Being thankful

"Appreciation is a wonderful thing: It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well."

Voltaire
1694-1778, Philosopher and Writer

Being thankful

"We often take for granted the very things that most deserve our gratitude."

Cynthia Ozick
Writer

Planning your life

"Study as if you were going to live forever; live as if you were going to die tomorrow."

Maria Mitchell
1818-1889, Astronomer

Facing life with integrity

"Have the courage to say no. Have the courage to face the truth. Do the right thing because it is right. These are the magic keys to living your life with integrity."

W. Clement Stone

What kindness does

"When you are kind to others, it not only changes you, it changes the world."

Harold Kushner

Persistence and luck

"When I thought I couldn't go on, I forced myself to keep going. My success is based on persistence, not luck."

Estee Lauder
1906-2004, Entrepreneur

Starting a change

"Everybody talks about wanting to change things and help and fix, but ultimately all you can do is fix yourself. And that's a lot. Because if you can fix yourself, it has a ripple effect."

Rob Reiner

Accomplishing great goals

"All who have accomplished great things have had a great aim, have fixed their gaze on a goal which was high, one which sometimes seemed impossible."

Orison Swett Marden

How much we're worth

"The real measure of our wealth is how much we'd be worth if we lost all our money."

Benjamin Jowett
1817-1893, English Scholar, Classicist and Theologian

Predicting the future

"The best way to predict the future is to create it."

Peter Ferdinand Drucker
1909-2005, Political Economist and Author

How to turn your life around

"What can you do right now to begin to turn your life around? The very first thing is to start making a list of things to be grateful for."

Joe Vitale

Escaping old ideas

"The difficulty lies, not in the new ideas, but in escaping the old ones, which ramify, for those brought up as most of us have been, into every corner of our minds."

John Maynard Keynes

Daily choices

"We have a choice every day - to act on yesterday's good intentions or get an early start on tomorrow's regret."

Robert Brault

How to get more

"Be thankful for what you have; you'll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don't have, you will never, ever have enough."

Oprah Winfrey

Getting committed

"The moment you commit and quit holding back, all sorts of unforeseen incidents, meetings and material assistance, will rise up to help you. The simple act of commitment is a powerful magnet for help."

Napoleon Hill

Making a hero

"A hero is an ordinary individual who finds the strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles."

Christopher Reeve

What we aim for

"Who aims at excellence will be above mediocrity; who aims at mediocrity will be far short of it."

Burmese Saying

Without love

"There is no love without forgiveness, and there is no forgiveness without love."

Bryant H. McGill

Happiness in the small things

"The happiness of life is made up of minute fractions - the little soon forgotten charities of a kiss, a smile, a kind look, a heartfelt compliment in the disguise of a playful raillery, and the countless other infinitessimals of pleasurable thought and genial feeling."

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Taking things for granted

"We often take for granted the very things that most deserve our gratitude."

Cynthia Ozick

How you can become great

"Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great."

Mark Twain

How to not grow old

"Youth is not a time of life - it is a state of mind. It is a temper of the will; a quality of the imagination; a vigor of the emotions; it is a freshness of the deep springs of life. Youth means a temperamental predominance of courage over timidity, of the appetite for adventure over a life of ease... Nobody grows old by merely living a number of years; people grow old by deserting their ideals."

Samuel Ullman

The everyday stuff

"It's not what you do once in a while; it's what you do day in and day out that makes the difference."

Jenny Craig
Co-Founder of Jenny Craig Weight Loss

What it takes to get to the best

"One hour per day of study will put you at the top of your field within three years. Within five years you'll be a national authority. In seven years, you can be one of the best people in the world at what you do."

Earl Nightingale

On real thinking

"A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices."

William James
1842-1910, Psychologist, Philosopher and Author

What makes you happy

"It isn't what you have, or who you are, or where you are, or what you are doing that makes you happy or unhappy. It is what you think about."

Dale Carnegie

Fear

"Never let the fear of striking out get in your way."

George Herman "Babe" Ruth
1895-1948, Hall of Fame Baseball Player

Not allowing hate

"It is now long ago that I resolved that I would permit no man, no matter what his colour might be, to narrow and degrade my soul by making me hate him."

Booker T. Washington
1856-1915, Educator and Author

Making the future work

"Promises are the uniquely human way of ordering the future, making it predictable and reliable to the extent that this is humanly possible."

Hannah Arendt
1906-1975, Political Theorist

Doing the best that we can

"When we do the best that we can, we never know what miracle is wrought in our life, or in the life of another."

Helen Keller
1880-1968, Author and Lecturer

Going to new worlds

"Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it we go nowhere."

Carl Sagan
1934-1996, Astrophysicist and Author

Getting results

"Once you replace negative thoughts with positive ones, you'll start having positive results."

Willie Nelson
Singer-Songwriter

Kind words

"Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless."

Mother Teresa

Heading to success

"The first step toward success is taken when you refuse to be a captive of the environment in which you first find yourself."

Mark Caine
Author

When work is fun

"The more I want to get something done, the less I call it work."

Richard Bach
Author

When he quit being afraid

"I quit being afraid when my first venture failed and the sky didn't fall down."

Allen H. Neuharth
Founder of USA Today

Go for it!

"If you put off everything till you're sure of it, you'll never get anything done."

Norman Vincent Peale
1898-1993, Minister and Author

What's ahead

"The future is open; we decide what's in it."

Wolfgang Sonnenburg

Becoming what you are

"If I accept you as you are, I will make you worse; however, if I treat you as though you are what you are capable of becoming, I help you become that."

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
1749-1832, Author and Philosopher

Setting high sights

"Set your sights high, the higher the better. Expect the most wonderful things to happen, not in the future but right now. Realize that nothing is too good. Allow absolutely nothing to hamper you or hold you up in any way."

Eileen Caddy
Author

The dream and the dreamer

"Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world."

Harriet Tubman
1822-1913, Abolitionist

When things will change

"When you get into a tight place and everything goes against you, till it seems as though you could not hold on a minute longer, never give up then, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn."

Harriet Beecher Stowe

Making your dreams come true

"Happy are those who dream dreams and are ready to pay the price to make them come true."

Leon Suenens

Obstacles -- and opportunites

"What is the difference between an obstacle and an opportunity? Our attitude toward it. Every opportunity has a difficulty, and every difficulty has an opportunity."

J. Sidlow Baxter

Seeing your goals

"You must see your goals clearly and specifically before you can set out for them. Hold them in your mind until they become second nature."

Les Brown

Making your mind warm and full

"A mind, like a home, is furnished by its owner, so if one's life is cold and bare he can blame none but himself."

Louis L'Amour
1908-1988, Novelist

Don't give up

"Just don't give up trying to do what you really want to do. Where there's love and inspiration, I don't think you can go wrong."

Ella Fitzgerald
1917-1996, Jazz Singer

What the pressure does for you

"You will never be the person you can be if pressure, tension and discipline are taken out of your life."

James G. Bilkey
Author

Paying attention to details

"It's the little things that make the big things possible. Only close attention to the fine details of any operation makes the operation first class."

John Willard Marriott
1900-1985, Entrepreneur and Founder of Marriott Corporation

Counting our blessings

"Man is fond of counting his troubles, but he does not count his joys. If he counted them up as he ought to, he would see that every lot has enough happiness provided for it."

Fyodor Dostoevsky

Who succeeds

"People with goals succeed because they know where they're going. It's that simple."

Earl Nightingale

Growing through problems

"I am grateful for all of my problems. After each one was overcome, I became stronger and more able to meet those that were still to come. I grew in all my difficulties."

James Cash Penney
1875-1971, Entrepreneur and Founder of J.C. Penney Department Stores

What deserves our gratitude

"We often take for granted the very things that most deserve our gratitude."

Cynthia Ozick

The life you love

"If you are lucky enough to find a way of life you love, you have to find the courage to live it."

John Irving

What's needed

"Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself, in your way of thinking."

Marcus Aurelius

What do you want to do?

"Most people are so busy knocking themselves out trying to do everything they think they should, they never get around to do what they want to do."

Kathleen Winsor

Work and action

"The big secret in life is that there is no secret. Whatever your goal, you can get there if you are willing to work. It is called massive action. Action is the gas in the tank. Without you, the car will not run."

Marcy Blochowiak

Doubts and faith

"When doubt comes upon you in your inquiry, bring faith to bear, for it is the surest solution."

Justin Martyr

What you attract

"Everybody is like a magnet. You attract to yourself reflections of that which you are. If you're friendly, then everybody else seems to be friendly too."

Dr. David Hawkins

Life and security

"Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature nor do the children of man as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing."

Helen Keller

Do it now

"You'll seldom experience regret for anything that you've done. It is what you haven't done that will torment you. The message, therefore, is clear. Do it! Develop an appreciation for the present moment. Seize every second of your life and savor it. Value your present moments. Using them up in any self-defeating ways means you've lost them forever."

Wayne Dyer

The greater part of happiness

"I am determined to be cheerful and happy in whatever situation I may find myself. For I have learned that the greater part of our misery or unhappiness is determined not by our circumstance but by our disposition."

Martha Washington

What you're not seeing

"Think BIG. There are unseen forces ready to support your dreams."

Cheryl Richardson

What you need to achieve

"To achieve great things, two things are needed; a plan, and not quite enough time."

Leonard Bernstein
Conductor and Composer

Falling in love with an idea

"The day you catch an idea you fall in love with, even a small one, is a beautiful day."

David Lynch
Filmmaker and Television Director

Making yourself do what you have to do

"Perhaps the most valuable result of all education is the ability to make yourself do the thing you have to do, when it ought to be done, whether you like it or not; it is the first lesson that ought to be learned; and however early a man's training begins, it is probably the last lesson that he learns thoroughly."

Thomas H. Huxley
1825-1895, Biologist

The force of habit

"The individual who wants to reach the top in business must appreciate the might of the force of habit and must understand that practices are what create habits. He must be quick to break those habits that can break him and hasten to adopt those practices that will become the habits that help him achieve the success he desires."

J. Paul Getty
1892-1976, American Oil Tycoon

Looking at the big picture

"Often we allow ourselves to be upset by small things we should despise and forget. We lose many irreplaceable hours brooding over grievances that, in a year's time, will be forgotten by us and by everybody. No, let us devote our life to worthwhile actions and feelings, to great thoughts, real affections and enduring undertakings."

Andre Maurois
1885-1967, Writer

Passing time

"Don't let the fear of the time it will take to accomplish something stand in the way of your doing it. The time will pass anyway; we might just as well put that passing time to the best possible use."

Earl Nightingale
1921-1989, Author

Going above and beyond

"No one ever attains very eminent success by simply doing what is required of him; it is the amount and excellence of what is over and above the required that determines the greatness of ultimate distinction."

Charles Kendall Adams
1835-1902

Saying and thinking

"It is a great mistake for men to give up paying compliments, for when they give up saying what is charming, they give up thinking what is charming."

Oscar Wilde

Doing good where you are

"Do your little bit of good where you are; its those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world."

Desmond Tutu

New roads

"If you don't like the road you're walking, start paving another one."

Dolly Parton

Letting go

"Even though you may want to move forward in your life, you may have one foot on the brakes. In order to be free, we must learn how to let go. Release the hurt. Release the fear. Refuse to entertain your old pain.

The energy it takes to hang onto the past is holding you back from a new life. What is it you would let go of today?"

Mary Manin Morrissey

Looking ahead -- and looking back

"It is better to look ahead and prepare than to look back and regret."

Jackie Joyner-Kersee
Multiple Olympic Gold Medal Champion

Making life beautiful

"One day at a time - this is enough. Do not look back and grieve over the past, for it is gone: and do not be troubled about the future, for it has not yet come. Live in the present, and make it so beautiful that it will be worth remembering."

Ida Scott Taylor
1820-1915, Author

The greatest weakness

"Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time."

Thomas Edison
1847-1931, Inventor and Entrepreneur

Work and self

"The one important thing I have learned over the years is the difference between taking one's work seriously and taking one's self seriously. The first is imperative and the second is disastrous."

Margot Fonteyn
1919-1991, Classical Ballet Dancer

Town taxes Christians for listening to sermons

Finding purpose

"Learn to get in touch with the silence within yourself and know that everything in this life has a purpose."

Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

Get started!

"Do not wait; the time will never be 'just right.' Start where you stand, and work with whatever tools you may have at your command, and better tools will be found as you go along."

Napoleon Hill

Getting off the fence

"It doesn't matter which side of the fence you get off on sometimes. What matters most is getting off. You cannot make progress without making decisions."

Jim Rohn

When goals can't be reached

"When it is obvious that the goals cannot be reached, don't adjust the goals, adjust the action steps."

Confucius

Your standards

"Hold yourself responsible for a higher standard than anybody else expects of you."

Henry Ward Beecher

Sticking to your vision

"Before you begin a thing remind yourself that difficulties and delays quite impossible to foresee are ahead. You can only see one thing clearly, and that is your goal. Form a mental vision of that and cling to it through thick and thin."

Kathleen Norris
1880-1966, Novelist

Choosing your friends

"Be careful the environment you choose for it will shape you; be careful the friends you choose for you will become like them."

W. Clement Stone

Not taking yourself too seriously

"Laugh at yourself and at life. Not in the spirit of derision or whining self-pity, but as a remedy, a miracle drug, that will ease your pain, cure your depression, and help you to put in perspective that seemingly terrible defeat and worry with laughter at your predicaments, thus freeing your mind to think clearly toward the solution that is certain to come. Never take yourself too seriously."

Og Mandino

Asking for what you want

"Asking is the beginning of receiving. Make sure you don't go to the ocean with a teaspoon. At least take a bucket so the kids won't laugh at you."

Jim Rohn
1930-2009, Author and Speaker

Stick with it, and find joy

"Be of good cheer. Do not think of today's failures, but of the success that may come tomorrow. You have set yourself a difficult task, but you will succeed if you persevere; and you will find a joy in overcoming obstacles."

Helen Keller

Where champions come from

"Champions aren't made in the gyms. Champions are made from something they have deep inside them - a desire, a dream, a vision."

Muhammad Ali

Moving in the direction of your dreams

"All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them."

Walt Disney

On thankfulness

"Gratitude can transform common days into thanksgivings, turn routine jobs into joy, and change ordinary opportunities into blessings."

William Arthur Ward
1921-1994, Writer

Achieving excellence

"If you want to achieve excellence, you can get there today. As of this second, quit doing less than excellent work."

Thomas Watson
1874-1956, Founder of IBM

Making troubles disappear

"I've always believed that a lot of the troubles in the world would disappear if we were talking to each other instead of about each other."

Ronald Reagan

Making life better

"The most wonderful gift one human being can give to another, is in some way, to make that person's life a little bit better to live."

John Assaraf

What you can do with enthusiasm

"Every memorable act in the history of the world is a triumph of enthusiasm. Nothing great was ever achieved without it because it gives any challenge or any occupation, no matter how frightening or difficult, a new meaning. Without enthusiasm you are doomed to a life of mediocrity but with it you can accomplish miracles."

Og Mandino

Kindness

"Constant kindness can accomplish much. As the sun makes ice melt, kindness causes misunderstanding, mistrust, and hostility to evaporate."

Dr. Albert Schweitzer

what you want

"Here's the problem. Most people are thinking about what they don't want, and they're wondering why it shows up over and over again."

John Assaraf

Close to success

"Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up."

Thomas Edison

The company you keep

"Deliberately seek the company of people who influence you to think and act on building the life you desire."

Napoleon Hill