Encouragement
If you would lift me you must be on higher ground.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, US essayist, poet (1803-1882)
Those who are lifting the world upward and onward are those who encourage more than criticise.
Elizabeth Harrison, US educator (1849-1927)
Material things aside, we need no advice but approval.
Gabrielle Bonheur ‘Coco’ Chanel, French fashion designer (1883-1971)
Correction does much, but encouragement does more. Encouragement after censure is as the sun after a shower.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, German poet, letter-writer (1749-1832)
There is no such thing as ‘self-made’ man. We are made up of thousands of others. Everyone who has ever done a kind deed for us, or spoken one word of encouragement to us, has entered into the make-up of our character and of our thoughts, as well as our success.
George Matthew Adams, US newspaper magnate (1878-1962)
Flatter me, and I may not believe you. Criticise me and I may not like you. Ignore me, and I may not forgive you. Encourage me, and I will not forget you.
William Arthur Ward, US academic, author (1921-1994)
Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.
Samuel Langhorne Clemens, known as Mark Twain, US author (1835-1910)
Enthusiasm
The real secret of success is enthusiasm.
Walter Chrysler, US businessman, founder of Chrysler Corporation (1875-1940)
If you can give your son or daughter only one gift, let it be enthusiasm.
Bruce Barton, US author, advertising executive (1886-1967)
Enthusiasm is the electricity of life. How do you get it? You act enthusiastic until you make it a habit.
Gordon Parks, US film director, photographer, author (1912-2006)
You can do anything if you have enthusiasm. Enthusiasm is the yeast that makes your hopes rise to the stars. With it, there is accomplishment. Without it there are only alibis.
Henry Ford, US automobile manufacturer, engineer (1863-1947)
A man can succeed at almost everything for which he has unlimited enthusiasm.
Charles Schwab, US industrialist (1862-1939)
Flaming enthusiasm, backed by horse sense and persistence, is the quality that most frequently makes for success.
Dale Carnegie, US lecturer, author (1888-1955)
You can’t sweep people off their feet if you can’t be swept off your own.
Clarence Day, US author (1874-1935)
Leadership is leaving zest in your wake.
Tom Peters, US management author, presenter (b. 1942)
Every production of genius must be the production of enthusiasm.
Benjamin Disraeli, British Prime Minister (1804-1881)
The man who feels no enthusiasm for his work will never accomplish anything worthwhile.
William Cornelius Van Horne, Canadian railway magnate (1843-1915)
No person who is enthusiastic about his work has anything to fear from life.
Samuel Goldwyn, Polish/US film producer (1882-1974)
Every great and commanding moment in the annals of the world is the triumph of somebody’s enthusiasm.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, US essayist, poet (1803-1882)
There is a real magic in enthusiasm. It spells the difference between mediocrity and accomplishment.
Norman Vincent Peale, US author, clergyman (1898-1993)
One man has enthusiasm for thirty minutes, another for thirty days, but it is the man who has it for thirty years who makes a success of life.
Edward Burgess Butler, US retail businessman (1853-1928)
Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see the shadow.
Helen Keller, US author, lecturer (1880-1968)
The world is full of willing people, some willing to work, the rest willing to let them.
Robert Frost, US poet (1874-1963)
If you aren’t fired with enthusiasm, you will be fired with enthusiasm.
Vince Lombardi, US football coach (1913-1970)
What America needs is more young people who will carry to their jobs the same enthusiasm for getting ahead that they display in traffic.
M A Kelly
We act as though comfort and luxury were the chief requirements of life, when all that we need to make us happy is something to be enthusiastic about.
Charles Kingsley, British clergyman, author (1819-1879)
Environment
It isn’t pollution that’s harming the environment. It’s the impurities in our air and water that are doing it.
Dan Quayle, US Vice President (1918-1996)
Any fine morning a power saw can fell a tree that took a thousand years to grow.
Edwin Way Teale, US naturalist, photographer (1899-1980)
We do not inherit this land from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children.
Haida Indian saying
A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in.
Greek proverb
The best use of life is to spend it for something that outlasts life.
William James, US philosopher, psychologist (1842-1910)
Excellence
Be the best. If others don’t see it, who cares?
Orpah Gail Winfrey, known as Oprah Winfrey, US talk show host, actress (b. 1954)
You do not merely want to be considered just the best of the best. You want to be considered the only ones who do what you do.
Jerry Garcia, US rock musician (1942-1995)
It takes a long time to bring excellence to maturity.
Titus Livy, Roman historian (59 BC – 17 AD)
Infinite striving to be the best is man’s duty, it is its own reward. Everything else is in God’s hands.
Mahatma Gandhi, Indian nationalist leader (1869-1948)
Learn to say ‘no’ to the good so you can say ‘yes’ to the best.
John C Maxwell, US clergyman, author (b. 1947)
The quality of a person’s life is in direct proportion to their commitment to excellence, regardless of their chosen field of endeavour.
Vince Lombardi, US football coach (1913-1970)
The society that scorns excellence in plumbing because plumbing is a humble activity, and tolerates shoddiness in philosophy because philosophy is an exalted activity, will have neither good plumbing nor good philosophy. Neither its pipes nor its theories will hold water.