Henry Van Dyke
Use what talent you possess, the woods would be very silent if no birds sang except those that sang best.
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What this power is I cannot say. All I know is that it exists and it becomes available only when a man is in that state of mind in which he knows exactly what he wants and is fully determined not to quit until he finds it.
If you keep saying things are going to be bad, you have a chance of being a prophet.
Love is a hole in the heart.
I believe that it is better to learn from the diverse people around us than to try in vain to emulate them, better to be a teacher than a role model. As strong as my legs are, it is my mind that has made me a champion.
If you want children to keep their feet on the ground, put some responsibility on their shoulders.
Constant dripping hollows out a stone.
If we open a quarrel between the past and the present, we shall find we have lost the future.
If faith in ourselves had been more extensively taught and practiced, I am sure a very large portion of the evils and miseries that we have would have vanished. Duty is to encourage everyone in his struggle to live up to his own highest idea, and strive at the same time to make the ideal as near as possible to the truth.
What concerns me is not the way things are, but rather the way people think things are.
I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.
We have merely scratched the surface of the store of knowledge which will come to us. I believe that we are now, a-tremble on the verge of vast discoveries - discoveries so wondrously important they will upset the present trend of human thought and start it along completely new lines.
May the Force be with you.
The worst thing one can do is not to try, to be aware of what one wants and not give in to it, to spend years in silent hurt wondering if something could have materialized -- never knowing.
If you can't sleep, then get up and do something instead of lying there and worrying. It's the worry that gets you, not the loss of sleep.
Change your thoughts and you change your world.
The more I love myself the better I am able to love you.
It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge.
If you want to reach a goal, you must see the reaching in your own mind before you actually arrive at your goal.
Never live in the past but always learn from it.
A great attitude does much more than turn on the lights in our worlds, it seems to magically connect us to all sorts of serendipitous opportunities that were somehow absent before the change.
What the heart gives away is never gone. It is kept in the hearts of others.
Non !
The significance of a man is not in what he attains but in what he longs to attain.
As physicians, we are invited into the most intimate chambers of our patients’ lives. We should acknowledge that unfettered trust with dignity, deference, and respect. For a physician, caring for patients is not only a duty; it is a privilege. Alleviating pain and restoring health for another human being can induce an exhilaration few others experience in their careers.
Never give an order that can't be obeyed.
Our lives improve only when we take chances - and the first and most difficult risk we can take is to be honest with ourselves.
When a man comes to a conscious vital realization of those great spiritual forces within himself and begins to use those forces in science, in business, and in life, his progress in the future will be unparalleled.
Don't wish it were easier, wish you were better.
If you think education is expensive, try ignorance.
Who travels for love finds a thousand miles not longer than one.
The quality of a man's life is in direct proportion to his commitment to excellence, regardless of his chosen field of endeavor.
The first and greatest commandment is, Don't let them scare you.
In order to change we must be sick and tired of being sick and tired.
Now all you have to do is hold the chicken, bring me the toast, give me a check for the chicken salad sandwich, and you haven't broken any rules.
There are times when a man should be content with what he has but never with what he is.
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.
Hope is a state of mind, not of the world. Hope, in this deep and powerful sense, is not the same as joy that things are going well, or willingness to invest in enterprises that are obviously heading for success, but rather an ability to work for something because it is good.
People often say that motivation doesn't last. Well, neither does bathing-that's why we recommend it daily.
Experience is the best teacher.
Find the person who will love you because of your differences and not in spite of them and you have found a lover for life.
Life is "trying things to see if they work"
Almost any idea is good if a man has ability and is willing to work hard. The best idea is worthless if the creator is a loafer and ineffective.
Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine.
I have realized god sitting in the temple of every human body, the moment I stand in reverence before every human being and see god in him - that moment I am free from bondage, everything that binds vanishes, and I am free.
You owe it to yourself to find your own unorthodox way of succeeding, or sometimes, just surviving.
You see, it's never the environment ; it's never the events of our lives, but the meaning we attach to the events - how we interpret them - that shapes who we are today and who we'll become tomorrow. quotes
Hardening of the heart ages people faster than hardening of the arteries.
Good judgement comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgement.
The time to make friends is before you need them.
Friendship is precious, not only in the shade, but in the sunshine of life.
Do you want a leg or a breast ?
If a man does his best, what else is there ?
Never giving up and pushing forward will unlock all the potential we are capable of.
The more credit you give away, the more will come back to you. The more you help others, the more they will want to help you.
Bite off more than you can chew, then chew it.
Personally, veda's convinced me that alligators have the right idea. They eat their young.
In real love you want the other person's good. In romantic love you want the other person.
If there is something to gain and nothing to lose by asking, by all means ask !
You're tearing me apart !
"I can't do it" never accomplished anything ; "I will try" has performed miracles.
They made us many promises, more than I can remember, but they kept only one. They promised to take our land, and they did.
Persistence is to the character of man as carbon is to steel.
Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.
Commit yourself to a dream nobody who tries to do something great but fails is a total failure. Why ? Because he can always rest assured that he succeeded in life's most important battle -- he defeated the fear of trying.
Love is sweet, delicate, dreamy an eternity of gorgeous moments.
The measure of a man is the way he bears up under misfortune.
The positive thinker is a hard-headed, tough-minded, and factual realist. He sees all the difficulties clearly... which is more than can be said for the average negative thinker. But he sees more than difficulties -- he tries to see the solutions of those difficulties.
We waste time looking for the perfect lover, instead of creating the perfect love.
If you tell the truth you don't have to remember anything.
The fear of death is the most unjustified of all fears, for there's no risk of accident for someone who's dead.
You have to expect things of yourself before you can do them.
Losers visualize the penalties of failure. Winners visualize the rewards of success.
The thing I lose patience with the most is the clock. Its hands move too fast.
If you want to be enthusiastic, act enthusiastic.
Personal leadership is not a singular experience. It is, rather, the ongoing process of keeping your vision and values before you and aligning your life to be congruent with those most important things.
If you don't quit, and don't cheat, and don't run home when trouble arrives, you can only win.
Fear is met and destroyed with courage. Again and again, when the struggle seems hopeless and all opportunity lost, some man or women with a little more courage, a little more effort, brings victory.
Love is more than a feeling, it's a state of mind.
Don't go through life, grow through life.
A dream is a wish your heart makes.
Somebody stop me !
For one person to love another, that is perhaps the most difficult of all our tasks, the last test and proof, the work for which all else is but preparation.
Whether or not we realize it each of us has within us the ability to set some kind of example for people. Knowing this would you rather be the one known for being the one who encouraged others, or the one who inadvertently discouraged those around you ?
The handgun would not be my choice of weapon if I knew I was going to a fight. ...I'd choose a rifle, a shotgun, an RPG or an atomic bomb instead.
Not he who has much is rich, but he who gives much.
When people are like each other they tend to like each other.
After your jump, the net appears.
He who hesitates is lost !
A child becomes an adult when he realizes that he has a right not only to be right but also to be wrong.
I want to talk with people who care about things that matter that will make a life- changing difference
Until we take how we see ourselves (and how we see others) into account, we will be unable to understand how others see and feel about themselves and their world. Unaware, we will project our intentions on their behavior and call ourselves objective.
Come here, Norman. Hurry up. The loons ! The loons ! They're welcoming us back.
How can a society that exists on instant mashed potatoes, packaged cake mixes, frozen dinners, and instant cameras teach patience to its young ?
Life is the first gift, love is the second.
Absence diminishes small loves and increases great ones, as the wind blows out the candle and blows up the bonfire.
Love is letting go of fear.
Those who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night.
Mr. Allen, this may come as a shock to you, but there are some men who don't end every sentence with a proposition.
Challenges are what make life interesting , overcoming them is what makes life meaningful.
Nothing will ever be attempted if all possible objections must first be overcome.