Great Throughts Treasury

"You cannot be healthy; you cannot be happy; you cannot be prosperous; if you have a bad disposition."

"You cannot lose anything that is worth having through acquiring a knowledge of the Truth. Sacrifice there has to be, but it is only sacrifice of the things that one is much happier without--never of anything that is worth having. Many people have the idea that getting a better knowledge of God will mean giving up things that they will regret losing. One girl said: "I mean to take up religion later on when I am older, but I want to enjoy myself for a while first." This, however, is to miss the whole point. The things one has to sacrifice are selfishness, fear, and belief in necessary limitation of any kind. Above all, one has to sacrifice the belief that there is any power or endurance in evil apart from the power that we ourselves give it by believing in it."

"You must pray for yourself constantly. How could it be otherwise? We worship God by believing in him, trusting him, and loving Him wholeheartedly -- and we can attain to that only through prayer. The sole object of our being here is that we may grow like him -- and we can do that only through prayer. The more we pray for ourselves the more power will our prayers have for any other purpose whatever; so praying for ourselves is the reverse of selfishness -- it is truly glorifying God."

"You must not allow yourself to dwell for a single moment on any kind of negative thought."

"You should never "put up" with anything. You should never be willing to accept less than Health, Harmony, and Happiness. These things are your Divine Right as the sons and daughters of God, and it is only a bad habit, unconscious, as a rule, that causes you to be satisfied with less. In the depths of his being man always feels intuitively that there is a way out of his difficulties if only he can find it, and his natural instincts all point in the same direction."