Facebook share Tweet This Email this
Circumstance does not make the man: it reveals him to himself.
- James Allen
Related topics: Wisdom Positive Live-By
You are today where your thoughts have brought.
- James Allen
You will become as small as your controlling desire;
as great as your dominant aspiration.
- James Allen
Change your thoughts, change your life.
- James Allen
Please sign-up for my Free Inspirational Daily Email on the form below.
You will never do anything in this world without courage.
It is the greatest quality of the mind next to honor.
- James Allen
No duty is more urgent than that of returning thanks.
- James Allen
He who would accomplish much must sacrifice much.
- James Allen
Nothing splendid has ever been achieved except by those who dared
believe that something inside of them was superior to circumstance.
- Bruce Barton
We have a choice of how we view the obstacles on our life path.
One choice makes us slaves to circumstance,
while the other empowers us, and motivates us
to follow our dreams - and our happiness.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
I am determined to be cheerful and happy
in whatever situation I may find myself.
For I have learned that the greater part of our misery or unhappiness
is determined not by our circumstance but by our disposition.
- Martha Washington
In all my ways of seeing - may I use new glasses,
a telescope and a microscope.
And may I always allow myself to see a circumstance
through the tender hearts of my friends.
- Mary Anne Radmacher
What are the proper grounds for joy?
Is it circumstance which will
determine the stature of my spirit?
Ah, no. It is choice. It is always a choice -
in the face of any event - for joy.
- Mary Anne Radmacher
We are strange beings, we seem
to go free, but we go in chains -
chains of training, custom, convention,
association, environment -
in a word, Circumstance -
and against these bonds
the strongest of us struggle in vain.
- Mark Twain
I like to talk about a thing I call a "practiced pause."
Just a few moments of pausing allows me
to consider a circumstance and take stock
of what the best direction might be.
Reactions tend to rise from habit and unconsidered action.
A Response is considered and thoughtful.
My actions are my own and I am, singularly,
responsible for what I see, say, feel and exert.
- Mary Anne Radmacher
To know yet to think that one does not know is best;
Not to know yet to think that one knows
will lead to difficulty.
- Lao Tzu
Lord, grant that I might not so much
seek to be loved as to love.
- St. Francis of Assisi
The beauty does not live out there;
the beauty's in my eyes.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
Everything has beauty,
but not everyone sees it.
- Confucius
The essence of life is not in
the great victories and grand failures,
but in the simple joys.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
Love does not claim possession, but gives freedom.
- Rabindranath Tagore
The butterfly counts not months but moments, and has time enough.
- Rabindranath Tagore
The world is perfect. It's a mess.
It has always been a mess.
We are not going to change it.
Our job is to straighten out our own lives.
- Joseph Campbell
The mind is not a vessel to be filled
but a fire to be kindled.
- Plutarch
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our Light, not our Darkness, that most frightens us.
- Marianne Williamson
You will not be punished for your anger,
you will be punished by your anger.
- The Buddha
Every child comes with the message
that God is not yet discouraged of man.
- Rabindranath Tagore
"Just living is not enough," said the butterfly,
"one must have sunshine, freedom and a little flower."
- Hans Christian Andersen
Love one another but make not a bond of love.
Let it rather be a moving sea
between the shores of your souls.
- Khalil Gibran
A good traveler has no fixed plans,
and is not intent on arriving.
- Lao Tzu
The true meaning of life is to plant trees,
under whose shade you do not expect to sit.
- Nelson Henderson
I am not afraid of storms
for I am learning how to sail my ship.
- Louisa May Alcott
Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.
- Lao Tzu
I do not need anyone's permission to be my true self.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
It's not the size of the dog in the fight,
it's the size of the fight in the dog.
- Mark Twain
Stand Tall, Stand Proud.
Know that you are unique and magnificent.
You do not need the approval of others.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
Treat those who are good with goodness,
and also treat those who are not good with goodness.
Thus goodness is attained.
Be honest to those who are honest,
and be also honest to those who are not honest.
Thus honesty is attained.
- Lao Tzu
Self-respect is not a function of size, age, or wealth.
Breathe deep, sing loud and sweet,
"I am me, I am unique, I am magnificent."
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
You do not need anyone's permission to be your true self.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
If things are not as you wish,
wish them as they are.
- Yiddish Proverb
Everything is a miracle,
not just the beautiful and lovely things.
- Anonymous
Do not let what you cannot do
interfere with what you can do.
- John Wooden
Life is not about how fast you run
or how high you climb
but how well you bounce.
- Vivian Komori
Our lives are defined not by the challenges we encounter,
but by how we respond to those challenges.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
Riches do not exhilarate us so much with their possession
as they torment us with their loss.
- Epicurus
Do first things first, and second things not at all.
- Peter F. Drucker
Do not let Sunday be taken from you.
If your soul has no Sunday, it becomes an orphan.
- Albert Schweitzer
Truth is not defined by
how many people believe something.
Ask. Question. Think.
Decide - for yourself.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
The full measure of a man is
not to be found in the man himself,
but in the colors and textures that
come alive in others because of him.
- Albert Schweitzer
The wise man in the storm prays God,
not for safety from danger,
but for deliverance from fear.
It is the storm within which endangers him,
not the storm without.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Life is not supposed to be fair.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
Far away there in the sunshine are my highest aspirations.
I may not reach them, but I can look up and see their beauty,
believe in them, and try to follow where they lead.
- Louisa May Alcott
Sometimes we need the fog to remind ourselves
that all of life is not black and white.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
To the people who love you,
you are beautiful already.
This is not because they're
blind to your shortcomings
but because they so clearly see your soul.
- Victoria Moran
Love means not ever having to say you're sorry.
- Erich Segal
Life is NOT "Supposed to be Fair."
Know that there is no single way that life is "supposed" to be.
Demanding that life meet our expectations
is a sure fire recipe for a miserable existence.
Life is a game with no rules.
Life just happens to us regardless of our best intentions.
Our only path to happiness lies in being open
to receiving whatever life throws at us -
with Gratitude. Have NO Expectations of life.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
Thousands of candles can be lit from a single candle,
and the life of the candle will not be shortened.
Happiness never decreases by being shared.
- The Buddha
Do not blame the thistle that you see no beauty.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
The worst sin toward our fellow creatures
is not to hate them,
but to be indifferent to them:
that's the essence of inhumanity.
- George Bernard Shaw
One can not reflect in streaming water.
Only those who know internal peace can give it to others.
- Lao Tzu
Love is granting another the space to be
the way they are and the way they are not.
- Werner Erhard
Peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek,
but a means by which we arrive at that goal.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.
The wise man does not lay up his own treasures.
The more he gives to others, the more he has for his own.
- Lao Tzu
The opposite of courage in our society
is not cowardice, it is conformity.
- Rollo May
Adventure is not outside man; it is within.
- George Eliot
We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors,
we borrow it from our children.
- Native American Proverb
The possession of knowledge does not
kill the sense of wonder and mystery.
There is always more mystery.
- Anais Nin
A thankful heart is not only the greatest virtue,
but the parent of all other virtues.
- Cicero
We are what we repeatedly do.
Excellence then is not an act, but a habit.
- Will Durant (commonly attributed to Aristotle)
Your task is not to seek for love,
but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself
that you have built against it.
- A Course In Miracles (commonly misattributed to Rumi)
Do not follow where the path may lead.
Go, instead, where there is no path and leave a trail.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Our greatest glory is not in never falling,
but in rising every time we fall.
- Confucius
Thank you for visiting: Circumstance does not make the man: it reveals him to himself. ... by James Allen.
Please sign up on the form below to receive
my Free Daily Inspiration - Daily Quotes email.
You can also search my large collection of Positive Motivational and Inspirational Quotes and Sayings.
May the world be kind to you,
and may your own thoughts be gentle upon yourself.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
All materials & writings are copyright © Jonathan Lockwood Huie, except for quotes and other
specifically identified material which belong to their respective copyright holders if applicable.
You may read about our disclaimer, privacy policy, terms of use, participation in affiliate programs, copyright policy, and republishing policy.