Much violence is based on the illusion that life is a property to be defended and not to be shared. –Buddha

I cannot stress too deeply the importance of one's constructive mental attitude toward life. One gets out of life only what one puts into it; everything must be seeded in different degrees. Always express happy thoughts and keep an uncomplaining mind. A complaining mind is a destructive one-destructive to health and happiness. How easily we may be made unhappy depends upon the weakness and ignorance of our own minds. Happy thoughts expressed are like the sunbeams that create warmth-that stimulate one's sense of well being and make us feel happy. Give happiness and you will receive it in return: it is a natural phenomenon of a balanced and well-ordered mind. Do not complain; instead seek the solution to the problem, and then you can do something constructive about it. This can best be accomplished by forgetting self; too much false value is placed upon self and personality, thus developing an overrated and inflated ego that sees all things in proportion to its own ignorance. –Alfred J. Parker

Nothing truly stops you. Nothing truly holds you back, for your own will is always within your control. Sickness may challenge your body. But are you merely your body? –Epictetus

The firmest friendships have been formed in mutual adversity, as iron is most strongly united by the fiercest flame. –Charles C. Colton