Great Throughts Treasury

"Fear can infect us early in life until eventually it cuts a deep groove of apprehension in all our thinking. To counteract it, let faith, hope and courage enter your thinking. Fear is strong, but faith is stronger yet."

"How do you find the happiness that you want?... Do those things which give you the deepest, most exquisite feelings of joy... It isn’t what you do for yourself that really makes you happy, though it may give you justifiable pleasure, but what you do for others."

"In an emotionally healthy person there must be self-love as well as love of others. Lack of self-esteem is probably the most common emotional ailment."

"Have a good healthy faith in yourself - you are greater than you think."

"Love life and live love."

"Go out and get interested in the human problems that are everywhere around us. Help to improve the human lot. This service of love is perhaps the healthiest attitude in this world. It puts one into the main stream of the human race, where the profound problems re, and as one participates and gets involved and learns to know people and they him, one is loving and being loved and life becomes good - very good. Love is never a soft, genial attitude, indeed it is far from it. For example, when you really love the poor and underprivileged, you will get and fight for better conditions for all men. The fight is often against prejudice and entrenched greed, and it is no easy struggle to overcome these. But love is tough and never gives up as long as one of God’s children is the victim of injustice and mistreatment."

"Humble people don’t think less of themselves… they just think about themselves less."

"One truth emerges clearly in my mind - the universal need of love. Whether they think they do or not, all people want love... They cannot survive without love; they must have it or they will perish. For without love, we lose the will to live. Our mental and physical vitality is impaired, our resistance is lowered, and we succumb to illnesses that often prove fatal."

"Love is a very complex emotion, requiring a richness of personality and a great variety of talents.. It develops also into the abstract feeling for things or ideas, for beauty and learning, and, finally, into a feeling for the Supreme Being."

"The first person one must learn to love is oneself. If you do not love yourself, and by that is meant respect and esteem for your own self, you will not be able to love anyone else."

"There is a perennial nobleness, and even sacredness, in work. Were a man ever so benighted, or forgetful of his high calling, there is always hope in him who actually and earnestly works; in idleness alone is there perpetual despair."

"Sentiment and nobility and love are immortal... Tenderness and loyalty, and patience, and self-sacrifice, and devotion to duty - these are life’s natural aspirations."

"Think a dynamic future - work in a dynamic present."

"There seemed to be nothing she could add to the material things we already had. And so she offered something of far greater value: a gift of the heart, an act of kindness carried out in our name."

"We grow as our relationships grow."

"Be humble, be big in mind and soul, be kindly; you will like yourself that way and so will other people."

"Change your thoughts and you change your world."

"To experience the satisfaction and enjoyment of success in life, a definitive goal is essential... Strong and organized purposefulness toward a definitive objective will focus your powers into a strong motivation in attainment of your goal."

"No matter how dark things seem to be or actually are, raise your sights and see the possibilities – always see them, for they're always there."

"To have enthusiasm for life, act as if you did possess it and you shall have it."

"Action is a great restorer and builder of confidence. Inaction is not only the result, but the cause, of fear. Perhaps the action you take will be successful; perhaps different action or adjustments will have to follow. But any action is better than no action at all."

"The way to happiness: Keep your heart free from hate, your mind from worry. Live simply, expect little, give much. Scatter sunshine, forget self, think of others. Try this for a week and you will be surprised."

"Empty pockets never held anyone back. Only empty heads and empty hearts can do that."

"Optimism, when applied to your life, develops strength and peace within you."

"If you want a quality, act as if you already have it. If you want to be courageous, act as if you were - and as you act and persevere in acting, so you tend to become."

"What the mind can conceive and believe,and the heart desire,you can achieve."

"Stand up to your obstacles and do something about them. You'll find they haven't half the strength you think they have."

"Be so strong that nothing can disturb your peace of mind. Talk health, happiness, and prosperity to every person you meet. Make all your friends feel there is something special in them. Look at the sunny side of everything. Think only the best, be as enthusiastic about the success of others as you are about your own. Forget the mistakes of the past and press on to the greater achievements of the future. Give everyone a smile. Spend so much time improving yourself that you have no time left to criticize others. Be too big for worry and too noble for anger."

"Believe in yourself! Have faith in your abilities! Without a humble but reasonable confidence in your own powers you cannot be successful or happy."

"Become a possibilitarian. No matter how dark things seem to be or actually are, raise your sights and see possibilities -- always see them, for they're always there."

"Plant seeds of expectation in your mind; cultivate thoughts that anticipate achievement. Believe in yourself as being capable of overcoming all obstacles and weaknesses."

"When you wholeheartedly adopt a 'with all your heart' attitude and go all out with the positive principle, you can do incredible things. "

"Believe it is possible to solve your problem. Tremendous things happen to the believer. So believe the answer will come. It will."

"Americans used to roar like lions for liberty; now we bleat like sheep for security."

"It's always to soon to quit!"

"Those who are fired with an enthusiastic idea and who allow it to take hold and dominate their thoughts find that new worlds open for them. As long as enthusiasm holds out, so will new opportunities."

"Enthusiasm spells the difference between mediocrity and accomplishment."

"Through persistence, self-knowledge, prayer, commitment, optimism, a resolute trust in God, and the building of your own personal moral strength, you can enjoy the blessings of a deeper faith, and face the difficulties of life with courage and confidence."

"Deep within the individual is a vast reservoir of untapped power awaiting to be used. No person can have the use of all this potential until he learns to know his or her own self. The trouble with many people is that they got through life thinking and writing themselves off as ordinary commonplace persons. Having no proper belief in themselves they live aimless and erratic lives largely because they never realize what their lives really can be or what they can become."

"If you want things to be different, perhaps the answer is to become different yourself."

"A vital part of the happiness formula is self-discipline. Whoever conquers himself knows deep happiness that fills the heart with joy."

"Our happiness depends on the habit of mind we cultivate. So practice happy thinking every day. Cultivate the merry heart, develop the happiness habit, and life will become a continual feast."

"People become really quite remarkable when they start thinking that they can do things. When they believe in themselves they have the first secret of success."

"Enthusiasm releases the drive to carry you over obstacles and adds significance to all you do."

"Formulate and stamp indelibly on your mind a mental picture of yourself as succeeding. Hold this picture tenaciously. Never permit it to fade. Your mind will seek to develop the picture... Do not build up obstacles in your imagination."

"When you pray for anyone you tend to modify your personal attitude toward him."

"The more you lose yourself in something bigger than yourself, the more energy you will have."

"Any fact facing us is not as important as our attitude toward it, for that determines our success or failure. The way you think about a fact may defeat you before you ever do anything about it. You are overcome by the fact because you think you are."

"The trouble with most of us is that we would rather be ruined by praise than saved [loved] by criticism."

"You become a worrier by practicing worry. You become free of worry by practicing the opposite."