Andy Andrews Quotations

Self-discipline is the ability to make yourself do something you don't necessarily want to do, to get a result you would really like to have.

Life itself is a privilege, but to live life to the fullest- well, that is a choice.

Everybody wants to be on the mountaintop, but if you'll remember, mountaintops are rocky and cold. There is no growth on the top of a mountain. Sure, the view is great, but what's a view for? A view just gives us a glimpse of our next destination-our next target. But to hit that target, we must come off the mountain, go through the valley, and begin to climb the next slope. It is in the valley that we slog through the lush grass and rich soil, learning and becoming what enables us to summit life's next peak.

When faced with a decision, many people say they are waiting for God. But I understand, in most cases, God is waiting for me.

While it is true that most people never see or understand the difference they make, or sometimes only imagine their actions having a tiny effect, every single action a person takes has far-reaching consequences.

Most people fail at whatever they attempt because of an undecided heart. Should I? Should I not? Go forward? Go back? Success requires the emotional balance of a committed heart. When confronted with a challenge, the committed heart will search for a solution. The undecided heart searches for an escape. A committed heart does not wait for conditions to be exactly right. Why? Because conditions are never exactly right.

Most people think it takes a long time to change. It doesn’t. Change is immediate! Instantaneous! It may take a long time to decide to change…but change happens in a heartbeat!

Do battle with the challenges of your present, and you will unlock the prizes of your future.

Passion is a product of the heart. Passion is what helps you when you have a great dream. Passion breeds conviction and turns mediocrity into excellence! Your passion will motivate others to join you in pursuit of your dream. With passion, you will overcome insurmountable obstacles. You will become unstoppable!

When confronted with a challenge, the committed heart will search for a solution. The undecided heart searches for an escape.

Every single thing you do matters. You have been created as one of a kind. You have been created in order to make a difference. You have within you the power to change the world.

Ask yourself this question everyday: What is it about me that other people would change if they could?

Listen carefully to me. Despite popular belief to the contrary, there is absolutely no power in intention...There is no difference in the person who intends to do things differently and the one who never thinks about it in the first place. Have you ever considered how often we judge ourselves by out intentions while we judge others by their actions? Yet intention without action is an insult to those who expect the best from you.

There are generations yet unborn, whose very lives will be shifted and shaped by the moves you make and the actions you take.

Poor is the man whose future depends on the opinions and permission of others. Remember this, if you are afraid of criticism, you will die doing nothing!

Beginning today, I will create a new future by creating a new me. No longer will I dwell in a pit of despair, moaning over squandered time and lost opportunity. I can do nothing about the past. My future is immediate. I will grasp it in both hands and carry it with running feet. When I am faced with the choice of doing nothing or doing something, I will always choose to act! I seize this moment. I choose now.

Remember, the goal is not to raise great kids; it's to raise kids who become great adults.

If you worry about what other people think of you, then you will have more confidence in their opinion than you have in your own.

Your time on this earth is a gift to be used wisely. Don't squander your words or your thoughts. Consider that even the simplest actions you take for your lives matter beyond measure...and they matter forever.

Adversity is preparation for greatness.

Keep your head and heart clear. Perspective can just as easily be lost as it can be found.

Seek wisdom. Wisdom waits to be gathered. She cannot be bartered or sold. She is a fight for the diligent. And only the diligent will find her. The lazy man - the stupid man - never even looks. Though wisdom is available to many, she is found by few. Seek wisdom. Find her, and you will find success and contentment.

Everyone has a worst time in their life. There's always a worse time. We are all either in a crisis, coming to one or coming out of one.

Everybody wants to reach the top of the mountain, but there is no growth at the peak. It is in the valley that we slog through the lush grass and rich soil, learning and becoming what enables us to summit life's next peak.

There are no hopeless situations, sweetheart, only people who have grown hopeless about them. You still have choices you can make.

Jesus is Jesus. So, I'm not sure I'd get into the business of making somebody into Jesus. That's just me.

Remember, young man, experience is not the best teacher. Other people's experience is the best teacher. By reading about the lives of great people, you can unlock the secrets to what made them great.

You have been created with the ability to change the world. Every single choice you make ... every single action you take ... matters. But remember, the converse is also true. Every choice you do not make ... every action you do not take ... matters just as much.

We begin to forgive by choosing to forgive . . . by deciding, not by feeling. Our feelings don't lead us to forgive. Most times, our feelings lead us the other way. That's why a person has to decide to forgive first. Our feelings always follow along behind our decisions.

It is not enough to recognize what is right and true. One must control the impulse to do what is wrong and easy.

By your hand, millions - billions - of lives will be altered, caught up in a chain of events begun by you this day.

The situations that have been the biggest wins for me have been because I was forced to think differently.

We all can think of at least one kid who had great parents, a great family, and an all-around great childhood...who suddenly went crazy as soon as he left the house for college or adulthood. And nobody can figure out how or why it happened!

Challenges are gifts, opportunities to learn.

Little things do matter. Sometimes, little things matter the most. Everybody pays a lot of attention to big things, but nobody seems to understand that big things are almost always made up of little things. When you ignore little things, they often turn into big things that have become a lot harder to handle.

Those who are critical of my goals and dreams simply do not understand the higher purpose to which I have been called.

I will not waste time on second thoughts. My life will not be an apology. It will be a statement.

Every man of character will have that character questioned. Every man of honor and courage will be faced with unjust criticism, but never forget that unjust criticism has no impact whatsoever upon the truth. And the only sure way to avoid criticism is to do nothing and be nothing.

Everybody wants to make a difference, but nobody wants to be different. And you simply cannot have one without the other.

It's time to stop letting your history control your destiny.

People who are labeled as disrespectful do not get the same opportunities afforded to those who are labeled as respectful.

If I associate with chickens, I will learn to scratch at the ground and squabble over crumbs. If I associate with eagles, I will learn to soar to great heights.

I start every day making sure I'm where I need to be and thinking like I need to think.

When you know that everything matters—that every move counts as much as any other—you will begin living a life of permanent purpose.

Worry is just imagination used in an unproductive way.

And that destination for which we should strive is one of a successful life not necessarily a life of success.

While public opinion might sway back and forth, right and wrong do not.

I believe that any type of education can be great, but an education about ourselves can create something wonderful. I am a comedian, but people have called me a motivational speaker. I don't really consider myself that at all.

Successful people make their decisions quickly and change their minds slowly. Failures make their decisions slowly and change their minds quickly.

In desperate times, much more than anything else, folks need perspective. For perspective brings calm. Calm leads to clear thinking. Clear thinking yields new ideas. And ideas produce the bloom...of an answer. Keep your head and heart clear. Perspective can just as easily be lost as it can be found.

Adversity builds muscle. Adversity creates strength. Adversity, it turns out, is preparation for success.

See, the ‘small stuff’ is what makes up the larger picture of our lives. Many people are like you, young man. But their perspective is distorted. They ignore ‘small stuff,’ claiming to have an eye on the bigger picture, never understanding that the bigger picture is composed of nothing more than-are you ready?- ‘small stuff’.

When I choose to smile I become the master of my emotions.

One way to define wisdom is the ability to see, into the future, the consequences of your choices in the present. That ability can give you a completely different perspective on what the future might look like.

Well, that's why smart people get tripped up with worry and fear. Worry...fear...is just a misuse of the creative imagination that has been placed in each of us. Because we are smart and creative, we imagine all the things that could happen, that might happen, that will happen if this or that happens. See what I mean?

A life filled with opportunities and encouragement finds more and more opportunities and encouragement, and success becomes inevitable.

I just think it’s amazing that a person could lose everything, chasing nothing.

My life - my personality, my habits, even my speech - is a combination of the books I choose to read, the people I choose to listen to, and the thoughts I choose to tolerate in my mind

I think a lot of what is involved in finding a noticer is to watch people and see what fruit people have on the tree. You examine that life and see if it has the kind of fruit you want to produce in your life.

The very beating of your heart has meaning and purpose. Your actions have value far greater than silver or gold.

When you don't know what to do, do something. I know you don't know what to do and I know you can't do everything right now, but you can do something.

When people have something proven to them, and they see that it really benefits them, they don't have to be looking for a change or be at rock bottom. When they see something proven that is of benefit to them, they'll turn around 180 degrees and never look back.

Even a small amount of perspective can change our lives. Because even the smallest amount of perspective can change how we are able to navigate hard times.

If, in fact, it is what's inside us that makes all the difference, then the difference is made when we choose what goes inside.

Even in the worst time of life, if you are still breathing, that means you are still alive. If you are still here, you haven't accomplished what is still to be accomplished. The most important part of your life is still ahead of you.

I believe persistence is a major key to success in any great endeavor. I want to remind folks to PERSIST in whatever they are tackling at the moment!

A committed heart does not wait for conditions to be exactly right. Why? Because conditions are never exactly right. Indecision limits The Almighty and His ability to perform miracles in your life. He has put the vision in you - proceed! To wait, to wonder, to doubt, to be indecisive is to disobey God.

We are all in situations of our own choosing. Our thinking creates a pathway to success or failure. By disclaiming responsibility for our present, we crush the prospect of an incredible future that might have been ours.

Circumstances do not push or pull. They are daily lessons to be studied and gleaned for new knowledge and wisdom. Knowledge and wisdom that is applied will bring about a brighter tomorrow. A person who is depressed is spending too much time thinking about the way things are now and not enough time thinking about how he wants things to be.

In the game of life, nothing is less important than the score at halftime.

If one makes a mistake, then an apology is usually sufficient to get things back on an even keel. However-and this is a big ‘however’- most people do not ever know why their apology did not seem to have any effect. It is simply that they did not make a mistake; they made a choice…and never understood the difference between the two.

When I was 19 years old, both of my parents died in the same year; my mom of cancer and my dad in a car accident. Through the next two or three years and a series of bad decisions - all my own, I might add - I ended up literally homeless, before that was even a word. I even slept occasionally under a pier on the Gulf Coast.

Whatever you focus upon, increases.

I am a teacher and the reason I'm a teacher is because I'm learning as hard as I can. I'm not any different from anybody else. I am searching and having some success finding answers.

Curiously, a principle affects your life whether you are aware of it or not. For instance, the principle of gravity was working long before the apple ever fell on Newton's head. But once it did, and he understood it, then we as a society were free to harness this principle to create, among other things, airline flight.

It is never the duty of a leader to struggle for someone else; a leader must encourage others to struggle and assure them that the struggles are worthwhile. Do battle with the challenges of your present, and you will unlock the prizes of your future.

When a king begins to act like a king, it is not long before someone else is king! Serving is a way we can place value on one another. A wise man is a server.

Remember, whatever you focus upon, increases...When you focus on the things you need, you'll find those needs increasing. If you concentrate your thoughts on what you don't have, you will soon be concentrating on other things that you had forgotten you don't have-and feel worse! If you set your mind on loss, you are more likely to lose...But a grateful perspective brings happiness and abundance into a person's life.

Everything you do matters to all of us forever.

The words It's not my fault! should never again come from your mouth. The words It's not my fault! have been symbolically written on the gravestones of unsuccessful people ever since Eve took her first bite of the apple.

perserverence w/o exception

Only true remorse and "Will you forgive me?" can press the reset button.

Much of your success in life is determined by how you choose to act in spite of how you feel.

To be great at whatever it is that you do, it's going to take some discipline to separate yourself from the average.

Knowledge is one thing. We're awash in knowledge. Wisdom is rare. There's a big difference.

Are you smiling when you talk? Try it today, and I guarantee you will notice a difference in your life.

I guarantee you there is someone in your life that deserves more appreciation. Who is it? Find that person and let them know!

WHAT a person thinks is determined by HOW a person thinks.

No matter how long it takes or how desperately a person battles or denies, the truth always-always-makes itself known.

After all, the seeds of depression cannot take root in a grateful heart.

Every good thing that has happened in your life happened because something changed.

Intention without action is an insult to those who expect the best from you.

Of course it does, Jomes answered earnestly. Many of life's treasures remain hidden from us simply because we never search for them. Often we do not ask the proper questions that might lead us to the answer to all our challenges. We are so caught up in fear and regret, that hope seems a foolish endeavor. Proof of hope, however, is not only possible, it is an overlooked law of the universe.

Then the old man's face hardened. "What about you young man?" he asked flatly. "Would you like to get what you deserve?" Jones let that question hang in the air for a moment, then sighed, shook his head, and said "Me? I surely don't want what I deserve. I'm hoping for mercy, not justice.

In Jones's experience, the decision to turn one's life around in a different direction rarely arrived with fireworks and marching bands. Often, the decision came with tears and regret. Then, almost impossibly, the power of forgiveness would fill an unseen void, allowing a new day's optimism and sense of purpose to take hold and point that life in a new direction.

The longer you've known someone- the more history there is between you- the longer it will take to establish in their mind that you have truly changed. Remember, forgiveness is an altogether different thing from trust or respect. Forgiveness is about the past. Trust and respect are about the future. Forgiveness will be in the hands of others and cna be given to you, but trust and respect are in your own hands and must be earned.

Wisdom is what separates average people from extraordinary people.

By your hand the people shall live

Experience is not the best teacher. Other people's experience is the best teacher.

Your big picture will never be a masterpiece if you ignore the tiny brushstrokes. You're trying so hard to be successful that true success is eluding you.