Nobody grows old
merely by living a number of years.
We grow old by deserting our ideals.
Years may wrinkle the skin,
but to give up enthusiasm
wrinkles the soul.
The difference between
a flower and a weed
is a judgement.
Ability
is what you’re capable of doing.
Motivation
determines what you do.
Attitude
determines how well you do it.
There are no menial jobs,
only menial attitudes.
You can complain
because roses have thorns,
or you can rejoice
because thorns have roses.
There is real magic in enthusiasm.
It spells the difference between mediocrity
and accomplishment.
Better to light a candle
than to curse the darkness.
Life is 10 percent what happens to me
and 90 percent how I react to it.
When work,
commitment and pleasure
all become one
and you reach that deep
well where passion lives,
nothing is impossible.
A pessimist sees the difficulty
in every opportunity;
an optimist sees the opportunity
in every difficulty.
Temper gets you into trouble.
Pride keeps you there.
The last of the human freedoms
is to choose one’s attitudes.
It’s not true that nice guys finish last.
Nice guys are winners
before the game even starts.
It’s a funny thing about life.
If you refuse to accept anything but the best,
you very often get it.
Thoughts are things;
they have tremendous power.
Thoughts of doubt and fear
are pathways to failure.
When you conquer negative attitudes
of doubt and fear,
you conquer failure.
Thoughts crystallize into habit
and habit solidifies into circumstance.
Nothing great in the world
has ever been accomplished
without passion.
Fear less, hope more;
Whine less, breathe more;
Talk less, say more;
Hate less, love more;
And all good things are yours.
Your living is determined not so much
by what life brings to you
as by the attitude you bring to life;
not so much by what happens to you
as by the way your mind looks at what happens.
The mind is its own place,
and in itself,
can make heaven of hell
and a hell of heaven.
You know quite well, deep within you,
that there is only a single magic,
a single power, a single salvation…
and that is called loving.
Well, then, love your suffering.
Do not resist it, do not flee from it.
it is your aversion that hurts, nothing else.
The soul would have no rainbow
if the eyes had no tears.
To be upset over what you don’t have
is to waste what you do have.
Most people have a desire
to look at the exception
instead of the desire
to become exceptional.
I always view problems
as opportunities in work clothes.
The art of being yourself at your best
is the art of unfolding your personality
into the person you want to be…
Be gentle with yourself,
learn to love yourself,
to forgive yourself,
for only as we have the right attitude
toward ourselves can we have
the right attitude toward others.
The positive thinker sees the invisible,
feels the intangible,
and achieves the impossible.
Love the moment,
and the energy of that moment
will spread beyond all boundaries.
Life has no other discipline to impose,
if we would but realize it,
than to accept life unquestioningly.
Everything we shut our eyes to,
everything we run away from,
everything we deny, denigrate, or despise,
serves to defeat us in the end.
What seems nasty, painful, evil,
can become a source of beauty, joy,
and strength, if faced with an open mind.
Every moment is a golden one for him
who has the vision to recognize it as such.
Realize that if you have time
to whine and complain about something
then you have the time
to do something about it.
Keep your face to the sunshine
and you cannot see the shadow.
An optimist is a fellow who believes
a housefly is looking for a way to get out.
Every hour of the day and night
is an unspeakably perfect miracle.
If life gives you a lemon,
make lemonade.
Beauty in things exists in the mind
which contemplates them.
Your attitude
determines your action.
Your action
determines your accomplishment.
No rain, no rainbows.
When we are angry about having a problem,
we are choosing anger as a way of continuing
not to look at whatever it is
that is being brought to our attention.
No pessimist ever discovered the secret of the stars,
or sailed to an uncharted land,
or opened a new doorway for the human spirit.
The cynic knows the price of everything
and the value of nothing.