ThursdayApr 02, 2026
Quotes: 53419 Authors: 9969
Dr. Norman Vincent Peale (May 31, 1898 - December 24, 1993) was a Protestant preacher and author (most notably of The Power of Positive Thinking ) and a progenitor of the theory of "positive thinking".
We struggle with the complexities and avoid the simplicities.
We tend to get what we expect.
There are two primary forces in this world, fear and faith. Fear can move you to destructiveness or sickness or failure. Only in rare instances will it motivate you to accomplishment. But faith is a greater force. Faith can drive itself into your consciousness and set you free from fear forever.
When every physical and mental resource is focused, one's power to solve a problem multiplies tremendously.
... a basic law: the more you practice the art of thankfulness, the more you have to be thankful for. This, of course, is a fact. Thankfulness does tend to reproduce in kind. The attitude of gratitude revitalizes the entire mental process by activating all other attitudes, thus stimulating creativity.
The way to happiness: keep your heart free from hate, your mind from worry. Live simply, expect little, give much. Fill your life with love. Scatter sunshine. Forget self, think of others. Do as you would be done by. Try this for a week and you will be surprised.
Years wrinkle the skin, but lack of enthusiasm wrinkles the soul.
Just as we may learn from our successes (how to do it) so also can we learn from our mistakes (how not to do it). It just isnt in the cards that anybody should get by forever without making mistakes and perhaps sometimes making costly ones.
The more active you are, the more energy you will have.
Getting people to like you is only the other side of liking them.
If you paint in your mind a picture of bright and happy expectations, you put yourself into a condition conductive to your goal.
The secret of achievement is to hold a picture of a successful outcome in mind.
The really happy people are those who have broken the chains of procrastination, those who find satisfaction in doing the job at hand. They're full of eagerness, zest, productivity. You can be, too.
A war fitness conference some time ago declared that the highest form of recreation is to go to church. The word recreation should be written re-creation. More real rest can be gained from an hour and a quarter of worship under these circumstances than by eighteen holes of golf.
Religious faith may very well be considered a science, for it responds invariably to certain formulae. Perform the technique of faith according to the laws which have been proved workable in human experience and you will always get a result of power.
There is no sound basis upon which it may be assumed that all poor men are godly and all rich men are evil, no more than it could be assumed that all rich men are good and all poor men are bad.
The trouble with most of us is that we would rather be ruined by praise than saved by criticism.
Americans are so tense and keyed up that it is impossible even to put them to sleep with a sermon.
God in His answers to prayer often says 'Yes.' Sometimes He says 'Wait.' Often He says 'No.' In any case, His will is done, and true faith is to believe that what happened has happened for the best. If one does not take that attitude, he is setting his personal desire against the wisdom of God. Oftentimes we confuse with faith merely that which we desire.
John Burroughs, one of the greatest naturalist this country ever had, said he felt that there are just two classes of people in the world.... By 'the quick,' he meant people who look at the world and see it; people who listen to the world and hear it; people who get a message from it. The quick are people who are sensitized; the send out antennae. They get the meaning of the world. In other words, they are alive, they are alert, they are vibrant. As for 'the dead people, while they arent dead physically, they are dead from the standpoint of sensitivity. They never grapple with ideas, or try new ways of doing things. They are dead in the spirit. They live on the surface.
No one can ever overcome anything until his thoughts are creative and positive.
Think positively about yourself, keep your thoughts and actions clean, ask God who made you to keep on remaking you.
Worry has been described as a spasm of the emotions, a catalyst for creating a depressed condition within a human being. Banish worry and you will permit the positive emotions of joy and happiness to rise to the surface. Worry is a condition in which the
Worry is a peculiar thing. It is like a dust storm on a hot day. You can become confused and lose your way. I was in Wichita, Kansas, some time ago, when I had to fly to Cincinnati. A friend sent me in a private plane. When we were crossing the Mississipp
Get the heat and emotion out worry, and put cold, ruthless scrutiny onto the problem, and worry loses its power. When we are worried and filled with apprehension, we become panicky and are likely to see only gloom and failure. There isnt any situation so bad that it wont become a lot better when you think rationally and spiritually about it. God gives you the ability to think rationally about things by filling you with peace and faith.
It is a fact that you project what you are.
Any fact facing us is not as important as our attitude toward it, for that determines our success or failure.
The way you think about a fact may defeat you before you ever do anything about it. You are overcome by the fact because you think you are.
There is real magic in enthusiasm. It spells the difference between mediocrity and accomplishment.
Become a possibilitarian. No matter how dark things seem to be or actually are, raise your sights and see possibilities always see them, for they're always there.
Every problem has in it the seeds of its own solution. If you don't have any problems, you don't get any seeds.
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