John Ortberg Quotes

I am, as a character, at times, a little overbearing. I recognize that.

I'm not crazy. But I am different. I'm still learning about myself.

I am a woman in process. I'm just trying like everybody else. I try to take every conflict, every experience, and learn from it. Life is never dull.

I think the way we react to things is a big indicator of our character and what type of person we are.

The properties of people and the properties of character have almost nothing to do with each other. They really don't. I know it seems like they do because we look alike, but people don't speak in dialogue. Their lives don't unfold in a series of scenes that form a narrative arc.

It takes time to know what makes an individual player tick.

To know oneself is to study oneself in action with another person.

Each character represented a trait that resides in me.

Only by joy and sorrow does a person know anything about themselves and their destiny. They learn what to do and what to avoid.

We learn by practice. Whether it means to learn to dance by practicing dancing or to learn to live by practicing living, the principles are the same. One becomes in some area an athlete of God.

An humble knowledge of thyself is a surer way to God than a deep search after learning.

Painful as it may be, a significant emotional event can be the catalyst for choosing a direction that serves us - and those around us - more effectively. Look for the learning.

Part of being a man is learning to take responsibility for your successes and for your failures. You can't go blaming others or being jealous. Seeing somebody else's success as your failure is a cancerous way to live.

Cherish that which is within you, and shut off that which is without; for much knowledge is a curse.

A man with a so-called character is often a simple piece of mechanism; he has often only one point of view for the extremely complicated relationships of life.

My everyday job is about superficial beauty, but when I'm not working I prefer to work on my inner beauty - I read a lot, I try to learn.

I have been shaped by my mistakes and disappointments - just as I have been shaped by my successes.

How well I walk my talk, and not talk my talk, determines the quality of my engagement, of all my experience with what is quite personally my God. I'm my greatest teacher, and within me, I have the power to push myself deeper and higher.

The man who has no inner-life is a slave to his surroundings.

Perfecting oneself is as much unlearning as it is learning.

I thought I was going to school to be other people, but really, what I learned was to be myself - accepting myself, my strengths and weaknesses.

They say that people teach what they need to learn. By adopting the role of happiness teacher, if only for myself, I was trying to find the method to conquer my particular faults and limitations.

I just think I'm better equipped to make a study of human personality than trying to get into the mind of animals.

People become more interesting from about 25 - they develop character and their personalities come out.

Every child is so different. Their experience growing up and their experience relating to the world has so much to do with their temperament, and their likes and their dislikes.