"Confidence is a good name for what is intended by the term directness. It should not be confused, however, with self-confidence which may be a form of self-consciousness — or of "cheek." Confidence is not a name for what one thinks or feels about his attitude; it is not reflex. It denotes the straightforwardness with which one goes at what he has to do. It denotes not conscious trust in the efficacy of one's powers but unconscious faith in the possibilities of the situation. It signifies rising to the needs of the situation."

"Danger breeds best on too much confidence."

"It's fine to criticize government and all the other centers of power, probing for their inevitable, arrogant error-modes. But we won't blanket-betray the nation that protected us, or the city whose cops we'd call, if we ever got into real trouble. We won't undermine the confidence of our fellow citizens by hammering away at their belief in themselves, or their democratic institutions."

"The very term confidence—implying behavior that goes beyond a rational approach to decision making—indicates why it plays a major role in macroeconomics. When people are confident they go out and buy; when they are unconfident they withdraw, and they sell. Economic history is full of such cycles of confidence followed by withdrawal. Who has not taken a hike and come across a long-abandoned railway line— someone’s past dream of a path to riches and wealth? Who has not heard of the Great Tulip Bubble of the seventeenth-century Netherlands— a country famous, we might add, for its stalwart Rembrandt burghers and often caricatured as the home of the world’s most cautious people. Who does not know that even Isaac Newton—the father of modern physics and of the calculus—lost a fortune in the South Sea bubble of the eighteenth century?"

"A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones."

"If good people would but make their goodness agreeable, and smile instead of frowning in their virtue, how many would they win to the good cause!"

"The most manifest sign of wisdom is continued cheerfulness."

"Cheerful looks make every dish a feast."

"A scrip on my back, and a staff in my hand, I march on in haste through an enemy's land; The road may be rough, but it cannot be long; And I'll smooth it with hope, and I'll cheer it with song."

"Sweetness of spirit and sunshine is famous for dispelling fears and difficulties; patience is a mighty help to the burden-bearer."

"The soul that perpetually overflows with kindness and sympathy will always be cheerful."

"An ounce of cheerfulness is worth a pound of sadness to serve God with."

"I praise Thee while my days go on; I love Thee while my days go on! Through dark and dearth, through fire and frost, With emptied arms and treasure lost, I thank Thee while my days go on."

"Efforts to be permanently useful must be uniformly joyous, a spirit all sunshine, graceful from very gladness, beautiful because bright."

"Between levity and cheerfulness there is a wide distinction; and the mind which is most open to levity is frequently a stranger to cheerfulness."

"You find yourself refreshed by the presence of cheerful people. Why not make earnest effort to confer that pleasure on others? You will find half the battle is gained if you never allow yourself to say anything gloomy."

"Corn shall make the young men cheerful."

"A cheerful life is what the Muses love, A soaring spirit is their prime delight."

"He makes a July's day short as December, And with his varying childness cures in me Thoughts that would thick my blood."

"Look cheerfully upon me. Here, love; thou seest how dilgent I am."

"Had she been light, like you, Of such a merry, nimble, stirring spirit, She might ha' been a grandam ere she died; And so may you; for a light heart lives long."

"Leve fit quod bene fertur onus."

"It is good To lengthen to the last a sunny mood."

"Cheer up, the worst is yet to come."

"A cheerful look makes a dish a feast."

"Cheerful at morn he wakes from short repose, Breathes the keen air, and carols as he goes."

"Cheered up himself with ends of verse And sayings of philosophers."

"A cheerful temper joined with innocence will make beauty attractive, knowledge delightful and wit good-natured. It will lighten sickness, poverty and affliction, convert ignorance into an amiable simplicity, and render deformity itself agreeable."

"I have always preferred Chearfulness to Mirth. The latter, I consider as an Act, the former as an Habit of the Mind. Mirth is short and transient. Cheerfulness fixed and permanent."

"Be of good cheer."

"I was angry with my friend: I told my wrath, my wrath did end. I was angry with my foe; I told it not, my wrath did grow."

"If anger proceeds from a great cause, it turns to fury; if from a small cause, it is peevishness; and so is always either terrible or ridiculous."

"Our passions are like convulsion fits, which make us stronger for the time, but leave us weaker forever after."

"An unsanctified temper is a fruitful source of error, and a mighty impediment to truth."

"When I had twice or thrice made a resolute resistance to anger, the like befell me that did the Thebans; who, having once foiled the Lacedemonians, never after lost so much as one battle which they fought against them."

"There was a man here last night — you needn't be afraid that I shall mention his name — who said that his will was given up to God, and who got mad because the omnibus was full, and he had to walk a mile to his lodgings."

"He submits himself to be seen through a microscope, who suffers himself to be caught in a fit of passion."

"The proud man hath no God; the envious man hath no neighbor; the angry man hath not himself."

"The sun should not set upon our anger, neither should he rise upon our confidence."

"Tantæne animis cœlestibus iræ."

"Furor arma ministrat."

"Furor fit læsa sæpius patientia."

"Not die here in a rage, like a poisoned rat in a hole."

"Ne frena animo permitte calenti; Da spatium, tenuemque moram; male cuncta ministrat Impetus."

"Quamvis tegatur proditur vultu furor."

"No pale gradations quench his ray, No twilight dews his wrath allay."

"Dem tauben Grimm, der keinen Führer hört."

"Anger wishes that all mankind had only one neck; love, that it had only one heart; grief, two tear-glands; and pride, two bent knees."

"He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city."

"Fear not the anger of the wise to raise; Those best can bear reproof who merit praise."