Lars Toomre

Out of the notion, "I can" comes the next thought: "I think I will." The impulse is playful. It doesn't consider the odds. It is an impulse born of pure faith. The artist has a vision and that vision includes the successful completion of the art he has in mind. An artist is like a lover who cannot pause to entertain the possibility of being spurned. He must press his suit. His whole impulse is to love.

One of the most loving things you can do for another person is let them make their own mistakes, learn their own lessons and endure in the contrast of a life they don't really want. People only really change when they've hit rock bottom - sometimes the most loving thing you can do for a person is to let them and be there to help pick up the pieces. Permanent change comes from within, no one can give it to you.

Adversity is like a strong wind. It tears away from us all but the things that cannot be torn, so that we see ourselves as we really are.

Creativity is a spiritual practice. It is not something that can be perfected, finished, and set aside. It is my experience that we reach plateaus of creative attainment only to have a certain restlessness set in. Yes, we are successful. Yes, we have made it but ... This unfinished quality, this restless appetite for further exploration, test us. We are asked to expand in order that we not contract. As artists, we are spiritual sharks. The ruthless truth is that if we don't keep moving, we sink to the bottom and die. The choice is very simple: we can insist on resting on our laurels, or we can begin anew. The stringent requirements of a sustained creative life is the humility to start again, to begin anew.

Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan "press on" has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.

There is no road too long to the man who advances deliberately and without undue haste; there are no honors too distant to the man who prepares himself for them with patience.

Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.

It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you'll do things differently.

Optimism is critical to our spiritual health. Is our creative glass half full or half empty? It's a matter of perception — and faith. For most of us, the idea that we can listen to ourselves, trust ourselves, and value ourselves is a radical leap of faith. The idea that we can tell ourselves "Hey, you are doing pretty well and so much better than you did last year" amounts to a revolution. The possibility that we can trust ourselves, our decisions, and our painstaking progress, that this trust might be enough, even admirable, requires that muster a soupcon of optimism. Optimism about ourselves and our chances is an elected attitude. We can chose to believe the best and not the worst, but to do that we must become conscious of our own negative voice-over and decide to change our mental sound track.

Intrinsic security doesn't come from what other people think of us or how they treat us. It doesn't come from our circumstances or our position. It comes from within. It comes from accurate paradigms and correct principles deep in our mind and heart. It comes from inside-out congruence, from living a life of integrity in which our daily habits reflect our deepest values.

My recipe for dealing with anger and frustration: set the kitchen timer for twenty minutes, cry, rant, and rave, and at the sound of the bell, simmer down and go about business as usual.

Always dream and shoot higher than you know you can do. Don't bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself.

While the word proactivity is now fairly common in management literature, it is a word that you won't find in most dictionaries. It means that as human beings, we are responsible for our own lives. Our behavior is a function of our decisions, not our conditions. We can subordinate feelings to values. We have the initiative and the responsibility to make things happen.

If you can think it, you can do it.
As for fear, just go through it.
Ask to receive
Believe and you'll achieve.
Love is the key, to unlock your destiny
The present is all you have
Trust in the Master's plan.
Today is gone too soon, get going
So you don't die
With your music still in you.

Defeat is a state of mind. No one is ever defeated until defeat has been accepted as reality. To me, defeat in anything is merely temporary, and its punishment is but an urge for me to greater effort to achieve my goal. Defeat simply tells me that something is wrong in my doing; it is a path leading to success and truth.

You will accomplish more by kind words and a courteous manner than by anger or sharp rebuke, which should never be used except in necessity.

There are no hopeless situations; there are only men who have grown hopeless about them.

Be careful what you water your dreams with. Water them with worry and fear and you will produce weeds that choke the life from your dream. Water them with optimism and solutions and you will cultivate success. Always be on the lookout for ways to turn a problem into an opportunity for success. Always be on the lookout for ways to nurture your dream.

Maxim for life: You get treated in life the way you teach people to treat you.