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Circumstance does not make the man: it reveals him to himself.
- James Allen
Related topics: Wisdom Positive Live-By
You are today where your thoughts have brought.
- James Allen
No duty is more urgent than that of returning thanks.
- James Allen
Change your thoughts, change your life.
- James Allen
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Thank You,
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
You will become as small as your controlling desire;
as great as your dominant aspiration.
- James Allen
He who would accomplish much must sacrifice much.
- James Allen
You will never do anything in this world without courage.
It is the greatest quality of the mind next to honor.
- James Allen
Nothing splendid has ever been achieved except by those who dared
believe that something inside of them was superior to circumstance.
- Bruce Barton
I am determined to be cheerful and happy
in whatever situation I may find myself.
For I have learned that the greater part of our misery or unhappiness
is determined not by our circumstance but by our disposition.
- Martha Washington
What are the proper grounds for joy?
Is it circumstance which will
determine the stature of my spirit?
Ah, no. It is choice. It is always a choice -
in the face of any event - for joy.
- Mary Anne Radmacher
We have a choice of how we view the obstacles on our life path.
One choice makes us slaves to circumstance,
while the other empowers us, and motivates us
to follow our dreams - and our happiness.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
We are strange beings, we seem
to go free, but we go in chains -
chains of training, custom, convention,
association, environment -
in a word, Circumstance -
and against these bonds
the strongest of us struggle in vain.
- Mark Twain
In all my ways of seeing - may I use new glasses,
a telescope and a microscope.
And may I always allow myself to see a circumstance
through the tender hearts of my friends.
- Mary Anne Radmacher
I like to talk about a thing I call a "practiced pause."
Just a few moments of pausing allows me
to consider a circumstance and take stock
of what the best direction might be.
Reactions tend to rise from habit and unconsidered action.
A Response is considered and thoughtful.
My actions are my own and I am, singularly,
responsible for what I see, say, feel and exert.
- Mary Anne Radmacher
The butterfly counts not months but moments, and has time enough.
- Rabindranath Tagore
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our Light, not our Darkness, that most frightens us.
- Marianne Williamson
The mind is not a vessel to be filled
but a fire to be kindled.
- Plutarch
Love does not claim possession, but gives freedom.
- Rabindranath Tagore
Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.
- Lao Tzu
The world is perfect. It's a mess.
It has always been a mess.
We are not going to change it.
Our job is to straighten out our own lives.
- Joseph Campbell
The beauty does not live out there;
the beauty's in my eyes.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
I do not need anyone's permission to be my true self.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
A good traveler has no fixed plans,
and is not intent on arriving.
- Lao Tzu
Self-respect is not a function of size, age, or wealth.
Breathe deep, sing loud and sweet,
"I am me, I am unique, I am magnificent."
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
"Just living is not enough," said the butterfly,
"one must have sunshine, freedom and a little flower."
- Hans Christian Andersen
The true meaning of life is to plant trees,
under whose shade you do not expect to sit.
- Nelson Henderson
To know yet to think that one does not know is best;
Not to know yet to think that one knows
will lead to difficulty.
- Lao Tzu
Love one another but make not a bond of love.
Let it rather be a moving sea
between the shores of your souls.
- Khalil Gibran
Treat those who are good with goodness,
and also treat those who are not good with goodness.
Thus goodness is attained.
Be honest to those who are honest,
and be also honest to those who are not honest.
Thus honesty is attained.
- Lao Tzu
You will not be punished for your anger,
you will be punished by your anger.
- The Buddha
I am not afraid of storms
for I am learning how to sail my ship.
- Louisa May Alcott
Lord, grant that I might not so much
seek to be loved as to love.
- St. Francis of Assisi
The essence of life is not in
the great victories and grand failures,
but in the simple joys.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
Everything has beauty,
but not everyone sees it.
- Confucius
Every child comes with the message
that God is not yet discouraged of man.
- Rabindranath Tagore
Thousands of candles can be lit from a single candle,
and the life of the candle will not be shortened.
Happiness never decreases by being shared.
- The Buddha
Treat the earth well.
It was not given to you by your parents,
it was loaned to you by your children.
We do not inherit the Earth from our Ancestors,
we borrow it from our Children.
- Native American traditional
Hold on... Joyfully.
Holding-on does not have to be
a desperate teeth-gritting kind of holding-on.
Holding-on can be a joyful
"this is just the nature of Life,
so I may as well enjoy it"
kind of holding-on.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
One can not reflect in streaming water.
Only those who know internal peace can give it to others.
- Lao Tzu
We are not held back by the love we didn't receive in the past,
but by the love we're not extending in the present.
- Marianne Williamson
I am not a slave to my thoughts or emotions.
- Richard Carlson
Don't underestimate the value of Doing Nothing,
of just going along,
listening to all the things you can't hear,
and not bothering.
- A. A. Milne (Winnie-The-Pooh)
To the people who love you,
you are beautiful already.
This is not because they're
blind to your shortcomings
but because they so clearly see your soul.
- Victoria Moran
Do not let Sunday be taken from you.
If your soul has no Sunday, it becomes an orphan.
- Albert Schweitzer
Everything is a miracle,
not just the beautiful and lovely things.
- Anonymous
Life is not supposed to be fair.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
The question is not what you look at, but what you see.
- Henry David Thoreau
Do not blame the thistle that you see no beauty.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
Love means not ever having to say you're sorry.
- Erich Segal
Stand Tall, Stand Proud.
Know that you are unique and magnificent.
You do not need the approval of others.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
Feeling sorry for yourself, and your present condition,
is not only a waste of energy
but the worst habit you could possibly have.
- Dale Carnegie
A bird does not sing because it has an answer.
It sings because it has a song.
- Chinese Proverb
You do not need anyone's permission to be your true self.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
Far away there in the sunshine are my highest aspirations.
I may not reach them, but I can look up and see their beauty,
believe in them, and try to follow where they lead.
- Louisa May Alcott
A ship in harbor is safe -
but that is not what ships are for.
- John A. Shedd
The possession of knowledge does not
kill the sense of wonder and mystery.
There is always more mystery.
- Anais Nin
It's not the size of the dog in the fight,
it's the size of the fight in the dog.
- Mark Twain
When dealing with people, remember you are
not dealing with creatures of logic,
but creatures of emotion.
- Dale Carnegie
If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant.
If we did not sometimes taste of adversity,
prosperity would not be so welcome.
- Anne Bradstreet
The true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible.
- Oscar Wilde
One does not discover new lands without consenting
to lose sight of the shore for a very long time.
- Andre Gide
Riches do not exhilarate us so much with their possession
as they torment us with their loss.
- Epicurus
Peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek,
but a means by which we arrive at that goal.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.
Am I not destroying my enemies
when I make friends of them?
- Abraham Lincoln
Sometimes we need the fog to remind ourselves
that all of life is not black and white.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
Life is NOT "Supposed to be Fair."
Know that there is no single way that life is "supposed" to be.
Demanding that life meet our expectations
is a sure fire recipe for a miserable existence.
Life is a game with no rules.
Life just happens to us regardless of our best intentions.
Our only path to happiness lies in being open
to receiving whatever life throws at us -
with Gratitude. Have NO Expectations of life.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves.
- Edmund Hillary
Adventure is not outside man; it is within.
- George Eliot
Be careful not to do your good deeds
when there's no one watching you.
- Tom Lehrer
Love is granting another the space to be
the way they are and the way they are not.
- Werner Erhard
"It's not that important,
don't worry about it" is the answer,
now what was the question?
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
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May the world be kind to you,
and may your own thoughts be gentle upon yourself.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
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