Gelett Burgess Quotes

A sense of humor is a major defense against minor troubles.

This much I have learned: human beings come with very different sets of wiring, different interests, different temperaments, different learning styles, different gifts, different temptations. These differences are tremendously important in the spiritual formation of human beings.

Looking comparatively at the good things, you will see that they are not excluded from wisdom, humanity and bravery.

Cheerfulness is a policy; happiness is a talent.

Most men have at least one redeeming feature. Finding one for Brother Rike requires a stretch. Is 'big' a redeeming feature?

A man is really alive only when he delights in the good-will of others.

I can't believe how some of the most unfortunate people in the world can be the happiest.It's just so enlightening to me.

Love is as necessary to human beings as food and shelter; [but] without intelligence, ... love is impotent and freedom unattainable.

You know if they said kindness or funniness was really most important to them then they will be more likely to say yes to the person that they thought was kind and funny.

You need a reason to be sad. You don't need a reason to be happy.

I think it's nice when everyone's happy. I'm that kind of person. But then sometimes you have people that are never happy, which also happened to me a little bit, people that always find ways to complain about everything. But if they're never happy, that's the way they are.

Let other pens dwell on guilt and misery. I quit such odious subjects as soon as I can, impatient to restore everybody not greatly in fault themselves to tolerable comfort, and to have done with all the rest.

I think joy is just as instructive as pain, and I like it better. I never meant to suffer any more than I could help; my nature was meant for happiness, a daylight art and living.

Joyfulness keeps the heart and face young.

Practice hope. As hopefulness becomes a habit, you can achieve a permanently happy spirit.

A person with a positive attitude is like a fruit of all seasons.

The greatest enemies of success and happiness are negative emotions of all kinds.

One of the first choices we make every day is your attitude. Wake up and put on an attitude of thanksgiving!

And it sort of hit me that the very subject matter of the film that I'm dealing with is the key to the most important thing in our lives, and that's our relationships. And so we had done all this research showing the job of each individual emotion, you know, fear keeps you safe. It deals with uncertainty.

To me it seems to be important to believe people to be good even if they tend to be bad, because your own joy and happiness in life is increased that way, and the pleasures of the belief outweigh the occasional disappointments. To be a cynic about people works just the other way around and makes you incapable about enjoying the good things.

Those who have easy, cheerful attitudes tend to be happier than those with less pleasant temperaments, regardless of money, making it, or success.

I think to be a good teacher you need an enormous amount of patience and I'm a very impatient person.

the relationship between people knot so easily, there needs to be a person skilled at working free the threads. Sometimes, though, the only way to extricate a tangle is to cut it out and start fresh.

Positive thinking is hard. Worth it, though.