Og Mandino Quotes Page 2

“One must know that in whatever he does he is moving forward toward a goal. Aimlessness is the worst enemy of success. One can hardly feel successful in a bog. But as long as one has purpose he feels that his energies and creative thought are taking him somewhere, and there is satisfaction in the journey just as there is despair whenever we feel, as we often insightfully put it, that we are getting nowhere.”

“Realize that true happiness lies within you. Waste no time and effort searching for peace and contentment and joy in the world outside. Remember that there is no happiness in having or in getting, but only in giving. Reach out. Share. Smile. Hug. Happiness is a perfume you cannot pour on others without getting a few drops on yourself.”

“Sound character provides the power with which a person may ride the emergencies of life instead of being overwhelmed by them. Failure is the highway to success.”

“Take the attitude of a student, never be too big to ask questions, never know too much to learn something new.”

“The only certain means of success is to render more and better service than is expected of you, no matter what your task may be.”

“The secret of success is to triple your rate of failure.”

“The victory of success is half won when one gains the habit of setting goals and achieving them. Even the most tedious chore will become endurable as you parade through each day convinced that every task, no matter how menial or boring, brings you closer to achieving your dreams.”

“There is an immeasurable distance between late and too late.”

“To be always intending to make a new and better life but never to find time to set about it is as to put off eating and drinking and sleeping from one day to the next until you're dead.”

“Today will never happen again. Don't waste it with a false start or no start at all.”

“Today... I begin a new life!”

“Treasure the friendship you receive above all. It will survive long after your gold and good health have vanished.”

“Treat everyone you meet as if they were going to be dead by midnight. Extend to them all the care, kindness and understanding you can muster, and do so with no thought of any reward. Your life will never be the same again.”

“Very often we are our own worst enemy as we foolishly build stumbling blocks on the path that leads to success and happiness.”

“We first make our habits, and then our habits make us”

“Weak is he who permits his thoughts to control his actions; strong is he who forces his actions to control his thoughts.”

“Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, he can achieve.”

“Without enthusiasm you are doomed to a life of mediocrity but with it you can accomplish miracles.”

“Work as though you would live forever, and live as though you would die today.”

“Your only limitations are those you set up in your mind, or permit others to set up for you.”

“Your time is too precious to be sacrificed in wasted days combating the menial forces of hate, jealously, and envy.”

“So long as I have something to do, someone to love, and something to hope for, I shall be happy.”

“So many of us think ourselves into smallness, into inferiority, by thinking downward. We are held back by too much caution. We are timid about venturing. We are not bold enough. Struck down by our own caution, our own lack of faith in ourselves and our abilities. Opportunities? There were many. But always there was risk. Do we dare? We vacillate. Time hurries by. Opportunity gone. We anguish. The years roll on. Finally, we convince ourselves that it's too late and settle for cheap imitations of life.”

“We are held back by too much caution. We are timid about venturing. We are not bold enough. And so we die before we reach middle age, although we will not be lowered into the ground until we pass three score and ten.”

“Most humans, in varying degrees, are already dead. In one way or another they have lost their dreams, their ambitions, their desire for a better life. They have surrendered their fight for self-esteem and they have compromised their great potential. They have settled for a life of mediocrity, days of despair and nights of tears. They are no more than living deaths confined to cemeteries of their choice. Yet they need not remain in that state. They can be resurrected from their sorry condition. They can each perform the greatest miracle in the world. They can each come back from the dead...”

“Most of us build prisons for ourselves and after we occupy them for a period of time we become accustomed to their walls and accept the false premise that we are incarcerated for life. As soon as that belief takes hold of us we abandon hope of ever doing more with our lives and of ever giving our dreams a chance to be fulfilled. We become puppets and begin to suffer living deaths. It may be praiseworthy and noble to sacrifice your life to a cause or a business or the happiness of others, but if you are miserable and unfulfilled in that lifestyle, and know it, then to remain in it is a hypocrisy, a lie, and a rejection of the faith placed in you by your creator.”

“As a child I was slave to my impulses; now I am slave to my habits, as are all grown men.”

“Experience is comparable to fashion; an action that proved successful today will be unworkable and impractical tomorrow. Only principles endure.”

“I am here for a purpose and that purpose is to grow into a mountain, not to shrink to a grain of sand. Henceforth will I apply all my efforts to become the highest mountain of all and I will strain my potential until it cries for mercy.”

“I am the end product of thousands of years of evolution; therefore, I am better equipped in both mind and body than all the emperors and wise men who preceded me.”