Over the course of my speaking career, I encountered many people who were smarter than I am. Here are a few of the great quotes I discovered.
On the subject of attitude:
“The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness, or skill. It will make or break a company…a church…a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past…we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude. I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me, and 90% how I react to it. And so, it is with you…we are in charge of our attitudes.”
-Charles R. Swindoll
“Everything can be taken from man except the last of the human freedoms, his ability to choose his own attitude in any given set of circumstances – to choose his own way.” -Victor Frankl, Holocaust Survivor
“It is energy-demanding work to experience distressing realities in a positive light.” -From the book, Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goldman
“No misfortune is so bad that it can’t be made worse by whining about it.’ -Jeffery C. Holland
On the subject of Life:
“America is great because America is good. When America ceases to be good she will cease to be great.” -Alexis de Tocqueville, 1805-1859
“One thing I know: The only ones among you who will be really happy are those who will have sought and found how to serve.” -Albert Schweitzer
“A friend is one to whom one may pour out the contents of one’s heart, chaff and grain together, knowing that gentle hands will take and sift it, keep what is worth keeping, and with a breath of kindness, blow the rest away.” -George Eliot
“One of the highest of human duties is the duty of encouragement. It is easy to laugh at men’s ideas; it is easy to pour cold water on their enthusiasm; it is easy to discourage others. The world is filled with discouragers. We have a Christian duty to encourage one another. Many a time a word of praise or thanks or appreciation or cheer has kept a man on his feet. Blessed is the man who speaks such a word.”
-William Barclay
“When you get into a tight place and everything goes against you, till it seems you could not hold on a minute longer; never give up then, for that is just the time and place that the tide will turn.” -Harriot Beecher Stowe
“People are often unreasonable, irrational, and self-centered.
Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives.
Be kind anyway.
If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies.
Succeed anyway.
What you have spent years building, someone could destroy overnight.
Build anyway.
If you are honest, people may cheat you.
Be honest anyway.
If you find happiness, people may be jealous.
Be happy anyway.
The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow.
Do good anyway.
Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough.
Give your best anyway.
For you see, in the end, it is between you and God.
It was never between you and Them anyway.” - Mother Teresa
