My eclectic collection of useful and inspirational quotes

 

"There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so" - William Shakespeare from "Hamlet"

"Speak what you feel, not what you ought to say"- William Shakespeare from "King Lear"

 

 BELIEF:

"Man is what he believes." - Anton Chekhov

"I am a good woman. I know it." - Arthur Miller from "The Crucible" (Elizabeth Proctor's response to unfounded accusations of witchcraft.)

"It's the repetition of affirmations that leads to belief. And once that belief becomes a deep conviction, things begin to happen." - Mohammed Ali

"The thing always happens that you really believe in; and the belief in a thing makes it happen." - Frank Lloyd Wright

"As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he." - Proverbs 23:7

"Faith is to believe what you cannot see; the reward is to see what you believe" - Saint Augustine

"All we are is the result of what we have thought. The mind is everything. What we think... we become." - Buddha (563-483 BC)

"When you really want to do something, in your heart of hearts, you will find a way, but if you don’t want to do something, you will find an excuse." Pat Farmer - Australian Ultra Marathon runner

"Men are not prisoners of fate, but only prisoners of their own minds." - Franklin D. Roosevelt

"Day by day in every way I am getting better and better." - Emile Coué

"Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one." - Albert Einstein

 

FEAR:

"To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom." - Bertrand Russell

"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 .... I can take the next thing that comes along'.... You must do the thing you think you cannot do." - Eleanor Roosevelt

"There is nothing to fear but fear itself"- Franklin D. Roosevelt

"There are no fears out there. There is nothing we cannot handle. It is just how we prepare ourselves mentaly and physically.." - Mahela Jayawardene

 CHANGE:

"It is not the strongest of the species that survive , nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change." - Charles Darwin

"Change is constant, the signal for rebirth. - Christina Baldwin

" Time does not change us. It just unfolds us." - Max Frisch

"When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change." - -Wayne Dyer

"Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced." - James A. Baldwin

“Change is the law of life and those that look only at the past or present are certain to miss the future." - John F. Kennedy

"When we can no longer change a situation, we are challanged to change ourselves" - Viktor Frankl

"We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them." - Albert Einstein

"They say that time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself." - Andy Warhol

“To be tested is good. The challenged life may be the best therapist.” - Gail Sheehy

 

POSITIVITY:

"I am an optimist - it does not seem to be much use being anything else." - Sir Winston Churchill

“While there's life, there's hope" - Cicero

Approaching adversity with a positive attitude at least gives you a chance for success. Approaching it with a defeatist attitude predestines the outcome: defeat. - Edward "Ted" Kennedy

 

 PERSISTANCE:

“Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.”  — Calvin Coolidge

" Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all." - Dale Carnegie

"If you're going through hell, keep going." - Winston Churchill

"I never ran 1000 miles. I could never have done that. I ran one mile 1000 times."- Stu Mittleman, World Record Holder for Ultra-Distance running.

"Energy and persistence conquer all things.”  - Benjamin Franklin

“Passion not pedigree, will win in the end.” - Jon Bon Jovi

"Never doubt that a small group of committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."  - Margaret Mead

"Patience serves as a protection against wrongs as clothes do against cold. For if you put on more clothes as the cold increases, it will have no power to hurt you. So in like manner you must grow in patience when you meet with great wrongs, and they will then be powerless to vex your mind." - Leonardo da Vinci

 

HAPPINESS:

"Happiness comes when your work and words are of benefit to yourself and others" - Buddha

"Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony." - Mohandas K. Gandhi

"Three grand essentials to happiness in life are: something to do, something to love, and something to hope for." - Joseph Addison

"Happiness is not a matter of intensity but of balance and order and rhythm and harmony," - Thomas Merton

"Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be" - Abraham Lincoln

 

 HUMOUR:

Laughter gives us distance. It allows us to step back from an event, deal with it and then move on." - Bob Newhart

 "Humour is a rubber sword - it allows you to make a point without drawing blood.” - Mary Hirsch

"You are only given a little spark of madness. You mustn’t lose it.” - Robin Williams

 

LIVING and FORGIVING:

Forget injuries, never forget kindnesses" - Confucius

 "The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong" - Mahatma Gandhi

"Holding on to anger is like holding on to a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned."  - Buddha

"We can learn lessons from the past, but we cannot live in it." - Lyndon B. Johnson

"No one can make you feel inferior without your consent"- Eleanor Roosevelt

 “The ability to be in the present moment is a major component of mental wellness" - Abraham H. Maslow

"Nothing is so strong as gentleness. Nothing is so gentle as real strength." - Frances de Sales

 “An eye for an eye only leads to more blindness.” - Margaret Atwood, Cat’s Eye

"You can't stop the waves but you can learn to surf." - Prof. Jon Kabat-Zinn

"No one can ride your back unless it's bent." - Martin Luther King Jr

“Plan for the future, because that is where you are going to spend the rest of your life." Mark Twain

 

IMAGINATION and CREATIVITY:

"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

 "Imagination is more important than knowledge" - Albert Einstein

"Creativity involves breaking out of established patterns in order to look at things in a different way.' - Edward de Bono

"Only when you are relaxed can you see what's going on." - Jane Campion, Film Director

"By giving up 'the need' and 'the want', things begin to happen for you" - Anthony Hopkins

 "Cherish forever what makes you unique, 'cuz you're really a yawn if it goes." - Bette Midler.

"If you hear a voice within you saying "You are not a painter," then by all means paint and that voice will be silenced." - Vincent Van Gogh

 “While intelligent people can often simplify the complex, a fool is more likely to complicate the simple.”- Dr Gerald Grumet in Readings

"If you are to succeed in anything, you must first be able to imagine it." - Emile Coué

 “One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one's work is terribly important." - Bertrand Russell

"Creativity is a great motivator because it makes people interested in what they are doing. Creativity gives hope that there can be a worthwhile idea. Creativity gives the possibility of some sort of achievement to everyone. Creativity makes life more fun and more interesting." - Edward de Bono

 

 WISDOM:

"Wisdom begins in wonder" - Socrates

"The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past, worry about the future, or anticipate troubles but to live in the present moment wisely and earnestly." - Buddha

"We doctors do nothing. We only help and encourage the doctor within“. - Albert Schweitzer, M.D.

“Plan for the future, because that is where you are going to spend the rest of your life." Mark Twain

 

 

"Stress is an ignorant state. It believes that everything is an emergency." - Natalie Goldberg - Wild Mind

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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HEAL........the past LIVE.....the present DREAM...the future