“Instead of looking to find a friend, seek situations where you can be a friend, and you will always find what you are looking for.”
―
Jim Stovall
“experience, and most of those experiences are painful and costly. If you can learn from someone else’s pain and expense, you are a wise person, indeed. I would encourage you to read this book, cover-to-cover, but also keep it as a reference text using the sections and individual columns as a resource you can revisit as your life journey calls for specific wisdom. It is my hope that this is not a one-time encounter that you and I are having. My hope is, in the coming months and years as you travel toward your own personal”
―
Jim Stovall
“poverty in a family of twelve children.”
―
Jim Stovall
“There are certain days that are forever locked in our memories. They represent special times, places, and people that we capture in the scrapbook of our minds. Just a fleeting thought of these memories can bring us back to that special time and place as well as the emotion we felt when we were there.”
―
Jim Stovall
“In order to be truly happy in the largest sense of that word, we must have something to do, someone to love, and something to look forward to.”
―
Jim Stovall
“I defy you to find a statue or a monument ever erected to anyone because they were realistic. All dreamers, all achievers, all great people kept their child-like faith in their own dream and their ability to carry it out, and these great people had an inordinate gift to disregard the word's cries for reality.”
―
Jim Stovall
“Tournament. For months, every team in the country has a goal of making it to the tournament. Then, at the end of the season, 64 teams are selected from various parts of the country. As the tournament progresses, teams are eliminated one-by-one until, at the end of the season, the team remaining is named the national champion. Among all of the participants who began at the beginning of the season, and among all the top 64 who actually made the tournament, only one team comes out on top. If this is our only goal, the majority of us are doomed”
―
Jim Stovall
“You need to be aware of what others are doing, applaud their efforts, ackowledge their successes, and encourage them in their pursuits. When we all help one another, everybody wins.”
―
Jim Stovall
“Success lies in the balance between seeking and striving on one hand and being peaceful and content on the other.”
―
Jim Stovall
“Struggles often serve to release the wisdom, patience, and strength we all possess but too seldom demonstrate.”
―
Jim Stovall
“Pursue your dreams as if you will live forever, and consider your legacy as if this will be your final day.”
―
Jim Stovall
“I have always found it ironic that the people in this world who have the most to be thankful for are often the least thankful, and somehow the people who have virtually nothing, many times live lives full of gratitude.”
―
Jim Stovall
“Only when we try to understand one another's suffering can we begin to bring each other joy.”
―
Jim Stovall
“We, here in Western civilization, have failed to master the concept of living in the moment. We spend so much time worrying about yesterday or planning tomorrow that we fail to live today.”
―
Jim Stovall
“wife and two children on the spot of barren dirt that hours before had been his home and everything he owned, he spoke the words I will keep with me always. He said, “We have lost absolutely everything. We have nothing left other than the clothes on our backs.” Then, after a brief pause, he continued, “But I guess we are lucky since our whole family is safe and sound. We have everything important.” To have lost everything and still have everything seems contradictory, but it’s not. As I reflect on the lessons presented by the young father, I realize that we all spend a lot of time accumulating things that in the final”
―
Jim Stovall
