David Niven > Quotes

“Events are temporary. Bad things happen, but usually we do not feel their effects on us forever. It’s really true that time heals wounds. Your disappointments are important and serious, but your distress will pass and your life will take you in new directions. Give yourself some time.”
― David Niven, The 100 Simple Secrets of Happy People: What Scientists Have Learned and How You Can Use It – Proven Practices for Life Satisfaction from 1,000+ Studies

“You always have a choice. Remember, you don’t have to do anything. You can choose to do whatever you think is important enough to warrant your efforts.”
― David Niven, The 100 Simple Secrets of Happy People: What Scientists Have Learned and How You Can Use It – Proven Practices for Life Satisfaction from 1,000+ Studies

“Sometimes days fly by without anything standing out in your mind, without any tangible improvement. Every day make sure, no matter how small the effort, that you do something to make your dreams come true.”
― David Niven, The 100 Simple Secrets of Happy People: What Scientists Have Learned and How You Can Use It – Proven Practices for Life Satisfaction from 1,000+ Studies

“...Relationships crumble under the weight of imbalance. Neither person can be more important. Neither person can be more involved or committed. Neither person can make all the decisions. Neither person can make all the sacrifices...”
― David Niven

“Get a hobby. Hobbies are a steady source of interest, providing two essential ingredients in life: consistency and fun.”
― David Niven, The 100 Simple Secrets of Happy People: What Scientists Have Learned and How You Can Use It – Proven Practices for Life Satisfaction from 1,000+ Studies

“Have a purpose. Without a purpose nothing matters.”
― David Niven, The 100 Simple Secrets of Happy People: What Scientists Have Learned and How You Can Use It – Proven Practices for Life Satisfaction from 1,000+ Studies

“You have not finished the best part of your life.”
― David Niven, The 100 Simple Secrets of Happy People: What Scientists Have Learned and How You Can Use It – Proven Practices for Life Satisfaction from 1,000+ Studies

“Be your own fan. We need self-reinforcement, a belief in ourselves that is strong and unwavering. Be ready to pick yourself up when you are feeling down.”
― David Niven, The 100 Simple Secrets of Happy People: What Scientists Have Learned and How You Can Use It – Proven Practices for Life Satisfaction from 1,000+ Studies

“What does it all mean? You decide. Your future—how you feel about it, yourself, and everything else—follows from the decisions you make, the priorities you develop, and the perspective you see things through. Great unanswered questions plague us, century after century. Why are we here? What are we supposed to be doing? What does this all matter? Answers to these questions are so very hard to come by because the truth lies not within someone else, but within you. You have been given life, and with it you have been given the opportunity to define it. Your life’s path and purpose will be drawn on a map created by you.”
― David Niven, The 100 Simple Secrets of Happy People: What Scientists Have Learned and How You Can Use It – Proven Practices for Life Satisfaction from 1,000+ Studies

“Thomas Ward found, we are twice as creative when the first impulse doesn’t work.”
― David Niven, It's Not About the Shark: The Simple Path from Problem to Answer

“Looking at a problem the same way over and over again is entirely unproductive. We will fail unless we give our minds a way to look at the situation from a new perspective.”
― David Niven, It's Not About the Shark: The Simple Path from Problem to Answer

“In research on hundreds of college students, individuals were found to be happiest when they felt they were moving closer to achieving their goals.”
― David Niven, The 100 Simple Secrets of Happy People: What Scientists Have Learned and How You Can Use It – Proven Practices for Life Satisfaction from 1,000+ Studies

“When we spend time worrying about things that could go wrong, we’re not spending time trying to improve. Which means that worrying about things going wrong increases the chances that they will go wrong.”
― David Niven, The 100 Simple Secrets of Successful People: What Scientists Have Learned and How You Can Use It – A Thousand Studies Reveal Traits, Beliefs, and Advice

“allow yourself to benefit from the different things that contribute to your life, rather than allowing yourself to be devastated by a single bump in the road.”
― David Niven, The 100 Simple Secrets of Happy People: What Scientists Have Learned and How You Can Use It – Proven Practices for Life Satisfaction from 1,000+ Studies

“People who regularly keep a journal, or some kind of written record pertaining to their aspirations, are 32 percent more likely to feel like they are making progress in their lives. Howatt 1999”
― David Niven, The 100 Simple Secrets of Successful People: What Scientists Have Learned and How You Can Use It – A Thousand Studies Reveal Traits, Beliefs, and Advice

“When it really matters, a single mind creates action, while a meeting of the minds creates hesitation and doubt.”
― David Niven, It's Not About the Shark: The Simple Path from Problem to Answer

“In a study of adult self-esteem, researchers found that people who are happy with themselves take defeat and explain it away, treating it as an isolated incident that indicates nothing about their ability. People who are unhappy take defeat and enlarge it, making it stand for who they are and using it to predict the outcome of future life events.”
― David Niven, The 100 Simple Secrets of Happy People: What Scientists Have Learned and How You Can Use It – Proven Practices for Life Satisfaction from 1,000+ Studies

“People who care do a better job in everything they do. Why do people care? What inspires them? The answer is almost anything you can imagine.”
― David Niven, The 100 Simple Secrets of Successful People: What Scientists Have Learned and How You Can Use It – A Thousand Studies Reveal Traits, Beliefs, and Advice

“Use what you really care about to make yourself passionate about how things turn out.”
― David Niven, The 100 Simple Secrets of Successful People: What Scientists Have Learned and How You Can Use It – A Thousand Studies Reveal Traits, Beliefs, and Advice

“Today, every American state spends more on its jails than on its universities. When you have a clear enemy, you fight it with everything you have.”
― David Niven, It's Not About the Shark: The Simple Path from Problem to Answer

“Think about what makes you happy and what makes you sad, and use this to help you get what you want.”
― David Niven Ph.D.

“See the magic of everyday life, of sharing and caring about someone, but don't riddle yourself with expectations of a fairy tale in which the story is strictly about the search for love and the rest of your life is just supposed to figure itself out.”
― David Niven, 100 Simple Secrets of Great Relationships: What Scientists Have Learned and How You Can Use It

“Good breaks down over time. We get used to good things, and it raises our expectations.”
― David Niven, It's Not About the Shark: The Simple Path from Problem to Answer

“The power of tolerating the opposite is seeing things no one else can see, doing things that have never been done, believing when everyone else has given up.”
― David Niven, It's Not About the Shark: The Simple Path from Problem to Answer

“People who lack confidence not only fear doing things they are not good at, they actually start to fear performing tasks in which they excel because they question whether they’re all that good at anything.”
― David Niven, The 100 Simple Secrets of Successful People: What Scientists Have Learned and How You Can Use It – A Thousand Studies Reveal Traits, Beliefs, and Advice

“Competence Starts with Feeling Competent”
― David Niven, The 100 Simple Secrets of Successful People: What Scientists Have Learned and How You Can Use It – A Thousand Studies Reveal Traits, Beliefs, and Advice

“Don’t write yourself off. If you don’t believe in yourself, you won’t be able to function.”
― David Niven, The 100 Simple Secrets of Happy People: What Scientists Have Learned and How You Can Use It – Proven Practices for Life Satisfaction from 1,000+ Studies

“You don’t need an echo when you ask a question.”
― David Niven, It's Not About the Shark: The Simple Path from Problem to Answer

“if I see and hear only what ‘someone like me’ should see and hear, no original or out-of-the-ordinary thought will ever permeate the bubble. I’ll never be surprised or shocked. I’ll never be forced to rethink or reevaluate anything. I’ll just lumber along, blissfully ignorant of what I really need to see and hear—which are things that don’t merely confirm my preconceptions about the world.”
― David Niven, It's Not About the Shark: The Simple Path from Problem to Answer

“What success means is not universal. Studies of people who have attained nearly identical achievements in the workplace, for example, find great variation in their level of satisfaction, with some considering themselves tremendously successful and others considering themselves average or even failures. Maasen and Landsheer 2000”
― David Niven, The 100 Simple Secrets of Successful People: What Scientists Have Learned and How You Can Use It – A Thousand Studies Reveal Traits, Beliefs, and Advice