Quotes...

TO INSPIRE

A.W. Tozer

“What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.”
~ A.W. Tozer

“I want the presence of God Himself, or I don't want anything at all to do with religion... I want all that God has or I don't want any.” ~ A.W. Tozer

“One hundred religious persons knit into a unity by careful organization do not constitute a church any more than eleven dead men make a football team.” ~ A.W. Tozer

“The reason why many are still troubled, still seeking, still making little forward progress is because they haven't yet come to the end of themselves. We're still trying to give orders, and interfering with God's work within us. ” ~ A.W. Tozer

“God is looking for those through whom He can do the impossible. What a pity that we plan only the things we can do by ourselves.” ~ A.W. Tozer

“In almost everything that touches our everyday life on earth, God is pleased when we’re pleased. He wills that we be as free as birds to soar and sing our maker’s praise without anxiety.” ~ A.W. Tozer

Charles Blake

“We should strive to be the best we can be and to reach the highest levels we can reach. To do less is to be unfaithful stewards of the life entrusted to us.” ~ Charles Blake

“Capacity and ability constitute accountability and responsibility. We should never be pleased to dwell on a level of existence lower than that which God has made it possible to dwell.” ~ Charles Blake

Deepak Chopra

“The Ego, however, is not who you really are. The ego is your self-image; it is your social mask; it is the role you are playing. Your social mask thrives on approval. It wants control, and it is sustained by power, because it lives in fear.” ~ Deepak Chopra

“All great changes are preceded by chaos.” ~ Deepak Chopra

“You will be transformed by what you read.” ~ Deepak Chopra

“The worst curse to befall anyone is stagnation, a banal existence, the quiet desperation that comes out of a need for conformity. ” ~ Deepak Chopra

Henry David Thoreau

“If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. He will put some things behind, will pass an invisible boundary; new, universal, and more liberal laws will begin to establish themselves around and within him; or the old laws be expanded, and interpreted in his favor in a more liberal sense, and he will live with the license of a higher order of beings.” ~ Henry David Thoreau

“Aim above morality. Be not simply good, be good for something.” ~ Henry David Thoreau

“All endeavor calls for the ability to tramp the last mile, shape the last plan, endure the last hours toil. The fight to the finish spirit is the one… characteristic we must posses if we are to face the future as finishers.” ~ Henry David Thoreau

“An early-morning walk is a blessing for the whole day.” ~ Henry David Thoreau

“Any fool can make a rule, and any fool will mind it.” ~ Henry David Thoreau

“As a single footstep will not make a path on the earth, so a single thought will not make a pathway in the mind. To make a deep physical path, we walk again and again. To make a deep mental path, we must think over and over the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate our lives.” ~ Henry David Thoreau

“Could a greater miracle take place than for us to look through each other’s eyes for an instant?” ~ Henry David Thoreau

“Do not worry if you have built your castles in the air. They are where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.” ~ Henry David Thoreau

“Friends… they cherish one another’s hopes. They are kind to one another’s dreams.” ~ Henry David Thoreau

“Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.” ~ Henry David Thoreau

“Goodness is the only investment that never fails.” ~ Henry David Thoreau

“How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live.” ~ Henry David Thoreau

Howard Thurman

“Don’t ask yourself what the world needs, ask yourself what makes you come alive. And then go and do that. Because what the world needs is people who are alive.” ~Howard Thurman

“The years, the months, the days, and the hours have flown by my open window. Here and there an incident, a towering moment, a naked memory, an etched countenance, a whisper in the dark, a golden glow these and much more are the woven fabric of the time I have lived.” ~ Howard Thurman

“During times of war, hatred becomes quite respectable, even though it has to masquerade often under the guise of patriotism.” ~ Howard Thurman

“There is something in every one of you that waits and listens for the sound of the genuine in yourself. It is the only true guide you will ever have. And if you cannot hear it, you will all of your life spend your days on the ends of strings that somebody else pulls.” ~ Howard Thurman

“There must be always remaining in every life, some place for the singing of angels, some place for that which in itself is breathless and beautiful.” ~ Howard Thurman

“There are two questions that we have to ask ourselves. The 1st is " Where am I going?" and the 2nd is "Who will go with me?"
If you ever get these questions in the wrong order , you are in trouble.”
~ Howard Thurman

Jesus

“Do not remember the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing. Now it shall spring forth; shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.” Holy Bible NKJV
Jesus

“You have heard the law that says, ‘Love your neighbor’ and hate your enemy. But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you! In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven. For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike. If you love only those who love you, what reward is there for that? Even corrupt tax collectors do that much. If you are kind only to your friends, how are you different from anyone else? (Matthew 5:43-47 )

“You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.”(Matthew 22:36-40)

“You know that the rulers in this world lord it over their people, and officials flaunt their authority over those under them. But among you it will be different. Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you must be the slave of everyone else. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Mark 10:42-45)

"Do not return evil for evil. Avenge not yourselves, but rather give way to wrath; for it is written, vengeance is mine; I will repay, says the Lord. Therefore if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsts, give him drink: for in so doing you shall heap coals of fire on his head. Be not overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good." (Romans 12:17-21)

"Whoever hates his brother is a murderer: and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him."
( I John 3:15)

"If anyone says, I love God, but hates the brothers or sisters, he is a liar...Whoever loves God must also love the brothers and sisters." (I John 3:20, 21)

"With men it is impossible, but not with God: for with God all things are possible." (Mark 10:27)

"Have faith in God. [literal Greek, have the faith of God] For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith. Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them. And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses." (Mark 11:22-25)

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“Treat people as if they were what they ought to be and you help them to become what they are capable of being.” ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it!”
~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“A man should hear a little music, read a little poetry, and see a fine picture every day of his life, in order that worldly cares may not obliterate the sense of the beautiful which God has implanted in the human soul.”
~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“We do not have to visit a madhouse to find disordered minds; our planet is the mental institution of the universe.” ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“By seeking and blundering we learn.” ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.”
~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Marianne Williamson

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond mea…sure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frighten us. We ask ourselves: Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous?… Actually, who are you not to be? Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are born to manifest God’s glory within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And, as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberate others.” ~ Marianne Williamson

“Rather than accepting that we are the loving beings that He created, we have arrogantly thought that we could create ourselves, and then create God. Because we are angry and judgmental, we have projected those characteristics onto Him. We have made up a God in our image. But God remains who He is and always has been: the energy, the thought of unconditional love.” ~ Marianne Williamson

“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

“Success means we go to sleep at night knowing that our talents and ablities were used in a way that served others.” ~ Marianne Williamson

“Just like a sunbeam can't separate itself from the sun, and a wave can't separate itself from the ocean, we can't separate ourselves from one another. We are all part of a vast sea of love, one indivisible divine mind.” ~ Marianne Williamson

Napoleon Hill

“Most great people have attained their greatest success just one step beyond their greatest failure.” ~ Napoleon Hill

“If you cannot do great things, do small things in a great way.” ~ Napoleon Hill

“It is literally true that you can succeed best and quickest by helping others to succeed.” ~ Napoleon Hill

“Action is the real measure of intelligence.” ~ Napoleon Hill

“The man who does more than he is paid for will soon be paid for more than he does.” ~ Napoleon Hill

“Strength and growth come only through continuous effort and struggle….” ~ Napoleon Hill

“The majority of men meet with failure because of their lack of persistence in creating new plans to take the place of those which fail.” ~ Napoleon Hill

“Reduce your plans to writing. The moment you complete this, you will have definitely given concrete form to the intangible desire.” ~ Napoleon Hill

“First comes thought; then organization of that thought into ideas and plans; then transformation of those plans into reality. The beginning, as you will observe, is in your imagination.” ~ Napoleon Hill

“If you must speak ill of another, do not speak it. Write it in the sand near the waters edge.” ~ Napoleon Hill

“Opportunity often comes disguised in the form of misfortune, or temporary defeat.” ~ Napoleon Hill

“Our minds become magnetized with the dominating thoughts we hold in our minds and these magnets attract to us the forces, the people, the circumstances of life which harmonize with the nature of our dominating thoughts.” ~ Napoleon Hill

“Create a definite plan for carrying out your desire and begin at once, whether you are ready or not, to put this plan into action.” ~ Napoleon Hill

“Victory is always possible for the person who refuses to stop fighting.” ~ Napoleon Hill

Ralph Waldo Emerson

“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

“What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.” 

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Whatever course you decide upon, there is always someone to tell you that you are wrong. There are always difficulties arising which tempt you to believe that your critics are right. To map out a course of action and follow it through to an end requires courage.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Make the most of yourself, for that is all there is of you.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Once you make a decision, the universe conspires to make it happen.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

“We must be our own before we can be another’s.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Make yourself necessary to somebody.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

“We are always getting ready to live, but never living.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

“To laugh often and love much; to win the respect of intelligent persons and the affection of children; to earn the approbation of honest citizens and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to give of one’s self; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to have played and laughed with enthusiasm and sung with exultation; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived—this is to have succeeded.” 

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

“That is one of the blessings of old friends that you can afford to be stupid with them.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Never lose an opportunity of seeing anything beautiful, for beauty is God’s handwriting.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Little minds have little worries, big minds have no time for worries.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

“The highest revelation is that God is in every man.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

W. Clement Stone

“Like success, failure is many things to many people. With Positive Mental Attitude, failure is a learning experience, a rung on the ladder, a plateau at which to get your thoughts in order and prepare to try again.” ~ W. Clement Stone

“Tell everyone what you want to do and someone will want to help you do it.” ~ W. Clement Stone

“Success is achieved and maintained by those who try and keep trying.” ~ W. Clement Stone

“There is little difference in people, but that little difference makes a big difference. The little difference is attitude. The big difference is whether it is positive or negative.” ~ W. Clement Stone

“Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe–it can achieve.” W. Clement Stone

“When you discover your mission, you will feel its demand. It will fill you with enthusiasm and a burning desire to get to work on it.” ~ W. Clement Stone

“Thinking will not overcome fear, but action will.” ~ W. Clement Stone

“When we direct our thoughts properly, we can control our emotions.” ~ W. Clement Stone

“If you employ study, thinking and planning time daily, you could develop and use the power that can change the course of your destiny.” ~ W. Clement Stone

“I think there is something, more important than believing: Action! The world is full of dreamers, there aren’t enough who will move ahead and take concrete steps to actualize their vision.” ~ W. Clement Stone

“To solve a problem or reach a goal, you don’t have to know all the answers in advance. But you must have a clear idea of the problem or the goal you want to reach.”~W. Clement Stone

“You affect your subconscious mind by verbal repetition.” ~ W. Clement Stone

“So many fail because they don’t started–they don’t go. They don’t overcome inertia. They don’t begin.” ~ W. Clement Stone

“Everyone who achieves success in a great venture, solves each problem as they come to it. They helped themselves. And they were helped through powers known and unknown to them at the time they set our on their voyage. They keep going regardless of the obstacles they meet.” ~ W. Clement Stone

“No matter how carefully you plan your goals, they will never be more than pipe dreams unless you pursue them with gusto.” ~ W. Clement Stone

“Be careful of the environment you choose for it will shape you; be careful of the friends you choose for you will become like them.” ~ W. Clement Stone

William Penn

“If thou thinkest twice before thou speakest once, thou wilt speak twice the better for it.” ~ William Penn

“They that love beyond the world cannot be separated by it. Death cannot kill what never dies.
Nor can spirits ever be divided, that love and live in the same divine principle, the root and record of their friendship. If absence be not death, neither is theirs. Death is but crossing the world, as friends do the seas; they live in one another still. For they must needs be present, that love and live in that which is omnipresent.
In this divine glass they see face to face; and their converse is free, as well as pure. This is the comfort of friends, that though they may be said to die, yet their friendship and society are, in the best sense, ever present, because immortal.” ~ William Penn

“True silence is the rest of the mind; it is to the spirit what sleep is to the body, nourishment and refreshment.”
~William Penn

“I expect to pass through this world but once. Any good therefore that I can do, or any kindness that I can show to any fellow creature, let me do it now. Let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.” ~ William Penn

“Let us try what love will do.” ~ William Penn

Albert Einstein

• "Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius -- and a lot of courage -- to move in the opposite direction."
• "Imagination is more important than knowledge."
• "Gravitation is not responsible for people falling in love."
• "I want to know God's thoughts; the rest are details."
• "The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax."
• "Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one."
• "The only real valuable thing is intuition."
• "A person starts to live when he can live outside himself."
• "I am convinced that He (God) does not play dice."
• "God is subtle but he is not malicious."
• "Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character."
• "I never think of the future. It comes soon enough."
• "The eternal mystery of the world is its comprehensibility."
• "Sometimes one pays most for the things one gets for nothing."
• "Science without religion is lame. Religion without science is blind."
• "Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new."
• "Great spirits have often encountered violent opposition from weak minds."
• "Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler."
• "Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen."
• "Science is a wonderful thing if one does not have to earn one's living at it."
• "The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources."
• "The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education."
• "God does not care about our mathematical difficulties. He integrates empirically."
• "The whole of science is nothing more than a refinement of everyday thinking."
• "Technological progress is like an axe in the hands of a pathological criminal."
• "Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding."
• "The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is comprehensible."
• "We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them."
• "Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything he learned in school."
• "The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing."
• "Do not worry about your difficulties in Mathematics. I can assure you mine are still greater."
• "Equations are more important to me, because politics is for the present, but an equation is something for eternity."
• "If A is a success in life, then A equals x plus y plus z. Work is x; y is play; and z is keeping your mouth shut."
• "Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the the universe."
• "As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain, as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality."
• "Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods."
• "I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones."
• "In order to form an immaculate member of a flock of sheep one must, above all, be a sheep."
• "The fear of death is the most unjustified of all fears, for there's no risk of accident for someone who's dead."
• "Too many of us look upon Americans as dollar chasers. This is a cruel libel, even if it is reiterated thoughtlessly by the Americans themselves."
• "Heroism on command, senseless violence, and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism -- how passionately I hate them!"
• "No, this trick won't work...How on earth are you ever going to explain in terms of chemistry and physics so important a biological phenomenon as first love?"
• "My religion consists of a humble admiration of the illimitable superior spirit who reveals himself in the slight details we are able to perceive with our frail and feeble mind."
• "Yes, we have to divide up our time like that, between our politics and our equations. But to me our equations are far more important, for politics are only a matter of present concern. A mathematical equation stands forever."
• "The release of atom power has changed everything except our way of thinking...the solution to this problem lies in the heart of mankind. If only I had known, I should have become a watchmaker."
• "Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocrities. The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary prejudices but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence."
• "The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed."
• "A man's ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeeded be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death."
• "The further the spiritual evolution of mankind advances, the more certain it seems to me that the path to genuine religiosity does not lie through the fear of life, and the fear of death, and blind faith, but through striving after rational knowledge."
• "Now he has departed from this strange world a little ahead of me. That means nothing. People like us, who believe in physics, know that the distinction between past, present, and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion."
• "You see, wire telegraph is a kind of a very, very long cat. You pull his tail in New York and his head is meowing in Los Angeles. Do you understand this? And radio operates exactly the same way: you send signals here, they receive them there. The only difference is that there is no cat."
• "One had to cram all this stuff into one's mind for the examinations, whether one liked it or not. This coercion had such a deterring effect on me that, after I had passed the final examination, I found the consideration of any scientific problems distasteful to me for an entire year."
• "...one of the strongest motives that lead men to art and science is escape from everyday life with its painful crudity and hopeless dreariness, from the fetters of one's own ever-shifting desires. A finely tempered nature longs to escape from the personal life into the world of objective perception and thought."
• "He who joyfully marches to music rank and file, has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would surely suffice. This disgrace to civilization should be done away with at once. Heroism at command, how violently I hate all this, how despicable and ignoble war is; I would rather be torn to shreds than be a part of so base an action. It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder."
• "A human being is a part of a 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."
• "Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts." (Sign hanging in Einstein's office at Princeton)