Quotes

“Happiness, like unhappiness, is a proactive choice.”

“People have character strength but they lack communication skills, and that undoubtedly affects the quality of relationships as well.”

“It is one thing to make a mistake, and quite another thing not to admit it. People will forgive mistakes, because mistakes are usually of the mind, mistakes of judgment. But people will not easily forgive the mistakes of the heart, the ill intention, the bad motives, the prideful justifying cover-up of the first mistake.”

“If I really want to improve my situation, I can work on the one thing over which I have control – myself.”

“It’s not what happens to us, but our response to what happens to us that hurts us.”

“Sow a thought, reap an action; sow an action, reap a habit; sow a habit, reap a character; sow a character, reap a destiny.”

“Two people can see the same thing, disagree, and yet both be right. It’s not logical; it’s psychological.”

“We see the world, not as it is, but as we are──or, as we are conditioned to see it.”

“To change ourselves effectively, we first had to change our perceptions.”

“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.”

“Most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply.”

To grow old means to be rid of anxieties about the past.

As we grow old, we become aware that death is drawing near; his shadow falls across our path; the realities of life seem less crude than of yore, they touch our senses less intimately, and they lose much of their poignancy.

Pain is a coward. He flees when faced by the irresistible power of the will-to-live, which is more strongly rooted in the flesh than the intensest passion is rooted in the spirit.

Whatever a woman's reason may say, her feelings tell her the truth.

Gratitude fills us with rejoicing, for it so rarely finds frank expression; delicacy of feeling warms our hearts.

Gratitude is a rare frame of mind; and those who are grateful can seldom find a way to express what they feel. They are overwhelmed by silence; are shamefaced; and, sometimes, actually try to hide their feelings.

Life is futile unless it be directed towards a definite goal.

For one who is having no personal experience, the passionate disquiet of others is at any rate a titillation of the nerves, like seeing a play or listening to music.

In times of exceptional stress, nature will often give people's behavior so tragical a complexion that neither a picture nor a verbal description is competent to represent its titanic energy.