21 Quotes & Sayings By Earl Nightingale

How are you coming with your home library? Do you need some good ammunition on why it's so important to read? The last time I checked the statistics.. I think they indicated that only four percent of the adults in this country have bought a book within the past year. That's dangerous. It's extremely important that we keep ourselves in the top five or six percent. In one of the Monthly Letters from the Royal Bank of Canada it was pointed out that reading good books is not something to be indulged in as a luxury. It is a necessity for anyone who intends to give his life and work a touch of quality. The most real wealth is not what we put into our piggy banks but what we develop in our heads. Books instruct us without anger, threats and harsh discipline. They do not sneer at our ignorance or grumble at our mistakes. They ask only that we spend some time in the company of greatness so that we may absorb some of its attributes. You do not read a book for the book's sake, but for your own. You may read because in your high-pressure life, studded with problems and emergencies, you need periods of relief and yet recognize that peace of mind does not mean numbness of mind. You may read because you never had an opportunity to go to college, and books give you a chance to get something you missed. You may read because your job is routine, and books give you a feeling of depth in life. You may read because you did go to college. You may read because you see social, economic and philosophical problems which need solution, and you believe that the best thinking of all past ages may be useful in your age, too. You may read because you are tired of the shallowness of contemporary life, bored by the current conversational commonplaces, and wearied of shop talk and gossip about people. Whatever your dominant personal reason, you will find that reading gives knowledge, creative power, satisfaction and relaxation. It cultivates your mind by calling its faculties into exercise. Books are a source of pleasure - the purest and the most lasting. They enhance your sensation of the interestingness of life. Reading them is not a violent pleasure like the gross enjoyment of an uncultivated mind, but a subtle delight. Reading dispels prejudices which hem our minds within narrow spaces. One of the things that will surprise you as you read good books from all over the world and from all times of man is that human nature is much the same today as it has been ever since writing began to tell us about it. Some people act as if it were demeaning to their manhood to wish to be well-read but you can no more be a healthy person mentally without reading substantial books than you can be a vigorous person physically without eating solid food. Books should be chosen, not for their freedom from evil, but for their possession of good. Dr. Johnson said: "Whilst you stand deliberating which book your son shall read first, another boy has read both. . Earl Nightingale

We tend to live up to our expectations. Earl Nightingale

Throughout all history, the great wise men and teachers, philosophers, and prophets have disagreed with one another on many different things. It is only on this one point that they are in complete and unanimous agreement. We become what we think about. Earl Nightingale

Never give up on a dream because of the time it will take to accomplish it. The time will pass anyway. Earl Nightingale

We come to a rather strange fact. We tend to minimize the things we can do, the goals we can achieve, and yet, for an equally strange reason, we think others can do things that we cannot. I want you to know that that is not true. You do have deep reservoirs of talent and ability within you and you can have the things you want. Earl Nightingale

Wherever there is danger, there lurks opportunity; wherever there is opportunity, there lurks danger. The two are inseparable. Earl Nightingale

When you judge others, you do not define them, you define yourself Earl Nightingale

Success is the progressive realization of a worthy ideal. Earl Nightingale

Our attitude towards others determines their attitude towards us. Earl Nightingale

Our environment, the world in which we live and work, is a mirror of our attitudes and expectations. Earl Nightingale

A great attitude does much more than turn on the lights in our worlds it seems to magically connect us to all sorts of serendipitous opportunities that were somehow absent before the change. Earl Nightingale

All you need is the plan, the road map, and the courage to press on to your destination. Earl Nightingale

Learn to enjoy every minute of your life. Be happy now. Don't wait for something outside of yourself to make you happy in the future. Think how really precious is the time you have to spend, whether it's at work or with your family. Every minute should be enjoyed and savored. Earl Nightingale

We are at our very best, and we are happiest, when we are fully engaged in work we enjoy on the journey toward the goal we've established for ourselves. It gives meaning to our time off and comfort to our sleep. It makes everything else in life so wonderful, so worthwhile. Earl Nightingale

Don't let the fear of the time it will take to accomplish something stand in the way of your doing it. The time will pass anyway we might just as well put that passing time to the best possible use. Earl Nightingale

Don't let the fear of the time it will take to accomplish something stand in the way of your doing it. The time will pass anyway we might just as well put that passing time to the best possible use. Earl Nightingale

You'll find boredom where there is the absence of a good idea. Earl Nightingale

Success is the progressive realization of a worthy goal or ideal. Earl Nightingale