# Secrets for Success and Happiness ![rw-book-cover](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81SsxtCSWdL._SY160.jpg) ## Metadata - Author: [[Og Mandino]] - Full Title: Secrets for Success and Happiness - Category: #books ## Highlights - A life that is worth writing at all, is worth writing minutely and truthfully. HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW ([Location 59](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004HFRJXK&location=59)) - What are you planning for the years ahead? Are you looking forward to them with joy and excitement and anticipation, or have you already raised the white flag of surrender and decided that your life has been a waste? Did you intend to write one life story and now sadly realize that you have written another? Are you filled with remorse and self-pity when you compare the volume as it is with what you had hoped to make it? ([Location 69](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004HFRJXK&location=69)) - All of us are beset by fears and pain and doubts. We let ourselves get turned away from our goals by obstructions. But it is possible, as Marie Curie once reminded us, to change our world so that nothing in life is to be feared, only understood. ([Location 74](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004HFRJXK&location=74)) - In an old edition of Elbert Hubbard’s Scrap Book, published in 1923, the year I was born, I discovered a special collection of New Year’s requirements, by W. R. Hunt, that would make any of our lives a heaven on earth: The sun is just rising on the morning of another day, one of the first of a new year. What can I wish that this day, this year, may bring to me? Nothing that shall make the world of others poorer, nothing at the expense of others; but just those things which in their coming do not stop with me, but touch me rather, as they pass and gather strength: A few friends who understand me, and yet remain my friends. A work to do which has real value without which the world would feel the poorer. A return for such work small enough not to tax unduly any one who pays. A mind unafraid to travel, even though the trail be not blazed. An understanding heart. A sight of the eternal hills and unresting sea, and of something beautiful the hand of man has made. A sense of humor and the power to laugh. A few moments of quiet, silent meditation. The sense of the presence of God.  … And the patience to wait for the coming of these things, with the wisdom to know them when they come. ([Location 101](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004HFRJXK&location=101)) - “Well,” he replied, not knowing that he was talking to someone who made his living telling stories about how fate works, “maybe this was all meant to be.” ([Location 148](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004HFRJXK&location=148)) - I do believe we have finally found our own “Enchanted Haven.” ([Location 167](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004HFRJXK&location=167)) - One of the letters I answered today contained a marvelous treasure written by Bolton Hall who, my Dictionary of Thoughts tells me, was a nineteenth-century minister. Take not anxious thought as to the results of your work nor of our work. If you are doing all that you can, the results, immediate or eventual, are not your affair at all. Such seed of truth as we plant can but grow. If we do not see the fruits here, we know nevertheless that there or somewhere they do spring up. It would be great if we could succeed now; it will be greater if we patiently wait for success, even though we never see it ourselves. For it will come. Do not be fretted by abuse. Those who abuse you do not know what they are doing. We also were at one time deluded and cruel, therefore forgive. ([Location 171](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004HFRJXK&location=171)) - Do not grieve over your own troubles; you would not have them if you did not need them. Do not grieve over the troubles of “others”; there are no others. Therefore, let us keep God in our hearts and quiet in our minds, for though in the flesh we may never stand upon our edifice, we are building that which shall never be pulled down. ([Location 182](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004HFRJXK&location=182)) - I like what Shakespeare once wrote about growing old: “Some men never seem to grow old. Always active in thought, always ready to adopt new ideas, they are never chargeable with fogyism. Satisfied, yet ever dissatisfied, settled, yet ever unsettled, they always enjoy the best of what is, and are the first to find the best of what will be.” ([Location 205](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004HFRJXK&location=205)) - As Thoreau added, “I have, as it were, my own sun and moon and stars, and a little world all to myself.” How lucky we are! ([Location 454](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004HFRJXK&location=454)) - An important part of setting goals is developing the ability in one’s mind to picture that goal vividly and clearly as already attained. A nineteenth-century wise man, Joseph Appel, once wrote, ([Location 465](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004HFRJXK&location=465)) - You want a better position than you now have in business, a better and fuller place in life? All right, think of that better place and you in it as already existing. Form the mental image. Keep on thinking of that higher position, keep the image constantly before you and … no, you will not suddenly be transported into the higher job, but you will find that you are preparing yourself to occupy the better position in life.… your body, your energy, your understanding, your heart will all grow up to the job … and when you are ready, after hard work, perhaps after years of preparation, you will get the job and the higher place in life. ([Location 467](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004HFRJXK&location=467)) - The perennials in our flower garden continue to thrill us with their colors. Tall white spires of Icicle Veronica, dark red Starfire phlox, purple Stonecrop sedum, pink astilbe, each seemingly served by their own crew of butterflies in matching colors. Amazing! ([Location 535](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004HFRJXK&location=535)) - Four murders, in the poorest neighborhoods of Boston, violating our sensibilities on the eleven-o’clock television news. The morning papers had carried a piece about nine swastikas being painted on the Newton Free Library scheduled to be opened in September. And then, in the same paper, like words from one’s mother assuring us that “everything is all right,” is the story of Daniel Perez, who didn’t like the mess of beer bottles, newspapers, garbage, and weeds that grew in the center strip of Broadway in upper Manhattan. Daniel cleared the area, worked the soil, fertilized it, and planted corn. Rustling in the breeze, as traffic passes, are more than a hundred stalks, now at least six feet tall. Swastikas … or corn. The choice is ours. This country’s future can go either way, and where it leads will be up to us. We cannot hide behind locked doors and drawn curtains and wait for others to remake our world. This life of ours needs constant cultivating, like Mr. Perez’s corn, or it will bear no fruit. ([Location 567](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004HFRJXK&location=567)) - Back in 1981 my selection of the ten greatest how-to-succeed books was featured in The People’s Almanac #3. If I had to recommend just three books to anyone looking for some answers to a better life today, I would suggest that they read How to Stop Worrying and Start Living by Dale Carnegie, Psycho-Cybernetics by Maxwell Maltz, and The Power of Positive Thinking by Norman Vincent Peale. ([Location 640](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004HFRJXK&location=640)) - Lack of willpower has ruined more lives, destroyed more careers, and brought anguish and tears to more families than the lack of any other asset or quality, even including the lack of wealth and ambition. ([Location 645](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004HFRJXK&location=645)) - For thirty years or more I have been trying to tell the world, in books and talks, that by following a few simple rules, such as counting one’s blessings and going the extra mile, it is possible to live a life filled with pride and peace. ([Location 652](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004HFRJXK&location=652)) - a statement of profound wisdom from William James: “The greatest use of life is to spend it for something that will outlast it.” ([Location 745](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004HFRJXK&location=745)) - I think it was Anatole France who once wrote that some of us have no idea what to do with this short life, yet we want another that will be eternal. ([Location 842](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004HFRJXK&location=842)) - I wonder how many birds die in cages believing that the cage’s ceiling is the real sky? ([Location 928](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004HFRJXK&location=928)) - William James, one of America’s most distinguished philosophers and psychologists, considered the following remark his most important ever: “Compared to what we ought to be, we are only half awake. Our fires are dampened, our drafts are checked, we are making use of only a small part of our mental and physical resources.” Certainly not the way to conquer life. ([Location 959](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004HFRJXK&location=959)) - Perhaps the correct response to many of our concerns over daily events that shock and alarm us rests in the words of Thomas Fuller, a seventeenth-century English divine: “Thou must content thyself to see the world imperfect as it is. Thou wilt never have any quiet if thou vexest thyself because thou canst not bring mankind to that exact notion of things and rule of life which thou hast formed in thy own mind.” Good advice. ([Location 986](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004HFRJXK&location=986)) - We must learn, and never forget, that wise bit of wisdom passed down to us by some unknown voice of the past who said that a smooth sea never made a skillful mariner, neither do uninterrupted prosperity and success qualify us for usefulness and happiness. The storms of adversity, like those of the ocean, rouse the faculties and excite the invention, prudence, skill, and fortitude of the voyager. The martyrs of ancient times, in bracing their minds to outward calamities, acquired a loftiness of purpose and a moral heroism worth a lifetime of softness and security. ([Location 1085](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004HFRJXK&location=1085)) - Years do not make sages, they only make old men … some even before their time. ([Location 1096](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004HFRJXK&location=1096)) - When we settle for mediocrity in the small things, we usually end up settling for mediocrity in the big things, including our own success, peace of mind, and way of life. It doesn’t have to be that way. We can make a difference in our tomorrows, provided we deliver nothing but the very best we can do, every day! ([Location 1113](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004HFRJXK&location=1113)) - Culturally we are not evolving into a better world, so, more and more, it falls upon each of us to do everything possible to preserve and uplift our own little day-by-day universe. ([Location 1176](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004HFRJXK&location=1176)) - The Alamo is quite near the River Walk. I still remember my surprise the first time I saw that beloved American landmark, which is now almost completely hidden by modern buildings. It seems so tiny, this very special place where Jim Bowie and Davy Crockett and 187 other brave men resisted General Santa Ana’s hordes of soldiers for a dozen days before the final American was slain. Are there any such Americans, call them patriots if you will, walking around today? I’m not so sure anymore. Wonder how many could repeat the words of Daniel Webster, and mean them: I was born an American; I live an American; I shall die an American; and I intend to perform the duties incumbent upon me in that character to the end of my career. I mean to do this with absolute disregard of personal consequences. What are the personal consequences? What is the individual man, with all the good or evil that may betide him, in comparison with the good or evil which may befall a great country, and in the midst of great transactions which concern that country’s fate? Let the consequences be what they will, no man can suffer too much, and no man can fall too soon, if he suffer or if he fall, in the defense of the liberties and constitution of his country. ([Location 1533](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004HFRJXK&location=1533)) - There is something almost sacred about working a garden. The peace that settles on one is difficult to describe, although Alex Smith, the old Scottish poet, tried when he wrote, “My garden, with its silence and the pulses of fragrance that come and go in the airy undulations, affects me like sweet music. Care stops at the gates, and gazes at me wistfully through the bars. Among my flowers and plants and trees, nature takes me into her own hands, and I breathe as freely as the first man.” ([Location 1616](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004HFRJXK&location=1616)) - “Never neglect the little things in life” should be very high on anyone’s list of rules to live by, and yet, in this age of haste and waste that has engulfed all of us, that simple but powerful principle is usually ignored. ([Location 2013](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004HFRJXK&location=2013)) - Toward the end of my talk one of the points I made was that people should never do anything in their lives that they would have to apologize for doing to those they love. Then I shared with them an old poem, author unknown, that I had been carrying around for my own benefit, for many years: THE FACE IN THE GLASS When you get what you want in your struggle for self And the world makes you king for a day, Just go to a mirror and look at yourself And see what that face has to say For it isn’t your father or mother or wife Whose judgment upon you must pass, The person whose verdict counts most in your life Is the one staring back from the glass. Some people might think you’re a straight-shootin’ chum And call you a great gal or guy But the face in the glass says you’re only a bum If you can’t look it straight in the eye That’s the one you must please, never mind all the rest, That’s the one with you clear to the end, And you know you have passed your most dangerous test If the face in the glass is your friend. You may fool the whole world down the pathway of years And get pats on the back as you pass, But your final reward will be heartache and tears If you’ve cheated the face in the glass. ([Location 2100](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004HFRJXK&location=2100)) - With only three weeks to go in this sorry presidential campaign, I see that Democratic candidate Clinton continues to insist that he wants the “rich” to pay their “fair share.” I will never understand why, in this so-called land of golden opportunity, one must pay a penalty for making a success of one’s life. Those who have worked or studied additional long hours as they struggled and sacrificed to accomplish their goals almost always must pay a penalty in additional taxes for their success. Why? ([Location 2189](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004HFRJXK&location=2189)) - Before Clinton completes his first term, in 1996, we will have reached that terrifying milestone when we are paying more interest on our debt than is being collected from every citizen in taxes. If our deficit runs away from us and we commence printing money as fast as we can, we will face the same nightmare that so many other countries, such as Germany, have endured in this century. Inflation can ruin a lifetime of careful and often painful saving. When bread is selling for a hundred dollars a loaf, all our sacrifice, all our life’s efforts for that matter, becomes completely worthless. I hope that the deficit problem is high on Mr. Clinton’s list of “things to deal with.” The time bomb is ticking loudly. ([Location 2274](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004HFRJXK&location=2274)) - They are still reading the names of those killed in Vietnam, reading them aloud, as they stand vigil by the long and striking wall in our nation’s capital. By the time they finish, they will have read more than fifty thousand names. During my war, World War II, we lost more than 400,000 Americans, but no one is reading their names. How quickly we forget. ([Location 2296](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004HFRJXK&location=2296)) - Holidays always bring me back to my childhood, and I can still remember my beloved mother telling me about the custom followed by so many early New England families of placing five grains of dry corn on each plate at Thanksgiving to remind everyone at the table to count their blessings. During that first terrible winter, she would explain, the original Pilgrims, who had already buried half their group after crossing the Atlantic on the Mayflower, had so little food that each survivor received just five little grains of corn. ([Location 2315](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004HFRJXK&location=2315)) - Henry Ward Beecher once said that “a proud man is seldom a grateful man for he never thinks he gets as much as he deserves.” And therein lies most of our unhappiness. ([Location 2322](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004HFRJXK&location=2322)) - I remember once reading that when God wanted to punish New Englanders for our sins, He invented February. ([Location 2625](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004HFRJXK&location=2625))