Quotes About Awards

People with honorary awards are looked upon with disfavor.  Would you let an honorary mechanic fix your brand-new Mercedes?

— Neil Simon

God will not look you over for medals, degrees or diplomas, but for scars.

— Elbert Hubbard

Let us now praise famous men, and our fathers that begat us.

— Ecclesiasticus 44:1

Only mediocrity can be trusted to be always at its best.

— Max Beerbohm

Whenever the occasion arose, he rose to the occasion.

— Jonathan Brown, on Diego Velazquez

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Charles Swindoll

"Life is 10 percent what happens to me and 90 percent of how I react to it."


--Charles Swindoll

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George S. Patton

"Don't tell people how to do things; tell them what to do and let them surprise you with their results."


--George S. Patton

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Desire

In some of the previous chapters I have spoken of the operation of Desire and Will in the manifestation and expression of personal power under the LAW. Now, while there have been many writers who have discoursed ably regarding the mighty power of the Will, there have been but few who have given to the subject of Desire the attention that it deserves, and the consideration it merits. Many persons seem afraid to speak of Desire, for they have gotten the term and idea mixed up with desires of an unworthy and detrimental nature. They have overlooked the fact that Desire must underlie all human action—must be the causing power back of and underneath Will itself.

We might compare Desire with the fire that burns brightly beneath the receptacle containing water, which latter represents the mind. Unless the fire of Desire burns brightly and imparts its heat to the water, or mind, there will be nothing but water. But let the fire manifest its ardent energy and heat, and lo! the water is converted into steam which turns mighty wheels, and drives powerful machinery, and in fact "makes things go." We are apt to forget the causes that have operated in order that the steam be produced, in our wonder, amazement and admiration of the power and effect of the manifested steam. But, in order to get the right idea of the matter fixed in our mind we must take into consideration the water of the mind, and the fire of Desire.

The mind is well represented by water, for it is unstable, changeable, in motion, having eddies, storms, ripples and calm. And Desire is well represented by fire, for it is ardent, hot, strong and burning, and when manifested properly invariably acts upon the water-mind and produce the will-steam which may be turned to the accomplishment of any task, and the moving of the material necessary for our plans. By all means keep the fire of Desire brightly burning under your mental boilers, and you will be sure to manifest the proper amount and degree of the steam of Will which may then be applied to the accomplishing of your life tasks.

If you will keep the figure of speech before your mind—this idea of the fire of desire, the water of the mind, and the steam of will—you will find it easier to put into operation these great mental forces, and to be known as the man or woman of the "Strong Will." But if you allow the fire of Desire to burn low, or to become clogged with the ashes of dead and gone things, long since exhausted and useless, you will find that there will be little or no steam of will produced, and you will be in the position of the majority of people who are like tea kettles simmering over a faint fire, and accomplishing nothing.

Unless you want a thing "the worst way," and manifest that Desire in the shape of a strong impelling force, you will have no will with which to accomplish anything. You must not only "want" to do a thing, or to possess a thing, but you must "want to hard."

You must want it as the Hungry man wants bread, as the smothering man wants air. And if you will but arouse in your self this fierce, ardent, insatiate Desire, you will set in operation one of Nature's most potent mental forces.

What is that great impelling force that you have felt within yourself whenever you have made a mighty effort to accomplish something? Is it not that surging, restless, impelling force of your being that you know as Desire? Did you do the thing simply because you thought it best, or because you felt within yourself a strong feeling that you WANTED to do the thing, or to possess the thing, in the strongest possible way? Did you not feel this strong force of Desire rising within you and impelling you to deed, and action?

Desire is the great moving power of the Mind—that which excites into action the will and powers of the individual. It is at the bottom of all action, feeling, emotion or expression. Before we reach out to do a thing, or to possess a thing, we must first "want to," and in the degree that that "want-to" is felt, so will be our response thereto. Before we love, hate, like or dislike, there must be a Desire of some kind. Before we can arouse ambition there must be a strong Desire. Before we can manifest energy, there must a strong impelling Desire.

Did you ever stop to think that the difference between the strong of the race, and the weak, is largely a matter of Desire? The degree of Desire manifests in the different degrees of strength and weakness. The strong men of the race are filled with strong desires to do this thing, or to possess that. They are filled with that strong creative Desire that makes them want to build up, create, modify, change, and shift around. It is not alone the fruits of their labor that urge them on, but that insistent urge of the creative Desire that drives them on.

Do not be afraid to allow your Desire for Financial Success to burn brightly. Keep the ashes of part failures, disappointments and discouragements well cleared away so that you may have a good draught. Keep the fire of Desire burning brightly, ardently and constantly. Do not be sidetracked by outside things, for remember, concentrated Desire is that which produces the greatest steam-producing power. Keep your mind fixed on that which you want, and keep on demanding that which belongs to you, for it is your own. The Universal Supply is adequate for all needs of everyone, but it responds only to the insistent demand and the earnest Desire. Learn to Desire things in earnest. and rest not content with a mere wanting and wishing.

Desire creates Mental Attitude—develops Faith—nourishes Ambition—unfolds Latent Powers—and tends directly and surely toward Success. Let the strong, dominant desire for Financial Independence possess you from the tips of your toes to the roots of your hair,—feel it forging through every part of your body—and then don't stop until you reach your goal.

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Quotes About Wisdom

A short saying oft contains much wisdom.

— Sophocles

Nowadays most people die of a sort of creeping common sense, and discover when it is too late that the only things one never regrets are one’s mistakes.

— Oscar Wilde

The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself a fool.

— William Shakespeare

Caution is the eldest child of wisdom.

— Victor Hugo

Wisdom comes by disillusionment.

— George Santayana

It is a characteristic of wisdom not to do desperate things.

— Henry David Thoreau

Wisdom is not wisdom when it is derived from books alone.

— Horace

Wisdom at times is found in folly.

— Horace

The beginning of wisdom is the definition of terms.

— Socrates

In order to act wisely it is not enough to be wise.

— Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Good people are good because they’ve come to wisdom through failure.  We get very little wisdom from success, you know.

— William Saroyan

We do not receive wisdom, we must discover it for ourselves, after a journey through the wilderness which no one else can make for us, which no one can spare us, for our wisdom is the point of view from which we come at last to regard the world.

— Marcel Proust

Self-reflection is the school of wisdom.

— Baltasar Gracian

Reason is a weak antagonist against love.

— Madeleine de Scudery

Who is wise?  He that learns from everyone. Who is powerful?  He that governs his passions.  Who is rich?  He that is content.  Who is that?  Nobody.

— Benjamin Franklin

If one is too lazy to think, too vain to do a thing badly, too cowardly to admit it, one will never attain wisdom.

— Cyril Connolly

We should be careful to get out of an experience only the wisdom that is in it—and stop there, lest we be like the cat that sits down on a hot stove lid.  She will never sit down on a hot stove lid again—and that is well; but also she will never dit down on a cold one anymore.

— Mark Twain

Nine-tenths of wisdom consists in being wise in time.

— Theodore Roosevelt

The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook.

— William James

It is better to be wise than to seem wise.

— Origen

Wisdom is greater than knowledge, for wisdom includes knowledge and the due use of it.

— Joseph Burritt Sevelli Capponi

Everyone complains of his memory, but no one complains of his judgment.

— Francois de La Rochefoucauld

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Quotes About Vision

I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been.

— Wayne Gretzky

Fooling around with alternating current is just a waste of time.  Nobody will use it, ever.  It’s too dangerous.  Direct current is safe.

— Thomas Edison

What, sir, would you make a ship sail against the wind and currents by lighting a bonfire under her deck?  I pray you excuse me.  I have no time to listen to such nonsense.

— Napoleon to Robert Fulton

Necessity can set me helpless on my back, but she cannot keep me there; nor can four walls limit my vision.

— Margaret Fairless Barber

I have such poor vision I can date anyone.

— Gary Shandling

The man who radiates good cheer, who makes life happier wherever he meets it, is always a man of vision and faith.

— Ella Wheeler Wilcox

If you keep your eyes so fixed on heaven that you never look at the earth, you will stumble into hell.

— Austin O’Malley

He was so narrow-minded he could see through a keyhole with two eyes.

— Esther Forbes

Where there is no vision, the people perish.

— Proverbs 29:18

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Quotes About Thought and Thinking

Nothing pains some people more than having to think.

— Martin Luther King, Jr.

Judgment is more than skill.  It sets forth on intellectual seas beyond the shores of hard indisputable factual information.

— Kingman Brewster

Don’t just do something, stand there.

— Daniel Berrigan, on the importance of thought as well as action during the 1960s war protests

I have always thought the actions of men the best interpreters of their thoughts.

— John Locke

His words leap across rivers and mountains, but his thoughts are still only six inches long.

— E. B. White

Profundity of thought belongs to youth, clarity of thought to old age.

— Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

What was once thought can never be unthought.

— Friedrich Durrenmatt

Iron rusts from disuse, stagnant water loses its purity, and in cold weather becomes frozen; ever so does inaction sap the vigors of the mind.

— Leonardo da Vinci

Intellectual activity is a danger to the building of character.

— Joseph Goebbels

Every man who expresses a honest thought is a soldier in the army of intellectual liberty.

— Robert G. Ingersoll

An intellectual is someone whose mind watches itself.

— Albert Camus

The feeling of “aha, that’s it,” which accompanies the clothing of a situation with meaning, is emotionally very satisfying, and is the major charm of scientific research, of artistic creation, and of the solution of crossword puzzles.  It is why the intellectual life is fun.

— Hudson Hoagland

It is enough to have a good mind; the main thing is to use it well.

—  Rene Descartes

The only means of strengthening one’s intellect is to make up one’s mind about nothing—to let the mind be a thoroughfare for all thoughts.

— John Keats

Learning without thought is labor lost; thought without learning is perilous.

— Confucius

A man can stand a lot as long as he can stand himself.  He can live without hope, without friends, without books, even without music, as long as he can listen to his own thoughts.

— Axel Munthe

Man is a plant which bears thoughts, just as a rose-tree bears roses and an apple-tree bears apples.

— Antoine Fabre D’Olivet

If I look confused it’s because I’m thinking.

— Samuel Goldwyn

When all think alike, then no one is thinking.

— Walter Lippmann

Analysis kills spontaneity.  The grain once ground into flour springs and germinates no more.

— Henri Frederic Amiel

In the field of observation, chance favors only the prepared minds.

— Louis Pasteur

One must learn to think well before learning to think; afterward it proves too difficult.

— Anatole France

Minds are like parachutes: they only function when open.

— Thomas R. Dewar

If you make people think they’re thinking, they’ll love you.  If you really make them think, they’ll hate you.

— Don Marquis

A thought is often original, though you have uttered it a hundred times.

— Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

When a thought is too weak to be expressed simply, it is proof that it should be rejected.

— Luc de Clapiers de Vauvenargues

When he who hears does not know what he who speaks means, and when he who speaks does not know what he himself means—that is philosophy.

— Voltaire

To be honest, what I feel really bad about is that I don’t feel worse.  That is the intellectual’s problem in a nutshell.

— Michael Frayn

I too had thoughts once of being an intellectual, but I found it too difficult.

— Albert Schweitzer

We pay a high price for being intelligent.  Wisdom hurts.

— Euripides

There’s times when I just have to quit thinking . . . and the only way I can quit thinking is by shopping.

— Tammy Faye Bakker

Thought is free.

— William Shakespeare

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Quotes About Psychology

I prefer neurotic people.  I like to hear rumblings beneath the surface.

— Stephen Sondheim

The analysis of character is the highest human entertainment.

— Isaac Bashevis Singer

Knowing your own darkness is the best method for dealing with the darknesses of other people.

— Carl Jung

Work and love—these are the basics.  Without them, there is neurosis.

— Theodor Reik

The good writing of any age has always been the product of someone’s neurosis.

— William Styron

Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.

— Carl Jung

When depression is stigmatized as illness and weakness, a double bind is created: if we admit to depression, we will be stigmatized by others; if we feel it but do not admit it, we stigmatize ourselves, internalizing the social judgment. . . . The only remaining choice may be truly sick behavior: to experience no emotion at all.

— Lesley Hazelton

Neurosis seems to be a human privilege.

— Sigmund Freud

Castles in the air—they are so easy to take refuge in.  And so easy to build as well.

— Henrik Ibsen

Behavioral psychology is the science of pulling habits out of rats.

— Douglas Busch

The mind is its own place, and in itself, can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven.

— John Milton

The object of all psychology is to give us a totally different idea of the things we know best.

— Paul Valery

Many of the quests for status symbols—the hot automobile, the best table in a restaurant or a private chat with the boss—are shadowy reprises of infant anxieties. . . . The larger office, the corner space, the extra window are the teddy bears and tricycles of adult office life.

— Willard Gaylin

We can be sure that the greatest hope for maintaining equilibrium in the face of any situation rests within ourselves.  Persons who are secure with a transcendental system of values and a deep sense of moral duties are possessors of values which no man and no catastrophe can take from them.

— Francis J. Braceland

Psychoanalysis . . . shows the human infant as the passive recipient of love, unable to bear hostility.  Development is the learning to love actively and to bear rejection.

— Karl Stern

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Quotes About Prejudice

Prejudice is the chains forged by ignorance to keep men apart.

— Marguerite, Countess of Blessington

It’s only big enough people who can afford, occasionally, to be untrammeled by ordinary prejudice.

— Han Suyin

It is not the fault of the slaveholder that he is cruel, so much as it is the system under which he lives.

— Solomon Northrup

Prejudice is not so much dependent upon natural antipathy as upon education.

— David Ruggles

Oh, the length and breadth, the height and depth, the cruelty and the irony of prejudice which can so belittle human nature.

— William G. Allen

Race prejudice is the devil unchained.

— Charles Waddell Chestnutt

The ignorant are always prejudiced and the prejudiced are always ignorant.

— Charles Victor Roman

Pride of race is the antidote to prejudice.

— Arthur Alfonso Schomburg

If prejudice could reason, it would dispel itself.

— William Pickens

Horrible thing, prejudice . . . does you all up.  Puffs you all out of shape.

— Rudolph Fisher

 [Bigotry’s] birthplace is the sinister back room of the mind where plots and schemes are hatched for the persecution and oppression of other human beings.

— Bayard Rustin

Minds are like parachutes: they only function when open.

— Thomas R. Dewar

It is never too late to give up your prejudices.

— Henry David Thoreau

He prided himself on being a man without prejudice, and this itself is a very great prejudice.

— Anatole France

Prejudice is the child of ignorance.

— William Hazlitt

Our nation’s long neglect of minorities whose skin is dark is perhaps only a little worse than our neglect of another minority whose hair is white.

— Lyndon B. Johnson

Irrational barriers and ancient prejudices fall quickly when the question of survival itself is at stake.

— John F. Kennedy

Ignorance is stubborn and prejudice dies hard.

— Adlai E. Stevenson

I’m an equal-opportunity bigot.  I offend everyone!

— Blanche Knott

A chip on the shoulder is a sure indication that there is more wood higher up.

— Aldous Huxley

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Quotes About Originality

The future of dance?  If I knew, I’d want to do it first.

— Martha Graham

Originality exists in every individual because each of us differs from the other.  We are all prime numbers divisible only by ourselves.

— Jean Guitton

Originality does not consist in saying what no one has ever said before, but in saying exactly what you think yourself.

— James Stephens

What is originality?  Undetected plagiarism.

— Dean William R. Inge

My guess is that well over 80 percent of the human race goes through life without having a single original thought.

— H. L. Mencken

People who take time to be alone usually have depth, originality, and quiet reserve.

— John Miller

There is no new thing under the sun.

— Ecclesiastes 1:9

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