“As long as you think more is better, you’ll never be satisfied.” ~ Richard Carlson, Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff
“The truth is, in order to experience a feeling, you must first have a thought that produces that feeling.” ~ Richard Carlson, Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff
“As you put more emphasis on being a loving person, which is something you can control – and less emphasis on receiving love, which is something you can’t control – you’ll find that you have plenty of love in your life.” ~ Richard Carlson, Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff
“Our disappointment comes about in essentially two ways. When we’re experiencing pleasure we want it to last forever. It never does. Or when we’re experiencing pain, we want it to go away – now. It usually doesn’t. Unhappiness is the result of struggling against the natural flow of experience.” ~ Richard Carlson, Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff
“It’s interesting to consider that when you disagree with someone, the person you are disagreeing with is every bit as certain of his or her position as you are of yours.” ~ Richard Carlson, Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff
“Whenever you expect something to be a certain way and it isn’t, you’re upset and you suffer. On the other hand, when you let go of expectations, when you accept life as it is, you’re free.” ~ Richard Carlson, Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff
“Sometimes our grandiose plans to do great things at some later time interfere with our chances to do little things right now.” ~ Richard Carlson, Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff
“Circumstances don’t make a person, they reveal him or her.” ~ Richard Carlson, Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff
“So often, either consciously or unconsciously, we want something from others, especially when we have done something for them – It’s almost as though we keep score of our own good deeds rather than remembering that giving is its own reward.” ~ Richard Carlson, Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff
“For a long time it had seemed to me that life was about to begin – real life. But there was always some obstacle in the way, something to be got through first, some unfinished business, time still to be served, a debt to be paid. Then life would begin. At last it dawned on me that these obstacles were my life.” ~ Alfred D’Souza
“The truth is, there’s no better time to be happy than right now. If not now, when? Your life will always be filled with challenges. It’s best to admit this to yourself and decide to be happy anyway.” ~ Richard Carlson, Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff
“An argument that happened while you were walking out the door on your way to work is no longer an actual argument, it’s a thought in your mind.” ~ Richard Carlson, Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff
“Indeed, the important question in terms of becoming more peaceful isn’t whether or not you’re going to have negative thoughts – you are – it’s what you choose to do with the ones that you have.” ~ Richard Carlson, Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff
“When you focus not on what you want, but on what you have, you end up getting more of what you want anyway.” ~ Richard Carlson, Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff
“Happiness can’t be found when we are yearning for new desires.” ~ Richard Carlson, Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff
“When you do too many things at once, it’s impossible to be present-moment oriented. Thus, you not only lose out on much of the potential enjoyment of what you are doing, but you also become far less focused and effective.” ~ Richard Carlson, Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff
“The next time you’re feeling bad, rather than fight it, try to relax. See if, instead of panicking, you can be graceful and calm. Know that if you don’t fight your negative feelings, if you are graceful, they will pass away just as surely as the sun sets in the evening.” ~ Richard Carlson, Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff
“If you are a generally happy person who rarely gets annoyed and bothered, then you can move from place to place, from person to person, with very little negative impact.” ~ Richard Carlson, Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff
“We tend to believe that if we were somewhere else – on vacation, with another partner, in a different career, a different home, a different circumstance – somehow we would be happier and more content. We wouldn’t!” ~ Richard Carlson, Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff
“When we judge or criticize another person, it says nothing about that person; it merely says something about our own need to be critical.”
Richard Carlson, Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff