Norman Vincent Peale Quotations

Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful.

Change your thoughts and you change your world.

The trouble with most of us is that we would rather be ruined by praise than saved by criticism.

The more you lose yourself in something bigger than yourself, the more energy you will have.

Believe in yourself! Have faith in your abilities. Without a humble but reasonable confidence in your own powers you cannot be successful or happy. But with self-confidence you can succeed. A sense of inferiority and inadequacy interferes with the attainment of your hopes, but self-confidence leads to self-realization and successful achievement.

Watch your manner of speech if you wish to develop a peaceful state of mind. Start each day by affirming peaceful, contented and happy attitudes and your days will tend to be pleasant and successful.

We've all heard that we have to learn from our mistakes, but I think it's more important to learn from successes. If you learn only from your mistakes, you are inclined to learn only errors.

There is a real magic in enthusiasm. It spells the difference between mediocrity and accomplishment.

The life of inner peace, being harmonious and without stress, is the easiest type of existence.

Getting people to like you is merely the other side of liking them.

Any fact facing us is not as important as our attitude toward it, for that determines our success or failure. The way you think about a fact may defeat you before you ever do anything about it. You are overcome by the fact because you think you are.

Promises are like crying babies in a theater, they should be carried out at once.

Four things for success: work and pray, think and believe.

When every physical and mental resources is focused, one's power to solve a problem multiplies tremendously.

Stand up to your obstacles and do something about them. You will find that they haven't half the strength you think they have.

It is of practical value to learn to like yourself. Since you must spend so much time with yourself you might as well get some satisfaction out of the relationship.

Be interesting, be enthusiastic... and don't talk too much.

Part of the happiness of life consists not in fighting battles, but in avoiding them. A masterly retreat is in itself a victory.

Formulate and stamp indelibly on your mind a mental picture of yourself as succeeding. Hold this picture tenaciously. Never permit it to fade. Your mind will seek to develop the picture... Do not build up obstacles in your imagination.

If you have zest and enthusiasm you attract zest and enthusiasm. Life does give back in kind.

You will soon break the bow if you keep it always stretched.

Repetition of the same thought or physical action develops into a habit which, repeated frequently enough, becomes an automatic reflex.

Every problem has in it the seeds of its own solution. If you don't have any problems, you don't get any seeds.

When you pray for anyone you tend to modify your personal attitude toward him.

Empty pockets never held anyone back. Only empty heads and empty hearts can do that.

Action is a great restorer and builder of confidence. Inaction is not only the result, but the cause, of fear.

If you paint in your mind a picture of bright and happy expectations, you put yourself into a condition conducive to your goal.

Drop the idea that you are Atlas carrying the world on your shoulders. The world would go on even without you. Don't take yourself so seriously.

Understanding can overcome any situation, however mysterious or insurmountable it may appear to be.

If you put off everything till you're sure of it, you'll never get anything done.

The Gateway to Christianity is not through an intricate labyrinth of dogma, but by a simple belief in the person of Christ.

Change yourself and your work will seem different.

One of the greatest moments in anybody's developing experience is when he no longer tries to hide from himself but determines to get acquainted with himself as he really is.

We struggle with the complexities and avoid the simplicities.

Help us to be thankful for this day and every day and treat each one as a preciousgem to be filled to the full with meaning and with love.

Whenever a negative thought concerning your personal power comes to mind,deliberately voice a positive one to cancel it out.

Be interesting, be enthusiastic... and don't talk to much.

Don't duck the most difficult problems. That just insures that the hardest part will be left when you're most tired. Get the big one done - it's downhill from then on.

First thing every morning before you arise say out loud, ''I believe,'' three times.

principle. Act as if, and that which you practice will tend to be.

No matter how dark things seem to be or actually are, raise your sights and see the possibilites-always see them- for they are always there.

A person with a hundred interests is twice as alive as one with only fifty and four times as alive as the man who has only twenty-five

You would think that economy would be one of the easiest habits in the world to break but it isn't.

Your enthusiasm will be infectious, stimulating and attractive to others. They will love you for it. They will go for you and with you.

Never say anything to hurt anyone. Moreover... refrain from double talk, from shrewd and canny remarks that are designed to advance our interests at someone's disadvantage. We are to turn our back upon evil, and in every way possible, do good, help people and bring blessings into their lives.

I really believe kids want to do well. It's a coach's job to create an environment for them to be successful.

Formulate and stamp indelibly on your mind a mental picture of yourself succeeding. Hold this picture tenaciously. Never permit it to fade. Your mind will seek to develop the picture...Do not build up obstacles in your imagination.

Formulate and stamp indelibly on your mind a mental picture of yourself succeeding. Hold this picture tenaciously. Never permit it to fade. Your mind will seek to develop the picture...Do not build up obstacles in your imagination.

The 'how' thinker gets problems solved effectively because he wastes no time with futile 'ifs'.

The ''how'' thinker gets problems solved effectively because he wastes no time with futile ''ifs.''

People become really quite remarkable when they start thinking that they can do things. When they believe in themselves they have the first secret of success.

Realize that there are not hopeless situations; there are only people who take hopeless attitudes.

Take a new look at your present "impossible." Consider positive ways to handle it.

We live in the midst of the greatest scientific civilization in the history of the world. But the greatest wisdom walking our streets is not in any laboratory scientist, but the wisdom of Jesus Christ.

The way to happiness: Keep your heart free from hate, your mind from worry. Live simply, expect little, give much. Scatter sunshine, forget self, think of others. Try this for a week and you will be surprised.

Every person, if he is to have mental health and live successfully, must move away from past failures and mistakes and go forward without letting them be a weight upon him. The art of forgetting is absolutely necessary.

Believe you can, and you can. Belief is one of the most powerful of all problem dissolvers. When you believe that a difficulty can be overcome, you are more than halfway to victory over it already.

Be so strong that nothing can disturb your peace of mind. Talk health, happiness, and prosperity to every person you meet. Make all your friends feel there is something special in them. Look at the sunny side of everything. Think only the best, be as enthusiastic about the success of others as you are about your own. Forget the mistakes of the past and press on to the greater achievements of the future. Give everyone a smile. Spend so much time improving yourself that you have no time left to criticize others. Be too big for worry and too noble for anger.

The person who sends out positive thoughts activates the world around him positively and draws back to himself positive results.

Thinking about forgiving is not enough. You must come to a moment when you say, "With God's help I now forgive."

You become a worrier by practicing worry. You become free of worry by practicing the opposite…

The greatest secret for eliminating the infirmity complex, which is another term for deep and profound self-doubt, is to fill your mind to overflowing faith. Develop a tremendous faith in God and that will give you a humble yet soundly realistic faith in yourself.

Do not be awe struck by other people and try to copy them. Nobody can be you as efficiently as you can.

Faced with the election of a Catholic, our culture is at stake.

The man who lives for himself is a failure; the man who lives for others has achieved true success.

America has become so tense and nervous it has been years since I have seen anyone sleep in church - and that is a sad situation.

To change your circumstances, first start thinking differently. Do not passively accept unsatisfactory circumstances, but form a picture in your mind of circumstances as they should be. Believe and succeed.

Plan your work - work your plan. Lack of system produces that 'I'm swamped' feeling.

Religious faith may very well be considered a science, for it responds invariably to certain formulae. Perform the technique of faith according to the laws which have been proved workable in human experience and you will always get a result of power.

Families, like individuals, are unique.

When you pray for anyone you tend to modify your personal attitude toward him. You lift the relationship thereby to a higher level. The best in the other person begins to flow out toward you as your best flows toward him. In the meeting of the best in each a higher unity of understanding is established.

Become a possibilitarian.

The how thinker gets problems solved effectively because he wastes no time with futile ifs but goes right to work on the creative how.

You'll always get an idea if you think and don't panic.

It is always to early to quit.

The individual who knows the score about life sees difficulties as opportunities

In a large congregation, while there is a wide diversification of interest, it is also true that there are only a few basic human problems. It must also be taken into consideration that people are people regardless of who they are or what their backgrounds may be. There are certain deep universal appeals to human interest and to these human nature always responds.

No matter how dark things become, someone is always with you - and that someone is God. He helps by giving you peace and a positive mental attitude.

Remember: what you think you will become - good or bad, weak or strong, defeated or victorious.

Be an all-out, not a hold-out.

What seems impossible one minute becomes, through faith, possible the next.

When you become detached mentally from yourself and concentrate on helping other people with their difficulties, you will be able to cope with your own more effectively. Somehow, the act of self - giving is a personal power - releasing factor.

Americans used to roar like lions for liberty; now we bleat like sheep for security.

A war fitness conference some time ago declared that the highest form of recreation is to go to church. The word recreation should be written re-creation. More real rest can be gained from an hour and a quarter of worship under these circumstances than by eighteen holes of golf.

Expect the best, not the worst, and you will attain your heart's desire.

Our problem is to become acquainted with our own selves, letting our personalities loose upon the world for the sheer adventure of their full development and in the positive hope that they may in their own way lift the level of humanity.

Prayer is more than words. It's listening, seeing and feeling.

People who are really efficient seem to do things easily, with a minimum of effort. In doing so they release maximum power.

Do not always ask when you pray, but instead affirm that God's blessings are being given, and spend most of your prayers giving thanks.

By success, of course, I do not mean that you may become rich, famous, or powerful for that does not, of necessity, represent achievement. Indeed, not infrequently, such individuals represent pathetic failure as persons.

When fate throws a dagger at you, there are ways to catch it. If you catch it by the blade, you can harm yourself. But if you catch it by the handle, you can use it to help you fight through the obstacles ahead.

The best way to forget your own problems is to help someone else solve theirs. The best way to prepare for life is to begin to live. The best way to respond to wrong is to do what's right. The better we know ourselves the less we'll criticize others. The bigger your problems, the bigger your prayer should be.

Believe that you are bigger than your difficulties, for you are, indeed.

Though one may acquire much in wealth, fame, or honor, the real joy of life does not lie there but, rather, in keeping the romance of living going. Nothing gives such complete and profound happiness as the perpetually fresh wonder and mystery of exciting life.

Put God to work for you and maximize your potential in our divinely ordered capitalist system.

Negative thinking definitely attracts negative results.

When learning stops, decay sets in.

Hold the thought of all elements of the body working together in perfect rhythm.

To have a mind full of peace, merely fill it full of peace. It's as simple as that.

By acting as you wish yourself to be, in due course you will become as you act.