Self Development Quotes

I am what libraries and librarians have made me, with little assistance from a professor of Greek and poets

I have learned this: it is not what one does that is wrong, but what one becomes as a consequence of it.

Every little action of the common day makes or unmakes character.

Self fulfillment thinks of how something serves me. Self development thinks of how something helps me to serve others. With self fulfillment, feeling good is the product. With self development, feeling good is the by-product.

I am really not "cyclonic" at all. Far from it. What I want is not here, nor can I longer bear this "cyclonic" atmosphere. This is the way to perfection, to strive to be perfect, and to strive to make perfect a few men and women. My idea of doing good is this: to evolve out a few giants, and not to strew pearls before swine, and so lose time, health, and energy.

I understand the law through the operation of which my own character is developed from my own acts and thoughts; therefore, I will guard with care all that goes into its development.

No experience is wasted. Everything in life is happening to grow you up, to fill you up, to help you become more of who you were created to be.

If we examine every stage of our lives, we find that from our first breath to our last we are under the constraint of circumstances. And yet we still possess the greatest of all freedoms, the power of developing our innermost selves in harmony with the moral order of the universe, and so winning peace of heart whatever obstacles we meet.

He does not feel pity for himself - thus he can successfully develop.

Virtues are dangerous as vices insofar as they are allowed to rule over one as authorities and not as qualities one develops oneself.

You cannot teach a child any more than you can grow a plant. All you can do is on the negative side - you can only help. It is a manifestation from within; it develops its own nature - you can only take away obstructions.

Give up the idea that by ruling over others you can do any good to them. But you can do just as much as you can in the case of the plant: you can supply the growing seed with the materials for the making up of its body, bringing to it the earth, the water, the air, that it wants. It will take all that it wants by its own nature, it will assimilate and grow by its own nature.

Day by day, what you do is who you become.

What you become is far more important that what you get. What you get will be influenced by what you become.

You must develop yourself to be successful

You have to 'be'' before you can 'do', and do before you can 'have'.

If a man wishes to become a hero, then the serpent must first become a dragon: otherwise he lacks his proper enemy.

Ability is not something to be saved, like money, in the hope that you can draw interest on it. The interest comes from the spending. Unused ability, like unused muscles, will atrophy. It is tragic to realize that the majority of human beings, even the so-called educated, call upon only the smallest fraction of their potential capacity. They leave many talents dormant. They fail to develop their mental qualities. They are almost unaware of the degree of energy upon which they might call to build a full and rewarding life.

Set goals not for the outcome itself, but for who you get to become in the process.

If you Don't have Love, Harmony & Peace within you, then you Can't Contribute these Qualities

The aim of life is self-development. To realize one's nature perfectly - that is what each of us is here for.

All want power, but few will wait to gain it for themselves.

Before you can do something, you must first be something.

What I am to be, I am now becoming.

Solitude, the safeguard of mediocrity, is to genius, the stern friend, the cold, obscure shelter where moult the wings which will bear it farther than suns and stars.

Realizing your potential as a leader is your responsibility.

Genius is the power to labor better and more availably. Deserve thy genius: exalt it.

A superior who works on his own development sets an almost irresistible example.