hit -
It's when things seem worst that YOU MUSTN'T QUIT.