Great Throughts Treasury

"When dealing with people remember you are not dealing with creatures of logic, but with creatures of emotion, creatures bristling with prejudice, and motivated by pride and vanity."

"Three-fourths of the people you will meet tomorrow are hungering and thirsting for sympathy. Give it to them, and they will love you."

"Do things for others and you'll find your self-consciousness evaporating like morning dew on a Missouri cornfield in July."

"Flattery is from the teeth out. Sincere appreciation is from the heart out."

"If you want to conquer fear, don't sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy."

"All I desire is dominion over myself - dominion over my thoughts; dominion over my fears; dominion over my mind and over my spirit. And the wonderful thing is that I know that I can attain this dominion to an astonishing degree, any time I want to, by merely controlling my actions - which in turn control my reactions."

"Any fool can criticize, condemn, and complain - and most fools do."

"All the king's horses and all the king's men can't put the past together again. So let's remember: Don't try to saw sawdust."

"Are you bored with life? Then throw yourself into some work you believe in with all your heart, live for it, die for it, and you will find happiness that you had thought could never be yours."

"Develop success from failures. Discouragement and failure are two of the surest steppingstones to success. No other element can do so much for a man if he is willing to study them and make capital out of them. Look backward. Can't you see where your failures have helped you?"

"Do the thing you fear to do and keep on doing it, that is the quickest and surest way ever yet discovered to conquer fear."

"Did you ever see an unhappy horse? Did you ever see bird that had the blues? One reason why birds and horses are not unhappy is because they are not trying to impress other birds and horses."

"Do the hard jobs first. The easy jobs will take care of themselves."

"Do you know that if you are courteous and pleasant all day during your work that you will go home at night less fatigued than if you gave way to irritation? Pleasantry, light laughs, relieve tension. It isn't work that makes you tired, it's your mental attitude. Try it."

"Do you remember the things you worried about a year ago? How did they work out? Didn't you waste a lot of fruitless energy on account of most of them? Didn't most of them turn out all right after all?"

"Don't laugh at a child's ambitions. There is no sting so sharp as ridicule, and a laugh is often ridicule to a child. What a parent should do when he knows his child is overreaching, is to talk it over with him from every angle, and, if possible, find an angle from which the job can be attacked with hope of success. Then urge him forward, give him every encouragement. Above all, don't help your child to do something that he can accomplish on his own. Don't deny him the priceless privilege and thrill of developing his own success."

"Get all the facts. Let's not even attempt to solve our problems without first collecting all the facts in an impartial manner."

"Get busy, keep busy. It is the cheapest kind of medicine there is on earth - and one of the best."

"Flaming enthusiasm, backed up by horse sense and persistence, is the quality that most frequently makes for success."

"I know men and women can banish worry, fear and various kinds of illnesses, and can transform their lives by changing their thoughts. I know! I know! I know! I have seen such incredible transformations performed hundreds of times. I have seen them so often that I no longer wonder at them."

"Hate burns up more energy than anything else, more than hard work, illness or justifiable worry. So when hatred is entering our hearts, let us just put it out, make room for pleasant thoughts instead, save our precious God-given energy for something worthy of it."

"If half a century of living has taught me anything at all, it has taught me that; "Nothing can bring you peace but yourself.""

"If we can't have all we want, let us not poison our days with worry and resentment. Let us be good to ourselves. Let us be philosophical. And philosophy, according to Epictecal, boils down to this: "The essence of philosophy is that a man should so live that his happiness shall depend as little as possible on external things.""

"I know with a conviction beyond all doubt that the biggest problem you and I have to deal with - in fact, almost the only problem we have to deal with - is choosing the right thoughts. If we can do that, we will be on the highroad to solving all our problems."

"If you want to be enthusiastic, act enthusiastic."

"If you want to develop courage, do the thing you fear to do and keep on doing it until you get a record of successful experiences behind you. That is the quickest and surest way ever yet discovered to conquer fear."

"If you want to be happy, set yourself a goal that commands your thoughts, liberates your energy and inspires your hopes. Happiness is within you. It comes from doing some certain thing into which you can put all your thought and energy. If you want to be happy, get enthusiastic about something."

"If you have some idea you believe in, don't listen to the croaking chorus. Listen only to what your own inner voice tells you."

"If you make an appointment with another, you are really assuming a trust; if you do not keep faith with him, you are stealing from him - not greenbacks out of his wallet, but filching time out of his bank - something that will be lost to him forever."

"Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy."

"If you want to win friends, make it a point to remember them. If you remember my name, you pay me a subtle compliment; you indicate that I have made an impression on you. Remember my name and you add to my feeling of importance."

"Keep your mind open to change at all time. Welcome it. Court it. It is only by examining and reexamining your opinions and ideas that you can progress."

"Instead of worrying about what people say of you, why not spend time trying to accomplish something they will admire."

"It is the way we react to circumstances that determines our feelings."

"Life truly is a boomerang. What you give, you get."

"Let us not get so busy or live so fast that we can't listen to the music of the meadow or the symphony that glorifies the forest. Some things in the world are far more important than wealth; one of them is the ability to enjoy simple things."

"Make a man laugh a good hearty laugh, and you have paved the way for friendship. When a man laughs with you, he is some extent, likes you."

"Mix judgment with ambition and season it with energy. It makes a splendid recipe for success."

"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."

"Many people think that if they were only in some other place, or had some other job, they would be happy. Well, that is doubtful. So get as much happiness out of what you are doing as you can and don't put off being happy until some future date."

"One of the most appalling comments on our present way of life is that half of all the beds in our hospitals are reserved for patients with nervous and mental troubles, patients who have collapsed under the crushing burden of accumulated yesterdays and fearful tomorrows. Yet a vast majority of those people would be walking the streets today, leading happy, useful lives, if they had only heeded the words of Jesus: "Have no anxiety about the morrow"; or the words of Sir William Osler; "Live in day-tight compartments."

"Naturalness is the easiest thing in the world to acquire, if you will but forget yourself, forget about the impression you are trying to make."

"Most of us have far more courage than we ever dreamed possible."

"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."

"Remember happiness doesn't depend upon who you are or what you have; it depends solely upon what you think. So start each day by thinking of all the things you have to be thankful for. Your future will depend very largely on the thoughts you think today. So think thoughts of hope and confidence and love and success."

"Our fatigue is often caused not by work, but by worry, frustration and resentment."

"One of the surest ways of making a friend and influencing the opinion of another is to give consideration to his opinion, to let him sustain his feeling of importance."

"Take a chance! All life is a chance. The man who goes further is generally the one who is willing to do and dare. The "sure thing" boat never gets far from shore."

"Take stock of your fears now and see how many of them are senseless. If you are honest with yourself you will probably find most of them are groundless."

"Strange that we so seldom recognize happiness until it has passed, that we rarely recognize it when it is on our doorstep."