Robert H. Schuller Quotes

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

Start small; Think possibilities; Reach beyond your known abilities; Invest all you have in your dream; Visualize miracles; Expect to experience success.

Tough times never last. Tough people do

Never underestimate the value of an idea. Every positive idea has within its potential for success if it is managed properly.

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

I have had more honors than I've deserved and more rewards than I expected. It can be tempting just to say, 'Well, I'm going to retire.' But what would I do then? Sit in a chair and watch TV? Don't let fulfillment throw away your tomorrow.

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

Any fool can count the seeds in an apple. Only God can count all the apples in one seed.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.'

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.

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!

In difficult times, people too often lose the ability to face the future optimistically. They begin to think about their tomorrow's negatively. They forget that the tough times will pass. They concentrate on the problems of today rather than on the opportunities of tomorrow. In so doing, they not only lose the potential of today, they also throw away the beauty of tomorrow.

Build a dream and the dream will build you.

What do I mean by sin? Answer: Any human condition or act that robs God of glory by stripping one of His children of their right to divine dignity ... I can offer still another answer: 'Sin is any act or thought that robs myself or another human being of his or her self-esteem'.

The very word possibility creates a mental climate conducive to creativity.

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.

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

Tremendous human energy is needed to walk God's walk, work God's work, fulfill God's will, and complete his dream for our self-esteem.

Today's accomplishments were yesterday's impossibilities.

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

I love my son and am proud of my son.

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

Better to do something imperfectly than to do nothing flawlessly.

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.

You are what you think about all day long.

For every mountain, there is a miracle.

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.

What we need is a theology of salvation that begins and ends with a recognition of every person's hunger for glory.

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.

I built my church on Easter services, Christmas Eve services, and Norman Vincent Peale.

I realized that every sermon I preached should be designed not to 'teach' or 'convert' people, but rather to encourage them, to give them a lift. I decided to adopt the spirit, style, strategy and substance of a 'therapist' in the pulpit.

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

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.

When faced with a mountain, I WILL NOT QUIT! I will keep on striving until I climb over, find a pass through, tunnel underneath, or simply stay and turn the mountain into a gold mine with God's help!

You know how many seeds are in an apple. But you don't know how many apples are in a seed.

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.

Have faith in your faith-and doubt your doubts.

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

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

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

Marriage may restrict your activity, but it increases your pleasure. It permits sex without shame, fear, or guilt.

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.

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

Daring to dream means daring to live.

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

Never make your most important decisions when you are in your worst moods.

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

Don't violate the law, but don't reject an idea because it's illegal. You might be able to get the law changed.

The emerging church, reformed according to the needs of self-esteem-starved-souls under the Lordship of Christ ... will help us to affirm the concept that 'While god's ideas may seem humanly impossible, he will give us these ideas which will lead to glorious, self-esteem-generating success.

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

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

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.

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

Quitting is never an option. The cows have to be milked come Hell or High Water.

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.

There is a quiet place in Hawaii where, for over thirty years, I've gone to draw inspiration and write many of my books.

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.

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

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.

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

God's delays are not God's denials.

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.

Impossible situations can become possible miracles.

You can often measure a person by the size of his dream.

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.

Faith is making claims to victory before it is achieved.

A lack of resources may slow you down, but don't let it make you throw away a big idea. Give God five years, ten years, fifteen years, twenty years, twenty-five years, thirty years, forty years, or more. Give God all the time He needs to bring the resources to you!

Yes, you can be a dreamer and a doer too, if you will remove one word from your vocabulary: impossible.

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.

If you are creative enough to imagine a problem, you're clever enough to discover 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.

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

Winning starts with beginning.

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

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

It's impossible to fail completely and it's impossible to succeed perfectly.

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

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

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

Jesus Christ went to the cross to magnify his ego.

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

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

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

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.

You won't win if you don't begin.

Nothing is more important than honesty in prayer. There are no pretensions in prayer, so the best place to begin is wherever you are.

Anytime you get an idea, you need people to help you put it together. That is the beginning of an institution. When you create an institution, levels of authority and boundaries need to be established. If everybody owns it, nobody owns it. If everybody is responsible for it, nobody will be responsible.

Faith is the courage to face reality with hope.

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

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