I've been collecting quotes for years. Below are my
favorites. Enjoy!
When a thing has
been said and well, have no scruple.
Take it and copy
it.
Anatole
The sad truth is
that most evil is done by people who never make up their minds to be
either good or evil.
Hannah Arendt
He who has a why to
live can bear with almost any how.
Neitzsche
If A = Success
then A = X + Y + Z
where X is work,
Y is play,
and Z is keep your
mouth shut.
Albert Einstein
"Before you can
live your dreams you have to wake up."
Mohammad Ali
Some of us,
observing that ideals are rarely achieved, proceed to the error of
considering them worthless. Such an error is greatly harmful. True North
cannot be reached either, since it is an abstraction, but it is of
enormous importance, as all the world’s travelers can attest.
Steve Allen
Your vision will
become clear only when you can look into your own heart . . . . Who
looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.
Carl Jung
The world is full
of people looking for spectacular happiness while they snub contentment.
Doug Larson
A rock pile ceases
to be a rock pile the moment a single man contemplates it, bearing
within him the image of a cathedral.
Antoine de
Saint-Exupery
Almost anything you
do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it.
Mohandas Gandhi
All things being
equal, people will do business with a friend. Even if things
aren’t equal.
Harvey Mackay
We fear our highest
possibility (as well as our lowest one). We are generally afraid to
become that which we can glimpse in our most perfect moments.
Abraham Maslow
Vitality shows not
only in the ability to persist but in the ability to start over.
F. Scott Fitzgerald
If you keep on
saying things are going to be bad, you have a good chance of being a
profit.
Isaac Bashevis
Singer
Some people regard
themselves as perfect, but only because they demand little of
themselves.
Hermann Hesse
The lust for power
is not rooted in strength but in weakness.
Erich Fromm
The oldest man that
ever lived, died.
Carl Sandberg
Change and growth
take place when a person has risked himself and dares to become involved
with experimenting with his own life.
Herbert Otto
We must embrace the
absurd and go beyond everything we have ever known.
Janie Gustafson
There is
overwhelming evidence that the higher the level of self-esteem, the more
likely one will treat others with respect, kindness, and generosity.
People who do not experience self-love have little or no capacity to
love others.
Nathaniel Branden
A man’s life is
what his thoughts make it.
Marcus Aurelius
Life is change . .
.
Growth is optional
. . .
Choose wisely . . .
Karen Kaiser Clark
Self-love, my
liege, is not so vile a sin as self-neglecting.
William Shakespeare
Some days we wake
up and see that we have totally underestimated our ability to be
sadistic and destructive. And yet, it’s all so terrific! That’s
why we care about it! That’s why we feel it so deeply.
Anna Quindlen
The only thing
necessary for evil to flourish is for good people to do nothing.
Anonymous
(Attributed to
Edmund Burke)
Life without
idealism is empty indeed.
We must have hope
or starve to death.
Pearl Buck
The last of the
human freedoms is to choose one’s attitudes.
Victor Frankl
People who talk too
much seem to have bad luck.
Alan Greenberg
One of the main
reasons wealth makes people unhappy is that it gives them too much
control over what they experience. They try to translate their own
fantasies into reality instead of tasting what reality itself has to
offer.
Philip Slater
We don’t need to
raise taxes, we need to raise expectations.
Christopher Reeve
Self-knowledge and
self-improvement are very difficult for most people. It usually
needs great courage and long struggle.
Abraham Maslow
The most important
function of art and science is to awaken the cosmic religious feeling
and keep it alive.
Albert Einstein
Our greatest glory
consists not in never failing, but in rising every time we fail.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
While we’re giving
our kids piano lessons, Reeboks, computers and Nintendo games we have to
also give them that thing they gain only by example: a social
conscience.
For if they grow up
to be prosperous, educated and cold, we will have failed utterly as
mothers and fathers and our families will be no more than pictures on a
Christmas card.
Anna Quindlen
There is nothing
more certain than death and nothing more uncertain than the hour.
Carl Sandberg
Some dreams seem
impossible, then they seem improbable. But then, when we summon
the will, they seem inevitable.
Christopher Reeve
The fruit of
silence is prayer.
The fruit of prayer
is faith.
The fruit of faith
is love.
The fruit of love
is service.
The fruit of
service is peace.
Mother Teresa
The great enemy of
the truth is very often not the lie - deliberate, contrived and
dishonest - but the myth, persistent, persuasive and unrealistic.
John F. Kennedy
Self-trust is the
essence of heroism.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Try not to become a
man of success. Rather become a man of value.
Albert Einstein
We are always
getting ready to live, but never living.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
No one can make you
feel inferior without your consent.
Eleanor Roosevelt
To know and yet
think we do not know is the highest attainment.
Not to know and yet
think we do know is a disease.
Lao-tzu
If the children of
plenty are blind to the children of want, both groups suffer. If each
[of us] doesn’t give something back it makes a mockery of all that we’ve
been given.
Anna Quindlen
Hope is a thing
with feathers -
that perches in the
soul -
And sings the tune
without the words -
And never stops -
at all -
Emily Dickinson
The greatest
deception men suffer is from their own opinions.
Leonardo da Vinci
When you hate a
person, you hate something that is part of yourself. What isn’t
part of ourselves doesn’t disturb us.
Hermann Hesse
Every man has the
right to be valued at his best moment.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Every man takes the
limits of his own field of vision for the limits of the world.
Arthur Schopenhouer
Successful people
make a habit of doing what unsuccessful people don’t like to do.
Herbert Grey
The quality of your
choices equals the quality of your life.
Brian Tracy
Work as though you
would live forever, but live as though you would die tomorrow.
St. Edmund of
No great idea ever
entered the mind through an open mouth.
James Kusis
We see the world
not as it is, but as we are.
Anais Nin
We become what we
think about.
Earl Nightingale
People demand
freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which
they seldom use.
Kierkegaard
Lord, please make
me the person my dog thinks I am.
Unknown
Do not believe in
anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything
simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in
anything simply because it is found written in your religious books. Do
not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and
elders. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down
for many generations. But after observation and analysis, when you find
that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and
benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it.
Buddah
You become what you
constantly do.
Aristotle
The money tree
seldom grows where the grass grows green.
Harvey Mackay
The need to know
seems to be more important than whether what we know means anything.
John Leonard
There are three
ingredients in the good life: learning, earning and yearning.
Christopher Morley
No one can possibly
achieve any real and lasting success or get rich in business by being a
conformist.
J. Paul Getty
In God's economy,
nothing is wasted. Through failure, we learn a lesson in humility which
is probably needed- painful though it is.
Bill Wilson
Success is not the
key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If
you love what you are doing, you will be successful.
Herman Cain
We are what we do
because we don’t know what else to be.
Jeff Lundberg
Happiness comes
from the capacity to feel deeply, to enjoy simply, to think freely, to
risk life, to be needed.
Storm Jameson
Use what talent you
possess:
the woods would be
very silent if no birds sang except for those that sang best.
Henry Van Dyke
A person’s
character is like a fence:
it can’t be
strengthened by whitewash.
Unknown
The only sense that
is common in the long run is the sense of change--and we all
instinctively avoid it.
E. B. White
Popularity and
leadership often do not coincide. Do what’s right, and sooner or later
the rest of the world will catch on and catch up.
Harvy Mackay
History doesn’t
repeat itself.
It rhymes.
Mark Twain
To live content
with small means; to seek elegance rather than luxury, and refinement
rather than fashion; to be worthy, respectable, and wealthy, not rich;
to study hard, think quietly, talk gently, act frankly;to listen to
stars and birds, to babes and sages, with open heart; to bear all
cheerfully, do all bravely, await occasions, hurry never. In a
word, to let the spiritual, unbidden and unconscious, grow up through
the common. This is to be my symphony.
William Henry
Channing
I don’t know if
we’re having a spiritual awakening or if it’s just yuppies getting
nervous.
William Bennett
If you keep your
eye on the scoreboard instead of the ball you’re not going to win.
Ken Blanchard
None of these
limitless possibilities will feed our spirits if we do not embrace all
the little things of life that sometimes get left in the dust of our
frenetic schedules. Without the sense of inner satisfaction that comes
with them, our accomplishments will be nothing more than the stuff of
resume.
And a resume is a
cold comfort on a winter night or on a dark night of the soul, or when
there’s a spot on the mammogram, or when a child is out too late at
night.
Anna Quindlen
We are living in
the ‘psychozoic’ age.
Dr. Harold Shapely
The only time it’s a failure is if it doesn’t work and you don’t learn anything from it. If we would always be successful, it would mean we weren’t trying enough new things.
Astronaut, Jeff
Hoffman
You don’t win a
silver, you loose a gold.
Unknown at 1996
Olypics
[In
The only way to
enjoy your good luck is to constantly contemplate catastrophe.
Garrison Keillor
Sometimes I think
we're alone in the universe. Sometimes I think we're not. In
either case, the thought is staggering.
Buckminster Fuller
You probably
wouldn't worry about what people think of you if you could know how
seldom they do.
Olin Miller
Life can only be
understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards
Soren Kierkegaard
In everyone's life,
at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an
encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for
those people who rekindle the inner spirit.
Albert Schweitzer
Mistakes are the
portals of discovery.
James Joyce
The ultimate
measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and
convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.
Martin Luther King
Some of the world's
greatest feats were accomplished by people not smart enough to know they
were impossible.
Doug Larson
We find comfort
among those who agree with us--growth among those who don't.
Frank A Clark
All men dream: but
not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their
minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of
the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes,
to make it possible.
T. E. Lawrence
Whatever is worth
doing at all, is worth doing well.
Phillip Stanhope
From what we get,
we can make a living;
what we give,
however, makes a life.
Arthur Ashe
We grow great by
dreams. All big men are dreamers. They see things in the soft haze of a
spring day or in the red fire of a long winter's evening. Some of
us let these great dreams die, but others nourish and protect them;
nurse them through bad days till they bring them to the sunshine and
light which comes always to those who sincerely hope that their dreams
will come true.
Woodrow Wilson
There's only one
corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that's your
own self.
Aldous Huxley
When the going gets
tough, the tough get going.
Joseph P Kennedy
Only those who dare
to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.
Robert F Kennedy
I don't know what
your destiny will be, but one thing I know: the only ones among you who
will be really happy are those who have sought and found how to serve.
Albert Schweitzer
Live as you will
have wished to have lived when you are dying.
Christian
Furchtegott Gellert
He who chooses the
beginning of the road chooses the place it leads to. It is
the means that determines the end.
Harry Emerson
Fosdick
The only thing we
have to fear is fear itself.
The conventional
view serves to protect us from the painful job of thinking.
John Kenneth
Galbraith
One of the symptoms
of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one's work is
terribly important.
Bertrand Russell
Everyone thinks of
changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.
Tolstoy
We forfeit
three-fourths of ourselves to be like other people.
Arthur Schopenhauer
Consistency is
contrary to nature, contrary to life. The only completely
consistent people are dead.
Aldous Huxley
A man is a success
if he gets up in the morning and gets to bed at night, and in between he
does what he wants to do.
Bob Dylan
As far as we can
discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light of
meaning in the darkness of mere being.
Carl Jung
Only the mediocre
are always at their best.
Jean Giraudoux
Common sense is the
collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen.
Albert Einstein
(1879-1955)
I am always doing
that which I can not do, in order that I may learn how to do it.
Pablo Picasso
The more original a
discovery, the more obvious it seems afterwards.
Arthur Koestler
Sometimes being
pushed to the wall gives you the momentum necessary to get over it!
Peter de Jager
I want to stay as
close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see
all kinds of things you can't see from the center.
Kurt Vonnegut
Everything that
irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.
Carl Jung
Always listen to
experts. They'll tell you what can't be done, and why. Then do it.
Robert Heilein
I believe in God,
only I spell it Nature.
Frank Lloyd Wright
Love is the triumph
of imagination over intelligence.
Henry Louis Mencken
You will never find
time for anything. If you want time you must make it.
Charles Buxton
All great truths
begin as blasphemies.
George Bernard Shaw
I know but one
freedom, and that is the freedom of the mind.
Antoine de
Saint-Exupery
Life's most urgent
question is: what are you doing for others?
Martin Luther King
One machine can do
the work of fifty ordinary men. No machine can do the work of one
extraordinary man.
Elbert Hubbard
Only the shallow
know themselves.
Oscar Wilde
Sometimes we are
lucky enough to know that our lives have been changed, to discard the
old, embrace the new, and run headlong down an immutable course.
Jacques Cousteau
A man is the sum of
his actions, of what he has done, of what he can do, nothing else.
Andre Malraux
There is no such
thing as a 'self-made' man. We are made up of thousands of others.
Everyone who has ever done a kind deed for us, or spoken one word of
encouragement to us, has entered into the make-up of our character and
of our thoughts, as well as our success.
George Matthew
Adams
Anywhere is walking
distance, if you've got the time.
Steven Wright
The only limit to
our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts about reality.
Those who cannot
remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
George Santayana
Truth is beautiful,
without doubt; but so are lies.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Adults are just
obsolete children and the hell with them.
Dr. Seuss
An expert is a
person who has made all the mistakes that can be made in a very narrow
field.
Niels Bohr
I have found the
best way to give advice to your children is to find out what they want
and then advise them to do it.
Harry S Truman
Trying to determine
what is going on in the world by reading newspapers is like trying to
tell the time by watching the second hand of a clock.
Ben Hecht
After I'm dead I'd
rather have people ask why I have no monument than why I have one.
Cato the Elder
(234-149 B.C.)
Many people would
rather die than think; in fact, most do.
Bertrand Russell
It is something to
be able to paint a particular picture, or to carve a statue, and so to
make a few objects beautiful; but it is far more glorious to carve and
paint the very atmosphere and medium through which we look, which
morally we can do. To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest
of arts.
Henry David
Thoreau, Where I Live
When you betray
somebody else, you also betray yourself.
Isaac Bashevis
Singer
Whenever you find
that you are on the side of the majority, it is time to reform.
Mark Twain
Do not be too
moral. You may cheat yourself out of much life so. Aim above morality.
Be not simply good; be good for something.
Henry David Thoreau
There is more to
life than increasing its speed.
Gandhi
It is of interest
to note that while some dolphins are reported to have learned English --
up to fifty words used in correct context- no human being has been
reported to have learned dolphinese.
Carl Sagan
Past the seeker as
he prayed,came the crippled and the beggar and the beaten. And
seeing them . . . he cried, "Great God, how is it that a loving creator
can see such things and yet do nothing about them?" . . . God
said, "I did do something. I made you."
Sufi Teaching
Skeptical scrutiny
is the means, in both science and religion, by which deep insights can
be winnowed from deep nonsense.
Carl Sagan
It is the mark of
an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.
Aristotle
There is no
expedient to which a man will not go to avoid the labor of thinking.
Thomas Edison
If an elderly but
distinguished scientist says that something is possible he is almost
certainly right, but if he says that it is impossible he is very
probably wrong.
Arthur C. Clarke
A witty saying
proves nothing.
Voltaire
(1694-1778)
Good judgment comes
from experience, and experience comes from bad judgment.
Barry LePatner
Art is making
something out of nothing and selling it.
Frank Zappa
I hate quotations.
Tell me what you know.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
(1803-1882)
The power of
accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not
got it.
George Bernard Shaw
The optimist
proclaims we live in the best of all possible worlds; and the pessimist
fears this is true.
James B. Cabell
Never let your
sense of morals get in the way of doing what's right.
Isaac Asimov
The most beautiful
thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true
art and science.
Albert Einstein
Life is a foreign
language; all men mispronounce it.
Christopher Morley
What is the
difference between unethical and ethical advertising? Unethical
advertising uses falsehoods to deceive the public; ethical advertising
uses truth to deceive the public.
Vilhjalmur
Stefansson
Always listen to
experts. They'll tell you what can't be done, and why. Then do it.
Robert Heilein
Infinite striving
to be the best is man's duty, it is it's own reward. Everything else is
in God's hands.
Mahatma Gandhi
How far you go in
life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the
aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant of the weak and strong.
Because someday in your life you will have been all of these.
George Washington
Carver
The man who views
the world at 50 the same as he did at 20 has wasted 30 years of his
life.
Muhammad Ali
If you can dream
it, you can do it.
Walt Disney
The illusion that
times that were are better than those that are, has probably pervaded
all ages.
Horace Greeley
The opposite of a
correct statement is a false statement. But the opposite of a profound
truth may well be another profound truth.
Niels Bohr
If you can spend a
perfectly useless afternoon in a perfectly useless manner, you have
learned how to live.
Lin Yutang
I don't know the
key to success, but the key to failure is to try to please everyone.
Bill Cosby
Believe those who
are seeking the truth. Doubt those who find it.
Andre Gide
Humanity has
advanced, when it has advanced, not because it has been sober,
responsible, and cautious, but because it has been playful, rebellious,
and immature.
Tom Robbins
Never mistake
motion for action.
Ernest Hemingway
In my music, I'm
trying to play the truth of what I am. The reason it's difficult is
because I'm changing all the time.
Charles Mingus
In science it often
happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my
position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds
and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It
doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and
change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall
the last time something like that happened in politics or religion.
Carl Sagan
It ain't what they
call you, it's what you answer to.
W. C. Fields
The strongest of
all warriors are these two -- Time and Patience.
Leo Tolstoy
Faith: not wanting
to know what is true.
Friedrich Nietzsche
Skeptical scrutiny
is the means, in both science and religion, by which deep insights can
be winnowed from deep nonsense.
Carl Sagan
My religion
consists of a humble admiration of the illimitable superior spirit who
reveals himself in the slight details we are able to perceive with our
frail and feeble mind.
Albert Einstein
A pessimist is a
person who thinks everybody is as nasty as himself and hates them for
it.
George Bernard Shaw
A life spent making
mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent
doing nothing.
George Bernard Shaw
(1856-1950)
As tough as it is,
you can usually find another customer if you have to. It’s a lot
tougher to find a new kid.
Harvey Mackay
In the bedroom
suburbs that lie empty all day, commuters who work for international
conglomerates decorate their homes in what is called American Country
decor. Stage sets for the life we aren’t living.
Ellen Goodman
Time is too slow
for those who wait, too swift for those who fear, too long for those who
grieve, too short for those who rejoice, but for those who love, time is
eternity.
Henry Van Dyke
Some things have to
be believed to be seen.
Ralph Hodgson
Do not go where the
path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
You can't depend on
your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.
Mark Twain
Cherish your
visions and your dreams as they are the children of your soul; the blue
prints of your ultimate achievements.
Napoleon Hill
It is not only for
what we do that we are held responsible, but also for what we do not do.
Moliere
The wise man
doesn't give the right answers, he poses the right questions.
Claude Levi-Strauss
Experience is what
you get when you don't get what you want.
Dan Stanford
We don't know a
millionth of one percent about anything.
Thomas Alva Edison
For every action
there is an equal and opposite criticism.
Unknown
I always wanted to
be somebody, but I should have been more specific.
Lily Tomlin
Words ought to be a
little wild for they are the assaults of thought on the unthinking.
John Maynard Keynes
Whatever you can do
or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.
Begin it now.
Goethe
Thomas Edison
I had a linguistics
professor who said that it's man's ability to use language that makes
him the dominant species on the planet. That maybe. But I think
there's one other thing that separates us from animals. We aren't afraid
of vacuum cleaners.
Jeff Stilson
If God doesn't
destroy
Jay Leno
Why is it that when
we talk to God we're said to be praying, but when God talks to us we're
schizophrenic?
Lily Tomlin
Talk sense to a
fool and he calls you foolish.
Euripides
If you have a
talent, use it in every which way possible. Don't hoard it. Don't dole
it out like a miser. Spend it lavishly like a millionaire intent on
going broke.
Brendan Francis
You can't turn back
the clock. But you can wind it up again.
Bonnie Prudden
Everybody wants to
go to heaven, but nobody wants to die.
D. John Hammond
Make no little
plans; they have no magic to stir men's blood...Make big plans, aim high
in hope and work.
Daniel H. Burnham
Time is the coin of
your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how
it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you.
Carl Sandburg
The foolish man
seeks happiness in the distance, the wise grows it under his feet.
James Oppenheim
Reflect on your
present blessings, of which every man has many, not on your past
misfortunes, of which all men have some.
Charles Dickens
To avoid criticism
do nothing, say nothing, be nothing.
Elbert Hubbard
Therefore search
and see if there is not some place where you may invest your humanity.
Albert Schweitzer
The illiterate of
the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those
who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.
Alvin Toffler
Some people only
feel at full strength when they are in opposition to others.
Garrison Keilor
Never try to reason
the prejudice out of a man. It was not reasoned into him, and cannot be
reasoned out.
Sydney Smith
The happiest is the
person who suffers the least pain; the most miserable who enjoys the
least pleasure.
Jean Jacques
Rousseau, Emile, 1762
Everyone has
talent. What is rare is the courage to follow the talent to the dark
place where it leads.
Erica Jong
If Thomas Edison
had had an MBA, he probably would have tried to invent a bigger candle.
Bennett Goodspeed
To laugh often and
much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of
children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the
betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty; to find the best in
others; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a
garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has
breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
The reasonable man
adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to
adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the
unreasonable man.
George Bernard
Shaw:
The thought
manifests as the word;
The word manifests
as the deed;
The deed develops
into habit;
And habit hardens
into character.
So watch the
thought and its ways with care,
And let it spring
from love
Born out of concern
for all beings.
The Buddha
Not until you have
achieved the ability to choose your attitudes have you achieved the
freedom to be your own person, reaching out for any goal or dream of
your choice. Without this freedom, you are the captive of every habit,
situation, circumstance, or surrounding in which you find yourself.
Bob Conklin
If the highest aim
of a captain were to preserve his ship, he would keep it in port
forever.
Thomas Aquinas
When you come to
the edge of all the light you know and are about to step off into the
darkness of the unknown, faith is knowing one of two things will happen:
There will be something solid to stand on, or you will be taught how to
fly.
Barbara J. Winter
Words ought to be a
little wild for they are the assaults of thought on the unthinking.
John Maynard Keynes
There are only two
ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other
is as if everything is.
Albert Einstein
In any moment of
decision the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best
thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing.
Theodore Roosevelt
Nothing is so
strong as gentleness, and nothing is so gentle as true strength.
Ralph Sockman
Happiness is a
choice, not a result.
Ralph Marsdon
Far better is it to
dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by
failure...than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much
nor suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows not
victory nor defeat."
Theodore Roosevelt
"Twenty years from
now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than
by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the
safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore.
Dream. Discover."
Mark Twain
"The ideals which have always shone before me and filled me with the joy of living are goodness, beauty, and truth. To make a goal of comfort or happiness has never appealed to me; a system of ethics built on this basis would be sufficient only for a herd of cattle.
Albert Einstein
"Great thoughts
speak only to the thoughtful mind, but great actions speak to all
mankind."
Emily P. Bissell
All that is gold
does not glitter,
Not all those who
wander are lost;
The old that is
strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not
reached by the frost.
From the ashes a
fire shall be woken,
A light from the
shadows shall spring;
Renewed shall be
the blade that was broken,
The crownless again
shall be king.
J.R.R. Tolkien
"I am only one, but
still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can
do something; and
because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do
something I can
do."
Edward Everett Hale
“Life cannot wait until the sciences
may have explained the universe scientifically.
We cannot put off living until we are ready.
The most salient characteristic of life is its coerciveness: it
is always urgent, ‘here and now’ without any possible postponement.
Life is fired at us point-blank.”
Jose Ortega y Gasset
The art of living
successfully consists largely in being able to hold
two opposite ideas
in balance at the same time:
first, to make
long-term plans as
if we were going to live forever; and second, to
conduct ourselves
daily as if we were going to die tomorrow.
Sydney Harris
One of the most
ironic symptoms of our national schizophrenia is that
while we have a
great respect for "education" in the abstract, we have
an equally great
mistrust of the eduacated person in the particular.
It
is much like our
religion, which abstractly worships the Christian
virtues, but is
scandalized by any individual who takes the teachings of
Christ "too
seriously."
Sydney Harris
A zealot is
somebody who berates us for not having the courage of their
conviction.
Sydney Harris
People who think
they are generous to a fault,
usually think it's
their only fault.
Sydney Harris
What you possess in
the world will be found at the day of your death to
belong to someone
else. But what you are will be yours forever.
Henry Van Dyke
"As a well spent day brings happy sleep,
so life well used brings happy death."
Leonardo da Vinci
All violence in
human life is caused by “wealth without work; pleasure without
conscience; knowledge without character; commerce without morality;
science without humanity; worship without sacrifice; politics without
principle, and rights without responsibilities.”
Gandhi
Youth is not
entirely a time of life; it is a state of mind.
Nobody grows old by merely living a number of years.
People grow old by deserting their ideals.
You are as young as your faith, as old as your doubt; as young as
your self-confidence, as old as your fear; as young as your hope; as old
as your despair.
“This is the true joy of life: to be used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; to be thoroughly worn out before being thrown on the scrap heap; to be a force of nature, rather than a selfish clod of ailments and grievances, complaining that life will not devote itself to making you happy.”
G. B. Shaw?
"Don't ask yourself what the world needs; ask yourself what makes you
come alive. And then go and do that. Because what the world needs is
people who have come alive."
Harold
Whitman
"People travel to
wonder at the height of the mountains, at the huge waves of the seas, at
the long course of the rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the
circular motion of the stars, and yet they pass by themselves without
wondering."
When
you were born, you cried and the world rejoiced. Live your life so that
when you die, the world cries and you rejoice."
Cherokee Expression
Fear knocked at the
door. Faith answered.
No one was there.
Unknown
One day some people
came to the master
and asked: How can
you be happy
in a world of such
impermanence,
where you cannot
protect your loved ones
from harm, illness
or death?
The master held up a glass and said:
Someone gave me
this glass;
It holds my water
admirably
and it glistens in
the sunlight.
I touch it and it
rings!
One day the wind
may blow it off the
shelf,
or my elbow
may knock it from
the table.
I know this glass
is already broken,
so I enjoy
it—incredibly.
Achaan Chah Subato
I’ve never known a
man to die from overwork,
but I’ve known many
men who have died from doubt.
Dr. Charles Mayo
Fame or integrity: which is more important?
Money or happiness:
which is more valuable?
Success or failure:
which is more destructive?
If you look to
others for fulfillment,
you will never
truly be fulfilled.
If your happiness
depends on money,
you will never be
happy with yourself.
Be content with
what you have;
rejoice in the way
things are.
When you realize
that nothing is lacking,
the whole world
belongs to you!
Lao Tzu
How lovely to think
that no one need wait a moment, we can start now, start slowly changing
the world! How lovely that
everyone, great and small, can make their contribution toward
introducing justice
straightaway... And
you can always, always give something, even if it is
only kindness!
Anne Frank
Bad times, hard
times - this is what people keep saying; but let us
live well, and
times shall be good. We are the
times: Such as we are,
such are the times.
I am only one, but
still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I
can do something;
and because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse
to do something I
can do.
Edward Everett Hale
If logic tells you
that life is a meaningless accident, don't give up
on life. Give up on
logic.
Shira Millgrom
The most visible
creators I know of are those artists whose medium
is life itself. The
ones who express the inexpressible - without brush,
hammer, clay, or
guitar. They neither paint nor sculpt - their medium is
being. Whatever
their presence touches has increased life. They see and
don't have to draw.
They are the artists of being alive.
J. Stone
The moment one gives close attention to anything, even a blade of
grass, it becomes a mysterious, awesome,
indescribably magnificent world in itself.
Henry Miller
I've missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300
games. 26 times I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and
missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life - and that
is why I succeed.
Michael Jordan
"To know what you prefer instead of humbly saying Amen to what the world
tells you you ought to prefer, is to have kept your soul alive."
Robert Louis Stevenson
"Don't spend your precious time asking 'Why isn't the world a better
place?' It will only be time wasted. The question to ask is 'How can I
make it better?' To that there is an answer."
Leo Buscaglia
"Everything is okay in the end.
And if it's not okay, then it's not the end."
Author Unknown
“I
cannot go back and make a brand-new start.
But I can start from now and make a brand-new end.”
Paraphrased from The Big Book of AA
"It is not the critic who counts;
not the one who points out how the strong man stumbled
or where the doer of deeds could have done them better.
The credit belongs to the person
who is actually in the arena,
whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood;
who strives valiantly;
who errs and comes short again and again;
who knows great enthusiasms,
the great devotions;
who spends themself in a worthy cause;
who at best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement,
and who, at worst, if they fail, at least fail while
DARING GREATLY
so that their place shall never be
with those timid souls
who know neither victory or defeat."
Theodore Roosevelt
"God protect me from self-interest masquerading as moral principle."
Mark Twain
"Through violence you may murder a liar, but you can't establish truth.
Through violence you may murder a hater, but you can't murder hate.
Darkness cannot put out darkness. Only light can do that. Difficult and
painful as it is, we must walk on in the days ahead with an audacious
faith in the future. When our days become dreary with low-hovering
clouds of despair, and when our nights become darker than a thousand
midnights, let us remember that there is a creative force in this
universe, working to pull down the gigantic mountains of evil, a power
that is able to make a way out of no way and transform dark yesterdays
into bright tomorrows. Let us realize the arc of the moral universe is
long, but it bends toward justice."
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Cowardice asks the question, "Is it safe?"
Expediency asks the question, "Is it politic?"
Vanity asks the question, "Is it popular?"
But, conscience asks the question, "Is it right?"
And there comes a time when one must take a position
that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular,
but one must take it because one's conscience
tells one that it is right.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
The
one true freedom in life is to come to terms with death, and as early as
possible, for death is an event that embraces all our lives.
And the only way to have a good death is to lead a good life. Lead
a good one, full of curiosity, generosity, and compassion, and there's
no need at the close of the day to rage against the dying of the light.
We can go gentle into that good night.
William Sloan Coffin
First
they came for the Communists but I was not a Communist so I did not
speak out. Then they came
for the Socialists and the Trade Unionists but I was not one of them, so
I did not speak out. Then
they came for the Jews but I was not Jewish so I did not speak out.
And when they came for me, there was no one left to speak out for
me.
Martin Niemoeller
“One of my
distinctions in religion is not ‘liberal’ and ‘conservative,’ but ‘mean’
and ‘non-mean.’”
Martin Marty
Listen closely and
you can hear them...
the great spirits
of every tribe
the ones who were
here before us
Listen to what they
are saying
There is one who
calls himself Gandhi
and another who
calls himself King
They know that the
way is not easy
There is a woman
named Teresa
and many who are
simply known as
Grandmothers and
Grandfathers
and all of them
whisper into our ear...
'Don't give up'
they tell us...
'Don't become
cynical...'
'Take one more
step...'
'There is a
reason...'
Ron Atchison
“The
one thing that separates us form the animals is that we’re not afraid of
vacuum cleaners.”
Jeff Stilson
Some
quotes from Anais Ninn
"It is
the function of art to renew our perception. What we are familiar
with we cease to see. The writer shakes up the familiar scene, and,
as if by magic, we see a new meaning in it."
"Life is a process of becoming, a combination of
states we have to go through. Where people fail is that they wish to
elect a state and remain in it. This is a kind of death."
"Dreams
pass into the reality of action. From the actions stems the dream
again; and this interdependence produces the highest form of
living."
"I
postpone death by living, by suffering, by error, by risking, by
giving, by losing."
"If you
do not breathe through writing, if you do not cry out in writing, or
sing in writing, then don't write, because our culture has no use
for it."
“When you are inspired by some great purpose, some extraordinary
project, all of your thoughts break their bonds.
Your mind transcends limitations.
Your consciousness expands in every direction.
And you find yourself in a new, great and wonderful world.
Dormant forces, faculties and talents come alive and you discover
yourself to be a greater person by far than you ever dreamed yourself to
be.”
Putanjali
Life is like riding a bicycle.
You have to keep moving or you’ll lose your balance.
Albert Einstein
"Expect failure, but don't accept failure."
James Dyson
"Those who can make
you believe absurdities
can make you commit atrocities”
Voltaire
"We can have
Democracy in this country,
or we can have great wealth concentrated
in the hands of a few, but we cannot have both."
Louis D. Brandeis
"Whenever the
people are well-informed,
They can be trusted with their own Government."
Thomas Jefferson, 1789
"I decided to
accept as true, my own thinking."
Georgia O'Keefe
“Everyone is
entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts.”
Daniel Patrick Moynihan
