Dr. Norman Vincent Peale - Positive Thinking Every Day: An Inspiration for Each Day of the Year

POSITIVE THINKING EVERY DAY

an inspiration for each day of the year

NORMAN VINCENT PEALE

Hyun Joo Kim

Simon & Schuster

FIRESIDE

Rockefeller Center
1230 Avenue of the Americas
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Copyright 1993 by Dr. Norman Vincent Peale

All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.

FIRESIDE and colophon are registered trademarks of Simon & Schuster Inc.

Designed by Hyun Joo Kim

Manufactured in the United States of America

19 20

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Peale, Norman Vincent, 1898

Positive thinking everyday : an inspiration for each day of the year / Norman Vincent Peale.

p. cm.

1. Self-actualization (Psychology)Quotations, maxims, etc. 2. OptimismQuotations, maxims, etc. 3. Motivation (Psychology)Quotations, maxims, etc. I. Title.

BF637.S4P42 1993

158.12dc20 93-22576

CIP

ISBN-13: 978-0-671-86891-8

ISBN-10: 0-671-86891-8

eISBN: 978-0-743-26160-9

At the time I was a student in college, Dr. John W. Hoffman was president of Ohio Wesleyan. He was a scholar, a teacher, and an eloquent speaker.

Every speech he made was inspirational and the students would come with notebook and pencil in hand to catch every quotation for which his speeches were famous.

He was a believer in the quotable extract, and he said that many a speaker would be quoted more if he had the reputation of using quotable material. I think Dr. Hoffman was one of the first of many speakers using one-liners on the American platform that are now popular.

When engraved upon the memory, said Winston Churchill, quotations will give you good thoughts. Whatever length it is, if it suggests a good idea, it is important.

I remember one quotation from Ralph Waldo Emerson that was particularly suggestive and since Dr. Hoffman made speeches once a week to the student assembly, I often heard these words:

So nigh is grandeur to our dust
So near is God to man,
When Duty whispers low, Thou must,
The youth replies, I can.

Along the pathway of the years, I have learned much from short quotations. For example, I learned to have patience and my first teacher in this regard was Ben Franklin who had my lifelong admiration. He said, He that can have patience can have what he will.

From Thomas Carlyle I learned about persistence for as he said, Every noble work is at first impossible.

Having believed in enthusiasm all my life, I think Emerson was right when he said, Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.

And somewhere in my reading I picked up Georges-Jacques Danton: We must dare, and dare again, and go on daring.

I think that quotations from great thinkers can profoundly affect ones life. It is my sincere hope that the quotations in this book will affect you for the best. One day long ago as I sat in class in Boston University, it was as if I had been hit by a bolt of lightning. The thought struck me so forcefully that it vitally affected my total faith and still does.

The truth of it seemed certain. I believed it. I accepted it. From my personal background I associated personal change with faith and in a flash of insight knew that I could change my life by changing my attitude. I have been advocating that truth about people ever since.

Norman Vincent Peale

Pawling, New York

January 13, 1993

When you wholeheartedly adopt a with all your heart attitude and go all out with the positive principle, you can do incredible things.

You can be greater than anything that can happen to you.

Every day remind yourself of your own ability, of your good mind and affirm that you can make something really good out of your life.

Stress the thought of plenty. Thoughts of plenty help create plenty.

The great secret of getting what you want from life is to know what you want and believe you can have it. Always do something for others, then ask God to help you and get at it.

Have absolutely no sense of guilt about being happy and successful if you operate honestly and with a sense of social responsibility.

Live your life and forget your age.

Cultivate will power, that massive creative force that God the creator built into you. Do not let it remain flabby but strengthen it by use and exercise.

Never talk defeat. Use words like hope, belief, faith, victory.

Make a list of your friends and determine who is the most positive thinker among them and deliberately cultivate his society.

Lifes blows cannot break a person whose spirit is warmed at the fire of enthusiasm.

Our happiness depends upon the habit of mind we cultivate. So practice happy thinking every day. Cultivate the merry heart, develop the happiness habit, and life will become a continual feast.

Thoughts of a kind have a natural affinity. While the negative thinker tends to draw back to himself negative results, the positive thinker activates the world around him positively.

Cushion the painful effects of hard blows by keeping enthusiasm going strong, even if doing so requires struggle.

Let go and let God. Let Him take over your life and run it. He knows how.

Its always too soon to quit!

If you think lack you tend to create a condition of lack. Shift your thought pattern to one of abundance and believe that God is now in the process of giving you the abundance you need.

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

Help other people to cope with their problems and your own will be easier to cope with.

Believe that all the resources you need are in your mind. That is a formula that really works!

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.

Develop a tremendous faith in God and that will give you a humble yet soundly realistic faith in yourself.

Miracles are of all sizes. And if you start believing in little miracles, you can work up to the bigger ones.

W