W.H. Auden
To ask the hard question is simple.
Discover More Quotes From Your Favorite Authors
Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.
But we can not avoid conflict, conflict with society, other individuals and with oneself. Conflicts may be the sources of defeat, lost life and a limitation of our potentiality but they may also lead to greater depth of living and the birth of more far-reaching unities, which flourish in the tensions that engender them.
Between stimulus and response, one has the freedom to choose.
Do first things first, and second things not at all.
What wisdom can you find that is greater than kindness ?
No great man ever complains of want of opportunities.
You're a better man than I am, Gunga Din.
Stand as a rock , you are indestructible. You are the Self ( atman ) , the god of the universe.
How can a society that exists on instant mashed potatoes, packaged cake mixes, frozen dinners, and instant cameras teach patience to its young ?
Action is the antidote to despair.
The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity, an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.
Lots of people want to ride with you in the limo, but what you want is someone who will take the bus with you when the limo breaks down.
We must be bright and cheerful, long faces do not make religion.
Our furniture goes back to louis the fourteenth - unless of course we pay him before then.
Look within, for within is the wellspring of virtue, which will not cease flowing, if you cease not from digging.
You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view, until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it.
The will to prepare is more important than the will to win.
All successful people men and women are big dreamers. They imagine what their future could be, ideal in every respect, and then they work every day toward their distant vision, that goal or purpose.
A person starts to live when he can live outside himself.
What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.
Do not wait for leaders, do it alone, person to person.
Boldness in business is the first, second and third thing.
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.
Kindness is an inner desire that makes us want to do good things even if we do not get anything in return. It is the joy of our life to do them. When we do good things from this inner desire, there is kindness in everything we think, say, want and do.
Go forward confidently, energetically attacking problems, expecting favorable outcomes.
I keep my ideals, because in spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart.
When one door closes another opens, but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us.
In each man there is a priceless treasure that is in no other. Every man's foremost task is the actualization of his unique, unprecedented and never-recurring potentialities, and not the repetition of something that another, and be it even the greatest, has already achieved.
Women wish to be loved not because they are pretty, or good, or well bred, or graceful, or intelligent, but because they are themselves.
Your attitude determines your altitude.
Love like there is no tomorrow.
If you want to test your memory, try to recall what you were worrying about one year ago today.
You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.
Vision without action is a daydream. Action without vision is a nightmare.
It is at the edge of a petal that love waits.
People begin to become successful the minute they decide to be.
When I asked god for strength He gave me difficult situations to face When I asked god for brain & brawn He gave me puzzles in life to solve When I asked god for happiness He showed me some unhappy people When I asked god for wealth He showed me how to work hard When I asked god for favors He showed me opportunities to work hard When I asked god for peace He showed me how to help others God gave me nothing I wanted He gave me everything I needed
Vision without action is daydream. Action without vision is nightmare.
You have to think anyway, so why not think big ?
A 'No' uttered from deepest conviction is better and greater than a 'Yes' merely uttered to please, or what is worse, to avoid trouble.
The giving of love is an education in itself.
You don't just stumble into the future you create your own future.
Life's most soothing things are a child's goodnight and sweet music.
You have the power to think what you want. No matter what the circumstance.
If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.
Only that day dawns to which we are awake.
Success is never wondering what if.
Put off for one day and ten days will pass by.
You cannot change your destination overnight, but you can change your direction overnight.
Don't think it, ink it.
You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you.
There was no hope on earth, and god seemed to have forgotten us. Some said they saw the son of god, others did not see him. If he had come, he would do some great things as he had done before. We doubted it because we had seen neither him nor his works.
One, two, Freddy's coming for you.
We can help others in the world more by making the most of yourself than in any other way.
Reason and judgment are the qualities of a leader.
The most important thing a father can do for his children is to love their mother.
Believe, when you are most unhappy, that there is something for you to do in the world. So long as you can sweeten another's pain, life is not in vain.
Somebody stop me !
If you believe you can, you probably can. If you believe you won't, you most assuredly won't. Belief is the ignition switch that gets you off the launching pad.
Happiness is a butterfly, which, when pursued, is always just beyond your grasp, but which, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you.
Love, by its very nature, is unworldly, and it is for this reason rather than its rarity that it is not only apolitical but anti-political, perhaps the most powerful of all anti-political human forces.
The price of greatness is responsibility.
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.
Would you like to play a game ?
The hottest love has the coldest end.
There is little difference in people, but that little difference makes a big difference. That little difference is attitude. The big difference is whether it is positive or negative.
Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising up every time we fail.
The shortest way to do many things is to do only one thing at a time.
Nothing real can be threatened, nothing unreal exists. Love is all there is.
Let us more and more insist on raising funds of love, of kindness, of understanding, of peace.
Its so hard when contemplated in advance, and so easy when you do it.
We mustn't let our passions destroy our dreams.
Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.
Treat a man as he is and he will remain as he is. Treat a man as he can and should be and he will become as he can and should be.
Until a person can say deeply and honestly, "I am what I am today because of the choices I made yesterday'', that person can not say, "I choose otherwise''.
That some should be rich, shows that others may become rich, and, hence, is just encouragement to industry and enterprise.
It is literally true that you can succeed best and quickest by helping others to succeed.
Love is not blind. It sees more and not less, but because it sees more it is willing to see less.
A man should have any number of little aims about which he should be conscious and for which he should have names, but he should have neither name for, nor consciousness concerning, the main aim of his life.
Nothing is impossible to a willing heart.
Don't argue for other people's weaknesses. Don't argue for your own. When you make a mistake, admit it, correct it, and learn from it -- immediately.
Common looking people are the best in the world : that is the reason the Lord makes so many of them.
I have found the paradox that if I love until it hurts, then there is no hurt, but only more love.
Knowing is not enough, we must apply. Willing is not enough, we must do.
Expect the best, plan for the worst, and prepare to be surprised.
The gulf between god and me is thus bridged. Thus by knowing god, we find that the kingdom of heaven is within us.
What the world really needs is more love and less paper work.
Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it.
Be loyal to people in their absence. Then watch how others begin having more faith and confidence in you, because they know you won't be talking about them behind their backs.
Love isn't blind, it just only sees what matters.
True love never lives happily ever after. True love has no ending.
Love like you've never been hurt, dance like no one is watching, live as though heaven is on earth.
People will exercise great effort and creativity to make our plan work, and sometimes expend just as much effort and creativity to make your plan fail.
There is no security on this earth ; there is only opportunity.
Things turn out best for the people who make the best of the way things turn out.
The doctor of the future will give no medicine, but will interest his patients in the care of the human body, in diet, and in the cause and prevention of disease.
Nothing splendid has ever been achieved except by those who dared believe that something inside of them was superior to circumstance.
I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by conscious endeavor.
If you cannot do great things, do small things in a great way.
I am fond of only what comes from the heart.