12 Quotes by Gordon Livingston

If the map doesn't agree with the ground the map is wrong

It is our determination to overcome fear and discouragement that constitutes the only effective antidote to the sense of powerlessness over unwanted feelings.

The three components of happiness are something to do, someone to love, and something to look forward to.

Our feelings depend mainly on our interpretation of what is happening to us and around us – our attitudes. It is not so much what occurs, but how we define events and respond that determines how we feel. The thing that characterizes those who struggle emotionally is that they have lost, or believe they have lost, their ability to choose those behaviors that will make them happy.

The perfect is the enemy of the good.

This is the map we wish to construct in our heads: a reliable guide that allows us to avoid those who are not worthy of our time and trust and to embrace those who are. The best indications that our always-tentative maps are faulty include feelings of sadness, anger, betrayal, surprise, and disorientation.

We are not what we think, or what we say, or how we feel. We are what we do.

Our common future will be determined by the struggle between the killers and the peacemakers.

Most of the heartbreak that life contains is a result of ignoring the reality that past behavior is the most reliable predictor of future behavior.