Maxwell Maltz Quotes

It takes 21 days to develop a habit.

It is an old psychological axiom that constant exposure to the object of fear immunizes against the fear.

You are embarking on the greatest adventure of your life - to improve your self-image, to create more meaning in your life and in the lives of others. This is your responsibility.

This is where you will win the battle - in the playhouse of your mind.

Change your mental imagery, and the feelings will take care of themselves.

Times will change for the better when you change.

Do your worrying before you place your bet, not after the wheel stops turning.

When you believe you can... you can!

When a person has adequate self-esteem little slights offer no threat at all - they are simply "passed over" and ignored. Even deeper emotional wounds are likely to heal faster and cleaner, with no festering sores to poison life and spoil happiness.

It is no exaggeration to say that every human being is hypnotized to some extent either by ideas he has uncritically accepted from others or ideas he has repeated to himself or convinced himself are true. These negative ideas have exactly the same effect upon our behavior as the negative ideas implanted into the mind of a hypnotized subject by a professional hypnotist.

It was as if personality itself had a 'face'. This non-physical face of personality seemed to be the real key to personality change. It remained scarred, distorted, 'ugly' or inferior the person himself acted out this role in his behaviour regardless of the changes in physical appearance. If this 'face of personality' could be reconstructed, if old emotional scars could be removed, then the person himself changed, even without facial plastic surgery.

For imagination sets the goal picture which our automatic mechanism works on. We act, or fail to act, not because of will, as is so commonly believed, but because of imagination.

Ignore past failures and forge ahead.

It doesn't matter how many times you have failed.... What matters is the successful attempt.

Take the trouble to stop and think of the other person's feelings, his viewpoints, his desires and needs. Think more of what the other fellow wants, and how he must feel.

The most delightful surprise in life is to suddenly recognise your own worth.

We, whoever we are, must have a daily goal in our lives, no matter how small or great, to make that day mean something.

We act, we behave, and we feel the vibration that we're in at the present time according to what we consider our self image to be. And we do not deviate from that pattern. The image you hold of yourself is a premise, a foundation (idea) on which your entire personality is built. This image, not only controls your behavior but your circumstances as well.

Accept yourself as you are. Otherwise you will never see opportunity. You will not feel free to move toward it; you will feel you are not deserving.

Happiness is native to the human mind and its physical machine. We think better, perform better, feel better, and are healthier when we are happy.

A healthy strong ego, with plenty of self-esteem, does not feel itself threatened by every innocent remark.

Within you, whoever you may be, regardless of how big a failure you may think yourself to be, is the ability and the power to do whatever you need to do to be happy and successful.

Loneliness is caused by an alienation from life. It is a loneliness from your real self.

Mental pictures offer us an opportunity to practice new traits and attitudes, which otherwise we could not do. This is possible because again - your nervous system cannot tell the difference between an actual experience and one that is vividly imagined.

Faith, courage, optimism, looking forward, bring us new life and more life. Futility, frustration, living in the past are not only characteristic of 'old age'; they contribute to it.

Self-discipline is the golden key; without it, you cannot be happy.

Low self-esteem is like driving through life with your hand-break on.

Happiness is simply a state of mind in which our thinking is pleasant a good share of the time.

To really 'live,' that is to find life reasonably satisfying, you must have an adequate and realistic self-image that you can life with. You must find yourself acceptable to 'you.'

Self-image sets the boundaries of individual accomplishment.

Man maintains his balance, poise, and sense of security only as he is moving forward.

You can always find the sun within yourself if you will only search.

Begin to imagine what the desirable outcome would be like. Go over these mental pictures and delineate details and refinements. Play them over and over to yourself.

The 'self-image' is the key to human personality and human behavior. Change the self image and you change the personality and the behavior.

An idea accepted as true from any source can be every bit as powerful as hypnosis.

Self-improvement is the name of the game, and your primary objective is to strengthen yourself, not to destroy an opponent.

This Creative Mechanism within you is impersonal. It will work automatically and impersonally to achieve goals of success and happiness, or unhappiness and failure, depending upon the goals which you yourself set for it. Present it with success goals and it functions as a Success Mechanism. Present it with negative goals, and it operates just as impersonally, and just as faithfully as a Failure Mechanism.

Our self image, strongly held, essentially determines what we become.

Your nervous system can't tell real failure from imagined failure.

People who say that life is not worthwhile are really saying that they themselves have no personal goals which are worthwhile. Prescription: Get yourself a goal worth working for. Better still, get yourself a project. Decide what you want out of a situation. Always have something ahead of you to “look forward to” — to work for and hope for.

It is well known that when Thomas A. Eddison was stymied by a problem, he would lie down and take a short nap.

As soon as the error has been recognized and corrections made, it's equally important that the error be forgotten and the successful attempt remembered and dwelt upon.

Get into the habit of laughing; too many of us have forgotten how to laugh. As people grow older, they sometimes forget that they ever laughed. It is a part of their childhood that they can no longer remember.

Remember you will not always win. Some days, the most resourceful individual will taste defeat. But there is, in this case, always tomorrow - after you have done your best to achieve success today.

We are injured and hurt emotionally, Not so much by other people or what they say and don't say, But by our own attitude and our own response.

Your nervous system cannot tell the difference between an imagined experience and a ‘real’ experience.

Successful people are able to rise above crises by relaxing no matter what the external situation. Their belief in themselves, the strength of their self-image is impenetrable armor, which protects them against shattering events.

Live in the present. The past is gone; the future is unknown - but the present is real, and your opportunities are now.