Robert H. Schuller (1926–2015) was an American Christian televangelist and pastor, best known for founding the Crystal Cathedral in California. He gained fame through the “Hour of Power” television show, promoting a positive-thinking approach and self-help principles. Schuller authored popular books like “Tough Times Never Last, But Tough People Do!” emphasizing personal empowerment. The Crystal Cathedral, designed by Philip Johnson, served as his ministry’s headquarters. However, financial difficulties led to the church’s bankruptcy in 2013, and the property was later sold to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange. Despite challenges, Schuller’s impact on American Christianity and self-help philosophy remains notable, with a legacy centered on positivity and overcoming life’s obstacles.
Robert H. Schuller Quotes
1. “Tough times never last, but tough people do.”
— Robert H. Schuller
2. “Problems are not stop signs, they are guidelines.”
— Robert H. Schuller
3. “Let your hopes, not your hurts, shape your future.”
— Robert H. Schuller
4. “I’d rather attempt to do something great and fail than to attempt to do nothing and succeed.”
— Robert H. Schuller
5. “You will never win if you never begin.”
— Robert H. Schuller
6. “God’s delays are not God’s denials.”
— Robert H. Schuller
7. “Better to do something imperfectly than to do nothing perfectly.”
— Robert H. Schuller
8. “Today’s accomplishments were yesterday’s impossibilities.”
— Robert H. Schuller
9. “Build a dream and the dream will build you.”
— Robert H. Schuller
10. “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.”
— Robert H. Schuller
11. “If you listen to your fears, you will die never knowing what a great person you might have been.”
— Robert H. Schuller
12. “The truth of the matter is that you always know the right thing to do. The hard part is doing it.”
— Robert H. Schuller
13. “Always look at what you have left. Never look at what you have lost.”
— Robert H. Schuller
14. “Spectacular achievement is always preceded by unspectacular preparation.”
— Robert H. Schuller
15. “Success is never ending, failure is never final.”
— Robert H. Schuller
16. “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.”
— Robert H. Schuller
17. “The only place where your dream becomes impossible is in your own thinking.”
— Robert H. Schuller
18. “Grace is God’s love in action for those who don’t deserve it.”
— Robert H. Schuller
19. “Winning starts with beginning.”
— Robert H. Schuller
20. “Turn your scars into stars.”
— Robert H. Schuller
21. “I love my son and am proud of my son.”
— Robert H. Schuller
22. “Failure doesn’t mean you are a failure it just means you haven’t succeeded yet.”
— Robert H. Schuller
23. “It is difficult to say what is impossible, for the dream of yesterday is the hope of today and the reality of tomorrow.”
— Robert H. Schuller
24. “Inch by inch, it’s a cinch.”
— Robert H. Schuller
25. “Never bring the problem solving stage into the decision making stage. Otherwise, you surrender yourself to the problem rather than the solution.”
— Robert H. Schuller
26. “Yes, you can be a dreamer and a doer too, if you will remove one word from your vocabulary: impossible.”
— Robert H. Schuller
27. “When you are in your worst moods. Wait. Be patient. The storm will pass. The spring will come.”
— Robert H. Schuller
28. “Start small; Think possibilities; Reach beyond your known abilities; Invest all you have in your dream; Visualize miracles; Expect to experience success.”
— Robert H. Schuller
29. “Faith is the courage to face reality with hope.”
— Robert H. Schuller
30. “I see the invisible. I believe the incredible. I attempt the impossible.”
— Robert H. Schuller
31. “The good news is that the bad news can be turned into good news when you change your attitude.”
— Robert H. Schuller
32. “Press on. Obstacles are seldom the same size tomorrow as they are today.”
— Robert H. Schuller
33. “Tough times never last, but tough people do. You might add, “You’re tougher than you give yourself credit for.””
— Robert H. Schuller
34. “It takes but one positive thought when given a chance to survive and thrive to overpower an entire army of negative thoughts.”
— Robert H. Schuller
35. “Optimism refuses to believe that the road ends without options.”
— Robert H. Schuller
36. “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.”
— Robert H. Schuller
37. “All it takes is one idea to solve an impossible problem.”
— Robert H. Schuller
38. “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.”
— Robert H. Schuller
39. “For every mountain, there is a miracle.”
— Robert H. Schuller
40. “It’s unfulfilled dreams that keep you alive.”
— Robert H. Schuller
41. “Never underestimate your problem or your ability to deal with it.”
— Robert H. Schuller
42. “Every problem has a limited life span.”
— Robert H. Schuller
43. “What appears to be the end of the road may simply be a bend in the road.”
— Robert H. Schuller
44. “It takes guts to get out of the ruts.”
— Robert H. Schuller
45. “Never sell tomorrow short. There’s plenty to get excited about. Be filled with expectation, hope and confidence. Believe something good is going to happen – and it usually will.”
— Robert H. Schuller
46. “Todays impossibilities are tomorrows miracles.”
— Robert H. Schuller
47. “Goals are not only absolutely necessary to motivate us. They are essential to really keep us alive.”
— Robert H. Schuller
48. “Lord, make my life A window for Your light To shine through And a mirror to reflect Your love To all I meet. Amen.”
— Robert H. Schuller
49. “Daring to dream means daring to live.”
— Robert H. Schuller
50. “Impossible situations can become possible miracles.”
— Robert H. Schuller
51. “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!”
— Robert H. Schuller
52. “Again and again, the impossible problem is solved when we see that the problem is only a tough decision waiting to be made.”
— Robert H. Schuller
53. “What Would You Attempt If You Knew You Could Not Fail?”
— Robert H. Schuller
54. “It’s impossible to fail completely and it’s impossible to succeed perfectly.”
— Robert H. Schuller
55. “Nothing is more important than honesty in prayer. There are no pretensions in prayer, so the best place to begin is wherever you are.”
— Robert H. Schuller
56. “The world of tomorrow belongs to the person who has the vision for today.”
— Robert H. Schuller
57. “Anyone can count the seeds in an apple, but only God can count the number of apples in a seed.”
— Robert H. Schuller
58. “Turn your scars into stars by realising how lucky you are that things aren’t worse.”
— Robert H. Schuller
59. “We all know that a church is not a building.”
— Robert H. Schuller
60. “As we grow as unique persons, we learn to respect the uniqueness of others.”
— Robert H. Schuller
61. “Since it doesn’t cost a dime to dream, you’ll never shortchange yourself when you stretch your imagination.”
— Robert H. Schuller
62. “Have faith in your faith-and doubt your doubts.”
— Robert H. Schuller
63. “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.”
— Robert H. Schuller
64. “If you are creative enough to imagine a problem, you’re clever enough to discover a solution.”
— Robert H. Schuller
65. “When you can’t solve the problem, manage it.”
— Robert H. Schuller
66. “Big egos have little ears.”
— Robert H. Schuller
67. “You never suffer from a money problem, you always suffer from an idea problem.”
— Robert H. Schuller
68. “Never make your most important decisions when you are in your worst moods.”
— Robert H. Schuller
69. “Creative words generate energy; negative words drain out energy.”
— Robert H. Schuller
70. “Let your imagination release your imprisoned possibilities.”
— Robert H. Schuller
71. “The hardest struggle of all is to be something different from what the average man is.”
— Robert H. Schuller
72. “Be the artist you were born to be.”
— Robert H. Schuller
73. “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.”
— Robert H. Schuller
74. “Faith is reacting positively to a negative situation.”
— Robert H. Schuller
75. “You can think negatively or positively. If you are a positive thinker, you will base your decisions on faith rather than fear.”
— Robert H. Schuller
76. “Every burden is a blessing.”
— Robert H. Schuller
77. “Most people who succeed in the face of seemingly impossible conditions are people who simply don’t know how to quit.”
— Robert H. Schuller
78. “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.”
— Robert H. Schuller
79. “If there exists no possibility of failure, then victory is meaningless.”
— Robert H. Schuller
80. “Giving never moves in a straight line – it always moves in circles.”
— Robert H. Schuller
81. “Now – find God’s dream for your life and go all out for it!”
— Robert H. Schuller
82. “The only thing that stands between you and grand success in living are these two things: getting started and never quitting!”
— Robert H. Schuller
83. “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.”
— Robert H. Schuller
84. “Possibility-thinking is the long sought-after fountain of youth.”
— Robert H. Schuller
85. “When you are down to nothing, God is up to somethng. It is up to you to reach out to find what God is up to for you.”
— Robert H. Schuller
86. “Never cut a tree down in the wintertime. Never make a negative decision in the low time.”
— Robert H. Schuller
87. “When the sun is shining I can do anything; no mountain is too high, no trouble too difficult to overcome. Only those who have learned the power of sincere and selfless contribution experience life’s deepest joy: true fulfillment. What great thing would you attempt if you knew you could not fail?”
— Robert H. Schuller
88. “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.”
— Robert H. Schuller
89. “God’s forgiving grace is incomplete until he gives me – and I accept – a new kingdom-building dream and opportunity.”
— Robert H. Schuller
90. “Doomed are the hotheads! Unhappy are they who lose their cool and are too proud to say, I’m sorry.”
— Robert H. Schuller
91. “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.”
— Robert H. Schuller
92. “You will suddenly realize that the reason you never changed before was because you didn’t want to.”
— Robert H. Schuller
93. “Life is but a moment, death also is but another.”
— Robert H. Schuller
94. “You know how many seeds are in an apple. But you don’t know how many apples are in a seed.”
— Robert H. Schuller
95. “I was called to start a mission, not a church. There is a difference.”
— Robert H. Schuller
96. “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.”
— Robert H. Schuller
97. “You didn’t think that when you got up this morning that this would be the day your life would change did you? But it’s going to happen because the only thing that stands between you and grand success are getting started and not stopping.”
— Robert H. Schuller
98. “What we need is a theology of salvation that begins and ends with a recognition of every person’s hunger for glory.”
— Robert H. Schuller
99. “A mission is a place where you ask nonbelievers to come and find faith and hope and feel love.”
— Robert H. Schuller
100. “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.”
— Robert H. Schuller
101. “Nobody has a money problem – there are only idea problems.”
— Robert H. Schuller
102. “If the gospel of Jesus Christ can be proclaimed as a theology of self-esteem, imagine the health this could generate in society!”
— Robert H. Schuller
103. “Goals must never be from your ego, but problems that cry for a solution.”
— Robert H. Schuller
104. “Quitting is never an option. The cows have to be milked come Hell or High Water.”
— Robert H. Schuller
105. “You can often measure a person by the size of his dream.”
— Robert H. Schuller
106. “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.”
— Robert H. Schuller
107. “Marriage may restrict your activity, but it increases your pleasure. It permits sex without shame, fear, or guilt.”
— Robert H. Schuller
108. “How we express ourselves in worship remains up in the air.”
— Robert H. Schuller
109. “The subconscious is ahead of the conscious, and we never know what really drives us.”
— Robert H. Schuller
110. “Never underestimate the value of an idea. Every positive idea has within its potential for success if it is managed properly.”
— Robert H. Schuller
111. “Jesus Christ went to the cross to magnify his ego.”
— Robert H. Schuller
112. “Pessimism drops the curtain on tomorrow.”
— Robert H. Schuller
113. “Possibilitizing is overcoming while you’re undergoing.”
— Robert H. Schuller
114. “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.”
— Robert H. Schuller
115. “The Cross sanctifies the ego trip. For the Cross protected our Lord’s perfect self-esteem from turning into sinful pride.”
— Robert H. Schuller
116. “Impossible? The word is a roadblock to progress!”
— Robert H. Schuller
117. “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.”
— Robert H. Schuller
118. “Through faith, the weak times can become peak times.”
— Robert H. Schuller
119. “Faith is making claims to victory before it is achieved.”
— Robert H. Schuller
120. “The classical error of historical Christianity is that we have never started with the value of the person. Rather, we have started from the ‘unworthiness of the sinner,’ and that starting point has set the stage for the glorification of human shame in Christian theology.”
— Robert H. Schuller
121. “We are all children starving to experience and know the heart of reality.”
— Robert H. Schuller
122. “The very word possibility creates a mental climate conducive to creativity.”
— Robert H. Schuller
123. “The Roman Catholic Church isn’t going to change its theologies.”
— Robert H. Schuller
124. “The real minister’s name that we honor is Jesus, not Schuller.”
— Robert H. Schuller
125. “We are the Love, loving.”
— Robert H. Schuller
126. “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.”
— Robert H. Schuller
127. “Success may or may not mean that you’ve acquired a lot. It does mean that you have become a generous person.”
— Robert H. Schuller
128. “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.”
— Robert H. Schuller
129. “Problems are never real problems unless they cause you to take your eye off your goals. When a negative reaction threatens you, look over and beyond the problem.”
— Robert H. Schuller
130. “How would your values and priorities change if you were told you had only seven days to live?”
— Robert H. Schuller
131. “God flourished my ministry and my career of creative thinking, communicating and writing back 50 years.”
— Robert H. Schuller
