Happiness Tips

The best way to cheer yourself
is to try to cheer someone else up.
- Mark Twain

Laugh when you can,
apologize when you should,
and let go of what you can't change.
Life's too short to be anything... but happy.
- Anonymous

The foolish man seeks happiness in the distance;
the wise grows it under his feet.
- J. Robert Oppenheimer

A happy life consists not in the absence,
but in the mastery of hardships.
- Helen Keller

Further reading: Ten Little Tips to Feel Happier Right Now

Secrets for a Happy Life

The Secret of Happiness

Life Wisdom

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

 They must often change, who would be constant in happiness or wisdom. - Confucius 

 Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving. - Albert Einstein 

 Take the time today to tell your friends the difference they have made in your life. - Catherine Pulsifer

Further reading: The Secret of Happiness 

  Breaking the Cycle of Self-Inflicted Suffering 

  How to Make a Decision You Won't Regret

Our Light

At times our own light goes out
and is rekindled by a spark from another person.
Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude
of those who have lighted the flame within us.
- Albert Schweitzer

It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.
- Chinese proverb often quoted by Eleanor Roosevelt

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

Further reading: How to Think Positive

The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse - a fable by Aesop

Adversity

Quotes about Light

Gratitude Quotes

Fear Quotes

Quotes about Hate

Quotes about Love

Simple Joys

It is always the simple that produces the marvelous.
- Amelia Barr

Most men pursue pleasure with such breathless haste
that they hurry past it.
- Soren Kierkegaard

The essence of life is not in
the great victories and grand failures,
but in the simple joys.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: You have the power to make life joyful

The Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi

Suffering is optional

Success

Our greatest weakness lies in giving up.
The most certain way to succeed
is always to try just one more time.
- Thomas A. Edison

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

To leave the world a bit better ...
to know that one life has breathed easier because you have lived.
This is to have succeeded.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

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

"Success" isn't about money or fame. Success is living a life you feel proud of.

Further reading: Finding Balance in Life

How to Save Money while Living Well

How to be Successful in Business

Success Quotes

Quotes about Life

Quotes about Fame

Quotes about Enthusiasm

Quotes about Money

Believe

Those who believe they can do something
and those who believe they can't
are both right.
- Henry Ford

Stand often in the company of dreamers.
They believe you can achieve impossible things.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

Your life becomes what you believe.
- Jewel

Further reading: How To Not Care What Others Think

How to Deal with Rejection

How to Be Yourself

Self Confidence

Quotes to Live By

Words of Inspiration

Motivational Quotes

Positive Quotes

Powerful Quotes

No Regrets

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

I rest in the light of forgiveness.
I forgive myself and others for that
which is done (and better left undone)
and also that which is not done (and better if done).
I give myself permission to enjoy this moment without guilt.
I freely release all uncertainty, regret, and fear.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

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

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

Further reading: How to get over regrets and resentments

Acceptance

Qigong Release Exercise

Beyond the Grief of Divorce

Quotes about Regret

Quotes about Resentment

Quotes about Acceptance

Quotes about Forgiveness

Quotes about Guilt

Education

Education is not the answer to the question.
Education is the means to the answer to all questions.
- William Allin

Intellectual growth should commence at birth
and cease only at death.
- Albert Einstein

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

The goal of education is the advancement of knowledge
and the dissemination of truth.
- John F. Kennedy

Being a role model is the most powerful form of educating.
Youngsters need good models more than they need critics.
It's one of a parent's greatest responsibilities and opportunities.
- John Wooden

Please support your local public schools.

Further reading: Jimmy Yen - My Personal Greatest Hero

Pay It Forward - as an Expression of Universal Gratitude

Pay It Forward - Everyone (political)

Quotes about Education

Quotes about Growing Up

Quotes about Children

Quotes about Families

Quotes about Lessons

Community

Interdependence is and ought to be
as much the ideal of man as self-sufficiency.
Man is a social being.
- Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi

We must all hang together,
or assuredly we shall all hang separately.
- Benjamin Franklin

People who work together will win,
whether it be against complex football defenses,
or the problems of modern society.
- Vince Lombardi

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

Being human, we are imperfect. That's why we need each other.
To catch each other when we falter.
To encourage each other when we lose heart.
Some may lead; others may follow; but none of us can go it alone.
- Hillary Clinton

We all need a social network, whether it is an extended family, religious group, the fellowship of a small town community, or a network we create through our career or shared commitments.

Further reading: Where There is Love, Nothing is Missing - a Parable

The Brick - a story of brotherly love - Anonymous

Show Your Honest Appreciation - Today

Finding Inner Strength

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

Life is not easy for any of us. But what of that?
We must have perseverance and above all confidence in ourselves.
- Marie Curie

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

Further reading: Feel Your Connection With the Infinite - a Meditation

Trust in the Light

Unanswered Prayers

Quotes about Strength

Uplifting Quotes

Words of Comfort

Healing Quotes

Bible Scriptures on Strength

Inner Strength Quotes

Walking

Reading about nature is fine, but if a person
walks in the woods and listens carefully,
he can learn more than what is in books,
for they speak with the voice of God.
- George Washington Carver

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

Walking takes longer...
than any other known form of locomotion except crawling.
Thus it stretches time and prolongs life.
Life is already too short to waste on speed.
- Edward Abbey

If a man walks in the woods for love of them half of each day,
he is in danger of being regarded as a loafer.
But if he spends his days as a speculator,
shearing off those woods and making the earth bald before her time,
he is deemed an industrious and enterprising citizen.
- Henry David Thoreau

Further reading: Choose Inner Peace and a Less Stressful Life

Conscious Breathing to Relieve Stress

Seven Tips for Stress-Free Living

Quotes about Walking

Quotes about Sanctuary

Quotes about Nature

Quotes about Urgency

Quotes about Values

Feeling Stuck?

Change your thoughts and you change your world.
- Norman Vincent Peale

Every thought we think is creating our future.
- Louise L. Hay

Life is ten percent what happens to you
and ninety percent how you respond to it.
- Lou Holtz

Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage.
- Anaïs Nin

If you are feeling stuck - perhaps your New Years Resolutions aren't going well - let these articles and quotes help...

How to Keep Your New Years Resolutions

How to Get Motivated

What Can Christopher Columbus Teach Us Today?

Make It Happen

Believe you can - and then make it happen. - Jonathan Lockwood Huie 

 Winning isn't everything, but wanting to win is. - Vince Lombardi 

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

 Further reading: Master Self-Motivation 

  Have Big Goals Keep Moving

Support

None of us got where we are solely by
pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps.
- Thurgood Marshall

The key is to keep company only with people who uplift you,
whose presence calls forth your best.
- Epictetus

Epictetus was born a slave in Ancient Greece, and went on to become a noted thinker and teacher. I think he overstates his case, as it is also important to uplift other people. Nonetheless, I also recommend spending as much time as possible with people who uplift your spirit and encourage you to be the best that you can be.

Further reading: Caring

Comforting Words and Support

When Your Whole World Is Falling Apart

Benjamin Franklin

Ben Franklin's birthday is January 17. Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) was a signer of both the American Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution, the first American Ambassador to France, and a scientist, inventor, writer, and printer.

A good example is the best sermon.
- Benjamin Franklin

It is easier to prevent bad habits than to break them.
- Benjamin Franklin

I am the lord of myself, accountable to none.
- Benjamin Franklin

Search others for their virtues, thyself for thy vices.
- Benjamin Franklin

Well done is better than well said.
- Benjamin Franklin

Further reading: Cute Wisdom

Inspiring Others

Don't Complain!

Home

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day - a United States Federal Holiday - is celebrated on the third Monday of January each year.

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

Life's most urgent question is:
what are you doing for others?
- 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.

Peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek,
but a means by which we arrive at that goal.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

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

Further reading: Plant Trees For Your Grandchildren

How to Choose Your Life Purpose

Encouragement for Hard Times

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

Life may not be the party we hoped for
but while we are here we might as well dance.
- Anonymous

When one door of happiness closes, another opens,
but often we look so long at the closed door
that we do not see the one that has been opened for us.
- Helen Keller

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

Further reading: Coping with the Impossible

How to Cope With Life

Overcome Being Negative

Encouraging Quotes

Quotes about Hard Times

You Can Do It Quotes

Quotes about Strong Women

Words of Wisdom

Strength of Purpose

To live is to choose. But to choose well,
you must know who you are and what you stand for,
where you want to go and why you want to get there.
- Kofi Annan

The purpose of life is a life of purpose.
- Robert Byrne

Make your work to be in keeping with your purpose.
- Leonardo da Vinci

To lead a great life:
Dream, Take Action, Repeat.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: When is Your Best Good Enough?

How to Choose Your Life Purpose

Attitude is Everything

Strength Quotes

Quotes about Purpose

Quotes about Growing Up

Spiritual Quotes

Wise Sayings

Perspective of Love

Love is saying "I feel differently," instead of "You're wrong."
- Anonymous

Virtually everything is a matter of perspective and opinion. Whether the subject is politics, religion, sex, the kids' homework, or anything else, there really isn't a "right" way, just the way you prefer.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

The most dangerous phrase in the language is,
"We've always done it this way."
- Grace Hopper

People only see what they are prepared to see.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Further reading: Perspective on Tradition: An Open Mind

The #1 Secret of Great Relationships

You Can't Make Them Change

Acceptance Makes a Great Relationship Even Better

Perspective Quotes

Point of View Quotes

Acceptance Quotes

Cooperation Quotes

Love Quotes

Breakthrough

Don't Limit Your Challenges... Challenge Your Limits.
- Anonymous

We all go through life bristling
at our external limitations,
but the most difficult chains
to break are inside us.
- Bradley Whitford

At all times and under all circumstances,
we have the power to transform the quality of our lives.
- Werner Erhard

Today's affirmation:
I am the master of my emotions -
I transform fear to love, anger to compassion,
pain to comfort, scarcity to abundance,
expectation to gratitude, and jealousy to generosity.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: What is Transformation?

Miracles Need Both God and You

Overcome Being Negative

Positive Affirmations

Strength Quotes

Positive Quotes

Attitude Quotes

Blessings

Social Obligations

Happiness cannot thrive within the prison of [social] obligation.
Live wild, life free, live as master of your own fate.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Watch your thoughts, for they become words.
Watch your words, for they become actions.
Watch your actions, for they become habits.
Watch your habits, for they become character.
Watch your character, for it becomes your destiny.
- Anonymous

Choose the whole of your environment, things and events,
based upon the value, meaning and function they hold.
Do not allow obligation or immediacy
to bind you to physical things or specific actions.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

Further reading: Social Obligations (in contrast to legal or moral obligations)

Gifts freely given are never obligations

Practice makes perfect - sometimes

Joy is a Choice - but Not an Easy Choice

Quotes about Obligations

Choices Quotes

Quotes about Habits

Moving On Quotes

Letting Go Quotes

Life Lessons Quotes

Habits

Habit and routine have an unbelievable power to waste and destroy.
- Henri de Lubac

Successful people are simply those with successful habits.
- Brian Tracy

Your life is the sum result of all the choices you make, both consciously and unconsciously. If you can control the process of choosing, you can take control of all aspects of your life. You can find the freedom that comes from being in charge of yourself.
- Robert Foster Bennett

We first make our habits, then our habits make us.
- John Dryden

There are good habits, like exercising daily. There are bad habits, like smoking. And there are habits of mindless routine, like hour upon hour of watching television shows that you aren't really interested in.

Begin this new year by writing down how you spend your days. Consider making changes where you see either bad habits or mindless routine.

Read Social Obligations

For more on habits, read Choose Your Habits, Choose Your Life

Further reading: How to Keep Your New Years Resolutions

Outrageous

If being good isn't working - try being outrageous.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth.
- John F. Kennedy

The greatest mistake you can make in life
is to be continually fearing you will make one.
- Elbert Hubbard

This above all, to thine own self be true.
- William Shakespeare

Let today be the day you begin to make choices about the direction of your life without regard to any petty expectations by others. [By "petty" expectations, I mean expectations that come primarily from habit.]

Further reading: Expectations

Perspective on Tradition: An Open Mind

Appreciate the Unexpected

Assumptions

Quotes about Being Bold

You Can Do It Quotes

Strength Quotes

Self Esteem Quotes

Positive Quotes

Rest

Do not let Sunday be taken from you.
If your soul has no Sunday, it becomes an orphan.
- Albert Schweitzer

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

Honor True Self
Forgive with Compassion
Receive ALL of life with Thanksgiving
CHOOSE with Thoughtful Consideration
Dream with Powerful Vision
Act with Bold Courage
Dance with a Light Heart
Relax in the Arms of Spirit
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Sunday clears away the rust of the whole week.
- Joseph Addison

Let today be a day of rest - a day not to work, not to worry, not to regret. Let today be a day to be apart from the world - a day to turn off the television news. Let today be a day of repose and reflection.

Further reading: Choose Inner Peace and a Less Stressful Life

Meditation: What? Why? How?

Seven Tips for Stress-Free Living

How to Sleep Better

Relax Quotes

Quotes of Thanksgiving

Quotes about Peace

Words of Inspiration

Repose Quotes

Quotes about Miracles

Choices

Life is a sum of all your choices.
- Albert Camus

It is our choices ... that show what we truly are,
far more than our abilities.
- J. K. Rowling

Make your important choices in life
based on your values and your long-term objectives
rather than on a need for approval.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

As we begin this new year, be aware of the wide range of choices that are open to you. Lay aside habit and tradition, to make those choices that best serve you and those you love in the coming year - and beyond.

Further reading: Steve Jobs' Three Rules of Life

How to Move On and Let Go

How to Choose Your Life Purpose

The Secret of Happiness

Quotes about Choices

Quotes about Courage

Quotes about Being Strong

Quotes about Being Yourself

Quotes about New Beginnings

Helping Others

Life's most urgent question is:
what are you doing for others?
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

One thing I know: the only ones among you
who will be really happy are those
who will have sought and found how to serve.
- Albert Schweitzer

What do we live for, if it is not
to make life less difficult for each other?
- George Eliot

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

Let one of your commitments for this year be to help someone who will never be able to repay your service to them.

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

Where There is Love, Nothing is Missing - a Parable

The Brick - a story of brotherly love - Anonymous

The Dog Who Came to Dinner (an old parable retold)

The Good Samaritan

Quotes about Service

Quotes about Compassion

Quotes about Generosity

Priorities

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

You will never find time for anything.
If you want time you must make it.
- Charles Buxton

It is a better thing to weigh and measure priorities
in the illuminating light of your own mission
than to have your activities formed by the
impressions and expectations of others.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

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.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: How to Choose Your Life Purpose

How to Make a Decision You Won't Regret

Perspective on Priorities

Time, like life itself, has no inherent meaning.

Quotes about Priorities

Quotes about Time

Quotes about Meaning

Quotes about Choices

Quotes about Opportunities

Commitment

There's a difference between knowing the path and walking the path.
- the character Morpheus in the movie The Matrix

Thinking will not overcome fear but action will.
- W. Clement Stone

There are a hundred valid reasons why something can't be done,
but only one reason, Commitment, why it can.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: There is no "try"

Commitment vs. Burnout

Promises to Myself

Quotes about Commitment

Quotes about Goals

Courage Quotes

Quotes by Vince Lombardi

Quotes about Dedication

Seeds

Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap,
but by the seeds that you plant.
- Robert Louis Stevenson

Gardening is all about optimism.
I put a seed in the ground.
I consistently tend it,
confident I will see the results, in time,
of the nurture I have provided.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

A good question is never answered.
It is not a bolt to be tightened into place
but a seed to be planted and to bear more seed
toward the hope of greening the landscape of idea.
- John Ciardi

The season of failure is the best time
for sowing the seeds of success.
- Paramahansa Yogananda

Further reading: What`s in a Name?

Boldly Sail the Storms of Life

Open Mind - Open Heart

Quotes about Seeds

Quotes about Optimism

Quotes about Questions

Quotes about Nurture

Mary Anne Radmacher Quotes

New Years Resolutions

Have your new year's resolutions been a new beginning for you
or have they just been different words on the same old beginning?
Maybe now's the time to establish
a new pattern of viewing your life fresh.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

Every day is a good day to make a resolution
for beginning a new way of living,
but the New Year's Day holiday provides a good focus
for reviewing our lives and resolving
to live each day with conscious attention.

Affirmation:
Standing in the inspiring vision of my future,
I boldly take every step - large and small - with courage and intent.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: New Year Suggestions and Resolutions

A Time to Begin Anew

How to Keep Your New Years Resolutions

Happy New Year

This bright new year is given me To live each day with zest To daily grow and try to be My highest and my best. - William Arthur Ward Cheers to a new year and another chance for us to get it right. - Oprah Winfrey In the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years. - Abraham Lincoln Further reading: What is Your Resolution for the New Year? Have a Happy New Year - All Year Long