Every moment of our lives we are either growing or dying—and it’s largely a choice, not fate. Throughout its life cycle, every one of the body’s trillions of cells is driven to grow and improve its ability to use more of its innate yet untapped capacity. Research biologist Albert Szent-Gyorgyi, who was twice awarded the Nobel Prize, called this syntropy, which he defined as the “innate drive in living matter to perfect itself”. It turns conventional thinking upside down…As living cells—or as people—there is no staying the same. If we aim for some middle ground or status quo, it’s an illusion—beneath the surface what’s actually happening is we’re dying, not growing. And the goal of a lifetime is continued growth, not adulthood. As Rene Dubos put it, “Genius is childhood recaptured”. For this to happen, studies show that we must recapture—or prevent the loss of—such child-like traits as the ability to learn, to love, to laugh about small things, to leap, to wonder, and to explore. It’s time to rescue ourselves from our grown-up ways before it’s too late.
—Robert Cooper (b.1947) British Diplomat
If you would serve your brother it is fit for you to serve him, do not take back your words when you find that prudent people do not commend you. Be true to your own act, and congratulate yourself if you have done something strange and extravagant and broken the monotony of a decorous age.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Whether or not we have hope depends on two dimensions of our explanatory style; pervasiveness and permanence. Finding temporary and specific causes for misfortune is the art of hope: Temporary causes limit helplessness in time, and specific causes limit helplessness to the original situation. On the other hand, permanent causes produce helplessness far into the future, and universal causes spread helplessness through all your endeavors. Finding permanent and universal causes for misfortune is the practice of despair… The optimistic style of explaining good events is the opposite of that used for bad events: It’s internal rather than external. People who believe they cause good things tend to like themselves better than people who believe good things come from other people or circumstances.
—Martin Seligman (b.1942) American Psychologist, Author
The goal of truly rich people is to have massive wealth and abundance.
—T. Harv Eker (b.1954) American Motivational Speaker, Lecturer, Author
The fishing is best where the fewest go, and the collective insecurity of the world makes it easy for people to hit home runs while everyone else is aiming for base hits. There is just less competition for bigger goals.
—Tim Ferriss (b.1977) American Self-help Author
Effective people are not problem-minded; they’re opportunity-minded.
—Stephen Covey (1932–2012) American Self-help Author
The one who count are those persons who-though they may be of little renown-respond to and are responsible for the continuation of the living spirit.
—Martin Buber (1878–1965) Austrian Jewish Theologian, Philosopher, Novelist
If only everyone could know and live with their inner craziness…people would be fairer and happier.
—Paulo Coelho (b.1947) Brazilian Songwriter, Novelist
No matter where or what, there are makers, takers, and fakers.
—Robert A. Heinlein (1907–88) American Science Fiction Writer
You can have everything in life you want if you’ll just help enough other people get what they want.
—Zig Ziglar (1926–2012) American Author
If people knew how hard I had to work to gain my mastery, it wouldn’t seem so wonderful at all.
—Michelangelo (1475–1564) Italian Painter, Sculptor, Architect, Poet, Engineer
And finally I twist my heart round again, so that the bad is on the outside and the good is on the inside, and keep on trying to find a way of becoming what I would so like to be, and could be, if there weren’t any other people living in the world.
—Anne Frank (1929–45) Holocaust Victim
If it has to choose who is to be crucified, the crowd will always save Barabbas.
—Jean Cocteau (1889–1963) French Poet, Playwright, Film Director
The world may be divided into people that read, people that write, people that think, and fox-hunters.
—William Shenstone (1714–63) British Poet, Landscape Gardener
We don’t attach to people or to things; we attach to uninvestigated concepts that we believe to be true in the moment.
—Byron Katie (b.1942) American Speaker, Author
The people long eagerly for just two things. Bread and circuses.
—Juvenal (c.60–c.136 CE) Roman Poet
If you want to live a happy life, tie it to a goal, not to people or things.
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born Physicist
The toughest part of getting to the top of the ladder is getting through the crowd at the bottom.
—Unknown
I believe negative thinking is like having measles of the mind. Instead of itching, you get bitching; instead of scratching, you get bashing; instead of irritation, you get frustration. Now, do you really want to be close to people like that?
—T. Harv Eker (b.1954) American Motivational Speaker, Lecturer, Author
People will teach you how to sell them if you’ll pay attention to the messages they send you.
—Unknown
You can make more friends in two months by becoming genuinely interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you.
—Dale Carnegie (1888–1955) American Self-Help Author
As Elie Wiesel, Holocaust survivor, Nobel laureate, and supporter of the Tibetan people, “We must understand that there can be no life without risk—and when your spirit is strong, everything else is secondary, even the risks.
—Robert Cooper (b.1947) British Diplomat
You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.
—Jim Rohn (1930–2009) American Entrepreneur, Author, Motivational Speaker
Poor people choose to play the role of the victim.
—T. Harv Eker (b.1954) American Motivational Speaker, Lecturer, Author
All I say is, nobody has any business to go around looking like a horse and behaving as if it were all right. You don’t catch horses going around looking like people, do you?
—Dorothy Parker (1893–1967) American Humorist, Journalist
Poor people will do almost anything to avoid problems. They see a challenge and they run … the secret to success, my friends, is not to try to avoid or get rid of or shrink from your problems; the secret is to grow yourself so that you are bigger than your problems.
—T. Harv Eker (b.1954) American Motivational Speaker, Lecturer, Author
From the time when the exercise of the intellect became the source of strength and wealth, every addition to science, every fresh truth, and every new idea became a germ of power placed within reach of the people.
—Alexis de Tocqueville (1805–59) French Historian, Political Scientist
What turns ordinary people into overachievers is the way they use their minds when they are called on to perform.
—John Eliot (b.1971) American Psychologist, Academic
There is one thing we can do, and the happiest people are those who an do it to the limit of their ability. We can be completely present. We can be all here. We can… give all our attention to the opportunity before us.
—Mark Van Doren (1894–1972) American Poet, Writer, Critic
I’ve met so many people, often the scum of the earth, and found them, you know, quite decent. I am an uncomfortable stranger to moral indignation.
—W. Somerset Maugham (1874–1965) British Novelist, Short-Story Writer, Playwright
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