 Think positive, Say positive and Do positive.

 Forgive yourself for your past mistakes but never forget them. Keep the memories and the lessons
learnt from it always in your mind. They will guide you onto the right path each moment of your
life. Just remember it and consult it when in need but do not dwell in the past.

 “Truth” buries the past but a “Lie” takes it into the future. The moment you lie, you empower the
past to affect and trouble your future. So, “Truth” is peaceful.

 Adversity always presents opportunity for introspection.(Kalam)

 Only the person who has the courage to lose sight of the shore can discover new horizons.(Kalam)

 Courage is the most important of all the virtues because without courage you cannot practice
other virtues consistently.(Kalam)

 Your past mistakes are meant to guide you, not to define you.(Buddha)

 No matter how hard the past, you can always begin again.(Buddha)

 All the limits exist in the mind. When the mind throws off these limits, the possibilities become
infinite.

 Romantic Love is 2 kinds: 1) Physical/external: It is based on attraction and lust. This kind of love
is selfish, transient, superficial, shallow and weak. As soon as the attraction fades away, the love
vanishes. As soon as your requirements are not meant, the love vanishes. It is loving the body i.e.
the lower self of an individual. It superficial and surficial love.
2) Spiritual/internal: It is based on respect and admiration for one’s character, intellect, habits
and traits. It develops with acquaintance. This kind of love is selfless, permanent, deep, and
extremely strong. It only grows with age. The physical characteristics play no role at all (or play a
very minor role) in the dynamics of the relationship. Irrespective of the physical features of the
partner, he/she appears to be very beautiful to his/her lover(beauty lies in the eyes of the
beholder I.e. the lover). You tend to look beyond the physicality. You look at the beauty of the
soul & mind. It is loving the soul & mind i.e. the higher self of an individual. The body can be
mutilated but one cannot touch the mind and the soul, it remains intact and as pure as ever.
Hence, the love also remains unchanged.

 Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future. Concentrate the mind on the present
moment.
 The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past nor to worry about the
future but to live in the present moment wisely and earnestly.(Buddha)

 There are only 2 mistakes one can make on the path of Truth: Not going all the way & not starting.
(Buddha)

 Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. (Martin Luther king Jr.)

 The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience,
but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. (Martin Luther King Jr.)

 The time is always right to do what is right. (Martin Luther King Jr.)

 The only true test of values, either of men or of things, is that of their ability to make the world a
better place in which to live. (Henry Ford)

 The measure of a man’s real character is what he would do if he knew he would never be found
out. (Thomas B. Macaulay)

 If you want to test a man’s character, give him power. Power corrupts and absolute power
corrupts absolutely. (Abraham Lincoln)

 The true test of a man’s spirituality is not his ability to speak, as we are apt to think, but rather his
ability to bridle his tongue. (Kent Hughes)

 I am great believer of luck and I realize that the harder I work, the more I have of it. (Thomas
Jefferson)

 If you want to know who you are, then act, don’t ask. Your actions will delineate your personality.
(Thomas Jefferson)

 India matters to me and I would like to matter to India.(Shashi Tharoor)

 If you don’t know where you come from, how will you appreciate where you are going?? [forgive
but never forget the past] (Shashi Tharoor)

 Never be a beggar. Be a giver (a source). (This applies to love, help, money, etc.)

 The way we think about something/somebody/some situation determines the way we perceive
and understand them.
 Our thoughts, our prejudices/pre-conceived notions/presuppositions shape the way we perceive
things, humans and situations.

 A prejudiced individual is unable to see/perceive the reality. Prejudice obscures the truth.

 Counter-anger just worsens the situation. Each party in the dispute becomes completely
defensive and an endless verbal clash of egos takes place. A wise person is one who does not
retaliate with anger, rather waits for his opponent to calm down. Violence can never be
conquered with violence but rather by complete non-violence (in words, in action, in thought).

 Anger makes a person verbally violent and in such an emotional rage he/she tends to speak-out
a lot more ill than he/she actually means.

 True forgiveness is when you are totally devoid of hatred, resentment & sadness, in your
mind/heart, against an individual who has wronged you.

 Our beliefs are shaped by our experiences in life.

 If revenge is all you seek, self-destruction is all you get.

 While seeking revenge, dig 2 graves-one for yourself.

 Revenge and counter-hatred is a fire that burns you and your world too while burning the other
side. It is not the solution, it is the end.

 The secret to happiness is to have minimum expectations from people & from situations. You just
need to do what you feel is right and virtuous and leave the rest to God.

 He who knows others is learned but a wise one is one who knows himself. Learning without
wisdom is of no use. (Wings of fire)

 Sometimes life gives you a kick onto the right track. It seems tough at that instant but one should
acknowledge the blessing/fortune/opportunity it provides for long term development.

 One should never worry about one’s future prospects: Instead, it is more important to lay sound
foundations, to have sufficient enthusiasm and an accompanying passion for one’s chosen field
of study. The trouble with Indians is not that they lack educational opportunity or industrial
infrastructure, but rather their failure to discriminate between options and rationalize their
choices.
 Quite honestly, I have never really understood the reason behind the great importance attached
by people to the faraway planets in our solar system. As an art, I have nothing against astrology,
but if it seeks acceptance under the guise of science, I reject it. I do not know how these myths
evolved about planets, star constellations, and even satellites- that they can exercise power on
human beings. The highly complicated calculations manipulated around the precise movements
of celestial bodies, to derive highly subjective conclusions appear illogical to me. (kalam in Wings
of Fire)

 When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.(Wings of Fire)

 Seek the truth and the truth shall set you free.(Wings of Fire)

 If you are selfish then your ‘love for others’ is nothing more than a delusion.

 The best way to win is to not need to win.(Just focus on your duty and forget about the
results)(Wings of Fire)

 The real joy of living is in one’s communion with the eternal source of hidden knowledge within
oneself – which one is bidden to seek and find for himself or herself.(Kalam)

 Ideas are present in the consciousness, which when released and given scope to grow and take
shape, can lead to successful events.

 If you truly want to know how rich you are then count all those things that you have which money
cannot buy- hope, love, respect, character, integrity, acceptance. Wealth is a broad term. Money
is not wealth, its only a part of wealth. Money is useful and one must have it but should also have
the other forms of wealth.

 The philosophy behind an Ice-Cream is “Enjoy your life before it melts” (Selfish). The Philosophy
behind a candle is “Give light to others before life ends” (Selfless). The world is full of ice-creams
but we do not have many candles. What we need are candles. Life is the journey that me make
from being an ice-cream to being a candle.

 Wealth = money + love and support + having a purpose in life + a legacy to be left behind.

 Those things that hurt instruct.(Benjamin Franklin)

 Every saint has a past and every sinner has a future. (Oscar Wilde)

 Ego is strongly inversely related to knowledge.(Albert Einstein)

 Ruined love, when it is built anew, grows fairer than at first, more strong, far greater.(William
Shakespeare)

 There will come a time when you believe that everything is finished. Yet, that will be the
beginning. (Louis L’amour)

 Anger is a killing thing: it kills the man who angers, for each rage leaves him less than he had been
before-It takes away something from him. (Louis L’amour)

 Upto a point a man’s life depends on his environment, heredity and movements and changes in
the world around him. Then there comes a time when it lies within his grasp to shape the clay of
his life into the sort of thing he wishes to be. Only the weak blame their parents, their times, their
race, lack of good fortune or the quirks of fate. Everyone has it within his power to say, “This I am
today, that I will be tomorrow”.

 The honest always stand alone.(Plato)

 The main attribute of effective leadership is to promote collective understanding of the problems
within a team.(Kalam)

 “Bread baked without love is a bitter bread that feeds but half a man’s hunger”(Khalil Gibran) –
Those who cannot work with their hearts achieve but a hollow, half-hearted success that breeds
bitterness all around.

 When you are a round peg in a square hole- you have nothing but personal unhappiness and
failures in achieving results in your mission.

 For all your days prepare and meet them ever alike. When you are the anvil, bear- when you are
the hammer, strike.(Wings of fire)

 Between the conception and the creation, between the emotion and the response---falls the
shadow. (T.S.Eliot) (Talking about patience in difficult times)

 Whenever human beings find themselves alone, as a natural reaction, they start looking for
company. Whenever they are in trouble, they look for someone to help them. Whenever they
reach an impasse, they look to someone to show them the way out. Every recurrent anguish,
longing, and desire finds its own special helper. (Wings Of Fire)

 Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear.(Mark Twain)

 Never let fear decide your course of action. Act fearlessly in ways which align with the greatest
values and moral principles. Act with Love.

 One must understand the difference between a fear-ridden vision of destiny and a vision which
enables us to seek the enemy of fulfillment within us.(Wings of fire)

 How good is a leader? No better than his people and their commitment and participation in the
project as full partners!

 If each member of a team is specialist in his own field, it is natural therefore that each one of them
would value their independence. To manage the performance of such specialists the team leader
has to adopt a delicate balance between the hands-on and hands-off approach. The hands-on
approach takes an active interest on a very regular basis in the members’ work. The hands-off
approach trusts team members and recognizes their need for autonomy to carry out their roles,
as they see fit. It hinges on their self-motivation. When the leader goes too far with the hands-on
approach, he is seen as an anxious and interfering type. If he goes too far hands-off, he is seen as
abdicating his responsibility or not being interested.(Wings of Fire)

 Beautiful hands are those that do, work that is earnest and brave and true, moment by moment,
the long day through.(Wings of Fire)

 Don’t worry and fret, fainthearted, the chances have just begun, For the best jobs haven’t been
started, the best work hasn’t been done. (Wings of Fire)

 If you want to leave your footprints on the sands of time, do not drag your feet. (Wings of Fire)

 Anyone who has taken up the responsibility of a team can be successful only if he is sufficiently
independent, powerful and influential in his own right to become a person to reckon with. (Wings
of Fire)

 Two techniques to strengthen personal freedom:

1. By building your education and skills. Knowledge is an intangible asset, quite often the most
important tool in your work. The more up-to-date the knowledge you possess, the freer you
are. Knowledge cannot be taken away from anyone except by obsolescence. A leader can only
be free to lead his team if he keeps abreast of all that is happening around him-in real time.
To lead, in a way, is to engage in continuing education. To be a successful team leader, one
has to stay back after the din and clutter of a working day to emerge better-equipped and
ready to face a new day.
2. By developing a passion for personal responsibility. The sovereign way to personal freedom
is to help determine the forces that determine you. Be active! Take on responsibility! Work
for the things you believe in. If you do not, you are surrendering your fate to others. The truth
 is that there is a great deal that most of us can individually do to increase our freedom. We
can combat the forces that threaten to oppress us. We can fortify ourselves with the qualities
and conditions that promote individual freedom.

 To succeed in your mission, you must have single-minded devotion to your goal. Individuals like
these are often termed as workaholics. I question this term because that implies a pathological
condition or illness. If I do that which I desire more than anything else in the world and which
makes me happy, such work can never be an aberration.(Kalam)
 Total commitment is not just hard work, it is total involvement. Building a rock wall is back-
breaking work. There are some people who build rock walls all their lives. And when they die,
there are miles of walls, mute testimonials to how hard those people had worked. But there are
other men who while placing one rock on top of another have a vision in their minds, a goal, It
may be a terrace with roses climbing over the rock walls and chairs set out for lazy summer days.
Or the rock wall may enclose an apple orchard or mark a boundary. When they finish, they have
more than a wall. It is the goal that makes the difference.(Wings of Fire)
 Total commitment is the common denominator among all successful men and women.(Kalam)
 Climbing to the top demands strength, whether to the top of Mount Everest or to the top of your
career. (Kalam)
 What is ‘flow’ in work?? ‘Flow’ is a sensation we experience when we act with total involvement.
During flow, action follows action according to an internal logic that seems to need no conscious
intervention on the part of the worker. There is no hurry; there are no distracting demands on
one’s attention. The past and the future disappear. So does the distinction between self and the
activity. Although you work very hard, you feel relaxed, energetic and fresh. How does it happen??
Who has created this flow?? Perhaps it is the result of the meaningful organization of the purposes
you seek to achieve. Identify the broadest possible purpose level and then work towards
developing a feasible target solution from a variety of alternatives. It is this working backwards to
develop a creative change in the problem solution, that puts one in ‘flow’. ‘Flow’ is a by-product
of controlled creativity. The first requirement is to work as hard as you can at something that
presents a challenge and is approved by your heart. It may not be an overwhelming challenge,
but one that stretches you a little, something that makes you realize that you are performing a
task better than you did yesterday, or the last time you tried to do it. Another prerequisite for
being in flow is the availability of a significant span of uninterrupted time. It is difficult to switch
into the flow state in less than half an hour. And it is impossible if you are bedeviled by
interruptions.
 You have to dream before your dreams can come true. Some people stride towards whatever it
is that they want in life; others shuffle their feet and never get started because they do not know
what they want – and do not know how to find it either.(Wings of Fire)
 Now where you are going. The great thing in the world is not knowing so much where we stand,
as in what direction we are moving.(Wings of Fire)
 Through loyalty to a friend/relative one can be easily led into doing something that is not in the
best interests of a larger group.(Kalam)
 What makes a productive leader? In my opinion, a productive leader must be very competent in
staffing. He should continually introduce new blood into the organization. He must be adept at
dealing with problems and new concepts. The leader must be capable of instilling enthusiasm in
his team. He should give appropriate credit where it is due; praise publicly, but criticize
privately.(Kalam)
 What you imagine is what will transpire, what you believe is what you will achieve.(Wing of Fire)
 A big shot is a little shot who keeps on shooting, so keep trying.(Kalam)
 4 basic factors that are involved in successful outcomes: Goal-setting, Positive thinking,
Visualizing, Believing.(Kalam)
 The trouble is that we often merely analyse life instead of dealing with it. People dissect their
failures for causes and effects, but seldom deal with them and gain experience to master them
and thereby avoid their recurrence. This is my belief: that through difficulties and problems God
gives us the opportunity to grow. So, when your hopes and dreams and goals are dashed, search
among the wreckage, you may find a golden opportunity hidden in the ruins. (Kalam)
 A good leader must identify 2 different sets of environmental features. One, which satisfies a
person’s needs and the other, which creates dissatisfaction with his work. People look for those
characteristics in their work that relate to the values and goals which they consider important as
giving meaning to their lives. If a job meets the employees’ need for achievement, recognition,
responsibility, growth and advancement, they will work hard to achieve goals. Once the work is
satisfying, a person then looks at the environment and circumstances in the workplace. He
observes the policies of the administration, qualities of his leader, security, status and working
conditions. Then, he correlates these factors to the interpersonal relations he has with his peers
and examines his personal life in the light of these factors. It is the agglomerate of all these aspects
that decides the degree and quality of a person’s effort and performance.(Kalam)
 Be more dedicated to making solid achievements than in running after swift but synthetic
happiness. (Kalam)
 What matters in a war is not decimating the enemy army physically but breaking his will so as to
make him concede defeat in his mind. This is the role played by technology & innovation in the
modern world order. (Kalam)
 The biggest problem of youth is the lack of clarity of vision, a lack of direction. What I want to say
is that no one, however poor, underprivileged or small, need feel disheartened about life.
Problems are a part of life. Suffering is the essence of success. As someone said:
God has not promised
Skies always blue,
Flower-strewn pathways
All our life through;
God has not promised
Sun without rain,
Joy without sorrow,
Peace without pain.
 But God has promised
Strength for the day,
Rest for the labour
Light for the way. (Kalam)
 The excitement of planning ways to succeed and the vision of future success provide an irresistible
form of motivation which, I have found, always makes things happen. (Kalam)
 Young people should stand up to the authoritarianism in our society. A characteristic feature of
this social authoritarianism is its insidious ability to addict people to the endless pursuit of external
rewards, wealth, prestige, position, promotion, approval of one’s lifestyle by others, ceremonial
honors, and status symbols of all kinds. To successfully pursue these goals, they have to learn
elaborate rules of etiquette and familiarize themselves with customs, traditions, protocols and so
on. The youth of today must unlearn this self-defeating way of life. The culture of working only
for material possessions and rewards must be discarded. When I see wealthy, powerful and
learned people struggling to be at peace with themselves, I remember people with virtually no
possessions!! How did they feel so secure without anything to fall back upon? I believe they drew
sustenance from within. They relied more on the inner signals and less on the external cues that
I have mentioned above. Are you aware of your inner signals? Do you trust them? Have you taken
control over your life into your own hands? Take it from me, the more decisions you can make
avoiding external pressures, which will constantly try to manipulate you, the better your life will
be, the better your society will become. Infact the entire nation will benefit by having strong,
inward-looking people as their leaders. A citizenry that thinks for itself, a country of people who
trust themselves as individuals, would be virtually immune to manipulation by unscrupulous
authority or vested interests. (Kalam)
 Your willingness to use your own inner resources to invest in your life, especially your imagination,
will bring you success. When you address a task from your own uniquely individual standpoint,
you become a whole person. Everyone on this planet is sent forth by HIM to cultivate all the
creative potential within us and live at peace with our own choices. We differ in the way we make
our choices and evolve our destiny. Life is a difficult game. You can win only by retaining your
birthright to be a person. And to retain this right, you will have to be willing to take the social or
external risks involved in ignoring pressures to do things the way others say they should be done.
Above all things, reverence yourself.(Kalam)
 God’s providence is your inheritance.(Kalam)
 Failures contain within themselves the seeds of further learning which can lead to a high level of
success.(Kalam)
 If one ponders on objects of the sense, there springs attraction; from attraction grows desire,
desire flames to fierce passion, passion breeds recklessness; then the memory – all betrayed –
Lets noble purpose go, and saps the mind, Till purpose, mind, and man are all undone. (Bhagawad
Gita)
 All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent. (Thomas
Jefferson)
  Silence gives consent. (Plato)
 If I were to remain silent, I would be guilty of complicity. (Albert Einstein)
 “Silence when situation demands speaking-out” means passively accepting evil. He who passively
accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without
protesting against it is really cooperating with it. (Martin Luther King Jr.)
Swami Vivekananda Quotes:

 We are what our thoughts have made us; so take care about what you think. Words are secondary.
Thoughts live; they travel far.
 When an idea exclusively occupies the mind, it is transformed into an actual physical or mental
state.
 There is no limit to the power of the human mind. The more concentrated it is, the more power
is brought to bear on one point. That is the secret to success.
 Even a fool can accomplish a task if it were after his/her heart. But the intelligent ones are those
who can convert every work into one that suits their heart.
 Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life. Think of it, dream of it. Live on that idea. Let the
brain, muscles, nerves, and every part of your body be full of that idea and just leave every other
idea alone. This is the way to success. And this is the way great spiritual giants are produced.
Others are mere talking machines.
 Education is the manifestation of the perfection that is already within us.
 Every duty is holy and devotion to duty is the highest form of the worship of God. When you are
doing any work, do not think of anything beyond. Do it as worship, as the highest worship and
devote your whole life to it for the time being.
 As you have come to this world, leave some mark behind. Otherwise, where is the difference
between you and the trees and stones?? They too come into existence, decay and die.
 We are responsible for what we are, and whatever we wish to be. We have the power to make
ourselves. If what we are now has been the result of our past actions, it certainly follows that
whatever we wish to be in future can be produced by our present actions. So, we have to know
how to act.
 Neither money pays, nor name, nor fame, nor learning. It is character that can cleave through
adamantine walls of difficulties.
 “Sheelam Param Bhushanam”--------“Character is the greatest virtue”
 Be not afraid of anything. You will do a marvelous work. The moment you fear, you are nobody.
It is fear that is the great cause of misery in the world. It is fear that is the greatest of all
superstitions. It is fear that is the cause of our woes, and it is fearlessness that brings heaven even
in a moment. Therefore, Arise, awake and stop not till the goal is reached.
 Learn everything good from others , but take it in and absorb it in your own way. Do not become
others.
 Let the dead past bury its dead. Learn from your mistakes in the past and remember your mistakes
so that they serve to guide you. Work earnestly in the present for the future.
 The past shows us the path to the future.
-John Greenleaf Whittier