Seek to Become Your Greatest Self

Your success and happiness lies in you.
Resolve to keep happy, and your joy and you
shall form an invincible host against difficulties.
- Helen Keller

Only when life is difficult are we challenged to become our greatest selves.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

When It’s Darkest, Men See the Stars.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

If you cry because the sun has gone out of your life,
your tears will prevent you from seeing the stars.
- Rabindranath Tagore

Further reading: Nothing to look forward to?

Is Hope Futile?

Every Day, a New Day
       

The measure of your success is how many lives you have made better

Believe in yourself,
in your vision for your future,
and in your ability to take a small step
each day toward achieving your vision.

- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

To leave the world a bit better ... to know that one life has breathed easier because you have lived.
This is to have succeeded.
- Bessie A. Stanley (commonly attributed to Ralph Waldo Emerson)

Anyone who proposes to do good
must not expect people to roll stones out of his way,
but must accept his lot calmly,
even if they roll a few stones upon it.
- Albert Schweitzer

True success is bringing joy to yourself and to others.
Success is measured in lives bettered, not in money or power.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

We do not need to proselytize
either by our speech or by our writing.
We can only do so really with our lives.
Let our lives be open books for all to study.
- Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi

Further reading: March On

Pay It Forward

Turn Crisis into Progress

Stand Together
    

We Hide Our Emptiness

Society is a masked ball,
where everyone hides his real character,
and reveals it by hiding.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Our greatest pretenses are built up not to hide the evil and the ugly in us,
but our emptiness.
The hardest thing to hide is something that is not there.
- Eric Hoffer

We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful what we pretend to be.
- Kurt Vonnegut

Whoever you pretend to be, you must face yourself eventually.
- Al Stewart

Man is least himself when he talks in his own person.
Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.
- Oscar Wilde

We all have a social mask, right?
We put it on, we go out, put our best foot forward, our best image.
But behind that social mask is a personal truth,
what we really, really believe about who we are and what we're capable of.
- Phil McGraw

What if we like our outrageous side best?
We "know" that the "right" thing to do is to suck it up,
put the costume and the happy face back in storage for another year,
re-dress in our frown and gray flannel suit,
and trudge back to job, chores, "responsibilities," and "duty."
Stop! Maybe TODAY is the day to put the frown and gray flannel
into that dusty storage locker, and start to LIVE.
Not just today, but EVERY DAY for the rest of your life!
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

God has given you one face, and you make yourself another.
- William Shakespeare

Dignity is a mask we wear to hide our ignorance.
- Elbert Hubbard

Recognize the extent to which you hide your true nature from the world.
Consider revealing more of your true self.
...
Society censors our actions,
but our dreams reveal our true character.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: How To Not Care What Others Think

Need For Approval

How to Be Yourself

What lessons might Halloween hold for us?
     

Our Vision is Biased by What We Expect to See or Fear to See

Choose the World You See,
and See the World You Choose.
You have a choice
about the perspective you take on life.
See tragedy, and the world is tragic -
see beauty, and the world is beautiful.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

People seem not to see that
their opinion of the world
is also a confession of character.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

What we see depends mainly on what we look for.
- John Lubbock

It all depends on how we look at things,
and not how they are in themselves.
- Carl Jung

Our Vision is Always Biased by What We Expect or Fear to See.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: What You See

Your Attitude is Your Window

What We Perceive
      

Appreciate the Commonplace

The enlightened give thanks for what most people take for granted.
- Michael Beckwith

The invariable mark of wisdom is to
see the miraculous in the common.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

A thankful heart is the greatest virtue.
- Cicero

Today's affirmation:
I find joy and inspiration in the commonplace
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: The Commonplace

Simple Pleasures

Beauty is Everywhere
    

Thoughtful Action Defuses Panic

Never yield to Panic (fear so strong it prevents logical thinking).
Focus, and let your actions be thoughtful.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

The wise man in the storm prays God,
not for safety from danger,
but for deliverance from fear.
It is the storm within which endangers him,
not the storm without.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

The only hope I can see for the future depends on a
wiser and braver use of the reason,
not a panic flight from it.
- F. L. Lucas

Doubt and mistrust are the mere panic of timid imagination,
which the steadfast heart will conquer,
and the large mind will transcend.
- Helen Keller

Fear cannot be banished, but it can be calm and without panic;
it can be mitigated by reason and evaluation.
- Vannevar Bush

Further reading: Don't Panic

Take Charge of Your Life

The Nightly News - an expression of fear
         

Breathe; Let Go; Relax; Forgive - and Smile

Nothing can bring you peace but yourself.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

When you find peace within yourself,
you become the kind of person who can live at peace with others.
- Peace Pilgrim

If in our daily life we can smile,
if we can be peaceful and happy,
not only we, but everyone will profit from it.
This is the most basic kind of peace work.
- Thich Nhat Hanh

Breathe; let go; relax; forgive.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

It's not the situation that's causing your stress,
it's your thoughts,
and you can change that right here and now.
You can choose to be peaceful right here and now.
[Inner] Peace is a choice,
and it has nothing to do with what other people do or think.
- Gerald Jampolsky

No one can find inner peace except by working,
not in a self-centered way, but for the whole human family.
- Peace Pilgrim

Further reading: Focus on Peace

A Life of Harmony

Bring Peace

Forgiveness: Path to Inner Peace

Choose Inner Peace

The War Within Yourself
    

Think, Do

 

What we think, we become.
All that we are arises with our thoughts.
With our thoughts, we make the world.
- The Buddha

The ancestor of every action is a thought.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

A man is but the product of his thoughts -
what he thinks, he becomes.
- Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi

Your worst enemy cannot harm you as much as
your own unguarded thoughts.
- The Buddha

Further reading: Your Inner Thoughts

Life Is A Mirror

Choose Not To Stress
            

A New Year, and Time to Sow a New Crop

A world in upheaval is the breaking of the old sod -
the revealing of rich fresh soil ready for new planting.
Rejoice in the opportunity to sow a new crop.
Progress Does Not Come Gently.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Prepare for the unknown by studying how others in the past
have coped with the unforeseeable and the unpredictable.
- George S. Patton

Unexpected events can set you back or set you up.
It's all a matter of - perspective.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

This time, like all times, is a very good one,
if we but know what to do with it.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Progress Does Not Come Gently.
 - Jonathan Lockwood Huie

There is no certainty; there is only adventure.
- Roberto Assagioli

We will only understand the miracle of life fully when
we allow the unexpected to happen.
- Paulo Coelho

Further reading: Knowledge is Soon Changed 

Appreciate the Unexpected

Assumptions

Expectations/Demands

Welcome Newness
     

Trust in Yourself

 

Intuition will tell the thinking mind where to look next.
- Jonas Salk

Trust in yourself.
Your perceptions are often far more accurate
than you are willing to believe.
- Claudia Black

Whatever you do, you need courage.
Whatever course you decide upon,
there is always someone to tell you
that you are wrong.
There are always difficulties arising
that tempt you to believe your critics are right.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Trust your own inner guidance.
Have faith that your steps are
carrying you toward your dreams.
Keep your eyes on the heavens
and believe that your feet will carry you well.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Follow your dreams, believe in yourself and don't give up.
- Rachel Corrie

Further reading: The Symphony of Your Life

Confidence is Half of Victory

Uncharted Territory
      

Think Before You Frame a Question

 

A prudent question is one-half of wisdom.
- Francis Bacon

There are no right answers to wrong questions.
- Ursula K. Le Guin

To raise new questions, new possibilities,
to regard old problems from a new angle,
requires creative imagination.
- Albert Einstein

The True Insight is in the Choice of Questions.
When you keep getting the wrong answers,
try asking better questions.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
[For example, instead of asking "how can I win this battle," consider asking "how can I avoid this battle?"
Ask yourself "what assumptions have I baked into this question" before you ask it.]

A good question is never answered.
It is not a bolt to be tightened into place
but a seed to be planted and to bear more seed
toward the hope of greening the landscape of idea.
- John Ciardi

When we have arrived at the question,
the answer is already near.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Well, you ask a silly question, and you get a silly answer.
- Tom Lehrer

We thought that we had the answers,
it was the questions we had wrong.
- Bono

Today's affirmation: I question my questions.

Further reading:  Profound Questions

Many Answers

A Better Plan

What You See

Learn to Listen

Seek the Truth
      

Hypocrisy

Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye;
and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye.
- Matthew 7:5

The only vice that cannot be forgiven is hypocrisy.
- William Hazlitt

The louder he talked of his honor, the faster we counted our spoons.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

We are all hypocrites.
We cannot see ourselves or judge ourselves the way we see and judge others.
- José Emilio Pacheco

Judge not, that ye be not judged.
- Matthew 7:1

He that is without sin among you, let him cast the first stone at her.
- Jesus of Nazareth (John 8:7)

Further reading: The Essence of Jesus' Teaching

Grant That I May Radiate
      

 

Make an Effort to Leave the World a Better Place

 

The true measure of success in life is how many other lives you made better.
- Jeff Hoffman

To laugh often and much;
to win the respect of intelligent people
and the affection of children,
to leave the world a better place,
to know even one life has breathed easier
because you have lived,
this is to have succeeded.
- Bessie A. Stanley (commonly attributed to Ralph Waldo Emerson)

Almost nothing you worry about today
will matter in a hundred years.
Think carefully about what you can focus on today.
Choose tasks that will actually make a positive difference
to your great-grandchildren.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Life is no brief candle to me.
It is a sort of splendid torch
which I have got a hold of for the moment,
and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible
before handing it on to future generations.
- George Bernard Shaw

It is not what we get.
But who we become, what we contribute...
that gives meaning to our lives.
- Tony Robbins

Further reading: Serve Others

Pass the Torch

To Live, Not Merely To Exist

Recognize Our Abundance
     

Force Attracts Men of Low Morality

 

Money and success don’t change people;
they merely amplify what is already there.
- Will Smith

Nearly all men can stand adversity,
but if you want to test a man's character, give him power.
- attributed to Abraham Lincoln

People do not seem to realize that
their opinion of the world
is also a confession of character.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Force always attracts men of low morality.
- Albert Einstein

Watch your thoughts, for they become words.
Watch your words, for they become actions.
Watch your actions, for they become habits.
Watch your habits, for they become character.
Watch your character, for it becomes your destiny.
- Lao Tzu

Power is of two kinds. One is obtained by the fear of punishment
and the other by acts of love. Power based on love
is a thousand times more effective and permanent
then the one derived from fear of punishment.
- Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi

You can easily judge the character of others
by how they treat those who can
do nothing for them or to them.
- Malcolm S. Forbes

Be more concerned with your character than your reputation.
- John Wooden

Our character is what we do when we think no one is looking.
- H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

Further reading: Your Most Important Values

Who You Are

A Place for Honor

Do What You Know Is Right

Taking Action About Things That Matter
      

Appreciate Something Beautiful Today

Never lose an opportunity of seeing anything beautiful,
for beauty is God's handwriting.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Take time today to appreciate beauty -
natural beauty, art, people.
Slow down, breathe deeply, smile.
It's a beautiful world.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Forests, lakes, and rivers,
clouds and winds, stars and flowers,
stupendous glaciers and crystal snowflakes -
every form of animate or inanimate existence,
leaves its impress upon the soul of man.
- Orison Swett Marden

In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks.
- John Muir

All are but parts of one stupendous whole,
Whose body Nature is, and God the soul.
- Alexander Pope

Further reading: Healing in Nature

The Melody Within Your Soul

Tending the Garden of Our Lives

The Beat of the Universe
    

Always be Open to Change

 

A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Note that the problem isn't with "consistency," but with "foolish consistency."
What makes a habitual action "foolish?" Ask yourself whether it serves you, or whether you serve it.

Progress is impossible without change,
and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.
- George Bernard Shaw

Prejudice is a burden that confuses the past,
threatens the future and renders the present inaccessible.
- Maya Angelou

When what you are doing is frustrating you, STOP.
Pause to consider the true importance of the task.
Reflect on whether there is a better plan for reaching your goal.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Beginning Today, Make Fresh Choices

No Need to Conform

Our Habits

Your Whole Toolkit
      

Be an opener of doors

 

I celebrate myself, and sing myself.
- Walt Whitman

When you follow your bliss,
doors will open for you
that wouldn't have opened for anyone else.
- Joseph Campbell

Follow that will and that way
which experience confirms to be your own.
- Carl Jung

If you get to the point where someone is telling you
that you are not great or not good enough,
just follow your heart
and don't let anybody crush your dream.
- Patti LaBelle

Be an opener of doors for such as come after thee.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Further reading: Don't Settle for "Good Enough"

Choose to Follow Your Heart

Go Where There is No Path

Choosing Your Destination
    

Welcome the Unfamiliar

Unless you try to do something
beyond what you have already mastered,
you will never grow.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Move out of your comfort zone. You can only
grow if you are willing to feel awkward and
uncomfortable when you try something new.
- Brian Tracy

If you put yourself in a position where you have to
stretch outside your comfort zone,
then you are forced to expand your consciousness.
- Les Brown

To the degree we're not living our dreams,
our comfort zone has more control of us than we have over ourselves.
- Peter McWilliams 

A dream is your creative vision for your life in the future.
You must break out of your current comfort zone and
become comfortable with the unfamiliar and the unknown.
- Denis Waitley

Further reading: Take Charge of Your Life

Time to Move On

Finding Joy in Our Troubled Lives

Your Intuition is Your Guide
      

Have Higher Aspirations than "Fitting In"

 

Attempting to "fit in" is not a worthy objective.
There is no point in feeling sad or upset when your plans, your ideas,
or even your fundamental nature do not "fit in" with the majority view.
Be the courageous hero and stay committed to your greatest ideas and ideals,
however they are received by those around you.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Do not follow where the path may lead.
Go, instead, where there is no path and leave a trail.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

To avoid criticism, do nothing, say nothing, and be nothing.
- Elbert Hubbard

It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinions;
it is easy in solitude to live after your own;
but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd
keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Many people allow their need for other people's approval to control their lives.
They spend their lives worrying about what others think of them.
- Rick Warren

For those few who, sooner or later,
are lucky enough to break away from the pack,
the most intoxicating moment comes
when they cease being bodies in the command of others,
and find that they control their own time,
when they learn their own voice and authority.
- Theodore H. White [non-gendered paraphrase]

Further reading:  Be Yourself

Believe and Take Action

Think for Yourself

Appreciate Yourself

Don Miguel Ruiz: The Four Agreements - The Wisdom of the Ages in Four Sound-Bites
     

Overcome evil with good, falsehood with truth, and hatred with love

 

Never succumb to the notion that others are less important
based on their place of birth.
All of humanity are our brothers and sisters.

- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

All differences in this world are of degree, and not of kind,
because oneness is the secret of everything.

- Swami Vivekananda

The reason why the world lacks unity,
and lies broken and in heaps,
is because man is disunited with himself.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

This is the way of peace: Overcome evil with good,
falsehood with truth, and hatred with love.
- Peace Pilgrim

All wars are civil wars, because all men are brothers.
- Francois Fenelon

Compassion becomes real when we recognize our shared humanity.
- Pema Chodron

Few are the giants of the soul that actually feel
that the human race is their family circle.
- Freya Stark

Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.
- Winston Churchill

Drop the sword - for there is but one flesh to wound,
and it is the one flesh of all humankind.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: One Great Dewdrop

The Beat of the Universe

Unity with Spirit and All Creation

Feel Your Connection With the Infinite - a Meditation