β
Keep Going
Your hardest times often lead to the greatest moments of your life. Keep going. Tough situations build strong people in the end.
β
β
Roy T. Bennett (The Light in the Heart)
β
Never lose hope. Storms make people stronger and never last forever.
β
β
Roy T. Bennett (The Light in the Heart)
β
Do not fear failure but rather fear not trying.
β
β
Roy T. Bennett (The Light in the Heart)
β
When the going gets tough, put one foot in front of the other and just keep going. Donβt give up.
β
β
Roy T. Bennett (The Light in the Heart)
β
It doesnβt matter how many times you get knocked down. All that matters is you get up one more time than you were knocked down.
β
β
Roy T. Bennett
β
The one who falls and gets up is stronger than the one who never tried. Do not fear failure but rather fear not trying.
β
β
Roy T. Bennett (The Light in the Heart)
β
The harder you fall, the heavier your heart; the heavier your heart, the stronger you climb; the stronger you climb, the higher your pedestal.
β
β
Criss Jami (Killosophy)
β
You may be the only person left who believes in you, but it's enough. It takes just one star to pierce a universe of darkness. Never give up.
β
β
Richelle E. Goodrich (Smile Anyway: Quotes, Verse, and Grumblings for Every Day of the Year)
β
If you're waiting until you feel talented enough to make it, you'll never make it.
β
β
Criss Jami (Healology)
β
Do not sit still; start moving now. In the beginning, you may not go in the direction you want, but as long as you are moving, you are creating alternatives and possibilities.
β
β
Rodolfo Costa (Advice My Parents Gave Me: and Other Lessons I Learned from My Mistakes)
β
Do it badly; do it slowly; do it fearfully; do it any way you have to, but do it.
β
β
Steve Chandler (Reinventing Yourself: How to Become the Person You've Always Wanted to Be)
β
When I face the desolate impossibility of writing five hundred pages, a sick sense of failure falls on me, and I know I can never do it. Then gradually, I write one page and then another. One day's work is all I can permit myself to contemplate.
β
β
John Steinbeck (Travels with Charley: In Search of America)
β
How to win in life:
1 work hard
2 complain less
3 listen more
4 try, learn, grow
5 don't let people tell you it cant be done
6 make no excuses
β
β
Germany Kent
β
Your comfort zone is a place where you keep yourself in a self-illusion and nothing can grow there but your potentiality can grow only when you can think and grow out of that zone.
β
β
Rashedur Ryan Rahman
β
Persistence is to the character of man as carbon is to steel.
β
β
Napoleon Hill
β
We love being mentally strong, but we hate situations that allow us to put our mental strength to good use.
β
β
Mokokoma Mokhonoana
β
You can't
stop dreaming
just because
the night never
seems to
end.
β
β
Curtis Tyrone Jones
β
It may take little time to get where you want to be, but if you pause and think for a moment, you will notice that you are no longer where you were. Do not stopβkeep going.
β
β
Rodolfo Costa (Advice My Parents Gave Me: and Other Lessons I Learned from My Mistakes)
β
If the fire in your heart is strong enough, it will burn away any obstacles that come your way.
β
β
Suzy Kassem (Rise Up and Salute the Sun: The Writings of Suzy Kassem)
β
You opinions about me does not change who I am.
β
β
Lailah Gifty Akita (Think Great: Be Great! (Beautiful Quotes, #1))
β
Discover a purpose that gives you passion. Develop a plan that makes you persistent. Design a preparation and motivates you to optimize your potentials. Do it because you love it!
β
β
Israelmore Ayivor (Dream big!: See your bigger picture!)
β
Every flower blooms at its own pace.
β
β
Suzy Kassem (Rise Up and Salute the Sun: The Writings of Suzy Kassem)
β
Wise is the one who flavors the future with some salt from the past. Becoming dust is no threat to the phoenix born from the ash.
β
β
Curtis Tyrone Jones
β
When you forget about the how, go back to the why.
β
β
Charlotte Eriksson
β
When people try to bury you, remind yourself you are a seed.
β
β
Matshona Dhliwayo
β
When all seems to be against you, remember, a ship sometimes has to sail against the current, not with it.
β
β
Matshona Dhliwayo
β
... and you might say βno, you will never do that, thatβs not you, not who I know, not who I thought you wereβ
and I will say
βwatch meβ
for I never did this to fit in
or stand out
but to live.
β
β
Charlotte Eriksson
β
the brilliant book Emotional Intelligence, Daniel Goleman describes seven key abilities most beneficial for human beings: the ability to motivate ourselves, to persist against frustration, to delay gratification, to regulate moods, to hope, to empathize, and to control impulse. Many of those who commit violence never learned these skills. If you know a young person who lacks them all, thatβs an important pre-incident indicator, and he needs help.
β
β
Gavin de Becker (The Gift of Fear: Survival Signals That Protect Us from Violence)
β
Hit the reset button. Whatever happened yesterday, forget about it. Get a new perspective. Today is a new day. Fresh start, begins now.
β
β
Germany Kent
β
As long as thereβs breath in You - PERSIST!
β
β
Bernard Kelvin Clive (52 Seconds: Simplified Motivation - Words to Inspire)
β
Be like seeds; do not see dirt thrown at you as your enemy, but as ground to grow.
β
β
Matshona Dhliwayo
β
Patience, persistence and perspiration make an unbeatable combination for success.
β
β
Napoleon Hill
β
Common man's patience will bring him more happiness than common man's power.
β
β
Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
β
Your VISION and your self-willingness is the MOST powerful elements to conquer your goal
β
β
Rashedur Ryan Rahman
β
The victory over our inner self is a daily struggle. Be strong and do not give up.
β
β
Lailah Gifty Akita (Pearls of Wisdom: Great mind)
β
If beautiful lilies bloom in ugly waters, you too can blossom in ugly situations.
β
β
Matshona Dhliwayo
β
Stars do not hide from darkness. Roses do not hide from thorns. Diamonds do not hide from pressure.
β
β
Matshona Dhliwayo
β
Talent isn't enough. You need motivation-and persistence, too: what Steinbeck called a blend of faith and arrogance. When you're young, plain old poverty can be enough, along with an insatiable hunger for recognition. You have to have that feeling of "I'll show them." If you don't have it, don't become a writer
β
β
Leon Uris
β
When the world told the caterpillar its life was over, the butterfly objected, βMy life has just begun.
β
β
Matshona Dhliwayo
β
It is never easy to endure pain nor uncomfortable situation. It is seems easy to quit to avoid the pain.If you quit you will suffer later. It is far better to endure the pain now and enjoy later. Life is all about endurance.
β
β
Lailah Gifty Akita
β
Ambition is a path, not a destination, and it is essentially the same path for everybody. No matter what the goal is, the path leads through Pilgrimβs Progress regions of motivation, hard work, persistence, stubbornness, and resilience under disappointment. Unconsidered, merely indulged, ambition becomes a vice; it can turn an man into a machine that knows nothing but how to run. Considered, it can be something else β pathway to the stars, maybe. I suspect that what makes hedonists so angry when they think about overachievers is that the overachievers, without benefit of drugs or orgies, have more fun.
β
β
Wallace Stegner (Crossing to Safety)
β
My priority is not about grades. I seek yearn for knowledge, skills and wisdom.
β
β
Lailah Gifty Akita (Pearls of Wisdom: Great mind)
β
In our culture we tend to equate thinking and intellectual powers with success and achievement. In many ways, however, it is an emotional quality that separates those who master a field from the many who simply work at a job. Our levels of desire, patience, persistence, and confidence end up playing a much larger role in success than sheer reasoning powers. Feeling motivated and energized, we can overcome almost anything. Feeling bored and restless, our minds shut off and we become increasingly passive.
β
β
Robert Greene (Mastery (The Modern Machiavellian Robert Greene Book 1))
β
Persistence and passion will make you invincible.
β
β
Christian Baloga
β
We are surrounded by adversity but we shall triumph because we have a greater spirit
β
β
Lailah Gifty Akita (Pearls of Wisdom: Great mind)
β
Everyone at some point in life have faced rejection and failure, it is part of the process to self realisation.
β
β
Lailah Gifty Akita (Pearls of Wisdom: Great mind)
β
Persevere like a seed; even when people try to bury you, flourish.
β
β
Matshona Dhliwayo
β
If you adjust first time, compromise second time, failure is what you will get third time.
β
β
Amit Kalantri
β
Each life is formed by its unique image, an image that is the essence of that life and calls it to a destiny. As the force of fate, this image acts as a personal daimon, an accompanying guide who remembers your calling.
The daimon motivates. It protects. It invents and persists with stubborn fidelity. It resists compromising reasonableness and often forces deviance and oddity upon its keeper, especially when neglected or opposed. It offers comfort and can pull you into its shell, but it cannot abide innocence. It can make the body ill. It is out of step with time, finding all sorts of faults, gaps, and knots in the flow of life - and it prefers them. It has affinities with myth, since it is itself a mythical being and thinks in mythical patterns.
It has much to do with feelings of uniqueness, of grandeur and with the restlessness of the heart, its impatience, its dissatisfaction, its yearning. It needs its share of beauty. It wants to be seen, witnessed, accorded recognition, particularly by the person who is its caretaker. Metaphoric images are its first unlearned language, which provides the poetic basis of mind, making possible communication between all people and all things by means of metaphors
β
β
James Hillman
β
Edison was by far the most successful and, probably, the last exponent of the purely empirical method of investigation. Everything he achieved was the result of persistent trials and experiments often performed at random but always attesting extraordinary vigor and resource. Starting from a few known elements, he would make their combinations and permutations, tabulate them and run through the whole list, completing test after test with incredible rapidity until he obtained a clue. His mind was dominated by one idea, to leave no stone unturned, to exhaust every possibility.
β
β
Nikola Tesla
β
You may encounter many disappointments. Be strong. Tell yourself, βI am good enough, I will try again.
β
β
Lailah Gifty Akita (Pearls of Wisdom: Great mind)
β
A dove struggling in a storm grows stronger than an eagle soaring in sunshine.
β
β
Matshona Dhliwayo
β
Be like the sun; never let the opinions of those who hate you dull your shine.
β
β
Matshona Dhliwayo
β
A butterfly is a caterpillar who never gave up on his dream to fly.
β
β
Matshona Dhliwayo
β
Countless possibilities exist in any situation. You must maintain a positive outlook to see the miraculous possibilities.
β
β
Lailah Gifty Akita (Think Great: Be Great! (Beautiful Quotes, #1))
β
When all help is stopped, when your loved ones started doubting your competence, when failure seems almost confirmed, but no matter what, if you make one more attempt, that final step will fetch you the victory.
β
β
Amit Kalantri
β
There is nothing in this world that you cannot do. Every goal is achievable. You just need to focus on your objectives, be persistent in your efforts and work hard to make it happen. There can be no hurdle uncrossable, no obstacle invincible and no stumbling block insurmountable.
β
β
Roopleen
β
Nature is a constant reminder of the beauty of consistence, the utility of patience and persistence, the vanity of arrogance, and the necessity of impermanence.
β
β
Mokokoma Mokhonoana
β
Perseverance, endurance and patience are the three greatest survival skills.
β
β
Lailah Gifty Akita (Pearls of Wisdom: Great mind)
β
You can use the stumbling blocks to build your success.
β
β
Lailah Gifty Akita (Think Great: Be Great! (Beautiful Quotes, #1))
β
Autumn is a momentum of the natures golden beautyβ¦, so the same itβs time to find your momentum of life
β
β
Rashedur Ryan Rahman
β
Mistakes help to sharpen your next steps. They donβt prove that you shouldnβt try again.
β
β
Gina Greenlee (Postcards and Pearls: Life Lessons from Solo Moments on the Road)
β
A step towards what you fear is a mile towards mastering it.
β
β
Matshona Dhliwayo
β
If you are going through hell, keep walking until you reach heaven.
β
β
Matshona Dhliwayo
β
The storm only comes to teach you how to skillfully sail your ship.
β
β
Matshona Dhliwayo
β
In life, the question is not if you will have problems, but how you are going to deal with your problems. If the possibility of failure were erased, what would you attempt to achieve?
The essence of man is imperfection. Know that you're going to make mistakes. The fellow who never makes a mistake takes his orders from one who does. Wake up and realize this: Failure is simply a price we pay to achieve success.
Achievers are given multiple reasons to believe they are failures. But in spite of that, they persevere. The average for entrepreneurs is 3.8 failures before they finally make it in business.
When achievers fail, they see it as a momentary event, not a lifelong epidemic.
Procrastination is too high a price to pay for fear of failure. To conquer fear, you have to feel the fear and take action anyway. Forget motivation. Just do it. Act your way into feeling, not wait for positive emotions to carry you forward.
Recognize that you will spend much of your life making mistakes. If you can take action and keep making mistakes, you gain experience.
Life is playing a poor hand well. The greatest battle you wage against failure occurs on the inside, not the outside.
Why worry about things you can't control when you can keep yourself busy controlling the things that depend on you?
Handicaps can only disable us if we let them. If you are continually experiencing trouble or facing obstacles, then you should check to make sure that you are not the problem.
Be more concerned with what you can give rather than what you can get because giving truly is the highest level of living.
Embrace adversity and make failure a regular part of your life. If you're not failing, you're probably not really moving forward.
Everything in life brings risk. It's true that you risk failure if you try something bold because you might miss it. But you also risk failure if you stand still and don't try anything new.
The less you venture out, the greater your risk of failure. Ironically the more you risk failure β and actually fail β the greater your chances of success.
If you are succeeding in everything you do, then you're probably not pushing yourself hard enough. And that means you're not taking enough risks. You risk because you have something of value you want to achieve.
The more you do, the more you fail. The more you fail, the more you learn. The more you learn, the better you get.
Determining what went wrong in a situation has value. But taking that analysis another step and figuring out how to use it to your benefit is the real difference maker when it comes to failing forward. Don't let your learning lead to knowledge; let your learning lead to action.
The last time you failed, did you stop trying because you failed, or did you fail because you stopped trying?
Commitment makes you capable of failing forward until you reach your goals. Cutting corners is really a sign of impatience and poor self-discipline.
Successful people have learned to do what does not come naturally. Nothing worth achieving comes easily. The only way to fail forward and achieve your dreams is to cultivate tenacity and persistence.
Never say die. Never be satisfied. Be stubborn. Be persistent. Integrity is a must. Anything worth having is worth striving for with all your might.
If we look long enough for what we want in life we are almost sure to find it. Success is in the journey, the continual process. And no matter how hard you work, you will not create the perfect plan or execute it without error. You will never get to the point that you no longer make mistakes, that you no longer fail.
The next time you find yourself envying what successful people have achieved, recognize that they have probably gone through many negative experiences that you cannot see on the surface.
Fail early, fail often, but always fail forward.
β
β
John C. Maxwell (Failing Forward)
β
In fact, βtalentβ is as common as mud; whatβs rare is the motivation to sit down and actually do something with oneβs talent, the discipline to do it regularly, and the persistence to stick with it until itβs finished.
β
β
Patricia C. Wrede
β
Your traditional EDUCATION is not going to CHANGE your life but the life you are experiencing that can change you. Choose a POSITIVE life STYLE with positive ATTITUDE which could bring you a life with HAPPINESS and WISDOM
β
β
Rashedur Ryan Rahman
β
For that again, is what all manner of religion essentially is: childish dependency.
If something is irrational, that means it won't work. It's usually unrealistic.
People don't just get upset. They contribute to their upsetness.
People have motives and thoughts of which they are unaware.
Rational beliefs bring us closer to getting good results in the real world.
Self-esteem is the greatest sickness known to man or woman because it's conditional.
The art of love is largely the art of persistence.
β
β
Albert Ellis
β
The uglier the caterpillar the lovelier the butterfly.
β
β
Matshona Dhliwayo
β
If an ant carries an object a hundred times its weight, you can carry burdens many times your size.
β
β
Matshona Dhliwayo
β
You have to conquer every obstacle, before you can reach the top of the mountain.
β
β
Lailah Gifty Akita (Pearls of Wisdom: Great mind)
β
When push to the wall. You have to develop strategies to scale over the wall.
β
β
Lailah Gifty Akita (On Eagles Wings:Rise)
β
My priority is not about grades. I yearn for knowledge, skills and wisdom.
β
β
Lailah Gifty Akita (Pearls of Wisdom: Great mind)
β
How you think and create your inner world that you gonna become in your outer world. Your inner believe manifest you in the outside
β
β
Rashedur Ryan Rahman
β
Holding on, holding out and holding fast when the going is tough constitutes a winning mindset.
β
β
Ogwo David Emenike (You Are a Star)
β
Perfume is the scent that pours out of a flower's soul when crushed.
β
β
Matshona Dhliwayo
β
The larger the bricks your enemies throw at you the larger the palace you are going to build.
β
β
Matshona Dhliwayo
β
Each time
we bow to the
feet of anything
we find riveting,
the mind rises to
be surprised with
new crowning
diamonds of
creativity.
β
β
Curtis Tyrone Jones
β
Success is not the result of making one good choice, of taking one step. Real success requires step, after step, after step, after step. It requires choice after choice, it demands life-long education and passion and commitment and persistence and hunger and patience.
β
β
Jesmyn Ward (Navigate Your Stars)
β
Our levels of desire, patience, persistence, and confidence end up playing a much larger role in success than sheer reasoning powers. Feeling motivated and energized, we can overcome almost anything. Feeling bored and restless, our minds shut
β
β
Robert Greene (Mastery)
β
First. I know that I have the ability to achieve the object of my Definite Purpose in life, therefore, I demand of myself persistent, continuous action toward its attainment, and I here and now promise to render such action.
β
β
Napoleon Hill (Think and Grow Rich (Start Motivational Books))
β
Be creative enough to dream, brave enough to try, persistent enough to succeed, and humble enough to thank those who helped you along the way.
β
β
Elizabeth Parker (Bark Out Loud! Motivational Quotes Inspired by Dogs)
β
Some teach you
what can't be taught,
by turning their back
on you & helping
you get internally
closer to everything
you externally
sought.
β
β
Curtis Tyrone Jones
β
When we have graciously endured every adversity, we become like a shining diamond.
β
β
Lailah Gifty Akita (Think Great: Be Great! (Beautiful Quotes, #1))
β
What happens to us are tiny matters compare to us response to any situation.
β
β
Lailah Gifty Akita (Pearls of Wisdom: Great mind)
β
If you never try, you'll never know. You are what you manifest.
β
β
Germany Kent
β
The obstacles were intended to be a distraction from the goal.
You must keep a persistence focus to realise the goal.
β
β
Lailah Gifty Akita (Pearls of Wisdom: Great mind)
β
If you are not EXCITED enough at your present life its mean your future is not EXITING. Excitement will give you ENTHUSIASM and enthusiasm will give you a positive energetic LIFE STYLE which could give you a successful exiting lifeβ¦
β
β
Rashedur Ryan Rahman
β
channeling emotions toward a productive end is a master aptitude. Whether it be in controlling impulse and putting off gratification, regulating our moods so they facilitate rather than impede thinking, motivating ourselves to persist and try, try again in the face of setbacks, or finding ways to enter flow and so perform more effectivelyβall bespeak the power of emotion to guide effective effort.
β
β
Daniel Goleman (Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ)
β
Ambition is a path, not a destination, and it is essentially the same path for everybody. No matter what the goal is, the path leads through Pilgrimβs Progress regions of motivation, hard work, persistence, stubbornness, and resilience under disappointment. Unconsidered, merely indulged, ambition becomes a vice; it can turn a man into a machine that knows nothing but how to run. Considered, it can be something elseβpathway to the stars, maybe.
β
β
Wallace Stegner (Crossing to Safety (Modern Library Classics))
β
Ambition is a path, not a destination, and it is essentially the same path for everybody. No matter what the goal is, the path leads through Pilgrim's Progress regions of motivation, hard work, persistence, stubbornness, and resilience under disappointment. Unconsidered, merely indulged, ambition becomes a vice; it can turn a man into a machine that knows nothing but how to run. Considered, it can be something else - pathway to the stars, maybe.
β
β
Wallace Stegner (Crossing to Safety)
β
Iβm often asked how I take the criticism directed my way. I have three answers: First, if you choose to be in public life, remember Eleanor Rooseveltβs advice and grow skin as thick as a rhinoceros. Second, learn to take criticism seriously but not personally. Your critics can actually teach you lessons your friends canβt or wonβt. I try to sort out the motivation for criticism, whether partisan, ideological, commercial, or sexist, analyze it to see what I might learn from it, and discard the rest. Third, there is a persistent double standard applied to women in politics - regarding clothes, body types, and of course hairstyles - that you canβt let derail you. Smile and keep going.
β
β
Hillary Rodham Clinton (Hard Choices)
β
What these motivational teachers are saying (as Iβve realized after a long time) is that if something is really important to you, you will do everything necessary to ensure that it comes into your life. This teaching, if applied within the current framework, means that youβll work on your inner state, no matter what it takes. Youβll focus exclusively on how you feel on the inside to the exclusion of everything else. Youβll not allow yourself to be bogged down by fear or negative thoughts. Youβll be persistent in your practice and overcoming your past conditioning. Youβll be determined. But notice that all our determination is channeled and focused on letting go of negative and fear thoughts. They are not focused upon outer directed actions to get what we want.
β
β
Richard Dotts (Come and Sit with Me: How to Desire Nothing and Manifest Everything)
β
But in dozens and dozens of studies, Latham and Locke found that setting goals increased performance and productivity 11 to 25 percent.5 Thatβs quite a boost. If an eight-hour day is our baseline, thatβs like getting two extra hours of work simply by building a mental frame (aka a goal) around the activity. But not every goal is the same. βWe found that if you want the largest increase in motivation and productivity,β says Latham, βthen big goals lead to the best outcomes. Big goals significantly outperform small goals, medium-sized goals, and vague goals. It comes down to attention and persistenceβwhich are two of the most important factors in determining performance. Big goals help focus attention, and they make us more persistent. The result is weβre much more effective when we work, and much more willing to get up and try again when we fail.
β
β
Peter H. Diamandis (Bold: How to Go Big, Create Wealth and Impact the World (Exponential Technology Series))
β
We shouldn't let our envy of distinguished masters of the arts distract us from the wonder of how each of us gets new ideas. Perhaps we hold on to our superstitions about creativity in order to make our own deficiencies seem more excusable. For when we tell ourselves that masterful abilities are simply unexplainable, we're also comforting ourselves by saying that those superheroes come endowed with all the qualities we don't possess. Our failures are therefore no fault of our own, nor are those heroes' virtues to their credit, either. If it isn't learned, it isn't earned.
When we actually meet the heroes whom our culture views as great, we don't find any singular propensitiesββonly combinations of ingredients quite common in themselves. Most of these heroes are intensely motivated, but so are many other people. They're usually very proficient in some field--but in itself we simply call this craftmanship or expertise. They often have enough self-confidence to stand up to the scorn of peers--but in itself, we might just call that stubbornness. They surely think of things in some novel ways, but so does everyone from time to time. And as for what we call "intelligence", my view is that each person who can speak coherently already has the better part of what our heroes have. Then what makes genius appear to stand apart, if we each have most of what it takes?
I suspect that genius needs one thing more: in order to accumulate outstanding qualities, one needs unusually effective ways to learn. It's not enough to learn a lot; one also has to manage what one learns. Those masters have, beneath the surface of their mastery, some special knacks of "higher-order" expertise, which help them organize and apply the things they learn. It is those hidden tricks of mental management that produce the systems that create those works of genius. Why do certain people learn so many more and better skills? These all-important differences could begin with early accidents. One child works out clever ways to arrange some blocks in rows and stacks; a second child plays at rearranging how it thinks. Everyone can praise the first child's castles and towers, but no one can see what the second child has done, and one may even get the false impression of a lack of industry. But if the second child persists in seeking better ways to learn, this can lead to silent growth in which some better ways to learn may lead to better ways to learn to learn. Then, later, we'll observe an awesome, qualitative change, with no apparent cause--and give to it some empty name like talent, aptitude, or gift.
β
β
Marvin Minsky (The Society of Mind)
β
Persistence trumps talent.
What's the most powerful force in the universe? Compound interest. It builds on itself. Over time, a small amount of money becomes a large amount of money. Persistence is similar. A little bit improves performance, which encourages greater persistence which improves persistence even more. And on and on it goes.
Lack of persistence works the same way -- only in the opposite direction.
Of course talent is important, but the world is lit erred with talented people who didn't persist, who didn't put in the hours, who gave up too early, who thought they could ride on talent alone. Meanwhile, people who might have less talent pass them by.
That's why intrinsic motivation is so important. Doing things not the get an external reward like money or a promotion, but because you simple like doing it. The more intrinsic motivation you have , the more likely you are to persist. The more you persist, the more likely you are to succeed.
β
β
Daniel H. Pink (The Adventures of Johnny Bunko: The Last Career Guide You'll Ever Need)
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I felt that the metal of my spirit, like a bar of iron that is softened and bent by a persistent flame, was being gradually softened and bent by the troubles that oppressed it. In spite of myself, I was conscious of a feeling of envy for those who did not suffer from such troubles, for the wealthy and the privileged; and this envy, I observed, was accompaniedβstill against my willβby a feeling of bitterness towards them, which, in turn, did not limit its aim to particular persons or situations, but, as if by an uncontrollable bias, tended to assume the general, abstract character of a whole conception of life. In fact, during those difficult days, I came very gradually to feel that my irritation and my intolerance of poverty were turning into a revolt against injustice, and not only against the injustice which struck at me personally but the injustice from which so many others like me suffered. I was quite aware of this almost imperceptible transformation of my subjective resentments into objective reflections and states of mind, owing to the bent of my thoughts which led always and irresistibly in the same direction: owing also to my conversation, which, without my intending it, alway harped upon the same subject. I also noticed in myself a growing sympathy for those political parties which proclaimed their struggle against the evils and infamies of the society to which, in the end I had attributed the troubles that beset meβa society which, as I thought, in reference to myself, allowed its best sons to languish and protected its worst ones. Usually, and in the simpler, less cultivated people, this process occurs without their knowing it, in the dark depths of consciousness where, by a kind of mysterious alchemy, egoism is transmuted into altruism, hatred into love, fear into courage; but to me, accustomed as I was to observing and studying myself, the whole thing was clear and visible, as though I were watching it happen in someone else; and yet I was aware the whole time that I was being swayed by material subjective factors, that I was transforming purely personal motives into universal reasons.
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Alberto Moravia (Contempt)
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Let a man radically alter his thoughts, and he will be astonished at the rapid transformation it will effect in the material conditions of his life. Men imagine that thought can be kept secret, but it cannot; it rapidly crystallizes into habit, and habit solidifies into circumstance. Bestial thoughts crystallize into habits of drunkenness and sensuality, which solidify into circumstances of destitution and disease: impure thoughts of every kind crystallize into enervating and confusing habits, which solidify into distracting and adverse circumstances: thoughts of fear, doubt, and indecision crystallize into weak, unmanly, and irresolute habits, which solidify into circumstances of failure, indigence, and slavish dependence: lazy thoughts crystallize into habits of uncleanliness and dishonesty, which solidify into circumstances of foulness and beggary: hateful and condemnatory thoughts crystallize into habits of accusation and violence, which solidify into circumstances of injury and persecution: selfish thoughts of all kinds crystallize into habits of self-seeking, which solidify into circumstances more or less distressing. On the other hand, beautiful thoughts of all kinds crystallize into habits of grace and kindliness, which solidify into genial and sunny circumstances: pure thoughts crystallize into habits of temperance and self-control, which solidify into circumstances of repose and peace: thoughts of courage, self-reliance, and decision crystallize into manly habits, which solidify into circumstances of success, plenty, and freedom: energetic thoughts crystallize into habits of cleanliness and industry, which solidify into circumstances of pleasantness: gentle and forgiving thoughts crystallize into habits of gentleness, which solidify into protective and preservative circumstances: loving and unselfish thoughts crystallize into habits of self-forgetfulness for others, which solidify into circumstances of sure and abiding prosperity and true riches.
A particular train of thought persisted in, be it good or bad, cannot fail to produce its results on the character and circumstances. A man cannot directly choose his circumstances, but he can choose his thoughts, and so indirectly, yet surely, shape his circumstances.
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James Allen (As a Man Thinketh)
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Self-Confidence Formula First. I know that I have the ability to achieve the object of my Definite Purpose in life, therefore, I demand of myself persistent, continuous action toward its attainment, and I here and now promise to render such action. Second. I realize the dominating thoughts of my mind will eventually reproduce themselves in outward, physical action, and gradually transform themselves into physical reality, therefore, I will concentrate my thoughts for thirty minutes daily, upon the task of thinking of the person I intend to become, thereby creating in my mind a clear mental picture of that person. Third. I know through the principle of auto-suggestion, any desire that I persistently hold in my mind will eventually seek expression through some practical means of attaining the object back of it, therefore, I will devote ten minutes daily to demanding of myself the development of self-confidence. Fourth. I have clearly written down a description of my definite chief aim in life, and I will never stop trying, until I shall have developed sufficient self-confidence for its attainment. Fifth. I fully realize that no wealth or position can long endure, unless built upon truth and justice, therefore, I will engage in no transaction which does not benefit all whom it affects. I will succeed by attracting to myself the forces I wish to use, and the cooperation of other people. I will induce others to serve me, because of my willingness to serve others. I will eliminate hatred, envy, jealousy, selfishness, and cynicism, by developing love for all humanity, because I know that a negative attitude toward others can never bring me success. I will cause others to believe in me, because I will believe in them, and in myself. I will sign my name to this formula, commit it to memory, and repeat it aloud once a day, with full faith that it will gradually influence my thoughts and actions so that I will become a self-reliant, and successful person.
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Napoleon Hill (Think and Grow Rich (Start Motivational Books))