Wilferd A Peterson Quotes & Sayings

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. — Wilferd Peterson

Happiness doesn't come from doing what we like to do but from liking what we have to do. — Wilferd Peterson

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. — Wilferd Peterson

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. — Wilferd Peterson

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. — Wilferd Peterson

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. — Wilferd Peterson

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. — Wilferd Peterson

Success is focusing the full power of all you are on what you have a burning desire to achieve. — Wilferd Peterson

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. — Wilferd Peterson

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. — Wilferd Peterson

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. — Wilferd Peterson

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

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

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

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." — Wilferd Peterson

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. — Wilferd Peterson

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. — Wilferd Peterson

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. — Wilferd Peterson

The leader sees things through the eyes of his followers. He puts himself in their shoes and helps them make their dreams come true. The leader does not say, "Get going!" Instead he says, "Let's go!" and leads the way. He does not walk behind with a whip; he is out in front with a banner. — Wilferd Peterson

Success is not arriving at the summit of a mountain as a final destination. It is a continuing upward spiral of progress. It is perpetual growth. — Wilferd Peterson

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. — Wilferd Peterson

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

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. — Wilferd Peterson

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! — Wilferd Peterson

You are a bundle of mysteries. Finding and conquering yourself is a lifetime task. There are unplumbed depths in you full of the rich ore of personal discovery. Explore yourself! There is power in you - the power to change yourself and to change the world; the power to create plans, projects, movements for the common good; the power to inspire and serve. — Wilferd Peterson

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. — Wilferd Peterson

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

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. — Wilferd Peterson

Walk with the dreamers, the believers, the courageous, the cheerful, the planners, the doers, the successful people with their heads in the clouds and their feet on the ground. Let their spirit ignite a fire within you to leave this world better than when you found it ... — Wilferd Peterson

Let your light shine. Be a source of strength and courage. Share your wisdom. Radiate love. — Wilferd Peterson

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. — Wilferd Peterson

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

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. — Wilferd Peterson

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. — Wilferd Peterson

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

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. — Wilferd Peterson

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

Through books you can start today where the great thinkers of yesterday left off, because books have immortalized man's knowledge. Thinkers, dead a thousand years, are as alive in their books today as when they walked the earth. — Wilferd Peterson

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. — Wilferd Peterson

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. — Wilferd Peterson

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. — Wilferd Peterson

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. — Wilferd Peterson

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

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. — Wilferd Peterson

We can make these three dynamic words - "reverence for life" - a part of our lives by becoming aware that God is the source of all life and that we are one with life. "The good person," said Schweitzer, "is the friend of all living things." — Wilferd Peterson

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. — Wilferd Peterson

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. — Wilferd Peterson

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. — Wilferd Peterson

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. — Wilferd Peterson

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. — Wilferd Peterson