Great Throughts Treasury

"Comfort zones are most often expanded through discomfort."

"Mistakes show us what we need to learn."

"You can change anything you want. You just can’t change everything you want."

"Acceptance is not a state of passivity or inaction. I am not saying you can't change the world, right wrongs, or replace evil with good. Acceptance is, in fact, the first step to successful action. If you don't fully accept a situation precisely the way it is, you will have difficulty changing it. Moreover, if you don't fully accept the situation, you will never really know if the situation should be changed."

"The value of action is that we make mistakes; mistakes show us what we need to learn."

"When we argue for our limitations, we get to keep them."

"Negative thinking is always expensive -- dragging us down mentally, emotionally, and physically -- hence I refer to any indulgence in it as a luxury... You can't afford the luxury of a negative thought."

"Our thoughts create our reality -- where we put our focus is the direction we tend to go."

"When we put things off until some future-probably mythical-Laterland, we drag the past into the future. The burden of yesterday's incompletions is a heavy load to carry. Don't carry it."

"Fear is something to be moved through, not something to be turned from."

"Pain (any pain--emotional, physical, mental) has a message. The information it has about our life can be remarkably specific, but it usually falls into one of two categories: We would be more alive if we did more of this and Life would be more lovely if we did less of that. Once we get the pain's message, and follow its advice, the pain goes away."

"Stubborness is also determination. It's simply a matter of shifting from "won't power" to "will power.”"

"Guilt is anger directed at ourselves--at what we did or did not do."

"The simple solution for disappointment depression: Get up and get moving. Physically move. Do. Act. Get going."

"There is more empty space in the book you're holding, than book. The electrons in the atoms of the book are moving so fast, they give the illusion of solid ink on solid paper. It's not. It's just an illusion. If all the electrons would stop moving for even an instant, the book would not just crumble into dust, it would disappear. "

"In reality, serendipity accounts for one percent of the blessings we receive in life, work and love. The other 99 percent is due to our efforts."

"If you're not actively involved in getting what you want, you don't really want it."

"Nothing adventured, nothing attained."

"We can consciously end our life almost anytime we choose. This ability is an endowment, like laughing and blushing, given to no other animal... in any given moment, by not exercising the option of suicide, we are choosing to live."

"One of the great joys of life is creativity. Information goes in, gets shuffled about, and comes out in new and interesting ways."

"We are all, right now, living the life we choose."

"For many, negative thinking is a habit, which over time, becomes an addiction... A lot of people suffer from this disease because negative thinking is addictive to each of the Big Three -- the mind, the body, and the emotions. If one doesn't get you, the others are waiting in the wings."

"Be willing to be uncomfortable. Be comfortable being uncomfortable. It may get tough, but it's a small price to pay for living a dream."

"Definition of a victim: a person to whom life happens."

"While goals are chosen, a purpose is discovered. Our purpose is something we have been doing all along, and will continue to do, regardless of circumstances, until the day we die."

"Choosing what you want to do, and when to do it, is an act of creation"

"The road to positivity is strewn with the abandoned vehicles of the faint-hearted."

"What's more important-your goal, or others' opinions of your goal."

"Keep your goals away from the trolls."

"To visualize is to see what is not there, what is not real -- a dream . To visualize is, in fact, to make visual lies . Visual lies, however, have a way of coming true."

"If you change the belief first, changing the action is easier."

"You are far more powerful than you ever dreamed."

"All the good, fine, noble, and creative acts of humanity were conceived as a spark in a single human consciousness."

"Learn to ask for what you want. The worst people can do is not give you what you ask for which is precisely where you were before you asked."

"To the degree we're not living our dreams, our comfort zone has more control of us than we have over ourselves."

"Do what you love and the necessary resources will follow."

"Some people think that meditation takes time away from physical accomplishment. Taken to extremes, of course, that's true. Most people, however, find that meditation creates more time than it takes."

"Many people weigh the guilt they will feel against the pleasure of the forbidden action they want to take."

"it is a risk to love. what if it doesn’t work out? Ah, but what if it does."

"First, all relationships are with yourself-and sometimes they involve other people. Second, the most important relationship in your life - the one you have, like it or not, until the day you die - is with yourself. "

"As much as we like to think that we are independent-minded, free-willed, autonomous individuals, the fact remains that some part of us is still susceptible to programming. Programming can happen to anyone. Intelligence, education, common sense, belief, or convictions offer little protection. All it takes is repetition (the slow route) or vulnerability (the fast route) and, eventually, we're hooked. Master programmers - from cult leaders to cigarette companies to government agencies - do both, as often as possible, whether you like it or not. Ironically, the more immune to programming you think you are, the more susceptible you become. "

"To use fear as the friend it is, we must retrain and reprogram ourselves...We must persistently and convincingly tell ourselves that the fear is here--with its gift of energy and heightened awareness--so we can do our best and learn the most in the new situation."

"Two halves have little choice but to join; And yes, they do make a whole but two wholes when they coincide... That is beauty. That is love."

"If you want peace, stop fighting. If you want peace of mind, stop fighting with your thoughts."

"Life is not a struggle. It's a wiggle."

"Willingness opens the doors to knowledge, direction, and achievement. Be willing to know, be willing to do, be willing to create a positive result. Be willing, especially, to follow your dream."

"I see nothing wrong with the human trait to desire. In fact, I consider it integral to our success mechanism. Becoming attached to what we desire is what causes the trouble. If you must have it in order to be happy, then you are denying the happiness of the here and now."

"People who want to appear clever rely on memory. People who want to get things done make lists."

"The purpose of education is to make the choices clear to people, not to make the choices for people."

"Acceptance is such an important commodity; some have called it the first law of personal growth."