Wilferd Peterson Quotations

By the grace of God you are what you are; glory in your selfhood, accept yourself and go on from there.

He knows that as long as a man keeps his faith in God and in himself nothing can permanently defeat him.

Remind me each day that the race is not always to the swift; that there is more to life than increasing its speed.

Success is focusing the full power of all you are one what you have a burning desire to achieve.

While there is life there is hope, has deeper meaning in reverse. While there is hope there is life. Hope comes first, life follows. Hope gives power to life. Hope rouses life to continue to expand, to grow, to reach out, to go on. Hope sees a light where there isn't any. Hope lights candles in millions of despairing hearts. Where would I be without hope?

Good will is a power that can be used every day of the year and every hour of the day. It is instantly available. By continuously practicing good will we cultivate a deep subconscious habit of good will. It becomes a pattern of our response in all situations. Good will works as silently as the sun and with as much power. It thaws the ice and snow of resistance and indifference. It warms and wins human hearts. It draws forth the best in others as flowers are drawn from the soil. It stimulates growth.

Work miracles by setting a good example. Others will catch your spirit! The power of a good example is the greatest miracle-working power of all.

The master secret of happiness is to meet the challenge of each new day with the serene faith that: "All things work together for good to them that love God."

Each moment of your life is a brush stroke in the painting of your growing career. There are the bold, sweeping strokes of one increasing, dynamic purpose. There are the lights and shadows that make your life deep and strong. There are the little touches that add the stamp of character and worth. The art of achievement is the art of making life-your life-a masterpiece.

Those who hope to avoid all failure and misfortune are trying to live in a fairyland; wise people realistically accept failures as a part of life and build philosophies to meet them and make the best of them.

Happiness does not depend upon a full pocketbook, but upon a mind full of rich thoughts and a heart full of rich emotions.

Prayer works in the mind as a healing force. It calms the patient, enlightens the physician, guides the surgeon, and it often victoriously applies the power of the spirit when all seems lost. It proves, over and over again, the truth of Tennyson's words: "More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of." Prayer puts us on God's side. It aligns us with life's higher purposes, aims, and ideals. Prayer is dedicating our thought, feeling and action to the expression of goodness. It is to become like a window through which the light of God shines.

Background for Humans

"The word which God has written on the brow of every person," wrote Victor Hugo, "is Hope." As long as we have hope no situation is hopeless.

When one has reverence for life, one will never do anything to harm, hinder, or destroy life. Instead one bends every effort to help life to fulfill its highest destiny. One strives to maintain, enhance, and assist life to make the most of itself.

A person is alive only to the degree that he or she is aware. To make the most of life we must constantly strive to be aware of the importance of being aware. Be aware of your senses and use them: So often we are distracted and unconscious of the riches our senses can pour into our lives. We eat food without tasting it, listen to music without hearing it, smell without experiencing the pungency of odors and the delicacy of perfumes, touch without feeling the grain or texture, and see without appreciating the beauty around us.

To have an open self is to provide a free channel for the infinite goodness of God. To have an open self is to keep yourself aware, alert and sensitive to the beauty and wonder of life. God's love will flow through you into the world when you are open. You enlarge the dimensions of your life when you keep yourself open to the highest and best. The key to God's infinite riches is within you; open yourself and you will receive.

Adventure begins with you, personally. It is in the way you look at things. It is the mental stance you take as you face your day. It is finding magic in things. It is talking with people and discovering their inner goodness. It is the thrill of feeling a part of the life around you. The attitude of adventure will open things up for you. The world will become alive with new zest and meaning. You'll become more aware of the beauty everywhere. Nothing will seem unimportant. Everything will be revealed as having pattern and purpose.

Love, in the words of the Master, is the shining commandment: LOVE ONE ANOTHER.

The most wonderful inspirational chemistry we can use on another is the gift of our love and acceptance. Devoted and unquestioned love has a magic creative power. The consciousness of being loved is an uplifting, saving, healing force that causes one to go on when otherwise it would be impossible to do so. "Love," said Emerson, "is the affirmative of affirmatives."

In my opinion we can never think of God in big enough terms. He is bigger than our biggest thoughts of Him. Our imaginations cannot stretch wide enough to take in all of God.

It is time to browse through the precious books that have meant the most to you that you may rediscover illuminating phrases and sentences to light your pathway to the future...

Decision is the spark that ignites action. Until a decision is made nothing happens.

The Art of Success . . . Success is ninety-nine percent mental attitude. It calls for love, joy, optimism, confidence, serenity, poise, faith, courage, cheerfulness, imagination, initiative, tolerance, honesty, humility, patience, and enthusiasm. . . . Success is having the courage to meet failure without being defeated. It is refusing to let present loss interfere with your long-range goal. . . . Success is relative and individual and personal. It is your answer to the problem of making your minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, and years add up to a great life.

Sooner or later, a man if he is wise, discovers that life is a mixture of good days and bad, victory and defeat, give and take.

Few of us will do the spectacular deeds of heroism that spread themselves across the pages of our newspapers in big black headlines. But we can all be heroic in the little things of everyday life. We can do the helpful things, say the kind words, meet our difficulties with courage and high hearts, stand up for the right when the cost is high, keep our word even though it means sacrifice, be a giver instead of a destroyer. Often this quiet, humble heroism is the greatest heroism of all.

Inject laughter into tense situations to save the day; laughter calms tempers and soothes jangled nerves.

As artist Nature splashes color across the vast canvas of the sky with the radiance and splendor of sunrise and sunset. She arches rainbows against the passing storm, creates flowers and foliage, sets autumn woods on fire with the beauty of turning leaves and touches mountaintops with snow crystals.

The secret of greatness is simple: do better work than any other man in your field - and keep on doing it.

Explore your mind, discover yourself, then give the best that is in you to your age and to your world. There are heroic possibilities waiting to be discovered in every person

A man practices the art of adventure when he heroically faces up to life. When he has the daring to open doors to new experiences. When he is unafraid of new ideas, new theories and new philosophies. When he has the curiosity to experiment. When he breaks the chain of routine.

Christmas is not in tinsel and lights and outward show. The secret lies in an inner glow. It's lighting a fire inside the heart. Good will and joy a vital part. It's higher thought and a greater plan. It's glorious dream in the soul of man.

Don't point your finger to the heights your children should go. Start climbing and they will follow.

Believe! Believe in the limitless supply of God's goodness. The universe is filled with more wonders than you can imagine.

Take a look at those two open hands of yours. They are tools with which to serve, make friends, and reach out for the best in life. Open hands open the way to achievement put them to work today.

Tolerance is understanding. It is open to new light. Those who are tolerant are always eager to explore viewpoints other than their own.

The best leaders are very often the best listeners. They have an open mind. They are not interested in having their own way but in finding the best way.

Leonardo da Vinci, one of the greatest creative thinkers of all time, strongly recommended the habit of meditation in the dark. He wrote: "For I have found in my own experience that it is of no small benefit, when you lie in bed in the dark, to recall in imagination, one after another, the outlines of the form you have been studying." He often awoke to find his problems solved. Da Vinci would often stand silent and motionless before a painting for hours, without using his brush, as though waiting for spiritual guidance.

Today's world needs change, alteration, renewal, and corrections of errors. It needs new ideas, new approaches, methods, plans, procedures, and new ways of doing things. Maybe you should think of going-literally or symbolically- to a circus today, where you'll see stunts you never dreamed possible. The novelty and originality there may stimulate what you need more of in this life. Have the daring to take a flight for the idea you believe in!

Many times we will get more ideas and better ideas in two hours of creative loafing than in eight hours at a desk.

Imagination is a flame that ignites the creative spirit. Imagination lights up your mind by stoking mental fires. It can be stimulated from the outside through the senses, or from the inside through the driving power of curiosity and discontent.

Imagination stimulates your thinking power by giving your mind abundant data with which to work. It opens the gate to dreams and fantasies so that you may become receptive, as a little child, in exploring the Kingdom of Ideas.

Imagination guides you in your contacts with individuals and crowds, so you can discover new concepts and approaches.

Imagination inspires you to look at everything with fresh eyes, as though you had just come forth from a dark tunnel into the light of day. Imagination becomes for you a magic lamp with which to search the darkness of the unknown, that you may discover new goals or chart more productive paths to old goals.

Imagination helps you to recognize the reality of facts, but then to go beyond them, to penetrate beneath them, to rise above them in your search for creative answers to problems. Imagination "stirs up the gift of God in thee." Through your imagination you touch and express the inspiration of the Infinite. Imagination, in the words of Shakespeare, "gives to airy nothing a local habitation and a name." You reach into the heavens to grasp an idea, then you bring it down to earth and make it work.

Love is the spiritual magnetism that draws men together, for the working of miracles.

Response is what we have trained ourselves to be; it is a reflection of our manhood, character, ideals. We cannot always control our surface reactions, but we can sit at the helm of our lives and control our responses to the blows of life.

Our challenge is to face up heroically to the world as it is and do our very best to make the most of our lives. To strive to live each day with serenity and courage.

It is great to love life. Accept life as a precious gift from the hand of God and strive to make the most of it.

Believing is a daring adventure into the unseen, it is a radiant faith in the unexplored, the undiscovered, the miracles of the future. . . There is magic in the art of believing! Believe! Engrave these words of the Master in your memory: "All things are possible to those who believe." Believe! Believe in the limitless supply of God's goodness. The universe is filled with more wonders than you can imagine.

The supreme art of living is to strive to live each day well.

Decision is the spark that ignites action. Until a decision is made, nothing happens.... Decision is the courageous facing of issues, knowing that if they are not faced, problems will remain forever unanswered.

The art of work . . . It is going to your work as you go to worship, with a prayer of thankfulness and the aspiration to serve.

Thank God for the creative ideas that enrich life by adding your own creative contributions to human progress

Success is ninety-nine percent mental attitude. It calls for love, joy, optimism, confidence, serenity, poise, faith, courage, cheerfulness, imagination, initiative, tolerance, honesty, humility, patience, and enthusiasm.

Believe! An old Latin proverb reads: "Believe that you have it and you have it."

Forgiveness works the miracle of change.

Believe! Project a mental picture of your goal in life. Believing is a creative force that brings the visible out of the invisible. You must believe to achieve.

The art of achievement is the art of making life - your life - a masterpiece.

Words of encouragement fan the spark of genius into the flame of achievement. Legend tells us that Lincoln's dying mother called her small son to her bedside and whispered, 'Be somebody, Abe'.

Read! Read something every day. Discipline yourself to a regular schedule of reading. In fifteen minutes a day you can read twenty books a year.

You visualize yourself as the person you want to be. You strive to make the ideal in your mind become a reality on the canvas of Time.

You hold in your hand the camel's-hair brush of a painter of Life. You stand before the vast white canvas of Time. The paints are your thoughts, emotions and acts.

Cynics and critics wake us up. Kindness often covers up the truth and allows us to sleep on in our ignorance.

Every forward step achieved by man has been due to the adventurous attitude. This attitude inspires dissatisfaction with the world as it is; it arouses the desire to change and improve things. The attitude of adventure is the flame that lights the fuse to explode new ideas.

The secret of being more vitally alive is to be more aware. Starting today, from this moment, become aware of awareness!

The art of thinking is the greatest art of all, for 'as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.' The thinker knows he is today where his thoughts have taken him and that he is building his future by the quality of the thoughts he thinks.

He who hopes to avoid all failure and misfortune is trying to live in a fairyland; the wise man realistically accepts failures as a part of life and builds a philosophy to meet them and make the most of them. He lives on the principle of 'nothing attempted, nothing gained' and is resolved that if he fails he is going to fail while trying to succeed.

You open doors when you open books... doors that swing wide to unlimited horizons of knowledge, wisdom, and inspiration that will enlarge the dimensions of your life.

Laughter is the best medicine for a long and happy life. He who laughs lasts!

In practicing the art of parenthood, an ounce of example is worth a ton of preachment.

Love is the supreme good; it is the overflowing life, the giving of ourselves to noble ends and causes.

Love is down to earth and it reaches to the highest star; it is the valey of humility and the mopuntaintop of ecstasy.

Friendship, awareness, happiness, all of the arts of the good life, are brilliant beads strung on the golden cord of love.

Love is the dynamic motivation behind every worthy purpose; it is the upward thrust that lifts men to the heights.

Love is the dove of peace, the spirit of brotherhood, it is tenderness and compassion, forgiveness and tolerance.

The reason progress is slow is that we always expect other men to be the heroes and to live the heroic lives. But we all have hero stuff in us. In our sphere of life we can always live more heroically and triumphantly and grow in heroic stature.

Take time for good books; time to absorb the thoughts of poets and philosophers, seers and prophets.

Decision is often the difference between greatness and mediocrity. In every man's life there comes a time when he must search for a cause, a work, an ideal to which he can give himself. Whether he says 'Yes' or 'No' to the challenge will determine his future.

Words of encouragement fan the spark of genius into the flame of achievement.

Success is relative and individual and personal. It is your answer to the problem of making your minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, and years add up to a great life.

You select the colors of your thoughts; drab or bright, weak or strong, good or bad. You select the colors of your emotions; discordant or harmonious, harsh or quiet, weak or strong. You select the colors of your acts; cold or warm, fearful or daring, small or big.

In our behavior, in the words we write and speak, we can become ambassadors of God's inspiration. Whenever we strive to lift up others in ways that are good and noble we are serving as radiating centers for God's inspiration.

Release your problem to God with a prayer that the answer will come in its own good time and place. Hold the attitude of faith and expectancy, knowing that God has all the answers, that His knowledge is limitless and can never be exhausted.

I believe that God is a power underneath my life here on earth. His goodness undergirds me and uplifts me.

Prayer is thinking and thanking. It is thinking of our many blessings and accepting them with a thankful spirit.

Change can be accomplished most of all through the power of prayer, because with God all things are possible.

I believe that to pray without ceasing means to think good thoughts without ceasing.

The art of humility begins with a recognition of our dependence on others and an appreciation of God's gift of life.

There are no secrets of success. Success is doing the things you know you should do. Success is not doing the things you know you shouldn't do. Success is not limited to any one area of your life. It encompasses all the facets of your relationships: as parent, as wife or husband, as citizen, neighbor, worker and all of the others. Success is not confined to any one part of your personality but is related to the development of all the parts: body, mind, heart and spirit. It is making the most of your total self.

It is looking for the joys that come in small, precious packages and making the most of them, knowing that big packages of joy are few and far between.

Our children are watching us live and what we are shouts louder than anything we can say.

In gratitude for God's gift of life to us we should share that gift with others. The art of giving encompasses many areas. It is an outgoing, overflowing way of life.

Prayer is dedicating our thought, feeling and action to the expression of goodness. It is to become like a window through which the light of God shines.

As you help men to grow, as you work for peace, understanding and good will, your influence will merge, with the good influences of men of every age, into the eternal golden stream of God's goodness.

The art of love is God at work through you.

He can talk to himself about his dreams, hopes and aspirations. He can convince himself that there is a place for him and an important work for him to do.

Champion the right to be yourself; dare to be different and to set your own pattern, live your own life, and follow your own star.

When we become more fully aware that our success is due in large measure to the loyalty, helpfulness, and encouragement we have received from others, our desire grows to pass on similar gifts. Gratitude spurs us on to prove ourselves worthy of what others have done for us. The spirit of gratitude is a powerful energizer.

See it big, and keep it simple.