It takes grace to remain kind in cruel situations.

You might not have been my first love but you were the love that made all the other love irrelevant.

Don’t mistake salt for sugar. If he wants to be with you he will. It’s that simple.

You are the faint line between faith and blindly waiting.

Other women’s bodies are not our battle grounds.

Nothing is safer than the sound of you reading aloud to me—the perfect date.

You were so afraid of my voice I decided to be afraid of it too.

If I knew what safety looked like, I would have spent less time falling into arms that were not.

It takes monsters to steal souls and fighters to reclaim them.

Growing up means realizing a lot of your friends aren’t really your friends.

 

You may be married to a star, but that doesn’t mean they’ll treat you like one. ― Jess C. Scott

A friend who stands with you in times of pressure is more valuable than a hundred friends who will stand with you at times of pleasure.

People wear a mask of lie so they look attractive, so be careful. ― Muhammad Saqib

The only people I owe my loyalty to are those who never made me question theirs.

A person’s character is shown through their actions in life NOT where they sit on Sunday. ―Navonne Johns

I don’t regret my past, I just regret the time I have wasted with wrong people.

When you see the genuine, you don’t deal with the fakes anymore. ― Nima Davani

Fake people cannot stand honesty because their whole world is built on lies. For them, lies keep their world turning.

I would rather have honest enemy rather than a fake friend.

I may not be perfect, but at least I am not fake. With me, what you see is what you get.

Of course there is no formula for success except, perhaps, an unconditional acceptance of life and what it brings.

Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don’t resist them; that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like.

Those who expect moments of change to be comfortable and free of conflict have not learned their history.

Continuity gives us roots; change gives us branches, letting us stretch and grow and reach new heights.

To exist is to change, to change is to mature, to mature is to go on creating oneself endlessly.

You must welcome change as the rule but not as your ruler.

When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.

Become a student of change. It is the only thing that will remain constant.

All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy, for what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter into another.

If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got.

Your life does not get better by chance, it gets better by change.

You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.

Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.

The price of doing the same old thing is far higher than the price of change.

I cannot say whether things will get better if we change; what I can say is they must change if they are to get better.

Adaptability is about the powerful difference between adapting to cope and adapting to win.

The art of life lies in a constant readjustment to our surroundings.

The fools in life want things fast and easy — money, success, attention. 

Money is like manure. You have to spread it around or it smells.

Rich people are committed to being rich. Poor people want to be rich.

I’d like to live as a poor man with lots of money.

I don’t care too much for money, for money can’t buy me love. 

All the money you made will never buy back your soul.

When it is a question of money, everybody is of the same religion.

We buy things we don’t need with money we don’t have to impress people we don’t like.

Capital as such is not evil; it is its wrong use that is evil. Capital in some form or other will always be needed.

Money won’t create success, the freedom to make it will.

We have always believed that it’s possible to make money without being evil.

If you can get paid for doing what you love, every paycheck is a bonus.

Be thankful for what you have; you’ll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don’t have, you will never, ever have enough.

The rich cannot accumulate wealth without the co-operation of the poor in society.

There is only one boss. The customer. And he can fire everybody in the company from the chairman on down, simply by spending his money somewhere else.

We don’t make movies to make money, we make money to make more movies.

Simply put: we don’t build services to make money; we make money to build better services. And we think this is a good way to build something.

Money was never a big motivation for me, except as a way to keep score. The real excitement is playing the game. 

Money can’t buy happiness, but it will certainly get you a better class of memories.

Money is not the only answer, but it makes a difference.

Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise. 

There are people who have money and people who are rich.

Not he who has much is rich, but he who gives much.

It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor.

Focusing your life solely on making a buck shows a poverty of ambition. It asks too little of yourself. And it will leave you unfulfilled. 

The rich invest their money and spend what is left; the poor spend their money and invest what is left. 

The best way to become a billionaire is to help a billion people.

Seek wealth, not money or status. Wealth is having assets that earn while you sleep. Money is how we transfer time and wealth. Status is your place in the social hierarchy.

Money is numbers and numbers never end. If it takes money to be happy, your search for happiness will never end.

I don’t want to make money. I just want to be wonderful.

Spend your money on the things money can buy. Spend your time on the things money can’t buy.

I think everybody should get rich and famous and do everything they ever dreamed of so they can see that it’s not the answer.

Don’t let making a living prevent you from making a life.

Formal education will make you a living. Self-education will make you a fortune. 

Invest in as much of yourself as you can, you are your own biggest asset by far.

Trade money for time, not time for money. You’re going to run out of time first.

Money moves from those who do not manage it to those who do.

My favorite things in life don’t cost any money. It’s really clear that the most precious resource we all have is time.

Stop buying things you don’t need, to impress people you don’t even like.

Obey the principles without being bound by them.

Knowledge will give you power, but character respect.

Always be yourself, express yourself, have faith in yourself, do not go out and look for a successful personality and duplicate it.

As you think, so you shall become.

If you always put limit on everything you do, physical or anything else. It will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them.

I’m not in this world to live up to your expectations and you’re not in this world to live up to mine.

The possession of anything begins in the mind.

A wise man can learn more from a foolish question than a fool can learn from a wise answer.

Showing off is the fool’s idea of glory.

Absorb what is useful, Discard what is not, Add what is uniquely your own.

Never waste energy on worries or negative thoughts, all problems are brought into existence– drop them.

Be like water making its way through cracks. Do not be assertive, but adjust to the object, and you shall find a way round or through it. If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves. Empty your mind, be formless. Shapeless, like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle and it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot it becomes the teapot. Now, water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend.

Love is like a friendship caught on fire. In the beginning a flame, very pretty, often hot and fierce, but still only light and flickering. As love grows older, our hearts mature and our love becomes as coals, deep-burning and unquenchable.

A goal is not always meant to be reached, it often serves simply as something to aim at.

To know oneself is to study oneself in action with another person.

If you spend too much time thinking about a thing, you’ll never get it done. Make at least one definite move daily toward your goal.

I am learning to understand rather than immediately judge or to be judged. I cannot blindly follow the crowd and accept their approach. I will not allow myself to indulge in the usual manipulating game of role creation. Fortunately for me, my self-knowledge has transcended that and I have come to understand that life is best to be lived and not to be conceptualized. I am happy because I am growing daily and I am honestly not knowing where the limit lies. To be certain, every day there can be a revelation or a new discovery. I treasure the memory of the past misfortunes. It has added more to my bank of fortitude.

Mistakes are always forgivable, if one has the courage to admit them.

The more we value things, the less we value ourselves.

I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.

Ever since I was a child I have had this instinctive urge for expansion and growth. To me, the function and duty of a quality human being is the sincere and honest development of one’s potential.

You see things. You keep quiet about them. And you understand. 

Extroverts sparkle, introverts glow. Extroverts are fireworks, introverts are a fire in the hearth.

Our culture made a virtue of living only as extroverts. We discouraged the inner journey, the quest for a center. So we lost our center and have to find it again. 

It’s never a good idea to organize society in a way that depletes the energy of half the population. We discovered this with women decades ago, and now it’s time to realize it with introverts. 

Silence is beautiful, not awkward. The human tendency to be afraid of something beautiful is awkward. 

Silence is only frightening to people who are compulsively verbalizing. 

The most introspective of souls are often those that have been hurt the most. 

Introverts are collectors of thoughts, and solitude is where the collection is curated and rearranged to make sense of the present and future. 

When I was young, all I wanted and expected from life was to sit quietly in some corner doing my work without the public paying attention to me. And now see what has become of me.

A happy life must be to a great extent a quiet life, for it is only in an atmosphere of quiet that true joy dare live. 

People inspire you, or they drain you – pick them wisely. 

An inability to stay quiet is one of the conspicuous failings of mankind.

The more powerful and original a mind, the more it will incline towards the religion of solitude.

Alone had always felt like an actual place to me, as if it weren’t a state of being, but rather a room where I could retreat to be who I really was.

Wise men speak because they have something to say; Fools because they have to say something.

I wish, as well as everybody else, to be perfectly happy; but like everybody else, it must be in my own way. 

Don’t think of introversion as something that needs to be cured… Spend your free time the way you like, not the way you think you’re supposed to. 

Be a loner. That gives you time to wonder, to search for the truth. Have holy curiosity. Make your life worth living. 

Introverts are word economists in a society suffering from verbal diarrhea. 

A child can teach an adult three things… To be happy for no reason. To always be busy with something. And to know how to demand with all his might that which he desires. 

Let parents bequeath to their children not riches, but the spirit of reverence.

A child can ask questions that a wise man cannot answer.

Children are mirrors, they reflect back to us all we say and do.

Every child comes with the message that God is not yet discouraged of man. 

There are only two lasting bequests we can hope to give our children. One is roots; the other, wings.

Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them. 

Teach your children they’re unique. That way, they won’t feel pressured to be like everybody else.

Seven things every child needs to hear: I love you, I’m proud of you, I’m sorry, I forgive you, I’m listening. This is your responsibility. You have what it takes to succeed.

A child seldom needs a good talking to as a good listening to.

Our most important task as a nation is to make sure all our young people can achieve their dreams.

We worry about what a child will become tomorrow, yet we forget that he is someone today.

To every child – I dream of a world where you can laugh, dance, sing, learn, live in peace and be happy.

Even if people are still very young, they shouldn’t be prevented from saying what they think.

If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales. 

Smile in the mirror. Do that every morning and you’ll start to see a big difference in your life.

Of all the medicines in the inner life, a smile is by far the best medecine. 

Use your smile to change the world but don’t let the world change your smile.  – Unknown

Smile is the vainest thing you can wear without costing you anything.  – Unknown

A gentle word, a kind look, a good-natured smile can work wonders and accomplish miracles.

All the statistics in the world can’t measure the warmth of a smile. 

If we are peaceful, if we are happy, we can smile and blossom like a flower, and everyone in our family, our entire society, will benefit from our peace. 

If I can see pain in your eyes then share with me your tears. If I can see joy in your eyes then share with me your smile. 

What sunshine is to flowers, smiles are to humanity. These are but trifles, to be sure; but scattered along life’s pathway, the good they do is inconceivable. 

Nothing you wear is more important than your smile. 

The real man smiles in trouble, gathers strength from distress, and grows brave by reflection.

Better by far you should forget and smile than that you should remember and be sad.

A simple smile. That’s the start of opening your heart and being compassionate to others. 

I smile like a flower not only with my lips but with my whole being. 

If we are not able to smile, then the world will not have peace. 

If you have only one smile in you give it to the people you love. 

If I despised myself, it would be no compensation if everyone saluted me, and if I respect myself, it does not trouble me if others hold me lightly.

To be one, to be united is a great thing. But to respect the right to be different is maybe even greater.

I firmly believe that respect is a lot more important, and a lot greater, than popularity.

I must respect the opinions of others even if I disagree with them.

Without feelings of respect, what is there to distinguish men from beasts?

Give to every other human being every right that you claim for yourself.

Respect is a two-way street, if you want to get it, you’ve got to give it.

Never judge someone by the way he looks or a book by the way it’s covered; for inside those tattered pages, there’s a lot to be discovered.

Treat people the way you want to be treated. Talk to people the way you want to be talked to. Respect is earned, not given.

One of the most sincere forms of respect is actually listening to what another has to say.

That you may retain your self-respect, it is better to displease the people by doing what you know is right, than to temporarily please them by doing what you know is wrong.

Tolerance only for those who agree with you is no tolerance at all.

When we treat people merely as they are, they will remain as they are. When we treat them as if they were what they should be, they will become what they should be.

If you want to be respected by others, the great thing is to respect yourself. Only by that, only by self-respect will you compel others to respect you.

Respect yourself and others will respect you.

I speak to everyone in the same way, whether he is the garbage man or the president of the university.

Respect for ourselves guides our morals, respect for others guides our manners.

A person’s a person, no matter how small.

You can chain me, you can torture me, you can even destroy this body, but you will never imprison my mind.

Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.

They cannot take away our self-respect if we do not give it to them.

It is unwise to be too sure of one’s own wisdom. It is healthy to be reminded that the strongest might weaken and the wisest might err.

You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.

I suppose leadership at one time meant muscles; but today it means getting along with people.

The difference between what we do and what we are capable of doing would suffice to solve most of the world’s problems.

Even if the paradise of material satisfactions, which they envisage as their final goal, were realize on earth, it would not bring mankind either contentment or peace.

That service is the noblest which is rendered for its own sake.

Truth without humility would be an arrogant caricature.

My faith is brightest in the midst of impenetrable darkness.

To lose patience is to lose the battle.

Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will.

A coward is incapable of exhibiting love; it is the prerogative of the brave.

A man is but the product of his thoughts what he thinks, he becomes.

A ‘No’ uttered from deepest conviction is better and greater than a ‘Yes’ merely uttered to please, or what is worse, to avoid trouble.

The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.

Gentleness, self-sacrifice and generosity are the exclusive possession of no one race or religion.

What barrier is there that love cannot break?

Hate the sin, love the sinner.

In a gentle way, you can shake the world.

So I look for the best and am prepared for the opposite.

He who follows reason in all things is both tranquil and active at the same time, and also cheerful and collected.

Be content with what you are, and wish not change; nor dread your last day, nor long for it.

I have often wondered how it is that every man loves himself more than all the rest of men, but yet sets less value on his own opinions of himself than on the opinions of others.

If it is not right do not do it; if it is not true do not say it.

Let not your mind run on what you lack as much as on what you have already.

When you have assumed these names – good, modest, truthful, rational, a man of equanimity, and magnanimous – take care that you do not change these names; and if you should lose them, quickly return to them.

Receive without pride, let go without attachment.

A man when he has done a good act, does not call out for others to come and see, but he goes on to another act, as a vine goes on to produce again the grapes in season.

As the same fire assumes different shapes when it consumes objects differing in shape, so does the one self-take the shape of every creature in whom he is present.

For God’s sake, stop honouring externals, quit turning yourself into the tool of mere matter, or of people who can supply you or deny you those material things.

Receive wealth or prosperity without arrogance; and be ready to let it go.

Almost nothing material is needed for a happy life, for he who has understood existence.

You’re subject to sorrow, fear, jealousy, anger and inconsistency. That’s the real reason you should admit that you are not wise.

How ridiculous and how strange to be surprised at anything which happens in life.

Objective judgement, now, at this very moment. Unselfish action, now, at this very moment. Willing acceptance, now, at this very moment – of all external events. That’s all you need.

Today I escaped anxiety. Or no, I discarded it, because it was within me, in my own perceptions – not outside.

To love only what happens, what was destined. No greater harmony.

The first step: Don’t be anxious. Nature controls it all. The second step: Concentrate on what you have to do. Fix your eyes on it. Remind yourself that your task is to be a good human being; remind yourself what nature demands of people. Then do it, without hesitation, and speak the truth as you see it. But with kindness. With humility. Without hypocrisy.

The best answer to anger is silence.

The more we value things outside our control, the less control we have.

Every artist dips his brush in his own soul, and paints his own nature into his pictures.

Never worry about being obsessive. I like obsessive people. Obsessive people make great art.

I have already settled it for myself so flattery and criticism go down the same drain and I am quite free. 

You have to systematically create confusion, it sets creativity free. Everything that is contradictory creates life.

Art is standing with one hand extended into the universe and one hand extended into the world, and letting ourselves be a conduit for passing energy. 

Our primary function is to create an emotion and our secondary function is to sustain that emotions. 

All art is a kind of confession, more or less oblique. All artists, if they are to survive, are forced, at last, to tell the whole story; to vomit the anguish up.

The greater the artist, the greater the doubt. Perfect confidence is granted to the less talented as a consolation prize.

It is better to be high-spirited even though one makes more mistakes, than to be narrow-minded and all too prudent.

Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep. 

I never paint dreams or nightmares. I paint my own reality.