Robert H. Schuller quotes:

Never cut a tree down in the wintertime. Never make a negative decision in the low time. Never make your most important decisions when you are in your worst moods. Wait. Be patient. The storm will pass. The spring will come.

High achievers spot rich opportunities swiftly, make big decisions quickly and move into action immediately. Follow these principles and you can make your dreams come true.

Probably the one Bible passage that is read by Jews and Roman Catholics, Protestants, Islam, more than any other chapter is Psalm 23. And in Psalm 23 there is a verse that says, 'Surely, yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.'

The Roman Catholic Church isn't going to change its theologies.

I believe that Christians believe in salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, not by works. And we believe that if you're saved, Jesus becomes your savior. He makes a promise to you. You can trust his promises. You can bank on that word.

Let your hopes, not your hurts, shape your future.

I was never close to Jerry Falwell because he had his ministry, I had mine. And we came from different theological training and from a different psychological education.

There are two views of interpreting the Bible in America: that every word is literally the truth without qualification, and then the other view is, it's called plenary inspiration, which holds that all religious truth taught in the Bible is true from God, but each word is not necessarily interpreted literally.

What appears to be the end of the road may simply be a bend in the road.

A mission is a place where you ask nonbelievers to come and find faith and hope and feel love.

Anyone can count the seeds in an apple, but only God can count the number of apples in a seed.

When an opportunity comes, it holds possibilities. And when you move away from it or don't sense it or grasp it, you're really throwing away your future; you're throwing away your tomorrow.

It is difficult to say what is impossible, for the dream of yesterday is the hope of today and the reality of tomorrow.

Negative thinking is subtle and deceptive. It wears many faces and hides behind the mask of excuses. It is important to strip away the mask and discover the real, root emotion.

The truth of the matter is that you always know the right thing to do. The hard part is doing it.

I think that there are cancers of the body, but I think they are what I would call cancer of the emotional system, too. These are the kind of diseases or illnesses or sicknesses of the emotional system that are as incurable as cancer.

My family and I would never receive royalties on the revenue that my materials brought into the church; materials that were created on our own personal time.

I feel that heterosexual marriage is the more excellent way, and it surely is approved holy by the Holy Bible, and it holds so many more possibilities: the possibilities of having children of both the mother and father, the male and the female.

I tell people, 'I was born in a little house at the dead end of a dirt road that had no name and no number, and you can go anywhere from nowhere.'

I want to build friendships. I want to come across as being a good illustration of what Jesus is like.

You never suffer from a money problem, you always suffer from an idea problem.

I'm very proud of all my children. They all have Christian families; they read the Bible; they pray; the kids go to Sunday school; they know the Ten Commandments by heart. That's my greatest honor, and I couldn't do anything to glorify God that could surpass that. That's very meaningful.

Goals must never be from your ego, but problems that cry for a solution.

I have a reputation worldwide of being tolerant of all people and their views. I'm too well-educated to criticize a certain religion or group of people for what they believe in. It's called freedom.

If you're going to counsel people - and that's all my ministry is, it's a counseling ministry more than anything else - people have to believe that they can trust you and that they can listen to you, that you're going to try to help them and not just politically try to convert them to your views.

The concept of the megachurch - some have attributed that to me. Whatever people want to buy, they can get it in the shopping center. It's one-stop shopping. Churches should be that way.

God's delays are not God's denials.

I think a good pastor is somebody who is honest and humble and has a really caring heart.

We all know that a church is not a building.

I was called to start a mission, not a church. There is a difference.

Our greatest lack is not money for any undertaking, but rather ideas, If the ideas are good, cash will somehow flow to where it is needed.

I have said to people I have six children, one son, four daughters, and a church.

Most people who succeed in the face of seemingly impossible conditions are people who simply don't know how to quit.

Better to do something imperfectly than to do nothing perfectly.

I'd rather attempt to do something great and fail than to attempt to do nothing and succeed.

The real minister's name that we honor is Jesus, not Schuller.

If you listen to your fears, you will die never knowing what a great person you might have been.

Always look at what you have left. Never look at what you have lost.

God flourished my ministry and my career of creative thinking, communicating and writing back 50 years.

It takes but one positive thought when given a chance to survive and thrive to overpower an entire army of negative thoughts.

I love my son and am proud of my son.

Every person is responsible for all the good within the scope of his abilities, and for no more, and none can tell whose sphere is the largest.

The only place where your dream becomes impossible is in your own thinking.

How we express ourselves in worship remains up in the air.

Never underestimate your problem or your ability to deal with it.

Never bring the problem solving stage into the decision making stage. Otherwise, you surrender yourself to the problem rather than the solution.

Every achiever that I have ever met says, 'My life turned around when I began to believe in me'.

Problems are not stop signs, they are guidelines.

Any analysis of 'sin' or 'evil' or 'demonic influence' or 'negative thinking' or 'systemic evil' or 'antisocial behavior' that fails to see the lack of self-dignity as the core of the problem will prove to be too shallow.

Goals are not only absolutely necessary to motivate us. They are essential to really keep us alive.

When you are in your worst moods. Wait. Be patient. The storm will pass. The spring will come

The hardest struggle of all is to be something different from what the average man is.

Big egos have little ears.

I am not fully forgiven until I allow God to write his new dream for my life on the blackboard of my mind. .. God has a great plan to redeem society. He needs me and wants to use me.

Failure doesn't mean you are a failure it just means you haven't succeeded yet.

The good news is that the bad news can be turned into good news when you change your attitude.

You will suddenly realize that the reason you never changed before was because you didn't want to.

We are born to soar. We are children of God. ... The Fatherhood of God offers a deep spiritual cure for the inferiority complex and lays the firm foundation for a solid spiritual self-esteem.

Labels such as, 'evangelical', 'fundamental', 'charismatic', 'liberal' contribute to polarization and produce a climate of implied or outspoken distrust. Respectful dialogue becomes virtually impossible. What we desperately need to offset this disunity and distrust is a new and cleansing theology of communication.

I will! I am! I can! I will actualize my dream. I will press ahead. I will settle down and see it through. I will solve the problems. I will pay the price. I will never walk away from my dream until I see my dream walk away: Alert! Alive! Achieved!

Have faith in your faith-and doubt your doubts.

Possibility-thinking is the long sought-after fountain of youth.

Success may or may not mean that you've acquired a lot. It does mean that you have become a generous person.

The only thing that stands between you and grand success in living are these two things: getting started and never quitting!

What great thing would you attempt if you knew you could not fail?

Todays impossibilities are tomorrows miracles.

It takes guts to get out of the ruts.

I have discovered that you can go from nowhere to somewhere, from nothing to something, from a nobody to a somebody, from an empty person to a fulfilled one, if you have faith in God.

Doomed are the hotheads! Unhappy are they who lose their cool and are too proud to say, I'm sorry.

Today's accomplishments were yesterday's impossibilities.

The secret of success is to find a need and fill it, to find a hurt and heal it, to find somebody with a problem and offer to help solve it.

The core of original sin, then is LOT - Lack of Trust. Or, it could be considered an innate inability to adequately value ourselves. Label it a 'negative self-image,' but do not say that the central core of the human soul is wickedness. ... positive Christianity does not hold to human depravity, but to human inability.

I am humanly unable to correct my negative self-image until I encounter a life-changing experience with non-judgmental love bestowed upon me by a Person whom I admire so much that to be unconditionally accepted by Him is to be born again.

For every mountain, there is a miracle.

Nobody has a money problem - there are only idea problems.

Press on. Obstacles are seldom the same size tomorrow as they are today.

To be born again means that we must be changed from a negative to a positive self-image - from inferiority to self-esteem, from fear to love, from doubt to trust.

You can think negatively or positively. If you are a positive thinker, you will base your decisions on faith rather than fear.

Faith is reacting positively to a negative situation.

If you will make a deliberate decision to develop a positive attitude toward opportunities and obstacles, you are on your way toward having what is the most important quality in education: the power of positive thinking.

One classical role of the pulpit in Protestantism has been to 'preach sermons' which imply indoctrination more than education. Within this from of communication, there is an inherent, intrinsic inclination to intimidate, manipulate, and, hence, offend the person's most prized quality of humanness - his dignity.

What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?

Turn your scars into stars.

Spectacular achievement is always preceded by unspectacular preparation.

Tough times never last, but tough people do.

Again and again, the impossible problem is solved when we see that the problem is only a tough decision waiting to be made.

It's unfulfilled dreams that keep you alive.

As we grow as unique persons, we learn to respect the uniqueness of others.

Never cut a tree down in the wintertime. Never make a negative decision in the low time.

Some people are at the top of the ladder, some are in the middle, still more are at the bottom, and a whole lot more don't even know there is a ladder.

Twentieth century history of Christianity will name Oral Roberts as the voice that brought the Pentecostal movement to be taken seriously by mainline Christianity.

Anybody who succeeds is helping people. The secret to success is find a need and fill it; find a hurt and heal it; find a problem and solve it.

Life is but a moment, death also is but another.

When you can't solve the problem, manage it.

... the core of sin is a lack of self-esteem. ... Sin is psychological self-abuse. ... the most serious sin is one that causes me to say, 'I am unworthy. I may have no claim to divine sonship if you examine me at my worst.' For once a person believes he is an 'unworthy sinner,' it is doubtful if he can really honestly accept the saving grace God offers in Jesus Christ.

...the kingdom of God is that invisible collection of committed Christians that transcends cultures, ideologies... and creeds- all bound by the golden commitment to say nothing and do nothing that would attack the self-esteem, the self-respect, and the dignity of any other human being, whether or not they are committed members of the kingdom of God. The dignity of the person then is the irreducible cell of true Christianity.

All it takes is one idea to solve an impossible problem.

Are you disappointed, discouraged and discontented with your present level of success? Are you secretly dissatisfied with your present status? Do you want to become a better and more beautiful person than you are today? Would you like to be able to really learn how to be proud of yourself and still not lose genuine humility? Then start dreaming! It's possible! You can become the person you have always wanted to be!

Be the artist you were born to be.

Believe in dreams. Never believe in hurts... You can't let the grief and the hurts and the breaking experiences of life control your future decisions.

Build a dream and the dream will build you.

Classical theology defines sin as 'rebellion against God.' The answer is not incorrect as much as it is shallow and insulting to the human being. Every person deserves to be treated with dignity even if he or she is a 'rebellious sinner'.

Classical theology has erred in its insistence that theology be 'God-centered,' not 'man-centered'.

Come to me. Are you lost? I can see another way from where I live. The heart can see a path that's out of sight to the head-a path you'll surely overlook, left alone on your lofty perch up there, too distracted by your world to see the real world where I live. I live on the level of laughter, tears, and-yes-prayer.

Commit yourself to a dream. Nobody who tries to do something great, but fails, is a total failure. Why? Because he can always be assured that he succeeded in life's most important battle; he defeated the battle of not trying.

Creative words generate energy; negative words drain out energy.

Daring to dream means daring to live.

Every burden is a blessing.

Every human being is born without faith. Faith comes only through the process of making decisions to change before we can be sure it's the right move.

Every problem has a limited life span.

Faith is making claims to victory before it is achieved.

Faith is the courage to face reality with hope.

Giving never moves in a straight line - it always moves in circles.

God's forgiving grace is incomplete until he gives me - and I accept - a new kingdom-building dream and opportunity.

Grace is God's love in action for those who don't deserve it.

Historical theology has too often failed to interpret repentance as a positive creative force. ... Essentially, if Christianity is to succeed in the next millennium, it must cease to be a negative religion and must become positive.

I found myself immediately attracted to Pope John Paul II when, upon his election to the Papacy, his published speeches invariably called attention to the need for recognizing the dignity of the human being as a child of God.

I see the invisible. I believe the incredible. I attempt the impossible.

If only we could love ourselves enough to dare to approach God, what constructive dreams he would give us! What noble possibilities God wants to reveal to us - possibilities that would offer stimulation plus real security in service. But we feel too unworthy. So one layer of negative behavior is laid upon another until we emerge as rebellious sinners. But our rebellion is a reaction, not our nature. By nature we are fearful, not bad.

If the gospel of Jesus Christ can be proclaimed as a theology of self-esteem, imagine the health this could generate in society!