Great Throughts Treasury

"Calmness of mind is one of the beautiful jewels of wisdom. It is the result of long and patient effort in self-control. Its presence is an indication of ripened experience and of an extraordinary knowledge of the laws and operations of thought."

"All that you accomplish or fail to accomplish with your life is the direct result of your thoughts."

"A man has to learn that he cannot command things, but that he can command himself; that he cannot coerce the wills of others, but that he can mold and master his own will: and things serve him who serves Truth; people seek guidance of him who is master of himself. "

"Above all be of single aim; have a legitimate and useful purpose, and devote yourself unreservedly to it. "

"For true success ask yourself these four questions: Why? Why not? Why not me? Why not now? "

"Circumstances do not make the man, they reveal him. "

"Happiness is mental harmony; unhappiness is mental inharmony. "

"He who would accomplish little must sacrifice little; he who would achieve much must sacrifice much; he who would attain highly must sacrifice greatly. "

"Men are anxious to improve their circumstances, but are unwilling to improve themselves; they therefore remain bound. "

"It is a process of diverting one's scattered forces into one powerful channel. "

"Our life is what our thoughts make it. A man will find that as he alters his thoughts toward things and other people, things and other people will alter towards him. "

"No duty is more urgent than that of returning thanks. "

"The greatest achievement was at first and for a time a dream. The oak sleeps in the acorn, the bird waits in the egg, and in the highest vision of the soul a waking angel stirs. Dreams are the seedlings of realities."

"The law of harvest is to reap more than you sow. Sow an act, and you reap a habit. Sow a habit and you reap a character. Sow a character and you reap a destiny. "

"The man who cannot endure to have his errors and shortcomings brought to the surface and made known, but tries to hide them, is unfit to walk the highway of truth. "

"The very fact that you are a complainer, shows that you deserve your lot."

"The more tranquil a man becomes, the greater is his success, his influence, his power for good. Calmness of mind is one of the beautiful jewels of wisdom. "

"Whether you be man or woman you will never do anything in this world without courage. It is the greatest quality of the mind next to honor. "

"You will become as small as your controlling desire; as great as you dominant aspiration. "

"The will to do springs from the knowledge that we can do. "

"Self-control is strength. Right thought is mastery. Calmness is power."

"The outer conditions of a person's life will always be found to be harmoniously related to his inner state...Men do not attract that which they want, but that which they are"

"A person is limited only by the thoughts that he chooses"

"You are today where your thoughts have brought you; you will be tomorrow where your thoughts take you. "

"Man is made or unmade by himself. By the right choice he ascends. As a being of power, intelligence, and love, and the lord of his own thoughts, he holds the key to every situation."

"A man only begins to be a man when he ceases to whine and revile, and commences to search for the hidden justice which regulates his life. And he adapts his mind to that regulating factor, he ceases to accuse others as the cause of his condition, and builds himself up in strong and noble thoughts; ceases to kick against circumstances, but begins to use them as aids to his more rapid progress, and as a means of the hidden powers and possibilities within himself."

"Cherish your visions. Cherish your ideals. Cherish the music that stirs in your heart, the beauty that forms in your mind, the loveliness that drapes your purest thoughts. For out of them will grow all delightful conditions, all heavenly environment, of these, if you but remain true to them, your world will at last be built."

"Do not dwell upon the sins and mistakes of yesterday so exclusively as to have no energy and mind left for living rightly today, and do not think that the sins of yesterday can prevent you from living purely today."

"A man becomes calm in the measure that he understands himself as a thought-evolved being. For such knowledge necessitates the understanding of others as the result of thought, and as he develops a right understanding, and sees ever more clearly the internal relations of things by the action of cause and effect, he ceases to fuss, fume, worry, and grieve. He remains poised, steadfast, serene."

"A man is literally what he thinks, his character being the complete sum of all his thoughts."

"Cease to be a disobedient child in the school of experience, and begin to learn, with humility and patience, the lessons that are set for your ultimate perfection."

"Doubt and fear are the great enemies of knowledge."

"Men do not attract that which they want, but that which they are... The “divinity that shapes our ends” is in ourselves, it is our very self. Man is manacled only by himself: thought and action are the jailers of Fate - they imprison, being base; they are also the angels of Freedom - they liberate, being noble. Not what a man wishes and prays for does a man get, but what he justly earns."

"Until thought is linked with purpose there is no intelligent accomplishment."

"As the physically weak man can make himself strong by careful and patient training, so the man of weak thoughts can make them strong by exercising himself in right thinking."

"Mind is the master weaver, both of the inner garment of character and the outer garment of circumstance."

"Man is a growth by law, and not a creation by artifice, and cause and effect is as absolute and undeviating in the hidden realm of thought as in the world of visible and material things."

"Thought allied fearlessly to purpose becomes creative force."

"A man’s mind may be likened to a garden, which may be intelligently cultivated or allowed to run wild; but whether cultivated or neglected, it must and will, bring forth. If no useful seeds are put into it, then an abundance of useless weeds will fall therein, and will continue to produce their kind."

"Thought and character are one, and as character can only manifest and discover itself through environment and circumstance, the outer conditions of a person’s life will always be found to be harmoniously related to his inner state. This does not mean that a man’s circumstances at any given time are an indication of his entire character, but that those circumstances are so intimately connected with some vital thought element within himself that, for the time being, they are indispensable to his development."

"A man cannot directly choose his circumstances, but he can choose his thoughts, and so indirectly, yet surely, shape his circumstances."

"The Vision that you glorify in your mind, the Ideal that you enthrone in your heart - this you will build your life by, this you will become."

"And herein lies the secret of true power. Learn by constant practice, how to husband your resources, and concentrate them, at any moment, upon a given point."

"All that a man achieves and all that he fails to achieve is the direct result of his own thoughts."

"A man sooner or later discovers that he is the master-gardener of his soul, the director of his life. "

"Dream lofty dreams, and as you dream, so shall you become. Your vision is the promise of what you shall one day be; your ideal is the prophecy of what you shall at last unveil. "

"As you think, you travel; and as you love, you attract. You are today where your thoughts have brought you. You cannot escape the result of your thoughts, but you can endure and learn, can accept and be glad... Into your hands will be placed the exact results of your thoughts; you will receive that which you earn; no more, no less. "

"Disease and health, like circumstances, are rooted in thought... The people who live in fear of disease are the people who get it... Change of diet will not help a man who will not change his thoughts. When a man makes his thoughts pure, he no longer desires impure food... Clean thoughts make clean habits."

"Good thoughts and actions can never produce bad results; bad thoughts and actions can never produce good results. This is but saying that nothing can come from corn but corn, nothing from nettles but nettles. "

"He who cherishes a beautiful vision, a lofty ideal in his heart, will one day realize it. "