Flowers are Nature's messengers - reminders of an unspeakable beauty. - jlh

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

All truly great thoughts are conceived by walking.
- Friedrich Nietzsche

Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.
- Lao Tzu

Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Flowers are Nature's messengers - reminders of an unspeakable beauty.
- jlh

Appreciate natural beauty.

Further reading: Let the depths of nature become a part of your innermost being

Find Joy in Nature

What I Know - What I Don't Know

Speak when you are angry, and... - Laurence J. Peter

Speak when you are angry -- and you will make the best speech you'll ever regret.
- Laurence J. Peter

If you are patient in one moment of anger, you will escape a hundred days of sorrow.
- Chinese Proverb

Anger is often more hurtful than the injury that caused it.
- English Proverb

For your own sake, as well as the sake of those you love, learn to live without anger. If nothing else works, seek out a professional to help with anger management.

Further reading: Vengeance: On the Unworkability of Vengeance

Say NO to Stress: 8 Easy and Powerful Ways

Love is the ultimate truth at the heart of creation. - Rabindranath Tagore

Love is not a mere sentiment.
Love is the ultimate truth at the heart of creation.
- Rabindranath Tagore

Love that does not renew itself every day becomes a habit and in turn a slavery.
- Khalil Gibran

Distance cannot matter - ours is a friendship of the heart.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

Our relationships - love and friendship - are at the core of the meaning of our lives.

Further reading: The #1 Secret of a Great Relationship

Where There is Love, Nothing is Missing - a Parable

Most of the Dating Advice You Have Read is Dead Wrong

If you don't know where you're going, any road will take you there. - Lewis Carroll (Alice in Wonderland)

If you don't know where you're going, any road will take you there.
- Lewis Carroll (Alice in Wonderland)

There are two kinds of failures:
those who thought and never did,
and those who did and never thought.
- Laurence J. Peter

Don't live down to expectations. Go out there and do something remarkable.
- Wendy Wasserstein

Choose your life purpose, and excel at living into that purpose

Further reading: Understand Your Life Purpose

Vision (Life Purpose)

Jobs' Three Rules of Life

Life is a succession of lessons - Helen Keller

Life is a succession of lessons which must be lived to be understood.
- Helen Keller

Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.
- William Butler Yeats

Education is what survives when what has been learned has been forgotten.
- B.F. Skinner

The lessons of the past provide the path to the future.
- Anonymous

Never stop learning. Look for further education in all of life.

Further reading: Joy Blooms Where Minds and Hearts are Open

Open Mind - Open Heart: A wonderful gift may not be wrapped as you expect

Perspective on Tradition: An Open Mind

Question Your Questions

Maybe So, Maybe Not. - Ancient Taoist Proverb

Tender

How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving, and tolerant of the weak and strong. Because someday in your life you will have been all of these.
-- George Washington Carver

Could we see when and where we are to meet again, we would be more tender when we bid our friends goodbye.
- Ouida

Friends share our pain and touch our wounds with a gentle and tender hand.
- Henri Nouwen

May the world be kind to you, and may your own thoughts be gentle upon yourself.
- jlh

Further reading: The Small Miracles of Our Lives

Gentleness and kind persuasion (Aesop fable)

May the road rise up to meet you

The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled. - Plutarch

The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled.
- Plutarch

Success is not the result of spontaneous combustion.
You must set yourself on fire.
- Reggie Leach

If you wish to succeed in life, make perseverance your bosom friend, experience your wise counselor, caution your elder brother, and hope your guardian genius.
- Joseph Addison

Light the fire within yourself to follow your true star.

Further reading: How to Keep Your New Years Resolutions

Question Your Questions

How to be Positive Around Negative People

Attitude is Everything

How to Deal with Rejection

Cute Quotes about Life
Deep Quotes
Quotes about Death
Empowering Quotes
Words of Encouragement

Anger is like a thorn in the heart - Yiddish Proverbs

Anger is like a thorn in the heart.
- Yiddish Proverb

The truly rich are those who enjoy what they have.
- Yiddish Proverb

Confidence is half of victory.
- Yiddish Proverb

If things are not as you wish, wish them as they are.
- Yiddish Proverb

A man is not old until his regrets take the place of his dreams.
- Yiddish Proverb

Envy breeds hate.
- Yiddish Proverb

Kindness is better than piety.
- Yiddish Proverb

Live and let live.
- Yiddish Proverb

No good comes from hurrying.
- Yiddish Proverb

Further reading: Never Let Anyone Get Your Goat, Push Your Buttons, Get You Riled Up, Or Annoy You

How to Live Without Anxiety or Worry

Grand Essentials to Happiness - Joseph Addison

Three grand essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to love, and something to hope for.
- Joseph Addison

Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.
- Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi

Success is not the key to happiness.
Happiness is the key to success.
If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.
- Albert Schweitzer

Happiness blooms in the presence of self-respect and the absence of ego.
Love yourself.
Love everyone around you.
Love everyone in the whole world.
Know that your own life is of infinite importance, as is every other life.
- jlh

Further reading: Ways to Live a Happier Life

Secrets For Getting Un-Stuck

Smile

Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy.
- Thich Nhat Hanh

Peace begins with a smile.
- Mother Teresa

Smile and the world smiles with you.
- Anonymous

Just smiling goes a long way toward making you feel better about life. And when you feel better about life, your life is better.
- Art Linkletter

Smile whenever you can - and when you don't feel like smiling, smile anyway.

Further reading: Ten Little Tips to Feel Happier Right Now

Deflect the blows of life

Inner Smile

Dont cry because it's over, smile because it happened.

Smile and the world smiles with you.

Grin your smile; giggle your laugh; unfurl your joy

• Buddhist Quotes
• Can Do Quotes
• Quotes about Not Caring
• Change Quotes

John Wooden: You can't live a perfect day without doing something for someone who will never be able to repay you.

You can't live a perfect day without doing something for someone who will never be able to repay you. - John Wooden Giving liberates the soul of the giver. - Maya Angelou 

Whatever you do, do with kindness. Whatever you say, say with kindness. Wherever you go, radiate kindness. - Jonathan Lockwood Huie 

 Life's most persistent and urgent question is, "What are you doing for others?" - Martin Luther King, Jr. 

 The true value of your life lies in what you do for others. - Jonathan Lockwood Huie 

 Further reading: Pay It Forward - as an Expression of Universal Gratitude 

  Zero-Based Gratitude 

  Be happy over the good fortune of others. 

  Life is magnificent - just as it comes

Trust in the Light.

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that.
Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

Trust in the Light. Darkness is not a force - it is merely the absence of light. Observe that when a light is brought to a dark place, the darkness disappears. Sadness is similar - when joy is brought to suffering, the sadness disappears. Open yourself to the Light! Hold back nothing, Trust in the Light.
- jlh

Exercise: Write your most worrisome trouble on a piece of paper and feed it to the fire. Send your troubles up in smoke. Breathe deeply and rejoice.

Further reading: Have a Conversation With God, Today

Stop Anxiety and Get Back Your Life

How to Stop Worrying

Inspirational Quotes
Amazing Quotes to Live By
Quotes on Attitude
Balance in Life Quotes
Beautiful Quotes on Life

Paulo Coelho: Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself.

Tell your heart that the fear of suffering
is worse than the suffering itself.
- Paulo Coelho

If you understand, things are just as they are;
if you do not understand, things are just as they are.
- Zen Proverb

God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.
- Reinhold Niebuhr

Improve what you can and accept all the rest of life just as it comes. Know that fear is your worst enemy - perhaps your only enemy.

Further reading: A life lived in fear is a life half lived

How to Break the Cycle of Self-Inflicted Suffering

The Serenity Prayer

Inspirational Quotes
Life Quotes and Sayings
Picture Quotes
Affirmations
Quotes about Being Alone
Amazing Quotes

Love is an act of faith - Erich Fromm

Love is an act of faith.
- Erich Fromm

Life in abundance comes only through great love.
- Elbert Hubbard

Love is the great miracle cure. Loving ourselves works miracles in our lives.
- Louise L. Hay

Where there is great love there are always miracles.
- Willa Cather

Choose love - always.

Further reading: Unanswered Prayers

Open Mind - Open Heart: A wonderful gift may not be wrapped as you expect

Feel Your Connection With the Infinite - a Meditation

Dr Martin Luther King Jr

Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

Hatred paralyzes life; love releases it.
Hatred confuses life; love harmonizes it.
Hatred darkens life; love illumines it.
- Martin Luther King Jr.

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that.
Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

We must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive. 

He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

Peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek, 

but a means by which we arrive at that goal.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

Life's most persistent and urgent question is, "What are you doing for others?"
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

Further reading: I have a Dream... Martin Luther King Jr. (video)

Choose Love

Martin Luther King day

A great street sweeper

He who spends time regretting the past loses the present and risks the future. - Quevedo

He who spends time regretting the past loses the present and risks the future.
- Quevedo

For all sad words of tongue and pen, The saddest are these, "It might have been".
- John Greenleaf Whittier

Regret is an appalling waste of energy, you can't build on it - it's only good for wallowing in.
- Katherine Mansfield

Simply do your best, and you will avoid self-judgment, self-abuse and regret.
- don Miguel Angel Ruiz

Whatever happened, forgive others, forgive yourself, move forward, live for today and tomorrow.

Further reading: How to get over regrets and resentments

The Paradox Of Living In The Moment - How To Be Happy Today And Prepare For Tomorrow

Beyond the Grief of Divorce - 7 Steps Toward New Beginnings

• Don't Give Up Quotes
• Giving Up Quotes
• Growing Up Quotes
• Quotes about Life Lessons

I have found that if you love life, life will love you back. - Arthur Rubinstein

I have found that if you love life, life will love you back.
- Arthur Rubinstein

Hatred paralyzes life; love releases it.
Hatred confuses life; love harmonizes it.
Hatred darkens life; love illumines it.
- Martin Luther King Jr.

Play with life, laugh with life,
dance lightly with life, and
smile at the riddles of life,
knowing that life’s only true lessons are writ small in the margin.
- jlh

Loving unconditionally leads to a happy life.

Further reading: Choose Love

Joy is a Choice - but Not an Easy Choice

The #1 Secret of Great Relationships

Acceptance Makes a Great Relationship Even Better

Wherever you go, go with all your heart - Confucius

Wherever you go, go with all your heart.
- Confucius

Whatever you can do, or dream you can, Begin it.
Boldness has genius, power and magic in it, Begin it now.
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

You can't do anything about the length of your life,
but you can do something about its width and depth.
- Evan Esar

Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Standing in the inspiring vision of my future, I boldly take every step - large and small - with courage and intent.
- jlh

Live with enthusiasm.

Further reading: Success Tip: Drive Change

How to Think Positive

How to Move On and Let Go

• Amazing Quotes
• Quotes about Not Caring
• Quotes about Not Caring What People Think
• Relationship Quotes
• Romantic Quotes
• Thoughtful Quotes

Success is not final, failure is not fatal - Winston Churchill

Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.
- Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama

Success is not final, failure is not fatal.
It is the courage to continue that counts.
- Winston Churchill

Another sunrise, another new beginning.
- jlh

Whatever happens, always look to tomorrow - with courage and optimism.

Further reading: How to Feel Good About Yourself

What to Do When Your Whole World is Falling Apart?

How to Cope with Loneliness - 10 Tips for Coping with Feeling Lonely

Quotes about Moving On
New Beginning Quotes
No Regrets Quotes
Relationship Quotes
Quotes about Being Happy

Set Goals - Take Action

The tragedy of life doesn't lie in not reaching your goal.
The tragedy lies in having no goal to reach.
- Benjamin Mays

To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream;
not only plan, but also believe.
- Anatole France

Powerful Dreams Inspire Powerful Action.
When you can taste, smell, and touch your dreams, you can enroll the world.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Believe in yourself. Dream big dreams. Set important goals. Take action on those goals.

Further reading: How to Motivate Yourself

Choose Your Habits, Choose Your Life

Boldly Sail the Storms of Life

How to Keep Your New Years Resolutions

How to Feel Good About Yourself

The greatest wealth is health. - Virgil

The greatest wealth is health.
- Virgil

The part can never be well unless the whole is well.
- Plato

Every human being is the author of his own health or disease.
- The Buddha

He who takes medicine and neglects his diet wastes the skill of his doctors.
- Chinese Proverb

A man too busy to take care of his health is like a mechanic too busy to take care of his tools.
- Spanish Proverb

Relax, avoid stress, get enough sleep, and listen to the needs of your body.

Further reading: Good Quotes about Life

Sayings about Life

Inspirational Sayings

Quotes to Live By

Butterfly

There is nothing in a caterpillar that tells you it's going to be a butterfly.
- Richard Buckminster Fuller

'Just living is not enough,' said the butterfly, 'one must have sunshine, freedom and a little flower.'
- Hans Christian Andersen

What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly.
- Richard Bach

The butterfly counts not months but moments, and has time enough.
- Rabindranath Tagore

To know God, watch a butterfly return to the same tree - after a year and a thousand miles.
- jlh

Further reading: How to Build Self Esteem

Choose Inner Peace

We can never obtain peace in the outer world until we make peace with ourselves.
- Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama

If you wish to experience peace, provide peace for another.
- Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama

When I see Spirit in everything, peace is at hand.
- jlh

Know that you can always choose your own inner peace - regardless of circumstances.

Further reading: Bring peace into moments of chaos

Choose Inner Peace and a Less Stressful Life

See my dozens of helpful articles on happiness, self esteem, motivation, and much more.

Inner Peace Quotes
Inspirational Quotes about Life
Quotes to Live By
Life Quotes and Sayings

Take risks: if you win...

Take risks: if you win, you will be happy; if you lose, you will be wise.
- Anonymous

Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.
- Robert F. Kennedy

With courage you will dare to take risks,
have the strength to be compassionate,
and the wisdom to be humble.
Courage is the foundation of integrity.
- Keshavan Nair

Friendship must dare to risk, or it's not friendship.
- Captain Jean-Luc Picard in the TV show Star Trek: The Next Generation

Be avid.
Create apart from perfection.
Risk failure.
Cover your words with sweat.
Run a little
Touch excruciatingly.
Laugh until you cry.
Dance with your eyes closed.
Care.
Understand you die a little in every moment.
Be Enlivened.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

Take the initiative - don't wait for life to come to you.

Further reading: Mary Anne Radmacher: Dare to dream of your great success (inspiring article)

Become Your Own Greatest Hero

Need For Approval

Adversity

One who gains strength by overcoming obstacles 

possesses the only strength which can overcome adversity.
- Albert Schweitzer

Every calamity is to be overcome by endurance.
- Virgil

Choose rather to be strong of soul than strong of body.
- Pythagoras

Life is as easy or as hard as you think it is.
- jlh

Adversity can crush our spirit - or strengthen it - it is our choice.

Further reading: Short Stories of Love, Compassion, Forgiveness, and Gratitude

How to Cope With Loss, Grief and the Fear of Your Own Mortality

Jimmy Yen - My Personal Greatest Hero

Byron Katie - The Work - No one can give you freedom but you

Advice

No one can give you better advice than yourself
- Cicero

Advice is what we ask for when we already know the answer but wish we didn't.
- Erica Jong

The only thing to do with good advice is to pass it on.
It is never of any use to oneself.
- Oscar Wilde.

Be the melody in the symphony of your life.
- jlh

It's your life - live your own goals, your own values, your own life. Be of service to others, but make your own decisions.

Your parents had an image of how they thought you should live your life Your friends, your family, your church, your boss, your co-workers all have their image of what your life should look like. But all that doesn't matter. What matters is being true to your own vision for your life.

What are your New Years' Resolutions? Do they include being less stressed? Finding your life purpose? Or just becoming a happier person?

Further reading: Be True to Yourself

Meddling - 5 Questions To Ask Yourself Before Offering Helpful Advice

Life is really simple - Confucius

Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.
- Confucius

You're only here for a short visit. Don't hurry. Don't worry.
And be sure to smell the flowers along the way.
- Walter Hagen

Life only appears complicated when one is worrying.
Relax, and life becomes simple again.

Further reading: 12 Life Lessons I Learned From My Cat

What is Money?

Choose Joy

Quotes about Life Changes

Life Changing Quotes

Quotes about New Beginnings

Good Quotes to Live By

Funny Quotes about Life

Hilarious Quotes

Sarcastic Quotes

Happiness is the absence of the striving for happiness. - Zhuangzi

Happiness is the absence of the striving for happiness. - Zhuangzi 

 The key to happiness is not to have what you want but to want what you have. - Anonymous 

 You can not find happiness by chasing after it. Happiness comes from doing what you love to do, and from being who you truly are. Most often, happiness is found in being of genuine service to others.

- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

 Further reading: How to Improve Self Esteem

Oscar Wilde: Life is too important to be taken seriously.

Life is too important to be taken seriously.
- Oscar Wilde

Oscar Wilde was a writer, playwright, humorist, satirist, and astute observer of the human condition. What does he mean by, "Life is too important to be taken seriously?" Is it just a simple joke?

"Serious" can mean thoughtful, careful and profound, but it also can mean unsmiling, grim, and humorless.

I am inclined to paraphrase Wilde as...

Life is too valuable to spend time not being lighthearted.

Dance lightly with life today and every day. Life is too short not to be joyful and celebrate each day.

Further reading: Feel better about life

Celebrate Life

Choose

The grandeur of creation

Words of Inspiration
Uplifting Quotes
Sayings about Life
Farewell Quotes
Funny Quotes
Hilarious Quotes
Cute Life Quotes
Sarcastic Quotes

Efforts and courage are not enough without purpose and direction. - John F. Kennedy

Efforts and courage are not enough without purpose and direction.
- John F. Kennedy

More men fail through lack of purpose than lack of talent.
- Billy Sunday

Begin each day as if it were on purpose.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

Every day is the perfect day to ask yourself questions about your life goals, and how you plan to address those goals, but there is a special tradition of asking those questions as each new year begins.

Do you have a plan for your life? If not, allocate some time today to sit quietly with pen and paper to begin writing your life plan - what you want to accomplish with your life, and what projects will support your goals.

Further reading: How to Get Motivated

Have a Happy New Year - All Year Long

When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.
- Lao Tzu

You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.
- C. S. Lewis

To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die.
- Ecclesiastes 3:1

The seasons turn. The years turn. Lives and civilizations turn. Today, the year is a newborn. How will we choose to dress it, to feed it, to teach it, to learn from it?

Happy New Year! Happy New Beginning!

Choose Wisely!

Further reading: New Year Suggestions

New Beginnings: A Time to Begin Anew

Welcome Change

Do What is Really Important

Regret Quotes
Amazing Quotes to Live By
Strong Women Quotes
Quotes about Letting Go
Relationship Quotes