The Maxwell Daily Reader Quotes

“Practicing responsibility will do great things for you. It will strengthen your talent, advance your skills, and increase your opportunities. It will improve your quality of life during the day and help you to sleep better at night. But it will also improve the lives of the people around you.”
― John C. Maxwell, The Maxwell Daily Reader: 365 Days of Insight to Develop the Leader Within You and Influence Those Around You

“My friend Dan Reiland says, “A genuine friend encourages and challenges us to live out our best thoughts, honor our purest motives, and achieve our most significant dreams.” That’s what we need to do with the important people in our lives.”
― John C. Maxwell, The Maxwell Daily Reader: 365 Days of Insight to Develop the Leader Within You and Influence Those Around You

“Discouraged? Don’t be, for the one thing that really matters, lasts forever—your friendships. Life is too long to spend it with people who pull you in the wrong direction. And it’s too short not to invest in others. Your relationships will define you. And they will influence your talent—one way or the other. Choose wisely. —”
― John C. Maxwell, The Maxwell Daily Reader: 365 Days of Insight to Develop the Leader Within You and Influence Those Around You

“To achieve your dreams, you must embrace adversity and make failure a regular part of your life. If you’re not failing, you’re probably not really moving forward.”
― John C. Maxwell, The Maxwell Daily Reader: 365 Days of Insight to Develop the Leader Within You and Influence Those Around You

“The very moment that you make the shift to finding your purpose, growing to your potential, and helping others, successful is something you are right now, not something you vaguely hope one day to be.”
― John C. Maxwell, The Maxwell Daily Reader: 365 Days of Insight to Develop the Leader Within You and Influence Those Around You

“Doing for others what they can’t do for themselves is really a matter of attitude. I believe that whatever I’ve been given is to be shared with others. And because I have an abundance mind-set, I never worry about running out myself. The more I give away, the more I seem to get to give away.”
― John C. Maxwell, The Maxwell Daily Reader: 365 Days of Insight to Develop the Leader Within You and Influence Those Around You

“Procrastination is the fertilizer that makes difficulties grow.”
― John C. Maxwell, The Maxwell Daily Reader: 365 Days of Insight to Develop the Leader Within You and Influence Those Around You

“President Franklin Delano Roosevelt asserted, “The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today.” Don’t let your doubts cause your expector to expire.”
― John C. Maxwell, The Maxwell Daily Reader: 365 Days of Insight to Develop the Leader Within You and Influence Those Around You

“If you expect to fail, sure enough, you will. If you expect to succeed, sure enough, you will. You will become on the outside what you believe on the inside.”
― John C. Maxwell, The Maxwell Daily Reader: 365 Days of Insight to Develop the Leader Within You and Influence Those Around You

“look at the wisdom (and humor) found in this Chinese proverb: If you want happiness for an hour—take a nap. If you want happiness for a day—go fishing. If you want happiness for a month—get married. If you want happiness for a year—inherit a fortune. If you want happiness for a lifetime—help others.”
― John C. Maxwell, The Maxwell Daily Reader: 365 Days of Insight to Develop the Leader Within You and Influence Those Around You

“Thomas Macauley said, “The measure of a man’s real character is what he would do if he would never be found out.” Life is like a vise; at times it will squeeze us. At those moments of pressure, whatever is inside will be found out. We cannot give what we do not have. Image promises much but produces little. Integrity never disappoints.”
― John C. Maxwell, The Maxwell Daily Reader: 365 Days of Insight to Develop the Leader Within You and Influence Those Around You

“Management expert Tom Peters gives a perspective on this. He suggests, “Don’t rock the boat. Sink it and start over.” If you desire to be creative and do something really innovative, that’s sometimes what it takes. You must destroy the old to create something new. You cannot allow yourself to be paralyzed by the idea of change.”
― John C. Maxwell, The Maxwell Daily Reader: 365 Days of Insight to Develop the Leader Within You and Influence Those Around You

“Value self-improvement above self-promotion. King Solomon of ancient Israel said, “Let instruction and knowledge mean more to you than silver or the finest gold. Wisdom is worth much more than precious jewels or anything else you desire.” Make your next career move based on how it will improve you personally rather than how it will enhance you financially.”
― John C. Maxwell, The Maxwell Daily Reader: 365 Days of Insight to Develop the Leader Within You and Influence Those Around You

“Not everyone wants to be out of the spotlight as she did. But it’s important for a leader to learn to work in obscurity because it is a test of personal integrity. The key is being willing to do something because it matters, not because it will get you noticed.”
― John C. Maxwell, The Maxwell Daily Reader: 365 Days of Insight to Develop the Leader Within You and Influence Those Around You

“One of my favorite examples of this occurred in the life of Moses in the Old Testament. Though born a Hebrew, he lived a life of privilege in the palace of Egypt until he was forty years old. But after killing an Egyptian, he was exiled to the desert for forty years. There God used him as a shepherd and father, and after four decades of faithful service in obscurity, Moses was called to leadership. Scripture says by that time he was the most humble man in the world. Bill Purvis, the senior pastor of a large church in Columbus, Georgia, said, “If you do what you can, with what you have, where you are, then God won’t leave you where you are, and He will increase what you have.”
― John C. Maxwell, The Maxwell Daily Reader: 365 Days of Insight to Develop the Leader Within You and Influence Those Around You

“Good leaders want the truth—even if it hurts.”
― John C. Maxwell, The Maxwell Daily Reader: 365 Days of Insight to Develop the Leader Within You and Influence Those Around You

“wantpower. People who want something enough usually find the willpower to achieve it.”
― John C. Maxwell, The Maxwell Daily Reader: 365 Days of Insight to Develop the Leader Within You and Influence Those Around You

“Paul J. Meyer, founder of the Success Motivation Institute, says, “Ninety percent of those who fail are not actually defeated. They simply quit.”
― John C. Maxwell, The Maxwell Daily Reader: 365 Days of Insight to Develop the Leader Within You and Influence Those Around You

“You are not what you think you are, but what you think . . . you are.”
― John C. Maxwell, The Maxwell Daily Reader: 365 Days of Insight to Develop the Leader Within You and Influence Those Around You

“There is a willingness to change: Clayton G. Orcutt declared, “Change itself is not progress, but change is the price that we pay for progress.”
― John C. Maxwell, The Maxwell Daily Reader: 365 Days of Insight to Develop the Leader Within You and Influence Those Around You

“You are out of your comfort zone: Growth requires risk. Ronald E. Osborne stated, “Unless you do something beyond what you’ve already mastered, you will never grow.”
― John C. Maxwell, The Maxwell Daily Reader: 365 Days of Insight to Develop the Leader Within You and Influence Those Around You

“The atmosphere is affirming: Industrialist Charles Schwab said, “I have yet to find the man . . . who did not do better work and put forth greater effort under a spirit of approval than under a spirit of criticism.”
― John C. Maxwell, The Maxwell Daily Reader: 365 Days of Insight to Develop the Leader Within You and Influence Those Around You

“Livingstone replied, “If you have men who will come only if they know there is a good road, I don’t want them. I want men who will come even if there is no road at all.” That’s what top leaders want from the people working for them: they want individuals who are willing to do what others won’t.”
― John C. Maxwell, The Maxwell Daily Reader: 365 Days of Insight to Develop the Leader Within You and Influence Those Around You

“I like to have the freedom to pursue the best course of action at any given moment. When I was in my twenties, I spent a lot of time doing things that had little return. In my thirties, I did better, but I still wasn’t as focused as I should have been. It wasn’t until I reached forty that I started to become highly selective about where I spent my time and energy. Today I filter just about everything I do through my top priority: Am I adding value to people? For me, it all comes down to that.”
― John C. Maxwell, The Maxwell Daily Reader: 365 Days of Insight to Develop the Leader Within You and Influence Those Around You

“In the morning he asked himself, “What good shall I do today?” In the evening he asked, “What good have I done today?”
― John C. Maxwell, The Maxwell Daily Reader: 365 Days of Insight to Develop the Leader Within You and Influence Those Around You

“The Norwegians have a saying that I think captures their attitude: “There is no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing.”
― John C. Maxwell, The Maxwell Daily Reader: 365 Days of Insight to Develop the Leader Within You and Influence Those Around You

“More than thirty years ago I memorized a quote that has shaped the way I live: “My potential is God’s gift to me. What I do with my potential is my gift to Him.” I believe I am accountable to God, others, and myself for every gift, talent, resource, and opportunity I have in life. If I give less than my best, then I am shirking my responsibility. I believe UCLA coach John Wooden was speaking to this idea when he said, “Make every day your masterpiece.” If we give our very best all the time, we can make our lives into something special. And that will overflow into the lives of others.”
― John C. Maxwell, The Maxwell Daily Reader: 365 Days of Insight to Develop the Leader Within You and Influence Those Around You

“Other times leaders have to hold their feelings in check. When I say that leaders should delay their emotions, I’m not suggesting that they deny them or bury them. The bottom line in managing your emotions is that you should put others—not yourself—first in how you handle and process them. Whether you delay or display your emotions should not be for your own gratification.”
― John C. Maxwell, The Maxwell Daily Reader: 365 Days of Insight to Develop the Leader Within You and Influence Those Around You

“BEGIN YOUR THIRTY-DAY TRIAL OF
EXPECTING THE BEST OF EVERYTHING.”
― John C. Maxwell, The Maxwell Daily Reader: 365 Days of Insight to Develop the Leader Within You and Influence Those Around You

“The happiest people in life don’t necessarily have the best of everything. They just try to make the best of everything. They’re like the person in a remote village going to a well every day to get water who says, “Every time I come to this well, I come away with my bucket full!” instead of, “I can’t believe I have to keep coming back to this well to fill up my bucket!”
― John C. Maxwell, The Maxwell Daily Reader: 365 Days of Insight to Develop the Leader Within You and Influence Those Around You