Positive Quotations: From the Master Minds Nori Muster, Editor This collection is copyright protected. Published 2011, Kindle edition. Previous publication, Surrealist.org, 2002. Contents Author/Editor's Preface How to Use Quotations History Learn from the master minds. Autosuggestion Also called visualization, affirmation, metaphor, vision. Positive Mental Attitude Also called glass-half-full, good temperament, spirit, easy going, Zen, the Dao. Practical Health, abundance, love, goals, honesty, right work. The Future Get on the right side of a positive future. Author/Editor's Preface Napoleon Hill, author of Think and Grow Rich, said that the master minds of history can inspire us today. His heroes included Abraham Lincoln, Andrew Carnege, and Henry Ford, but the pearls of wisdom from the master minds are endless. This book is a collection of two hundred and sixty quotations from the master minds. Many of these came from the books I read in my research for Dreaming Peace: The History of Positive Thinking and How to Use it in the 21st Century. Others came from random sources like paper bookmarks and friends' email signatures. Many of the quotes are already famous, while others were never singled out as quotations before. This book should prove its worth, since it uses little space on a electronic device, and is easy to take along. History Learn from the master minds. "They can because they think they can." - Virgil (Publius Vergilius Maro, Greek author, 70-19 BCE) "Hope is a waking dream." - Aristotle (Greek philosopher and scientist, 384-322 BCE) "Let muddy water stand and it will become clear." - Lao Tsu (Daoist philosopher, 605-530 BCE) "As one thinketh in his heart, so is he." - The Prophet David (the Bible, 1040-970 BCE) "The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts." - Marcus Aurelius (stoic philosopher, Roman Emperor, 121-180 CE) "All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream." - Edgar Allan Poe (American writer, editor, and literary critic, 1809-1849) "Life is not complex. We are complex. Life is simple, and the simple thing is the right thing." - Oscar Wilde (Irish playwright, novelist, essayist, and poet, 1854-1900) "Nothing is so strong as gentleness. Nothing is so simple as real strength." - Francis De Sales (Bishop of Geneva and saint, 1567-1622) "There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power of our will." - Epictetus (stoic philosopher, 55-135 CE) "Imagination disposes of everything; it creates beauty, justice, happiness, which is everything in the world." - Blaise Pascal (French mathematician and spiritual writer, 1623-1662) "There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so." - William Shakespeare (English playwright, 1564-1616) "Man is so made that whenever anything fires his soul, impossibilities vanish." - Jean de la Fontaine (French poet, 1621-1695) "The mind is its own place, and in itself / Can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven." - John Milton (English author and poet, 1608-1674) "When the mind is transparent and pure as if reflected on the mirror-like surface of the water, there is nothing in the world you would dislike. When it is serene as the light breeze in the sunshine, there will be no one whom you would like to forget." - Pa-ta Shan-jen (Taoist painter, 1626 c. - 1701) "Each one sees what he carries in his heart." - Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (German writer, scientist, and philosopher, 1749-1832) "The foundation of all mental illness is the unwillingness to experience legitimate suffering." - Carl Jung (Swiss psychiatrist, 1875-1961) "The greatest revolution of our generation is the discovery that human beings, by changing the inner attitudes of their minds, can change the outer aspects of their lives." - William James (psychologist, author, and philosopher, 1842-1910) "Man is the Reasoning Animal. Such is the claim. I think it is open to dispute." - Mark Twain (American author, 1835-1910) "I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by conscious endeavor." - Henry David Thoreau (Transcendentalist, philosopher, poet, author, 1817-1862) "Happiness does not depend on outward things, but on the way we see them." - Count Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) "Happiness is not a matter of events, it depends upon the tides of the mind." - Alice Meynell (English poet, 1847-1922) "I don't believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and if they can't find them, they make them." - George Bernard Shaw (Irish-born English dramatist, 1856-1950) "Most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be." - Abraham Lincoln (American president, 1809-1865) "A man is what he thinks about all day long." - Ralph Waldo Emerson (American Transcendentalist, 1803-1882) "A man is literally what he thinks." - James Allen (English new thought author, 1864-1912) "From our birth to our death we are all the slaves of suggestion." - Emile Coué (French author and pharmacist, 1857-1926) "The greater part of our happiness or misery depends on our dispositions, and not on our circumstances." - Martha Washington (first American first lady, 1731-1802) "Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire; you will what you imagine; and at last you create what you will." - George Bernard Shaw (Irish-born English dramatist, 1856-1950, from The Serpent, in Back to Methuselah, Part I, Act I, 1921) "No one can make you feel inferior without your consent." - Eleanor Roosevelt (American first lady, peace activist, reformer, 1884-1962) "Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal. Nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude." - Thomas Jefferson (American founding father and president, 1743-1826) "The happiest person is the person who thinks the most interesting thoughts." - William Lyon Phelps (American educator and journalist, 1865-1943) "The minute that we change our minds, and stop giving power to the past, the past with its mistakes loses power over us." - Maxwell Maltz, M.D., F.I.C.S. (American author and surgeon, 1899-1975) Autosuggestion Also called visualization, affirmation, metaphor, vision. "We either make ourselves miserable, or we make ourselves strong. The amount of work is the same." - Carlos Castenada (American author, nagual shaman, 1925-1998) "When we dream alone it remains only a dream. When we dream together, it is not just a dream; it is the beginning of reality." - Dom Helder Camara (Roman Catholic Archbishop, 1909-1999) "Viewpoint is the deciding factor as to how you experience life." - Dick Sutphen (contemporary American author and teacher) "A dream you dream alone is only a dream. A dream you dream together is reality." - John Lennon (British singer-songwriter, 1940-1980) "Affirmations are one of the simplest and most powerful things we can do to change the quality of our lives, and to create the things we want." - Mark Allen (contemporary author) "Every human is an artist. The dream of your life is to make beautiful art." - Don Miguel Ruiz (contemporary Mexican author of Toltec spiritualist and neoshamanistic texts) "You are today where your thoughts have brought you; you will be tomorrow where your thoughts take you." - James Allen (English new thought author, 1864-1912) "An idea accepted as true from any source can be every bit as powerful as hypnosis." - Maxwell Maltz, M.D., F.I.C.S. (American author and surgeon, 1899-1975) "Believing something can be done paves the way for creative solutions." - David J. Schwartz, Ph.D. (twentieth century American educator and author, University of Georgia) "Beware of what you want for you will get it." - Ralph Waldo Emerson (American Transcendentalist, 1803-1882) "Change your thoughts and you change your world." - Rev. Norman Vincent Peale (American minister, author, and publisher, 1898-1993) "Constantly through thought you are creating your inner conditions and helping to create the conditions around you. So keep your thoughts on the positive side, think about the best that could happen, think about the good things you want to happen." - Peace Pilgrim (American peace activist, 1908-1981) "Could we change our attitude, we should not only see life differently, but life itself would come to be different. Life would undergo a change of appearance because we ourselves had undergone a change in attitude." - Katherine Mansfield (New Zealand writer, 1888-1923) "Creative thinking is simply finding new, improved ways to do anything." - David J. Schwartz, Ph.D. (twentieth century American educator and author, University of Georgia) "Believe in the intelligence of men, power of nature, Believe in the certainty of change, and the fundamental principles of living—integrity and compassion." - PK Shiu (contemporary educator) "Don't you know that the very thing a man dreads is the thing that always happens?" - Mark Twain (American author, 1835-1910, from Roughing It) "And life is what we make it. Always has been, always will be." - Grandma Moses (American artist, 1860-1961) "Every man faces two frontiers. On the outside it's the vastness of space. On the inside it's the vastness of fear. In both territories we seek some stars to guide us." - Zvonimir Tosic (contemporary publisher) "Each of us makes his own weather, determines the color of the skies in the emotional universe which he inhabits." - Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen (Auxiliary Bishop of New York, author, TV and radio personality, 1895-1979) "Every man is free to rise as far as he's able or willing, but the degree to which he thinks determines the degree to which he'll rise." - Ayn Rand (author, philosopher, 1905-1982) "Expect victory and you make victory." - Preston Bradley (founder of the Peoples Church of Chicago, community activist, radio personality, 1905-1975) "Fortunes gravitate to men whose minds have been prepared to attract them just as surly as water gravitates to the ocean." - Napoleon Hill (author of Think and Grow Rich, 1883-1970) "Great hearts send forth steadily the secret forces that incessantly draw great events." - Ralph Waldo Emerson (American Transcendentalist, 1803-1882) "Great men are those who see that thoughts rule the world." - Ralph Waldo Emerson (American Transcendentalist, 1803-1882) "How much we can do depends on how much we think we can do. When you really believe you can do more, your mind thinks creatively and shows you the way." - David J. Schwartz, Ph.D. (twentieth century American educator and author, University of Georgia) "If you want a quality, act as if you already had it." - William James (psychologist, author, and philosopher, 1842-1910) "Imagination grows by exercise, and contrary to common belief, is more powerful in the mature than in the young." - W. Somerset Maugham (French novelist, 1874-1965) "The things we think are the things that feed our souls. If we think on pure and lovely things, we shall grow pure and lovely like them; and converse is equally true." - Hannah Whitall Smith (author and activist, 1832-1911) "It is we ourselves who alone shall shape our destinies, rising always above the external circumstances and conditions which from time to time shall be thrown across our paths." - Emile Coué (French author and pharmacist, 1857-1926) "Life is a mirror and will reflect back to the thinker what he thinks into it." - Ernest Holmes (founder of Divine Science, Science of Mind, 1887-1960) "Like the wind that carries one ship east and another west, the law of autosuggestion will lift you up or pull you down according to the way that you set your sails of thought." - Napoleon Hill (author of Think and Grow Rich, 1883-1970) "Man is what he believes." - Anton Chekhov (Russian dramatist, 1860-1904) "Man's rise or fall, success or failure, happiness or unhappiness depends on his attitude. A man's attitude will create the situations he imagines." - James Allen (English new thought author, 1864-1912) "Mind is the creator of everything." - Paramahamsa Yogananda (representative of the Hindu religion to America, 1893-1952) "Miracles start to happen when you give as much energy to your dreams as you do to your fears." - Richard Wilkins (contemporary American teacher) "No one is in control of your happiness but you; therefore, you have the power to change anything about yourself or your life that you want to change." - Barbara De Angelis (contemporary American author) "Nothing is impossible to us, except of course, that which is contrary to the laws of nature and the Universe." - Emile Coué (French author and pharmacist, 1857-1926) "Our destiny changes with our thoughts; we shall become what we wish to become, do what we wish to do, when our habitual thoughts correspond with our desires." - Orison Swett Marden (founder of Success magazine, 1850-1924) "Our life is what our thoughts make it." - Marcus Aurelius (stoic philosopher, Roman Emperor, 121-180 CE) "Our minds can shape the way a thing will be because we act according to our expectations." - Frederico Fellini (Italian filmmaker, 1920-1993) "People only see what they are prepared to see." - Ralph Waldo Emerson (American Transcendentalist, 1803-1882) "Reason can answer questions, but imagination has to ask them." - Ralph Gerard (American educator, 1900-1974) "Recall your little victories and accomplishments. Go over the reasons why you are glad to be alive." - David J. Schwartz, Ph.D. (twentieth century American educator and author, University of Georgia) "Remember, you see in any situation what you expect to see. See the good side and conquer defeat. All things do work together for good if you'll just develop a clear vision." - David J. Schwartz, Ph.D. (twentieth century American educator and author, University of Georgia) "Riches begin in the form of thought." - Napoleon Hill (author of Think and Grow Rich, 1883-1970) "The first and most important step toward success is the feeling that we can succeed." - Nelson Boswell (contemporary, author of Inner Peace, Inner Power) "The moment you commit and quit holding back, all sorts of unforeseen incidents, meetings and material assistance will rise up to help you. The simple act of commitment is a powerful magnet for help!" - Napoleon Hill (author of Think and Grow Rich, 1883-1970) "The power of thought, of idea, is incommensurable, is immeasurable. The world is dominated by thought." - Emile Coué (French author and pharmacist, 1857-1926) "The quality of our expectations determines the quality of our action." - Andre Godin (French socialist, philosopher, 1817-1888) "The soul contains the event that shall befall it, for the event is only the actualization of its thoughts, and what we pray to ourselves for is always granted." - Ralph Waldo Emerson (American Transcendentalist, 1803-1882) "The subconscious acts first on the dominating desires." - Napoleon Hill (author of Think and Grow Rich, 1883-1970) "The subconscious mind will translate into its physical equivalent a thought impulse of a negative or destructive nature, just as readily as it will act upon thought impulses of a positive or constructive nature. This accounts for the strange phenomenon which so many millions of people experience, referred to as 'misfortune' or 'bad luck.' " - Napoleon Hill (author of Think and Grow Rich, 1883-1970) "The thing always happens that you really believe in; and the belief in a thing makes it happen." - Frank Lloyd Wright (architect, 1867-1959) "The way a man's mind runs is the way he is sure to go." - Henry B. Wilson (American Admiral and War Veteran, WWI, 1867-1954) "There are no limitations to the mind except those we acknowledge." - Napoleon Hill (author of Think and Grow Rich, 1883-1970) "Think you can, think you can't; either way, you'll be right." - Henry Ford (American automobile manufacturer, 1863-1947) "Thought is the sculptor who can create the person you want to be." - Henry David Thoreau (Transcendentalist, philosopher, poet, author, 1817-1862) "Thoughts are things." - Ernest Holmes (founder of Divine Science, Science of Mind, 1887-1960) "Thoughts of your mind have made you what you are, and thoughts of your mind will make you whatever you become from this day forward." - Catherine Ponder (Unity Church) "Throw your heart over the bar and your body will follow." - Rev. Norman Vincent Peale (American minister, author, and publisher, 1898-1993) "To expect defeat is nine-tenths of defeat itself." - Francis Marion Crawford (American author, 1854-1909) "We are what we believe we are." - Benjamin N. Cardozo (Supreme Court Justice, 1870-1938) "We become what we think about." - Earl Nightingale (American author, publisher, and motivational speaker, 1921-1989) "We can be, and should be, the masters of events, and not their playthings." - Emile Coué (French author and pharmacist, 1857-1926) "We choose our joys and sorrows long before we experience them." - Kahlil Gibran (Lebanese poet, philosopher, and artist, 1883-1931) "We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are." - Anaïs Nin (French-born American author, 1903-1977) "Throw your dreams into space like a kite, and you do not know what it will bring back, a new life, a new friend, a new love, a new country." - Anaïs Nin (French-born American author, 1903-1977) "What we see depends mainly on what we look for." - Sir John Lubbock (English naturalist, banker, statesman, 1834-1913) "What you are comes to you." - Ralph Waldo Emerson (American Transcendentalist, 1803-1882) "Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve." - Napoleon Hill (author of Think and Grow Rich, 1883-1970) "When you believe, your mind finds ways to do." - David J. Schwartz, Ph.D. (twentieth century American educator and author, University of Georgia) "Whenever imagination and will come into conflict it is always imagination that triumphs." - Emile Coué (French author and pharmacist, 1857-1926) "Why not imagine yourself successful?" - Maxwell Maltz, M.D., F.I.C.S. (American author and surgeon, 1899-1975) "With a pencil and paper you can tie your mind to a problem." - David J. Schwartz, Ph.D. (twentieth century American educator and author, University of Georgia) "You are today where your thoughts have brought you; you will be tomorrow where your thoughts take you." - James Allen (English new thought author, 1864-1912) "You cannot escape the results of your thoughts." - James Allen (English new thought author, 1864-1912) "Genius is no more than childhood recaptured at will." - Charles Baudelaire (French poet, critic, translator, 1821-1867) "The way we see the problem is the problem." - Stephen R. Covey (contemporary American author) Positive Mental Attitude Also called glass-half-full, good temperament, spirit, easy going, Zen, the Dao. "Your journey has molded you for greater good, and it was exactly what you needed to be. Don't think that you've lost time. It took each and every situation you have encountered to bring you to the now. And now is right on time." - Asha Tyson (Contemporary American author) "Great minds discuss ideas. Average minds discuss events. Small minds discuss people." - Henry Thomas Buckle (British historian and author, 1821-1862) "Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence." - Helen Keller (American author, peace activist, and lecturer, 1880-1968) "The truly rich are those who enjoy what they have." - Yiddish Proverb "Better keep yourself clean and bright; you are the window through which you must see the world." - George Bernard Shaw (Irish-born English dramatist, 1856-1950) "Act as if it were impossible to fail." - Dorothea Brande (American writer, 1893-1948) "A bird doesn't sing because it has an answer; it sings because it has a song." - Maya Angelou (contemporary author, poet, and peace activist) "Rational beliefs bring us closer to getting good results in the real world." - Albert Ellis (American psychologist, 1913-2007) "You largely constructed your depression. It wasn't given to you. Therefore, you can deconstruct it." - Albert Ellis (American psychologist, 1913-2007) [a pep talk for your self-esteem] "Too bad! I certainly behaved poorly this time. But that hardly makes me a stupid or incompetent person. Just someone who needlessly did myself in. Now . . . I am determined to do the best I can, and to be as effective and as happy as I can be." - Albert Ellis (American psychologist, 1913-2007) "The best years of your life are the ones in which you decide your problems are your own. You do not blame them on your mother, the ecology, or the president. You realize that you control your own destiny." - Albert Ellis (American psychologist, 1913-2007) "There is enchantment right in front of you, waiting for you to notice." - Janet Luhrs (Contemporary American author) "Happiness is a state of mind. It's just according to the way you look at things." - Walt Disney (animator, producer, and entrepreneur, 1901-1966) "It is always impossible until it is done." - Nelson Mandela (President of South Africa, 1918-2013) "Within your heart, keep one still, secret spot where dreams may go." - Louise Driscoll (Contemporary American author) "Just when the caterpillar thought the world was over, it became a butterfly." - anonymous "Simplicity is the essence of happiness." - Cedric Bledsoe (Contemporary American author) "Life is not what it's supposed to be. Its what it is. The way you cope with it is what makes the difference." - Virgina Satir (American psychotherapist, 1916-1988) "Live as if your were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever." - Mohandas Gandhi (Indian spiritual and political leader, 1869-1948) "Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind." - Dr. Seuss (American author, artist, and publisher 1904-1991) "It's kind of fun to do the impossible." - Walt Disney (animator, producer, and entrepreneur, 1901-1966) "A healthy strong ego, with plenty of self-esteem, does not feel itself threatened by every innocent remark." - Maxwell Maltz, M.D., F.I.C.S. (American author and surgeon, 1899-1975) "A person who doubts himself is like a man who would enlist in the ranks of his enemies and bear arms against himself." - Alexandre Dumas (French writer, 1802-1870) "Action is the antidote to despair." - Joan Baez (contemporary singer-songwriter, peace activist) "Admit your mistakes but don't cry over them. Correct them and go forward." - Maxwell Maltz, M.D., F.I.C.S. (American author and surgeon, 1899-1975) "All passions exaggerate. It is because they do that they are passions." - Nicholas de Chamford (French writer, 1741-1794) "Dare to live the life you have dreamed for yourself. Go forward and make your dreams come true." - Ralph Waldo Emerson (American Transcendentalist, 1803-1882) "As long as a man stands in his own way, everything seems to be in his way." - Ralph Waldo Emerson (American Transcendentalist, 1803-1882) "As soon as the error has been recognized and corrections made, it's equally important that the error be forgotten and the successful attempt remembered and dwelt upon." - Maxwell Maltz, M.D., F.I.C.S. (American author and surgeon, 1899-1975) "Being self-critical is constructive. It helps you to build personal strength and efficiency needed for success. Blaming others is destructive. You gain absolutely nothing from proving that someone else is wrong." - David J. Schwartz, Ph.D. (twentieth century American educator and author, University of Georgia) "Do your worrying before you place your bet, not after the wheel stops turning." - Maxwell Maltz, M.D., F.I.C.S. (American author and surgeon, 1899-1975) "Every production of genius must be the production of enthusiasm." - Benjamin Disraeli (English statesman, novelist, 1804-1881) "Forgiveness is a scalpel that removes emotional scars." - Maxwell Maltz, M.D., F.I.C.S. (American author and surgeon, 1899-1975) "I have chosen the positive approach—instead of stressing the bad things which I am against, I stress the good things which I am for." - Peace Pilgrim (American peace activist, 1908-1981) "Enthusiasm loves company." - anonymous "Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous? Actually, who are you NOT to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn't serve the world. There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it is in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we consciously give other people permission to do the same." - Nelson Mandela (first president of South Africa, from 1994 inaugural speech) "Today I am born anew and my birthplace is a vineyard where there is fruit for all." - Og Mandino (American positive thinking author, 1923-1996) "I've never been poor, only broke. Being poor is a frame of mind. Being broke is a temporary situation." - Mike Todd (American film producer, 1909-1958) "If I have lost every other friend on earth, I shall at least have one friend left, and that friend shall be down inside me." - Abraham Lincoln (American president, 1809-1865) "If you have the will to win, you have achieved half your success." - David V.A. Ambrose (contemporary American writer) "If you realized how powerful your thoughts are, you would never think a defeatist or negative thought. Since we create through thought, we need to concentrate very strongly on positive thoughts." - Peace Pilgrim (American peace activist, 1908-1981) "Life is a series of tests; but if you pass your tests, you look back upon them as good experiences." - Peace Pilgrim (American peace activist, 1908-1981) "If you recognize that all of your inner hurts are caused by your own wrong actions or your own wrong reactions or your own wrong inaction, then you will stop hurting yourself." - Peace Pilgrim (American peace activist, 1908-1981) "In that power of self-control lies the seed of eternal freedom." - Paramahamsa Yogananda (representative of the Hindu religion to America, 1893-1952) "Know your positive self." - David J. Schwartz, Ph.D. (twentieth century American educator and author, University of Georgia) "Knowledge is power, but enthusiasm pulls the switch." - Ivern Ball (poet and writer) "Many people excuse their own faults but judge other persons harshly. We should reverse this attitude by excusing others' shortcomings and by harshly examining our own." - Paramahamsa Yogananda (representative of the Hindu religion to America, 1893-1952) "My attitudes are more important than my intelligence." - David J. Schwartz, Ph.D. (twentieth century American educator and author, University of Georgia) "Only you can command yourself to apply this training. Only you can evaluate the progress. Only you can bring about corrective action if you slip a little bit. In short, you are going to train yourself to achieve bigger and bigger success." - David J. Schwartz, Ph.D. (twentieth century American educator and author, University of Georgia) "Opinions are the cheapest commodity on earth. Everyone has a flock of opinions ready to be wished upon anyone who will accept them." - Napoleon Hill (author of Think and Grow Rich, 1883-1970) "Optimism is an Intellectual choice." - Diana Schneider (contemporary author) "Our best friends and our worst enemies are our thoughts. A thought can do us more good than a doctor or a banker or a faithful friend. It can also do us more harm than a brick." - Dr. Frank Crane (Presbyterian minister, speaker, and author, 1861–1928) "Pay no attention to what the critics say. There has never been a statue erected to a critic." - Jean Sibelius (Finnish composer, 1865-1957) "See what can be, not just what is." - David J. Schwartz, Ph.D. (twentieth century American educator and author, University of Georgia) "See yourself reacting to threats, not by running away or evading them, but by meeting them, dealing with them, grappling with them in an aggressive intelligent manner." - Maxwell Maltz, M.D., F.I.C.S. (American author and surgeon, 1899-1975) "Stop worrying and start living." - Dale Carnegie (American author and teacher, 1888-1955) "Success is hastened or delayed by one's habits." - Paramahamsa Yogananda (representative of the Hindu religion to America, 1893-1952) "That the thing that upsets people is not so much what happens, but what they think about what happens." - Epictetus (stoic philosopher, 55-135 CE) "The best way to come to terms with anything that is out of harmony is never to fear it—that gives it power. Bring good influences to bear upon it; make yourself a good example." - Peace Pilgrim (American peace activist, 1908-1981) "The fear habit is very detrimental because you attract the things you fear. If we have any fear we need to get rid of it." - Peace Pilgrim (American peace activist, 1908-1981) "The fault finder will find faults even in paradise." - Henry David Thoreau (Transcendentalist, philosopher, poet, author, 1817-1862) "The greatest discovery of my generation is that man can alter his life simply by altering his attitude of mind." - William James (psychologist, author, and philosopher, 1842-1910) "The price tag the world puts on us is just about identical to the one we put on ourselves." - David J. Schwartz, Ph.D. (twentieth century American educator and author, University of Georgia) "The un-happiest of mortals is that man who insists upon reliving the past, over and over in imagination—continually criticizing himself for past mistakes—continually condemning himself for past sins." - Maxwell Maltz, M.D., F.I.C.S. (American author and surgeon, 1899-1975) "The world needs all the help you can give by way of cheerful, optimistic, inspiring thought and personal example.- Grenville Kleiser (writer, 1863-1953) "Think enthusiasm and you'll be enthusiastic." - David J. Schwartz, Ph.D. (twentieth century American educator and author, University of Georgia) "Think more of yourself and there is more of you." - David J. Schwartz, Ph.D. (twentieth century American educator and author, University of Georgia) "To establish oneself in the world, one has to do all one can to appear established." - Francois de La Rochefoucauld (French author, 1613-1680) "To gain respect of others, you must first think you deserve respect. The more respect you have for yourself, the more respect others will have for you." - David J. Schwartz, Ph.D. (twentieth century American educator and author, University of Georgia) "To have a mind full of peace, merely fill it full of peace. It's as simple as that." - Rev. Norman Vincent Peale (American minister, author, and publisher, 1898-1993) "To really 'live,' that is to find life reasonably satisfying, you must have an adequate and realistic self-image that you can live with. You must find yourself acceptable to 'you.' " - Maxwell Maltz, M.D., F.I.C.S. (American author and surgeon, 1899-1975) "Unthaw and become more natural." - Maxwell Maltz, M.D., F.I.C.S. (American author and surgeon, 1899-1975) "Vigor is contagious, and whatever makes us either think or feel strongly adds to our power and enlarges our field of action." - Ralph Waldo Emerson (American Transcendentalist, 1803-1882) "We cannot become what we need to be by remaining what we are." - Max Depree (contemporary American writer) "We do not deal much in facts when we are contemplating ourselves." - Mark Twain (American author, 1835-1910) "When we consciously and deliberately develop new and better habits, our self image tends to outgrow the old habits and grow into the new pattern." - Maxwell Maltz, M.D., F.I.C.S. (American author and surgeon, 1899-1975) "Worry is a useless mulling over of things you can't change—it's a total waste of time and energy." - Peace Pilgrim (American peace activist, 1908-1981) "Worry is not concern—concern is good. Concern leads you to do everything possible in a situation." - Peace Pilgrim (American peace activist, 1908-1981) "You have much more power when you are working for the right thing than when you are working against the wrong thing." - Peace Pilgrim (American peace activist, 1908-1981) "You must learn to forgive yourself as easily as you forgive others. And then take a further step and use all that energy that you used in condemning yourself for improving yourself." - Peace Pilgrim (American peace activist, 1908-1981) "You will do foolish things, but do them with enthusiasm." - Colette (French novelist Sidonie-Gabrielle, 1873-1954) SUPERSTITION "We are always paid for our suspicion by finding what we suspect." - Henry David Thoreau (Transcendentalist, philosopher, poet, author, 1817-1862) "The average man is what his environment and his superstitions have made him; and their function is to make him an ass." - Mark Twain (American author, 1835-1910) happiness "A happy person is not a person in a certain set of circumstances, but rather a person with a certain set of attitudes." - Scottish Proverb "A loving person lives in a loving world. A hostile person lives in a hostile world. Everyone you meet is your mirror." - Ken Keys, Jr. (American author, 1921-1995) PERSEVERANCE "The how-to-do-it always comes to the person who believes he can do it." - David J. Schwartz, Ph.D. (twentieth century American educator and author, University of Georgia) "Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal." - Hannah More (English reformer and philanthropist, 1745-1833) "In the realm of ideas everything depends on enthusiasm . . . in the real world all rests on perseverance." - Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (German writer, scientist, and philosopher, 1749-1832) "Do just once what others say you can't do, and you will never pay attention to their limitations again." - James R. Cook (English explorer, 1728-1779) "It is an orderly universe, and the suffering that comes to us has a purpose in our lives—it is trying to teach us something. We should look for its lesson." - Peace Pilgrim (American peace activist, 1908-1981) "Adversity has the effect of eliciting talents which, in prosperous circumstances, would have lain dormant." - Horace (poet in Greece and Rome, 65-8 BCE) "Determine that the thing can and shall be done, and then we shall find the way." - Abraham Lincoln (American president, 1809-1865) "Every noble work is at first impossible." - Thomas Carlyle (Scottish writer, 1795-1881) "Failure cannot cope with persistence." - Napoleon Hill (author of Think and Grow Rich, 1883-1970) "If only you could see the whole picture, if you knew the whole story, you would realize that no problem ever comes to you that does not have a purpose in your life, that cannot contribute to your inner growth." - Peace Pilgrim (American peace activist, 1908-1981) "If you did not face problems you would just drift through life. It is through solving problems in accordance with the highest light we have that inner growth is attained." - Peace Pilgrim (American peace activist, 1908-1981) "If you have unfilled dreams and visions of greater prosperity and success tucked in a corner of your mind, don't keep them there any longer. Dare to bring them out and dust them off." - Catherine Ponder "Is we ourselves who alone shall shape our destinies, rising always above the external circumstances and conditions which from time to time shall be thrown across our paths." - Emile Coué (French author and pharmacist, 1857-1926) "Life is a mixture of successes and failures. Be encouraged by the successes and strengthened by the failures." - Peace Pilgrim (American peace activist, 1908-1981) "Money, influence and position are as nothing compared with brains, principle, energy and perseverance." - Orison Swett Marden (founder of Success magazine, 1850-1924) "The season of failure is the best time for sewing the seeds of success." - Paramahamsa Yogananda (representative of the Hindu religion to America, 1893-1952) "Things turn out the best for the people who make the best of the way things turn out." - John Wooden (American athlete, 1910-2010) "We can turn setbacks into victories. Find the lesson, apply it and move on. Then look back on defeat and smile." - David J. Schwartz, Ph.D. (twentieth century American educator and author, University of Georgia) "When you exercise your will power you release the power of life energy—not when you merely wish passively to be able to obtain an objective." - Paramahamsa Yogananda (representative of the Hindu religion to America, 1893-1952) "When you perceive that problems serve a purpose in your life, you will recognize that problems are opportunities in disguise." - Peace Pilgrim (American peace activist, 1908-1981) "You can't try to do things; you simply must do them." - Ray Bradbury (contemporary American author) "A problem, a difficulty, becomes unsolvable only when you think it is unsolvable. Attract solutions by believing that solutions are possible. Refuse, simply refuse, to even let yourself say or think that it's impossible." - David J. Schwartz, Ph.D. (twentieth century American educator and author, University of Georgia) "By trying we can easily learn to endure adversity. Another man's, I mean." - Mark Twain (American author, 1835-1910) "Happiness ain't a thing in itself—it's only a contrast with something that ain't pleasant." - Mark Twain (American author, 1835-1910) "I prefer the errors of enthusiasm to the indifference of wisdom." - Anatole France (French writer, 1844-1924) "If you think you can't do something, you can't. But if you think you can, you may be surprised to discover that you can." - Peace Pilgrim (American peace activist, 1908-1981) "Let us show, not merely in great crises, but in every day affairs of life, qualities of practical intelligence, of hardihood and endurance, and above all, the power of devotion to a lofty ideal." - Theodore Roosevelt (American president, 1859-1919) "Life is a series of problems." - Maxwell Maltz, M.D., F.I.C.S. (American author and surgeon, 1899-1975) "Never mind what 'they' say if you meet with temporary defeat, for 'they,' perhaps, do not know that every failure brings with it the seed of an equivalent success." - Napoleon Hill (author of Think and Grow Rich, 1883-1970) "Success is going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm." - Sir Winston Churchill (English politician and statesman, 1874-1965) "Temporary defeat is not permanent failure." - Napoleon Hill (author of Think and Grow Rich, 1883-1970) "There is a good side to every situation, and when we find the good side, we automatically whip discouragement and defeat." - David J. Schwartz, Ph.D. (twentieth century American educator and author, University of Georgia) "We are confronted with insurmountable opportunities." - Walt Kelly (animator and cartoonist, creator of Pogo, 1913-1973) "We limit ourselves by thinking that things can't be done. It's the one who doesn't know it can't be done who does it." - Peace Pilgrim (American peace activist, 1908-1981) "Whenever I hear, 'It can't be done,' I know I'm close to success." - Michael Flatley (contemporary Irish-American performer) Practical Subjects Health, abundance, love, goals, honesty, right work. HEALTH "I don't eat junk foods and I don't think junk thoughts! Let me tell you, junk thoughts can destroy you even more quickly than junk food." - Peace Pilgrim (American peace activist, 1908-1981) "The sorrow which has no vent in tears may make other organs weep." - Henry Maudsley (English psychiatrist, 1835-1918) "He who is of a calm and happy nature will hardly feel the pressure of age." - Plato (Greek philosopher, 427-347 BCE) LOVE "Love is what you've been through with somebody." - James Thurber (American cartoonist, author, journalist, and playwright, 1894-1961) "The heartbreak caused by loving can only be healed by daring to love again." - Anne Geraghty (contemporary English psychologist) "If you judge people, you have no time to love them." - Mother Teresa (Catholic beatified nun, 1910-1997) "The good life is one inspired by love and guided by knowledge." - Bertrand Russell (English mathematician and philosopher, 1872-1970) "A loving person lives in a loving world. A hostile person lives in a hostile world. Everyone you meet is your mirror." - Ken Keys, Jr. (American author, 1921-1995) "Acceptance is not love. You love a person because he or she has lovable traits, but you accept everybody just because they're alive and human." - Albert Ellis (American psychologist, 1913-2007) "I have found that if you love life, life will love you back." - Arthur Rubinstein (Polish composer and mystical philosopher, 1887-1982) "It is not through judgment that the good in people can be reached, but through love and faith." - Peace Pilgrim (American peace activist, 1908-1981) "Overcome evil with good, falsehood with truth, and hatred with love. The message isn't new, but we haven't learned to live it yet." - Peace Pilgrim (American peace activist, 1908-1981) "Kindness gives birth to kindness." - Sophocles (Greek playwright, c. 496-406 BCE) "When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace." - Jimi Hendrix (American musician, 1942-1970) "Evil can be helped to fade away more quickly if we remain in obedience to the Law of Love—evil must be overcome with good." - Peace Pilgrim (American peace activist, 1908-1981) "We should never underestimate the great power of the way of love which reaches that spark of good in the other person, always there no matter how deeply buried, and the person is disarmed." - Peace Pilgrim (American peace activist, 1908-1981) GOALS "Nothing is impossible, if you want it badly enough, and if you have the imagination to dream and the energy to make your dreams come true." - Osa Johnson (explorer, 1894-1953) "The life that conquers is the life that moves with a steady resolution and persistence toward a predetermined goal. Those who succeed are those who have thoroughly learned the immense importance of plan in life, and the tragic brevity of time." - W.J. Davison (motivational speaker and writer) "A success is anyone who is doing deliberately a pre-determined job, because that's what he decided to do deliberately. But only one out of twenty does that." - Earl Nightingale (American author, publisher, and motivational speaker, 1921-1989) "All we need to make us really happy is something to be enthusiastic about." - Charles Kingsley (English priest, historian, professor, and author, 1819-1875) "Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any one thing. - Abraham Lincoln (American president, 1809-1865) "Circumstances? What are circumstances? I make circumstances." - Napoleon Bonaparte (French military and political leader, 1769-1821) "First you give life and action and guidance to ideas, then they take on power of their own and sweep aside all opposition." - Napoleon Hill (author of Think and Grow Rich, 1883-1970) "Most human beings only scratch the surface of their real potential. They have no idea what they're capable of." - Peace Pilgrim (American peace activist, 1908-1981) "People with goals succeed because they know where they're going." - Earl Nightingale (American author, publisher, and motivational speaker, 1921-1989) "Riches do not respond to wishes. They respond only to definite plans, backed by definite desires, through constant persistence." - Napoleon Hill (author of Think and Grow Rich, 1883-1970) "Opportunities multiply as they are seized." - Sun Tzu (Chinese philosopher, 544-496 BCE) "That is the failure point with many people. They never get anywhere because they have only a hazy idea where they want to go, what they want to do. No objective leads to no end." - Rev. Norman Vincent Peale (American minister, author, and publisher, 1898-1993) "The life that conquers is the life that moves with a steady resolution and persistence toward a predetermined goal. Those who succeed are those who have thoroughly learned the immense importance of plan in life, and the tragic brevity of time.- W.J. Davison "To accomplish something, we must plan to accomplish something." - David J. Schwartz, Ph.D. (twentieth century American educator and author, University of Georgia) "We've got to be of service first before we can expect money." - Earl Nightingale (American author, publisher, and motivational speaker, 1921-1989) "What great thing would you attempt if you knew you could not fail?" - Robert Schuller (contemporary American preacher) "You have all the reason in the world to achieve your grandest dreams. Imagination plus innovation equals realization." - Denis Waitley (contemporary American motivational speaker) HONESTY "Let us raise a standard to which the wise and honest can repair; the rest is in the hands of God." - George Washington (general, founding father, and first American president, 1732-1799) "Justice delayed is justice sweet." - Steven Colbert (contemporary author and television personality) "If you shut up the truth and bury it under the ground, it will but grow, and gather to itself such explosive power that the day it bursts through it will blow up everything in its way." - Emile Zola (French novelist, 1840-1902) "Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored." - Aldous Huxley (English writer, novelist, philosopher, 1894-1963) "It takes quite a while for the living to catch up with the believing, but of course it can. As we live up to the highest light we have, more light is given." - Peace Pilgrim (American peace activist, 1908-1981) "Every good thing you do, every good thing you say, every good thought you think, vibrates on and never ceases. The evil remains only until it is overcome by the good, but the good remains forever." - Peace Pilgrim (American peace activist, 1908-1981) "I like living. I have sometimes been wildly, despairingly, acutely miserable, racked with sorrow, but through it all I still know quite certainly that just to be alive is a grand thing." - Agatha Christie (English author, 1891-1976) "Dictators don't last long." - David J. Schwartz, Ph.D. (twentieth century American educator and author, University of Georgia) "If the right thing is established the wrong thing will fade away of its own accord because all things that are out of harmony contain within themselves the seeds of their own destruction." - Peace Pilgrim (American peace activist, 1908-1981) "It is said that hate injures the hater, not the hated." - Peace Pilgrim (American peace activist, 1908-1981) "Truth is always strong, no matter how weak it looks; and falsehood is always weak, no matter how strong it looks." - Phillip Brooks (American clergyman and author, 1835-1893) "Truth may be stretched, but cannot be broken, and always gets above falsehood, as oil does above water." - Miguel Cervantes (Spanish novelist, dramatist, poet, 1547-1616) "We may avoid the laws of man, but there are greater laws that can't be broken." - Earl Nightingale (American author, publisher, and motivational speaker, 1921-1989) "When we pick up one end of the stick, we pick up the other." - Stephen R. Covey (contemporary American author) "Almost all fear is fear of the unknown. The remedy: Become acquainted with the thing you fear." - Peace Pilgrim (American peace activist, 1908-1981) "Be willing to face life squarely and get down beneath the surface of life where the varieties and realities are to be found." - Peace Pilgrim (American peace activist, 1908-1981) "A human being has a natural desire to have more of a good thing than he needs." - Mark Twain (American author, 1835-1910) "Etiquette requires us to admire the human race." - Mark Twain (American author, 1835-1910) "Like most people, I often feel mean, and act accordingly." - Mark Twain (American author, 1835-1910) "To do good is noble. To teach others to do good is nobler... And less trouble." - Mark Twain (American author, 1835-1910) "When angry, count four; when very angry, swear." - Mark Twain (American author, 1835-1910) "Sex energy is the creative energy of all creative geniuses." - Napoleon Hill (author of Think and Grow Rich, 1883-1970) "You've got to love what's lovable, and hate what's hatable. It takes brains to see the difference." - Robert Frost (American poet, 1874-1963) "If you're a Republican, make sure you have some friends who are Democrats, and vice-versa." - David J. Schwartz, Ph.D. (twentieth century American educator and author, University of Georgia) "A positive approach inspires; a negative approach makes angry. When you make people angry, they act in accordance with their baser instincts, often violently and irrationally. When you inspire people, they act in accordance with their higher instincts, sensibly and rationally." - Peace Pilgrim (American peace activist, 1908-1981) "Adopt the motto: It doesn't matter who's right, but what's right." - Maxwell Maltz, M.D., F.I.C.S. (American author and surgeon, 1899-1975) "Give first-class treatment to your employees and you get first-class cooperation, first-class output. Think first-class about everyone around you and you'll receive first-class results." - David J. Schwartz, Ph.D. (twentieth century American educator and author, University of Georgia) "I have criticized absent people so often, and then discovered, to my humiliation, that I was talking with their relatives, that I have grown superstitious about that sort of thing and dropped it." - Mark Twain (American author, 1835-1910) "If you realize that those who do mean things are psychologically ill, your feelings of anger will turn to feelings of pity." - Peace Pilgrim (American peace activist, 1908-1981) "It were not best that we should all think alike; it is difference of opinion that makes horse races." - Mark Twain (American author, 1835-1910, from Pudd'nhead Wilson) "Life is too short to be little." - Benjamin Disraeli (English statesman, novelist, 1804-1881) "Opposition inflames the enthusiast, never converts him." - Friedrich von Schiller (German dramatist, poet, historian, 1759-1805) "Plant service and harvest money." - David J. Schwartz, Ph.D. (twentieth century American educator and author, University of Georgia) "Sometimes our light goes out but is blown into flame by an encounter with another human being. Each of us owes the deepest thanks to those who have rekindled this inner light." - Albert Schweitzer (philosopher, physician, and humanitarian, 1875-1965) "The most damaging forms of intolerance are connected with religious, racial, and political differences of opinion." - Napoleon Hill (author of Think and Grow Rich, 1883-1970) "The universal brotherhood of man is our most precious possession, what there is of it." - Mark Twain (American author, 1835-1910, from Following the Equator) "The way in which we think of ourselves has everything to do with how our world sees us." - Arlene Raven (American author, art historian, 1946-2006) "The world is a great mirror. It reflects back to you what you are. If you are loving, if you are friendly, if you are helpful, the world will prove loving and friendly and helpful to you. The world is what you are." - Thomas Dreier (American editor and writer, 1884-1976) "The world is ruled, and the destiny of civilization is established, by the human emotions." - Napoleon Hill (author of Think and Grow Rich, 1883-1970) "There's a good spot tucked away somewhere in everybody. You'll be a long time finding it, sometimes." - Mark Twain (American author, 1835-1910) "They say that you can't live by bread alone, but I can live on compliments." - Mark Twain (American author, 1835-1910) "Treat a man as he is and he will remain as he is. Treat a man as he can and should be and he will become as he can and should be." - Stephen R. Covey (contemporary American author) "Treat everyone with dignity. Remind yourself that the primary purpose in life is to enjoy it." - David J. Schwartz, Ph.D. (twentieth century American educator and author, University of Georgia) "We are lifted to higher levels by those who know us as likable, personable individuals. Every friend you make lifts you just one notch higher. And, being likable makes you lighter to lift." - David J. Schwartz, Ph.D. (twentieth century American educator and author, University of Georgia) "We awaken in others the same attitude of mind we hold toward them." - Elbert Hubbard (American publisher, moralist, author, 1856-1915) "We deserve the kind of treatment we think we deserve. Thinking does make it so." - David J. Schwartz, Ph.D. (twentieth century American educator and author, University of Georgia) "We learn nothing from telling, but there is no limit to what we can learn by asking and listening." - David J. Schwartz, Ph.D. (twentieth century American educator and author, University of Georgia) "What people really suffer from is immaturity. Among mature people war would not be a problem—it would be impossible." - Peace Pilgrim (American peace activist, 1908-1981) "When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much he had learned in seven years." - Mark Twain (American author, 1835-1910) WORK "Let the beauty we love be what we do." - Jelaluddin Rumi (Middle Eastern poet, 1207-1273) "I've met a few people who had to change their jobs in order to change their lives, but I've met many more people who merely had to change their motive to service in order to change their lives." - Peace Pilgrim (American peace activist, 1908-1981) "Hard work spotlights the character of people: some turn up their sleeves, some turn up their noses, and some don't turn up at all." - Sam Ewing (contemporary American writer) "Go confidently in the direction of your dreams, live the life you have imagined." - Henry David Thoreau (Transcendentalist, philosopher, poet, author, 1817-1862) "Get yourself a goal worth working for. Better still, get yourself a project." - Maxwell Maltz, M.D., F.I.C.S. (American author and surgeon, 1899-1975) "It is the greatest shot of adrenaline to be doing what you've wanted to do so badly. You almost feel like you could fly without the plane." - Charles Lindbergh (American aviator, explorer, inventor, and activist, 1902-1974) "All that a man does outwardly is but the expression and completion of his inward thought. To work effectively, he must think clearly; to act nobly, he must think nobly." - William Ellery Channing (minister, writer, 1780-1842) "Tell the world what you intend to do, but first show it." - Napoleon Hill (author of Think and Grow Rich, 1883-1970) "Give me a man who sings at his work." - Thomas Carlyle (Scottish essayist, historian, 1795-1881) "Two roads diverged in a wood, and I took the one less traveled, and that has made all the difference." - Robert Frost (American poet, 1874-1963) The Future "You must be the change you wish to see in the world." - Mohandas Gandhi (Indian spiritual and political leader, 1869-1948) "I hold that man is in the right who is most closely in league with the future." - Henrik Johan Ibsen (Norwegian playwright, father of realist theater, 1828-1906) "Sometimes when things are falling apart, they may actually be falling into place." - anonymous "The ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do." - Think Different, narrated by Steve Jobs (American inventor and entrepreneur, 1955-2011) "Look at things, not as they are, but as they can be. Visualization adds value to everything. A big thinker always visualizes what can be done in the future." - David J. Schwartz, Ph.D. (twentieth century American educator and author, University of Georgia) "The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams." - Eleanor Roosevelt (American first lady, peace activist, reformer, 1884-1962) Frodo: "What are we holding on to Sam?" Sam: "That there's some good in this world, Mr. Frodo and it's worth fighting for." - J.R.R. Tolkien (English author, 1892-1973, from Lord of the Rings, The Two Towers) "The best way to predict the future is to create it." - Peter Drucker (management consultant, educator, and author, 1909-2005) "Against the assault of humor nothing can stand." - Mark Twain (American author, 1835-1910, from The Mysterious Stranger) "All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident." - Arthur Schopenhauer (English philosopher, 1788-1860) "We have it in our power to begin the world over again." - Thomas Paine (American founding father, author, inventor, 1737-1809) "Even evil and evil-doing can be overcome by suggestion." - Emile Coué (French author and pharmacist, 1857-1926) "Faith, courage, optimism, looking forward, bring us new life and more life. Futility, frustration, living in the past are not only characteristic of 'old age'; they contribute to it." - Maxwell Maltz, M.D., F.I.C.S. (American author and surgeon, 1899-1975) "If we live good lives, the times are also good. As we are, such are the times." - Saint Augustine (Christian theologian, 354-430 CE) "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." - Margaret Mead (American anthropologist, 1901-1978) "Nothing is too good to be true." - Ernest Holmes (founder of Divine Science, Science of Mind, 1887-1960) "Our deeds determine us, as much as we determine our deeds." - George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans, English novelist, 1819-1880) "Perhaps one day the dreams of Utopists may be realized and humanity will shake off the chains of materialism which still separate us from what we think to be supernatural knowledge, but which, in reality, is already in us, only waiting to be discerned." - Emile Coué (French author and pharmacist, 1857-1926) "The best thing about the future is that it only comes one day at a time." - Abraham Lincoln (American president, 1809-1865) "The young do not know enough to be prudent, and therefore they attempt the impossible and achieve it, generation after generation." - Pearl S. Buck (American author, 1892-1973) "Thinking is hard work. That's why there are so few people doing it." - Henry Ford (American automobile manufacturer, 1863-1947) "To win the big stakes in this changed world, you must catch the spirit of the great pioneers of the past, whose dreams have given to civilization all that it has of value, the spirit which serves as the life-blood of our own country—your opportunity and mine, to develop and market our talents." - Napoleon Hill (author of Think and Grow Rich, 1883-1970) "Today I am born anew and my birthplace is a vineyard where there is fruit for all." - Og Mandino (American positive thinking author, 1923-1996) "We can only pay our debt to the past by putting the future in debt to ourselves." -John Buchan (Scottish novelist, poet, baron, Canadian politician, 1875-1940) "What you do may seem insignificant, but it's important that you do it." - Mohandas Gandhi (Indian spiritual and political leader, 1869-1948) "You see things; and you say, 'Why?' But I dream things that never were; and I say, 'Why not?' " - George Bernard Shaw (Irish-born English dramatist, 1856-1950) "Reading history will make you an optimist, but it will also make you a realist." - David Rothkopf (contemporary American author and businessman) "If you have come to help me, you are wasting your time. But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us struggle together." - Lilla Watson (contemporary Australian visual artist, activist and academic) "Let us realize that the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice." - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (American clergyman and civil rights leader, 1929-1968) "If we fear nothing and radiate love, we can expect good things to come." - Peace Pilgrim (American peace activist, 1908-1981) "A few really dedicated people can offset the ill effects of masses of out-of-harmony people, so we who work for peace must not falter." - Peace Pilgrim (American peace activist, 1908-1981) "A loving and kindly approach works between individuals, it works between groups and it would work between nations if nations had the courage to try it." - Peace Pilgrim (American peace activist, 1908-1981) "Live in the present. Do the things that need to be done. Do all the good you can each day. The future will unfold." - Peace Pilgrim (American peace activist, 1908-1981) "People allow themselves to be slaves of their bad habits and society's bad habits—but they have free will, and if they wish to be free they can." - Peace Pilgrim (American peace activist, 1908-1981) "Ultimate peace begins within; when we find peace within there will be no more conflict, nor more occasion for war." - Peace Pilgrim (American peace activist, 1908-1981) "We are all cells in the body of humanity—all of us, all over the world. Each one has a contribution to make, and will know from within what this contribution is." - Peace Pilgrim (American peace activist, 1908-1981) "When you do something for world peace, peace among groups, peace among individuals, or your own inner peace, you improve the total peace picture." - Peace Pilgrim (American peace activist, 1908-1981) "The lesson of the way of love is that evil can only be overcome by good. We don't need to reach out and tear down the things that are evil because nothing which is contrary to the law of love can endure." - Peace Pilgrim (American peace activist, 1908-1981) "Let us help the phoenix to rise from the ashes; let us help lay the foundation for a new renaissance; let us help to accelerate the spiritual awakening until it lifts us into the golden age which would come." - Peace Pilgrim (American peace activist, 1908-1981) "If you have a negative thought about a world situation, dwell upon the best that could happen in that situation." - Peace Pilgrim (American peace activist, 1908-1981) "All who act upon their highest motivations become a power for good. Know that every right thing you do—every good word you say—every positive thought you think—has a good effect." - Peace Pilgrim (American peace activist, 1908-1981) "When we hear a prediction of some disaster we need to throw the entire weight of our positive thought in the opposite direction!" - Peace Pilgrim (American peace activist, 1908-1981) "I give thanks for having already received this." - Florence Scovel Shinn (American artist, illustrator, spiritual teacher, and metaphysical writer, 1871-1940) "Everyone is a golden link in the chain of my good. " - Florence Scovel Shinn (American artist, illustrator, spiritual teacher, and metaphysical writer, 1871-1940) "There is a place that I am to fill and no one else can fill, something I am to do , which no one else can do." - Florence Scovel Shinn (American artist, illustrator, spiritual teacher, and metaphysical writer, 1871-1940) "When one has made one's demands upon the Universal, one must be ready for surprises. Everything may seem to be going wrong, when in reality it is going right." - Florence Scovel Shinn (American artist, illustrator, spiritual teacher, and metaphysical writer, 1871-1940) About the Author/Editor Nori Muster collected these quotations while working on her book, Dreaming Peace: The History of Positive Thinking and How to Use it in the 21st Century.