Selected attitude quotes

1. It is very important to generate a good attitude, a good heart, as much as possible. From this, happiness in both the short term and the long term for both yourself and others will come.

2. You can measure a programmer's perspective by noting his attitude on the continuing vitality of FORTRAN.

3. There is no fate that cannot be surmounted by scorn.

4. Serious illness doesn't bother me for long because I am too inhospitable a host.

5. Try to relax and enjoy the crisis.

6. Fortunately in my work there's always a choice: I can choose to do it willingly or unwillingly.

7. Thy praise or dispraise is to me alike; One doth not stroke me, nor the other strike.

8. I don't take the movies seriously, and anyone who does is in for a headache.

9. George Bush hates midgets.

10. I am patient with stupidity but not with those who are proud of it.

11. Nothing is so fatal to religion as indifference.

12. We awaken in others the same attitude of mind we hold toward them.

13. Cynicism is intellectual dandyism.

14. There is no personal charm so great as the charm of a cheerful temperament.

15. Our attitudes control our lives. Attitudes are a secret power working twenty-four hours a day, for good or bad. It is of paramount importance that we know how to harness and control this great force.

16. So long and take it easy, because if you start taking things seriously, it is the end of you.

17. I have always been - I think any student of history almost inevitably is - a cheerful pessimist.

18. I can't understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I'm frightened of the old ones.

19. We all agree that pessimism is a mark of superior intellect.

20. No small misery is caused by overworked and unhappy people, in the dark views which they necessarily take up themselves, and force upon others, of work itself.

21. Care to our coffin adds a nail, no doubt, And every grin so merry draws one out.

22. I hate nobody: I am in charity with the world.

23. To me all men are equal: there are jackasses everywhere, and I have the same contempt for them all.

24. It's the good loser who finally loses out.

25. The burden which is well borne becomes light.

26. I am a freeman and jolly as a beggar.

27. Studious to please, yet not ashamed to fail.

28. Don't be negative. It shows on your face.

29. If a team is in a positive frame of mind, it will have a good attitude. If it has a good attitude, it will make a commitment to playing the game right. If it plays the game right, it will win-unless, of course, it doesn't have enough talent to win, and no manager can make goose-liver pate out of goose feathers, so why worry?

30. Those who grumble at the little thing that has fallen to their lot to do will grumble at everything. Always grumbling, they will lead a miserable life, and everything will be a failure. But those who do their duties as they go, putting their shoulders to the wheel, will see the light, and higher duties will fall to their share.

31. We must be bright and cheerful. Long faces do not make religion. Religion should be the most joyful thing in the world, because it is the best.

32. A healthy attitude is contagious but don't wait to catch it from others. Be a carrier.

33. Childishness? I think it's the equivalent of never losing your sense of humor. I mean, there's a certain something that you retain. It's the equivalent of not getting so stuffy that you can't laugh at others.

34. It makes a tremendous emotional and practical difference to one whether one accepts the universe in the drab discolored way of stoic resignation to necessity, or with the passionate happiness of Christian saints.

35. The world is a looking-glass, and gives back to every man the reflection of his own face. Frown at it, and it will in turn look sourly upon you; laugh at it and with it, and it is a jolly kind companion; and so let all young persons take their choice.

36. I like a man who grins when he fights.

37. There are some people who, if they don't already know, you can't tell 'em.

38. Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.

39. Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character.

40. To the question whether I am a pessimist or an optimist, I answer that my knowledge is pessimistic, but my willing and hoping are optimistic.

41. Cynicism is cheap-you can buy it at any Monoprix store-it's built into all poor-quality goods.

42. Whatever it is, I'm against it!

43. Religion is too important a matter to its devotees to be a subject of ridicule. If they indulge in absurdities, they are to be pitied rather than ridiculed.

44. If man makes himself a worm he must not complain when he is trodden on.

45. Don't let that chip on your shoulder be your only reason for walking erect.

46. Fight any instinct to be humorless, for humorlessness is the worst of all absurdities.

47. I think the world is like a great mirror, and reflects our lives just as we ourselves look upon it. Those who turn sad faces toward the world find only sadness reflected. But a smile is reflected in the same way, and cheers and brightens our hearts. You think there is no pleasure to be had in life. That is because you are heartsick and - and tired, as you say. With one sad story ended you are afraid to begin another - a sequel - feeling it would be equally sad. But why should it be? Isn't the joy or sorrow equally divided in life?

48. Do not let yourself be tainted with a barren skepticism.

49. If you cannot do great things, do small things in a great way.

50. Life is far too important a thing ever to talk seriously about it.

51. Often quoted as: Life is far too important to be taken seriously.

52. I like the word fuck. Fucking deal with it and move on to the first fucking question you have.

53. Nobody tells me fuck all!

54. While they were content to peck cautiously at the ball, he never spared himself in his efforts to do it a violent injury.

55. Stiffy was one of those girls who enjoy in equal quantities the gall of an army mule and the calm insouciance of a fish on a slab of ice.

56. 'Don't you like this hat?' 'No, sir.' 'Well, I do,' I replied rather cleverly, and went out with it tilted just that merest shade over the left eye which makes all the difference.

57. I'm not running a seminar for dullards on the other side.

58. The difference between a hacker and consumer is a consumer says, 'I wish it would work this way.' A hacker says, 'I've got a screwdriver and a few minutes.'

59. The attitude of foreign to English musicians is unsympathetic, self-opinionated and pedantic. They believe that their tradition is the only one (this is specially true of the Viennese) and that anything that is not in accordance with that tradition is 'wrong' and arises from insular ignorance.

60. The little blonde at the PBX cocked a shell-like ear and smiled a small fluffy smile. She looked playful and eager, but not quite sure of herself, like a new kitten in a house where they don't care much about kittens.

61. Don't ever become a pessimist... a pessimist is correct oftener than an optimist, but an optimist has more fun, and neither can stop the march of events.

62. And now impatiently despairest, see How nought is changed: Joy's wisdom is attired Splended for others' eyes if not for thee: Not love or beauty or youth from earth is fled: If they delite thee not, 'tis thou art dead.

63. Our business in this world is not to succeed, but to continue to fail, in good spirits.

64. The duty of a Christian is not to succeed, but to fail cheerfully.

65. There are no exact guidelines. There are probably no guidelines at all. The only thing I can recommend at this stage is a sense of humor, an ability to see things in their ridiculous and absurd dimensions, to laugh at others and at ourselves, a sense of irony regarding everything that calls out for parody in this world. In other words, I can only recommend perspective and distance. Awareness of all the most dangerous kinds of vanity, both in others and in ourselves. A good mind. A modest certainty about the meaning of things. Gratitude for the gift of life and the courage to take responsibility for it. Vigilance of spirit.

66. I am more and more convinced that our happiness or our unhappiness depends far more on the way we meet the events of life than on the nature of those events themselves.

67. Jabroni!

68. The poor son-of-a-bitch!

69. I am not capitulating.

70. Watch my dust.