Look at the weaknesses of others with compassion, not accusation. It's not what they're not doing or should be doing that's the issue. The issue is your own chosen response to the situation and what you should be doing. If you start to think the problem is "out there", stop yourself. That thought is the problem.
The several tribes of indians inhabiting the regions of the upper missouri, and of whom I spoke in my last letter, are undoubtedly the finest looking, best equipped, and most beautifully costumed of any on the continent.
Even though I am nearly deaf, I seem to be gifted with a kind of inner hearing which enables me to detect sounds and noises which the ordinary person does not hear.
Anything in life worth having is worth working for.
Take time to deliberate, but when the time for action has arrived, stop thinking and go in.
Live out of your imagination, not your history.
Into the house where joy lives, happiness will gladly come.
Each person born into this world represents something new, something that never existed before, something original and unique.
It is discouraging how many people are shocked by honesty and how few by deceit.
Trust men and they will be true to you, treat them greatly, and they will show themselves great.
Above all, beware of compromises. I do not mean that you are to get into antagonism with anybody, but you have to hold on to your own principles in weal or woe and never adjust them to others "fads" through the greed of getting supporters.
A lie has speed, but truth has endurance.
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.
Minds are like parachutes, they function only when open.
The unexamined life is not worth living.
The ability to convert ideas to things is the secret to outward success.
The older I grow, the more everything seems to me to lie in manliness. This is my new gospel.
Possibilitizing is overcoming while you're undergoing.
Seek the wisdom of the ages, but look at the world through the eyes of a child.
What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.
Remember, if you ever need a helping hand, you'll find one at the end of your arm. As you grow older you will discover that you have two hands. One for helping yourself, the other for helping others.
Take a chance ! All life is a chance. The man who goes the furthest is generally the one who is willing to do and dare.
Our limitations and success will be based most often on our own expectations for ourselves. What the mind dwells upon, the body acts upon.
Science is a wonderful thing if one does not have to earn one's living at it.
Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans.
Character may almost be called the most effective means of persuasion
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.
If your ship doesn't come in, swim out to it.
You see, wire telegraph is a kind of a very, very long cat. You pull his tail in New York and his head is meowing in Los Angeles. Do you understand this ? And radio operates exactly the same way : you send signals here, they receive them there. The only difference is that there is no cat.
When you become detached mentally from yourself and concentrate on helping other people with their difficulties, you will be able to cope with your own more effectively. Somehow, the act of self-giving is a personal power-releasing factor.
A real friend is one who walks in when the rest of the world walks out.
To succeed you need to find something to hold on to, something to motivate you, something to inspire you.
Now, gentlemen, let us do something today which the world may talk of hereafter.
Be patient with yourself. Self-growth is tender , it's holy ground. There's no greater investment.
We aren't in an information age, we are in an entertainment age.
If you think you are beaten, you are. If you think you dare not, you don't. If you'd like to win, but think you can't it's almost a cinch you won't. Life's battles don't always go to the stronger or faster man, but sooner or later the man who wins is the one who thinks he can.
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.
Some people enter our lives and leave almost instantly. Others stay, and forge such an impression on our heart and soul, we are changed forever.
Your attitude determines your altitude.
The mind has exactly the same power as the hands, not merely to grasp the world, but to change it
We can let circumstances rule us, or we can take charge and rule our lives from within
What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.
It looks as if there were a single ultimate goal for mankind, a far goal toward which all persons strive. This is called variously by different authors self-actualization, self- realization, integration, psychological health, individuation, autonomy, creativity, productivity, but they all agree that this amounts to realizing the potentialities of the person, that is to say, becoming fully human, everything that person can be.
Each action can be the one on which all depends , what is decisive is only the strength and concentration of hallowing with which I do it. To the question of what had been the most essential matter for his late teacher, a disciple answered, 'Always just what he was engaged in at the moment'.
All the great things are simple, and many can be expressed in a single word freedom , justice , honor , duty , mercy , hope.
A coward is much more exposed to quarrels than a man of spirit.
That is a lesson for all life - face the terrible, face it boldly. Like the monkeys, the hardships of life fall back when we cease to flee before them.
Success is never found. Failure is never fatal. Courage is the only thing.
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.
When our actions do not, our fears make us traitors.
Things turn out best for people who make the best of the way things turn out.
Know thyself.
One can spend a lifetime assigning blame, find the cause 'out there' for all the troubles that exist. Contrast this with the 'responsible attitude' of confronting the situation, bad or good, and instead of asking, 'What caused the trouble ? Who was to blame ?' asking 'How can I handle this present situation to make the most of it ? What can I salvage here ?'
Enlighten the people generally, and tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will vanish like evil spirits at the dawn of day.
Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.
This too, shall pass.
Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it.
The problems of victory are more agreeable than those of defeat, but they are no less difficult.
I never perfected an invention that I did not think about in terms of the service it might give others. I find out what the world needs, then I proceed to invent.
There are four ways, and only four ways, in which we have contact with the world. We are evaluated and classified by these four contacts : what we do, how we look, what we say, and how we say it.
Heroism on command, senseless violence, and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism -- how passionately I hate them !
The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.
One lie ruins a thousand truths.
It is not the critic who counts, nor the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes short again and again, who knows great enthusiasms, great devotions, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who, at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.
Your neighbor's vision is as true for him as your own vision is true for you.
Try to be happy in this present moment, and put not off being so to a time to come, as though that time should be of another make from this which has already come and is ours.
There is no substitute for hard work.
I am again fairly settled down to the pleasant duties of an old fashioned Virginia house-keeper, steady as a clock, busy as a bee, and as cheerful as a cricket.
The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.
We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give.
Success in the affairs of life often serves to hide one's abilities, whereas adversity frequently gives one an opportunity to discover them.
Never put off to tomorrow what you can do today.
Never stop dreaming.
Our intentions create our reality.
There is only one person who could ever make you happy, and that person is you.
High expectations are the key to everything.
Remember when you see a man at the top of a mountain, he didn't fall there.
No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.
Every life form seems to strive to its maximum except human beings. How tall will a tree grow ? As tall as it possibly can. Human beings, on the other hand, have been given the dignity of choice. You can choose to be all or you can choose to be less. Why not stretch up to the full measure of the challenge and see what all you can do ?
Persistence is to the character of man as carbon is to steel.
And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body, and be yet thankful.
The miracle power that elevates the few is to be found in their industry, application and perseverance, under the promptings of a brave determined spirit.
If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost, that is where they should be. Now put foundations under them.
You must learn from your past mistakes, but not lean on your past successes.
To be happy, we must not be too concerned with others.
Sometimes things become possible if we want them bad enough.
The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead, his eyes are closed.
A general is just as good or just as bad as the troops under his command make him.
Surmounting difficulty is the crucible that forms character.
We are what our thoughts have made us, so take care about what you think. Words are secondary. Thoughts live, they travel far.
Let's roll.
It is one of the most beautiful compensations of life, that no man can sincerely try to help another without helping himself.