Men are not prisoners of fate, but only prisoners of their own minds.
Interpretation
We are limited by our own thoughts rather than circumstances.
This quote by Franklin D. Roosevelt emphasizes that our beliefs and mindset shape our realities. It suggests that individuals have the power to change their situations by changing their thoughts, implying that self-imposed limitations are often the greatest barriers to success.
In practice
In a motivational speech about overcoming obstacles.
There has been one persistent theme through all Axis propaganda. This theme has been that Americans are admittedly rich, that Americans have considerable industrial power - but that Americans are soft and decadent, that they cannot and will not unite and work and fight. ... Let them tell that to the Marines!
The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today.
A war of ideas can no more be won without books than a naval war can be won without ships. Books, like ships, have the toughest armor, the longest cruising range, and mount the most powerful guns.
Better the occasional faults of a government that lives in a spirit of charity than the consistent omissions of a government frozen in the ice of its own indifference.
A world turned into a stereotype, a society converted into a regiment, a life translated into a routine, make it difficult for either art or artists to survive. Crush individuality in society and you crush art as well. Nourish the conditions of a free life and you nourish the arts, too.
We have always known that heedless self-interest was bad morals; we know now that it is bad economics. Out of the collapse of a prosperity whose builders boasted their practicality has come the conviction that in the long run economic morality pays.
Time stays long enough for anyone who will use it.
Failing to grapple with complexity actually turns out to be a pretty bad life strategy.
All good qualities must be sown and cultivated. We canβt expect to change overnight from an ordinary person into one with high realizations.
Where thou art Obliged to speak, be sure speak the Truth: For Equivocation is half way to Lying, as Lying, the whole way to Hell.
One of the most difficult things to learn is to render service without bossing, without making a fuss about it, and without any consciousness of high and low. In the world of spirituality, humility counts at least as much as utility.
People only see what they are prepared to see.
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