When you’re coping with difficult problems, it’s easy to slip into self-absorption. We become so caught up in our troubles that they become the center of our universe. And if we’re not careful, we can start behaving like we should be the center of everyone else’s universe, too.

Few people juggle more problems at one time than the leader of the free world. After taking over the presidency in the worst possible circumstances—the murder of his predecessor in 1963—Lyndon Baines Johnson was managing an escalating war in Vietnam, anti-war protests at home, civil rights battles in the South, the introduction of Medicare, urban riots, the space race, and crises in the Middle East.

Johnson was known as a boisterous man who commanded a great deal of attention from those in his orbit. His press secretary, Bill Moyers, was his polar opposite in personality. Moyers, who’d go on to become a popular author and PBS host, was a quiet fellow with strong religious convictions. The president often called on him to say grace before meals. On one such occasion, Moyers was so soft-spoken in asking blessings on the food, Johnson interrupted his press secretary’s communion with the Almighty by shouting, “Louder, Bill!” Moyers quickly reminded his boss of the pecking order: “I wasn’t talking to you, Mr. President.”

The next time you start feeling as though the universe revolves around your issues, bring yourself back to earth by remembering these sentiments …

“Help others achieve their dreams and you will achieve yours.”

—Les Brown, motivator

“Who does not in some sort live to others, does not live much to himself.”

—Michel Eyquem de Montaigne, French philosopher and essayist

“The purpose of human life is to serve and show compassion and the will to help others.”

—Albert Schweitzer, medical missionary

“Those who bring sunshine into the lives of others, cannot keep it from themselves.”

—James M. Barrie, British playwright

“The most satisfying thing in life is to have been able to give a large part of oneself to others.”

—Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Christian mystic

“Maturity is that time when the mirrors in our mind turn to windows and instead of seeing the reflection of ourselves we see others.”

—Source unknown

“Happiness adds and multiplies, as we divide it with others.”

—A. Nielsen, market researcher

“We ought to think that we are one of the leaves of a tree, and the tree is all humanity. We cannot live without the others, without the tree.”

—Pablo Casals, Spanish cellist