Quotes from Maxwell Maltz

The greatest mistake a man can make is to be afraid of making one. —Elbert Hubbard

Schubert is said to have told a friend that his own creative process consisted in "remembering a melody" that neither he nor anyone else had ever thought of before.

God sees us as men and women in whom and through whom He can do a great work. He sees us as already serene, confident, and cheerful.

He sees us not as pathetic victims of life, but masters of the art of living; not wanting sympathy, but imparting help to others

All your actions, feelings, behaviors—even your abilities—are always consistent with this self-image. In short, you will

The self-image can be changed.

When the failure-type personality looks for a scapegoat or excuse for his failure, he often blames society, "the system," life, "the breaks." He resents the success and happiness of others because it is proof to him that life is shortchanging him and he is being treated unfairly.

If you are to be happy at all, you must be happy—period! Not happy "because of.

Perhaps most important of all, we will learn how chronically unhappy people have learned to enjoy life by "experiencing" happiness!

Set aside a period of 30 minutes each day when you can be alone and undisturbed. Relax and make yourself as comfortable as possible. Now close your eyes and exercise your imagination.

Do not allow yourself to become discouraged if nothing seems to happen when you set about practicing the various techniques outlined in this book for changing your self-image.

Who are the scholars who get 'rattled' in the recitation room?" asked William James. "Those who think of the possibilities of failure and feel the great importance of the act. Who are those who do recite well? Often those who are most indifferent. Their ideas reel themselves out of their memories of their own accord.

Creative Imagination is not something reserved for the poets, the philosophers, the inventors. It enters into our every act. For imagination sets the goal "picture" that our automatic mechanism works on. We act, or fail to act, not because of "will," as is so commonly believed, but because of imagination.

If you want really to do your best in an examination, fling away the book the day before, say to yourself, 'I won't waste another minute on this miserable thing, and I don't care an iota whether I succeed or not.

A human being always acts and feels and performs in accordance with what he imagines to be true about himself and his environment. This is a basic and fundamental law of mind. It is the way we are built. When we see this law of mind graphically and dramatically demonstrated in a hypnotized subject, we are prone to think that there is something occult or supra-normal at work. Actually, what we are witnessing is the normal operating processes of the human brain and nervous system.

psychologist Daniel W. Josselyn wrote in his book Why Be Tired?:

We find it difficult to forgive only because we like our sense of condemnation. We get a perverse and morbid enjoyment out of nursing our wounds. As long as we can condemn another, we can feel superior to him.

Your nervous system cannot tell the difference between an imagined experience and a real experience. In either case, it reacts automatically to information that you give to it from your forebrain.

The discovery of the real self can rescue a crumbling marriage, recreate a faltering career, and transform victims of "personality failure." On another plane, discovering your real self means the difference between freedom and the compulsions of conformity.

Your nervous system reacts appropriately to what you think or imagine to be true.

Self-fulfilled persons have the following characteristics: 1. They see themselves as liked, wanted, acceptable, and able individuals 2. They have a high degree of acceptance of themselves as they are. 3. They have a feeling of oneness with others. 4. They have a rich store of information and knowledge.

The person with emotional scars not only has a self-image of an unwanted, disliked, and incapable person, he also has an image of the world in which he lives as a hostile place.

1. All your actions, feelings, behaviors—even your abilities—are always consistent with this self-image. In short, you will "act like" the sort of person you conceive yourself to be. Not only this, but you literally cannot act otherwise, in spite of all your conscious efforts or willpower.

This Creative Mechanism within you is impersonal. It will work automatically and impersonally to achieve goals of success and happiness, or unhappiness and failure, depending on the goals that you yourself set for it. Present it with "success goals," and it functions as a Success Mechanism. Present it with negative goals, and it operates just as impersonally, and just as faithfully, as a Failure Mechanism.