Love versus Attachment

Love allows your beloved the freedom to be unlike you. Attachment asks for conformity to your needs and desires. Love imposes no demands. Attachment expresses an overwhelming demand – "Make me feel whole." Love expands beyond the limits of two people. Attachment tries to exclude everything but two people. - Deepak Chopra 

 If you love something, set it free; if it comes backs it's yours, if it doesn't, it never was. - Richard Bach

 All life is change. Release your attachment to the way things have been, and wend your way joyfully through life's unfolding majesty. - Jonathan Lockwood Huie 

 Further reading: Can People Change ? 

  Acceptance Makes a Great Relationship Even Better 

  My articles about relationships - and many other topics.

Tomorrow

Every tomorrow has two handles.
We can take hold of it with the handle of anxiety
or the handle of faith.
- Henry Ward Beecher

Today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday.
- Anonymous

Courage doesn't always roar.
Sometimes courage is the quiet voice
at the end of the day saying,
"I will try again tomorrow."
- Mary Anne Radmacher

May you taste, smell, and touch
your dreams of a beautiful tomorrow.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Vision

Be optimistic

Thomas Jefferson on the Future

Tomorrow Quotes

Future Quotes

Boldness Quotes

Life Happens

Don't be too timid and squeamish about your actions.
All life is an experiment.
The more experiments you make the better.
What if they are a little coarse,
and you may get your coat soiled or torn?
What if you do fail, and get fairly rolled
in the dirt once or twice.
Up again, you shall never be so afraid of a tumble.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

A life lived in fear is a life half lived.
- Anonymous

A well-developed sense of humor
is the pole that adds balance to your steps,
as you walk the tightrope of life.
- William Arthur Ward

I become happy when I choose to accept and love all of life.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Adversity

Billy Graham

Life isn't Fair
      

Failure

Success consists of going from failure to failure
without loss of enthusiasm.
- Winston Churchill

A man can fail many times,
but he isn't a failure until he
begins to blame somebody else.
- John Burroughs

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

Understand the difference between "failing,"
which each of us does often,
and "being a failure,"
which is a state of mind no one should
ever allow themself to fall into.

Sometimes you get the results you wanted,
sometimes you don't.
What matters is that you did your best.

Know that your true self,
a spiritual being,
is always perfect.

Further reading: What is Failure

Wayne Dyer on Failure

Failure? Never

George Washington Carver on Failure

Robert F. Kennedy on Failure

Failure Quotes

Success Quotes

True Self Quotes

Gratitude

The thankful receiver bears a plentiful harvest.
- William Blake

Gratitude in advance is the most powerful
creative force in the universe.
- Neale Donald Walsch

Expressing gratitude seems like a cosmic invitation
for all kinds of thankfulness and appreciation to pour in.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

With gratitude, all life appears as a blessing -
without gratitude, all of life is perceived as a burden.
- jlh

Further reading: Let Each Day be a Thanksgiving

Debt of Kindness

Regarding gratitude and life

Gratitude Quotes

Kindness Quotes

Blessing Quotes

Love

Love is a fruit in season at all times,
and within reach of every hand.
- Mother Teresa

There is no remedy for love but to love more.
- Henry David Thoreau

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

Gift the love of your life with undistracted,
untelevisioned, unhurried attentiveness.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

Every true love song, by its very nature, is a duet.
- jlh

Further reading: The #1 Secret of Great Relationships

What is Love?

Quotes about Love by Mother Teresa

Quotes about Love by Mary Anne Radmacher

Quotes about Love by Henry David Thoreau

Quotes about Love by Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Quotes about Love by Khalil Gibran

Today

Today is the first day of the rest of your life.
- Anonymous

Don't Wait!
Start on your dreams, your impulses,
your longings, your special occasions today.
Because this is your moment.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

Yesterday is history,
tomorrow is a mystery.
Today is a gift.
That is why it is called Present.
- Anonymous

Every day is a Perfect Day when I say it is;
and I say that Today is a Perfect Day.
- jlh

Further reading: Carpe Diem - Seize The Day

Life and Death

Start living now

How To Be Happy Today And Prepare For Tomorrow

Great Wisdom

I have found the paradox,
that if you love until it hurts,
there can be no more hurt, only more love.
- Mother Teresa

Nothing I say can explain to you Divine Love
Yet all of creation cannot seem to stop talking about it.
- Rumi

Kindness in words creates confidence.
Kindness in thinking creates profoundness.
Kindness in giving creates love.
- Lao Tzu

Hate is never conquered by hate,
Hate is only conquered by love.
- The Buddha

There is the same great wisdom at the core of all cultures and traditions.

Further reading: Grant That I May Radiate (a prayer)

Appreciate the Unexpected

Where There is Love, Nothing is Missing - a Parable

Others are Never the Cause of My Unhappiness

Unity Quotes

Mother Teresa quotes

Lao Tzu quotes

Quotes by The Buddha

William Shakespeare quotes

Mask

Man is least himself when he talks in his own person.
Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.
- Oscar Wilde

We all have a social mask, right? We put it on, we go out, put our best foot forward, our best image. But behind that social mask is a personal truth, what we really, really believe about who we are and what we're capable of.
- Phil McGraw

Society is a masked ball,
where every one hides his real character,
and reveals it by hiding.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Recognize the extent to which you hide your true nature from the world.
Consider revealing more to your true self.

Further reading: How to Be Yourself

How To Not Care What Others Think

Need For Approval

Being Yourself quotes

Overwhelm

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

If we don't see a failure as a challenge to modify our approach,
but rather as a problem with ourselves, as a personality defect,
we will immediately feel overwhelmed.
- Tony Robbins

Feeling overwhelmed by apparent demands on our time
is like going to a restaurant,
ordering everything on the menu,
and complaining about indigestion.
- jlh

Overwhelm is not a pleasant condition. The to-do list overflows, the deadlines appear imminent and immovable. There are too many demands upon too little of your time. Does this sound familiar?

Truly, there is nothing you must do. Stop. Breathe deeply and slowly. Choose to put your own inner peace first. Then choose to work on what is most important to you, rather than that which appears most urgent.

Affirmation: Time is my friend.

Further reading: De-Stress Your Life

Choose Inner Peace and a Less Stressful Life

Time, like life itself, has no inherent meaning.

Time Quotes

Priorities Quotes

Urgency Quotes

Do Right

Do what you feel in your heart to be right -
for you'll be criticized anyway.
You'll be damned if you do, and damned if you don't.
- Eleanor Roosevelt

Sometimes it is better to lose and do the right thing
than to win and do the wrong thing.
- Tony Blair

The truth of the matter is that
you always know the right thing to do.
The hard part is doing it.
- Gen. Norman Schwarzkoff

Reputation is what other people know about you.
Honor is what you know about yourself.
- Lois McMaster Bujold

Whatever your friends and family do,
Always do what you know is right.

Further reading: Is there a place for Honor today?

Live with honor

Be yourself. Honor yourself.

Honor Quotes

Yourself Quotes

Completion

All endeavor calls for the ability
to tramp the last mile,
shape the last plan, endure the last hours toil.
The fight to the finish spirit is the one...
characteristic we must posses
if we are to face the future as finishers.
- Henry David Thoreau

There is more value in a very good painting
that is completed and on display,
than in an excellent painting
that is still in the artist's studio,
or perhaps still in his mind.
- jlh

Value completion.

Further reading: Declare Victory

Later is Never

How to Keep Your Resolutions

How to be Successful in Business

Eight Ways to Balance Your Life

Quotes about Letting Go

Quotes about Being Strong

Keep Moving

You have to accept whatever comes
and the only important thing is that
you meet it with courage
and with the best that you have to give.
- Eleanor Roosevelt

Success seems to be connected with action.
Successful people keep moving.
They make mistakes, but they don't quit.
- Conrad Hilton

We keep moving forward, opening new doors,
and doing new things, because we're curious
and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.
- Walt Disney

Affirmation:
Even when I am afraid or unsure,
I choose to move in the direction of my goal.
Whenever I fall, I stand up,
brush myself off, and keep moving.

Further reading: How to Think Positive

How to Move On and Let Go

Take Charge of Your Life - 9 Secrets For Getting Un-Stuck

Never Give Up Quotes

Can Do Quotes

Overcoming Adversity

Create Love

We are not held back by the love we didn't receive in the past, but by the love we're not extending in the present. - Marianne Williamson 

 Anything will give up its secrets if you love it enough. Not only have I found that when I talk to the little flower or to the little peanut they will give up their secrets, but I have found that when I silently commune with people they give up their secrets also - if you love them enough. - George Washington Carver 

 Love wasn't put in your heart to stay. Love isn't love until you give it away. - Michael W. Smith 

 Don't wait for love to come to you. Create love, and give it away. 

 Further reading: Create Light for Others

The True Nature of Love 

  Where There is Love, Nothing is Missing - a Parable

Compassion

You may call God love, you may call God goodness.
But the best name for God is compassion.
- Meister Eckhart

There is no small act of kindness.
Every compassionate act makes large the world.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

Universal compassion is the only guarantee of morality.
- Arthur Schopenhauer

To know even one life has
breathed easier because you have lived.
This is to have succeeded.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Compassion is the ultimate value in life.
Service is the ultimate action.
- jlh

Further reading: Compassion Quotes

Helping Others

Gratitude Quotes

Diversity

Compassion for Those of All Cultures

Compassion for Those of All Faiths

Relax

The time to relax is when you don't have time for it. - Sydney J. Harris 

 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 

 Today is your day to dance lightly with life, sing wild songs of adventure, invite rainbows and butterflies out to play, soar your spirit, and unfurl your joy. - Jonathan Lockwood Huie

 Relax. Take a day off. Go for a long silent walk in the woods. The world will still be there tomorrow - as good and as bad as ever. 

 Further reading: Seven Tips for Stress-Free Living 

  Ten Little Tips to Feel Happier Right Now 

  Celebrate Whimsey Today 

  Conscious Breathing to Relieve Stress 

 

Perseverance - Persistence

Courage and perseverance have a magical talisman,
before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish into air.
- John Quincy Adams

It's not whether you get knocked down,
it's whether you get up.
- Vince Lombardi

Protect your vision.
Prevail over adversity.
Persevere in the midst of turmoil.
Passionately act upon your convictions.
Purposely walk into the day.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

Dream. Begin. Persevere.
- jlh

Further reading: What is Transformation?

Strength Quotes

Perseverance Quotes

Change Quotes

Positive Quotes

Courage Quotes

Fly Life

One can never consent to creep when one feels an impulse to soar.
- Helen Keller

Angels can fly because they can take themselves lightly.
- G. K. Chesterton

Fly Life on Free Wings, and Sing to its Glory.
- jlh

Like a bird in flight, your life can soar above the troubles of the world. Breathe deep, choose, and break the shackles of your past.

Further reading: How to Move On and Let Go

Threshold of success

Fly your dreams

Together

New Day Quotes

Quotes about Moving On

Encouraging Quotes

Growing Up Quotes

Helen Keller

Tolerance is the first principle of community;
it is the spirit which conserves the best that all men think.
- Helen Keller

I do not want the peace that passeth understanding.
I want the understanding which bringeth peace.
- Helen Keller

The test of all beliefs is their practical effect in life.
If it be true that optimism compels the world forward, and pessimism retards it,
then it is dangerous to propagate a pessimistic philosophy.
- Helen Keller

Although the world is full of suffering,
it is full also of the overcoming of it.
My optimism, then, does not rest on the absence of evil,
but on a glad belief in the preponderance of good
and a willing effort always to cooperate with the good,
that it may prevail.
- Helen Keller

If I am happy in spite of my deprivations,
if my happiness is so deep that it is a faith,
so thoughtful that it becomes a philosophy of life.
If, in short, I am an optimist,
my testimony to the creed of optimism is worth hearing.
- Helen Keller

Helen Keller (1880-1968) overcame being both deaf and blind to become a famous author, lecturer, and activist for women's suffrage, workers' rights, and ending war.

Further reading: How to Think Positive

How to Choose Your Life Purpose

The Secret of Happiness

Helen Keller Quotes

Eleanor Roosevelt Quotes

Gandhi Quotes

Joseph Addison Quotes

Seek

Once you know yourself as a genuine seeker,
and when your own inner chamber is quite enlightened,
then comes the natural unfoldment of pure love and compassion
and a genuine desire to serve others.
- Rod Stryker

What each must seek in his life never was on land or sea.
It is something out of his own unique potentiality for experience,
something that never has been and never could
have been experienced by anyone else.
- Joseph Campbell

Be a seeker. Seek your purpose. Seek your own values. Seek your path through life.

Further reading: How to Choose Your Life Purpose

What is Honor? Is there a place for Honor today?

Become Your Own Greatest Hero

Steve Jobs' Three Rules of Life

Respect Quotes

Being Yourself Quotes

Not Caring What People Think

Circumstances

We cannot choose our external circumstances,
but we can always choose how to respond to them.
- Epictetus

We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men
who walked through the huts comforting others,
giving away their last piece of bread...
They offer sufficient proof that everything
can be taken from a man but one thing:
to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances,
to choose one's own way.
- Viktor E. Frankl

The answer to circumstances is choosing a positive response,
and the most positive choice is to be of service.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Read my thoughts on circumstances at Overcome Being Negative

Together

Coming together is a beginning;
keeping together is progress;
working together is success.
- Henry Ford

Humankind has not woven the web of life.
We are but one thread within it.
Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves.
All things are bound together.
All things connect.
- Chief Seattle

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted,
every hill and mountain shall be made low,
the rough places will be made straight
and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed
and all flesh shall see it together.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

We all share unity with each other and with the one Creator Spirit. We are one.

Further reading: The #1 Secret of Great Relationships

What is Love?

Together, we are an ocean

Live together as brothers

Unity Quotes

Peace Quotes

Open Minded Quotes

Blessings

Rain

Give thanks for the rain in your life
which waters the flowers of your soul.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

I love the rain - it washes memories off the sidewalk of life.
- Play It Again, Sam (1972)

The way I see it, if you want the rainbow,
you gotta put up with the rain.
- Dolly Parton

I wish you enough rain to appreciate the sun more.
- Anonymous

Further reading: Growth in Spiritual Life and Career

How to Cope When Life Lands a One-Two Punch?

Great Truths

Accept Circumstances - Choose Response

How to Make Impossible Decisions

Uplifting Quotes

Comforting Quotes

Never Give Up Quotes

Deep Quotes

Dream Big Dreams

If you can dream it, you can do it.
- Walt Disney

Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions.
Small people always do that,
but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.
- Mark Twain

Winners Dream Big Dreams.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Dare to dream of your great success.
become intimate with those things which
deeply motivate you and regularly work
toward the realization of that mission.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

Further reading: How to Choose Your Life Purpose

How to Make a Decision You Won't Regret

Is Now a Time to be Reasonable?

Positive Attitude: How to be Positive Around Negative People

Follow Your Dreams

Dreams Quotes

Quotes to Live By

Amazing Quotes

Disappointment

Expectation is the root of all heartache.
- William Shakespeare

Never succumb to the temptation of bitterness.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

People generally complain about only two things:
when they have less than yesterday,
and when they have less than their neighbor.
- jlh

Before you say, "no, no, that isn't true," consider that having a pain today is having less good health than yesterday, and aging is having less youth than yesterday.

Choose to be as a young child - fully awake, eager for the next experience.
- jlh

As we age, we experience disappointments, and then develop a fear of the unfamiliar. Consciously adopt the mindset of a young child, to whom all of life is a grand adventure.

Further reading: Zero-Based Gratitude

Assumptions

Expectations

Comparison - Cause of Unhappiness

What is a New Beginning? (read both the article and the quotes)

Hope Quotes

Uplifting Quotes

Starting Over Quotes

The Main Thing

The Main Thing is to Keep The Main Thing The Main Thing.
- Stephen Covey

Be alert. The most important things in life are seldom the most obvious.
- jlh

Do first things first, and second things not at all.
- Peter Drucker

If a task is important, do it now. If it is not truly important, forget about it forever, relax, and do something that really is important.

Further reading: How to be Successful in Business

How to Motivate Yourself

Moving On (read both the article and the quotes)

How to Think Positive

Courage Quotes

Success Quotes

Goal Quotes

May You...

May your life always be Counterpoint to the Clamor of the World.
May you delight in Dancing Lightly With Life.
May you soar on eagle wings, high above the madness of the world.
May you always sing Melody in the Symphony of Your Life.
May you taste, smell, and touch your dreams of a beautiful tomorrow.
May your sun always shine, and your sky be forever blue.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Do not lose your inner peace for anything whatsoever,
even if your whole world seems upset.
- Saint Francis de Sales

We can never obtain peace in the outer world
until we make peace with ourselves.
- Dalai Lama

Further reading: What If Every Day Were Your Day

The Secret of Happiness

How to Think Positive

Attitude is Everything

New Beginning Quotes

Quotes to Live By

Quotes about Letting Go

Being Alone Quotes

Freedom

We hold these truths to be self-evident:
that all men are created equal,
that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights,
among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
- Thomas Jefferson [Declaration of Independence, and inscribed in the Jefferson Memorial]

The only thing necessary for evil to triumph
is for enough good men to do nothing.
- Edmund Burke

We must become the change we wish to see in the world.
- Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi

Do you want to know who you are?
Don't ask. Act!
Action will delineate and define you.
- Thomas Jefferson

Have a joyful American Independence Day.

Further reading: What is Honor? Is there a place for Honor today?

Pay It Forward - as an Expression of Universal Gratitude

Celebration

How to Share Your Thoughts With the World

Freedom Quotes

Gratitude Quotes

Respect Quotes

Presidential Quotes

Thomas Jefferson Quotes

Empathy

Could a greater miracle take place than for us to look through each other's eyes for an instant?
- Henry David Thoreau

Nothing is so hard for those who abound in riches
as to conceive how others can be in want.
- Jonathan Swift

Wherever there is a human being,
there is an opportunity for a kindness.
- Seneca

Science may have found a cure for most evils;
but it has found no remedy for the worst of them all --
the apathy of human beings.
- Helen Keller

Compassion becomes real when we recognize our shared humanity.
- Pema Chodron

There is compassion in selfless generosity, but there is also compassion in heartfelt empathy.

Further reading: The Brick - a story of brotherly love

How to Choose Your Life Purpose

What is Love?

Unity (with Spirit and All Creation)     

Gather Strength

Life is not about waiting for the storms to pass...
It's about learning how to dance in the rain.
- Vivian Greene

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

Strength does not come from physical capacity.
It comes from an indomitable will.
- Mohandas Gandhi (Mahatma Gandhi)

Where there is no struggle, there is no strength.
- Oprah Winfrey

Is today a day to gather strength from the storm - a day to to learn life lessons for the next battle? Or is today a day to sit by the fire and watch the storm rage outside? Either way, the storm is just life. Give thanks for all of Life.

Further reading: Boldly Sail the Storms of Life

Dare to Dream of Your Great Success - Mary Anne Radmacher

Later is Never

Success Tip: Drive Change
      

Be Gentle with Yourself

Be gentle first with yourself -
if you wish to be gentle with others.
- Lama Yeshe

I have three precious things which I hold fast and prize.
The first is gentleness;
the second is frugality;
the third is humility, which keeps me from putting myself before others.
Be gentle and you can be bold;
be frugal and you can be generous;
avoid putting yourself before others and you can become a leader among men.
- Lao Tzu

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

Affirmation: Today, I will be gentle with myself.

Further reading: See no evil, Hear no evil, Speak no evil

Life Lessons

Aesop: The North Wind and the Sun

Go With the Flow

Lao Tzu Quotes

Inspirational Quotes

Comforting Quotes

Positive Quotes