Albert Bandura

"The human spirit is fundamentally oriented toward growth; it is our interpretations that sometimes convince us otherwise."

"Innovation requires not just creative thinking but the conviction that one's ideas are worth pursuing despite skepticism."

"The capacity to take responsibility for one's role in outcomes, rather than attributing everything to external causes, is a marker of maturity."

"Power is most effectively exercised not through coercion but through the ability to enlarge others' sense of what is possible."

"The patterns of behavior established in childhood create templates that influence but do not determine adult functioning."

"Change is inevitable; the question is whether we will be passive recipients of change or active agents in directing it."

"The ultimate measure of a life well-lived is not the absence of struggle but the meaning we extract from engaging with it."

"People's beliefs about their abilities have a profound effect on those abilities."

"Perceived self-efficacy influences the types of anticipatory scenarios people construct and rehearse."

"In order to succeed, people need a sense of self-efficacy, to struggle together with a sense of collective efficacy."

"Most of the images of reality on which we base our actions are really constructions of the mind."

"The capacity to exercise control over the nature and duration of one's emotional life is a fundamental human strength."

"Moral disengagement is a process in which people selectively activate and deactivate internal standards of conduct."

"People are not just passively shaped by their environment; they actively shape their environment."

"Self-efficacy is the foundation of human agency."

"Through their capacity for reflective thought, people can generate novel ideas and innovative actions that transcend their past experiences."

"Humans are characterized by a vast potentiality; they are not born with fixed patterns of behavior."

"What people think, believe, and feel affects how they behave."

"The self-regulation of motivation through goal-setting is another important aspect of human agency."

"Social modeling is a vehicle for transmitting values, attitudes, and patterns of thought and behavior."

"Belief in one's efficacy is the foundation for motivation and action."

"People who believe they can exercise control over their lives are healthier and more successful than those who lack faith in their ability to effect changes."

"Subjective estimates of self-efficacy influence choice of activities, effort expenditure, persistence, and emotional reactions during difficult encounters."

"A strong sense of efficacy enhances human accomplishment and personal well-being in many ways."

"Humans have extraordinary capacity for both constructive and destructive pursuits."

"People motivate themselves through the goals they adopt."

"Symbolic thought is the capacity to use symbols to represent events and to guide future action."

"Forethought enables people to transcend the dictates of their immediate environment."

"Observational learning or modeling forms the core of social learning theory."

"The influences operating in one's life do not simply assault a person; the person acts upon them."