Reinhold Niebuhr

"Nothing worth doing is completed in our lifetime, therefore, we are saved by hope. Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone. Therefore, we are saved by love. No virtuous act is quite as virtuous from the standpoint of our friend or foe as from our own; therefore, we are saved by the final form of love which is forgiveness."

--Reinhold Niebuhr

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Buddhist Teaching

Act as if the future of the Universe depends on what you do, while laughing at yourself for thinking that your actions make any difference.

--Buddhist Teaching
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Neil B. Weisman

"Though there are exceptions, bigger is not always better, and louder is not always more true. There is much good to be found in ordinary days, even when they appear to be ho-hum and routine. So for inner health, seek deliverance from addictions to the spectacular. Cherish the ordinary. Woe to us who are so deafened by the whirlwind that we cannot hear the whisper."

--Neil B. Weisman
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Dag Hammarskjold

"I don't know Who--or What-- put the question. I don't know when it was put. I don't even remember answering. But at some moment I did answer 'Yes' to Someone--or Something--and from that hour was certain that existence is meaningful and that, therefore, my life, in self-surrender, had a goal."

--Dag Hammarskjold
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John W. Gardner

"We can keep ourselves so busy, fill our lives with so many diversions, stuff our heads with so much knowledge, involve ourselves with so many people and cover so much ground that we never have time to probe the fearful and wonderful world within."

--John W. Gardner
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Rose Kennedy

"Crowding a life does not always enrich it."

--Rose Kennedy
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Sheila Graham

"You can have anything you want if you want it desperately enough. You must want it with an inner exuberance that erupts through the skin and joins the energy that created the world."

--Sheila Graham
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Elbert Hubbard

"To have beautiful old age, you must live a beautiful youth, for we ourselves are posterity, and every man is his own ancestor. I am today because I was yesterday what I was."

--Elbert Hubbard

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Leo Buscaglia

"Ancient Egyptians believed that upon death they would be asked two questions and their answers would determine whether they could continue their journey in the afterlife. The first question was, 'Did you bring joy?' The second was, 'Did you find joy?'"

--Leo Buscaglia
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Martin Luther King, Jr.

"We must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive. He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love. There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies."

--Martin Luther King, Jr.

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Mahatma Gandhi

"Live as if you would die tomorrow; learn as if you would live forever."

--Mahatma Gandhi

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W. Beran Wolfe

"If you observe a really happy man you will find him building a boat, writing a symphony, educating his son, growing double dahlias in his garden. He will not be searching for happiness as if it were a collar button that has rolled under the radiator."

--W. Beran Wolfe

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Thich Nhat Hanh

"Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy."

--Thich Nhat Hanh

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Sophocles

"Wisdom is the supreme part of happiness."

--Sophocles

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Robert Louis Stevenson

"There is no duty we so underrated as the duty of being happy. By being happy we sow anonymous benefits upon the world."

--Robert Louis Stevenson

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James Oppenheim

"The foolish man seeks happiness in the distance, the wise grows it under his feet."

--James Oppenheim
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James M. Barrie

"Those who bring sunshine into the lives of others, cannot keep it from themselves."

--James M. Barrie
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Dennis Waitley

"Happiness cannot be traveled to, owned, earned, worn or consumed. Happiness is the spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace and gratitude."

--Dennis Waitley
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Brother David Steindl-Rast

"Gratefulness is the key to a happy life that we hold in our hands, because if we are not grateful, then no matter how much we have we will not be happy -- because we will always want to have something else or something more."

--Brother David Steindl-Rast

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Leo Tolstoy

"Work is necessary. If you want a good disposition of your spirit, work until you become tired. But not until you become exhausted. A good spiritual disposition can be destroyed by excessive work as well as by idleness."

--Leo Tolstoy

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Immanuel Kant

"One of the best and purest joys is having a rest after labor."

--Immanuel Kant

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Anne Frank

"The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quiet, alone with the heavens, nature and God. Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be and that God wishes to see people happy, amidst the simple beauty of nature."

--Anne Frank

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Algernon Black

"Why not let people differ about their answers to the great mysteries of the Universe? Let each seek one's own way to the highest, to one's own sense of supreme loyalty in life, one's ideal of life. Let each philosophy, each world-view bring forth its truth and beauty to a larger perspective, that people may grow in vision, stature and dedication."

--Algernon Black
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Hubert Humphrey

"Oh, my friend, it is not what they take away from you that counts. It’s what you do with what you have left."

--Hubert Humphrey

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Dr. William Menninger

"The amount of satisfaction you get from life depends largely on your own ingenuity, self-sufficiency, and resourcefulness. People who wait around for life to supply their satisfaction usually find boredom instead."

--Dr. William Menninger

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Dalai Lama

"If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion."

--Dalai Lama

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Horace Walpole

"The whole secret to life is to be interested in one thing profoundly and in a thousand things well."

--Horace Walpole

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Howard Thurman

"Don't ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and then go do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive."

--Howard Thurman

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Hannah Arendt

"The task and potential greatness of mortals lie in their ability to produce things—works and deeds and words—which deserve to be at home in everlastingness."

--Hannah Arendt
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Sarif Abdullah

“'Success' doesn’t mean I’ve saved an endangered species or cleaned up a toxic waste dump or fed hungry children. Success means awakening in myself a Spirit that can help make a better life for others. Success means I have acted in the world as though I were a part of it, not apart from it. Success means becoming conscious of and faithful to my values and my soul."

--Sarif Abdullah

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Winston Churchill

"Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm."

--Winston Churchill

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Ted Rosenthal

"I don’t think people are afraid of death, what they are afraid of is the incompleteness of their life."

--Ted Rosenthal

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Booker T Washington

"I have learned that success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles overcome while trying to succeed."

--Booker T. Washington

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Robert Byrne

"The purpose of life is a life of purpose."

--Robert Byrne

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Nelson Mandela

"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 .... Your playing small doesn't serve the world. There's nothing enlightened about shrinking. We are born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us."

--Nelson Mandela

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James A. Froude

"You cannot dream yourself into a character; you must hammer and forge yourself one."

--James A. Froude

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Gordon Dahl

"We need worship, work and play to keep us whole. Left to ourselves, we get it all mixed up and end up worshipping our work, working at our play, and playing at our worship."

--Gordon Dahl

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Reflections on Life

"Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away."

--Anonymous

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Winston Churchill

"We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give."

--Winston Churchill

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Reflections on Life

"You are younger today than you ever will be again. Make use of it for the sake of tomorrow."

--Anonymous

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Seneca

"It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare, it is because we do not dare that things are difficult."

--Seneca

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Mahatma Ghandi

"Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony."

--Mahatma Ghandi

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Indifference

"The opposite of love is not hate,
it's indifference.
The opposite of art is not ugliness,
it's indifference.
The opposite of faith is not heresy,
it's indifference.
And the opposite of life is not death,
it's indifference."

--Elie Wiesel

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The road

"'The road,' wrote Cervantes, 'is always better than the inn.' Those who settle on fame or fortune, and having arrived, call it quits, miss the whole point of life. Realistically, there is no inn, no ultimate point of arrival. It is the road now and forever, finite man probing infinity, finding his way, endlessly. All that matters are the lessons learned along the way."

--Leonard E. Read

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Emily Dickenson

"To live is so startling it leaves little time for anything else."

--Emily Dickenson

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Ayya Khema

"The greatest support we can have is mindfulness, which means being totally present in each moment. If the mind remains centered, it cannot make up stories about the injustice of the world or one's friends, or about one's desires or sorrows. Being mindful means being fully absorbed in the moment, leaving no room for anything else. We are filled with the momentary happening, whatever it is--standing or sitting or lying down, feeling pleasure or pain--and we maintain a nonjudgmental awareness, a 'just knowing.'"
--Ayya Khema

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M. Scott Peck

"One measure -- perhaps the best measure -- of a person's greatness is the capacity for suffering."

--M. Scott Peck

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Leo Tolstoy

"We do not have the right to be unhappy with our life. If it seems to us that we are not satisfied with life, we should see this as a reason to be unsatisfied with ourselves."

--Leo Tolstoy
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Dr. Micah Sadigh

"Existence is synonymous with purpose."

--Dr. Micah Sadigh

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T.S. Eliot

"Make voyages. Attempt them. There’s nothing else."

--T.S. Eliot

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Mary Mmanin Morrissey

"Some people live ninety years, some people live one year ninety consecutive times."

--Mary Mmanin Morrissey

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Agnes Repplier

"The entire sum of existence is the magic of being needed by just one person."

--Agnes Repplier

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Buddhist Teaching

If you want to know your past life,
look at your present condition,
if you want to know your future life,
look at your present actions.

--Buddhist Teaching

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Charles C. Noble

"You must have long-range goals to keep you from being frustrated by short-range failures."

--Charles C. Noble

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Rabindranath Tagore

"Death is not putting out a light. It is only extinguishing a lamp because the day has come."

--Rabindranath Tagore

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Dr. Joyce Brothers

"Trust your hunches. They’re usually based on facts filed away just below the conscious level."

--Dr. Joyce Brothers

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Albert Einstein

"Imagination is more important than knowledge."

--Albert Einstein

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Plutarch

"Fate leads him who follows it, and drags him who resists."

--Plutarch

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Robert H. Schuller

"Commit yourself to a dream…Nobody who tries to do something great but fails is a total failure because he succeeded in life’s most important battle—he defeated the fear of trying."

--Robert H. Schuller

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Epictetus

"There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond our control."

--Epictetus

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Benedictus Spinoza

"Happiness, pure happiness is a virtue in itself."

--Benedictus Spinoza

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Henry David Thoreau

"It is not enough to be a hard-working person. Think: what do you work at?"

--Henry David Thoreau

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Marcus Aurelius

"Life is short. Do not forget about the most important things in our life, living for other people and doing good for them."

--Marcus Aurelius

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Leo Tolstoy

"A person who knows all sciences but does not know himself is a poor and ignorant person. He who does not know anything except for his inner spiritual self is an enlightened person."

--Leo Tolstoy

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Bertrand Russell

"An individual’s human existence should be like a river--small at first, narrowly contained within its bounds, and seeking passionately past boulders and even waterfalls. Gradually the river grows wide, the banks recede, the waters flow more quietly, and in the end, without any visible break they become merged in the sea and painlessly lose their individual being."

--Bertrand Russell

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Lucius Annaeus Seneca

"Do not be interested in the quantity of people who respect and admire you, but in their quality. If bad people dislike you, so much the better."

--Lucius Annaeus Seneca

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Socrates

"Pleasure, luxury—these things you call happiness, but I think that to wish nothing is the happiness of God, and when you wish to have only small things, then you make yourself closer to this divine and high happiness."

--Socrates

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G.K.Chesterton

"The world will never starve for want of wonders, but for want of wonder."

--G.K.Chesterton

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Joseph Addison

"True happiness is of a retired nature, and an enemy to pomp and noise; it arises, in the first place, from the enjoyment of one’s self; and, in the next, from the friendship and conversation of a few select companions."

--Joseph Addison

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John Donne

"Be thine own palace, or the world’s thy jail."

--John Donne

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Albert Einstein

"One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery every day. Never lose a holy curiosity."

--Albert Einstein

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Leo Tolstoy

"Life is the constant approach of death; therefore, life can only be bliss when death does not seem to be an evil."

--Leo Tolstoy

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Democritus

"The happiness or unhappiness of a man does not depend upon the amount of property or gold he owns. Happiness or misery is in one’s soul. A wise man feels at home in every country. The whole universe is the home of a noble soul."

--Democritus

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C.S. Lewis

"Unsatisfied desire is in itself more desirable than any other satisfaction."

--C.S. Lewis

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Three ingredients of life

"There are three ingredients in the good life: learning, earning, and yearning."

--Christopher Morley

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Henry Chester

"Enthusiasm is the greatest asset in the world. It beats money and power and influence."

--Henry Chester

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Scott Nearing

"A person is not old until regrets take the place of hopes and plans. Work and interest in worthwhile things are the best remedy for aging."

--Scott Nearing

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Albert Schweitzer

"The tragedy of life is not in the fact of death. The tragedy of life is in what dies inside a man while he lives--the death of genuine feeling, the death of inspired response; the death of awareness that makes it possible to feel the pain or the glory of other men in oneself....No man need fear death: he need fear only that he may die without having known his greatest power--the power of his free will to give his life for others."

--Albert Schweitzer

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Henry David Thoreau

"The man is richest whose pleasures are cheapest."

--Henry David Thoreau

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Jean Paul Richter

"The test of pleasure is the memory it leaves behind."

--Jean Paul Richter

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Charles De Monstesquieu

"Constant idleness should be included in the tortures of hell, but it is, on the contrary, considered to be one of the joys of paradise."

--Charles De Monstesquieu

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Leo Tolstoy

"We only live for ourselves when we live for others."

--Leo Tolstoy

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John Ruskin

"Do not seek pleasure everywhere, but always be ready to find it."

--John Ruskin

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Samuel Smiles

"The secret of happiness? Enjoy small pleasures."

--Samuel Smiles

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Sir Roger L’Estrange

"It is with our passions, as it is with fire and water, they are good servants but bad masters."

--Sir Roger L’Estrange

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George Bernard Shaw

"You have no more right to consume happiness without producing it than to consume wealth without producing it."

--George Bernard Shaw

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Viktor E. Frankl

"Ultimately, man should not ask what the meaning of his life is, but rather he must recognize that it is he who is asked."

--Viktor E. Frankl

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Proverbs 3:13-18

Happy are those who find wisdom, and those who get understanding, for her income is better than silver, and her revenue better than gold. She is more precious than jewels, and nothing you desire can compare with her. Long life is in her right hand; in her left hand are riches and honor. Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace. She is the tree of life to those who lay hold of her; those who hold her fast are called happy.

--Proverbs 3:13-18

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Bertrand Russell

"One should respect public opinion insofar as it is necessary to avoid starvation and to keep out of prison, but anything that goes beyond this is voluntary submission to an unnecessary tyranny, and is likely to interfere with happiness in all kinds of ways."

--Bertrand Russell

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Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Most of the shadows of this life are caused by standing in our own sunshine."

--Ralph Waldo Emerson

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George Bernard Shaw

"This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; the being a force of nature instead of a feverish selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy. I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community and as long as I live it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can."

--George Bernard Shaw

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John Ruskin

"The will of God for us is to live in happiness and take an interest in the lives of others."

--John Ruskin

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Jermey Bentham

"A person becomes happy to the same extent to which he or she gives happiness to other people."

--Jermey Bentham

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George Washington

"There is no truth more thoroughly established than that there exists in the course of nature an indissoluble union between virtue and happiness."

--George Washington

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Thich Nhat Hanh

"Remember that there is only one important time and that is now. The present moment is the only time over which we have dominion. The most important person is always the person you are with, who is right before you, for who knows if you will have dealings with any other person in the future? The most important pursuit is making the person at your side happy, for that alone is the pursuit of life."

--Thich Nhat Hanh

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Channing Pollock

"Happiness is a way station between too much and too little."

--Channing Pollock

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Charles Swindoll

"Attitude to me, is more important than facts. It is more important that the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. We cannot change our past...we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the string we have, and that is our attitude."
--Charles Swindoll

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Benjamin Disraeli

"Action may not always bring happiness, but there is no happiness without action."

--Benjamin Disraeli

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B. Eugene Griessman

"Modern man thinks he loses something -- time -- when he does not do things quickly, yet he does not know what to do with the time he gains except kill it."

--B. Eugene Griessman

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Mihaly Csikszentmihayli

"Contrary to what we usually believe, the best moments in our lives are not the passive, receptive, relaxing times--although such experiences can be enjoyable, if we have worked hard to attain them. The best moments usually occur when a person’s body or mind is stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult and worthwhile."

--Mihaly Csikszentmihayli

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Rutherford B. Hayes

"Learn to know yourself to the end that you may improve your powers, your conduct, your character. This is the true aim of education and the best of all education is self-education."

--Rutherford B. Hayes

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Jimmy Stewart

"The secret of a happy life is to accept change gracefully."

--Jimmy Stewart

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Barbara Bush

"You don’t just luck into things as much as you’d like to think you do. You build step by step, whether it’s friendships or opportunities."

--Barbara Bush

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Arnold Bennett

"You have to live on this twenty-four hours of daily time. Out of it you have to spin health, pleasure, money, content, respect, and the evolution of your mortal soul. Its right use, its most effective use, is a matter of highest urgency."

--Arnold Bennett

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Dale Carnegie

"One of the most tragic things I know about human nature is that all of us tend to put off living. We are all dreaming of some magical rose garden over the horizon--instead of enjoying the roses that are blooming outside our windows today."

--Dale Carnegie

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Ralph Waldo Emerson

"What must I do is all that concerns me -- not what people think. It is easy in the world to live after the world’s opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own;-- but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude."

--Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Mary Cholomondeley

"Every year I live I am more convinced that the waste of life lies in the love we have not given, the powers we have not used, the selfish prudence which will miss nothing, and which, shirking pain, misses all happiness as well."

--Mary Cholomondeley

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Fulton Ousler

"We crucify ourselves between two thieves: regret for yesterday and fear of tomorrow."

--Fulton Ousler
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Willa Cather

"That is happiness: to be dissolved into something complete and great. When it comes to one, it comes as naturally as sleep."

--Willa Cather

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Carole Hyatt and Linda Gottlieb

"There are people who learn, who are open to what happens to them, who listen, who hear the lessons. . . . The question to ask is not whether you are a success or failure, but whether you are a learner or a nonlearner."

--Carole Hyatt and Linda Gottlieb

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Mignon McLauglin

"For the happiest life, days should be rigorously planned, nights left open to chance."

--Mignon McLauglin
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Amy E. Dean

"Tonight I’ll think about what I can mean to my life, not what my life can mean to me."

--Amy E. Dean
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Anne Morrow Lindbergh

"We tend not to choose the unknown, which might be a shock or disappointment or simply a little difficult to cope with. And yet it is the unknown with all its disappointments and surprises that is the most enriching."

--Anne Morrow Lindbergh
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Benjamin E. Mays

"It must be borne in mind that the tragedy of life does not lie in not reaching your goal. The tragedy lies in having no goal to reach. It isn’t a calamity to die with dreams unfulfilled, but it is a calamity not to dream. It is not a disgrace not to reach the stars, but it is a disgrace to have no stars to reach for."

--Benjamin E. Mays
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Eric Hoffer

"When people are bored, it is primarily with their own selves."

--Eric Hoffer
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R.I. Fitzhenry

"Uncertainty and mystery are energies of life. Don’t let them scare you unduly, for they keep boredom at bay and spark creativity."

--R.I. Fitzhenry
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Oscar Wilde

"Moderation is a fatal thing. Nothing succeeds like excess."

--Oscar Wilde

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Oscar Levant

"Happiness is not something you experience, it’s something you remember."

--Oscar Levant

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Aldous Huxley

"Actual happiness always looks pretty squalid in comparison with the overcompensations for misery. And, of course, stability isn’t nearly so spectacular as instability. And being contented has none of the glamour of a good fight against misfortune, none of the picturesqueness of a struggle with temptation, or a fatal overthrow by passion or doubt. Happiness is never grand."

--Aldous Huxley

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Alexander Pope

"Amusement is the happiness of those who cannot think."

--Alexander Pope

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Sydney J. Harris

"Regret for the things we did can be tempered with time; it is regret for the things we did not do that is inconsolable."

--Sydney J. Harris

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Winifred Holtby

"The crown of life is neither happiness nor annihilation; it is understanding. These are the moments of revelation which compensate for the chaos, the discomfort, the toil of living....These are the moments in which all the disorder of life assumes a pattern. We see; we understand; and immediately the intolerable burden becomes tolerable; we stand for a moment on the slopes of a great mountain from the summit of which we can see the truth, and thus enjoy the greatest felicity of which we are capable."
--Winifred Holtby

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Dag Hammarskjold

"In the last analysis it is our conception of death which decides our answers to all the questions life puts to us."

--Dag Hammarskjold
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Florida Scott-Maxwell

"I want to tell people approaching and perhaps fearing age that it is a time of discovery. If they say 'Of what?' I can only answer 'We must find out for ourselves, otherwise it wouldn’t be discovery.'”

--Florida Scott-Maxwell

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Reflections on Life

"When you were born, you cried, and the whole world rejoiced. Live such a life that when you die the world will cry and you will rejoice."

--Anonymous
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Sir Kenelm Digby

"One can have no happiness in this world or the next but by extreme and vehement love."

--Sir Kenelm Digby

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Michel De Montaigne

"To compose our character is our duty, not to compose books, and to win, not battles and provinces, but order and tranquility in our conduct. Our great and glorious masterpiece is to live appropriately."

--Michel De Montaigne

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Reflections on Life

"Youth is a gift of nature; aging is a work of art."

--Anonymous
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Carl Jung

"We must not forget that only a very few people are artists in life, that the art of life is the most distinguished and rarest of all the arts."

--Carl Jung

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Sydney J. Harris

"When I hear somebody sigh, 'Life is hard,' I am always tempted to ask, 'Compared to what?'”

--Sydney J. Harris

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Albert Einstein

"The man who regards his own life and that of his fellow creatures as meaningless is not merely unhappy but hardly fit for life."

--Albert Einstein

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Helen Hayes

"It is really about time that age was accepted as part of life too....We are afraid of growing old. And many of us spend more than half our waking hours trying to camouflage our age....There is nothing more beautiful than an unadorned old face with the lines that tell a story, a story of a life that has been lived with some fullness."

--Helen Hayes

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George Harris

"The art of living successfully consists of being able to hold two opposite ideas in tension at the same time; first, to make long-term plans as if we were going to live forever; and, second, to conduct ourselves daily as if we were going to die tomorrow."

--George Harris

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Toni Morrison

"As you enter positions of trust and power, dream a little before you think."

--Toni Morrison

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Kyle Samuel Crichton

"Life’s a pretty precious and wonderful thing. You can’t sit down and let it lap around you...you have to plunge into it; you have to dive through it! And you can’t save it, you can’t store it up; you can’t horde it in a vault. You’ve got to taste it; you’ve got to use it. The more you use the more you have...that’s the miracle of it!"

--Kyle Samuel Crichton

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George Jean Nathan

"My code of conduct is simply this: work hard; play to the allowable limit; disregard equally the good and bad opinion of others...live the moment to the utmost of its possibilities...and be satisfied with life always, but never with oneself."

--George Jean Nathan

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Ralph Waldo Emerson

"It is not length of life, but depth of life."

--Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Gian-Carlo Menotti

"Hell begins on the day when God grants us a clear vision of all that we might have achieved, of all the gifts which we have wasted, of all that we might have done which we did not do. For me the conception of Hell lies in two words: 'too late.'”

--Gian-Carlo Menotti
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Cardinal Newman

"Fear not that thy life shall come to an end, but rather fear that it shall never have a beginning."

--Cardinal Newman

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Walter M. Bortz

"The life which like the sun grows larger at its setting is the ideal."

--Walter M. Bortz

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Viktor E. Frankl

"In the concentration camps, we witnessed some of our comrades behave like swine while others behaved like saints. Man has both potentialities within himself; which one is actualized depends on decisions but not on conditions. The way in which a man accepts his fate and all the suffering it entails, the way in which he takes up his cross, gives him ample opportunity--even under the most difficult circumstances--to add a deeper meaning to his life. His unique opportunity lies in the way he bears his burden."
--Viktor E. Frankl

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Arthur Christopher Benson

"The essence of the whole situation is to have in one’s heart the romance of pilgrimage, to expect experience, both sweet and bitter, to desire the goal more than the prize; and to find the jewels of patience, hopefulness, and wisdom by the way, where one least expects to find them."

--Arthur Christopher Benson

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Cicero

"As I approve of a Youth that has something of the Old Man in him, so I am no less pleased with an Old Man that has something of the Youth."

--Cicero

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Edith Wharton

"In spite of illness, even of the archenemy, sorrow, one can remain alive long past the usual date of disintegration if one is unafraid of change, insatiable in intellectual curiosity, interested in big things, and happy in small ways."

--Edith Wharton

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Chilo

"The three things most difficult are: to keep a secret, to forget an injury, and to make good use of leisure."

--Chilo

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Mme. De Maintenon

"The true way to soften one’s troubles is to solace those of others."

--Mme. De Maintenon

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Alexandre Dumas

"Nothing succeeds like success."

--Alexandre Dumas
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J. Petit-Senn

"We tire of those pleasures we take, but never those we give."

--J. Petit-Senn

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Henry David Thoreau

"Do what you love. Know your own bone; gnaw at it, bury it, unearth it, and gnaw it still."

--Henry David Thoreau

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La Bruyere

"Life is a tragedy for those who feel, and a comedy for those who think."

--La Bruyere

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Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

"Life is the childhood of our immortality."

-- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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La Rouchefoucauld

"We are never so happy, nor so unhappy, as we suppose ourselves to be."

--La Rouchefoucauld

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Alan Alda

"You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. What you’ll discover will be wonderful. What you’ll discover will be yourself."

--Alan Alda

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Henry Ward Beecher

"It is defeat that turns bone to flint; it is defeat that turns gristle to muscle; it is defeat that makes men invincible."

--Henry Ward Beecher

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Walter T. Tatara

"Surely the shortest commencement address in history; and for me one of the most memorable; was that of Dr. Harold E. Hyde, President of New Hampshire’s Plymouth State College. He reduced his message to the graduating class to these three ideals: 'Know yourself; Socrates. Control yourself; Cicero. Give yourself; Christ.'"

--Walter T. Tatara

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Anais Nin

"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage."

--Anais Nin

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John Buchan

"'What would you call the highest happiness?' Wratislaw was asked. 'The sense of competence,' was the answer, without hesitation."

--John Buchan

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William Congreve

"Uncertainty and expectation are the joys of life. Security is an insipid thing, and the overtaking and possessing of a wish, discovers the folly of the chase."

--William Congreve

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Jean-Jacques Rosseau

"Every man has the right to risk his own life in order to save it."

--Jean-Jacques Rosseau

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Helen Keller

"Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing."

--Helen Keller

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Sir Winston Churchill

"Never give in. Never. Never. Never. Never."

--Sir Winston Churchill

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Dr. Rob Gilbert

"Losers visualize the penalties of failure. Winners visualize the rewards of success."

--Dr. Rob Gilbert

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Robert J. Hastings

"Stop pacing the aisles and counting the miles. Instead, climb more mountains, eat more ice cream, go barefoot oftener, swim more rivers, laugh more, and cry less. Life must be lived as we go along."

--Robert J. Hastings
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Margaret Fuller

"Men for the sake of getting a living forget to live."

--Margaret Fuller

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Richard Bach

"Here is the test to find whether your mission on earth is finished: If you’re alive, it isn’t."

--Richard Bach

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Henry Miller

"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."

--Henry Miller

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Saul Alinsky

"Once you accept your own death all of a sudden you’re free to live. You no longer care about your reputation. You no longer care except so far as your life can be used tactically -- to promote a cause you believe in."

--Saul Alinsky

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Woody Allen

"Eighty percent of success is showing up."

--Woody Allen

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Bertrand Russell

"Fear is the main source of superstition, and one of the main sources of cruelty. To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom."

--Bertrand Russell

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Elizabeth Clarke Dunn

"Change is an easy panacea. It takes character to stay in one place and be happy there."

--Elizabeth Clarke Dunn

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Joan McIntosh

"Accept the pain, cherish the joys, resolve the regrets; then can come the best of benedictions -- 'If I had my life to live over, I’d do it all the same.'”

--Joan McIntosh

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Joanna Field

"I began to have an idea of my life, not as the slow shaping of achievement to fit my preconceived purposes, but as the gradual discovery and growth of a purpose which I did not know."

--Joanna Field

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Rose Macaulay

"Life, for all its agonies of despair and loss and guilt, is exciting and beautiful, amusing and artful and endearing, full of liking and love, at times a poem and a high adventure, at times noble and at times very gay; and whatever (if anything) is to come after it -- we shall not have this life again."

--Rose Macaulay

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George Sand

"There is only one happiness in life, to love and be loved."

--George Sand

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George Bernard Shaw

"I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work the more I live. I rejoice in life for its own sake. Life is no 'brief candle' to me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got hold of for the moment, and want to make burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations."

--George Bernard Shaw

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Doris Mortman

"Until you make peace with who you are, you’ll never be content with what you have."

--Doris Mortman

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Sister Mary Lauretta

"To be successful, the first thing to do is fall in love with your work."

--Sister Mary Lauretta

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Dolores Ibarruri

"It is better to die on your feet than to live on your knees."

--Dolores Ibarruri

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Helen Hayes

"My mother drew a distinction between achievement and success. She said that 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."

--Helen Hayes

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Helen Keller

"No pessimist ever discovered the secret of the stars, or sailed to uncharted land, or opened a new heaven to the human spirit."

--Helen Keller

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Gladys Taber

"We need time to dream, time to remember, and time to reach the infinite. Time to be."

--Gladys Taber

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Gerald Brenan

"Everyone is a bore to someone. That is unimportant. The thing is to avoid being a bore to oneself."

--Gerald Brenan

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Carl Sandburg

"I want money in order to buy time to get the things that money will not buy."

--Carl Sandburg

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Soren Kierkegaard

"The greatest despair is not to become the person you were meant to be."

--Soren Kierkegaard

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Maharishi Mahesh Yogi

"The purpose of life is the expansion of happiness."

--Maharishi Mahesh Yogi

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Montesquieu

"If one only wished to be happy, this could easily be accomplished; but we wish to be happier than other people, and this is always difficult, for we believe others to be happier than they are."

--Montesquieu

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Frank Tibolt

"We should be taught not to wait for inspiration to start a thing. Action always generates inspiration. Inspiration seldom generates action."

--Frank Tibolt

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Norman Lear

"Life is made up of small pleasures. Happiness is made up of those tiny successes. The big ones come too infrequently. And if you don’t collect all these tiny successes the big ones don’t really mean anything."

--Norman Lear

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Dr. Samuel Johnson

"Adversity is the state in which a man most easily becomes acquainted with himself, being especially free from admirers then."

--Dr. Samuel Johnson

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Edith Wharton

"If only we’d stop trying to be happy we could have a pretty good time."

--Edith Wharton

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Charlie Brown

"This is my 'depressed stance.' When you’re depressed, it makes a lot of difference how you stand. The worst thing you can do is straighten up and hold your head high because then you’ll start to feel better. If you’re going to get any joy out of being depressed, you’ve got to stand like this."

--Charlie Brown

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Virgil Thomson

"Try a thing you haven’t done three times. Once, to get over the fear of doing it. Twice, to learn how to do it. And a third time, to figure out whether you like it or not."

--Virgil Thomson

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Charles Caleb Colton

"Happiness, that grand mistress of the ceremonies in the dance of life, impels us through all its mazes and meanderings, but leads none of us by the same route."

--Charles Caleb Colton

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Dr. Harold W. Dodds

"It is the feeling that nothing is worthwhile that makes men ill and unhappy."

--Dr. Harold W. Dodds

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William Henry Channing

"To live content with small means; to seek elegance rather than luxury, and refinement rather than fashion; to be worthy, not respectable, and wealthy not rich; to study hard, think quietly, act frankly; to listen to stars and birds and babes and sages, with open heart, to bear all cheerfully, do all bravely, await occasions, hurry never; in a word, to let the spiritual, unbidden and unconscious, grow up through the commonplace. This is to be my symphony."

--William Henry Channing

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Ken Blanchard

"I believe that the ultimate in self-actualization is when a person is confused about the difference between employment and recreation."

--Ken Blanchard

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Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

"If you treat an individual as if he were what he ought to be and could be, he will become what he ought to be and could be."

--Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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Mark Twain

"Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you too can be great."

--Mark Twain

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Martin Luther King, Jr.

"If you are called to be a street sweeper, sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. Sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, 'Here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.'”

--Martin Luther King, Jr.

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Bernard Berenson

"I would if I could, stand on a busy corner, hat in hand and beg people to throw me all their wasted hours."

--Bernard Berenson

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Hohn Greenleaf Whittier

"For of all sad words of tongue or pen,
the saddest are these: ‘It might have been!’"

--Hohn Greenleaf Whittier
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Robert G. Ingersoll

"Justice is the only worship. Ignorance is the only slavery. Happiness is the only good. The time to be good is now. The place to be happy is here. The way to be happy is to make other people so."

--Robert G. Ingersoll

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A.L. Kitselman

"The words 'I am...' are potent words; be careful what you hitch them to. The thing you’re claiming has a way of reaching back and claiming you."

--A.L. Kitselman

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Reflections on Life

"What would you do if you knew you could not fail?"

--Anonymous
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Mother Teresa

"It is not how much you do but how much love you put into what you are doing."

--Mother Teresa


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Phillip Adams

"When people say to me: 'How do you do so many things?' I often answer them, without meaning to be cruel: 'How do you do so little?' It seems to me that people have vast potential. Most people can do extraordinary things if they have the confidence to take the risks. Yet most people don’t. They sit in front of the telly and treat life as if it goes on forever."

--Phillip Adams

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Walter Bagehot

"The greatest pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do."

--Walter Bagehot

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Denis Waitley

"Since the mind is a specific bio-computer, it needs specific instructions and directions. The reason most people never reach their goals is that they don’t define them, or ever consider them as believable or achievable."

--Denis Waitley

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Margaret Young

"Often people attempt to live their lives backwards; they try to have more things, or more money, in order to do more of what they want, so they will be happier. The way it actually works is the reverse. You must first be who you really are, then do what you need to do, in order to have what you want."

--Margaret Young

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H.L. Hunt

"Decide what you want, decide what you are willing to exchange for it. Establish your priorities and go to work."

--H.L. Hunt

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Georges Rouault

"Anyone can revolt. It is more difficult silently to obey our own inner promptings, and to spend our lives finding sincere and fitting means of expression for our temperament and our gifts."

--Georges Rouault

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Alexis Carrel

"To accomplish our destiny it is not enough to merely guard against road accidents. We must also cover before nightfall the distance assigned to each of us."

--Alexis Carrel

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Erica Jong

"Everyone has talent. What is rare is the courage to follow the talent to the dark place where it leads."

--Erica Jong

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David Lloyd George

"Don’t be afraid to take a big step if one is indicated. You can’t cross a chasm in two small jumps."

--David Lloyd George

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African proverb

"Do not look where you fell, but where you slipped."

--African proverb

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Erich Fromm

"Man’s main task in life is to give birth to himself, to become what he potentially is."

--Erich Fromm

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Jewish Theological Seminary

"A life is a single letter in the alphabet. It can be meaningless. Or it can be part of great meaning."

--Jewish Theological Seminary

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Samuel Butler

"Life is playing a violin solo in public and learning the instrument as one goes on."

--Samuel Butler

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Primo Levi

"Sooner or later in life everyone realizes that perfect happiness is unattainable, but there are few who pause to consider the antithesis: that perfect unhappiness is equally unattainable. The obstacles preventing the realization of both of those extreme states are of the same nature: they derive from our human condition which is opposed to everything infinite. The ever-insufficient knowledge of the future opposes it. The certainty of death opposes it: for it places a limit on every joy, but also on every grief."
--Primo Levi

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Marcel Proust

"We don’t receive wisdom; we must discover it for ourselves after a journey that no one can take for us or spare us."

--Marcel Proust

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Henry David Thoreau

"I think there is nothing, not even crime, more opposed to poetry, to philosophy, ay, to life itself than this incessant business."

--Henry David Thoreau

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H. L. Mencken

"There is only one honest impulse at the bottom of Puritanism, and that is the impulse to punish the man with a superior capacity for happiness."

--H. L. Mencken

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Bertrand Russell

"Contempt for happiness is usually contempt for other people’s happiness, and is an elegant disguise for hatred of the human race."

--Bertrand Russell

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Aldous Huxley

"Happiness is like coke -- something you get as a by-product in the process of making something else."

--Aldous Huxley

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R. H. Tawney

"If man has important work, and enough leisure and income to enable him to do it properly, he is in possession of as much happiness as is good for any of the children of Adam."

--R. H. Tawney

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Robert Frost

"Happiness makes up in height what it lacks in length."

--Robert Frost

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Countess of Blessington

"There is no cosmetic for beauty like happiness."

--Countess of Blessington

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Theodore Roosevelt

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; who knows the triumph of great achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those timid souls who know neither victory or defeat."
--Theodore Roosevelt

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Allan K. Chalmers

"The grand essentials of happiness are: something to do, something to love, and something to hope for."

--Allan K. Chalmers

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Eric Hoffer

"The majority prove their worth by keeping busy. A busy life is the nearest thing to a purposeful life."

--Eric Hoffer

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Bertrand Russell

"To be without some of the things you want is an indispensable part of happiness."

--Bertrand Russell

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Christopher Morley

"There is only one success -- to be able to spend your life in your own way."

--Christopher Morley

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Ralph Waldo Emerson

"People wish to be settled; only as far as they are unsettled is there any hope for them."

--Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Abbe Prince

"What matters is not the difference between those who believe and those who don’t, but those who care and those who don’t."

--Abbe Prince

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Arthur Schopenhauer

"The two foes of human happiness are pain and boredom."

--Arthur Schopenhauer

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Logan Pearsall Smith

"There are two things to aim at in life: first, to get what you want; and, after that, to enjoy it. Only the wisest of mankind achieve the second."

--Logan Pearsall Smith

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Robert S. De Ropp

"What people really need and demand from life is not wealth, comfort, or esteem but games worth playing. He who cannot find a game worth playing is apt to fall prey to accidie -- paralysis of the will, a failure of appetite, a condition of generalized boredom, total disenchantment -- 'God, of God, how weary, stale, flat and unprofitable seem to me all the uses of this world!'”

--Robert S. De Ropp

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Publilius Syrus

"No man is happy who does not think himself so."

--Publilius Syrus

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Cervantes

"Make it thy business to know thyself, which is the most difficult lesson in the world."

--Cervantes

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Doris Lessing

"It’s not damaging, it’s not poisoning to do without something one really wants...What’s terrible is to pretend that the second-rate is first-rate. To pretend that you don’t need love when you do; or that you like your work when you know quite well you’re capable of better."

--Doris Lessing

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Garrison Keillor

"Some luck lies in not getting what you thought you wanted but getting what you have, which once you have got it you may be smart enough to see is what you would have wanted had you known."

--Garrison Keillor

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George E. Vallant

"Hans Selye is wrong; it is not stress that kills us. It is effective adaptation to stress that permits us to live."

--George E. Vallant

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Edward Dahlberg

"Man pines to live but cannot endure the days of his life."

--Edward Dahlberg

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Henry Beecher Ward

"Happiness is not the end of life: character is."

--Henry Beecher Ward

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Ralph Waldo Emerson

"To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded."

--Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Benjamin Franklin

"Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time; for that is the stuff life is made of."

--Benjamin Franklin

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Mark Twain

"Plan for the future because that’s where you are going to spend the rest of your life."

--Mark Twain

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John Howe

"What folly to dread the thought of throwing away life at once, and yet to have no regard to throwing it away by parcels and piecemeal."

--John Howe

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Peter M. Senge

"The essence of personal mastery is learning how to generate and sustain creative tension in our lives."

--Peter M. Senge

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Hosea Ballou

"Weary the path that does not challenge."

--Hosea Ballou

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Matthew Arnold

"To have the sense of creative activity is the great happiness and great proof of being alive."

--Matthew Arnold

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Rollo May

"One of the ironies of the human being is that when he has lost his way, he travels twice as fast."

--Rollo May

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Ralph Waldo Emerson

"When a man begins to live more seriously within, he begins to live more simply without."

--Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Thomas Robert Gaines

"It is good to dream, but it is better to dream and work. Faith is mighty, but action with faith is mightier. Desiring is good, but work and desire are invincible."

--Thomas Robert Gaines

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Ernest Becker

"People are capable of the highest generosity and self-sacrifice. But they have to feel and believe that what they are doing is truly heroic, timeless, and supremely meaningful. The crisis of modern society is precisely that people no longer feel heroic."

--Ernest Becker

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Jules Renard

"As I grow to understand life less and less, I learn to live it more and more."

--Jules Renard

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Arthur Somers Roche

"Worry is a thin stream of fear trickling through the mind. If encouraged, it cuts a channel into which all other thoughts are drained."

--Arthur Somers Roche

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Gilda Radner

"I wanted a perfect ending...Now I’ve learned the hard way that some poems don’t rhyme, and some stories don’t have a clear beginning, middle and end. Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what’s going to happen next. Delicious ambiguity."

--Gilda Radner

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Charles Schultz

"Life is like a ten-speed bike. Most of us have gears we never use."

--Charles Schultz

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Maltbie D. Babcock

"Life is what we are alive to. It is not length but breadth. To be alive only to appetite, pleasure, pride, money-making, and not to goodness, kindness, purity, love, history, poetry, music, flowers, stars, God and eternal hope is to be all but dead."

--Maltbie D. Babcock

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Harry Emerson Fosdick

"No horse gets anywhere until he is harnessed. No steam or gas ever drives anything until it is confined. No Niagara is ever turned into light and power until it is tunneled. No life ever grows great until it is focused, dedicated, disciplined."

--Harry Emerson Fosdick

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John Ruskin

"The highest reward for man’s toil is not what he gets for it but what he becomes by it."

--John Ruskin

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Samuel Ullman

"Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul. Worry, doubt, self-distrust, fear and despair -- these bow the heart and turn the spirit to dust. Whether sixty or sixteen, there is in every human beings heart the love of wonder, the unfailing appetite for what-next, and the joy of the game of living. You are as young as your faith, as old as your doubt; as young as our self-confidence, as old as your fear; as young as your hope, as old as your despair."

--Samuel Ullman
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William Osler

"Throw away all ambition beyond that of doing the day’s work well. The travelers on the road to success live in the present, heedless of taking thought for the morrow. Live neither in the past nor in the future, but let each day’s work absorb your entire energies, and satisfy your widest ambition."

--William Osler

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Henrick Ibsen

"Money may be the husk of many things, but not the kernel. It brings you food, but not appetite; medicine, but not health; acquaintances, but not friends; servants, but not loyalty; days of joy, but not peace or happiness."

--Henrick Ibsen

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Nikki Giovanni

"Everything will change. The only question is growing up or decaying."

--Nikki Giovanni

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Dorothy L. Sayer

"The worst sin -- perhaps the only sin -- passion can commit, is to be joyless."

--Dorothy L. Sayer

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Thomas Merton

"A happiness that is sought for ourselves alone can never be found; for a happiness that is diminished by being shared is not big enough to make us happy."

--Thomas Merton

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William Lyon Phelps

"The fear of life is the favorite disease of the 20th century."

--William Lyon Phelps

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Mark Twain

"Put all your eggs in one basket and WATCH THAT BASKET!"

--Mark Twain

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Mihaly Csikszentmihayli

"Happiness is not something that happens. It is not the result of good fortune or random chance. It is not something that money can buy or power command. It does not depend on outside events, but rather how we interpret them. Happiness, in fact, is a condition that must be prepared for, cultivated, and defended privately by each person. People who learn to control inner experience will be able to determine the quality of their lives, which is as close as any of us can come to being happy."
--Mihaly Csikszentmihayli

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Susan Ertz

"Millions long for immortality who do not know what to do with themselves on a rainy Sunday afternoon."

--Susan Ertz

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Zoe Atkins

"Nothing seems so tragic to one who is old as the death of one who is young, and this alone proves that life is a good thing."

--Zoe Atkins

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Edith Wharton

"If we’d only stop trying to be happy we’d have a pretty good time."

--Edith Wharton
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Coco Chanel

"There is a time for work. And a time for love. That leaves no other time."

--Coco Chanel

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Dorothy Canfield Fisher

"There are two ways to meet life; you may refuse to care until indifference becomes a habit, a defensive armor, and you are safe -- but bored. Or you can care greatly -- till life breaks you on its wheel."

--Dorothy Canfield Fisher

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Bo Lozoff

"It is not service but altruism that makes us happy."

--Bo Lozoff

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Beverly Sills

"You may be disappointed if you fail, but you are doomed if you don’t try."

--Beverly Sills

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Rainer Maria Rilke

"Be patient with all that is unresolved in your heart, and try to love the questions themselves. Do not seek for the answers that cannot be given, for you wouldn't be able to live with them, and the point is to live everything. Live the questions now, and perhaps without knowing it, you will live along someday into the answers."

--Rainer Maria Rilke

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Colette

"What a wonderful life I’ve had! I only wish I’d realized it sooner."

--Colette

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Storm Jameson

"Happiness comes of the capacity to feel deeply, to enjoy simply, to think freely, to risk life, to be needed."

--Storm Jameson

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Soren Kierkegaard

"Life is not a problem to be solved but a reality to be experienced."

--Soren Kierkegaard

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Pablo Picasso

"It is your work in life that is the ultimate seduction."

--Pablo Picasso
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Alfred North Whitehead

"The art of progress is to preserve order amid change and change amid order."

--Alfred North Whitehead

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Samuel Johnson

"Great works are performed not by strength but perseverance."

--Samuel Johnson

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Booker T. Washington

"Success is to be measured not so much by the position one has reached as by the obstacles which he has overcome while trying to succeed."

--Booker T. Washington

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Paul Tillich

"To live means sharing one another’s space, dreams, sorrows, contributing our ears to hear, our eyes to see, our arms to hold, our hearts to love."

--Paul Tillich

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Charles Holton

"It is good to act 'as if'. It is even better to grow to a point where it is no longer an act."

--Charles Holton

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Meister Eckhart

"Treat all things as if they were loaned to you without any ownership -- whether body or soul, sense or strength, external goods or honors, house or hall...everything."

--Meister Eckhart

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Fr. Ralph Pfau

"You can’t be a good egg all your life --you either have to hatch or go bad."

--Fr. Ralph Pfau

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Henry David Thoreau

"If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unimagined in common hours."

--Henry David Thoreau

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