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The History of Positive Thinking Page 1 of 20

Positive Thinking Quotations


Editor's Note: Following is a collection of more than three hundred positive thinking quotes
that I gathered from dozens of sources.
History | Autosuggestion | Positive Mental Attitude | Practical | Future

Part I: The History of Positive Thinking


Quotes by historic figures

/autosuggestion/ As one thinketh in his heart, so is he. - The Prophet David

/history/ The bottom is a monotonous, dreary, unprofitable place for any person. That is why
I have taken the time to describe how lowly beginnings may be circumvented by proper
planning. - Napoleon Hill (American author, 1883-1970)

/history/ The foundation of all mental illness is the unwillingness to experience legitimate
suffering. - Carl Jung (Swiss psychiatrist, 1875-1961)

/history/ Tell the world what you intend to do, but first show it. - Napoleon Hill

/autosuggestion/ And life is what we make it. Always has been, always will be. - Grandma
Moses (1860-1961)

/history/ The greatest revolution of our generation is the discovery that human beings, by
changing the inner attitudes of their minds, can change the outer aspects of their lives. -
William James (psychologist, author, and philosopher 1842-1910)

/history/ Man is the Reasoning Animal. Such is the claim. I think it is open to dispute. -
Mark Twain (American author, 1835-1910)

/history/ To do good is noble. To teach others to do good is nobler... And less trouble. -
Mark Twain

/history/ When angry, count four; when very angry, swear. - Mark Twain

/history/ There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things
which are beyond the power of our will. - Epictetus (Roman Greek-born slave and Stoic
philosopher, 55-135 AD)

/history or happiness/ Happiness does not depend on outward things, but on the way we see
them. - Count Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910)

/history or happiness/ Happiness is not a matter of events, it depends upon the tides of the
mind. - Alice Meynell (English poet, 1847-1922)
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/happiness/ He who is of a calm and happy nature will hardly feel the pressure of age. -
Plato (427-347 BC)

/history or happiness/ I don't believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world
are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and if they can't find
them, they make them. - George Bernard Shaw (Irish-born British dramatist, 1856-1950)

/history or happiness/ Most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be. -
Abraham Lincoln (American statesman and president, 1809-1865)

/history or happiness/ The good life is one inspired by love and guided by knowledge. -
Bertrand Russell (English mathematician and philosopher, 1872-1970)

/history or happiness/ The happiest person is the person who thinks the most interesting
thoughts. - William Lyon Phelps (American educator and journalist, 1865-1943)

/history or happiness/ The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts.
- Marcus Aurelius (Stoic, Roman Emperor, 121 - 180 A.D.)

Part II: Autosuggestion


Quotes on autosuggestion and the power of mind (many of these could also be used for Part
I: History)

/autosuggestion/ When we dream alone it remains only a dream. When we dream together, it
is not just a dream; it is the beginning of reality. - Dom Helder Camara

/autosuggestion/ Viewpoint is the deciding factor as to how you experience life. - Dick
Sutphen

/autosuggestion/ A man is literally what he thinks. - James Allen (English new thought
author, 1864-1912)

/autosuggestion/ A man is what he thinks about all day long. - Ralph Waldo Emerson
(American Transcendentalist, 1803-1882)

/autosuggestion/ Affirmations are one of the simplest and most powerful things we can do to
change the quality of our lives, and to create the things we want. - Mark Allen
(contemporary author)

/autosuggestion/ An idea accepted as true from any source can be every bit as powerful as
hypnosis. - Maxwell Maltz, M.D., F.I.C.S. (American author and surgeon, 1899-1975)

/autosuggestion/ Believing something can be done paves the way for creative solutions. -
David J. Schwartz, Ph.D. (American educator and author, 20th century)

/autosuggestion/ Beware of what you want for you will get it. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

/autosuggestion/ Change your thoughts and you change your world. - Rev. Norman Vincent
Peale (American minister, author, and publisher, 1898-1993)

/autosuggestion/ Constantly through thought you are creating your inner conditions and
helping to create the conditions around you. So keep your thoughts on the positive side,
think about the best that could happen, think about the good things you want to happen. -
Peace Pilgrim (American peace activist, 1908 - 1981)
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/autosuggestion/ Could we change our attitude, we should not only see life differently, but
life itself would come to be different. Life would undergo a change of appearance because
we ourselves had undergone a change in attitude. - Katherine Mansfield (New Zealand's
most famous writer, 1888-1923)

/autosuggestion/ Creative thinking is simply finding new, improved ways to do anything. -


David J. Schwartz, Ph.D.

/autosuggestion/ Don't you know that the very thing a man dreads is the thing that always
happens? - Mark Twain (Roughing It)

/autosuggestion/ Each of us makes his own weather, determines the color of the skies in the
emotional universe which he inhabits. - Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen (Auxiliary Bishop of
New York, author, TV and radio personality, 1895-1979)

/autosuggestion/ Each one sees what he carries in his heart. - Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
(German writer, scientist, and philosopher, 1749-1832)

/autosuggestion/ Every man is free to rise as far as he's able or willing, but the degree to
which he thinks determines the degree to which he'll rise. - Ayn Rand (author, philosopher,
1905-1982)

/autosuggestion/ Expect victory and you make victory. - Preston Bradley

/autosuggestion/ Fortunes gravitate to men whose minds have been prepared to attract them
just as surly as water gravitates to the ocean. - Napoleon Hill

/autosuggestion/ From our birth to our death we are all the slaves of suggestion. - Emile
Coue (French author and healer, 1857-1926)

/autosuggestion/ Great hearts send forth steadily the secret forces that incessantly draw great
events. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

/autosuggestion/ Great men are those who see that thoughts rule the world. - Ralph Waldo
Emerson

/autosuggestion/ How much we can do depends on how much we think we can do. When
you really believe you can do more, your mind thinks creatively and shows you the way. -
David J. Schwartz, Ph.D.

/autosuggestion/ I have found that if you love life, life will love you back. - Arthur
Rubinstein (Polish composer and mystical philosopher, 1887-1982)

/autosuggestion/ I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man
to elevate his life by conscious endeavor. - Henry David Thoreau (Transcendentalist,
philosopher, poet, author, 1817-1862)

/autosuggestion/ If you want a quality, act as if you already had it. - William James

/autosuggestion/ Imagination disposes of everything; it creates beauty, justice, happiness,


which is everything in the world. - Blaise Pascal (French mathematician and spiritual writer,
1623 - 1662)

/autosuggestion/ Imagination grows by exercise, and contrary to common belief, is more


powerful in the mature than in the young. - W. Somerset Maugham (French novelist, 1874 -
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1965)

/autosuggestion/ It is we ourselves who alone shall shape our destinies, rising always above
the external circumstances and conditions which from time to time shall be thrown across
our paths. - Emile Coue

/autosuggestion/ Let muddy water stand and it will become clear. - Lao Tsu, (Taoist
philosopher, 605 - 530 BC)

/autosuggestion/ Life is a mirror and will reflect back to the thinker what he thinks into it. -
Ernest Holmes (Founder of Divine Science, 1887 - 1960)

/autosuggestion/ Like the wind that carries one ship east and another west, the law of
autosuggestion will lift you up or pull you down according to the way that you set your sails
of thought. - Napoleon Hill

/autosuggestion/ Look at things, not as they are, but as they can be. Visualization adds value
to everything. A big thinker always visualizes what can be done in the future. - David J.
Schwartz, Ph.D.

/autosuggestion/ Man is what he believes. - Anton Chekhov (Russian dramatist, 1860-1904)

/autosuggestion/ Man's rise or fall, success or failure, happiness or unhappiness depends on


his attitude. A man's attitude will create the situations he imagines. - James Allen

/autosuggestion/ Mind is the creator of everything. - Paramahamsa Yogananda (Indian guru,


1893 - 1952)

/autosuggestion/ Miracles start to happen when you give as much energy to your dreams as
you do to your fears. - Richard Wilkins

/autosuggestion/ No one is in control of your happiness but you; therefore, you have the
power to change anything about yourself or your life that you want to change. - Barbara De
Angelis (contemporary American auhor)

/autosuggestion/ Nothing is impossible to us, except of course, that which is contrary to the
laws of nature and the Universe. - Emile Coue

/autosuggestion/ Our destiny changes with our thoughts; we shall become what we wish to
become, do what we wish to do, when our habitual thoughts correspond with our desires. -
Orison Swett Marden (Founder of Success Magazine, 1850-1924)

/autosuggestion/ Our life is what our thoughts make it. - Marcus Aurelius

/autosuggestion/ Our minds can shape the way a thing will be because we act according to
our expectations. - Frederico Fellini (Italian filmmaker, 1920-1993)

/autosuggestion/ People only see what they are prepared to see. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

/autosuggestion/ Reason can answer questions, but imagination has to ask them. - Ralph
Gerard (American educator, 1900-1974)

/autosuggestion/ Recall your little victories and accomplishments. Go over the reasons why
you are glad to be alive. - David J. Schwartz, Ph.D.

/autosuggestion/ Remember, you see in any situation what you expect to see. See the good

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side and conquer defeat. All things do work together for good if you'll just develop a clear
vision. - David J. Schwartz, Ph.D.

/autosuggestion/ Riches begin in the form of thought. - Napoleon Hill

/autosuggestion/ The first and most important step toward success is the feeling that we can
succeed. - Nelson Boswell

/autosuggestion/ The mind is a place of it's own. It can make a heaven of hell, or a hell of
heaven. - John Milton (author, Paradise Lost, 1608-1674)

/autosuggestion/ The moment you commit and quit holding back, all sorts of unforeseen
incidents, meetings and material assistance will rise up to help you. The simple act of
commitment is a powerful magnet for help! - Napoleon Hill

/autosuggestion/ The power of thought, of idea, is incommensurable, is immeasurable. The


world is dominated by thought. - Emile Coue

/autosuggestion/ The quality of our expectations determines the quality of our action. -
Andre Godin (French socialist, philosopher, 1817-1888)

/autosuggestion/ The soul contains the event that shall befall it, for the event is only the
actualization of its thoughts, and what we pray to ourselves for is always granted. - Ralph
Waldo Emerson

/autosuggestion/ The subconscious acts first on the dominating desires. - Napoleon Hill

/autosuggestion/ The subconscious mind will translate into its physical equivalent a thought
impulse of a negative or destructive nature, just as readily as it will act upon thought
impulses of a positive or constructive nature. This accounts for the strange phenomenon
which so many millions of people experience, referred to as "misfortune" or "bad luck." -
Napoleon Hill

/autosuggestion/ The thing always happens that you really believe in; and the belief in a
thing makes it happen. - Frank Lloyd Wright (architect, 1867 - 1959)

/autosuggestion/ The way a man's mind runs is the way he is sure to go. - Henry B. Wilson

/autosuggestion/ There are no limitations to the mind except those we acknowledge. -


Napoleon Hill

/autosuggestion/ There is nothing either good or bad, except that thinking makes it so. -
William Shakespeare (1564-1616)

/autosuggestion/ They can because they think they can. - Virgil (Publius Vergilius Maro,
Greek author, 70-19 BC)

/autosuggestion/ Think you can, think you can't; either way, you'll be right. - Henry Ford
(American automobile manufacturer, 1863-1947)

/autosuggestion/ Thought is the sculptor who can create the person you want to be. - Henry
David Thoreau

/autosuggestion/ Thoughts are things. - Ernest Holmes

/autosuggestion/ Thoughts of your mind have made you what you are, and thoughts of your
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mind will make you whatever you become from this day forward. - Catherine Ponder (Unity
Church)

/autosuggestion/ Throw your heart over the bar and your body will follow. - Rev. Norman
Vincent Peale

/autosuggestion/ To expect defeat is nine-tenths of defeat itself. - Francis Marion Crawford


(American author, 1854 - 1909)

/autosuggestion/ We are what we believe we are. - Benjamin N. Cardozo (Supreme Court


Justice, 1870-1938)

/autosuggestion/ We become what we think about. - Earl Nightingale

/autosuggestion/ We can be, and should be, the masters of events, and not their playthings. -
Emile Coue

/autosuggestion/ We choose our joys and sorrows long before we experience them. - Kahlil
Gibran (Lebanese poet, philosopher, and artist, 1883-1931)

/autosuggestion/ We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are. - Anais Nin
(French-born American author, 1903-1977)

/autosuggestion/ What we see depends mainly on what we look for. - Sir John Lubbock
(English naturalist, banker, statesman, 1834-1913)

/autosuggestion/ What you are comes to you. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

/autosuggestion/ Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve. -
Napoleon Hill

/autosuggestion/ When you believe, your mind finds ways to do. - David J. Schwartz, Ph.D.

/autosuggestion/ Whenever imagination and will come into conflict it is always imagination
that triumphs. - Emile Coue

/autosuggestion/ Why not imagine yourself successful? - Maxwell Maltz, M.D., F.I.C.S.

/autosuggestion/ With a pencil and paper you can tie your mind to a problem. - David J.
Schwartz, Ph.D.

/autosuggestion/ You are today where your thoughts have brought you; you will be
tomorrow where your thoughts take you. - James Allen

/autosuggestion/ You cannot escape the results of your thoughts. - James Allen

/autosuggetion/ Genius is no more than childhood recaptured at will. - Charles Baudelaire


(French poet, critic, translator, 1821-1867)

/autosuggetion/ The way we see the problem is the problem. - Stephen R. Covey
(contemporary American author)

Part III: Positive Mental Attitude (PMA)


Quotes on PMA, superstition, happiness, setbacks, and perseverance (many of these could
also be used for Part I: History)
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/positive mental attitude, present moment/ Live as if your were to die tomorrow. Learn as if
you were to live forever. - Mohandas Gandhi (Indian spiritual political leader, 1869-1948)

/positive mental attitude/ A bird doesn't sing because it has an answer; it sings because it has
a song. - Maya Angelou (contemporary author and peace activist)

/positive mental attitude/ A healthy strong ego, with plenty of self-esteem, does not feel
itself threatened by every innocent remark. - Maxwell Maltz, M.D., F.I.C.S.

/positive mental attitude/ A person who doubts himself is like a man who would enlist in the
ranks of his enemies and bear arms against himself. - Alexandre Dumas (French writer,
1802-1870)

/positive mental attitude/ Act as if it were impossible to fail. - Dorothea Brande (American
writer, 1893-1948)

/positive mental attitude/ Action is the antidote to despair. - Joan Baez, (contemporary
singer-songwriter, peace activist)

/positive mental attitude/ Admit your mistakes but don't cry over them. Correct them and go
forward. - Maxwell Maltz, M.D., F.I.C.S.

/positive mental attitude/ All passions exaggerate. It is because they do that they are
passions. - Nicholas de Chamford (French writer, 1741-1794)

/positive mental attitude/ All that a man does outwardly is but the expression and
completion of his inward thought. To work effectively, he must think clearly; to act nobly,
he must think nobly. - William Ellery Channing (minister, writer, 1780-1842)

/positive mental attitude/ As long as a man stands in his own way, everything seems to be in
his way. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

/positive mental attitude/ As soon as the error has been recognized and corrections made, it's
equally important that the error be forgotten and the successful attempt remembered and
dwelt upon. - Maxwell Maltz, M.D., F.I.C.S.

/positive mental attitude/ Being self-critical is constructive. It helps you to build personal
strength and efficiency needed for success. Blaming others is destructive. You gain
absolutely nothing from 'proving that someone else is wrong.' - David J. Schwartz, Ph.D.

/positive mental attitude/ Better keep yourself clean and bright; you are the window through
which you must see the world. - George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)

/positive mental attitude/ Do your worrying before you place your bet, not after the wheel
stops turning. - Maxwell Maltz, M.D., F.I.C.S.

/positive mental attitude/ Every production of genius must be the production of enthusiasm.
- Benjamin Disraeli (English statesman, novelist, 1804-1881)

/positive mental attitude/ Forgiveness is a scalpel that removes emotional scars. - Maxwell
Maltz, M.D., F.I.C.S.

/positive mental attitude/ Give me a man who sings at his work. - Thomas Carlyle (Scottish
essayist, historian, 1795-1881)

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/positive mental attitude/ I have chosen the positive approach - instead of stressing the bad
things which I am against, I stress the good things which I am for. - Peace Pilgrim

/positive mental attitude/ I've never been poor, only broke. Being poor is a frame of mind.
Being broke is a temporary situation. - Mike Todd

/positive mental attitude/ If I have lost every other friend on earth, I shall at least have one
friend left, and that friend shall be down inside me. - Abraham Lincoln

/positive mental attitude/ If we fear nothing and radiate love, we can expect good things to
come. - Peace Pilgrim

/positive mental attitude/ If you have the will to win, you have achieved half your success. -
David V.A. Ambrose

/positive mental attitude/ If you realized how powerful your thoughts are, you would never
think a defeatist or negative thought. Since we create through thought, we need to
concentrate very strongly on positive thoughts. - Peace Pilgrim

/positive mental attitude/ If you recognize that all of your inner hurts are caused by your
own wrong actions or your own wrong reactions or your own wrong inaction, then you will
stop hurting yourself. - Peace Pilgrim

/positive mental attitude/ In that power of self-control lies the seed of eternal freedom. -
Paramahamsa Yogananda

/positive mental attitude/ It is not through judgment that the good in people can be reached,
but through love and faith. - Peace Pilgrim

/positive mental attitude/ Kindness gives birth to kindness. - Sophocles (Greek playwright,
c. 496-406 BC)

/positive mental attitude/ Know your positive self. - David J. Schwartz, Ph.D.

/positive mental attitude/ Knowledge is power, but enthusiasm pulls the switch. - Ivern Ball

/positive mental attitude/ Life is a series of tests; but if you pass your tests, you look back
upon them as good experiences. - Peace Pilgrim

/positive mental attitude/ Live in the present. Do the things that need to be done. Do all the
good you can each day. The future will unfold. - Peace Pilgrim

/positive mental attitude/ Many people excuse their own faults but judge other persons
harshly. We should reverse this attitude by excusing others' shortcomings and by harshly
examining our own. - Paramahamsa Yogananda

/positive mental attitude/ My attitudes are more important than my intelligence. - David J.
Schwartz Ph.D.

/positive mental attitude/ No one can make you feel inferior without your consent. - Eleanor
Roosevelt

/positive mental attitude/ Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from
achieving his goal. Nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude. -
W.W. Ziege

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/positive mental attitude/ Only you can command yourself to apply this training. Only you
can evaluate the progress. Only you can bring about corrective action if you slip a little bit.
In short, you are going to train yourself to achieve bigger and bigger success. - David J.
Schwartz, Ph.D.

/positive mental attitude/ Opinions are the cheapest commodity on earth. Everyone has a
flock of opinions ready to be wished upon anyone who will accept them. - Napoleon Hill

/positive mental attitude/ Optimism is an Intellectual choice. - Diana Schneider

/positive mental attitude/ Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be
done without hope and confidence. - Helen Keller

/positive mental attitude/ Our best friends and our worst enemies are our thoughts. A
thought can do us more good than a doctor or a banker or a faithful friend. It can also do us
more harm than a brick. - Dr. Frank Crane

/positive mental attitude/ Pay no attention to what the critics say. There has never been a
statue erected to a critic. - Jean Sibelius (1865-1957)

/positive mental attitude/ See what can be, not just what is. - David J. Schwartz, Ph.D.

/positive mental attitude/ See yourself reacting to threats, not by running away or evading
them, but by meeting them, dealing with them, grappling with them in an aggressive
intelligent manner. - Maxwell Maltz, M.D., F.I.C.S.

/positive mental attitude/ Stop worrying and start living. - Dale Carnegie

/positive mental attitude/ Success is hastened or delayed by one's habits. - Paramahamsa


Yogananda

/positive mental attitude/ That the thing that upsets people is not so much what happens, but
what they think about what happens. - Epictetus

/positive mental attitude/ The best way to come to terms with anything that is out of
harmony is never to fear it - that gives it power. Bring good influences to bear upon it; make
yourself a good example. - Peace Pilgrim

/positive mental attitude/ The fault finder will find faults even in paradise. - Henry David
Thoreau

/positive mental attitude/ The fear habit is very detrimental because you attract the things
you fear. If we have any fear we need to get rid of it. - Peace Pilgrim

/positive mental attitude/ The greater part of our happiness or misery depends on our
dispositions, and not on our circumstances. - Martha Washington

/positive mental attitude/ The greatest discovery of my generation is that man can alter his
life simply by altering his attitude of mind. - William James

/positive mental attitude/ The minute that we change our minds, and stop giving power to
the past, the past with its mistakes loses power over us. - Maxwell Maltz, M.D., F.I.C.S.

/positive mental attitude/ The price tag the world puts on us is just about identical to the one
we put on ourselves. - David J. Schwartz, Ph.D.

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/positive mental attitude/ The un-happiest of mortals is that man who insists upon reliving
the past, over and over in imagination - continually criticizing himself for past mistakes -
continually condemning himself for past sins. - Maxwell Maltz, M.D., F.I.C.S.

/positive mental attitude/ The world needs all the help you can give by way of cheerful,
optimistic, inspiring thought and personal example.- Grenville Kleiser (1863-1953) writer

/positive mental attitude/ Think enthusiasm and you'll be enthusiastic. - David J. Schwartz,
Ph.D.

/positive mental attitude/ Think more of yourself and there is more of you. - David J.
Schwartz, Ph.D.

/positive mental attitude/ To establish oneself in the world, one has to do all one can to
appear established. - Francois de La Rochefoucauld (1613-1680)

/positive mental attitude/ To gain respect of others, you must first think you deserve respect.
The more respect you have for yourself, the more respect others will have for you. - David J.
Schwartz, Ph.D.

/positive mental attitude/ To have a mind full of peace, merely fill it full of peace. It's as
simple as that. - Rev. Norman Vincent Peale

/positive mental attitude/ To really 'live,' that is to find life reasonably satisfying, you must
have an adequate and realistic self-image that you can life with. You must find yourself
acceptable to 'you.' - Maxwell Maltz, M.D., F.I.C.S.

/positive mental attitude/ Unthaw and become more natural. - Maxwell Maltz, M.D.,
F.I.C.S.

/positive mental attitude/ Vigor is contagious, and whatever makes us either think or feel
strongly adds to our power and enlarges our field of action. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

/positive mental attitude/ We cannot become what we need to be by remaining what we are.
- Max Depree

/positive mental attitude/ We do not deal much in facts when we are contemplating
ourselves. - Mark Twain

/positive mental attitude/ When we consciously and deliberately develop new and better
habits, our self image tends to outgrow the old habits and grow into the new pattern. -
Maxwell Maltz, M.D., F.I.C.S.

/positive mental attitude/ Worry is a useless mulling over of things you can't change - it's a
total waste of time and energy. - Peace Pilgrim

/positive mental attitude/ Worry is not concern - concern is good. Concern leads you to do
everything possible in a situation. - Peace Pilgrim

/positive mental attitude/ You have much more power when you are working for the right
thing than when you are working against the wrong thing. - Peace Pilgrim

/positive mental attitude/ You must learn to forgive yourself as easily as you forgive others.
And then take a further step and use all that energy that you used in condemning yourself
for improving yourself. - Peace Pilgrim

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/positive mental attitude/ You will do foolish things, but do them with enthusiasm. - Colette
(Sidonie-Gabrielle) (1873-1954)

/superstition/ "We are always paid for our suspicion by finding what we suspect. - Henry
David Thoreau

/superstition/ The average man is what his environment and his superstitions have made
him; and their function is to make him an ass. - Mark Twain

/happiness/ A happy person is not a person in a certain set of circumstances, but rather a
person with a certain set of attitudes. - Scottish Proverb

/happiness/ A loving person lives in a loving world. A hostile person lives in a hostile world.
Everyone you meet is your mirror. - Ken Keys, Jr. (American author, 1921-1995)

/setbacks or honesty/ It is an orderly universe, and the suffering that comes to us has a
purpose in our lives - it is trying to teach us something. We should look for its lesson. -
Peace Pilgrim

/perseverance/ The how-to-do-it always comes to the person who believes he can do it. -
David J. Schwartz, Ph.D.

/goals, perseverance/ Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes
off your goal. - Hannah More (British Reformer and Philanthropist, 1745-1833)

/setbacks, perserverence/ Adversity has the effect of eliciting talents which, in prosperous
circumstances, would have lain dormant. - Horace (poet in Greece and Rome, 65-8 BC)

/setbacks, perseverance/ Determine that the thing can and shall be done, and then we shall
find the way. - Abraham Lincoln

/setbacks, perseverance/ Every noble work is at first impossible. - Thomas Carlyle (1795-
1881)

/setbacks, perseverance/ Failure cannot cope with persistence. - Napoleon Hill

/setbacks, perseverance/ If only you could see the whole picture, if you knew the whole
story, you would realize that no problem ever comes to you that does not have a purpose in
your life, that cannot contribute to your inner growth. - Peace Pilgrim

/setbacks, perseverance/ If you did not face problems you would just drift through life. It is
through solving problems in accordance with the highest light we have that inner growth is
attained. - Peace Pilgrim

/setbacks, perseverance/ If you have unfilled dreams and visions of greater prosperity and
success tucked in a corner of your mind, don't keep them there any longer. Dare to bring
them out and dust them off. - Catherine Ponder

/setbacks, perseverance/ Is we ourselves who alone shall shape our destinies, rising always
above the external circumstances and conditions which from time to time shall be thrown
across our paths. - Emile Coue

/setbacks, perseverance/ Life is a mixture of successes and failures. Be encouraged by the


successes and strengthened by the failures. - Peace Pilgrim

/setbacks, perseverance/ Life is a series of tests; but if you pass your tests, you look back
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upon them as good experiences. - Peace Pilgrim

/setbacks, perseverance/ Money, influence and position are as nothing compared with
brains, principle, energy and perseverance. - Orison Swett Marden, Success Magazine

/setbacks, perseverance/ The season of failure is the best time for sewing the seeds of
success. - Paramahamsa Yogananda

/setbacks, perseverance/ Things turn out the best for the people who make the best of the
way things turn out. - Unknown

/setbacks, perseverance/ We can turn setbacks into victories. Find the lesson, apply it and
move on. Then look back on defeat and smile. - David J. Schwartz, Ph.D.

/setbacks, perseverance/ When you exercise your will power you release the power of life
energy - not when you merely wish passively to be able to obtain an objective. -
Paramahamsa Yogananda

/setbacks, perseverance/ When you perceive that problems serve a purpose in your life, you
will recognize that problems are opportunities in disguise. - Peace Pilgrim

/setbacks, perseverance/ You can't try to do things; you simply must do them.- Ray
Bradbury

/setbacks/ A problem, a difficulty, becomes unsolvable only when you think it is unsolvable.
Attract solutions by believing that solutions are possible. Refuse, simply refuse, to even let
yourself say or think that it's impossible. - David J. Schwartz, Ph.D.

/setbacks/ By trying we can easily learn to endure adversity. Another man's, I mean. - Mark
Twain

/setbacks/ Happiness ain't a thing in itself - it's only a contrast with something that ain't
pleasant. - Mark Twain

/setbacks/ Hard work spotlights the character of people: some turn up their sleeves, some
turn up their noses, and some don't turn up at all. - Sam Ewing

/setbacks/ I prefer the errors of enthusiasm to the indifference of wisdom. - Anatole France
(1844-1924)

/setbacks/ If you think you can't do something, you can't. But if you think you can, you may
be surprised to discover that you can. - Peace Pilgrim

/setbacks/ Let us show, not merely in great crises, but in every day affairs of life, qualities of
practical intelligence, of hardihood and endurance, and above all, the power of devotion to a
lofty ideal. - Theodore Roosevelt, U.S. President

/setbacks/ Life is a series of problems. - Maxwell Maltz, M.D., F.I.C.S.

/setbacks/ Never mind what "they" say if you meet with temporary defeat, for "they,"
perhaps, do not know that every failure brings with it the seed of an equivalent success. -
Napoleon Hill

/setbacks/ Success is going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm. - Winston
Churchill

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/setbacks/ Temporary defeat is not permanent failure - Napoleon Hill

/setbacks/ There is a good side to every situation, and when we find the good side, we
automatically whip discouragement and defeat. - David J. Schwartz, Ph.D.

/setbacks/ We are confronted with insurmountable opportunities. - Walt Kelly (animator and
cartoonist, creator of Pogo, 1913-1973)

/setbacks/ We limit ourselves by thinking that things can't be done. It's the one who doesn't
know it can't be done who does it. - Peace Pilgrim

Part IV: Practical Positive Thinking


Health, Money, and Love
Quotes on health, goals, honesty, people, and relationships

/health/ I don't eat junk foods and I don't think junk thoughts! Let me tell you, junk thoughts
can destroy you even more quickly than junk food. Junk thoughts are something to be wary
of. - Peace Pilgrim

/health/ The sorrow which has no vent in tears may make other organs weep. - Henry
Maudsley (1835-1918)

/goals/ A success is anyone who is doing deliberately a pre-determined job, because that's
what he decided to do deliberately. But only one out of twenty does that. - Earl Nightingale

/goals/ All we need to make us really happy is something to be enthusiastic about. - Charles
Kingsley (1819 - 1875)

/goals/ Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any
one thing.- Abraham Lincoln

/goals/ Circumstances? What are circumstances? I make circumstances. - Napoleon


Bonaparte

/goals/ First you give life and action and guidance to ideas, then they take on power of their
own and sweep aside all opposition. - Napoleon Hill

/goals/ Get yourself a goal worth working for. Better still, get yourself a project. - Maxwell
Maltz, M.D., F.I.C.S.

/goals/ It is the greatest shot of adrenaline to be doing what you've wanted to do so badly.
You almost feel like you could fly without the plane. - Charles Lindbergh

/goals/ Most human beings only scratch the surface of their real potential. They have no idea
what they're capable of. - Peace Pilgrim

/goals/ People with goals succeed because they know where they're going. - Earl
Nightingale

/goals/ Riches do not respond to wishes. They respond only to definite plans, backed by
definite desires, through constant persistence. - Napoleon Hill

/goals/ That is the failure point with many people. They never get anywhere because they
have only a hazy idea where they want to go, what they want to do. No objective leads to no
end. - Rev. Norman Vincent Peale
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/goals/ The life that conquers is the life that moves with a steady resolution and persistence
toward a predetermined goal. Those who succeed are those who have thoroughly learned the
immense importance of plan in life, and the tragic brevity of time.- W.J. Davison

/goals/ To accomplish something, we must plan to accomplish something. - David J.


Schwartz, Ph.D.

/goals/ We've got to be of service first before we can expect money. - Earl Nightingale

/goals/ What great thing would you attempt if you knew you could not fail? - Robert
Schuller

/goals/ You have all the reason in the world to achieve your grandest dreams. Imagination
plus innovation equals realization. - Denis Waitley (American motivational speaker)

/work/ Let the beauty we love be what we do. - Jelaluddin Rumi (Middle Eastern poet,
1207-1273)

/work/ I've met a few people who had to change their jobs in order to change their lives, but
I've met many more people who merely had to change their motive to service in order to
change their lives. - Peace Pilgrim

/honesty/ Dictators don't last long. - David J. Schwartz, Ph.D.

/honesty/ Every good thing you do, every good thing you say, every good thought you think,
vibrates on and never ceases. The evil remains only until it is overcome by the good, but the
good remains forever. - Peace Pilgrim

/honesty/ Evil can be helped to fade away more quickly if we remain in obedience to the
Law of Love - evil must be overcome with good. - Peace Pilgrim

/honesty/ I like living. I have sometimes been wildly, despairingly, acutely miserable,
racked with sorrow, but through it all I still know quite certainly that just to be alive is a
grand thing. - Agatha Christie (English detective story writer, 1891-1976)

/honesty/ If the right thing is established the wrong thing will fade away of its own accord
because all things that are out of harmony contain within themselves the seeds of their own
destruction. - Peace Pilgrim

/honesty/ It is said that hate injures the hater, not the hated. - Peace Pilgrim

/honesty/ Truth is always strong, no matter how weak it looks; and falsehood is always
weak, no matter how strong it looks. - Phillip Brooks

/honesty/ Truth may be stretched, but cannot be broken, and always gets above falsehood, as
oil does above water. - Miguel Cervantes (Spanish novelist, dramatist, poet, 1547-1616)

/honesty/ We may avoid the laws of man, but there are greater laws that can't be broken. -
Earl Nightingale

/honesty/ When we pick up one end of the stick, we pick up the other. - Stephen R. Covey

/honesty/ Almost all fear is fear of the unknown. The remedy: Become acquainted with the
thing you fear. - Peace Pilgrim

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/honesty/ Be willing to face life squarely and get down beneath the surface of life where the
verities and realities are to be found. - Peace Pilgrim

/people/ A human being has a natural desire to have more of a good thing than he needs. -
Mark Twain

/people/ Etiquette requires us to admire the human race. - Mark Twain

/people/ Like most people, I often feel mean, and act accordingly. - Mark Twain

/people or personal magnetism/ Sex energy is the creative energy of all creative geniuses. -
Napoleon Hill

/people/ You've got to love what's lovable, and hate what's hatable. It takes brains to see the
difference. - Robert Frost (American poet, 1874-1963)

/relationships / If you're a Republican, make sure you have some friends who are
Democrats, and vice-versa. - David J. Schwartz, Ph.D.

/relationships/ A positive approach inspires; a negative approach makes angry. When you
make people angry, they act in accordance with their baser instincts, often violently and
irrationally. When you inspire people, they act in accordance with their higher instincts,
sensibly and rationally. - Peace Pilgrim

/relationships/ Adopt the motto: It doesn't matter who's right, but what's right. - Maxwell
Maltz, M.D., F.I.C.S.

/relationships/ Give first-class treatment to your employees and you get first-class
cooperation, first-class output. Think first-class about everyone around you and you'll
receive first-class results. - David J. Schwartz, Ph.D.

/relationships/ I have criticized absent people so often, and then discovered, to my


humiliation, that I was talking with their relatives, that I have grown superstitious about that
sort of thing and dropped it. - Mark Twain

/relationships/ If you realize that those who do mean things are psychologically ill, your
feelings of anger will turn to feelings of pity. - Peace Pilgrim

/relationships/ It were not best that we should all think alike; it is difference of opinion that
makes horse races. - Mark Twain (Pudd'nhead Wilson)

/relationships/ Life is too short to be little. - Benjamin Disraeli

/relationships/ Opposition inflames the enthusiast, never converts him. - Friedrich von
Schiller (German dramatist, poet, historian, 1759-1805)

/relationships/ Plant service and harvest money. - David J. Schwartz, Ph.D.

/relationships/ Sometimes our light goes out but is blown into flame by an encounter with
another human being. Each of us owes the deepest thanks to those who have rekindled this
inner light. - Albert Schweitzer (Philosopher, physician, and humanitarian, 1875 - 1965)

/relationships/ The most damaging forms of intolerance are connected with religious, racial
and political differences of opinion. - Napoleon Hill

/relationships/ The universal brotherhood of man is our most precious possession, what
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there is of it. - Mark Twain (Following the Equator)

/relationships/ The way in which we think of ourselves has everything to do with how our
world sees us. - Arlene Raven

/relationships/ The world is a great mirror. It reflects back to you what you are. If you are
loving, if you are friendly, if you are helpful, the world will prove loving and friendly and
helpful to you. The world is what you are. - Thomas Drier

/relationships/ The world is ruled, and the destiny of civilization is established, by the
human emotions. - Napoleon Hill

/relationships/ There's a good spot tucked away somewhere in everybody. You'll be a long
time finding it, sometimes. - Mark Twain

/relationships/ They say that you can't live by bread alone, but I can live on compliments. -
Mark Twain

/relationships/ 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." - Stephen R. Covey

/relationships/ 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. - Stephen R. Covey

/relationships/ Treat everyone with dignity. Remind yourself that the primary purpose in life
is to enjoy it. - David J. Schwartz, Ph.D.

/relationships/ Treat everyone with dignity. Remind yourself that the primary purpose in life
is to enjoy it. - David J. Schwartz, Ph.D.

/relationships/ We are lifted to higher levels by those who know us as likable, personable
individuals. Every friend you make lifts you just one notch higher. And, being likable makes
you lighter to lift. - David J. Schwartz, Ph.D.

/relationships/ We awaken in others the same attitude of mind we hold toward them. - Elbert
Hubbard (American publisher, moralist, author, 1856-1915)

/relationships/ We deserve the kind of treatment we think we deserve. Thinking does make
it so. - David J. Schwartz, Ph.D.

/relationships/ We learn nothing from telling, but there is no limit to what we can learn by
asking and listening. - David J. Schwartz, Ph.D.

/relationships/ We should never underestimate the great power of the way of love which
reaches that spark of good in the other person, always there no matter how deeply buried,
and the person is disarmed. - Peace Pilgrim

/relationships/ What people really suffer from is immaturity. Among mature people war
would not be a problem - it would be impossible. - Peace Pilgrim

/relationships/ When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand
to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much
he had learned in seven years." - Mark Twain

Part V: The Future of Positive Thinking


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Quotes on creating a better future

/future/ A few really dedicated people can offset the ill effects of masses of out-of-harmony
people, so we who work for peace must not falter. - Peace Pilgrim

/future/ A loving and kindly approach works between individuals, it works between groups
and it would work between nations if nations had the courage to try it. - Peace Pilgrim

/future/ Against the assault of humor nothing can stand. - Mark Twain (The Mysterious
Stranger)

/future/ All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently
opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident. - Arthur Schopenhauer (English
philosopher, 1788-1860)

/future/ All who act upon their highest motivations become a power for good. Know that
every right thing you do - every good word you say - every positive thought you think - has
a good effect. - Peace Pilgrim

/future/ Collective problems must be solved by all of us, collectively, and no one finds inner
peace who avoids doing his or her share in the solving of collective problems. - Peace
Pilgrim

/future/ Even evil and evil-doing can be overcome by suggestion. - Emile Coue

/future/ Faith, courage, optimism, looking forward, bring us new life and more life. Futility,
frustration, living in the past are not only characteristic of 'old age'; they contribute to it. -
Maxwell Maltz, M.D., F.I.C.S.

/future/ If we live good lives, the times are also good. As we are, such are the times. - Saint
Augustine (Christian theologian, 354-430 AD)

/future/ If you have a negative thought about a world situation, dwell upon the best that
could happen in that situation. - Peace Pilgrim

/future/ It takes quite a while for the living to catch up with the believing, but of course it
can. As we live up to the highest light we have, more light is given. - Peace Pilgrim

/future/ Let us help the phoenix to rise from the ashes; let us help lay the foundation for a
new renaissance; let us help to accelerate the spiritual awakening until it lifts us into the
golden age which would come. - Peace Pilgrim

/future/ Let us help the phoenix to rise from the ashes; let us help lay the foundation for a
new renaissance; let us help to accelerate the spiritual awakening until it lifts us into the
golden age which would come. - Peace Pilgrim

/future/ Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the
world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has. - Margaret Mead (American anthropologist,
1901 - 1978)

/future/ Nothing is too good to be true. - Ernest Holmes

/future/ Our deeds determine us, as much as we determine our deeds. - George Eliot (Mary
Ann Evans, foremost British novelist of her time, 1819-1880)

/future/ Overcome evil with good, falsehood with truth, and hatred with love. The message
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isn't new, but we haven't learned to live it yet. - Peace Pilgrim

/future/ People allow themselves to be slaves of their bad habits and society's bad habits -
but they have free will, and if they wish to be free they can. - Peace Pilgrim

/future/ Perhaps one day the dreams of Utopists may be realized and humanity will shake off
the chains of materialism which still separate us from what we think to be supernatural
knowledge, but which, in reality, is already in us, only waiting to be discerned. - Emile
Coue

/future/ The best thing about the future is that it only comes one day at a time. - Abraham
Lincoln

/future/ The lesson of the way of love is that evil can only be overcome by good. We don't
need to reach out and tear down the things that are evil because nothing which is contrary to
the law of love can endure. - Peace Pilgrim

/future/ The young do not know enough to be prudent, and therefore they attempt the
impossible and achieve it, generation after generation. - Pearl S. Buck (1892-1973)

/future/ Thinking is hard work. That's why there are so few people doing it. - Henry Ford

/future/ Those who act on their highest motivations become a power for good. It is not
important that others be noticeably affected. Results should never be sought or desired. -
Peace Pilgrim

/future/ To win the big stakes in this changed world, you must catch the spirit of the great
pioneers of the past, whose dreams have given to civilization all that it has of value, the
spirit which serves as the life-blood of our own country - your opportunity and mine, to
develop and market our talents. - Napoleon Hill

/future/ Today I am born anew and my birthplace is a vineyard where there is fruit for all. -
Og Mandino (The Greatest Salesman in the World)

/future/ Ultimate peace begins within; when we find peace within there will be no more
conflict, nor more occasion for war. - Peace Pilgrim

/future/ We are all cells in the body of humanity - all of us, all over the world. Each one has
a contribution to make, and will know from within what this contribution is. - Peace Pilgrim

/future/ What you do may seem insignificant, but it's important that you do it. - Mohandas
Gandhi

/future/ When societies are out of harmony, problems develop within the society - collective
problems. Their purpose is to push the whole society toward harmony. - Peace Pilgrim

/future/ When we hear a prediction of some disaster we need to throw the entire weight of
our positive thought in the opposite direction! - Peace Pilgrim

/future/ When you do something for world peace, peace among groups, peace among
individuals, or your own inner peace, you improve the total peace picture. - Peace Pilgrim

/future/ You see things; and you say, "Why?" But I dream things that never were; and I say,
"Why not?" - George Bernard Shaw

If you have come to help me, you are wasting your time. But if you have come because your
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liberation is bound up with mine, then let us struggle together. - Lila Watson

Unsorted Quotations
Editor's Note: Some of these may be repeats, but we'll get our vast army of assistants to
straighten it out later.

Opportunities multiply as they are seized. - Sun Tzu

He has achieved success who has lived well, laughed often and loved much; who has
enjoyed the trust of pure women, the respect of intelligent men and the love of little
children; who has filled his niche and accomplished his task; who has left the world better
than he found it, whether by an improved poppy, a perfect poem, or a rescued soul; who has
never lacked appreciation of earth's beauty or failed to express it; who has always looked for
the best in others and given them the best he had; whose life was an inspiration; whose
memory is a benediction. - Bessie A. Stanley (b.1879) in Notes and Queries, July 1976

Believe in the intelligence of men, power of nature, Believe in the certainty of change, and
the fundemental principles of living -- Integrity and compassion. - PK Shiu

Go confidently in the direction of your dreams, live the life you have imagined. - Thoreau

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. We ask ourselves,
who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous? Actually, who are you NOT to
be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn't serve the world. There's nothing
enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We were
born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it is in
everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we consciously give other people permission
to do the same. - Nelson Mandela 1994 Inaugural Speech

"He who is of a calm and happy nature will hardly feel the pressure of age." - Plato (427-
347 BC)

"The heartbreak caused by loving can only be healed by daring to love again," English
psychologist Anne Geraghty, "How Loving Relationships Work."

"Nothing that is worth doing can be achieved in our lifetime; therefore we must be saved by
hope. Nothing which is true or beautiful or good makes complete sense in any immediate
context of history; therefore we must be saved by faith. Nothing we do, however virtioius,
can be accomplished alone; therefore we must be saved by love." -Reinhold Niebuhr

"I have chosen the positive approach - instead of stressing the bad things which I am
against, I stress the good things which I am for." - Peace Pilgrim

"Today I am born anew and my birthplace is a vineyard where there is fruit for all." - Og
Mandino (American positive thinking author, 1923-1996)

"You are today where your thoughts have brought you; you will be tomorrow where your
thoughts take you." - James Allen (English new thought author, 1864-1912)

"A loving person lives in a loving world. A hostile person lives in a hostile world. Everyone
you meet is your mirror." - Ken Keys, Jr. (American author, 1921-1995)

"If you judge people, you have no time to love them." - Mother Teresa

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Enthusiasm loves company - Chris Seago

To read a history of positive thinking, click here.


To see a timeline of positive thinking, click here.
For other writing by this author, click here.

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