Thinking Of You Inspirational Quotes

We've searched our database for all the quotes and captions related to Thinking Of You Inspirational. Here they are! All 100 of them:

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What you're supposed to do when you don't like a thing is change it. If you can't change it, change the way you think about it. Don't complain.
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Maya Angelou (Wouldn't Take Nothing for My Journey Now)
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Instead of worrying about what you cannot control, shift your energy to what you can create.
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Roy T. Bennett (The Light in the Heart)
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Accept yourself, love yourself, and keep moving forward. If you want to fly, you have to give up what weighs you down.
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Roy T. Bennett (The Light in the Heart)
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Imagining the future is a kind of nostalgia. (...) You spend your whole life stuck in the labyrinth, thinking about how you'll escape it one day, and how awesome it will be, and imagining that future keeps you going, but you never do it. You just use the future to escape the present.
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John Green (Looking for Alaska)
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Believe in yourself. You are braver than you think, more talented than you know, and capable of more than you imagine.
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Roy T. Bennett (The Light in the Heart)
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It isn't what you have or who you are or where you are or what you are doing that makes you happy or unhappy. It is what you think about it.
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Dale Carnegie (How to Win Friends and Influence People)
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It’s only after you’ve stepped outside your comfort zone that you begin to change, grow, and transform.
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Roy T. Bennett
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You cannot control the behavior of others, but you can always choose how you respond to it.
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Roy T. Bennett (The Light in the Heart)
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Success is not how high you have climbed, but how you make a positive difference to the world.
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Roy T. Bennett (The Light in the Heart)
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Be grateful for what you already have while you pursue your goals. If you aren’t grateful for what you already have, what makes you think you would be happy with more.
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Roy T. Bennett (The Light in the Heart)
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Believe in Your Heart Believe in your heart that you're meant to live a life full of passion, purpose, magic and miracles.
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Roy T. Bennett (The Light in the Heart)
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The thing about growing up with Fred and George," said Ginny thoughtfully, "is that you sort of start thinking anything's possible if you've got enough nerve.
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J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Harry Potter, #6))
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Be brave to stand for what you believe in even if you stand alone.
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Roy T. Bennett (The Light in the Heart)
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Even if you cannot change all the people around you, you can change the people you choose to be around. Life is too short to waste your time on people who don’t respect, appreciate, and value you. Spend your life with people who make you smile, laugh, and feel loved.
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Roy T. Bennett (The Light in the Heart)
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He’s not perfect. You aren’t either, and the two of you will never be perfect. But if he can make you laugh at least once, causes you to think twice, and if he admits to being human and making mistakes, hold onto him and give him the most you can. He isn’t going to quote poetry, he’s not thinking about you every moment, but he will give you a part of him that he knows you could break. Don’t hurt him, don’t change him, and don’t expect for more than he can give. Don’t analyze. Smile when he makes you happy, yell when he makes you mad, and miss him when he’s not there. Love hard when there is love to be had. Because perfect guys don’t exist, but there’s always one guy that is perfect for you.
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Bob Marley
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If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito.
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Dalai Lama XIV
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To shine your brightest light is to be who you truly are.
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Roy T. Bennett
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Sometimes you have to lose all you have to find out who you truly are.
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Roy T. Bennett (The Light in the Heart)
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Do not let the memories of your past limit the potential of your future. There are no limits to what you can achieve on your journey through life, except in your mind.
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Roy T. Bennett (The Light in the Heart)
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Let the improvement of yourself keep you so busy that you have no time to criticize others.
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Roy T. Bennett (The Light in the Heart)
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You are not rich until you have a rich heart.
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Roy T. Bennett (The Light in the Heart)
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Believe in your infinite potential. Your only limitations are those you set upon yourself.
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Roy T. Bennett (The Light in the Heart)
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It’s your life; you don’t need someone’s permission to live the life you want. Be brave to live from your heart.
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Roy T. Bennett (The Light in the Heart)
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The more you feed your mind with positive thoughts, the more you can attract great things into your life.
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Roy T. Bennett (The Light in the Heart)
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When you arise in the morning think of what a privilege it is to be alive, to think, to enjoy, to love ...
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Marcus Aurelius (Meditations)
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Be Brave and Take Risks: You need to have faith in yourself. Be brave and take risks. You don't have to have it all figured out to move forward.
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Roy T. Bennett (The Light in the Heart)
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Hearts are breakable," Isabelle said. "And I think even when you heal, you're never what you were before".
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Cassandra Clare (City of Fallen Angels (The Mortal Instruments, #4))
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Do what you love, love what you do, and with all your heart give yourself to it.
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Roy T. Bennett (The Light in the Heart)
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When you do the right thing, you get the feeling of peace and serenity associated with it. Do it again and again.
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Roy T. Bennett
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Once you realize you deserve a bright future, letting go of your dark past is the best choice you will ever make.
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Roy T. Bennett (The Light in the Heart)
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Surround Yourself with People Who Believe in Your Dreams: Surround yourself with people who believe in your dreams, encourage your ideas, support your ambitions, and bring out the best in you.
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Roy T. Bennett (The Light in the Heart)
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Don't let the expectations and opinions of other people affect your decisions. It's your life, not theirs. Do what matters most to you; do what makes you feel alive and happy. Don't let the expectations and ideas of others limit who you are. If you let others tell you who you are, you are living their reality β€” not yours. There is more to life than pleasing people. There is much more to life than following others' prescribed path. There is so much more to life than what you experience right now. You need to decide who you are for yourself. Become a whole being. Adventure.
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Roy T. Bennett
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If you believe very strongly in something, stand up and fight for it.
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Roy T. Bennett (The Light in the Heart)
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Well, now If little by little you stop loving me I shall stop loving you Little by little If suddenly you forget me Do not look for me For I shall already have forgotten you If you think it long and mad the wind of banners that passes through my life And you decide to leave me at the shore of the heart where I have roots Remember That on that day, at that hour, I shall lift my arms And my roots will set off to seek another land
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Pablo Neruda (Selected Poems)
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She seems so cool, so focused, so quiet, yet her eyes remain fixed upon the horizon. You think you know all there is to know about her immediately upon meeting her, but everything you think you know is wrong. Passion flows through her like a river of blood. She only looked away for a moment, and the mask slipped, and you fell. All your tomorrows start here.
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Neil Gaiman (Fragile Things: Short Fictions and Wonders)
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Promise Yourself To be so strong that nothing can disturb your peace of mind. To talk health, happiness, and prosperity to every person you meet. To make all your friends feel that there is something in them To look at the sunny side of everything and make your optimism come true. To think only the best, to work only for the best, and to expect only the best. To be just as enthusiastic about the success of others as you are about your own. To forget the mistakes of the past and press on to the greater achievements of the future. To wear a cheerful countenance at all times and give every living creature you meet a smile. To give so much time to the improvement of yourself that you have no time to criticize others. To be too large for worry, too noble for anger, too strong for fear, and too happy to permit the presence of trouble. To think well of yourself and to proclaim this fact to the world, not in loud words but great deeds. To live in faith that the whole world is on your side so long as you are true to the best that is in you.
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Christian D. Larson (Your Forces and How to Use Them)
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Always remember people who have helped you along the way, and don’t forget to lift someone up.
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Roy T. Bennett (The Light in the Heart)
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Be empty of worrying. Think of who created thought! Why do you stay in prison When the door is so wide open?
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Rumi (Jalal ad-Din Muhammad ar-Rumi) (The Essential Rumi (Mystical Classics of the World))
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Maturity is when you stop complaining and making excuses, and start making changes.
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Roy T. Bennett (The Light in the Heart)
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Smile more. Smiling can make you and others happy.
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Roy T. Bennett (The Light in the Heart)
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What's done is done. What's gone is gone. One of life's lessons is always moving on. It’s okay to look back to see how far you’ve come but keep moving forward.
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Roy T. Bennett (The Light in the Heart)
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It's never too late to change your life for the better. You don't have to take huge steps to change your life. Making even the smallest changes to your daily routine can make a big difference to your life.
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Roy T. Bennett (The Light in the Heart)
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Life is too short to waste any amount of time on wondering what other people think about you. In the first place, if they had better things going on in their lives, they wouldn't have the time to sit around and talk about you. What's important to me is not others' opinions of me, but what's important to me is my opinion of myself.
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C. JoyBell C.
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Count your blessings, not your problems. Count your own blessings, not someone else's. Remember that jealousy is when you count someone else's blessings instead of your own.
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Roy T. Bennett (The Light in the Heart)
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Stop giving other people the power to control your happiness, your mind, and your life. If you don't take control of yourself and your own life, someone else is bound to try.
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Roy T. Bennett (The Light in the Heart)
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Everyone you meet is a part of your journey, but not all of them are meant to stay in your life. Some people are just passing through to bring you gifts; either they're blessings or lessons.
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Roy T. Bennett (The Light in the Heart)
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A smile puts you on the right track. A smile makes the world a beautiful place. When you lose your smile, you lose your way in the chaos of life.
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Roy T. Bennett (The Light in the Heart)
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Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are.
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John Wooden
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If you have a strong purpose in life, you don't have to be pushed. Your passion will drive you there.
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Roy T. Bennett (The Light in the Heart)
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The unreal is more powerful than the real. Because nothing is as perfect as you can imagine it. Because its only intangible ideas, concepts, beliefs, fantasies that last. Stone crumbles. Wood rots. People, well, they die. But things as fragile as a thought, a dream, a legend, they can go on and on. If you can change the way people think. The way they see themselves. The way they see the world. You can change the way people live their lives. That's the only lasting thing you can create.
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Chuck Palahniuk (Choke)
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So many people walk around with a meaningless life. They seem half-asleep, even when they're busy doing things they think are important. This is because they're chasing the wrong things. The way you get meaning into your life is to devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning.
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Mitch Albom (Tuesdays with Morrie)
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Nothing can disturb your peace of mind unless you allow it to.
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Roy T. Bennett (The Light in the Heart)
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You cannot change anyone, but you can be the reason someone changes.
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Roy T. Bennett (The Light in the Heart)
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Each day brings new opportunities, allowing you to constantly live with loveβ€”be there for othersβ€”bring a little light into someone's day. Be grateful and live each day to the fullest.
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Roy T. Bennett (The Light in the Heart)
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We’re all seeking that special person who is right for us. But if you’ve been through enough relationships, you begin to suspect there’s no right person, just different flavors of wrong. Why is this? Because you yourself are wrong in some way, and you seek out partners who are wrong in some complementary way. But it takes a lot of living to grow fully into your own wrongness. And it isn’t until you finally run up against your deepest demons, your unsolvable problemsβ€”the ones that make you truly who you areβ€”that we’re ready to find a lifelong mate. Only then do you finally know what you’re looking for. You’re looking for the wrong person. But not just any wrong person: it's got to be the right wrong personβ€”someone you lovingly gaze upon and think, β€œThis is the problem I want to have.” I will find that special person who is wrong for me in just the right way.
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Andrew Boyd (Daily Afflictions: The Agony of Being Connected to Everything in the Universe)
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Do not stop thinking of life as an adventure. You have no security unless you can live bravely, excitingly, imaginatively; unless you can choose a challenge instead of competence.
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Eleanor Roosevelt (The Autobiography of Eleanor Roosevelt)
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Don't think. Thinking is the enemy of creativity. It's self-conscious and anything self-conscious is lousy. You can't "try" to do things. You simply "must" do things.
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Ray Bradbury
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Being grateful does not mean that everything is necessarily good. It just means that you can accept it as a gift.
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Roy T. Bennett
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To have what you have never had, you have to do what you have never done.
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Roy T. Bennett (The Light in the Heart)
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The biggest wall you have to climb is the one you build in your mind: Never let your mind talk you out of your dreams, trick you into giving up. Never let your mind become the greatest obstacle to success. To get your mind on the right track, the rest will follow.
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Roy T. Bennett (The Light in the Heart)
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You are in charge of your own happiness; you don't need to wait for other people's permission to be happy.
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Roy T. Bennett (The Light in the Heart)
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Start a huge, foolish project, like Noah…it makes absolutely no difference what people think of you.
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Rumi (Jalal ad-Din Muhammad ar-Rumi)
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When you see a good person, think of becoming like her/him. When you see someone not so good, reflect on your own weak points.
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Confucius
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You are, after all, what you think. Your emotions are the slaves to your thoughts, and you are the slave to your emotions.
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Elizabeth Gilbert (Eat, Pray, Love)
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Don't think about making life better for other people who don't even deserve you, rather, focus on making your life the best, for yourself and those who love you.
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C. JoyBell C.
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Get going. Move forward. Aim High. Plan a takeoff. Don't just sit on the runway and hope someone will come along and push the airplane. It simply won't happen. Change your attitude and gain some altitude. Believe me, you'll love it up here.
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Donald J. Trump
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You Are the Master of Your Attitude You cannot control what happens to you, but you can control the way you think about all the events. You always have a choice. You can choose to face them with a positive mental attitude.
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Roy T. Bennett (The Light in the Heart)
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Patience Is Not the Ability to Wait: Patience is not the ability to wait. Patience is to be calm no matter what happens, constantly take action to turn it to positive growth opportunities, and have faith to believe that it will all work out in the end while you are waiting.
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Roy T. Bennett (The Light in the Heart)
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Live the Life of Your Dreams When you start living the life of your dreams, there will always be obstacles, doubters, mistakes and setbacks along the way. But with hard work, perseverance and self-belief there is no limit to what you can achieve.
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Roy T. Bennett (The Light in the Heart)
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Don’t let others tell you what you can’t do. Don't let the limitations of others limit your vision. If you can remove your self-doubt and believe in yourself, you can achieve what you never thought possible.
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Roy T. Bennett (The Light in the Heart)
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Always have a willing hand to help someone, you might be the only one that does.
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Roy T. Bennett (The Light in the Heart)
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If you don’t give up on something you truly believe in, you will find a way.
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Roy T. Bennett
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Perfectionism is the enemy of happiness. Embrace being perfectly imperfect. Learn from your mistakes and forgive yourself, you’ll be happier. We make mistakes because we are imperfect. Learn from your mistakes, forgive yourself, and keep moving forward.
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Roy T. Bennett (The Light in the Heart)
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You are unique. You have different talents and abilities. You don’t have to always follow in the footsteps of others. And most important, you should always remind yourself that you don't have to do what everyone else is doing and have a responsibility to develop the talents you have been given.
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Roy T. Bennett (The Light in the Heart)
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You become what you think about all day long.
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Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Never let hard lessons harden your heart; the hard lessons of life are meant to make you better, not bitter.
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Roy T. Bennett (The Light in the Heart)
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You are the master of your destiny. You can influence, direct and control your own environment. You can make your life what you want it to be.
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Napoleon Hill (Think and Grow Rich)
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Don’t worry if people think you’re crazy. You are crazy. You have that kind of intoxicating insanity that lets other people dream outside of the lines and become who they’re destined to be.
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Jennifer Elisabeth (Born Ready: Unleash Your Inner Dream Girl)
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Dreams don't work unless you take action. The surest way to make your dreams come true is to live them.
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Roy T. Bennett
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Every day, think as you wake up, today I am fortunate to be alive, I have a precious human life, I am not going to waste it. I am going to use all my energies to develop myself, to expand my heart out to others; to achieve enlightenment for the benefit of all beings. I am going to have kind thoughts towards others, I am not going to get angry or think badly about others. I am going to benefit others as much as I can.
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Dalai Lama XIV
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You're beautiful, but you're empty...One couldn't die for you. Of course, an ordinary passerby would think my rose looked just like you. But my rose, all on her own, is more important than all of you together, since she's the one I've watered. Since she's the one I put under glass, since she's the one I sheltered behind the screen. Since she's the one for whom I killed the caterpillars (except the two or three butterflies). Since she's the one I listened to when she complained, or when she boasted, or even sometimes when she said nothing at all. Since she's my rose.
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Antoine de Saint-ExupΓ©ry (The Little Prince)
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The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.
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Frederick Buechner (Wishful Thinking: A Seeker's ABC)
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Some things cannot be taught; they must be experienced. You never learn the most valuable lessons in life until you go through your own journey.
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Roy T. Bennett
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It doesn’t matter how many times you get knocked down. All that matters is you get up one more time than you were knocked down.
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Roy T. Bennett
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It's worth making time to find the things that really stir your soul. That’s what makes you really feel alive. You have to say β€˜no’ to other things you’re used to, and do it with all your heart.
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Roy T. Bennett
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I've been in love before, it's like a narcotic. At first it brings the euphoria of complete surrender. The next day you want more. You're not addicted yet, but you like the sensation, and you think you can still control things.You think about the person you love for two minutes then forget them for three hours. But then you get used to that person, and you begin to be completely dependent on them. Now you think about him for three hours and forget him for two minutes. If he's not there, you feel like an addict who can't get a fix. And just as addicts steal and humiliate themselves to get what they need, you're willing to do anything for love."- By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept
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Paulo Coelho
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7 Effective Ways to Make Others Feel Important 1. Use their name. 2. Express sincere gratitude. 3. Do more listening than talking. 4. Talk more about them than about you. 5. Be authentically interested. 6. Be sincere in your praise. 7. Show you care.
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Roy T. Bennett (The Light in the Heart)
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To be rejected by someone doesn't mean you should also reject yourself or that you should think of yourself as a lesser person. It doesn't mean that nobody will ever love you anymore. Remember that only ONE person has rejected you at the moment, and it only hurt so much because to you, that person's opinion symbolized the opinion of the whole world, of God.
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Jocelyn Soriano (Mend My Broken Heart)
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Anger ... it's a paralyzing emotion ... you can't get anything done. People sort of think it's an interesting, passionate, and igniting feeling β€” I don't think it's any of that β€” it's helpless ... it's absence of control β€” and I need all of my skills, all of the control, all of my powers ... and anger doesn't provide any of that β€” I have no use for it whatsoever." [Interview with CBS radio host Don Swaim, September 15, 1987.]
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Toni Morrison
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In friendship...we think we have chosen our peers. In reality a few years' difference in the dates of our births, a few more miles between certain houses, the choice of one university instead of another...the accident of a topic being raised or not raised at a first meeting--any of these chances might have kept us apart. But, for a Christian, there are, strictly speaking no chances. A secret master of ceremonies has been at work. Christ, who said to the disciples, "Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you," can truly say to every group of Christian friends, "Ye have not chosen one another but I have chosen you for one another." The friendship is not a reward for our discriminating and good taste in finding one another out. It is the instrument by which God reveals to each of us the beauties of others.
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C.S. Lewis (The Four Loves)
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My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road though I may know nothing about it. Therefore will I trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.
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Thomas Merton (Thoughts in Solitude)
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Now there is a final reason I think that Jesus says, "Love your enemies." It is this: that love has within it a redemptive power. And there is a power there that eventually transforms individuals. Just keep being friendly to that person. Just keep loving them, and they can’t stand it too long. Oh, they react in many ways in the beginning. They react with guilt feelings, and sometimes they’ll hate you a little more at that transition period, but just keep loving them. And by the power of your love they will break down under the load. That’s love, you see. It is redemptive, and this is why Jesus says love. There’s something about love that builds up and is creative. There is something about hate that tears down and is destructive. So love your enemies. (from "Loving Your Enemies")
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Martin Luther King Jr. (A Knock at Midnight: Inspiration from the Great Sermons of Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.)
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If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you, If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, But make allowance for their doubting too; If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, Or being lied about, don't deal in lies, Or being hated, don't give way to hating, And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise If you can dream - and not make dreams your master; If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim; If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster And treat those two impostors just the same; If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools, Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken, And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools If you can make one heap of all your winnings And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss, And lose, and start again at your beginnings And never breathe a word about your loss; If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew To serve your turn long after they are gone, And so hold on when there is nothing in you Except the will which says to them: 'Hold on!' If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue, Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch, If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you, If all men count with you, but none too much; If you can fill the unforgiving minute With sixty seconds' worth of distance run, Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it, And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!
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Rudyard Kipling (If: A Father's Advice to His Son)
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We have to create culture, don't watch TV, don't read magazines, don't even listen to NPR. Create your own roadshow. The nexus of space and time where you are now is the most immediate sector of your universe, and if you're worrying about Michael Jackson or Bill Clinton or somebody else, then you are disempowered, you're giving it all away to icons, icons which are maintained by an electronic media so that you want to dress like X or have lips like Y. This is shit-brained, this kind of thinking. That is all cultural diversion, and what is real is you and your friends and your associations, your highs, your orgasms, your hopes, your plans, your fears. And we are told 'no', we're unimportant, we're peripheral. 'Get a degree, get a job, get a this, get a that.' And then you're a player, you don't want to even play in that game. You want to reclaim your mind and get it out of the hands of the cultural engineers who want to turn you into a half-baked moron consuming all this trash that's being manufactured out of the bones of a dying world.
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Terence McKenna
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You're going to meet many people with domineering personalities: the loud, the obnoxious, those that noisily stake their claims in your territory and everywhere else they set foot on. This is the blueprint of a predator. Predators prey on gentleness, peace, calmness, sweetness and any positivity that they sniff out as weakness. Anything that is happy and at peace they mistake for weakness. It's not your job to change these people, but it's your job to show them that your peace and gentleness do not equate to weakness. I have always appeared to be fragile and delicate but the thing is, I am not fragile and I am not delicate. I am very gentle but I can show you that the gentle also possess a poison. I compare myself to silk. People mistake silk to be weak but a silk handkerchief can protect the wearer from a gunshot. There are many people who will want to befriend you if you fit the description of what they think is weak; predators want to have friends that they can dominate over because that makes them feel strong and important. The truth is that predators have no strength and no courage. It is you who are strong, and it is you who has courage. I have lost many a friend over the fact that when they attempt to rip me, they can't. They accuse me of being deceiving; I am not deceiving, I am just made of silk. It is they who are stupid and wrongly take gentleness and fairness for weakness. There are many more predators in this world, so I want you to be made of silk. You are silk.
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C. JoyBell C.
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Responsibility to yourself means refusing to let others do your thinking, talking, and naming for you...it means that you do not treat your body as a commodity with which to purchase superficial intimacy or economic security; for our bodies to be treated as objects, our minds are in mortal danger. It means insisting that those to whom you give your friendship and love are able to respect your mind. It means being able to say, with Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre: "I have an inward treasure born with me, which can keep me alive if all the extraneous delights should be withheld or offered only at a price I cannot afford to give. Responsibility to yourself means that you don't fall for shallow and easy solutions--predigested books and ideas...marrying early as an escape from real decisions, getting pregnant as an evasion of already existing problems. It means that you refuse to sell your talents and aspirations short...and this, in turn, means resisting the forces in society which say that women should be nice, play safe, have low professional expectations, drown in love and forget about work, live through others, and stay in the places assigned to us. It means that we insist on a life of meaningful work, insist that work be as meaningful as love and friendship in our lives. It means, therefore, the courage to be "different"...The difference between a life lived actively, and a life of passive drifting and dispersal of energies, is an immense difference. Once we begin to feel committed to our lives, responsible to ourselves, we can never again be satisfied with the old, passive way.
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Adrienne Rich
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How should we be able to forget those ancient myths that are at the beginning of all peoples, the myths about dragons that at the last moment turn into princesses; perhaps all the dragons of our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us once beautiful and brave. Perhaps everything terrible is in its deepest being something helpless that wants help from us. So you must not be frightened if a sadness rises up before you larger than any you have ever seen; if a restiveness, like light and cloudshadows, passes over your hands and over all you do. You must think that something is happening with you, that life has not forgotten you, that it holds you in its hand; it will not let you fall. Why do you want to shut out of your life any uneasiness, any miseries, or any depressions? For after all, you do not know what work these conditions are doing inside you.
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Rainer Maria Rilke (Letters to a Young Poet)
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Go into yourself. Find out the reason that commands you to write; see whether it has spread its roots into the very depths of your heart; confess to yourself whether you would have to die if you were forbidden to write. This most of all: ask yourself in the most silent hour of your night: must I write? Dig into yourself for a deep answer. And if this answer rings out in assent, if you meet this solemn question with a strong, simple β€œI must,” then build your life in accordance with this necessity; your whole life, even into its humblest and most indifferent hour, must become a sign and witness to this impulse. Then come close to Nature. Then, as if no one had ever tried before, try to say what you see and feel and love and lose... ...Describe your sorrows and desires, the thoughts that pass through your mind and your belief in some kind of beauty - describe all these with heartfelt, silent, humble sincerity and, when you express yourself, use the Things around you, the images from your dreams, and the objects that you remember. If your everyday life seems poor, don’t blame it; blame yourself; admit to yourself that you are not enough of a poet to call forth its riches; because for the creator there is not poverty and no poor, indifferent place. And even if you found yourself in some prison, whose walls let in none of the world’s sounds – wouldn’t you still have your childhood, that jewel beyond all price, that treasure house of memories? Turn your attentions to it. Try to raise up the sunken feelings of this enormous past; your personality will grow stronger, your solitude will expand and become a place where you can live in the twilight, where the noise of other people passes by, far in the distance. - And if out of this turning-within, out of this immersion in your own world, poems come, then you will not think of asking anyone whether they are good or not. Nor will you try to interest magazines in these works: for you will see them as your dear natural possession, a piece of your life, a voice from it. A work of art is good if it has arisen out of necessity. That is the only way one can judge it.
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Rainer Maria Rilke
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Growing up means learning what life is. When you're little, you have a set of ideals, standards, criteria, plans, outlooks, and you think that you have to sit around and wait for them to happen to you and then life will work. But life isn't like that, for anybody; you can't fall in love with a standard, you have to fall in love with a person. You can't live in a criteria, you have to live your life. You can't wait for your plans to materialize, because they may never materialize the way you think they will. You can't wait to watch your ideals and standards walk up to you, because you can't know what's yours until you have it. I always say, always take the first chance in case you never get a second one, but growing up takes that even one step further, growing up means that you have to hold on to what you have, when you have it, because what you have- that's yours- and all the ideals and criteria you have set in your head, those aren't yours, because those haven't happened to you.
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C. JoyBell C.
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When I was little and running on the race track at school, I always stopped and waited for all the other kids so we could run together even though I knew (and everybody else knew) that I could run much faster than all of them! I pretended to read slowly so I could "wait" for everyone else who couldn't read as fast as I could! When my friends were short I pretended that I was short too and if my friend was sad I pretended to be unhappy. I could go on and on about all the ways I have limited myself, my whole life, by "waiting" for people. And the only thing that I've ever received in return is people thinking that they are faster than me, people thinking that they can make me feel bad about myself just because I let them and people thinking that I have to do whatever they say I should do. My mother used to teach me "Cinderella is a perfect example to be" but I have learned that Cinderella can go fuck herself, I'm not waiting for anybody, anymore! I'm going to run as fast as I can, fly as high as I can, I am going to soar and if you want you can come with me! But I'm not waiting for you anymore.
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C. JoyBell C.