Only necessity understood, and bondage to the highest is identical with true freedom.

A genius is the man in whom you are least likely to find the power of attending to anything insipid or distasteful in itself. He breaks his engagements, leaves his letters unanswered, neglects his family duties incorrigibly, because he is powerless to turn his attention down and back from those more interesting trains of imagery with which his genius constantly occupies his mind.

If you want a quality, act as if you already had it.

Our belief at the beginning of a doubtful undertaking is the one thing that assures the successful outcome of any venture.

The greatest discovery of any generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitude.

The stream of thought flows on; but most of its segments fall into the bottomless abyss of oblivion. Of some, no memory survives the instant of their passage. Of others, it is confined to a few moments, hours or days. Others, again, leave vestiges which are indestructible, and by means of which they may be recalled as long as life endures.

Genius means little more than the faculty of perceiving in an unhabitual way.

Human beings are born into this little span of life of which the best thing is its friendship and intimacies, and soon their places will know them no more, and yet they leave their friendships and intimacies with no cultivation, to grow as they will by the roadside, expecting them to "keep" by force of inertia.

Human beings, by changing the inner attitudes of their minds, can change the outer aspects of their lives.

Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does.

As a rule we disbelieve all the facts and theories for which we have no use.

The whole drift of my education goes to persuade me that the world of our present consciousness is only one out of many worlds of consciousness that exist.

He who refuses to embrace a unique opportunity loses the prize as surely as if he had failed.

If you want a quality, act as if you already had it. Try the 'as if' technique.

The deepest principle in human nature is the craving to be appreciated.

The great use of life is to spend it for something that outlasts it.

We never fully grasp the import of any true statement until we have a clear notion of what the opposite untrue statement would be.

The difference between a good man and a bad man is the choice of cause.

Religion is a monumental chapter in the history of human egotism.

There is only one thing that a philosopher can be relied on to do, and that is, to contradict other philosophers.

This life is worth living, we can say, since it is what we make it.

A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.

An idea, to be suggestive, must come to the individual with the force of revelation.

Believe that life is worth living and your belief will help create the fact.

There is no worse lie than a truth misunderstood by those who hear it.

Let everything you do be done as if it makes a difference.

Acceptance of what has happened is the first step to overcoming the consequences of any misfortune.

The great use of life is to spend it for something that will outlast it.

Why should we think upon things that are lovely? Because thinking determines life. It is a common habit to blame life upon the environment. Environment modifies life but does not govern life. The soul is stronger than its surroundings.

Be not afraid of life. Believe that life is worth living, and your belief will help create the fact.

A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely re-arranging their prejudices.

Religion, whatever it is, is a man's total reaction upon life.

The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook.

Religion is the monumental chapter in the history of human egotism.

Circumstance does not make me, it reveals me.

The community stagnates without the impulse of the individual. The impulse dies away without the sympathy of the community.

There is only one thing a philosopher can be relied upon to do, and that is to contradict other philosophers.

There is no more miserable human being than one in whom nothing is habitual but indecision.

I believe there is no source of deception in the investigation of nature which can compare with a fixed belief that certain kinds of phenomena are impossible.

The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitudes of mind.

The family is the nucleus of civilization.

The essence of genius is to know what to overlook.

The greatest use of life is to spend it for something that will outlast it.

An act has no ethical quality whatever unless it be chosen out of several all equally possible.

Most people never run far enough on their first wind to find out they?ve got a second. Give your dreams all you?ve got and you?ll be amazed at the energy that comes out of you!!