
„I am not what happened to me, I am what I choose to become.“
— C.G. Jung Swiss psychiatrist and psychotherapist who founded analytical psychology 1875 - 1961
Variant: I am not what happens to me. I choose who I become.
A collection of quotes on the topic of faith, cute, life, hope.
„I am not what happened to me, I am what I choose to become.“
— C.G. Jung Swiss psychiatrist and psychotherapist who founded analytical psychology 1875 - 1961
Variant: I am not what happens to me. I choose who I become.
„Count your age by friends, not years. Count your life by smiles, not tears.“
— John Lennon English singer and songwriter 1940 - 1980
„If I got rid of my demons, I’d lose my angels.“
— Tennessee Williams American playwright 1911 - 1983
Source: Conversations with Tennessee Williams
„Believe you can and you're halfway there.“
— Theodore Roosevelt American politician, 26th president of the United States 1858 - 1919
„I would rather die of passion than of boredom.“
— Emile Zola, book Au Bonheur des Dames
Source: The Ladies' Paradise
„First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do.“
— Epictetus philosopher from Ancient Greece 50 - 138
Book III, ch. 23.
Discourses
Original: (el) Τίς εἶναι θέλεις, σαυτῷ πρῶτον εἰπέ: εἶθ' οὕτως ποίει ἃ ποιεῖς.
„It is never too late to be what you might have been.“
— George Eliot English novelist, journalist and translator 1819 - 1880
„When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.“
— Max Planck German theoretical physicist 1858 - 1947
„It’s better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring.“
— Marilyn Monroe American actress, model, and singer 1926 - 1962
Variant: Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius and it's better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring.
„Do not pray for an easy life, pray for the strength to endure a difficult one“
— Bruce Lee Hong Kong-American actor, martial artist, philosopher and filmmaker 1940 - 1973
Total 182 quotes positive, filter:
„Sometimes you will never know the value of a moment until it becomes a memory.“
— Dr. Seuss American children's writer and illustrator, co-founder of Beginner Books 1904 - 1991
Georges Duhamel in THE HEART'S DOMAIN (1919). As it was composed in French, the wording in English may vary in translation. Theodore Geisel / Dr. Seuss was born in 1904, and would have been about 15 years old at the time that it was published. The full text can be found at the link below: We do not know the true value of our moments until they have undergone the test of memory. Like the images the photographer plunges into a golden bath, our sentiments take on color; and only then, after that recoil and that trans-figuration, do we understand their real meaning and enjoy them in all their tranquil splendor.
Misattributed
— John Lennon English singer and songwriter 1940 - 1980
Variant: When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down ‘happy’. They told me I didn’t understand the assignment, and I told them they didn’t understand life.
„Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of somebody else.“
— Judy Garland actress, singer and vaudevillian from the United States 1922 - 1969
As quoted in Business Etiquette for the Nineties : Your Ticket to Career Success (1992) by Lou Kennedy, p. 8
Variant: Always be a first rate version of yourself and not a second rate version of someone else.
„The good life is a process, not a state of being. It is a direction not a destination.“
— Carl R. Rogers American psychologist 1902 - 1987
Person to person: The problem of being human: A new trend in psychology (1967)
Source: page 187.
„We must be willing to let go of the life we planned so as to have the life that is waiting for us.“
— Joseph Campbell American mythologist, writer and lecturer 1904 - 1987
Variant: You must give up the life you planned in order to have the life that is waiting for you.
„Above all, be the heroine of your life, not the victim.“
— Nora Ephron Film director, author screenwriter 1941 - 2012
Variant: Above all, be the heroine of your own life, not the victim.
„Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them.“
— Marcus Aurelius, book Meditations
Source: Meditations
„The best way to cheer yourself is to try to cheer someone else up.“
— Mark Twain American author and humorist 1835 - 1910
Variant of this quote "The best way to cheer yourself is to cheer somebody else up." is misattributed to Albert Einstein.
Source: According Quote Investigator Mark Twain did write a version of this saying in a personal notebook in 1896, and it was published by 1935 in “Mark Twain’s Notebook”. https://quoteinvestigator.com/2012/12/21/cheer-somebody/
„Today is your day! Your mountain is waiting!“
— Dr. Seuss American children's writer and illustrator, co-founder of Beginner Books 1904 - 1991
Variant: Today is your day, your mountain is waiting. So get on your way.
„Try to be a rainbow in someone's cloud.“
— Maya Angelou, book Letter to My Daughter
Variant: Be a rainbow in somebody else's cloud.
Source: Letter to My Daughter
„Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it.“
— Maya Angelou American author and poet 1928 - 2014
„I often think that the night is more alive and more richly colored than the day.“
— Vincent Van Gogh Dutch post-Impressionist painter (1853-1890) 1853 - 1890
„Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving.“
— Albert Einstein German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity 1879 - 1955
Letter to his son Eduard (5 February 1930), as quoted in Walter Isaacson, Einstein: His Life and Universe (2007), p. 367
1930s
„Every day may not be good…
but there's something good in every day“
— Alice Morse Earle American historian 1851 - 1911
„Keep your face always toward the sunshine – and shadows will fall behind you.“
— Walt Whitman American poet, essayist and journalist 1819 - 1892
This has become attributed to both Walt Whitman and Helen Keller, but has not been found in either of their published works, and variations of the quote are listed as a proverb commonly used in both the US and Canada in A Dictionary of American Proverbs (1992), edited by Wolfgang Mieder, Kelsie B. Harder and Stewart A. Kingsbury.
Misattributed
„We must embrace pain and burn it as fuel for our journey“
— Kenji Miyazawa Japanese poet and author of children's literature 1896 - 1933
„There are years that ask questions and years that answer.“
— Zora Neale Hurston, book Their Eyes Were Watching God
Source: Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937), Ch. 3, p. 21.
„It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.“
— E.E. Cummings American poet 1894 - 1962
„The power of imagination makes us infinite.“
— John Muir Scottish-born American naturalist and author 1838 - 1914
1 September 1875, page 226
John of the Mountains, 1938
Context: How infinitely superior to our physical senses are those of the mind! The spiritual eye sees not only rivers of water but of air. It sees the crystals of the rock in rapid sympathetic motion, giving enthusiastic obedience to the sun's rays, then sinking back to rest in the night. The whole world is in motion to the center. So also sounds. We hear only woodpeckers and squirrels and the rush of turbulent streams. But imagination gives us the sweet music of tiniest insect wings, enables us to hear, all round the world, the vibration of every needle, the waving of every bole and branch, the sound of stars in circulation like particles in the blood. The Sierra canyons are full of avalanche debris — we hear them boom again, for we read past sounds from present conditions. Again we hear the earthquake rock-falls. Imagination is usually regarded as a synonym for the unreal. Yet is true imagination healthful and real, no more likely to mislead than the coarser senses. Indeed, the power of imagination makes us infinite.
„Success is getting what you want..
Happiness is wanting what you get.“
— Dale Carnegie American writer and lecturer 1888 - 1955
Variant: Success is getting what you want. Happiness is wanting what you get.
„Some people look for a beautiful place, others make a place beautiful.“
— Hazrat Inayat Khan Indian Sufi 1882 - 1927
„Always turn a negative situation into a positive situation.“
— Michael Jordan American retired professional basketball player and businessman 1963
„There is no way to happiness. Happiness is the way.“
— Thich Nhat Hanh Religious leader and peace activist 1926
„I attribute my success to this — I never gave or took any excuse.“
— Florence Nightingale English social reformer and statistician, and the founder of modern nursing 1820 - 1910
As quoted in The Gigantic Book of Teachers' Wisdom (2007) by Frank McCourt and Erin Gruwell, p. 410
„You cannot change what you are, only what you do.“
— Philip Pullman, book Northern Lights
Source: His Dark Materials, The Golden Compass (1995), Ch. 18 : Fog and Ice
„You get in life what you have the courage to ask for.“
— Oprah Winfrey American businesswoman, talk show host, actress, producer, and philanthropist 1954
„We all have an unsuspected reserve of strength inside that emerges when life puts us to the test.“
— Isabel Allende Chilean writer 1942
Source: Island Beneath the Sea
„There is direction but there is no destination.“
— Carl R. Rogers American psychologist 1902 - 1987
„And in the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.“
— Abraham Lincoln 16th President of the United States 1809 - 1865
This quote is often misattributed to Lincoln. The earliest instance that Quote Investigator could locate was "in an advertisement in 1947 for a book about aging by Edward J. Stieglitz, M.D". The advertisement for “The Second Forty Years” which ran in the Chicago Tribune newspaper read like this: The important thing to you is not how many years in your life, but how much life in your years! (Compare 1947 March 16, Chicago Tribune, “How Long Do You Plan to Live?”, [Advertisement for the book "The Second Forty Years" by Edward J. Stieglitz, M.D.], p. C7, Chicago, Illinois. (ProQuest)). Source of misattribution: It’s Not the Years in Your Life That Count. It’s the Life in Your Years - Abraham Lincoln? Adlai Stevenson? Edward J. Stieglitz? Anonymous? by Quote Investigator on July 14, 2012 http://quoteinvestigator.com/2012/07/14/life-years-count/
To my way of thinking it is not the years in your life but the life in your years that count in the long run.
Adlai Stevenson II, Address at Princeton University, "The Educated Citizen" (22 March 1954) http://infoshare1.princeton.edu/libraries/firestone/rbsc/mudd/online_ex/stevenson/adlai1954.html. This has also been paraphrased "What matters most is not the years in your life, but the life in your years" and misattributed to Abraham Lincoln and Mae West.
Adlai Stevenson II, "If I Were Twenty-One" in Coronet (December 1955).
Misattributed
Variant: It is not the years in your life but the life in your years that counts.
„It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation.“
— Herman Melville American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and poet 1818 - 1891
Hawthorne and His Mosses (1850)
Context: It is better to fail in originality, than to succeed in imitation. He who has never failed somewhere, that man can not be great. Failure is the true test of greatness.
Context: It is better to fail in originality, than to succeed in imitation. He who has never failed somewhere, that man can not be great. Failure is the true test of greatness. And if it be said, that continual success is a proof that a man wisely knows his powers, — it is only to be added, that, in that case, he knows them to be small. Let us believe it, then, once for all, that there is no hope for us in these smooth pleasing writers that know their powers.
„All you need is the plan, the road map, and the courage to press on to your destination.“
— Earl Nightingale American motivational speaker 1921 - 1989
„It takes as much energy to wish as it does to plan.“
— Eleanor Roosevelt American politician, diplomat, and activist, and First Lady of the United States 1884 - 1962
„You can have it all. Just not all at once.“
— Oprah Winfrey American businesswoman, talk show host, actress, producer, and philanthropist 1954
„Success is getting what you want; happiness is wanting what you get.“
— Ingrid Bergman Film actress from Sweden 1915 - 1982
„No! Try not. Do, or do not. There is no try.“
— George Lucas American film producer 1944
Source: The Star Wars Trilogy
„Find a place inside where there's joy, and the joy will burn out the pain.“
— Joseph Campbell American mythologist, writer and lecturer 1904 - 1987
Variant: Find a place inside where there's joy, and the joy will burn out the pain.
„Do what you have to do, to do what you want to do.“
— Denzel Washington actor, screenwriter, director, producer 1954
Variant: Do what you gotta do so you can do what you wanna do.
„Stop wearing your wishbone where your backbone ought to be.“
— Elizabeth Gilbert, book Eat, Pray, Love
This derives from a folk proverb sometimes attributed to Clementine Paddleford, but in use as an "old proverb" as early as 1908, when Paddeford was only 10 years old.
Misattributed
Source: Eat, Pray, Love
„You are what you believe yourself to be.“
— Paulo Coelho, book The Witch of Portobello
Source: The Witch of Portobello (2007), p. 152.
Context: You are what you believe yourself to be.
Don't be like those people who believe in "positive thinking" and tell themselves that they're loved and strong and capable. You don't need to do that because you know it already. And when you doubt it — which happens, I think, quite often at this stage of evolution — do as I suggested. Instead of trying to prove that you're better than you think, just laugh. Laugh at your worries and insecurities. View your anxieties with humor. It will be difficult at first, but you'll gradually get used to it. Now go back and meet all those people who think you know everything. Convince yourself that they're right, because we all know everything, it's merely a question of believing.
Believe.
— Dale Carnegie American writer and lecturer 1888 - 1955
„You can, you should, and if you’re brave enough to start, you will.“
— Stephen King American author 1947
Source: On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
„Why fit in when you were born to stand out?“
— Dr. Seuss American children's writer and illustrator, co-founder of Beginner Books 1904 - 1991
„The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.“
— Eleanor Roosevelt American politician, diplomat, and activist, and First Lady of the United States 1884 - 1962
Often attributed to Eleanor Roosevelt without an original source in her writings, for example in the introduction to It Seems to Me : Selected Letters of Eleanor Roosevelt (2001) by Leonard C. Schlup and Donald W. Whisenhunt, p. 2 http://books.google.com/books?id=UeFWjTMcLZYC&lpg=PP1&pg=PA2#v=onepage&q&f=false. But archivists have not been able to find the quote in any of her writings, see the comment from Ralph Keyes in The Quote Verifier above.
Disputed
„Whoever is happy will make others happy.“
— Anne Frank victim of the Holocaust and author of a diary 1929 - 1945
Source: The Diary of a Young Girl
„Every strike brings me closer to the next home run.“
— Babe Ruth American baseball player 1895 - 1948
As quoted in Weird Ideas That Work : 11 1/2 practices for promoting, managing, and sustaining innovation (2001) by Robert I. Sutton, p. 95
— Stephen Grellet American Quaker missionary 1773 - 1855
This, and variants of it, have been been widely circulated as a Quaker saying since at least 1869, and attributed to Grellet since at least 1893. W. Gurney Benham in Benham's Book of Quotations, Proverbs, and Household Words (1907) states that though sometimes attributed to others, "there seems to be some authority in favor of Stephen Grellet being the author, but the passage does not appear in any of his printed works." It appears to have been published as an anonymous proverb at least as early as 1859, when it appeared in Household Words : A Weekly Journal.
It has also often become attributed to the more famous Quaker William Penn, as well as others including Mahatma Gandhi and Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Variants:
I expect to pass through this world but once. If, therefore, there be any kindness I can show, or any good thing I can do any fellow human being let me do it now. Let me not defer or neglect it, for I will not pass this way again.
Writing of an unnamed Quaker, as quoted in Scott's Monthly Magazine Vol. VII, No. 6 (June 1869, p. 475, edited by William J. Scott
I expect to pass through this world but once. Any good thing, therefore, that I can do or any kindness I can show to any fellow human being let me do it now. Let me not defer nor neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.
As quoted anonymously in Hour by Hour; or, The Christian's Daily Life (1885), compiled by E.A.L., p. 37, and as "the old Quaker's words" in The Unitarian Vol. VI (July 1891); this version was given the title "Do It Now" in Heart Throbs: In Prose and Verse (1905) by Joe Mitchell Chapple.
I shall pass through this world but once! Any good thing, therefore, that I can do or any kindness that I can show to any human being, let me do it now, in his name, and for his sake! Let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.
Anonymous quotation on a card, as quoted in The Friend, Vol. 61 (1888) by The Society of Friends, p. 364
I shall pass through this world but once. Any good, therefore, that I can do or any kindness I can show to any human being, let me do it now. Let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.
Anonymous quotation on a card, as quoted in A Memorial of a True Life : A Biography of Hugh McAllister Beaver (1898) by Robert Elliott Speer, p. 169
I expect to pass through this world but once. If, therefore, there be any kindness I can show, or any good thing I can do, to any fellow being let me do it now. Let me not defer nor neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.
As quoted anonymously in The Lamp Vol. XXVI (February-July 1903)
Disputed
„I avoid looking forward or backward, and try to keep looking upward.“
— Charlotte Brontë English novelist and poet 1816 - 1855
15 January, 1849. As quoted in Elizabeth Gaskell The life of Charlotte Brontë (1870), p. 285
„No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.“
— Aesop, book The Lion and the Mouse
The Lion and the Mouse.
Variant: No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.
„All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn’t hurt.“
— Charles M. Schulz American cartoonist 1922 - 2000
— Ralph Waldo Emerson American philosopher, essayist, and poet 1803 - 1882
As reported by Quoteinvestigator on January 11, 2011 http://quoteinvestigator.com/2011/01/11/what-lies-within/ the quote appeared in “Meditations in Wall Street” (1940) by Wall Street trader Henry Stanley Haskins, "a Wall Street trader with a checkered background. The phrase was misattributed because the true author's name was initially withheld. In addition, the assignment of the maxim to a more prestigious individual, e.g., Emerson or Thoreau, made it more attractive and more believable as a nugget of wisdom." Emerson made a number of similar statements — in "The American Scholar," for example, he says "Give me insight into to-day, and you may have the antique and future worlds" — which probably increased the likelihood of misattribution.
Misattributed
Variant: What lies behind us and what lies ahead of us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.
Variant: What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.
— Henry David Thoreau 1817-1862 American poet, essayist, naturalist, and abolitionist 1817 - 1862
Variant: I learned this, at least, by my experiment: that 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.
Source: Walden: Or, Life in the Woods
„Arise, awake and Stop not till the Goal is Reached.“
— Swami Vivekananda Indian Hindu monk and phylosopher 1863 - 1902
Pearls of Wisdom
Source: Meditation and Its Methods According to Swami Vivekananda
— Simone de Beauvoir French writer, intellectual, existentialist philosopher, political activist, feminist, and social theorist 1908 - 1986
[C]'est la vraie générosité ; vous donnez tout et rien ne semble jamais vous coûter.
All Men are Mortal (1946)
— Dale Carnegie American writer and lecturer 1888 - 1955
As quoted in The Ring of Truth (2004) by Joseph O'Day
„Be Yourself. Everyone Else Is Already Taken.“
— Oscar Wilde Irish writer and poet 1854 - 1900
Anonymous advertising copywriter for Menards chain of hardware stores (2000), according to Quote Investigator http://quoteinvestigator.com/2014/01/20/be-yourself
Misattributed
— Brian Tracy American motivational speaker and writer 1944
„A goal is not always meant to be reached, it often serves simply as something to aim at.“
— Bruce Lee Hong Kong-American actor, martial artist, philosopher and filmmaker 1940 - 1973
As translated by Katharine Lyttelton, in Joubert : A Selection from His Thoughts (1899)
Source: Striking Thoughts (2000), p. 121; this likely derives from the observation of Joseph Joubert: The goal is not always meant to be reached, but to serve as a mark for our aim.
— Abraham Lincoln 16th President of the United States 1809 - 1865
Letter to Isham Reavis (5 November 1855)
1850s
Context: If you are resolutely determined to make a lawyer of yourself, the thing is more than half done already. It is but a small matter whether you read with anyone or not. I did not read with anyone. Get the books, and read and study them till you understand them in their principal features; and that is the main thing. It is of no consequence to be in a large town while you are reading. I read at New Salem, which never had three hundred people living in it. The books, and your capacity for understanding them, are just the same in all places.... Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed, is more important than any other one thing.
„Everything will be okay in the end. If it's not okay, it's not the end.“
— John Lennon English singer and songwriter 1940 - 1980
Also found with the alternative spelling: Everything is okay in the end. If it's not okay, it's not the end
Found anonymously on Usenet in 2000 https://groups.google.com/forum/message/raw?msg=alt.support.divorce/gKiyfcAYreo/jjuc6KTu_NAJ. First known attribution to Lennon is from 2011 https://groups.google.com/forum/message/raw?msg=stow-ma-apple-barn/45MNk9KiGsY/vaq6pr8hgI0J.
Disputed
Variant: Everything is OK in the end. If it's not OK, it's not the end.
„Life is to be lived, not controlled.“
— Ralph Waldo Emerson American philosopher, essayist, and poet 1803 - 1882
„Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does.“
— William James American philosopher, psychologist, and pragmatist 1842 - 1910
„Extraordinary things are always hiding in places people never think to look.“
— Jodi Picoult, My Sister's Keeper
Source: My Sister's Keeper
„The difference between ordinary and extraordinary is that little extra.“
— Jimmy Johnson American Chicago blues guitarist and singer 1928
„The road to success is always under construction“
— Lily Tomlin American actress, comedian, writer, and producer 1939
„The more you praise and celebrate your life, the more there is in life to celebrate.“
— Oprah Winfrey American businesswoman, talk show host, actress, producer, and philanthropist 1954
„People rarely succeed unless they have fun in what they are doing.“
— Dale Carnegie American writer and lecturer 1888 - 1955
Dale Carnegie, quoted in Permission to Play : Taking Time to Renew Your Smile (2003) by Jill Murphy Long, p. 69
„Change the way you look at things and the things you look at change.“
— Wayne W. Dyer American writer 1940 - 2015
„I never lose sight of the fact that just being is fun.“
— Katharine Hepburn film, stage, and television actress 1907 - 2003
„Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year.“
— Ralph Waldo Emerson American philosopher, essayist, and poet 1803 - 1882
Works and Days
1870s, Society and Solitude (1870)
„if you tell yourself you feel fine, you will.“
— Jodi Picoult, My Sister's Keeper
Source: My Sister's Keeper
„The POSITIVE THINKER sees the INVISIBLE, feels the INTANGIBLE, and achieves the IMPOSSIBLE.“
— Winston S. Churchill Prime Minister of the United Kingdom 1874 - 1965
Source: My Early Life, 1874-1904
„We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.“
— Oscar Wilde, Lady Windermere's Fan
Lord Darlington, Act III
Source: Lady Windermere's Fan (1892)
— John F. Kennedy 35th president of the United States of America 1917 - 1963
"Proclamation 3560 — Thanksgiving Day, 1963" (5 November 1963) http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=9511<!-- Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project -->
1963
Context: Today we give our thanks, most of all, for the ideals of honor and faith we inherit from our forefathers — for the decency of purpose, steadfastness of resolve and strength of will, for the courage and the humility, which they possessed and which we must seek every day to emulate. As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words but to live by them.
Let us therefore proclaim our gratitude to Providence for manifold blessings — let us be humbly thankful for inherited ideals — and let us resolve to share those blessings and those ideals with our fellow human beings throughout the world.
„To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.“
— Ralph Waldo Emerson American philosopher, essayist, and poet 1803 - 1882
„Even if you are on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.“
— Will Rogers American humorist and entertainer 1879 - 1935
Variant: Even if you are on the right track, you will get run over if you just sit there.
„Yesterday is not ours to recover, but tomorrow is ours to win or lose.“
— Lyndon B. Johnson American politician, 36th president of the United States (in office from 1963 to 1969) 1908 - 1973
„A year from now you may wish you had started today.“
— Karen Lamb British tennis player 1982
„Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement; nothing can be done without hope.“
— Helen Keller, book Optimism
Optimism (1903)
Variant: Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement
„For every minute you are angry you lose sixty seconds of happiness.“
— Ralph Waldo Emerson American philosopher, essayist, and poet 1803 - 1882
No known source in Emerson's works; first found as a piece of anonymous folk-wisdom in a 1936 newspaper column:
: Every minute you are angry, you lose 60 seconds of happiness.
:* Junius, "Office Cat" https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/85995624/, The Daily Freeman [Kingston, NY] (30 December 1936), p. 6
Misattributed
„Of all forms of caution, caution in love is perhaps the most fatal to true happiness.“
— Bertrand Russell, book The Conquest of Happiness
Source: 1930s, The Conquest of Happiness (1930)
„Whoever is happy will make others happy too.“
— Mark Twain American author and humorist 1835 - 1910
„Folks are usually about as happy as they make their minds up to be.“
— Abraham Lincoln 16th President of the United States 1809 - 1865
Often misquoted as: "I have found that most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be." or "People are just as happy as they make up their minds to be."
This quote is not found in the various Lincoln sources which can be searched online (e.g. Gutenberg). Niether does Lincoln appear more generally to use the phrase "making up {one's} mind". The saying was first quoted, ascribed to Lincoln but with no source given, in 1914 by Frank Crane and several times subsequently by him in altered versions. It was later quoted in How to Get What You Want (1917) by Orison Swett Marden (Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1917), 74, again without source. Alternative versions quoted are: "I have found that most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be" and "People are just as happy as they make up their minds to be."
Source: https://quoteinvestigator.com/2012/10/20/happy-minds/#:~:text=%E2%80%9CPeople%20are%20about%20as%20happy,up%20their%20minds%20to%20be.%E2%80%9D&text=Remember%20Lincoln's%20saying%20that%20%E2%80%9Cfolks,up%20their%20minds%20to%20be.%E2%80%9D
Curiously in later books Crane, e.g. Four Minute Essays, 1919, Adventures in Common Sense, 1920, "21", 1930, Crane mentions other routes to happiness and does not again use this quote.
Marden used a great many quotes in his writings, without giving sources. Whilst sources for many of the quotes can be found, this is not true for all. For instance he mentions another story in which Lincoln says "Madam, you have not a peg to hang your case on"; this also does not seem to found in Lincoln sources.
„You cannot have a positive life and a negative mind.“
— Joyce Meyer American author and speaker 1943
Source: Battlefield of the Mind: Winning the Battle in Your Mind
„Let your life lightly dance on the edges of Time like dew on the tip of a leaf.“
— Rabindranath Tagore Bengali polymath 1861 - 1941
45
The Gardener http://www.spiritualbee.com/love-poems-by-tagore/ (1915)
„A friend may be waiting behind a stranger's face.“
— Maya Angelou, book Letter to My Daughter
Source: Letter to My Daughter