Norman Vincent Peale Quotes

I learned to practice smiling when I'm feeling sad, you know?

When you change the way you think, you can change the way you feel.

My theory is, if you force yourself to smile enough, then you start to feel it. Which comes in handy all the time.

We can't determine our emotions, but we can choose our attitudes and actions.

You have to really understand that although certain memories or stories make you sad, you are not sad. Pull yourself out from that emotion and remember that.

Today's circumstances are out of your control but you CAN control your response. Don't let a negative outlook kill your joy today.

It is within your hands to be frustrated in life or not. Just your expectations should become smaller, smaller, smaller, and in the same proportion the frustration will become smaller. A day will come when there will be no expectation; then you will never come across any frustration.

If you smile, even if you’re feeling bad, the action of the muscles will trick your brain into thinking you’re happy

Depression seems to be related to fear, anger and frustration. When you're in a bad mood, even if you meet with your friends, you don't take pleasure in their company. But when you're in a good mood, even if things go wrong, you can cope with them without difficulty. This is why putting yourself in a good mood, making a point of developing a sense of loving kindness gives you greater inner strength.

In our consciousness, there are many negative seeds and also many positive seeds. The practice is to avoid watering the negative seeds, and to identify and water the positive seeds every day.

You can't change a negative situation with bad feelings. If you keep reacting negatively, your bad feelings will magnify and multiply the negativity.

At the end of the day, the key to happiness is taking ultimate responsibility for your reactions to all of your experiences - the good and the chaotic.

Make the decision and say, "I'm not letting that worry in. I'm done being upset when my plans don't work out. I'm not letting that stress in." Negative thoughts will still come to your mind, but you don't have to let them into your spirit.

Feelings follow actions. If I'm feeling low, I deliberately act cheery, and I find myself actually feeling happier. If I'm feeling angry at someone, I do something thoughtful for her and my feelings toward her soften. This strategy is uncannily effective.

I only allow that which is good into my life. No one can depress you. No one can make you anxious. No one can hurt your feelings. No one can make you anything.....other than what you allow!

Happiness is your choice. You can choose today.

We would never move forward in the face of negative emotion. There are many people who would teach you otherwise. They say, you've got to face fear to get over it. And all they do is desensitize themselves to the point that they get themselves into situations where they have no idea what's going on, and the end of them comes rather abruptly... And then everyone calls them brave.

How do I change? If I feel depressed I will sing. If I feel sad I will laugh. If I feel ill I will double my labor. If I feel fear I will plunge ahead. If I feel inferior I will wear new garments. If I feel uncertain I will raise my voice. If I feel poverty I will think of wealth to come. If I feel incompetent I will think of past success. If I feel insignificant I will remember my goals. Today I will be the master of my emotions.

Many people don't know about the power of good feelings, and so their feelings are reactions or responses to what happens to them. They have put their feelings on automatic pilot, instead of deliberately taking charge of them.

Don Juan assured me that in order to accomplish the feat of making myself miserable I had to work in the most intense fashion, and that it was absurd. I had now realized I could work just the same in making myself complete and strong. "The trick is in what one emphasizes," he said. "We either make ourselves miserable, or we make ourselves strong. The amount of work is the same."

Negative feelings are like weeds. If you don't fully extract them (i.e. pull out the roots), they will come back.

I am learning every day to allow the space between where I am and where I want to be to inspire me and not terrify me.

The only constant factor in life is our feelings and attitudes toward life. One of the few things that we have total control over is our own attitude.