Quotations About Self-Discipline

Characteristics Of Self-Discipline
Lack of self discipline is a source of low self esteem. Self discipline is something we all need because it is a vital characteristic of successful people. Why? Because nothing is as easy as it seems. There are always unforeseen challenges and problems on the path to success and achievement. To beat these you must persevere and be strong. Likewise eating disorders or other problems associated with excess (such as smoking or alcoholism) require will power.

Excessive habits foster low self esteem and lack of self confidence. If you suffer from an obsession and cannot control it you may blame or punish yourself. Likewise the reverse is also true low self esteem may cause some of these problems (eating too much, too little, binging or other damaging disorders), this is a vicious circle.

Self discipline helps you control your actions and make sure you stay on track. It is helpful if you suffer disorders like those above and need to break out and cure yourself. Please make use of help from friends or counselors as this will support you in your efforts. Going it alone is very difficult!

An individual who is active in higher learning soon becomes an individual active in higher earning. ~ Michael Gulliver

Everything you want in life has a price connected to it. There's a price to pay if you want to make things better, a price to pay just for leaving things as they are, a price for everything. ~ Harry Browne

If I had only done today what I set out for yesterday I'd be free tomorrow. ~ Andy Munthe

Hold yourself responsible for a higher standard than anybody else expects of you. Never excuse yourself. Never pity yourself. Be a hard master to yourself - and be lenient to everybody else. ~ Henry Ward Beecher

Procrastination is the fear of success. People procrastinate because they are afraid of the success that they know will result if they move ahead now. Because success is heavy, carries a responsibility with it, it is much easier to procrastinate and live on the 'someday I'll' philosophy. ~ Denis Waitley

First we form habits, then they form us. Conquer your bad habits, or they'll eventually conquer you. ~ Dr. Rob Gilbert

No iron chain, or outward force of any kind, can ever compel the soul of a person to believe or to disbelieve. ~Thomas Carlyle

The difference between perseverance and obstinacy is that one comes from a strong will, and the other from a strong won't. ~Henry Ward Beecher

Beware of endeavoring to become a great man in a hurry. One such attempt in ten thousand may succeed. These are fearful odds. ~ Benjamin Disraeli

Self-respect is the fruit of discipline: the sense of dignity grows with the ability to say no to oneself. ~Abraham Heschel

Our ultimate freedom is the right and power to decide how anybody or anything outside ourselves will affect us. ~ Stephen Covey

If it turns out that my best wasn't good enough, at least I won't look back and say that I was afraid to try; failure makes me work even harder. ~ Michael Jordan

Never explain - your friends do not need it and your enemies will not believe you anyway. ~ Elbert Hubbard

It's never crowded along the extra mile. ~ Wayne Dyer

There would be nothing to frighten you if you refused to be afraid. ~Gandhi

Our deeds determine us, as much as we determine our deeds. ~ George Eliot

Class is an aura of confidence that is being sure without being cocky. Class has nothing to do with money. Class never runs scared. It is self-discilpine and self-knowledge. It's the sure footedness that comes with having proved you can meet life. ~ Ann Landers

The secret of happiness is this: let your interests be as wide as possible, and let your reactions to the things and persons that interest you be as far as possible friendly rather than hostile. ~ Bertrand Russell

The ability to concentrate and to use time well is everything. ~ Lee Iacocca

Success is nothing more than a few simple disciplines, practiced every day. ~ Jim Rohn

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. ~ Chinese Proverb

Satisfaction lies in the effort, not the attainment. Full effort is full victory. ~ Mahatma Gandhi

If you put off everything 'till you're sure of it, you'll get nothing done. ~ Norman Vincent Peale

Consciousness & Self-Consciousness Quotes

What is the relation between consciousness and self-consciousness?
In recent philosophy of mind, we are accustomed to underlining their independence. It is often emphasized that a person can be conscious of a host of objects, features, and states of affairs unrelated to her. When a person is conscious of the sky, or consciously experiences the blueness of the sky, she is not attending to herself in the least. That is, she is not self-conscious. Yet she is very clearly conscious. Therefore, consciousness can occur in the absence of self-consciousness.

The truth is, that no man is much regarded by the rest of the world. He that considers how little he dwells upon the condition of others will learn how little the attention of others is attracted by himself. While we see multitudes passing before us, of whom perhaps not one appears to deserve our notice or excite our sympathy, we should remember, that we likewise are lost in the same throng, that the eye which happens to glance upon us is turned in a moment on him that follows us, and that the utmost which we can reasonably hope of rear, is to fill a vacant hour with prattle and be forgotten.

The collective energy generated from the feelings, thoughts, and attitudes of the almost six billion people on this planet creates an atmosphere, or "consciousness climate". When events such as a terrorist bombing that kills hundreds, people all over the world are affected. They feel the tension wave of those unstable situations even though they're not directly impacted.

As stress waves are generated, our emotions pick up this incoherent energy. Even after the wave passes through, the emotional aftereffects keep reverberating. If you've ever lived through an earthquake and its aftershocks, you may have felt static energy reverberating in your body for days. Strong waves of emotional stress can affect the whole world in a similar way. When events take place that cause massive fear and anxiety, we all experience the stress at some level. At the level of consciousness, we're all in this together.

The collective energy generated from the feelings, thoughts, and attitudes of the almost six billion people on this planet creates an atmosphere or 'consciousness climate.' Surrounding us like the air we breathe, this consciousness climate affects us most strongly on energetic and emotional levels. An increase in coherent thoughts and feelings creates an uplifting momentum in the consciousness climate. An increase in incoherent thoughts and feelings creates a stress momentum in the consciousness climate. In other words, coherence or incoherence is broadcast via the consciousness climate much as music or noise is broadcast via radio signals. ~ Doc Childre and Howard Martin, The HeartMath Solution

Man's mind once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimension. ~ Oliver Wendell Holmes

If humankind would accept and acknowledge this responsibility and become creatively engaged in the process of evolution, consciously as well as unconsciously, a new reality would emerge, and a new age could be born. ~ Jonas Salk

When we look at the physics of collective consciousness, the nature of incoherence and coherence becomes increasingly important. Our own emotional management also ranks high on the priority list. Depending on how self-managed we are, we can deflect some of this stress influence. However, we can still be vulnerable to increases in the stress frequency in the world around us — increases that amplify our mental overprocessing and emotional reactivity and push us past our tolerance threshold. ~ Doc Childre and Howard Martin, The HeartMath Solution

Ongoing stress creates an energetic environment, affecting town and country, spreading from nation to nation, causing disharmony, disease, storms and wars. The heart's intelligence can help to dissipate these negative energies, giving people a fresh start in learning how to get along. As enough people learn about emotional fitness, it will cause a global shift into new consciousness that many are talking about, and then quality of life has a chance of becoming better for the whole. ~ Doc Childre

As a highly connected global society, we're moving rapidly toward having to make important choices that will affect our present security and the lives of future generations. The world's problems could get worse before they get better. But the very challenges of this time period also present opportunities for a significant shift in human consciousness. ~ Doc Childre and Howard Martin, The HeartMath Solution

Many people are now starting to experience a new energy filtering down through the density of mass consciousness. This energy stirs your spirit to find freedom of expression and amplifies the voice within your heart. This new planetary energy facilitates people in thinking more about the heart and its potentials in all human affairs. ~ Doc Childre, Self Empowerment

A human being is a part of the whole, called by us "Universe," a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest - a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. Nobody is able to achieve this completely, but the striving for such achievement is in itself a part of the liberation and a foundation for inner security. ~ Albert Einstein, quoted in H Eves Mathematical Circles Adieu (Boston 1977)

To fully grasp the complete and profound significance of the Law of One is an ever-expanding exploration for human consciousness. It may well always be for us an ultimate which we seek to understand and discover in ever-increasing increments of intelligence. ~ The Intelligent Heart, David McArthur & Bruce McArthur

The world we are experiencing today is the result of our collective consciousness, and if we want a new world, each of us must start taking responsibility for helping create it.
~ A New Heaven and New Earth, Rosemary Fillmore Rhea, from New Thought for a New Millenium

Quotes About Self-Awareness

There's much insight to be gained during these times by aligning heart and mind. As we achieve alignment, the experience of new awareness will become tangible and alive. Now is the time to take that promise to heart. But having insights is different than acting on them. We must follow the heart and shape a better world for ourselves and the collective whole. ~ Doc Childre and Howard Martin, The HeartMath Solution

As you sincerely go for deeper levels of love, the results you'll have in well-being and increased quality of life will motivate you, leading you to a wider dimensional awareness. The results are so rewarding you can easily develop a passion for self-management. ~ Sara Paddison, The Hidden Power of the Heart

In the new days, once a critical mass of people have made a shift into heart awareness, life will be quite different for everyone. All of these benefits—and many more—are earned through systematically learning to focus on, listen to, and follow your heart. ~ Doc Childre and Howard Martin, The HeartMath Solution

When emotions are managed by the heart, they heighten your awareness of the world around you and add sparkle to life. The result is new intelligence and a new view of life. Just be sincere in your efforts and appreciate the progress you make, not expecting to be free from unpleasant emotions all at once. Each success builds more power and excitement. It gets easier as you go. When long-standing emotional issues lose some of their intensity and importance, things won't bother you as much. ~ Doc Childre and Howard Martin, The HeartMath Solution

You're only given a little spark of madness. You mustn't lose it. ~ Robin Williams, comedian

Blessed are those who can laugh at themselves, for they shall never cease to be amused. ~ Anonymous

In the last decade or so, science has discovered a tremendous amount about the role emotions play in our lives. Researchers have found that even more than IQ, your emotional awareness and abilities to handle feelings will determine your success and happiness in all walks of life, including family relationships. ~ John Gottman, Ph.D. Author, Raising an Emotionally Intelligent Child


The universe is not required to be in perfect harmony with human ambition. ~ Carl Sagan


Nirvana is not the blowing out of the candle. It is the extinguishing of the flame because day is come. ~ Rabindranath Tagore

When I was young I was sure of everything; in a few years, having been mistaken a thousand times, I was not half so sure of most things as I was before; at present, I am hardly sure of anything but what God has revealed to me. ~ John Wesley

There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root, and it may be that he who bestows the largest amount of time and money on the needy is doing the most by his mode of life to produce that misery which he strives in vain to relieve. ~ Thoreau

The spirit of a person's life is ever shedding some power, just as a flower is steadily bestowing fragrance upon the air. ~ T. Starr King

As the fletcher whittles and makes straight his arrows, so the master directs his straying thoughts. ~ Buddha

The one important thing I have learned over the years is the difference between taking one's work seriously and taking one's self seriously. The first is imperative and the second disasterous. ~ Margot Fonteyn

We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow men; and among those fibers, as sympathetic threads, our actions run as causes, and they come back to us as effects. ~ Herman Melville

It is no use walking anywhere to preach unless our walking is our preaching. ~ St. Francis of Assisi

We wait all these years to find someone who understands us, I thought, someone who accepts us as we are, someone with a wizard's power to melt stone to sunlight, who can bring us happiness in spite of trials, who can face our dragons in the night, who can transform us into the soul we choose to be. Just yesterday I found that magical Someone is the face we see in the mirror: It's us and our homemade masks. ~ Richard Bach

The more you know, the less you need to show. ~ Anonymous

The outward freedom that we shall attain will only be in exact proportion to the inward freedom to which we may have grown at a given moment. And if this is a correct view of freedom, our chief energy must be concentrated on achieving reform from within. ~ Gandhi

It's surprising how many persons go through life without ever recognizing that their feelings toward other people are largely determined by their feelings toward themselves, and if you're not comfortable within yourself, you can't be comfortable with others. ~ Sydney J. Harris

Don't bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself. ~ William Faulkner

Be careful what you pretend to be because you are what you pretend to be. ~ Kurt Vonnegut

Quotes About Self-Esteem

Facts About Self-Esteem

• The key to healthy self esteem is becoming aware of our personal strengths and accepting ourselves as worthy persons despite any real weaknesses we have.
• This also means learning that low self esteem is partly self imposed regardless of original causes - we maintain our own low self esteem by misperceiving our basic worth relative to others.
• This is because the more we criticize ourselves the worse we feel.
• Finding fault with everything around us is no more helpful except in providing a bit of immediate relief.
• The good news is that we can change how we view ourselves - without changing our basic personalities.
• We can also spend more time doing useful things and less time sitting around thinking about ourselves. This builds self esteem.
• Talking to other people helps us see that we are not the only ones with problems. This means focusing on them, not dwelling on ourselves, a good diversion.
• Everyone has something they don't like about themselves or feels bad about no matter how hard it may be to see it in them.
• So, there is nothing unique about us in this regard, hence we have every right to be as happy as anyone else.
• Helping others and being a good listener is one way to develop a sense of being good at something and a greater sense of self worth.
• Listening and being nice to others is one of the easiest things to change about ourselves, something everyone can do and it is one of the best ways of starting to feel better about ourselves.
• The key point is to do things that get in the way of dwelling on ourselves - being busy gets us out of ourselves, especially if what we are doing gives us a sense of achievement.

That kind of life is most happy which affords us most opportunities of gaining our own esteem. ~ Samuel Johnson

The average estimate themselves by what they do, the above average by what they are. ~ Johann Friedrich Von Schiller

The foundation of lasting self-confidence and self esteem is excellence, mastery of your work. ~ Brian Tracy

The man who trims himself to suit everybody will soon whittle himself away. ~ Charles Schwab

The will to do springs from the knowledge that we can do. ~ James Allen

There is nothing noble about being superior to some other man. The true nobility is in being superior to your previous self. ~ Hindu Proverb

There's only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that's your own self. ~ Aldous Huxley

To establish true self-esteem we must concentrate on our successes and forget about the failures and the negatives in our lives. ~ Denis Waitley

Too many people overvalue what they are not and undervalue what they are. ~ Malcolm S. Forbes

Trust yourself, then you will know how to live. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Nothing profits more than self-esteem, grounded on what is just and right. ~ John Milton

Outstanding leaders go out of their way to boost the self-esteem of their personnel. If people believe in themselves, it's amazing what they can accomplish. ~ Sam Walton

Put all excuses aside and remember this: YOU are capable. ~ Zig Ziglar

Respect yourself if you would have others respect you. ~ Baltasar Gracian

Self pity is our worst enemy and if we yield to it, we can never do anything wise in the world. ~ Helen Keller

Self-pity gets you nowhere. One must have the adventurous daring to accept oneself as a bundle of possibilities and undertake the most interesting game in the world making the most of one's best. ~ Harry Emerson Fosdick

Self-respect is the fruit of discipline: the sense of dignity grows with the ability to say no to oneself. ~ Abraham Heschel

Self-respect permeates every aspect of your life. ~ Joe Clark

Someone's opinion of you does not have to become your reality. ~ Les Brown

Sooner or later, those who win are those who think they can. ~ Richard Bach

Quotations About Self-Respect

Self-esteem and Self-respect
Our culture is concerned with matters of self-esteem. Self-respect, on the other hand, may hold the key to achieving the peace of mind we seek. The two concepts seem very similar but the differences between them are crucial.

To esteem anything is to evaluate it positively and hold it in high regard, but evaluation gets us into trouble because while we sometimes win, we also sometimes lose. To respect something, on the other hand, is to accept it.

The person with self-respect simply likes her- or himself. This self-respect is not contingent on success because there are always failures to contend with. Neither is it a result of comparing ourselves with others because there is always someone better. These are tactics usually employed to increase self-esteem. Self-respect, however, is a given. We simply like ourselves or we don't. With self-respect, we like ourselves because of who we are and not because of what we can or cannot do.



Your DNA structure is designed so the choice to function in love is the only choice that brings you fulfillment. Stress is inner biofeedback, signaling you that frequencies are fighting within your system. The purpose of stress isn't to hurt you, but to let you know it's time to go back to the heart and start loving. ~ Sara Paddison, The Hidden Power of the Heart


Self-empowerment - that's learning to respect other people's music, but dance to your own tune as you master harmony within yourself. ~ Doc Childre, Self Empowerment


You're only given a little spark of madness. You mustn't lose it. ~ Robin Williams, comedian


Not respecting yourself, is the same as committing suicide at a slow rate. ~ Anonymous


You don't know what power you have until you make choices in a hard time. ~ Lord Dragnys


Respecting yourself means listening to your body and emotions continuously. Then acting beyond a linear logic to achieve ones goals. ~ Anonymous


In my day, we didn't have self-esteem, we had self-respect, and no more of it than we had earned. ~ Jane Haddam


Self-respect can be a extension of your ego or a priceless virtue. ~ Anonymous


In my day, we didn't have self-esteem, we had self-respect, and no more of it than we had earned. ~Jane Haddam


Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self. ~Cyril Connolly


I prefer to be true to myself, even at the hazard of incurring the ridicule of others, rather than to be false, and to incur my own abhorrence. ~Frederick Douglass


A man can stand a lot as long as he can stand himself. ~Axel Munthe


If I despised myself, it would be no compensation if everyone saluted me, and if I respect myself, it does not trouble me if others hold me lightly. ~Max Nordau


That you may retain your self-respect, it is better to displease the people by doing what you know is right, than to temporarily please them by doing what you know is wrong. ~William J.H. Boetcker


I care not so much what I am to others as what I am to myself. I will be rich by myself, and not by borrowing. ~Michel de Montaigne

Quotations About Self-Discovery II

We catch frightful glimpses of ourselves in the hostile eyes of others. ~Mignon McLaughlin, The Neurotic's Notebook, 1960


"Know thyself?" If I knew myself, I'd run away. ~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe


Just when I think I have learned the way to live, life changes. ~Hugh Prather


And if you find everything as soon as you look for it, you find it in vain, you look for it in vain. ~Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. Merwin


You'll never find peace of mind until you listen to your heart. ~George Michael, "Kissing A Fool"


To know what you prefer, instead of humbly saying "Amen" to what the world tells you you ought to prefer, is to keep your soul alive. ~Robert Louis Stevenson


Let your heart guide you. It whispers, so listen carefully. ~Littlefoot's mother, Land Before Time


You're always in either first or fifth, but you know there's a lot of great gears in between. ~Tony to Angela on Who's The Boss


If a man happens to find himself, he has a mansion which he can inhabit with dignity all the days of his life. ~James A. Michener


It's a great thing when you realize you still have the ability to surprise yourself. Makes you wonder what else you can do that you've forgotten about. ~Alan Ball, American Beauty, 1999


One's own self is well hidden from one's own self; of all mines of treasure, one's own is the last to be dug up. ~Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche


If you're not a rebel by the age of twenty, you've got no heart, but if you haven't turned establishment by thirty, you've got no brains. ~Swimming with Sharks, 1994, written & directed by George Huang, spoken by the character Buddy Ackerman played by Kevin Spacey


They must often change, who would be constant in happiness or wisdom. ~Confucius


Your distress about life might mean you have been living for the wrong reason, not that you have no reason for living. ~Tom O'Connor


In order to judge properly, one must get away somewhat from what one is judging, after having loved it. This is true of countries, of persons, and of oneself. ~André Gide


A man may be so much of everything that he is nothing of anything. ~Samuel Johnson, Boswell, Life of Johnson, 1783


No question is so difficult to answer as that to which the answer is obvious. ~George Bernard Shaw


There is an eternal landscape, a geography of the soul; we search for its outlines all our lives. ~Josephine Hart


God, why do I storm heaven for answers that are already in my heart? Every grace I need has already been given me. Oh, lead me to the Beyond within. ~Macrina Wieherkehr


Camouflage is a game we all like to play, but our secrets are as surely revealed by what we want to seem to be as by what we want to conceal. ~Russell Lynes


Never be afraid to sit awhile and think. ~Lorraine Hansberry, A Raisin in the Sun


Truth hurts - not the searching after; the running from! ~John Eyberg

Quotations About Self-Discovery I

People often say that this or that person has not yet found himself. But the self is not something one finds, it is something one creates. ~Thomas Szasz

You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. What you'll discover will be wonderful. What you'll discover is yourself. ~Alan Alda

Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves like locked rooms and like books that are written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will find them gradually, without noticing it, and live along some distant day into the answer. ~Rainer Maria Rilke

The greatest explorer on this earth never takes voyages as long as those of the man who descends to the depth of his heart. ~Julien Green

There came a time when the risk to remain tight in the bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom. ~Anaïs Nin

The value of identity of course is that so often with it comes purpose. ~Richard Grant

All men should strive to learn before they die what they are running from, and to, and why. ~James Thurber

I know well what I am fleeing from but not what I am in search of. ~Michel de Montaigne

If you don't get lost, there's a chance you may never be found. ~Author Unknown

I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. ~Henry David Thoreau, 1854

A man travels the world over in search of what he needs and returns home to find it. ~George Moore

If in the last few years you haven't discarded a major opinion or acquired a new one, check your pulse. You may be dead. ~Gelett Burgess

Man never knows what he wants; he aspires to penetrate mysteries and as soon as he has, he wants to reestablish them. Ignorance irritates him and knowledge cloys. ~Amiel

The man who views the world at fifty the same as he did at twenty has wasted thirty years of his life. ~Muhammad Ali

Perhaps the truth depends on a walk around the lake. ~Wallace Stevens

One may understand the cosmos, but never the ego; the self is more distant than any star. ~G.K. Chesterton

If you resist reading what you disagree with, how will you ever acquire deeper insights into what you believe? The things most worth reading are precisely those that challenge our convictions. ~Author Unknown

It is only when we silent the blaring sounds of our daily existence that we can finally hear the whispers of truth that life reveals to us, as it stands knocking on the doorsteps of our hearts. ~K.T. Jong

I met a lot of people in Europe. I even encountered myself. ~James Baldwin

There are chapters in every life which are seldom read and certainly not aloud. ~Carol Shields

To the question of your life you are the answer, and to the problems of your life you are the solution. ~Joe Cordare

Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves. ~Henry David Thoreau

No single event can awaken within us a stranger totally unknown to us. To live is to be slowly born. ~Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Men go abroad to wonder at the heights of mountains, at the huge waves of the sea, at the long courses of the rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motions of the stars, and they pass by themselves without wondering. ~St. Augustine

When you re-read a classic you do not see in the book more than you did before. You see more in you than there was before. ~Clifton Fadiman

There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find the ways in which you yourself have altered. ~Nelson Mandela

For most men life is a search for the proper manila envelope in which to get themselves filed. ~Clifton Fadiman

Bypasses are devices that allow some people to dash from point A to point B very fast while other people dash from point B to point A very fast. People living at point C, being a point directly in between, are often given to wonder what's so great about point A that so many people from point B are so keen to get there and what's so great about point B that so many people from point A are so keen to get there. They often wish that people would just once and for all work out where the hell they wanted to be. ~Douglas Adams

Quotations About Self-Control

Self-control is the ability to make decisions about how and when we express our feelings, and which of our impulses to act on. This is a life-long process which is critical to the healthy development of children and adults.

Self-respect is the root of discipline: The sense of dignity grows with the ability to say no to oneself. ~Abraham Joshua Heschel, The Insecurity of Freedom: Essays on Human Existence, 1967

Not being able to govern events, I govern myself, and apply myself to them, if they will not apply themselves to me. ~Michel de Montaigne, Essays, 1588

How like herrings and onions our vices are in the morning after we have committed them. ~Samuel Taylor Coleridge

I have been my own disciple and my own master. And I have been a good disciple but a bad master. ~Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. Merwin

All men are tempted. There is no man that lives that can't be broken down, provided it is the right temptation, put in the right spot. ~Henry Ward Beecher, Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit, 1887

The cyclone derives its powers from a calm center. So does a person. ~Norman Vincent Peale

Those who flee temptation generally leave a forwarding address. ~Lane Olinghouse

It is a man's own mind, not his enemy or foe, that lures him to evil ways. ~Buddha

The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. ~Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1891

What makes resisting temptation difficult for many people is they don't want to discourage it completely. ~Franklin P. Jones

Do you really think it is weakness that yields to temptation? I tell you that there are terrible temptations which it requires strength, strength and courage to yield to. ~Oscar Wilde

It's all right letting yourself go, as long as you can get yourself back. ~Mick Jagger

I am, indeed, a king, because I know how to rule myself. ~Pietro Aretino, 10 May 1537

If we resist our passions, it is more because of their weakness than because of our strength. ~François, duc de La Rochefoucauld

For every man there exists a bait which he cannot resist swallowing. ~Friedrich Nietzsche The first attribute that characterizes the greater man from the moron is his thicker layer of inhibition. ~Martin H. Fischer

Go ahead and squander your chi. But I guarantee you heaven isn't in Miss March's pussy.... Heaven is on the other side of that feeling you get when you're sitting on the couch and you get up and make a triple-decker sandwich. It's on the other side of that, when you don't make the sandwich. It's about sacrifice.... It's about giving up the things that basically keep you from feeling. That's what I believe, anyway. I'm always asking, "What am I going to give up next?" Because I want to feel. ~Jim Carrey, from a Michael Fleming interview in the March 2004 issue of Playboy magazine

Quotations About Self

It is not easy to find happiness in ourselves, and it is not possible to find it elsewhere. ~Agnes Repplier


In every part and corner of our life, to lose oneself is to be the gainer; to forget oneself is to be happy. ~Robert Louis Stevenson


The words "I am" are potent words; be careful what you hitch them to. The thing you're claiming has a way of reaching back and claiming you. ~A.L. Kitselman


The greatest hazard of all, losing one's self, can occur very quietly in the world, as if it were nothing at all. No other loss can occur so quietly; any other loss - an arm, a leg, five dollars, a wife, etc. - is sure to be noticed. ~The Sickness Unto Death

We are sure to be losers when we quarrel with ourselves; it is civil war. ~Charles Caleb Colton


Sometimes at night I light a lamp so as not to see. ~Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. Merwin

The finest thing in the world is knowing how to belong to oneself. ~Michel de Montaigne, Of Solitude

Each has his past shut in him like the leaves of a book shown to him by heart, and his friends can only read the title. ~Virginia Woolf

At this very moment, you may be saying to yourself that you have any number of admirable qualities. You are a loyal friend, a caring person, someone who is smart, dependable, fun to be around. That's wonderful, and I'm happy for you, but let me ask you this: are you being any of those things to yourself? ~Phillip C. McGraw, The Ultimate Weight Solution: The 7 Keys to Weight Loss Freedom, 2003


It is often hard to bear the tears that we ourselves have caused. ~Marcel Proust

A wise man never loses anything if he have himself. ~Michel de Montaigne

We are happy when for everything inside us there is a corresponding something outside us. ~W.B. Yeats


Who has not sat, afraid, before his own heart's curtain? ~Rainer Maria Rilke, Duino Elegies, "The Fourth Elegy," translated from German by Albert Ernest Flemming


We do not deal much in facts when we are contemplating ourselves. ~Mark Twain


Our credulity is greatest concerning the things we know least about. And since we know least about ourselves, we are ready to believe all that is said about us. Hence the mysterious power of both flattery and calumny. ~Eric Hoffer, The Passionate State of Mind
Every man is his own ancestor, and every man his own heir. He devises his own future, and he inherits his own past. ~H.F. Hedge

Almost always it is the fear of being ourselves that brings us to the mirror. ~Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. Merwin



My life should be unique; it should be an alms, a battle, a conquest, a medicine. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self-Reliance


No one can drive us crazy unless we give them the keys. ~Doug Horton


When I look for my existence I do not look for it in myself. ~Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. Merwin

Many a one cannot loosen his own fetters, but is nevertheless his friend's emancipator. ~Friedrich Nietzsche


Some things become so completely our own that we forget them. ~Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. Merwin


Up to a point a man's life is shaped by environment, heredity, and movements and changes in the world about him. Then there comes a time when it lies within his grasp to shape the clay of his life into the sort of thing he wishes to be. Only the weak blame parents, their race, their times, lack of good fortune, or the quirks of fate. Everyone has it within his power to say, "This I am today; that I will be tomorrow." ~Louis L'Amour


Take the time to come home to yourself every day. ~Robin Casarjean

Everything that I bear within me bound, is to be found somewhere else free. ~Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. Merwin

You grow up the day you have your first real laugh, at yourself. ~Ethel Barrymore

Quotes About Relationships

Man is a knot into which relationships are tied. ~Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, 1942, translated from French by Lewis Galantière

Having someone wonder where you are when you don't come home at night is a very old human need. ~Margaret Mead

Shared joy is a double joy; shared sorrow is half a sorrow. ~Swedish Proverb

Remember, we all stumble, every one of us. That's why it's a comfort to go hand in hand. ~Emily Kimbrough

There's one sad truth in life I've found While journeying east and west - The only folks we really wound Are those we love the best. We flatter those we scarcely know, We please the fleeting guest, And deal full many a thoughtless blow To those who love us best. ~Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Oh, the comfort - the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person - having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words, but pouring them all right out, just as they are, chaff and grain together; certain that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping, and then with the breath of kindness blow the rest away. ~Dinah Craik, 1859

If you were going to die soon and had only one phone call you could make, who would you call and what would you say? And why are you waiting? ~Stephen Levine

Don't smother each other. No one can grow in the shade. ~Leo Buscaglia

Sticks and stones are hard on bones Aimed with angry art, Words can sting like anything But silence breaks the heart. ~Suzanne Nichols

Assumptions are the termites of relationships. ~Henry Winkler

I like her because she smiles at me and means it. ~Tas Soft Wind

Someone to tell it to is one of the fundamental needs of human beings. ~Miles Franklin

You can kiss your family and friends good-bye and put miles between you, but at the same time you carry them with you in your heart, your mind, your stomach, because you do not just live in a world but a world lives in you. ~Frederick Buechner

Present your family and friends with their eulogies now - they won't be able to hear how much you love them and appreciate them from inside the coffin. ~Anonymous

Trouble is part of your life, and if you don't share it, you don't give the person who loves you enough chance to love you enough. ~Dinah Shore

Let us be grateful to people who make us happy, they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom. ~Marcel Proust

No road is long with good company. ~Turkish Proverb

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. ~Oprah Winfrey

Good company upon the road is the shortest cut. ~Author Unknown

Soul-mates are people who bring out the best in you. They are not perfect but are always perfect for you. ~Author Unknown

People change and forget to tell each other. ~Lillian Hellman

In the coldest February, as in every other month in every other year, the best thing to hold on to in this world is each other. ~Linda Ellerbee

Sometimes you have to get to know someone really well to realize you're really strangers. ~Mary Tyler Moore

Once the realization is accepted that even between the closest human beings infinite distances continue, a wonderful living side by side can grow, if they succeed in loving the distance between them which makes it possible for each to see the other whole against the sky. ~Rainer Maria Rilke

You cannot be lonely if you like the person you're alone with. ~Wayne W. Dyer

Quotations About Dreams

Dreaming is an act of pure imagination, attesting in all men a creative power, which if it were available in waking, would make every man a Dante or Shakespeare. ~H.F. Hedge

Dreams are answers to questions we haven't yet figured out how to ask. ~X-Files

All the things one has forgotten scream for help in dreams. ~Elias Canetti

Dreams are only thoughts you didn't have time to think about during the day. ~Author Unknown

A dream which is not interpreted is like a letter which is not read. ~The Talmud

Dreams are illustrations... from the book your soul is writing about you. ~Marsha Norman

A dream has power to poison sleep. ~Percy Bysshe Shelley, "Mutability"

Dreaming permits each and every one of us to be quietly and safely insane every night of our lives. ~William Dement

Dreams are today's answers to tomorrow's questions. ~Edgar Cayce

I am accustomed to sleep and in my dreams to imagine the same things that lunatics imagine when awake. ~Rene Descartes, "Meditations on First Philosophy"

Dreams are excursions into the limbo of things, a semi-deliverance from the human prison. ~Henri Amiel

There's a long, long trail a-winding into the land of my dreams. ~Stoddard King, Jr.

Anyone can escape into sleep, we are all geniuses when we dream, the butcher's the poet's equal there. ~E.M. Cioran,The Tempation to Exist

Dreams digest the meals that are our days. ~Astrid Alauda,Dyspeptic Enlightenment

Pay attention to your dreams - God's angels often speak directly to our hearts when we are asleep. ~Quoted in The Angels' Little Instruction Book by Eileen Elias Freeman, 1994

One can write, think and pray exclusively of others; dreams are all egocentric. ~Evelyn Waugh

Dreams say what they mean, but they don't say it in daytime language. ~Gail Godwin

That which the dream shows is the shadow of such wisdom as exists in man, even if during his waking state he may know nothing about it.... We do not know it because we are fooling away our time with outward and perishing things, and are asleep in regard to that which is real within ourself. ~Paracelsus, quoted in The Dream Game

Huge and mighty forms that do not live like living men, moved slowly through the mind by day and were trouble to my dreams. ~Wordsworth, Resolution and Independence

Recall the old story of the rather refined young man who preferred sex dreams to visiting brothels because he met a much nicer type of girl that way. ~Vivian Mercer

Some colors exist in dreams that are not present in the waking spectrum. ~Terri Guillemets

Dreams are free, so free your dreams. ~Astrid Alauda

I think we dream so we don't have to be apart so long. If we're in each other's dreams, we can play together all night. ~Bill Watterson, Calvin & Hobbes~

In a dream you are never eighty. ~Anne Sexton

I have always been amazed at the way an ordinary observer lends so much more credence and attaches so much more importance to waking events than to those occurring in dreams.... Man... is above all the plaything of his memory. ~Andre Breton, "Manifesto of Surrealism," 1924

A dream is a microscope through which we look at the hidden occurrences in our soul. ~Erich

Dreams are free therapy, but you can only get appointments at night. ~Grey Livingston

The best reason for having dreams is that in dreams no reasons are necessary. ~Ashleigh Brilliant

Codi: "So you think we all just have animal dreams. We can't think of anything to dream except our ordinary lives."
Loyd: "Only if you have an ordinary life. If you want sweet dreams, you've got to live a sweet life." ~Barbara Kingsolver

Dreams are road signs along the nighttime highway of sleep. ~Astrid Alauda, Dyspeptic Enlightenment

We are not only less reasonable and less decent in our dreams... we are also more intelligent, wiser and capable of better judgment when we are asleep than when we are awake. ~Erich

For a dreamer, night's the only time of day. ~From the movie Newsies

Those who have compared our life to a dream were right.... We sleeping wake, and waking sleep. ~Michel de Montaigne, 1580