24 Quotes by William Ury

You need to suspend your reaction when you feel like striking back, to listen when you feel like talking back, to ask questions when you feel like telling your opponent the answers, to bridge your differences when you feel like pushing for your way, and to educate when you feel like escalating. Breakthrough.

I have come to the conclusion that the greatest obstacle to getting what we really want in life is not the other party, as difficult as he or she can be. The biggest obstacle is actually ourselves.

As Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.

This inner yes is an unconditionally constructive attitude of acceptance and respect – first toward yourself, then toward life, and finally toward others.

If there is a single lesson I have learned, it is this: in life, we are destined to lose many things. That is the nature of life. Never mind. Just don’t lose the present. Nothing is worth it.

Jiddu Krishnamurti: “To observe without evaluating is the highest form of intelligence.

George Bernard Shaw once observed: “People become attached to their burdens sometimes more than the burdens are attached to them.

Respect is essentially a yes to others, not to their demands, but rather to their basic humanity. In this sense, respect is indivisible. When we give respect to others, we are honoring the very same humanity that exists in us. When we acknowledge the dignity of others, we are acknowledging our own dignity. We cannot truly respect others without respecting ourselves at the same time.

I used to believe that gratitude for life came from being happy, but I have come to realize that the reverse is also true, perhaps even more so: being happy comes from feeling grateful for life.