Maxwell Maltz Quotes

“Close scrutiny will show that most crisis situations are opportunities to either advance, or stay where you are.”

“Emptiness is a symptom that you are not living creatively. You either have no goal that is important enough to you, or you are not using your talents and efforts in a striving toward an important goal.”

“Experimental and clinical psychologists have proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that the human nervous system cannot tell the difference between an 'actual' experience and an experience imagined vividly and in detail.”

“If you make friends with yourself you will never be alone.”

“Live in the present. The past is gone; the future is unknown – but the present is real, and your opportunities are now. You must see these opportunities; they must be real for you.

The catch is that they can't seem real if your mind is buried in past failures, if you keep reliving old mistakes, old guilts, old tragedies. Fight your way above the many inevitable traumatizations of your ego, escape damnation by the past, and look to the opportunities of the present.

I don't mean some vague moment in the present – next week or next month, perhaps. I mean today, this minute.”

“Low self-esteem is like driving through life with your hand-break on.”

“Man maintains his balance, poise, and sense of security only as he is moving forward.”

“Man of all creatures is more than a creature, he is also a creator. Man alone can direct his success mechanism by the use of imagination, or imaging ability.”

“Our self image, strongly held, essentially determines what we become.”

“Our self-image and our habits tend to go together. Change one and you will automatically change the other.

The word 'habit' originally meant a garment or clothing. Our habits are literally garments worn by our personalities. They are not accidental, or happenstance. We have them because they fit us.

They are consistent with our self-image and our entire personality pattern. When we consciously and deliberately develop new and better habits, our self-image tends to outgrow the old habits and grow into the new pattern.”

“Remember you will not always win. Some days, the most resourceful individual will taste defeat. But there is, in this case, always tomorrow - after you have done your best to achieve success today.”

“Self-improvement is the name of the game, and your primary objective is to strengthen yourself, not to destroy an opponent.”

“Successful people are able to rise above crises by relaxing no matter what the external situation. Their belief in themselves, the strength of their self-image is impenetrable armor, which protects them against shattering events.”

“The lucky or successful person has learned a simple secret. Call up, capture, evoke the feeling of success. When you feel successful and confident, you will act successfully.”

“The most delightful surprise in life is to suddenly recognize your own worth.”

“The self-image is the key to human personality and human behavior. Change the self image and you change the personality and the behavior.”

“Times will change for the better when you change.”

“To change a habit, make a conscious decision, then act out the new behavior.”

“We find no real satisfaction or happiness in life without obstacles to conquer and goals to achieve.”

“We must have courage to bet on our ideas, to take the calculated risk, and to act. Everyday living requires courage if life is to be effective and bring happiness.”

“We, whoever we are, must have a daily goal in our lives, no matter how small or great, to make that day mean something.”

“What is opportunity, and when does it knock? It never knocks. You can wait a whole lifetime, listening, hoping, and you will hear no knocking. None at all.

You are opportunity, and you must knock on the door leading to your destiny. You prepare yourself to recognize opportunity, to pursue and seize opportunity as you develop the strength of your personality, and build a self-image with which you are able to live – with your self-respect alive and growing.”

“When you believe you can... you can!”

“You can always find the sun within yourself if you will only search.”

“A human being always acts and feels and performs in accordance with what he imagines to be true about himself and his environment.

For imagination sets the goal ‘picture’ which our automatic mechanism works on. We act, or fail to act, not because of ‘will’, as is so commonly believed, but because of imagination.”

“A step in the wrong direction is better than staying on the spot all our life. Once you're moving forward you can correct your course as you go. Your automatic guidance system cannot guide you when you're standing still.”

“Adopt the motto 'It doesn't matter who's right, but what's right'.”

“Change your mental imagery, and the feelings will take care of themselves.”

“Conscious effort inhibits and jams the automatic creative mechanism.”

“Do not say to yourself, 'I am going to act this way tomorrow.' Just say to yourself - 'I am going to imagine myself acting this way now - for 30 minutes - today.'”