"Deep within man dwell those slumbering powers that would astonish him, that he never dream possessing; forces that would revolutionize his life if aroused and put into action."
"Somebody should tell us, right at the start of our lives, that we are dying. Then we might live life to the limit, every minute of every day. Do it! I say. Whatever you want to do, do it now! There are only so many tomorrows."
"A consistent man believes in destiny, a capricious man in chance."
" Man is born to live and not prepare to live."
"Man is not the creature of circumstances; circumstances are the creatures of men."
"Nothing can resist the human will that will stake even its existence on its stated purpose."
"Concerning all acts of initiative and creation, there is one elementary truth - that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves, too."
- Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
"It is in your moments of decision that your destiny is shaped."
"I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestioning ability of man to elevate his by a conscious endeavor."
"I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is another step forward."
"We will either find a way, or make one."
"Life is either a daring adventure or nothing."
"Men live by intervals of reason under the sovereignty of humor and passion."
"A man who suffers before it is necessary, suffers more than is necessary."
"The secret of success is learning how to use pain and pleasure instead of having pain and pleasure use you. If you do that, you're in control of your life. If you don't, life controls you."
"If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself but to your own estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment."
"Men, as well as women, are much oftener led by their hearts than their understandings."
"I conceive that pleasures are to be avoided if greater pains be the consequence, and pains to be coveted that will terminate in greater pleasures."
"Nature has placed mankind under the government of two sovereign masters, pain and pleasure - they govern us in all we do, in all we say, in all we think; every effort we can make to throw off our subjection, will serve but to demonstrate and confirm all."
"Under all that we think, lives all we believe, like the ultimate veil of our spirits."
"Drugs are not always necessary, [but] belief in recovery always is."
"The belief that becomes truth for me - is that which allows me the best use of my strength, the best means of putting my virtues into action."
"Only in men's imagination does every truth find an effective and deniable existence. Imagination, not invention is the supreme master of art, as of life."
"It is the mind that maketh good of ill, that maketh wretch or happy, rich or poor."
"We are what we think.
All that we are rises
With our thoughts.
With our thoughts,
We make our world."
"The only true security in life comes from knowing that every single day you are improving yourself in some way. I don't worry about maintaining the quality of my life, because every day I work on improving it."
CANI (pronounced kuhn-EYE) - Constant And Never-ending Improvement
"It must be constant commitment backed up by action."
"As he thinketh in his heart, so he is."
"Behold, I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in a twinkling of an eye."
"Things do not change, we change."
"Once we effect a change, we should reinforce it immediately. Then, we have to condition our nervous system to succeed not just once, but consistently.
"The first belief we must have if we're going to create change quickly is that we can change now."
"To the dull mind all nature is leaden. To the illumined mind the whole world burns and sparkles with light."
"It is not enough to have a good mind; the main thing is to use it well."
"The beginning of a habit is like an invisible thread, but every time we repeat the act we strengthen the strand, add to it another filament, until it becomes a great cable and binds us irrevocably, thought and act."
"Give me a lever long enough
And a prop strong enough.
I can single-handedly move the world.'
"The greatest leverage you can create for yourself is the pain that comes from inside, not outside. Knowing that you have failed to live up to your own standards for your life is the ultimate pain."
"There is nothing training cannot do. Nothing is above its reach. It can turn bad morals to good; it can destroy bad principles and recreate good ones; it can lift man to angelship."
"Good and evil, reward and punishment, are the only motives to a rational creature: these are the spur and reins whereby all mankind are set on work, and guided."
"All emotions are pure which gather you and lift you up; that emotion is impure which seizes only one side of your being and so distorts you."
"The difference between acting badly or brilliantly is not based on your ability, but on the state of your mind and/or body in any given moment."
"We know too much and feel too little. At least we feel too little of those creative emotions from which a good life springs."
"Focus on where you want to go, not on what you fear."
"Ask and you will receive. Seek and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you."
"As the fletcher whittles and makes straight his arrows, so the master directs his straying thoughts."
"You've got to be in a determined state in order to succeed."
"Experience is not what happens to a man; it is what a man does with what happens to him."
"Every great and commanding moment in the annals of the world is the triumph of some enthusiasm."
"My definition of success is to live your life in a way that causes you to feel tons of pleasure and very little pain."
"All that you really want in life is to change how you feel."
"Plan for pleasure for each and every day."
"He who asks questions cannot avoid the answers."
"Some men see things as they are, and say, 'Why?' I dream of things that never were, and say, 'Why not?' "
"Always the beautiful answer who asks a more beautiful question."
"Remember, ask and you shall receive. If you ask a terrible question, you'll get a terrible answer. Your mental computer is ever ready to serve you, and whatever question you give it, it will surely come up with an answer."
"A genuine quality of life comes from consistent, quality questions."
"You and I have that same power at our disposal every moment of the day. At the moment, the questions that we ask ourselves can shape our perception of who we are, what we're capable of, and what we're willing to do to achieve our dreams."
"He that cannot ask cannot live."
"A powerful agent is the right word. Whenever we come upon one of those intensely right words ... the resulting effect is physical as well as spiritual, and electrically prompt."
"Words form the thread on which we string our experiences."
"Without knowing the force of words, it is impossible to know men."
"The metaphor is perhaps one of man's most fruitful potentialities. Its efficacy verges on magic, and it seems a tool for creation which God forgot inside one of His creatures when He made him."
"Life is painting a picture, not doing a sum."
- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
"All perception of truth is the detection of an analogy."
"There can be no transformation of darkness into light and of apathy into movement without emotion."
"We must cultivate our garden."
"Determination is the wake-up call to the human will."
"If you could only love enough, you could be the most powerful person in the world."
"Nothing happens unless first a dream."
"We are what and where we are because we have first imagined it."
"It's not just getting a goal that matters, but the quality of life you experience along the way."
"Climb high; Climb far.
Your goal the sky; Your aim the star."
- inscription at Williams College
"What kind of person will I have to become in order to achieve all that I want?"
"Where there is no vision, the people perish."
"Habit is either the best servants or the worst of masters."
"We first make our habits, and then our habits make us."
"All too often, the security of a mediocre present is more comfortable than the adventure of trying to be more in the future."
"Men are wise in proportion, not to their experience, but to their capacity for experience."
"Take away the cause, and the effect ceases."
"Nothing has ever been achieved except by those who dared believe that something inside of them was superior to circumstances."
"A man's character is his guardian divinity."
"Every time a value is born, existence takes on a new meaning; every times ones dies, some part of that meaning passes away."
"Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are."
"I hope we can build a university our football team can be proud of."
"People will do more to avoid pain than they will do to gain pleasure."
"We have made thee neither of heaven nor of earth,
Neither mortal nor immortal,
So that with freedom of choice and with honor,
As though the maker and molder of thyself,
Thou mayest fashion thyself in whatever shape thou shalt prefer.
Thou shalt have the power out of thy soul's judgement,
To be reborn into the higher forms, which are divine."
- God's speech to Adam from Pico Della Mirandola's 'Oration on the Dignity of Man'
"Give me beauty in the inward soul; may the outward and the inward man be at one."
"I touch the future; I teach."
"We are what we repeatedly do."
"Hold yourself responsible for a higher standard than anybody else expects of you."
"The truth is that nothing has to happen in order for you to feel good."
"Any fool can make a rule - And every fool will mind it."
"Never assume it comes to rules. Communicate.'
"Man's mind stretched to a new idea never goes back to its original dimensions."
"The knowledge of the world is only to be acquired in the world, and not in a closet."
"We lift ourselves by our thought, we climb upon our vision of ourselves."
"Repetition is the mother of skill."
"It is only with the heart that one eye can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."
"Limited references create a limited life. If you want to expand your life, you must expand your references by pursuing ideas and experiences that wouldn't be a part of your life if you didn't consciously seek them out."
"Loss is imaginary. Nothing ever disappears in the universe; it only changes form."
"I believe a leaf of grass is no less than the journey-work of the stars."
"Leaders are readers."
"The only way to discover the limits of the possible is to go beyond them into the impossible.'
"Expand your references, and you'll immediately expand your life."
"Everything in life happens for a reason and a purpose, and it serves us."
"It's the moments of our life that shape us."
"Nothing great will ever be achieved without great men, and men are great only if they are determined to be so."
"The beliefs that we use to define our own individuality, what makes us unique - good, bad, or indifferent - from other individuals."
"Your capability is constant, but how much of it you use depends upon the identity you have for yourself."
"Time and again, researchers have shown that students' capabilities are powerfully impacted by the identities they develop for themselves as the result of teachers' belief in their level of intelligence."
"The kind of person other people perceive you to be controls their responses to you."
"The best effect of fine persons is felt after we have left their presence."
"A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds."
"We look at what we do to determine who we are."
"When written in Chinese, the word 'crisis' is composed of two characters - one represents danger, and the other represents opportunity."
"His supreme agony was the disappearance of certainty, and he felt himself uprooted - Oh! What a frightful thing! The man projectile, no longer knowing his road and recoiling!"
- Victor Hugo, Les Miserables
"I think, therefore I am."
"If we all did the things we are capable of doing, we would literally astound ourselves."
"Each of us inevitable;
Each of us limitless - each of us with his or her right upon the earth;
Each of allow'd the eternal purports of the earth;
Each of us here as divinely as any is here."
"Seeing's believing, but feeling's the truth."
"We are not limited by our old age; we are liberated by it."
"The human body is the best picture of the human soul."
"In a full heart there is room for everything, and in an empty heart there is room for nothing."
"Wealth is the product of man's capacity to think."
"Charity and personal force are the only investments."
"Go put your creed into your deed."
"You can preach a better sermon with your life than with your lips."
"We have time enough if we will but use it right."
- Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
"The great man is he that does not lose his child's-heart."
"A mighty flame followeth a tiny spark."
"Every man is an impossibility until he is born."
"It was involuntary; they sank my boat."
- John F. Kennedy, when asked how he'd become a hero
"Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans, born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage, and unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which this nation has always been committed, and to which we are committed today, at home, and around the world.
Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, to assure the survival and the success of liberty."
"While there is a lower class I am in it; while there is a criminal element I am of it; while there is a soul in prison, I am not free."
"You can't live a perfect day without doing something for someone who will never be able to repay you."
"Only those who have learned the power of sincere and selfless contribution experience life's deepest joy: true fulfillment."
"Verily, great grace may go with a little gift; and precious are all things that come from friends."
