Quotes from Orison Swett Marden

Let us, then, be up and doing, With a heart for any fate; Still achieving, still pursuing, Learn to labor and to wait. —Longfellow.

There is no lack of anything we need on God's earth any more than there is a lack of sunshine. Who would think of complaining that the sun refuses to shine on him, that its rays will not rest upon him, will not bring his crops to maturity, will not warm and cheer his life?  There is no lack of sunshine, but we can cut ourselves off from it. If we choose to live in the shadows, if we go down into the dark cellar where the sun cannot enter, it is our own fault.

The trouble with us is that we generally want more to make us happy than we deserve, and we are not grateful enough for the many things that are ours to enjoy.

The man without self-reliance and an iron will is the plaything of chance, the puppet of his environment, the slave of circumstances.

WILL-POWER. In the moral world there is nothing impossible if we can bring a thorough will to do it. —W. Humboldt. It is firmness that makes the gods on our side. —Voltaire. Stand firm, don't flutter. —Franklin. People do not lack strength they lack will. —Victor Hugo.

It is the juices of youth, the joy and gladness carried along through the busy years that make old age tolerable.

The disgrace is not in falling, but in not rising every time you fall.

The great mass of people do not extract ten per cent, of the happiness possible in their everyday life, largely because they were never trained to think of the normal sources of enjoyment. Their minds are blank, except for the little grooves which their daily routine has stamped in their brain tissue.

Every word we speak is an indestructible force, because it affirms a thought, a sentiment, an emotion, a motive, which never ceases to exert its power.

it is always what we want, not what we have, that claims our attention.

Purity is power because it means integrity of thought, integrity of conduct. It means wholeness.

How many people delay the kindness, the expression of love, until the person is dead, beyond their reach, and then try to atone for a neglected past by flowers and tears at the funeral!

Sembramos la semilla y la naturaleza nos da una cosecha correspondiente: esta es la ley en el plano físico.

It is a celebrated thought of Socrates, that if all the misfortunes of mankind were cast into a public stock, in order to be equally distributed among the whole species, those who now think themselves the most unhappy would prefer the share they are already possessed of, before that which would fall to them by such a division. —Addison.

Epictetus, the pagan philosopher, proved in his life the truth of his own words — A man can be happy without wealth, without family, without office or honor, without health, without anything that the world seeks after.

It is to what you see, to what you believe, to what you struggle incessantly to attain, that you will approximate.

The world takes us at our own valuation. It believes in the man who believes in himself, but it has little use for the timid man, the one who is never certain of himself; who cannot rely on his own judgment, who craves advice from others, and is afraid to go ahead on his own account. It

it not strange that they should form this habit of anticipating evils that will probably never come, when they know that anxiety and fretting will not only rob them of peace of mind and strength and ability to do their work, but also of precious years of life?

The man who is mentally expanding, who is constantly growing larger and becoming broader, fuller, completer, does not age nearly as rapidly as the man who has ceased to grow.

poverty is the open-mouthed hell which yawns beneath civilization, we

There is no satisfaction like that which comes from the steady, persistent, honest, conscientious pursuit of a noble aim.

No human being can possibly injure another without injuring himself more. He cannot do wrong without paying for it in corresponding suffering.

Quit fearing things that may never happen, just as you would quit any bad practise which has caused you suffering. Fill your mind with courage, hope, and confidence.

Who is the richest of men? asked Socrates. He who is content with the least, for contentment is nature's riches.