Nothing is little to him that feels it with great sensibility.
Samuel Johnson Bartlett's Familiar Quotations
Categories: sensitivity perspective

I complained because I had no shoes until I met a man who had no feet.
Arabic proverb Words for All Occasions
Categories: attitude perspective

It helps to write down half a dozen things which are worrying me. Two of them, say, disappear; about two nothing can be done, so it's no use worrying; and two perhaps can be settled.
Winston Churchill Random House Webster's Quotationary
Categories: worry perspective

Our world exists only through our perception of it. Change our perception of our world and we change the world -- for us.
Roger Dawson The 13 Secrets of Power Performance
Categories: perspective choice attitude

...the enemy of our enemy is perspective... All we need to do is expose fears to the sunlight and they shrink. They're persistent but not brave. Or expose them to ridicule, and they flee. Laughing juries don't convict.
Dale Dauten "fears always around but can't stand up to sunlight" by Dale Dauten, Arizona Republic, March 27, 2000
Categories: fear perspective attitude

Let us not look at ourselves but onwards, onwards to the ideal life of a man, and take strength from the leaf and signs of the field. Let us labor to make the heart grow larger as we become older, as spreading oak gives more shelter.
Richard Jeffries The Forbes Book of Business Quotations: 14,266 Thoughts on the Business of Life
Categories: selflessness aging perspective

Look at every situation as if you were in the future and you were looking back on it.
General Peter Schoomaker "Operation: Leadership" by Eli Cohen and Noel Tichy, Fast Company, September 19999
Categories: perspective focus emotions

The modern man takes life far too seriously, and because he is too serious the world is full of troubles.
Lin Yutang The Importance of Living
Categories: attitude humor perspective

He that is stricken blind cannot forget
The precious treasure of his eyesight lost.
William Shakespeare [Titus Andronicus] Bartlett's Familiar Quotations
Categories: perspective appreciation gratitude

Nothing is an unmixed blessing.
Horace The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations
Categories: perspective blessings attitude

Our latest moment is always our supreme moment. Five minutes delay in dinner now is more important than a great sorrow ten years gone.
Samuel Butler The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: perspective life balance

What we can control, where we can make a difference that moves us beyond our own personal predicament is in our attitude and our actions, as we try to behave in the best manner that we possibly can, the most loving way we can manage at any given moment. I think that old adage, "God is love" is literally true, whether or not you actually believe in God. Thinking that way helped me to get past the me-me-me -- my body, my problems, my condition, myself.
Christopher Reeve quoted from his autobiography, Still Me, in "Are You Religious or Are You Spiritual?" by Katherine Kurs, Spirituality and Health, Spring 2001.
Categories: attitudes actions perspective

Men's minds, once unbalanced, are ready to believe anything...
Tacitus The Annals of Imperial Rome by Tacitus
Categories: balance perspective values

Here is a rule to remember when anything tempts you to feel better: not, "This is a misfortune," but "To bear this worthily is good fortune."
Marcus Aurelius The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: attitude perspective problems adversity

The one serious conviction that a man should have is that nothing is to be taken too seriously.
Samuel Butler The Forbes Book of Business Quotations
Categories: life humor perspective humility

The golden age never was the present age.
English proverb The Prentice-Hall Encyclopedia of World Proverbs
Categories: past present perspective nostalgia

Whoever has bitten a sour apple will enjoy a sweet one all the more.
German proverb The Prentice-Hall Encyclopedia of World Proverbs
Categories: bittersweet experiences perspective appreciation

Don't attitudenize.
Samuel Johnson Bartlett's Familiar Quotations
Categories: attitude mood emotion perspective

As long as our civilization is essentially one of property, of fences, of exclusiveness, it will be mocked by delusions.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Forbes Book of Business Quotations
Categories: society tolerance materialism perspective

Prosperity is not without many fears and distastes; and adversity is not without comforts and hopes.
Frances Bacon Bartlett's Familiar Quotations
Categories: perspective attitude balance life

More often than not, most of our worries begin to disappear when we analyze them--because it's hard to go on worrying when we begin to examine what troubles us, when we see our worries in context.
Walter Anderson The Confidence Course: Sevens Steps to Self-Fulfillment
Categories: worry perspective anxiety focus attitude

Take your work seriously, but never yourself.
Dame Margot Fonteyn Treasury of Women's Quotations
Categories: humor perspective self-image humble humility

Humor and creativity are kissing cousins. If you want to develop your sense of humor, invite more creativity into your life--and vice versa. In the presence of humor, new creative perspectives naturally occur. You can't stop them.
Joel Goodman, found and director of The Humor Project Jump Start Your Brain
Categories: laughter fun humor creativity perspective balance

Some people are born on third base and go through life thinking they hit a triple.
Barry Switzer
Categories: birth comedy funny foolishness perspective

Let today embrace the past with remembrance and the future with longing.
Kahlil Gibran A Grateful Heart: Daily Blessings for the Evening Meal from Buddha to the Beatles
Categories: past present future perspective hope

Mix a little foolishness with your serious plans: it's lovely to be silly at the right moment.
Horace The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations
Categories: humor perspective fun living happiness balance

...crisis plus time equals humor.
Blaine Lee The Power Principle: Influence with Honor
Categories: perspective funny mistakes laugh at yourself humor

He who laughs, lasts.
Mary Pettibone Poole 1911 Best Things Anybody Ever Said
Categories: sense of humor laughter joy perspective wellness

The adult looks to deed, the child to love.
Hindustani proverb The Prentice-Hall Encyclopedia of World Proverbs
Categories: love action kindness perspective motive

The worst ache is the present ache.
Lebanese proverb The Prentice-Hall Encyclopedia of World Proverbs
Categories: perspective pain suffering present past

When thou are above measure angry, bethink thee how momentary a man's life is.
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus The Forbes Book of Business Quotations: 14,266 Thoughts on the Business of Life
Categories: anger mad perspective emotions feelings choice

Don't fall victim to your own melodrama. Keep things in perspective. The odds are that your problem is solvable. Address the solution and don't dwell on the problem to the point at which it paralyzes you.
Harvey Mackay "Out of pressure, positive results can evolve" by Harvey Mackay, Arizona Republic, 10/24/2001
Categories: problem solving perspective challenges adversity

Few enterprises of great labor or hazard would be undertaken if we had not the power of magnifying the advantages we expect from them.
Samuel Johnson The Forbes Book of Business Quotations
Categories: work effort perspective vision goal dream

How you think about a problem is more important than the problem itself -- so always think positively.
Norman Vincent Peale Positive Thinking Every Day: An Inspiration for Each Day of the Year
Categories: perspective focus attitude adversity difficulties problems

In time of difficulties, we must not lose sight of our achievements.
Mao Tse-Tung The Forbes Book of Business Quotations
Categories: difficulty adversity problems depression sadness perspective

The anvil lasts longer than the hammer.
Italian proverb The Prentice-Hall Encyclopedia of World Proverbs
Categories: stress problems difficulties challenges perspective strength

If matters go badly now, they will not always be so.
Horace The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: hope perspective difficulties challenges problems future

But in the mud and scum of things
``There alway, alway something sings.
Ralph Waldo Emerson Bartlett's Familiar Quotations
Categories: hope faith perspective problems challenges difficulties

Could a greater miracle take place than for us to look through each other's eyes for an instant?
Henry David Thoreau Walden
Categories: perspective love friendship relationship understanding acceptance

A sense of humor keen enough to show a man his own absurdities will keep him from the commission of all sins, or nearly all, save those worth committing.
Samuel Butler The Forbes Book of Business Quotations
Categories: humor perspective self-awareness error mistakes success

One never notices what has been done; one can only see what remains to be done.
Marie Curie Treasury of Women's Quotations
Categories: work effort action success focus perspective

A happy man is too satisfied with the present to dwell too much on the future.
Albert Einstein The Quotable Einstein
Categories: happiness joy fulfillment perspective future present enjoyment now

Virtuous and wise he was, but not severe;
He still remember'd that he once was young.
Dr. John Armstrong The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations
Categories: aging respect leadership perspective virtue wisdom memory

In the long run, in spite of everything, I have been very lucky. I asked for bread and was given a stone. It turned out to be precious.
Quentin Crisp The Penguin Dictionary of Twentieth-Century Quotations
Categories: perspective adversity challenges gifts difficulties problems gratitude

To finish the moment, to find the journey's end in every step of the road, to live the greatest number of good hours, is wisdom.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: life perspective meaning joy purpose wisdom success growth

Whatever accomplishment you boast of in the world, there is someone better than you.
African (Hausa) proverb The Prentice-Hall Encyclopedia of World Proverbs
Categories: success achievement humility humble boasting pride perspective

A serene fortitude in the face of disappointment and chagrin should be our goal. If you have evaded all unhappiness in life your happiness is place in unstable equilibrium by the constant dread that some unavoidable disappointment is just around the corner. If you have faced pain and disappointment, you not only value your happiness more highly, but you are prepared for unpredictable exigencies. Just as we can immunize ourselves against certain bodily diseases by stimulating our reserves to overactivity
W. Beran Wolfe Light from Many Lamps
Categories: happiness adversity challenges growth character perspective pain

If you concentrate on finding whatever is good in every situation, you will discover that your life will suddenly be filled with gratitude, a feeling that nurtures the soul.
Rabbi Harold Kushner in the essay "God's Fingerprints on the Soul" Handbook for the Soul
Categories: perspective vision good truth gratitude attitude soul self-nurture

If a man's eye is on the Eternal, his intellect will grow.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Forbes Book of Business Quotations
Categories: perspective growth knowledge wisdom education learning vision mission

Life is a series of problems. Do we want to moan about them or solve them?
M. Scott Peck The Road Less Traveled
Categories: life challenges difficulties obstacles problems focus perspective action

An optimist sees an opportunity in every calamity; a pessimist sees a calamity in every opportunity.
Winston Churchill The Forbes Book of Business Quotations
Categories: optimism pessimism attitude focus vision perspective negative positive

Reality - Dreams = Animal Being
Reality + Dreams = A Heart-Ache (usually called Idealism)
Reality + Humor = Realism (also called Conservatism)
Dreams - Humor = Fanaticism
Dreams + Humor = Fantasy
Reality + Dreams + Humor = Wisdom
Lin Yutang The Importance of Living
Categories: idealism realism humor humility character vision perspective wisdom

If a man carefully examines his thoughts, he will be surprised to find how much he lives in the future. His well-being is always ahead.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: thoughts future perspective life living goal dream vision balance

Most ordinary situations can be experienced as deliciously pleasurable, or as bitterly disappointing. It depends on how you evaluate them. The more you are enslaved by your desires, the more likely you are to find any given situation disappointing.
Timothy Ray Miller How to Want What You Have
Categories: attitude gratitude perspective choice emotions happiness joy desires wants lusts greed

There is always something rather absurd about the past.
Max Beerbohm The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations
Categories: past humor perspective humility history forgiveness maturity immaturity mistakes

A common pitfall on the path of excellence is an overemphasis on comparing our progress with others. While competition can be a tremendous tool for stretching ourselves to new heights, too often it causes a lack of perspective. This loss of perspective can often be traced to the following cycle: losing becomes associated with failure, and failure with the loss of self-esteem.
Michael Gelb and Tony Buzan Lessons from the Art of Juggling; How to Achieve Your Full Potential in Business, Learning and Life
Categories: excellence growth learning competition comparisons stretching perspective failure self-esteem

When we become aware that we do not have to escape our pains, but that we can mobilize them into a common search for life, those very pains are transformed from expressions of despair into signs of hope.
Henri Nouwen The Wounded Healer<
Categories: pain suffering depression despair escape overcome overcoming life perspective hope

Life is a grindstone. But whether it grinds us down or polishes us up depends on us.
L. Thomas Holdcroft Body, Mind and Spirit
Categories: attitude perspective choice feelings stress anxiety emotions growth learning flexibility

Old places and old persons in their turn, when spirit dwells in them, have an intrinsic vitality of which youth is incapable, precisely, the balance and wisdom that come from long perspectives and broad foundations.
George Santayana Webster's New World Dictionary of Quotations
Categories: aging elderly aged spirituality balance wisdom growth self-improvement perspective vision education

Practice easing your way along. Don't get het up or in a dither. Do your best; take it as it comes. You can handle anything if you think you can. Just keep your cool and your sense of humor.
Smiley Blanton, MD The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: anxiety stress fear flow flexibility ability attitude capability patience balance perspective

Maturity is achieved with a person accepts life as full of tension; when he does not torment himself with childish guilt feelings, but avoids tragic adult sins; when he postpones immediate pleasures for the sake of long-term values... Our generation must be inspired to search for that maturity which will manifest itself in the qualities of tenacity, dependability, co-operativeness and the inner drive to work and sacrifice for a nobler future of mankind.
Joshua L. Liebman The Forbes Book of Business Quotations: 14,266 Thoughts on the Business of Life
Categories: maturity guilty delayed gratification perseverance reliable cooperative work future vision perspective

...what I focus on in life is what I get. And if I concentrate on how bad I am or how wrong I am or how inadequate I am, if I concentrate on what I can't do and how there's not enough time in which to do it, isn't that what I get every time? And when I think about how powerful I am, and when I think about what I have left to contribute, and when I think about the difference I can make on this planet, then that's what I get. You see, I recognize that it's not what happens to you; it's what you do about it.
W. Mitchell Wake-Up Calls : You Don't Have to Sleepwalk Through Your Life, Love, or Career!
Categories: focus perspective mistakes balance success failure time power ability effectiveness action effort

It is not the level of prosperity that makes for happiness but the kinship of heart to heart and the way we look at the world. Both attitudes are within our power, so that a man is happy so long as he chooses to be happy, and no one can stop him.
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: wealth money possessions things relationships friendships perspective sadness depression unhappiness choice power

Only the insane take themselves quite seriously.
Max Beerbohm The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations
Categories: sense of humor humor humility pride vanity conceit perspective character proportion

He who has not tasted bitter, knows not what sweet is.
German proverb The Prentice-Hall Encyclopedia of World Proverbs
Categories: adversity challenges problems difficulties appreciation difficulties perspective

One of the most basic issues we face in our lives is the feeling of failure or guilt. I come froma minority group, families where F stood for feedback or flow and not failure. F's on a test meant a failed test and not a failure as a human being. F's helped me find my place in the universe because the family attitude was, "It was meant to be." And now we would see what good would come of this event.
Bernie S. Siegel, MD Love, Medicine & Miracles
Categories: mistakes failures self-image guilt errors childrearing children family pressures expectations perspective learning education growth self-improvement self-acceptance patience perfectionist

Life is difficult.
This is a great truth, one of the greatest truths. It is a great truth because once we truly see this truth, we transcend it. Once we truly know that life is difficult--once we truly understand and accept it--then life is no longer difficult. Because once it is accepted, the fact that life is difficult no longer matters.
M. Scott Peck The Road Less Traveled
Categories: life difficulties challenges pain obstacles problems truth acceptance perspective struggles illness disability problems adversity inner peace