Quotes from Willard Beecher

Dependence leads to fear; fear leads to comparisons; comparisons lead to competition, and competition eventually destroys us by degrading us to imitation, conformity, infantilism or mediocrity.

We please others best-and best satisfy ourselves-only when we have done our own job fully and thus fulfilled our own potential.

Let us face the fact: how else can we endure life on this earth unless we can achieve a large degree of tolerance of oneself and others? Life is far too painful if we are hypersensitive and look for the flaws in everything.

Until a person has discovered and dares to follow his own inner gleam, we may be sure of one thing: he will be leaning in either negative or positive dependence on someone outside himself!

Competition is frequently praised as a great virtue to be developed by everyone. This is a costly misunderstanding, since human skills develop adequately only in cooperation, a condition of reinforcement. Competition always lies at cross-purposes with cooperation and thus frustrates individual human initiative.