Vernon Howard Quotes

You, and you alone, get to determine whether you are going to react positively about something or negatively about something - or, interestingly, have no reaction at all. Your emotions are entirely under your control. Your feelings are what you want them to be.

Obviously, circumstances alone do not make us happy or unhappy. It is the way we react to circumstances that determines our feelings. Jesus said that the kingdom of heaven is within you. That is where the kingdom of hell is, too.

Emotion operates, very often when you think about how you react to the world, you know, something is happening to you, you're simply going along and you're being confronted by different things, not necessarily very important or significance for your ultimate life, but you are constantly reacting to the world.

No one makes you feel anything. It is how you react and respond that determines your emotions.

People don't just get upset. They contribute to their upsetness.

Behaviors are a choice. Feelings are sometimes out of our control. Behavior has to do with choices.

Look closer at the stress in your own life and you can identify that negative emotions are always built on counterfactual statements.

I have lived by one crucial principle since I was 24 years old. I don't blame or complain about things like the economy, the government, taxes, employees, gas prices, or any of the external things that I don't have control over. The only thing I have control over is my response to these things.

Learn to take responsibility for emotions, and to manage energies, always working within present resources.

I'm an emotional person; I do occasionally shed a tear.

It's not the situation... It's your reaction to the situation.

I'm really, really emotional.

To believe that your husband, wife, parents, kids, boss, job, bank account, or body is even partly responsible for your emotions, to think that there are bullets 'out there' that you have to contend with, that there are stressful life events to overcome, is to miss something vital.

You can't be responsible for the way people respond to you. You're only responsible for yourself.

I try personally not to be nostalgic.

We can't determine our emotions, but we can choose our attitudes and actions.

I can't worry about external factors, I have to focus on myself.

No one can make you feel anything you don't already feel.

I'm not the kind of guy who gets defensive after something goes wrong.

The problem is not what other people think, do or say; it is your reaction.

Do not allow negative feelings and emotions to control your mind. Emotional harm does not come from others; it is conceived and developed within ourselves.

It's your choice, what you do with the moment. If you're stuck in a traffic jam, you can get angry and honk your horn, or listen to Mozart. But when you have a very specific expectation of how things should be, then, of course, you end up hurting yourself.

Life is not fair, it never was and it is now and it won't ever be. Do not fall into the trap. The entitlement trap, of feeling like you're a victim. You are not.

Owning your own feelings, rather than blaming them on someone else, is the mark of a person who has moved from contracted to expanded awareness.

The pressure... It's not real unless you let it be real.