Quotes-Wisdom :: Bill Crawford, Ph.D. | Keynote Speaker, Psychologist, Author, Consultant

Welcome to my page of "favorite quotes!" - If you would like to join my Quotes and Comments service, whereby each week I email you one of my favorite quotes along with some thoughts about how to apply the quote to our lives, simply drop me an email at DrBill@billcphd.com.

This service began mid-March of 2000 and each quote that has been featured has been added to these archives. This page has been organized with the quote topics listed alphabetically. In addition, the beginning of each quote is listed after the topic category. Clicking on the blue "quote topic link" will take you to the full quote and some thoughts on how we might apply the wisdom of the quote to our lives.

You may want to browse the quotes or, to go directly to a topic category, click on the alphabetic guide letters below. For example, to find quotes on the subject of 'purpose' click on the letter 'p'. Enjoy!

a - b - c - d - e - f - g - h - i - j - k - l - m -o - p - q - r - s - t - u - v - w - z

achievement - "Everyone wants to live on the top of the mountain ..."

adversity - "People are like tea bags ..."

agreements - "You cannot make a bad deal with a good person ..."

ambition - "If you are not playing a big enough game ..."

anger - "Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal ..."

anger #2 - "Those who are constantly at war with others ..."

answers - "The simplest questions are often the most profound ..."

anxiety - "That the birds of worry and anxiety fly over your head ..."

arguments - "You don't have to attend every argument ..."

arguments #2 - "You can not have an argument ..."

attitude - "Often it's not our position, but our disposition ..."

attraction - "Whatever we plant in our subconscious mind and nourish ..."

authenticity - "You don't have to become something that you aren't ..."

avoidance - "When our purpose becomes avoidance ..."

awareness - "The only difference between a rut and a grave ..."

awareness #2 - "What we should learn before we die is ..."

being rushed - "We suffer from the illusion that the faster we run ..."

beliefs - "If you don't change your beliefs, your life will be ..."

beliefs #2 - "Intense desire often exerts a strong gravitational pull ..."

beliefs #3 - "We are either creating new beliefs or reacting to old ones ..."

birth and death - "When you were born, you cried and the world rejoiced ..."

bitterness - "Bitterness does more harm to the vessel ..."

blind faith - "Blind faith does not require that you close your eyes to reality ..."

cause and effect - "All of life presents itself as a cycle of cause and effect ..."

centered - "When deciding what to do next, we can always ask ..."

change - "You never change things by fighting the existing reality ..."

change #2 - "Change isn't the problem ..."

change #3 - "Some people will never change until the misery of the known ..."

change #4 - "There are two ways to change . . . the pain of the problem or ..."

character - "As we interact with others, we can either be a person ..."

character #2 - "Character isn't simply inherited ..."

children - "Our children...don't make them grow up in our shadow ..."

children and integrity - "Live so that when your children think of fairness ..."

choice - "We can't always choose how we feel ..."

choice #2 - "Everything that happens in our lives is 'good information' about ..."

choices - "It is our choices that show ..."

choices #2 - "Besides the noble art of getting things done ..."

coming alive - "In choosing what to do next, don't ask what the world needs ..."

communication - "Most of the time we don't communicate ..."

communication #2 - "Words are the ambassadors of our intentions ..."

communication #3 - "The most successful form of correction ..."

communication #4 - "The basic building block of good communications ..."

compassion - "Compassion is the antitoxin of the soul ..."

confidence - "Live never to be ashamed if anything you do ..."

confusion - "Honesty isn't always just saying the truth ..."

courage - "Courage isn't the absence of fear ..."

criticism - "Criticism can be effective when ..."

criticism #2 - "To 'belittle' is to be little ..."

decision making - "Living exclusively in the land of the head or the heart will always ..."

disagreement - "A discussion becomes destructive when it begins ..."

drama - "How long will we give up the days and weeks of our lives ..."

dreams - "Many people have the right aim in life, they just never ..."

enemies - "If you learn to know your enemy before you hate him ..."

enlightenment - "In our lives, we can either be a reflection of the world ..."

excellence - Excellence is a result of ..."

excellence #2 - "We are what we repeatedly do ... excellence ..."

excuses - "When all is said and done, our lives will either be a collection ..."

failure - "What would you attempt to do if you knew ..."

failure 2 - "True failures are divided into two classes ..."

faith - "When you come to the edge of all you know, and are about to step off ..."

family - "The bond that links one's true family is not necessarily one of blood ..."

fear - "Those who love to be feared and fear to be loved ..."

fear #2 - "Fear is that little darkroom ..."

fear #3 - "Hiding our fears with the hope that they will go away rarely works ..."

fear #4 - "Every moment of our lives begins with one of two phrases ..."

fear #5 - "Each day befriend a single fear ..."

fear #6 - "Fear of feeling bad rarely makes one feel good ..."

fear of communication - "What we are afraid to communicate runs our life ..."

flexibility - "Blessed are the flexible for they will not allow ..."

forgiveness - "Forgiveness is the realization that you are no longer harmed ..."

forgiveness #2 - "When we open up a quarrel between the present and the past ..."

freedom - "Freedom is one thing we cannot have unless ..."

freedom #2 - "Our ultimate freedom is the right and power ..."

friendship - "A friend is someone who knows the song ..."

future - "The future is not just a series of choices among alternative paths ..."

generosity - "True generosity is when you give ..."

giving - "The act of giving is simply a behavior, and the gift merely a symbol ..."

giving & receiving - "We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give ..."

God - ""A process for discernment: ..."

grief (Part I) - "All connections are infused with dreams ..."

grief (Part II) - ""Grieving is not the problem, it's part of the solution ..."

growth - "You can change without growing, but ..."

growth #2 - "Live so that the child that you were ..."

growth and change - "Seek to create change in your life not because something is 'wrong' ..."

grudges - "Carrying a grudge is like being stung to death ..."

guidance - "There's a thread you follow ..."

guidance #2 -"The universe guides and nurtures those ..."

guilt - "One key to successful relationships ..."

guilt trips - "The journey of life is both too short and ..."

habits - "The only difference between a rut and a grave ..."

habits #2 - "Habit is either the best of servants ..."

happiness - "In the path of your true happiness ..."

happiness #2 - "Happiness is not a reward ..."

happiness #3 - "What if happiness were our default position ... "

honesty - "There is brutality and there is honesty ..."

hope - "Hope and optimism aren't just attitudes ..."

hopes - "Until we have named our ghosts and blessed our hopes ..."

ideas - "Any powerful idea is absolutely fascinating, and absolutely useless ..."

imagination - "Those who dream by day are cognizant of many things ..."

inadequacy - "Nothing destroys a relationship quicker than ..."

incompatibility - "One aspect of a successful relationship is not just how compatible ..."

influence - "There are two ways to make someone important and powerful ..."

insight - "What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to ..."

inspiration - "When we are inspired, our thoughts break their bonds ..."

intent - "Misunderstandings often arise when ..."

intuition - "Stress is what happens when your gut says 'no way' ..."

intuition #2 - "The intuitive mind is a sacred gift ..."

Iraq: dialogue vs. debate - "A discussion becomes destructive when it begins ..."

issues and interactions - "Regardless of what is being discussed the issue is never ..."

joy - "It's not the person that has the most toys ..."

justification - "Physiologically, it simply doesn't matter whether your anger is justified ..."

knowledge - "Some people drink from the fountain of knowledge ..."

leadership - "The mark of a true leader is not how many followers you have ..."

learning - "We are not merely what we know ..."

life - "Your life is not about what your body is doing ..."

life #2 - "Life is like a grindstone, whether it grinds us down ..."

limitations - "Argue for your limitations, and sure enough they're yours ..."

listening - "No one ever 'listened' themselves into trouble ..."

listening #2 - "Wisdom is the reward for our willingness to have listened ..."

love - "Love is the productive form of relatedness to others and to oneself ..."

love #2 - "Love is most successful when expressed in this order ..."

magic - "True 'magic' is simply the ability to transcend what seems to be and ..."

master the art of living - "Masters in the art of living draw no sharp distinction ..."

meaning - "Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take ..."

miracles - "There are only two ways to live your life ..."

misery - strength - "We can either make ourselves miserable, or ..."

mistakes - "Growth isn't about counting the number of times we fall down ..."

mistakes #2 - "Making a mistake and then judging ourselves harshly ..."

models for life - The Four-Fold Way: A Guide to Creating a Life Worth Living ..."

optimism - "Optimism allows us to face the music, even when we don't like the tune ..."

optimism #2 - "The road to success is not paved with stones of avoidance ..."

our past - "Sometimes we stay in Hell a long time ..."

parenting - "Having a baby no more makes one a parent than ..."

parenting #2 - "Our children...don't make them grow up in our shadow ..."

passion - "To the degree that I cease to pursue my deepest passions ..."

past, present, and future - "The present is the past rolled out for understanding ..."

patience - "If we can be patient in one moment of anger ..."

peace of mind - " . . . Don't leave home ..."

perseverance - "The difference between perseverance and obstinacy ..."

persistence - "The empty experience of an unfulfilled life ..."

perspective - "Perspective . . . . Use it or lose it ..."

perspective #2 - "Perspective is what allows us to step back ..."

pessimism - "A pessimist is one who burns his bridges ..."

Plato on fear - "We can easily forgive the child who is afraid of the dark ..."

pleasure - "True 'joy' is the difference between ..."

potential - "True vision is the ability to see ..."

power of our past - "Our past is not, as some fear, a series of events carved in stone ..."

power of patience - "Patience serves as a protection against wrongs as ..."

power to grow - "Between stimulus and response, there is a space ..."

problems - "As long as we define ourselves in terms of our pain ..."

problem solving - "Problems cannot be solved at the same level of awareness ..."

purpose - "Every thought, emotion, and action is a statement about who we are ..."

purpose #2 - "Life is not a means to an end ..."

questions - "Behind every great answer is a greater question ..."

reactions - "There are two ways to respond ..."

relationships - "The biggest mistake we make in creating successful relationships is ..."

relationships #2 - "Just because you have a history with someone ..."

relationships #3 - "We get treated in life the way we teach others to treat us ..."

relationships #4 - "A relationship is like life. It isn't a process of preservation ..."

relaxation - "Our ability to relax is in direct proportion to ..."

resentment - "Resentment is like taking poison and waiting for the other person to die ..."

resentment and guilt - "Resentment is anger directed toward others ..."

resolutions - "I will" is a statement that merely speaks to some possibility ..."

responsibility - "We have some role in almost everything that happens ..."

revenge - "Images of resentment and revenge only have us spending ..."

right - "Sometimes there is a big difference between what we have the right to do ..."

roses and thorns - "Today I can cry because roses have thorns ..."

self-care - "Selfish is caring for ourselves at others' expense ..."

self-confidence - "The difference between self-confidence and conceit ..."

self-definition - "Every moment is an opportunity to imagine and act out ..."

self-destruction - "Beating ourselves up is really beating ourselves down ..."

self-determination - "Regardless of the problem, as long as our solution requires ..."

Sept. 11 - "Every thought, emotion, and action, is a statement ..."

service - "To truly be of service to others, we must first serve the server ..."

Space Shuttle Columbia - "Excellence is the result of ..."

stimulus and response - "Between stimulus and response, there is a space ..."

stress - "Stress is an indicator of our belief in the value and validity ..."

stress as a signal - "Stress is a signal that something needs to change ..."

success - "If you're looking for the key to the Universe, I have some bad news ..."

tact - "Tact is the art of making a point without inflicting a wound ..."

teaching - "Learning is remembering what you already know, doing is ..."

the destination - "What you get by reaching your destination is ..."

the present - "You cannot find yourself by going into the past ..."

the soul - "The best way to create a purposeful life is to allow ..."

thoughts - "By the thoughts we choose to allow in our hearts ..."

transformation - "When dealing with problems, seek not to "change" some ..."

truth - "Lying makes a problem part of the future ..."

truth #2 - "Truth is often painful to speak ..."

trying - "Trying" is an attitude option that says ..."

unhappiness - "Unconsciousness and unhappiness comes from our compulsion to ..."

validity - "We are not responsible for every thought that goes wandering through ..."

value of a gift - "Anything that is of value in life only multiplies when given ..."

value of happiness - "What if happiness were our default position ... "

values - "The true measure of our belief in the validity of our values is ..."

vision - "The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes ..."

waiting - "Waiting is a state of mind that says we want ..."

wisdom - "One key to success is knowing the difference between knowledge and wisdom ..."

wisdom of life - "Besides the noble art of getting things done ..."

work - "The problem with always keeping your nose to the grindstone ..."

worry - "Worrying does not empty tomorrow of its troubles ..."

worry #2 - " Worrying about the future is like trying to eat ..."

worry #3 - "To invest our worries and anxiety with value and validity ..."

worry and fear - "Worry is a thin stream of fear trickling through the mind ..."

zen - "To do a certain kind of thing you have to be ..."