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Recognize negativism and inferiority attitudes as enemies - do not try to dress them as your friends. you will be tempted to look upon negativism as prudence and inferiorities as humility. Strip off those false cloaks and see these attitudes in their nakedness - as enemies of you and of your possibilities.
E. Stanley Jones
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Interpretation

What this quote means

Negativism and feelings of inferiority can hinder personal growth; see them as obstacles, not allies.

In this quote, E. Stanley Jones emphasizes the importance of recognizing negative thoughts and attitudes as adversaries to our potential. He warns against the temptation to disguise these harmful attitudes as wisdom or humility, urging us to confront them directly and understand their true detrimental nature, so we can overcome them and pursue our possibilities unimpeded.

Themes

NegativismInferioritySelf-ImprovementGrowthPotential

In practice

Example use cases

In a motivational speech about personal development.

More from E. Stanley Jones

When prayer fades out, power fades out. We are as spiritual as we are prayerful; no more, no less.
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The purpose of religion is not so much to get us into heaven, or to keep us out of hell, but to put a little bit of heaven into us, and take the hell out of us. This has always been the greatest responsibility of religion.
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A Johns Hopkins doctor says that 'we do not know why it is that the worriers die sooner than the non-worriers, but that is a fact.' But I, who am simple of mind, think I know we are inwardly constructed, in nerve and tissue and brain cell and soul, for faith and not for fear. God made us that way. Therefore, the need of faith is not something imposed on us dogmatically, but it is written in us intrinsically. We cannot live without it. To live by worry is to live against Reality.
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Worry and anxiety are sand in the machinery of life; faith is the oil.
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An individual gospel without a social gospel is a soul without a body and a social gospel without an individual gospel is a body without a soul. One is a ghost, the other a corpse.
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To implant fear in the minds of children is a crime. If parents try to rule the child by fear, then fear rules the child.
E. Stanley JonesRead

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I want to think quietly, calmly, spaciously, never to be interrupted, never to have to rise from my chair, to slip easily from one thing to another, without any sense of hostility, or obstacle. I want to sink deeper and deeper, away from the surface, with its hard separate facts.
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A man is hindered and distracted in proportion as he draws outward things to himself.
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Cherish your solitude. Take trains by yourself to places you have never been. Sleep out alone under the stars. Learn how to drive a stick shift. Go so far away that you stop being afraid of not coming back. Say no when you don’t want to do something. Say yes if your instincts are strong, even if everyone around you disagrees. Decide whether you want to be liked or admired. Decide if fitting in is more important than finding out what you’re doing here. Believe in kissing.
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Habits are formed by the repetition of particular acts. They are strengthened by an increase in the number of repeated acts. Habits are also weakened or broken, and contrary habits are formed by the repetition of contrary acts.
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Extraordinary afflictions are not always the punishment of extraordinary sins, but sometimes the trial of extraordinary graces.
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Either practice restraint or be prepared for crowding
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Quote by E. Stanley Jones | QuoteProject