Somewhere between the
Somewhere between the Angels and the French lies the rest of humanity., Mark Twain, US humorist, novelist, short story author, wit (1835 1910)
He mobilized the Engli
He mobilized the English language and sent it into battle to steady his fellow countrymen and hearten those Europeans upon whom the long dark night of tyranny had descended., Edward R. Murrow, On Winston Churchill, 1954, US broadcast journalist newscaster (1908 1965)
The whole is more than
The whole is more than the sum of its parts., Aristotle, Metaphysica, Greek critic, philosopher, physicist, zoologist (384 BC 322 BC)
To Thales the primary
To Thales the primary question was not what do we know, but how do we know it., Aristotle, Greek critic, philosopher, physicist, zoologist (384 BC 322 BC)
Wit is educated insole
Wit is educated insolence., Aristotle, Greek critic, philosopher, physicist, zoologist (384 BC 322 BC)
The more laws, the le
The more laws, the less justice., Cicero, Roman author, orator, politician (106 BC 43 BC)
Write something to sui
Write something to suit yourself and many people will like it write something to suit everybody and scarcely anyone will care for it., Jesse Stuart,
History is a vision of
History is a vision of God’s creation on the move., Arnold Toynbee, English historian historical philosopher (1889 1975)
Nothing exists except
Nothing exists except atoms and empty spaceeverything else is opinion., Democritus, Greek philosopher (460 BC 370 BC)
Meditation... disolves
Meditation... disolves the mind. It erases itself. Throws the ego out on its big brittle ass., Tom Robbins, US novelist (1936 )
There exists a false a
There exists a false aristocracy based on family name, property, and inherited wealth. But there likewise exists a true aristocracy based on intelligence, talent and virtue., Tom Robbins, US novelist (1936 )
Maybe most people were
Maybe most people were fundamentally contradictory. The real people at any rate., Tom Robbins, US novelist (1936 )
I would rather discove
I would rather discover one scientific fact than become King of Persia., Democritus, Greek philosopher (460 BC 370 BC)
Rap music... sounds li
Rap music... sounds like somebody feeding a rhyming dictionary to a popcorn popper., Tom Robbins, US novelist (1936 )
Better to rely on one
Better to rely on one powerful king than on many little princes., Jean de La Fontaine, French poet (1621 1695)
God can be addressed,
God can be addressed, but not expressed., Martin Buber,
I know not what course
I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!, Patrick Henry, Meeting of the First Continental Congress in 1774, US orator, patriot, politician in American Revolution (1736 1799)
Ready comprehension is
Ready comprehension is often a kneejerk response and the most dangerous form of understanding. It blinks an opaque screen over your ablility to learn. The judgemental precedents of law function that way, littering your path with dead ends. Be warned. Understand nothing. All comprehension is temporary., Frank Herbert, Chapterhouse Dune, Mentat Fixe, US science fiction novelist (1920 1986)
All governments suffer
All governments suffer a recurring problem: Power attracts pathological personalities. It is not that power corrupts but that it is magnetic to the corruptable. Such people have a tendency to become drunk on violence, a condition to which they are quickly addicted., Frank Herbert, Chapterhouse Dune, Missionaria Protectiva, US science fiction novelist (1920 1986)
Love is substance Lust
Love is substance Lust, illusion. Only in the surge of passion do the two mingle in confusion., Calvin Miller, The Singer Trilogy,
Arrogant and right is
Arrogant and right is surely better than humble and wrong., Geoff Arbuthnot,
The only thing that co
The only thing that comes from a sleeping man are dreams., Tupac Amaru Shakur,
Nothing is particularl
Nothing is particularly hard if you divide it into small jobs., Henry Ford, US automobile industrialist (1863 1947)
For all its flaws, I w
For all its flaws, I would feel safer to have my children grow up in a world dominated by the United States than by any other country., Kobsak Chutikul, (deputy leader in Thailand), AP news release 3/7/03,
The only thing sadder
The only thing sadder than a battle won is a battle lost., Robert Jordan,
Poor Mexico so far fr
Poor Mexico so far from God and so close to the United States., Porfirio Diaz, Biography of Porfirio Diaz,
He who is in love is w
He who is in love is wise and is becoming wiser, sees newly every time he looks at the object beloved, drawing from it with his eyes and his mind those virtues which it possesses., Ralph Waldo Emerson, Address on The Method of Nature, 1841, US essayist poet (1803 1882)
There will be little r
There will be little rubs and disappointments everywhere, and we are all apt to expect too much but then, if one scheme of happiness fails, human nature turns to another if the first calculation is wrong, we make a second better: we find comfort somewhere., Jane Austen, Mansfield Park, English novelist (1775 1817)
I pay very little rega
I pay very little regard...to what any young person says on the subject of marriage. If they profess a disinclination for it, I only set it down that they have not yet seen the right person., Jane Austen, Mansfield Park, English novelist (1775 1817)
Every man has his own
Every man has his own destiny: the only imperative is to follow it, to accept it, no matter where it leads him., Henry Miller, The Wisdom of the Heart, US author (1891 1980)
I have no money, no re
I have no money, no resources, no hopes. I am the happiest man alive., Henry Miller, US author (1891 1980)
By heritage and by cho
By heritage and by choice, the United States of America will make that stand., George W. Bush, Speech to the United Nations, September 12 2002, 43rd President of US (1946 )
In this age, which bel
In this age, which believes that there is a short cut to everything, the greatest lesson to be learned is that the most difficult way is, in the long run, the easiest., Henry Miller, The Books in My Life, US author (1891 1980)
The more you sweat dur
The more you sweat during peace, The less you bleed during war., Brian Wilson,
Love is a perky elf da
Love is a perky elf dancing a merry little jig, and then suddenly he turns on you with a miniature machine gun., Matt Groening, US cartoonist satirist (1954 )
Since the dawn of time
Since the dawn of time there have been those among us who have been willing to go to extraordinary lengths to gain access to that domain normally reserved for birds, angels, and madmen., Steven B. Beach, Paraglider magazine, Vol. 1 No. 2,
The future is a hundre
The future is a hundred thousand threads, but the past is a fabric that can never be rewoven., Orson Scott Card, Xenocide, US science fiction author (1951 )
Digressions, objection
Digressions, objections, delight in mockery, carefree mistrust are signs of health everything unconditional belongs in pathology., Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil, German philosopher (1844 1900)
The happiest people se
The happiest people seem to be those who have no particular reason for being happy except that they are so., William Inge,
Cleave to no faith whe
Cleave to no faith when faith brings blood., Arthur Miller, The Crucible, act II, US dramatist (1915 2005)
I smoke in moderation,
I smoke in moderation, only one cigar at a time., Mark Twain, US humorist, novelist, short story author, wit (1835 1910)
We choose to go to the
We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy but because they are hard! Because that challenge is one we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone and one we intend to win!, John F. Kennedy, Rice University speech on September 12 1962, US Democratic politician (1917 1963)
Never make a defense o
Never make a defense or an apology until you are accused., King Charles I, of England,
She is not perfect. Yo
She is not perfect. You are not perfect. The question is whether or not you are perfect for each other., Robin Williams, Good Will Hunting, US actor comedian (1951 )
Nothing happens to any
Nothing happens to any man that he is not formed by nature to bear., Marcus Aureluis,
I saw the angel in the
I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set it free., Michaelangelo,
A purpose of human lif
A purpose of human life, no matter who is controlling it, is to love whoever is around to be loved., Kurt Vonnegut, Sirens of Titan, US novelist (1922 )
We are what we pretend
We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful what we pretend to be., Kurt Vonnegut, Mother Night, US novelist (1922 )
Never let your inferio
Never let your inferiors do you a favor it will be extremely costly., H. L. Mencken, US editor (1880 1956)
To study the phenomeno
To study the phenomenon of disease without books is to sail an uncharted sea, while to study books without patients is not to go to sea at all., Sir William Osler, British (Canadianborn) physician (1849 1919)
Babylon violated dimin
Babylon violated diminishes Alexander Rome enslaved diminishes Caesar massacred Jerusalem diminishes Titus. Tyranny follows the tyrant. Woe to the man who leaves behind a shadow that bears his form., Victor Hugo, Les Miserables, French dramatist, novelist, poet (1802 1885)
It is well enough that
It is well enough that the people of this nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning., Henry Ford, US automobile industrialist (1863 1947)
Life is like a tenspee
Life is like a tenspeed bike most of us have gears we never use., Charles M. Schulz, US cartoonist (1922 2000)
If a rich man is proud
If a rich man is proud of his wealth, he should not be praised until it is known how he employs it., Socrates, Greek philosopher in Athens (469 BC 399 BC)
Truth will always be t
Truth will always be truth, regardless of lack of understanding, disbelief, or ignorance., W. Clement Stone,
Are you going out afte
Are you going out after the truth, or are you going out after something you believe?, Richard D. Rosen,
People say they love t
People say they love truth, but in reality they want to believe that which they love is true., Robert J. Ringer,
The structure of langu
The structure of language determines not only thought, but reality itself., Noam Chomsky, Ruth Anshen, Biography of an Idea (Mt. Kisco, NY: Moyer Bell Limited, 1986), pg. 196, US activist linguist (1928 )
Do pleasant things you
Do pleasant things yourself, but unpleasant things through others., Baltasar Gracian,
Experience becomes po
Experience becomes possible because of language., Noam Chomsky, Ruth Anshen, Biography of an Idea (Mt. Kisco, NY: Moyer Bell Limited, 1986), pg. 196, US activist linguist (1928 )
2. He who is greedy is
2. He who is greedy is disgraced he who discloses his hardship will always be humiliated he who has no control over his tongue will often have to face discomfort., Imam AliIbnAbiTalib, Nahjul Balgha (Peak of Eloquence), saying no. 2,
1. During civil distur
1. During civil disturbance adopt such an attitude that people do not attach any importance to you they neither burden you with complicated affairs, nor try to derive any advantage out of you., Imam AliIbnAbiTalib, NahjulBalgha (Peak of Eloquence), saying no1,
There are many people
There are many people who reach their conclusions about life like schoolboys: they cheat their master by copying the answer out of a book without having worked the sum out for themselves., Sřren Kierkegaard,
To know one life has b
To know one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded., Ralph Waldo Emerson, US essayist poet (1803 1882)
When one door of happi
When one door of happiness closes, another one opens but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us., Helen Keller, US blind deaf educator (1880 1968)
You can always chase a
You can always chase a dream but it will not count if you never catch it., Malcolm X, Autobiography of Malcolm X chap 4, US black nationalist leader (1925 1965)
Good sense is, of all
Good sense is, of all things among men, the most equally distributed: for every one thinks himself so abundantly provided with it, that those even who are the most difficult to satisfy in everything else, do not usually desire a larger measure of this quality than they already possess., Rene Descartes, Discourse on Method, French mathematician philosopher (1596 1650)
Long experience has ta
Long experience has taught me this about the status of mankind with regard to matters requiring thought: the less people know and understand about them, the more positively they attempt to argue concerning them, while on the other hand to know and understand a multitude of things renders men cautious in passing judgement upon anything new., Galileo Galilei, The Assayer, Italian astronomer physicist (1564 1642)
Grasp the subject, the
Grasp the subject, the words will follow., Cato the Elder, Roman orator politician (234 BC 149 BC)
I am free of all preju
I am free of all prejudice. I hate everyone equally., W. C. Fields, US actor (1880 1946)
High fashion has the s
High fashion has the shelf life of potato salad., Barbara Kingsolver, Life Without GoGo Boots (personal essay),
Peace is not a relatio
Peace is not a relationship of nations. It is a condition of mind brought about by a serenity of soul. Peace is not merely the absence of war. It is also a state of mind. Lasting peace can come only to peaceful people., Jawaharlal Nehru, Indian politician (1889 1964)
It is essential to kno
It is essential to know that to be a happy person, a happy family, a happy society, it is very crucial to have a good heart, that is very crucial. World peach must develop from inner peace. Peace is not just the absence of violence but the manifestation of human compassion., Dalai Lama, (in exile) Associated Press, 5/14/01,
Good people do not nee
Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws., Plato, Greek author philosopher in Athens (427 BC 347 BC)
Whatever is begun in a
Whatever is begun in anger ends in shame., Benjamin Franklin, US author, diplomat, inventor, physicist, politician, printer (1706 1790)
Every time you get ang
Every time you get angry, you poison your own system., Alfred Montapert,
Do not accustom yourse
Do not accustom yourself to use big words for little matters., Samuel Johnson, English author, critic, lexicographer (1709 1784)
Great anger is more de
Great anger is more destructive than the sword, Tamil Proverb,
Beware of the fury of
Beware of the fury of the patient man., John Dryden, English dramatist poet (1631 1700)
Holding on to anger is
Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else you are the one who gets burned., Buddha, Indian philosopher religious leader (563 BC 483 BC)
Anger dwells only in t
Anger dwells only in the bosom of fools., Albert Einstein, US (Germanborn) physicist (1879 1955)
Nothing is more destru
Nothing is more destructive of respect for the government and the law of the land than passing laws which cannot be enforced. It is an open secret that the dangerous increase of crime in this counrty is closely related with this., Albert Einstein, US (Germanborn) physicist (1879 1955)
After a certain high l
After a certain high level of technical skill is achieved, science and art tend to coalesce in esthetics, plasticity, and form. The greatest sceintists are always artists as well., Albert Einstein, US (Germanborn) physicist (1879 1955)
There are two ways of
There are two ways of resisting war: the legal way and the revolutionary way. The legal way involves the offer of alternatinve service not as a privilege for a few but as a right for all. The revolutionary view involves an uncompromising resistance, with a view to breaking the power of militarism in time of peace or the resources of the state in time of war., Albert Einstein, US (Germanborn) physicist (1879 1955)
It is characteristic o
It is characteristic of the military mentality that nonhuman factors (atom bombs, strategic bases, weapons of all sorts, the possession of raw materials, etc) are held essential, while the human being, his desires, and thoughts in short, the psychological factors are considered as unimportant and secondary...The individual is degraded...to human materiel., Albert Einstein, US (Germanborn) physicist (1879 1955)
To my mind, to kill in
To my mind, to kill in war is not a whit better than to commit ordinary murder., Albert Einstein, US (Germanborn) physicist (1879 1955)
The conscientious obje
The conscientious objector is a revoultionary. On deciding to disobey the law he sacrifices his personal interests to the most important cause of working for the betterment of society., Albert Einstein, US (Germanborn) physicist (1879 1955)
Broadly speaking, the
Broadly speaking, the short words are the best, and the old words best of all., Sir Winston Churchill, British politician (1874 1965)
The aim (of education)
The aim (of education) must be the training of independently acting and thinking individuals who, however, can see in the service to the community their highest life achievement., Albert Einstein, US (Germanborn) physicist (1879 1955)
He who cherishes the v
He who cherishes the values of culture cannot fail to be a pacifist., Albert Einstein, US (Germanborn) physicist (1879 1955)
Heroism on command, se
Heroism on command, senseless violence, and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism how passionately I hate them!, Albert Einstein, US (Germanborn) physicist (1879 1955)
Peace cannot be kept b
Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding., Albert Einstein, US (Germanborn) physicist (1879 1955)
Science is not only co
Science is not only compatible with spirituality it is a profound source of spirituality., Carl Sagan, US astronomer popularizer of astronomy (1934 1996)
I never came upon any
I never came upon any of my discoveries through the process of rational thinking., Albert Einstein, US (Germanborn) physicist (1879 1955)
Going to war without F
Going to war without France is like going deer hunting without an accordion. You just leave a lot of useless, noisy baggage behind., Jed Babbin, former Deputy Undersecretary of Defense,
Wise sayings often fal
Wise sayings often fall on barren ground but a kind word is never thrown away., Sir Arthur Helps,
Say all you have to sa
Say all you have to say in the fewest possible words, or your reader will be sure to skip them and in the plainest possible words or he will certainly misunderstand them., John Ruskin, English critic, essayist, reformer (1819 1900)
148. One who does not
148. One who does not realize his own value is condemned to utter failure. (Every kind of complex, superiority or inferiority is harmful to man)., Imam Ali, Peak of Eloquence (Nahjul Balagha),
205. A greedy man will
205. A greedy man will always find himself in the shackles of humility., Imam Ali, Peak of Eloquence (Nahjul Balagha),
The sin which makes yo
The sin which makes you sad and repentant is more liked by Allah than the good deed which turns you arrogant., Imam Ali, Peak of Eloquence (Nahjul Balagha),
We dance in a circle a
We dance in a circle and suppose, while the secret sits in the middle and knows., Robert Frost, US poet (1874 1963)
Expose yourself to you
Expose yourself to your deepest fear after that, fear has no power, and the fear of freedom shrinks and vanishes. You are free., Jim Morrison,
In the long run, you h
In the long run, you hit only what you aim at: Therefore aim high., Henry David Thoreau, US Transcendentalist author (1817 1862)
Do not be afraid to gi
Do not be afraid to give up the good to go for the great., Kenny Rogers,
The way I see it, if y
The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain., Dolly Parton,
If women are expected
If women are expected to do the same work as men, we must teach them the same things., Plato, Greek author philosopher in Athens (427 BC 347 BC)
We cannot direct the w
We cannot direct the wind, but we can adjust the sails., Dolly Parton,
No physical quantity c
No physical quantity can continue to change exponentially forever. Your job is delaying forever., Gordon Moore, in a keynote address at the International SolidState Circuits Conference in San Francisco in 2003,
In the begining there
In the begining there was nothing, and it exploded., Terry Pratchet, (on the big bang theory),
A man should never put
A man should never put on his best trousers when he goes out to battle for freedom and truth., Henrik Ibsen, Norwegian dramatist (1828 1906)
Life is beautiful. Lif
Life is beautiful. Life is sad., Vladimir Nabakov, Lolita,
Mankind must put an en
Mankind must put an end to war, or war will put an end to mankind., John F. Kennedy, US Democratic politician (1917 1963)
It is a brave act of v
It is a brave act of valor to condemn death, but where life is more terrible than death it is then the truest valor to dare to live., Sir Thomas Brown,
Europe is spreading it
Europe is spreading its wings. In freedom. In prosperity. And in peace. It is a truly proud moment for the European Union. It is a triumph for liberty and democracy. To our new members I say: “Warmly welcome to our family”. Our new Europe is born., Anders Fogh Rasmussen, (Prime Minister of Denmark) Family photo after the European Council meeting in Copenhagen, 13 December 20,
Whenever you look at a
Whenever you look at a piece of work and you think the fellow was crazy, then you want to pay some attention to that. One of you is likely to be, and you had better find out which one it is. It makes an awful lot of difference., Charles Franklin Kettering, (18761958),
Every living thing is
Every living thing is a sort of imperialist, seeking to transform as much as possible of its environment into itself., Bertrand Russell, British author, mathematician, philosopher (1872 1970)
An elephant is a mouse
An elephant is a mouse, built to government specifications., John Herro,
Nothing in this world
Nothing in this world is to be feared... only understood., Marie Curie, French (Polishborn) chemist physicist (1867 1934)
Black holes are where
Black holes are where God divided by zero., Stephen Wright,
Shoot for the moon. Ev
Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss it you will land among the stars., Les Brown,
The greatest lesson in
The greatest lesson in life is to know that even fools are right sometimes., Winston Churchill,
It is a sad fact that
It is a sad fact that 50 percent of marriages in this country end in divorce. But hey, the other half end in death. You could be one of the lucky ones!, Richard Jeni,
There is hardly anythi
There is hardly anything in the world that some man cannot make a little worse cannot make a little cheaper and the people who consider price only are this man’s lawful prey., John Ruskin (18191900), British poet, artist,,
In these days, a man w
In these days, a man who says a thing cannot be done is quite apt to be interrupted by some idiot doing it., Elbert Hubbard, US author (1856 1915)
This only is certain,
This only is certain, that there is nothing certain and nothing more miserable and yet more arrogant than man., Gaius Plinius Secundus, ("The Elder") (2379),
The beauty of religiou
The beauty of religious mania is that it has the power to explain everything. Once God (or Satan) is accepted as the first cause of everything which happens in the mortal world, nothing is left to chance...logic can be happily tossed out the window., Stephen King, US horror novelist screenwriter (1947 )
Religion is what keeps
Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich., Napoleon,
Gods are fragile thing
Gods are fragile things they may be killed by a whiff of science or a dose of common sense., Chapman Cohen, (18681954),
I cannot conceive othe
I cannot conceive otherwise than that He, the Infinite Father, expects or requires no worship or praise from us, but that He is even infinitely above it., Benjamin Franklin, US author, diplomat, inventor, physicist, politician, printer (1706 1790)
Be humble for you are
Be humble for you are made of earth. Be noble for you are made of stars., Serbian Proverb,
Four things come not b
Four things come not back the spoken word, the sped arrow, the past life, and the neglected opportunity., Arabian Proverb,
He who fights monsters
He who fights monsters should look into it that he himself does not become a monster. When you gaze long into the Abyss, the Abyss also gazes into you., Friedrich Neitzsche,
If a man cannot choose
If a man cannot choose, he ceases to be a man., Anthony Burgess, A Clockwork Orange, British composer novelist (1917 1993)
To surrender to ignora
To surrender to ignorance and call it God has always been premature, and it remains premature today., Isaac Asimov, US science fiction novelist scholar (1920 1992)
Better be wise by the
Better be wise by the misfortunes of others than by your own., Aesop, Greek slave fable author (620 BC 560 BC)
You cannot teach a man
You cannot teach a man anything you can only help him find it within himself., Galileo Galilei, Italian astronomer physicist (1564 1642)
The joy of discovery i
The joy of discovery is certainly the liveliest that the mind of man can ever feel., Claude Bernard (181378),
True greatness consist
True greatness consists in the use of a powerful understanding to enlighten oneself and others., Voltaire, French author, humanist, rationalist, satirist (1694 1778)
If a man cannot forget
If a man cannot forget, he will never amount to much., Soren Kierkegaard, Danish philosopher (1813 1855)
Success is to be measu
Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome while trying to succeed., Booker T. Washington, US educator (1856 1915)
Do I not destroy my en
Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends?, Abraham Lincoln, 16th president of US (1809 1865)
Nudists have no fashio
Nudists have no fashion sense., Peter Kunkel,
The art of being wise
The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook., William James, US Pragmatist philosopher psychologist (1842 1910)
Today my spirit is goi
Today my spirit is going to school while my body stays in bed., Bill Watterson, Calvin, Attack of the Deranged Mutant Killer Monster Snow Goons, US cartoonist (1958 )
There are people who m
There are people who make things happen, there are people who watch things happen, and there are people who wonder what happened. To be successful, you need to be a person who makes things happen., James Lovell, speech to Girl Scouts in DuPage County, Illinois, 1997 quoted in the Chicago Tribune 2303,
Our greatest natural r
Our greatest natural resource is the minds of our children., Walt Disney, On the inside wall of the American Adventure in Epcot Center, US cartoonist movie producer (1901 1966)
Love goes toward love
Love goes toward love as schoolboys from their books but love from look, toward school with heavy looks., William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, Greatest English dramatist poet (1564 1616)
I am not afraid of sto
I am not afraid of storms for I am learning how to sail my ship., Helen Keller, US blind deaf educator (1880 1968)
Genius is entitled to
Genius is entitled to respect only when it promotes the peace and improves the happiness of mankind., Lord Essex,
Convinced myself, I se
Convinced myself, I seek not to convince., Edgar Allan Poe, Berenice, US short story author, editor, poet (1809 1849)
An eye for an eye make
An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind., Mahatma Gandhi, (attributed), Indian ascetic nationalist leader (1869 1948)
Sometimes people carry
Sometimes people carry to such perfection the mask they have assumed that in due course they actually become the person they seem., W. Somerset Maugham, The Moon and Sixpence, English dramatist novelist (1874 1965)
A woman can forgive a
A woman can forgive a man for the harm he does her...but she can never forgive him for the sacrifices he makes on her account., W. Somerset Maugham, The Moon and Sixpence, English dramatist novelist (1874 1965)
Do not be fooled into
Do not be fooled into believing that because a man is rich he is necessarily smart. There is ample proof to the contrary., Julius Rosenwald, US merchant philanthropist (1862 1932)
I am a kind of paranoi
I am a kind of paranoiac in reverse. I suspect people of plotting to make me happy., J. D. Salinger, US novelist short story author (1919 )
I do not know what I m
I do not know what I may appear to the world but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me., Isaac Newton, From Brewster, Memoirs of Newton (1855), English mathematician physicist (1642 1727)
The world of the happ
The world of the happy is quite different from that of the unhappy., Ludwig Wittgenstein, Tractatus LogicoPhilosophicus (1922), Austrian philosopher (1889 1951)
The limits of my langu
The limits of my language mean the limits of my world., Ludwig Wittgenstein, Tractatus LogicoPhilosophicus (1922), Austrian philosopher (1889 1951)
The world must be made
The world must be made safe for democracy. Its peace must be planted upon the tested foundations of political liberty., Woodrow Wilson, Speech to Congress, Apr. 2 1917, 28th president of US (1856 1924)
If you would thoroughl
If you would thoroughly know anything, teach it to others., Tryon Edwards, (1809 1894)
There is such a thing
There is such a thing as a man being too proud to fight there is such a thing as a nation being so right that it does not need to convince others by force that it is right., Woodrow Wilson, Speech in Philadelphia, May 10 1915, 28th president of US (1856 1924)
No nation is fit to si
No nation is fit to sit in judgement upon any other nation., Woodrow Wilson, Speech in New York, Apr. 20 1915, 28th president of US (1856 1924)
The constitution does
The constitution does not provide for first and second class citizens., Wendell Willkie, An American Programme (1944), US businessman politician (1892 1944)
I have always depended
I have always depended on the kindness of strangers., Tennessee Williams, A Streetcar Named Desire (1947), US dramatist (1911 1983)
The nice thing about q
The nice thing about quotes is that they give us a nodding acquaintance with the originator which is often socially impressive., Kenneth Williams, Acid Drops (1980),
Civilization advances
Civilization advances by extending the number of important operations which we can perform without thinking about them., Alfred North Whitehead, Introduction to Mathematics (1911), English mathematician philosopher (1861 1947)
Art is the imposing of
Art is the imposing of a pattern on experience, and our aesthetic enjoyment is recognition of the pattern., Alfred North Whitehead, Dialogues (1954), English mathematician philosopher (1861 1947)
Contrary to general be
Contrary to general belief, I do not believe that friends are necessarily the people you like best, they are merely the people who got there first., Peter Ustinov, Dear Me (1977), English actor author (1921 2004)
The past is the only d
The past is the only dead thing that smells sweet., Edward Thomas, Poems 1917 Early One Morning,
Be wise with speed . A
Be wise with speed . A fool at forty is a fool indeed., Edward Young, English poet (1683 1765)
Do not go gentle into
Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rave at close of day Rage, rage against the dying of the light., Dylan Thomas, Collected poems (1952), Welsh poet (1914 1953)
People who want to und
People who want to understand democracy should spend less time in the library with Aristotle and more time on the buses and in the subway., Simeon Strunsky, No Mean City (1944), (1879 1948)
My music is best under
My music is best understood by children and animals., Igor Stravinsky, In Observer 8 Oct. 1961, Russian composer in US (1882 1971)
The history of the Vic
The history of the Victorian Age will never be written: we know too much about it. For ignorance is the first requisite of the historian ignorance, which simplifies and clarifies, which selects and omits, with a placid perfection unattainable by the highest art., Lytton Strachey, Eminent Victorians (1918), English biographer (1880 1932)
I know thisa man got t
I know thisa man got to do what he got to do., John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath (1939), US novelist (1902 1968)
Man, unlike any other
Man, unlike any other thing organic or inorganic in the universe, grows beyond his work, walks up the stairs of his concepts, emerges ahead of his accomplishments., John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath (1939), US novelist (1902 1968)
Socialism is nothing b
Socialism is nothing but the capitalism of the lower classes., Oswald Spengler, The Hour of Decision, 1933, German historian philosopher (1880 1936)
The test of a vocation
The test of a vocation is the love of the drudgery it involves., Logan Pearsall Smith, Afterthoughts 1931 Art and Letters, (1865 1946)
To suppose, as we all
To suppose, as we all suppose, that we could be rich and not behave as the rich behave, is like supposing that we could drink all day and keep absolutely sober., Logan Pearsall Smith, Afterthoughts 1931 In the World, (1865 1946)
The art of war is simp
The art of war is simple enough. Find out where your enemy is. Get at him as soon as you can. Strike him as hard as you can, and keep moving., Ulysses S. Grant, US general politician (1822 1885)
When they come downsta
When they come downstairs from their Ivory Towers, Idealists are very apt to walk straight into the gutter., Logan Pearsall Smith, Afterthoughts 1931 Other People, (1865 1946)
All Reformers, however
All Reformers, however strict their social conscience, live in houses just as big as they can pay for., Logan Pearsall Smith, Afterthoughts 1931 Other People, (1865 1946)
Most people sell their
Most people sell their souls, and live with a good conscience on the proceeds., Logan Pearsall Smith, Afterthoughts 1931 Other People, (1865 1946)
There are few sorrows,
There are few sorrows, however poignant, in which a good income is of no avail., Logan Pearsall Smith, Afterthoughts 1931 Life and Human Nature, (1865 1946)
How many of our daydre
How many of our daydreams would darken into nightmares if there seemed any danger of their coming true!, Logan Pearsall Smith, Afterthoughts 1931 Life and Human Nature, (1865 1946)
There are two things t
There are two things to aim at in life: first, to get what you want and, after that, to enjoy it. Only the wisest of mankind achieve the second., Logan Pearsall Smith, Afterthoughts 1931 Life and Human Nature, (1865 1946)
Goodbye cruel world.,
Goodbye cruel world., Gloria Shayne, Title of song (1961),
"Do you know what a pe
"Do you know what a pessimist is?" A man who thinks everybody is as nasty as himself, and hates them for it., George Bernard Shaw, An Unsocial Socialist 1887 ch. 5, Irish dramatist socialist (1856 1950)
Assassination is the e
Assassination is the extreme form of censorship., George Bernard Shaw, ShewingUp of Blanco Posnet 1911 Limits to Toleration, Irish dramatist socialist (1856 1950)
Beware lest in your an
Beware lest in your anxiety to avoid war you obtain a master., Demosthenes, Greek orator politician in Athens (384 BC 322 BC)
It is impossible for a
It is impossible for an Englishman to open his mouth without making some other Englishman hate or despise him., George Bernard Shaw, Pygmalion 1916 preface, Irish dramatist socialist (1856 1950)
There is only one reli
There is only one religion, though there are a hundred versions of it., George Bernard Shaw, Plays Pleasant and Unpleasant (1898), Irish dramatist socialist (1856 1950)
Take care to get what
Take care to get what you like or you will be forced to like what you get., George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman 1903 Maxims for Revolutionists, Irish dramatist socialist (1856 1950)
Youth, which is forgiv
Youth, which is forgiven everything, forgives itself nothing: age, which forgives itself everything, is forgiven nothing., George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman 1903 Maxims for Revolutionists, Irish dramatist socialist (1856 1950)
Every man over forty i
Every man over forty is a scoundrel., George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman 1903 Maxims for Revolutionists, Irish dramatist socialist (1856 1950)
An Englishman thinks h
An Englishman thinks he is moral when he is only uncomfortable., George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman 1903 act 3, Irish dramatist socialist (1856 1950)
Hell is full of musica
Hell is full of musical amateurs: music is the brandy of the damned., George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman 1903 act 3, Irish dramatist socialist (1856 1950)
There is no love since
There is no love sincerer than the love of food., George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman 1903 act 1, Irish dramatist socialist (1856 1950)
He knows nothing and h
He knows nothing and he thinks he knows everything. That points clearly to a political career., George Bernard Shaw, Major Barbara 1907 act 3, Irish dramatist socialist (1856 1950)
Alcohol is a very nece
Alcohol is a very necessary article... It makes life bearable to millions of people who could not endure their existence if they were quite sober. It enables Parliament to do things at eleven at night that no sane person would do at eleven in the morning., George Bernard Shaw, Major Barbara 1907 act 2, Irish dramatist socialist (1856 1950)
I am a Millionaire. Th
I am a Millionaire. That is my religion., George Bernard Shaw, Major Barbara 1907 act 2, Irish dramatist socialist (1856 1950)
Do you think that the
Do you think that the things people make fools of themselves about are any less real and true than the things they behave sensibly about? They are more true: they are the only things that are true., George Bernard Shaw, Candida 1898 act 1, Irish dramatist socialist (1856 1950)
We have no more right
We have no more right to consume happiness without producing it than to consume wealth without producing it., George Bernard Shaw, Candida 1898 act 1, Irish dramatist socialist (1856 1950)
I never resist temptat
I never resist temptation because I have found that things that are bad for me do not tempt me., George Bernard Shaw, The Apple Cart (1930), Irish dramatist socialist (1856 1950)
Ah! the clock is alway
Ah! the clock is always slow It is later than you think., Robert Service, Ballads of a Bohemian (1921), Canadian poet (1874 1958)
When I am asked, What
When I am asked, What do you think of our audience? I answer, I know two kinds of audiences onlyone coughing, and one not coughing., Arthur Schnabel, My Life and Music (1961), Austrian composer pianist (1882 1951)
The notes I handle no
The notes I handle no better than many pianists. But the pauses between the notesah, that is where the art resides!, Arthur Schnabel, in Chicago Daily News, June 11 1958, Austrian composer pianist (1882 1951)
Hell is other people.,
Hell is other people., JeanPaul Sartre, Closed Doors (1944), French author existentialist philosopher (1905 1980)
Existence precedes and
Existence precedes and rules essence., JeanPaul Sartre, Being and Nothingness (1943), French author existentialist philosopher (1905 1980)
A writer must refuse t
A writer must refuse to allow himself to be transformed into an institution., JeanPaul Sartre, Upon refusing the Nobel Prize, Oct. 22 1964, French author existentialist philosopher (1905 1980)
Every time I paint a p
Every time I paint a portrait I lose a friend., John Singer Sargent, quoted in Bentley and Esar, Treasury of Humorous Quotations (1951), US (Italianborn) portrait painter (1856 1925)
Intolerance itself is
Intolerance itself is a form of egoism, and to condemn egoism intolerantly is to share it., George Santayana, Winds of Doctrine 1913 ch. 4, US (Spanishborn) philosopher (1863 1952)
For an idea ever to be
For an idea ever to be fashionable is ominous, since it must afterwards be always oldfashioned., George Santayana, Winds of Doctrine 1913 ch. 2, US (Spanishborn) philosopher (1863 1952)
The truth is cruel, bu
The truth is cruel, but it can be loved, and it makes free those who have loved it., George Santayana, Little Essays 1920 Ideal Immortality, US (Spanishborn) philosopher (1863 1952)
When you strike at a k
When you strike at a king, you must kill him., Ralph Waldo Emerson, US essayist poet (1803 1882)
Nothing is really so p
Nothing is really so poor and melancholy as art that is interested in itself and not in its subject., George Santayana, Life of Reason 1905 vol. 4 ch. 8, US (Spanishborn) philosopher (1863 1952)
An artist is a dreamer
An artist is a dreamer consenting to dream of the actual world., George Santayana, Life of Reason 1905 vol. 4 ch. 3, US (Spanishborn) philosopher (1863 1952)
Slang is a language th
Slang is a language that rolls up its sleeves, spits on its hands and goes to work., Carl Sandburg, New York Times Feb. 13 1959, US biographer poet (1878 1967)
I tell you the past is
I tell you the past is a bucket of ashes., Carl Sandburg, Cornhuskers 1918 Prairie, US biographer poet (1878 1967)
The fog comes on littl
The fog comes on little cat feet. It sits looking over harbor and city on silent haunches and then moves on., Carl Sandburg, Chicago Poems 1916 Fog, US biographer poet (1878 1967)
I have lost friends, s
I have lost friends, some by death... others through sheer inability to cross the street., Virginia Woolf, The Waves (1931), English novelist (1882 1941)
Miss Brooke had that k
Miss Brooke had that kind of beauty which seems to be thrown into relief by poor dress., George Eliot, Middlemarch, Book I, ch.1, English novelist (1819 1880)
In my many years I hav
In my many years I have come to a conclusion that one useless man is a shame, two is a law firm, and three or more is a congress., John Adams, US diplomat politician (1735 1826)
Take death for example
Take death for example. A great deal of our effort goes into avoiding it. We make extraordinary efforts to delay it, and often consider its intrusion a tragic event. Yet we’d find it hard to live without it. Death gives meaning to our lives. It gives importance and value to time. Time would become meaningless if there were too much of it., Ray Kurzweil, The Age of Spiritual Machines: When Computers Exceed Human Intelligence,
Of all forms of tyrann
Of all forms of tyranny the least attractive and the most vulgar is the tyranny of mere wealth, the tyranny of plutocracy., Theodore Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt, an autobiography, 26th president of US (1858 1919)
When an idea is wantin
When an idea is wanting, a word can always be found to take its place., Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, German dramatist, novelist, poet, scientist (1749 1832)
Never be afraid to lau
Never be afraid to laugh at yourself, after all, you could be missing out on the joke of the century., Dame Edna Everage, In a television interview with Joan Rivers, Australian Comedian (character of Barry Humphries) (1934 )
No one travelling on a
No one travelling on a business trip would be missed if he failed to arrive., Thorstein Veblen, US economist social philosopher (1857 1929)
Whatever women do they
Whatever women do they must do twice as well as men to be thought half as good. Luckily this is not difficult., Charlotte Whitton, Canada Month, June 1963,
In the future everyone
In the future everyone will be famous for fifteen minutes., Andy Warhol, US artist (1928 1987)
Conspicuous consumptio
Conspicuous consumption of valuable goods is a means of reputability to the gentleman of leisure., Thorstein Veblen, Theory of the Leisure Class (1899), US economist social philosopher (1857 1929)
Take a twomile walk ev
Take a twomile walk every morning before breakfast., Harry S Truman, 33rd president of US (1884 1972)
Human beings are perha
Human beings are perhaps never more frightening than when they are convinced beyond doubt that they are right., Laurens Van der Post, The Lost World of the Kalahari (1958),
What a good thing Adam
What a good thing Adam had. When he said a good thing he knew nobody had said it before., Mark Twain, Notebooks (1935), US humorist, novelist, short story author, wit (1835 1910)
It takes your enemy an
It takes your enemy and your friend, working together, to hurt you: the one to slander you, and the other to get the news to you., Mark Twain, Following the Equator (1897), US humorist, novelist, short story author, wit (1835 1910)
Barring that natural e
Barring that natural expression of villainy which we all have, the man looked honest enough., Mark Twain, US humorist, novelist, short story author, wit (1835 1910)
All the President is,
All the President is, is a glorified public relations man who spends his time flattering, kissing and kicking people to get them to do what they are supposed to do anyway., Harry S Truman, Letter to his sister, Nov. 14 1947, 33rd president of US (1884 1972)
Old age is the most un
Old age is the most unexpected of things that can happen to a man., Leon Trotsky, Diary in Exile (1959), Russian Soviet politician Communist revolutionary (1879 1940)
I am extraordinarily p
I am extraordinarily patient, provided I get my own way in the end., Margaret Thatcher, in Observer April 4 1989, British politician (1925 )
Walking is the best po
Walking is the best possible exercise. Habituate yourself to walk very far., Thomas Jefferson, 3rd president of US (1743 1826)
I am a deeply superfic
I am a deeply superficial person., Andy Warhol, US artist (1928 1987)
There are two things t
There are two things that will be believed of any man whatsoever, and one of them is that he has taken to drink., Booth Tarkington, Penrod (1914), US novelist (1869 1946)
The stupid neither for
The stupid neither forgive nor forget the naive forgive and forget the wise forgive but do not forget., Thomas Szasz, The Second Sin 1973 Personal Conduct,
I have learned through
I have learned throughout my life as a composer chiefly through my mistakes and pursuits of false assumptions, not by my exposure to founts of wisdom and knowledge., Igor Stravinsky, Russian composer in US (1882 1971)
Discretion is not the
Discretion is not the better part of biography., Lytton Strachey, in Michael Holroyd Lytton, Strachey vol. 1 (1967), English biographer (1880 1932)
We do on stage things
We do on stage things that are supposed to happen off. Which is a kind of integrity, if you look on every exit as being an entrance somewhere else., Tom Stoppard, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (1967), British dramatist screenwriter (1937 )
A woman is like a tea
A woman is like a tea bag you never know how strong she is until she gets in hot water., Eleanor Roosevelt, US diplomat reformer (1884 1962)
Life was meant to be l
Life was meant to be lived, and curiosity must be kept alive. One must never, for whatever reason, turn his back on life., Eleanor Roosevelt, US diplomat reformer (1884 1962)
I could not at any age
I could not at any age be content to take my place in a corner by the fireside and simply look on., Eleanor Roosevelt, US diplomat reformer (1884 1962)
People grow through ex
People grow through experience if they meet life honestly and courageously. This is how character is built., Eleanor Roosevelt, My Day, US diplomat reformer (1884 1962)
When one door of happi
When one door of happiness closes, another opens but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us., Helen Keller, US blind deaf educator (1880 1968)
Wheresoever you go, go
Wheresoever you go, go with all your heart., Confucius, Chinese philosopher reformer (551 BC 479 BC)
People do not like to
People do not like to think. If one thinks, one must reach conclusions. Conclusions are not always pleasant., Helen Keller, US blind deaf educator (1880 1968)
Security is mostly a s
Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature.... Life is either a daring adventure or nothing., Helen Keller, The Open Door (1957), US blind deaf educator (1880 1968)
The best and most beau
The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt within the heart., Helen Keller, US blind deaf educator (1880 1968)
Character cannot be de
Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved., Helen Keller, US blind deaf educator (1880 1968)
There is a homely old
There is a homely old adage which runs: Speak softly and carry a big stick you will go far. If the American nation will speak softly, and yet build and keep at a pitch of the highest training a thoroughly efficient navy, the Monroe Doctrine will go far., Theodore Roosevelt, Speech in Chicago, 3 Apr. 1903, 26th president of US (1858 1919)
Mathematics is the que
Mathematics is the queen of the sciences., Carl Friedrich Gauss, from Sartorius von Waltershausen, Gauss zum Gedachtniss [1856], German mathematician, physicist, prodigy (1777 1855)
A woman without a man
A woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle., Gloria Steinem, (attributed), US feminist (1934 )
In the United States t
In the United States there is more space where nobody is than where anybody is. That is what makes America what it is., Gertrude Stein, The Geographical History of America (1936), US author in France (1874 1946)
If you want to see the
If you want to see the true measure of a man, watch how he treats his inferiors, not his equals., J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, British fantasy author )
A good book is the bes
A good book is the best of friends, the same today and forever., Martin Tupper, English writer 18101889,
Be not slow to visit t
Be not slow to visit the sick., Ecclesiastes,
If our greatest need h
If our greatest need had been information, God would have sent an educator. If our greatest need had been technology, God would have sent us a scientist. If our greatest need had been money, God would have sent us an economist. But since our greatest need was forgiveness, God sent us a Savior., Max Lucado,
Indeed, I tremble for
Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just: that his justice cannot sleep forever., Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia denouncing the evils of slavery, 3rd president of US (1743 1826)
People say that life i
People say that life is the thing, but I prefer reading., Logan Pearsall Smith, Afterthoughts 1931 Myself, (1865 1946)
The fickleness of the
The fickleness of the women I love is only equalled by the infernal constancy of the women who love me., George Bernard Shaw, The Philanderer 1898 act 2, Irish dramatist socialist (1856 1950)
Beware of the man whos
Beware of the man whose God is in the skies., George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman 1903 Maxims for Revolutionists, Irish dramatist socialist (1856 1950)
The golden rule is tha
The golden rule is that there are no golden rules., George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman 1903 Maxims for Revolutionists, Irish dramatist socialist (1856 1950)
He who has never hoped
He who has never hoped can never despair., George Bernard Shaw, Caesar and Cleopatra 1901 act 4, Irish dramatist socialist (1856 1950)
Silence is the most pe
Silence is the most perfect expression of scorn., George Bernard Shaw, Back to Methuselah 1921 pt. 5, Irish dramatist socialist (1856 1950)
Search others for thei
Search others for their virtues, thyself for thy vices., Benjamin Franklin, US author, diplomat, inventor, physicist, politician, printer (1706 1790)
All great truths begin
All great truths begin as blasphemies., George Bernard Shaw, Annajanska (1919), Irish dramatist socialist (1856 1950)
Music is essentially u
Music is essentially useless, as life is: but both have an ideal extension which lends utility to its conditions., George Santayana, Life of Reason 1905 vol. 4 ch. 4, US (Spanishborn) philosopher (1863 1952)
Happiness is the only
Happiness is the only sanction of life where happiness fails, existence remains a mad and lamentable experiment., George Santayana, Life of Reason 1905 vol. 1 ch. 10, US (Spanishborn) philosopher (1863 1952)
The most radical revol
The most radical revolutionary will become a conservative the day after the revolution., Hannah Arendt, US (Germanborn) historian social philosopher (1906 1975)
If life was fair, Elvi
If life was fair, Elvis would be alive and all the impersonators would be dead., Johnny Carson, US comedian television host (1925 2005)
America guarantees equ
America guarantees equal opportunity, not equal outcome., Rush Limbaugh,
Recommend to your chil
Recommend to your children virtue that alone can make them happy, not gold., Ludwig van Beethoven, German Romantic composer (1770 1827)
When you have once see
When you have once seen the glow of happiness on the face of a beloved person, you know that a man can have no vocation but to awaken that light on the faces surrounding him. In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer., Albert Camus, French existentialist author philosopher (1913 1960)
There is a concept whi
There is a concept which corrupts and upsets all others. I refer not to Evil, whose limited realm is that of ethics I refer to the infinite., Jorge Luis Borges, Argentine novelist poet (1899 1986)
The eternal silence of
The eternal silence of these infinite spaces fills me with dread., Blaise Pascal, French mathematician, physicist (1623 1662)
I have never found, in
I have never found, in a long experience of politics, that criticism is ever inhibited by ignorance., Harold Macmillan, Wall Street Journal, Aug. 13 1963, (1894 1986)
Man is a credulous ani
Man is a credulous animal, and must believe something in the absence of good grounds for belief, he will be satisfied with bad ones., Bertrand Russell, Unpopular Essays (1950), Outline of Intellectual Rubbish, British author, mathematician, philosopher (1872 1970)
We have, in fact, two
We have, in fact, two kinds of morality side by side: one which we preach but do not practice, and another which we practice but seldom preach., Bertrand Russell, Sceptical Essays (1928), Eastern and Western Ideals of Happiness, British author, mathematician, philosopher (1872 1970)
Every man, wherever he
Every man, wherever he goes, is encompassed by a cloud of comforting convictions, which move with him like flies on a summer day., Bertrand Russell, Sceptical Essays (1928), Dreams and Facts, British author, mathematician, philosopher (1872 1970)
It is undesirable to b
It is undesirable to believe a proposition when there is no ground whatsoever for supposing it is true., Bertrand Russell, Sceptical Essays (1928), On the Value of Scepticism, British author, mathematician, philosopher (1872 1970)
Mathematics may be def
Mathematics may be defined as the subject in which we never know what we are talking about, nor whether what we are saying is true., Bertrand Russell, Mysticism and Logic 1917 ch. 4, British author, mathematician, philosopher (1872 1970)
To fear love is to fea
To fear love is to fear life, and those who fear life are already three parts dead., Bertrand Russell, Marriage and Morals 1929 ch. 19, British author, mathematician, philosopher (1872 1970)
The fact that an opini
The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence whatever that it is not utterly absurd indeed in view of the silliness of the majority of mankind, a widespread belief is more likely to be foolish than sensible., Bertrand Russell, Marriage and Morals 1929 ch. 5, British author, mathematician, philosopher (1872 1970)
Of all forms of cautio
Of all forms of caution, caution in love is perhaps the most fatal to true happiness., Bertrand Russell, Conquest of Happiness 1930 ch. 12, British author, mathematician, philosopher (1872 1970)
One should as a rule r
One should as a rule respect public opinion in so far as is necessary to avoid starvation and to keep out of prison, but anything that goes beyond this is voluntary submission to an unnecessary tyranny, and is likely to interfere with happiness in all kinds of ways., Bertrand Russell, Conquest of Happiness 1930 ch. 9, British author, mathematician, philosopher (1872 1970)
Men who are unhappy, l
Men who are unhappy, like men who sleep badly, are always proud of the fact., Bertrand Russell, Conquest of Happiness 1930 ch. 1, British author, mathematician, philosopher (1872 1970)
Youth is a wonderful t
Youth is a wonderful thing. What a crime to waste it on children., George Bernard Shaw, Irish dramatist socialist (1856 1950)
Yesterday, December 7
Yesterday, December 7 1941 a date which will live on in infamy the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan., Franklin D. Roosevelt, Address to Congress, Dec. 8 1941, 32nd president of US (1882 1945)
First of all, let me a
First of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance., Franklin D. Roosevelt, First Inaugural Address, Mar. 4 1933, 32nd president of US (1882 1945)
Well, all I know is wh
Well, all I know is what I read in the papers., Will Rogers, New York Times, Sept 30 1923, US humorist showman (1879 1935)
There is only one thin
There is only one thing that can kill the Movies, and that is education., Will Rogers, Autobiography 1949 chapter 6, US humorist showman (1879 1935)
We all take different
We all take different paths in life, but no matter where we go, we all take a little of each other everywhere., Tim McGraw,
Loneliness and the fee
Loneliness and the feeling of being unwanted is the worst poverty of all., Mother Teresa, Indian humanitarian missionary (1910 1997)
Assassins!, Arturo Tos
Assassins!, Arturo Toscanini (18671957), To his orchestra,
So many of our dreams
So many of our dreams at first seem impossible, then they seem improbable, and then, when we summon the will, they soon become inevitable., Christopher Reeve, From speech at Democratic National Convention, August 1996,
...it is a base thing
...it is a base thing to look to others for your defense instead of depending upon yourself. That defense alone is effectual, sure, and durable which depends upon yourself and your own valor., Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince, Italian dramatist, historian, philosopher (1469 1527)
In the truest sense, f
In the truest sense, freedom cannot be bestowed it must be achieved., Franklin D. Roosevelt, Speech, September 22 1936, 32nd president of US (1882 1945)
To resist the frigidit
To resist the frigidity of old age one must combine the body, the mind and the heart and to keep them in parallel vigor one must exercise, study and love., Karl von Bonstetten,
The instinct of nearly
The instinct of nearly all societies is to lock up anybody who is truly free. First, society begins by trying to beat you up. If this fails, they try to poison you. If this fails too, they finish by loading honors on your head., Jean Cocteau, Journey to Freedom (1969), French dramatist, director, poet (1889 1963)
We are certainly getti
We are certainly getting ahead if I am Moses, then you are Joshua and will take possession of the promised land of psychiatry, which I shall only be able to glimpse from afar., Sigmund Freud, Letter to Carl Jung, January 17 1909, Austrian psychologist (1856 1939)
There is no observatio
There is no observation more frequently made by such as employ themselves in surveying the conduct of mankind, than that marriage, though the dictate of nature, and the institution of Providence, is yet very often the cause of misery, and that those who enter into that state can seldom forbear to express their repentance, and their envy of those whom either chance or caution hath withheld from it., Samuel Johnson, Rambler #18, English author, critic, lexicographer (1709 1784)
Such is the common pro
Such is the common process of marriage. A youth and maiden exchange meeting by chance, or brought together by artifice, exchange glances, reciprocate civilities, go home, and dream of one another. Having little to divert attention, or diversify thought, they find themselves uneasy when they are apart, and therefore conclude that they shall be happy together. They marry, and discover what nothing but voluntary blindness had before concealed they wear out life in altercations, and charge nature with cruelty., Samuel Johnson, Rasselas, English author, critic, lexicographer (1709 1784)
To live without killin
To live without killing is a thought which could electrify the world, if men were only capable of staying awake long enough to let the idea soak in., Henry Miller, The Henry Miller Reader (1959), Reunion in Brooklyn, US author (1891 1980)
There are many ways of
There are many ways of breaking a heart. Stories were full of hearts broken by love, but what really broke a heart was taking away its dream whatever that dream might be., Pearl Buck, US novelist in China (1892 1973)
There is no slavery bu
There is no slavery but ignorance., Robert Ingersoll, The Philosophy of Ingersoll (1906), Fragments, US agnostic, agnostic apologist, lawyer, orator (1833 1899)
As I was walking among
As I was walking among the fires of Hell, delighted with the enjoyments of Genius which to Angels look like torment and insanity. I collected some of their Proverbs., William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, 1790, English engraver, illustrator, poet (1757 1827)
Anyone who can handle
Anyone who can handle a needle convincingly can make us see a thread which is not there., E. H. Gombrich, (1909 )
Use harms and even des
Use harms and even destroys beauty. The noblest function of an object is to be contemplated., Miguel de Unamuno, (1864 1936)
It is necessary to wor
It is necessary to work, if not from inclination, at least from despair. Everything considered, work is less boring than amusing oneself., Charles Baudelaire, French poet (1821 1867)
The greatest mistake i
The greatest mistake is trying to be more agreeable than you can be., Walter Bagehot, English economist journalist (1826 1877)
The more I want to get
The more I want to get something done, the less I call it work., Richard Bach,
If we were to wake up
If we were to wake up some morning and find that everyone was the same race, creed and color, we would find some other cause for prejudice by noon., George Aiken,
I once wanted to becom
I once wanted to become an atheist, but I gave up they have no holidays., Henny Youngman, US (Englishborn) comedian (1906 1998)
I take my wife everywh
I take my wife everywhere, but she keeps finding her way back., Henny Youngman, US (Englishborn) comedian (1906 1998)
If you are out to desc
If you are out to describe the truth, leave elegance to the tailor., Albert Einstein, US (Germanborn) physicist (1879 1955)
Morality is the greate
Morality is the greatest of all tools for leading mankind by the nose., Friedrich Nietzsche, German philosopher (1844 1900)
One day the years of s
One day the years of struggle will strike you as the most beautiful., Sigmond Freud,
Gold for friends, Lead
Gold for friends, Lead for foes., Anastasio Somoza García, Dictator of Nicaragua 19361956,
The best remedy for a
The best remedy for a bruised heart is not, as so many people seem to think, repose upon a manly bosom. Much more efficacious are honest work, physical activity, and sudden acquisition of wealth., Dorothy Sayers,
He had the entertainme
He had the entertainment of thinking that if he had for that moment stopped the clock it was to promote the next minute this still livelier motion., Henry James, The Ambassadors, Book Eighth, Chapter 2, British (US born) author (1843 1916)
Conformity is the ruin
Conformity is the ruin of the mind., Jesse Shelley,
A book is a mirror if
A book is a mirror if an ass peers into it, you can not expect an apostle to peer out., George Christoph Lichtenberg,
What is important is t
What is important is to keep learning, to enjoy challenge, and to tolerate ambiguity. In the end there are no certain answers., Martina Horner, President of Radcliffe College,
How to Raise your I.Q.
How to Raise your I.Q. by Eating Gifted Children, Lewis B. Frumkes, Book Title (1983),
At the bottom every ma
At the bottom every man knows well enough that he is a unique human being, only once on this earth and by no extraordinary chance will such a marvelously picturesque piece of diversity in unity as he is, ever be put together a second time., Friedrich Nietzsche, German philosopher (1844 1900)
She had fortunately al
She had fortunately always her appetite for news. The pure flame of the disinterested burned in her cave of treasures as a lamp in a Byzantine vault., Henry James, The Ambassadors, Book Ninth, Chapter 2, British (US born) author (1843 1916)
Never trust the artist
Never trust the artist. Trust the tale., D. H. Lawrence, Studies in Classic American Literature, English novelist (1885 1930)
"There are certainly m
"There are certainly moments," said Chad, when you seem to me too good to be true. Yet if you are true, he added, that seems to be all that need concern me., Henry James, The Ambassadors, Book Eleventh, Chapter 1, British (US born) author (1843 1916)
Splitting the atom is
Splitting the atom is like trying to shoot a gnat in the Albert Hall at night and using ten million rounds of ammunition on the off chance of getting it. That should convince you that the atom will always be a sink of energy and never a reservoir of energy., Ernest Rutheford,
It was the most incred
It was the most incredible thing that has ever happened to me in my life. It was as if you fired a 15inch shell at a piece of tissue paper and it came back and hit you., Ernest Rutheford,
It is said that power
It is said that power corrupts, but actually it’s more true that power attracts the corruptible. The sane are usually attracted by other things than power., David Brin, on power and corruption, US engineer and science fiction author (1950 )
Technology is the knac
Technology is the knack of so arranging the world that we do not experience it., Max Frisch,
Science knows no count
Science knows no country, because knowledge belongs to humanity, and is the torch which illuminates the world. Science is the highest personification of the nation because that nation will remain the first which carries the furthest the works of thought and intelligence., Louis Pasteur, French biologist bacteriologist (1822 1895)
Give me a place to sta
Give me a place to stand, and I will move the Earth., Archimedes, (ca. 235 BC), Greek inventor, mathematician, physicist (287 BC 212 BC)
Because the women are
Because the women are watching., T. E. Lawrence, ...when asked, Why do men go to war?,
Darkness cannot drive
Darkness cannot drive out darkness only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate only love can do that., Martin Luther King Jr., US black civil rights leader clergyman (1929 1968)
A little learning is a
A little learning is a dangerous thing drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring: there shallow draughts intoxicate the brain, and drinking largely sobers us again., Alexander Pope, An essay on Criticism, English poet satirist (1688 1744)
It struck him really t
It struck him really that he had never so lived with her as during this period of her silence the silence was a sacred hush, a finer clearer medium, in which her idiosyncrasies showed., Henry James, The Ambassadors, Book Seventh, Chapter 3, British (US born) author (1843 1916)
I feel how little she
I feel how little she can like being told of her owing me anything. No woman ever enjoys such an obligation to another woman., Henry James, The Ambassadors, Book Seventh, Chapter 2, British (US born) author (1843 1916)
Our critics are our fr
Our critics are our friends they show us our faults., Benjamin Franklin, US author, diplomat, inventor, physicist, politician, printer (1706 1790)
Fight for your opinion
Fight for your opinions, but do not believe that they contain the whole truth, or the only truth., Charles A. Dana, US newspaper editor (1819 1897)
Friendships that have
Friendships that have stood the test of time and change are surely best., Joseph Parry,
Wear a smile and have
Wear a smile and have friends, wear a scowl and have wrinkles., George Eliot, English novelist (1819 1880)
It is the simple thing
It is the simple things in life that make living worthwhile sweet fundamental things such as love., Laura Ingalls Wilder,
His honour rooted in d
His honour rooted in dishonour stood, And faith unfaithful kept him falsely true., Lord Alfred Tennyson,
Sin has many tools, bu
Sin has many tools, but a lie is the handle that fits them all., Oliver Wendell Holmes, The autocrat of the breakfasttable,
You can judge the char
You can judge the character of others by how they treat those who can do nothing to them or for them., Malcolm Forbes, US art collector, author, publisher (1919 1990)
Look at all the senten
Look at all the sentences which seem true and question them., David Reisman,
The gods never let us
The gods never let us love and be wise at the same time., Publilius Syrus, (~100 BC)
We shall defend our is
We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills we shall never surrender., Sir Winston Churchill, British politician (1874 1965)
Whether you believe yo
Whether you believe you can do a thing or not, you are right., Henry Ford, US automobile industrialist (1863 1947)
It is one of the great
It is one of the great secrets of life that those things which are most worth doing, we do for others., Lewis Carroll, English author recreational mathematician (1832 1898)
The poor complain that
The poor complain that they are governed badly. The rich complain that they are governed at all., G. K. Chesterton, English author mystery novelist (1874 1936)
Millions of men have l
Millions of men have lived to fight, build palaces and boundaries, shape destinies and societies but the compelling force of all times has been the force of originality and creation profoundly affecting the roots of human spirit., Ansel Adams, US nature photographer (1902 1984)
Education is a compani
Education is a companion which no misfortune can depress, no crime can destroy, no enemy can alienate,no despotism can enslave. At home, a friend, abroad, an introduction, in solitude a solace and in society an ornament.It chastens vice, it guides virtue, it gives at once grace and government to genius. Without it, what is man? A splendid slave, a reasoning savage., Joseph Addison, English essayist, poet, politician (1672 1719)
Books are the legacies
Books are the legacies that a great genius leaves to mankind, which are delivered down from generation to generation as presents to the posterity of those who are yet unborn., Joseph Addison, English essayist, poet, politician (1672 1719)
The world is too much
The world is too much with us late and soon, Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers: Little we see in Nature that is ours We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!, William Wordsworth, The World is Too Much With Us, English poet (1770 1850)
When in doubt, tell th
When in doubt, tell the truth., Mark Twain, US humorist, novelist, short story author, wit (1835 1910)
Whenever a separation
Whenever a separation is made between liberty and justice, neither, in my opinion, is safe., Edmund Burke, Irish orator, philosopher, politician (1729 1797)
To me the meanest flow
To me the meanest flower that blows can give Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears., William Wordsworth, Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood, 1803, English poet (1770 1850)
No other job in the wo
No other job in the world could possibly dispossess one so completely as this job of teaching. You could stand all day in a laundry, for instance, still in possession of your mind. But this teaching utterly obliterates you. It cuts right into your being: essentially, it takes over your spirit. It drags it out from where it would hide., Sylvia AshtonWarner, Spinster,
Through me you pass in
Through me you pass into the city of woe: Through me you pass into eternal pain: Through me among the people lost for aye. Justice the founder of my fabric moved: To rear me was the task of power divine, Supremest wisdom, and primeval love. Before me things create were none, save things Eternal, and eternal I shall endure. All hope abandon, ye who enter here., Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy, Italian national epic poet (1265 1321)
Avarice, envy, pride,
Avarice, envy, pride, Three fatal sparks, have set the hearts of all On Fire., Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy, Italian national epic poet (1265 1321)
When I find myself in
When I find myself in the company of scientists, I feel like a shabby curate who has strayed by mistake into a room full of dukes., W. H. Auden, US (Englishborn) critic poet (1907 1973)
Somewhere, something i
Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known., Carl Sagan, US astronomer popularizer of astronomy (1934 1996)
A bookstore is one of
A bookstore is one of the only pieces of evidence we have that people are still thinking., Jerry Seinfeld, US comedian television actor (1954 )
The problem is not tha
The problem is not that there are problems. The problem is expecting otherwise and thinking that having problems is a problem., Theodore Rubin,
One should never direc
One should never direct people towards happiness, because happiness too is an idol of the marketplace. One should direct them towards mutual affection. A beast gnawing at its prey can be happy too, but only human beings can feel affection for each other, and this is the highest achievement they can aspire to., Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn,
I hope I never get so
I hope I never get so old I get religious., Ingmar Bergman,
Life is sobs, sniffles
Life is sobs, sniffles, and smiles, with sniffles predominating., O. Henry, Gift of the Magi, 1906, US short story author (1862 1910)
You may be deceived if
You may be deceived if you trust too much, but you will live in torment if you do not trust enough., Frank Crane,
A straw vote only show
A straw vote only shows which way the hot air blows., O. Henry, A Ruler of Men., US short story author (1862 1910)
We are wise when we le
We are wise when we learn from one another. We are strong when we contain our impulses. We are honored when we honor others., Rabbi Mark David Finkel, Gov. Craig Benson Inaugural Speech, January 9 2003,
Be not simply good be
Be not simply good be good for something., Henry David Thoreau, US Transcendentalist author (1817 1862)
Gravity is a habit tha
Gravity is a habit that is hard to shake off., Terry Pratchett, Small Gods (1992),
Everyone dies. Not eve
Everyone dies. Not everyone really lives., William Wallace, Braveheart,
The beauty of religiou
The beauty of religious mania is that it has the power to explain everything. Once God (or Satan) is accepted as the first cause of everything which happens in the mortal world, nothing is left to chance...logic can be happily tossed out the window., Stephen King, US horror novelist screenwriter (1947 )
Never let a stain from
Never let a stain from the past put a mark on your future., Jillian Graham, Chicken Soup for the Preteen Soul,
It is better to be a l
It is better to be a lion for a day than a sheep for your whole life., Elizabeth Henry,
The chief lesson I hav
The chief lesson I have learned in a long life is that the only way to make a man trustworthy is to trust him and the surest way to make him untrustworthy is to distrust him and show your distrust., Henry L. Stimson, US politician (1867 1950)
I have always been imp
I have always been impressed by the fact that there are a surprising number of individuals who never use their minds if they can avoid it, and an equal number who do use their minds, but in an amazingly stupid way., Carl Jung, Swiss psychologist (1875 1961)
Common sense and sense
Common sense and sense of humor are the same thing moving at different speeds. A sense of humor is just common sense, dancing., Clive Jones,
Thanks to his constant
Thanks to his constant habit of shaking the bottle in which life handed him the wine of experience, he presently found the taste of the lees rising as usual into his draught., Henry James, The Ambassadors, Book Fourth, Chapter 2, British (US born) author (1843 1916)
People can be in gener
People can be in general pretty well trusted, of coursewith the clock of their freedom ticking as loud as it seems to do hereto keep an eye on the fleeting hour., Henry James, The Ambassadors, Book Fifth, Chapter 2, British (US born) author (1843 1916)
God is really only ano
God is really only another artist, he made the elephat, giraffe and cat. He has no real style but keeps trying new ideas., Pablo Picasso, Spanish Cubist painter (1881 1973)
The weak ones are ther
The weak ones are there to justify the strong., Marilyn Manson,
Old houses mended, Cos
Old houses mended, Cost little less than new before they ’re ended., Colley Cibber, The Double Gallant, Prologue, English actor dramatist (1671 1757)
Money is a terrible ma
Money is a terrible master but an excellent servant., P. T. Barnum,
Safeguard the health b
Safeguard the health both of body and soul., Cleobulus, {One of the 7 Greek Sages},
The basic test of free
The basic test of freedom is perhaps less in what we are free to do than in what we are free not to do., Eric Hoffer, (1902 1983)
People unfit for freed
People unfit for freedom who cannot do much with it are hungry for power. The desire for freedom is an attribute of a have type of self. It says: leave me alone and I shall grow, learn, and realize my capacities. The desire for power is basically an attribute of a have not type of self., Eric Hoffer, (1902 1983)
The opposite of the re
The opposite of the religious fanatic is not the fanatical atheist but the gentle cynic who cares not whether there is a god or not., Eric Hoffer, (1902 1983)
Passionate hatred can
Passionate hatred can give meaning and purpose to an empty life. Thus people haunted by the purposelessness of their lives try to find a new content not only by dedicating themselves to a holy cause but also by nursing a fanatical grievance. A mass movement offers them unlimited opportunities for both., Eric Hoffer, (1902 1983)
The remarkable thing i
The remarkable thing is that we really love our neighbors as ourselves: we do unto others as we do unto ourselves. We hate others when we hate ourselves. We are tolerant of others when we tolerate ourselves. We forgive others when we forgive ourselves. We are prone to sacrifice others when we are ready to sacrifice ourselves., Eric Hoffer, (1902 1983)
The uncompromising att
The uncompromising attitude is more indicative of an inner uncertainty than a deep conviction. The implacable stand is directed more against the doubt within than the assailant without., Eric Hoffer, (1902 1983)
No one is truly litera
No one is truly literate who cannot read his own heart., Eric Hoffer, (1902 1983)
To most of us nothing
To most of us nothing is so invisible as an unpleasant truth. Though it is held before our eyes, pushed under our noses, rammed down our throats we know it not., Eric Hoffer, (1902 1983)
People who bite the ha
People who bite the hand that feeds them usually lick the boot that kicks them., Eric Hoffer, (1902 1983)
The wise learn from th
The wise learn from the experience of others, and the creative know how to make a crumb of experience go a long way., Eric Hoffer, (1902 1983)
Travel only with thy e
Travel only with thy equals or thy betters if there are none, travel alone., The Dhammapada,
How can I believe in G
How can I believe in God when just last week I got my tongue caught in the roller of an electric typewriter?, Woody Allen, US movie actor, comedian, director (1935 )
There are two kinds of
There are two kinds of people, those who finish what they start and so on., Robert Byrne,
As far as the laws of
As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain and as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality., Albert Einstein, US (Germanborn) physicist (1879 1955)
Propaganda does not de
Propaganda does not deceive people it merely helps them to deceive themselves., Eric Hoffer, (1902 1983)
All leaders strive to
All leaders strive to turn their followers into children., Eric Hoffer, (1902 1983)
The most gifted member
The most gifted members of the human species are at their creative best when they cannot have their way, and must compensate for what they miss by realizing and cultivating their capacities and talents., Eric Hoffer, (1902 1983)
We have rudiments of r
We have rudiments of reverence for the human body, but we consider as nothing the rape of the human mind., Eric Hoffer, (1902 1983)
The Greeks invented lo
The Greeks invented logic but were not fooled by it., Eric Hoffer, (1902 1983)
A patriot must always
A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government., Edward Abbey, US radical environmentalist (1927 1989)
We often use strong la
We often use strong language not to express a powerful emotion but to evoke it in us., Eric Hoffer, (1902 1983)
Good people do not nee
Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws., Plato, Greek author philosopher in Athens (427 BC 347 BC)
Hierarchical instituti
Hierarchical institutions are like giant bulldozers obedient to the whim of any fool who takes the controls., Edward Abbey, US radical environmentalist (1927 1989)
Better a cruel truth t
Better a cruel truth than a comfortable delusion., Edward Abbey, US radical environmentalist (1927 1989)
When you travel, remem
When you travel, remember that a foreign country is not designed to make you comfortable. It is designed to make its own people comfortable., Clifton Fadiman, US author, editor, radio host (1904 )
Nothing in the affairs
Nothing in the affairs of men is worthy of great anxiety., Plato, Greek author philosopher in Athens (427 BC 347 BC)
Science is nothing but
Science is nothing but perception., Plato, Greek author philosopher in Athens (427 BC 347 BC)
Those who are too smar
Those who are too smart to engage in politics are punished by being governed by those who are dumber., Plato, Greek author philosopher in Athens (427 BC 347 BC)
Both oligarch and tyra
Both oligarch and tyrant mistrust the people, and therefore deprive them of their arms., Aristotle, Greek critic, philosopher, physicist, zoologist (384 BC 322 BC)
The greatest and most
The greatest and most important problems of life are all fundamentally insoluble. They can never be solved but only outgrown., Carl Jung, Swiss psychologist (1875 1961)
Great talents are the
Great talents are the most lovely and often the most dangerous fruits on the tree of humanity. They hang upon the most slender twigs that are easily snapped off., Carl Jung, Swiss psychologist (1875 1961)
Nobody, as long as he
Nobody, as long as he moves about among the chaotic currents of life, is without trouble., Carl Jung, Swiss psychologist (1875 1961)
Knowledge rests not up
Knowledge rests not upon truth alone, but upon error also., Carl Jung, Swiss psychologist (1875 1961)
The word happiness wou
The word happiness would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness., Carl Jung, Swiss psychologist (1875 1961)
Every form of addictio
Every form of addiction is bad, no matter whether the narcotic be alcohol or morphine or idealism., Carl Jung, Swiss psychologist (1875 1961)
He who would travel ha
He who would travel happily must travel light., Antoine de SaintExupery, French writer (1900 1944)
All men are by nature
All men are by nature equal, made all of the same earth by one Workman and however we deceive ourselves, as dear unto God is the poor peasant as the mighty prince., Plato, Greek author philosopher in Athens (427 BC 347 BC)
Courage is knowing wha
Courage is knowing what not to fear., Plato, Greek author philosopher in Athens (427 BC 347 BC)
When men speak ill of
When men speak ill of thee, live so as nobody may believe them., Plato, Greek author philosopher in Athens (427 BC 347 BC)
Honesty is for the mos
Honesty is for the most part, less profitable than dishonesty., Plato, Greek author philosopher in Athens (427 BC 347 BC)
Own only what you can
Own only what you can carry with you know language, know countries, know people. Let your memory be your travel bag., Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Russian author dissident in US (1918 )
Nature does nothing us
Nature does nothing uselessly., Aristotle, Greek critic, philosopher, physicist, zoologist (384 BC 322 BC)
There was never a geni
There was never a genius without a tincture of madness., Aristotle, Greek critic, philosopher, physicist, zoologist (384 BC 322 BC)
Youth is easily deceiv
Youth is easily deceived because it is quick to hope., Aristotle, Greek critic, philosopher, physicist, zoologist (384 BC 322 BC)
Wit is educated insole
Wit is educated insolence., Aristotle, Greek critic, philosopher, physicist, zoologist (384 BC 322 BC)
Dignity does not consi
Dignity does not consist in possessing honors, but in deserving them., Aristotle, Greek critic, philosopher, physicist, zoologist (384 BC 322 BC)
The aim of art is to r
The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance., Aristotle, Greek critic, philosopher, physicist, zoologist (384 BC 322 BC)
Be civil to all sociab
Be civil to all sociable to many familiar with few friend to one enemy to none., Benjamin Franklin, US author, diplomat, inventor, physicist, politician, printer (1706 1790)
The strictest law some
The strictest law sometimes becomes the severest injustice., Benjamin Franklin, US author, diplomat, inventor, physicist, politician, printer (1706 1790)
The absent are never w
The absent are never without fault, nor the present without excuse., Benjamin Franklin, US author, diplomat, inventor, physicist, politician, printer (1706 1790)
Roam abroad in the wor
Roam abroad in the world, and take thy fill of its enjoyments before the day shall come when thou must quit it for good., Saadi, Persian poet (1184 1291)
He who is unable to li
He who is unable to live in society, or who has no need because he is sufficient for himself, must be either a beast or a god., Aristotle, Greek critic, philosopher, physicist, zoologist (384 BC 322 BC)
Distrust and caution a
Distrust and caution are the parents of security., Benjamin Franklin, US author, diplomat, inventor, physicist, politician, printer (1706 1790)
Three can keep a secre
Three can keep a secret, if two of them are dead., Benjamin Franklin, US author, diplomat, inventor, physicist, politician, printer (1706 1790)
Write injuries in dust
Write injuries in dust, benefits in marble., Benjamin Franklin, US author, diplomat, inventor, physicist, politician, printer (1706 1790)
It is easier to preven
It is easier to prevent bad habits than to break them., Benjamin Franklin, US author, diplomat, inventor, physicist, politician, printer (1706 1790)
To follow by faith alo
To follow by faith alone is to follow blindly., Benjamin Franklin, US author, diplomat, inventor, physicist, politician, printer (1706 1790)
Laws too gentle are se
Laws too gentle are seldom obeyed too severe, seldom executed., Benjamin Franklin, US author, diplomat, inventor, physicist, politician, printer (1706 1790)
He that has done you a
He that has done you a kindness will be more ready to do you another, than he whom you yourself have obliged., Benjamin Franklin, US author, diplomat, inventor, physicist, politician, printer (1706 1790)
Think of how many reli
Think of how many religions attempt to validate themselves with prophecy. Think of how many people rely on these prophecies, however vague, however unfulfilled, to support or prop up their beliefs. Yet has there ever been a religion with the prophetic accuracy and reliability of science?, Carl Sagan, US astronomer popularizer of astronomy (1934 1996)
We live in a time of t
We live in a time of transition, an uneasy era which is likely to endure for the rest of this century. During the period we may be tempted to abandon some of the timehonored principles and commitments which have been proven during the difficult times of past generations. We must never yield to this temptation. Our American values are not luxuries, but necessities not the salt in our bread, but the bread itself., Jimmy Carter, in his farewell address, US diplomat Democratic politician (1924 )
Lost time is never fou
Lost time is never found again., Benjamin Franklin, US author, diplomat, inventor, physicist, politician, printer (1706 1790)
Personally, I would be
Personally, I would be delighted if there were a life after death, especially if it permitted me to continue to learn about this world and others, if it gave me a chance to discover how history turns out., Carl Sagan, US astronomer popularizer of astronomy (1934 1996)
If we long to believe
If we long to believe that the stars rise and set for us, that we are the reason there is a Universe, does science do us a disservice in deflating our conceits?, Carl Sagan, US astronomer popularizer of astronomy (1934 1996)
The universe seems nei
The universe seems neither benign nor hostile, merely indifferent., Carl Sagan, US astronomer popularizer of astronomy (1934 1996)
Men seldom make passes
Men seldom make passes At girls who wear glasses., Dorothy Parker, Not So Deep as a Well (1937), News Item, US author, humorist, poet, wit (1893 1967)
The desire to take med
The desire to take medicine is perhaps the greatest feature which distinguishes man from animals., Sir William Osler, In H. Cushing, Life of Sir William Osler (1925), British (Canadianborn) physician (1849 1919)
Avoiding danger is no
Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. The fearful are caught as often as the bold., Helen Keller, US blind deaf educator (1880 1968)
To live is so startlin
To live is so startling it leaves little time for anything else., Emily Dickinson, US poet (1830 1886)
When we conquer withou
When we conquer without danger our triumph is without glory., Pierre Corneille, Le Cid (1637), French dramatist (1606 1684)
Be not so bigoted to a
Be not so bigoted to any custom as to worship it at the expense of truth., Johann Georg von Zimmermann,
As soon as there is li
As soon as there is life there is danger., Ralph Waldo Emerson, Society and Solitude (1870), US essayist poet (1803 1882)
When you have told any
When you have told anyone you have left him a legacy the only decent thing to do is to die at once., Samuel Butler, In Festing Jones, Samuel Butler : A Memoir, English composer, novelist, satiric author (1835 1902)
One does not learn how
One does not learn how to die by killing others., Vicomte de Chateaubriand, Memoirs (18261841), French author politician (1768 1848)
Death hath so many doo
Death hath so many doors to let out life., John Fletcher, The Custom of the Country (1647), English dramatist (1579 1625)
Grieve not that I die
Grieve not that I die young. Is it not well To pass away ere life hath lost its brightness?, Lady Flora Hastings, “Swan Song”,
Death … It’s the o
Death … It’s the only thing we haven’t succeeded in completely vulgarizing., Aldous Huxley, Eyeless in Gaza (1936), English critic novelist (1894 1963)
Death is the only gram
Death is the only grammatically correct full stop…, Brian Patten, Schoolboy (1990),
One dies only once, an
One dies only once, and then for such a long time!, Moličre, Le Dépit Amoureux (1656), French actor comic dramatist (1622 1673)
Be entirely tolerant o
Be entirely tolerant or not at all follow the good path or the evil one. To stand at the crossroads requires more strength than you possess., Heinrich Heine, German critic poet (1797 1856)
And come he slow, or c
And come he slow, or come he fast, It is but death who comes at last., Sir Walter Scott, Marmion (1808), Scottish author novelist (1771 1832)
Death is not the worst
Death is not the worst thing rather, when one who craves death cannot attain even that wish., Sophocles, Electra, Greek tragic dramatist (496 BC 406 BC)
I have never killed a
I have never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with a lot of pleasure., Clarence Darrow, Medley, US defense lawyer (1857 1938)
It matters not how a m
It matters not how a man dies, but how he lives. The act of dying is not of importance, it lasts so short a time., Samuel Johnson, Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), English author, critic, lexicographer (1709 1784)
I cannot forgive my fr
I cannot forgive my friends for dying I do not find these vanishing acts of theirs at all amusing., Logan Pearsall Smith, Afterthoughts 1931 Age and Death, (1865 1946)
Creditors have better
Creditors have better memories than debtors., Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard’s Almanac (1758), US author, diplomat, inventor, physicist, politician, printer (1706 1790)
There is a great deal
There is a great deal of wishful thinking in such cases it is the easiest thing of all to deceive one’s self., Demosthenes, Olynthiac, Greek orator politician in Athens (384 BC 322 BC)
False face must hide w
False face must hide what the false heart doth know., William Shakespeare, Macbeth, I.vii, Greatest English dramatist poet (1564 1616)
Those who restrain des
Those who restrain desire, do so because theirs is weak enough to be restrained., William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (c. 17901793), English engraver, illustrator, poet (1757 1827)
Give to every other hu
Give to every other human being every right that you claim for yourself., Robert Ingersoll, US agnostic, agnostic apologist, lawyer, orator (1833 1899)
Desire makes everythin
Desire makes everything blossom possession makes everything wither and fade., Marcel Proust, Les Plaisirs et les Jours (1896), French novelist (1871 1922)
He who despairs over a
He who despairs over an event is a coward, but he who holds hope for the human condition is a fool., Albert Camus, The Rebel (1951), French existentialist author philosopher (1913 1960)
Despair is the price o
Despair is the price one pays for setting oneself an impossible aim., Graham Greene, Heart of the Matter (1948),
I shall despair. There
I shall despair. There is no creature loves me And if I die no soul will pity me: And wherefore should they, since that I myself Find in myself no pity to myself?, William Shakespeare, Richard III, V.iii, Greatest English dramatist poet (1564 1616)
Nothing happens to any
Nothing happens to any thing which that thing is not made by nature to bear., Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, Meditations, Roman Emperor, A.D. 161180 (121 AD 180 AD)
We have to believe in
We have to believe in free will. We’ve got no choice., Isaac Bashevis Singer, The Times (1982), US (Polishborn) Jewish author (1904 1991)
The bitterest tragic e
The bitterest tragic element in life to be derived from an intellectual source is the belief in a brute Fate or Destiny., Ralph Waldo Emerson, Natural History of Intellect (1893), US essayist poet (1803 1882)
An apology for the dev
An apology for the devil: it must be remembered that we have heard only one side of the case God has written all the books., Samuel Butler, The NoteBooks of Samuel Butler (1912), English composer, novelist, satiric author (1835 1902)
But I’m not so think
But I’m not so think as you drunk I am., Sir J.C. Squire, Ballade of Soporific Absorption,
Nothing is so good as
Nothing is so good as it seems beforehand., George Eliot, Silas Marner (1861), English novelist (1819 1880)
The greatest way to li
The greatest way to live with honor in this world is to be what we pretend to be., Socrates, Greek philosopher in Athens (469 BC 399 BC)
It is not enough to be
It is not enough to be good if you have the ability to be better., Alberta Lee Cox,
We still do not know o
We still do not know onethousandth of one percent of what nature has revealed to us., Albert Einstein, US (Germanborn) physicist (1879 1955)
A promise made is a de
A promise made is a debt unpaid., Robert W. Service,
Better keep yourself c
Better keep yourself clean and bright you are the window through which you must see the world., George Bernard Shaw, Irish dramatist socialist (1856 1950)
Never grow a wishbone
Never grow a wishbone where your backbone ought to be., Clementine Paddleford,
Charm is the quality i
Charm is the quality in others that makes us more satisfied with ourselves., HenriFrédéric Amiel,
History will be kind t
History will be kind to me for I intend to write it., Sir Winston Churchill, British politician (1874 1965)
Tact is the knack of m
Tact is the knack of making a point without making an enemy., Isaac Newton, English mathematician physicist (1642 1727)
How vain it is to sit
How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live., Henry David Thoreau, US Transcendentalist author (1817 1862)
There is nothing more
There is nothing more dreadful than imagination without taste., Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, German dramatist, novelist, poet, scientist (1749 1832)
At least half the myst
At least half the mystery novels published violate the law that the solution, once revealed, must seem to be inevitable., Raymond Chandler, US detective novelist screenwriter (1888 1959)
Perpetual devotion to
Perpetual devotion to what a man calls his business, is only to be sustained by perpetual neglect of many other things., Robert Louis Stevenson, Scottish author (1850 1894)
Look wise, say nothing
Look wise, say nothing, and grunt. Speech was given to conceal thought., Sir William Osler, British (Canadianborn) physician (1849 1919)
Men of genius do not e
Men of genius do not excel in any profession because they labor in it, but they labor in it because they excel., William Hazlitt, English essayist (1778 1830)
My pessimism extends t
My pessimism extends to the point of even suspecting the sincerity of the pessimists., Jean Rostand, Journal of a Character, 1931, (1894 1977)
The price one pays for
The price one pays for pursuing any profession or calling is an intimate knowledge of its ugly side., James Baldwin, US author (1924 1987)
About the most origina
About the most originality that any writer can hope to achieve honestly is to steal with good judgment., Josh Billings, US Humorist (1818 1885)
Time is the coin of yo
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, US biographer poet (1878 1967)
When two men in busine
When two men in business always agree, one of them is unnecessary., William Wrigley Jr., US chewing gum industrialist (1861 1932)
Devotees of grammatica
Devotees of grammatical studies have not been distinguished for any very remarkable felicities of expression., Amos Bronson Alcott, US educator Transcendentalist (1799 1888)
Most people have seen
Most people have seen worse things in private than they pretend to be shocked at in public., Edgar Watson Howe, US journalist (1853 1937)
Violence is the last r
Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent., Isaac Asimov, Salvor Hardin in Foundation, US science fiction novelist scholar (1920 1992)
Marriage is the only a
Marriage is the only adventure open to the cowardly., Voltaire, French author, humanist, rationalist, satirist (1694 1778)
Experience is a hard t
Experience is a hard teacher becuase she gives the tests first, the lessons afterwards., Vernon Suanders Law, Chicken Soup for the Teenage soul: Tough Stuff,
Always aim at complete
Always aim at complete harmony of thought and word and deed. Always aim at purifying your thoughts and everything will be well., Mahatma Gandhi, Indian ascetic nationalist leader (1869 1948)
Curiosity is the key t
Curiosity is the key to creativity., Akio Morita, Made in Japan (1986), Japanese electronics industrialist (1921 )
We need never be asham
We need never be ashamed of our tears., Charles Dickens, Great Expectations, English novelist (1812 1870)
Cruelty is like hope:
Cruelty is like hope: it springs eternal., Dr. Anthony Daniels, The Observer (1998),
Kill one man, and you
Kill one man, and you are a murderer. Kill millions of men, and you are a conqueror. Kill them all, and you are a god., Jean Rostand, Thoughts of a Biologist (1939), (1894 1977)
Crime is naught but mi
Crime is naught but misdirected energy., Emma Goldman, Anarchism (1910), US (Lithuanianborn) anarchist (1869 1940)
Punishment is not for
Punishment is not for revenge, but to lessen crime and reform the criminal., Elizabeth Fry, Journal entry,
Nurture your mind with
Nurture your mind with great thoughts to believe in the heroic makes heroes., Benjamin Disraeli, British politician (1804 1881)
He that first cries ou
He that first cries out stop thief, is often he that has stolen the treasure., William Congreve, Love for Love (1695), English dramatist (1670 1729)
Cowardly dogs bark lou
Cowardly dogs bark loudest., John Webster, The White Devil (1612), English dramatist (1580 1625)
Courage mounteth with
Courage mounteth with occasion., William Shakespeare, King John, II.i, Greatest English dramatist poet (1564 1616)
The important thing wh
The important thing when you are going to do something brave is to have someone on hand to witness it., Michael Howard, The Observer (1980),
I count him braver who
I count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who overcomes his enemies., Aristotle, In Stobaeus, Florilegium, Greek critic, philosopher, physicist, zoologist (384 BC 322 BC)
Speech is human, silen
Speech is human, silence is divine, yet also brutish and dead: therefore we must learn both arts., Thomas Carlyle, Scottish author, essayist, historian (1795 1881)
Dive into the sea of t
Dive into the sea of thought, and find there pearls beyond price., Moses Ibn Ezra, Shirat Yisrael,
Why is it drug addicts
Why is it drug addicts and computer afficionados are both called users?, Clifford Stoll,
Compassion and love ar
Compassion and love are not mere luxuries. As the source of both inner and external peace, they are fundamental to the continued survival of our species., Dalai Lama, The Times (1999),
The best coffee in Eur
The best coffee in Europe is Vienna coffee, compared to which all other coffee is fluid poverty., Mark Twain, Greatly Exaggerated, US humorist, novelist, short story author, wit (1835 1910)
Disinterested intellec
Disinterested intellectual curiosity is the life blood of real civilization., G. M. Trevelyan, English Social History (1942), British historian (1876 1962)
It is so stupid of mod
It is so stupid of modern civilization to have given up believing in the devil when he is the only explanation of it., Ronald Knox,
The more rapidly a civ
The more rapidly a civilization progresses, the sooner it dies for another to rise in its place., Havelock Ellis, The Dance of Life, English sexual psychologist (1859 1939)
Civilization degrades
Civilization degrades the many to exalt the few., Amos Bronson Alcott, Table Talk (1877), US educator Transcendentalist (1799 1888)
Think like a man of ac
Think like a man of action, act like a man of thought., Henri Bergson, French author, mystic, philosopher (1859 1941)
Civilization is a meth
Civilization is a method of living, an attitude of equal respect for all men., Jane Addams, Speech, Honolulu (1933), US social worker, sociologist, suffragist (1860 1935)
A wide screen just mak
A wide screen just makes a bad film twice as bad., Samuel Goldwyn, US (Polishborn) movie producer (1882 1974)
Once there was The Peo
Once there was The People Terror gave it birth Once there was The People, and it made a hell of earth! Earth arose and crushed it. Listen, oh, ye slain! Once there was The People it shall never be again!, Rudyard Kipling, As Easy as A.B.C. (1917), British (Indianborn) author (1865 1936)
A positive attitude ma
A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort., Herm Albright, (1876 1944)
Let no man imagine tha
Let no man imagine that he has no influence. Whoever he may be, and wherever he may be placed, the man who thinks becomes a light and a power., Henry George, US economist (1839 1897)
Every woman knows all
Every woman knows all about everything., Rudyard Kipling, The Eye of Allah (1926), British (Indianborn) author (1865 1936)
Funny how the new thin
Funny how the new things are the old things., Rudyard Kipling, With the Night Mail (1909), British (Indianborn) author (1865 1936)
Curiosity was a form o
Curiosity was a form of lust, a wandering cupidity of the eye and the mind., John Crowley, Of Marvels And Monsters, Washington Post, October 18 1998,
Audacious ribald: your
Audacious ribald: your laughter will finish in hideous boredom before morning., George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman, Irish dramatist socialist (1856 1950)
If you would not be fo
If you would not be forgotten as soon as you are dead, either write things worth reading, or do things worth writing., Benjamin Franklin, US author, diplomat, inventor, physicist, politician, printer (1706 1790)
The invariable mark of
The invariable mark of wisdom is to see the miraculous in the ordinary., Ralph Waldo Emerson, US essayist poet (1803 1882)
It is the excitement o
It is the excitement of becoming always becoming, trying, probing, falling, resting, and trying again but always trying and always gaining..., Lyndon B. Johnson, Inaugural Adress, January 20 1965, 36th president of US (1908 1973)
All great lovers are a
All great lovers are articulate, and verbal seduction is the surest road to actual seduction., Marya Mannes, The Quotable Woman...on Love Relationships,
How terrible it is to
How terrible it is to have wisdom when it does not benefit those who have it., Sophocles, Tiresias. Oedipus the King 315, Greek tragic dramatist (496 BC 406 BC)
We are all Greeks. Our
We are all Greeks. Our laws, our literature, our religion, our arts, have their root in Greece., Percy Bysshe Shelley,
What is a seer? A man
What is a seer? A man who with luck tells the truth sometimes, with frequent falsehoods, but when his luck deserts him, collapses then and there., Achilles, Euripides, Iphigenia in Aulis 955,
Of ten parts a man enj
Of ten parts a man enjoys one only, but a woman enjoys the full ten parts in her heart., Tiresias, [Apollodorus, Library 3.6.7],
Real, constructive men
Real, constructive mental power lies in the creative thought that shapes your destiny, and your hourbyhour mental conduct produces power for change in your life. Develop a train of thought on which to ride. The nobility of your life as well as your happiness depends upon the direction in which that train of thought is going., Laurence J. Peter, US educator writer (1919 1988)
Faith, Hope, and Love
Faith, Hope, and Love remanined. And the greatest of these is Love., 1 Corinthians 13:00,00 1 Corinthians 13:13,
Life is simply the pur
Life is simply the pursuit of something worth dying for., David Van Boom,
The only thing worse t
The only thing worse than a battle lost is a battle won., Arthur Wellesley, Aftermath of the Battle of Waterloo, 1815., British general politician (1769 1852)
If you judge people, y
If you judge people, you have no time to love them., Mother Teresa, Indian humanitarian missionary (1910 1997)
Ten thousand fools pro
Ten thousand fools proclaim themselves into obscurity, while one wise man forgets himself into immortality., Martin Luther King Jr., US black civil rights leader clergyman (1929 1968)
He who neglects to dri
He who neglects to drink from the spring of experience is likely to die of thirst in the desert of ignorance., Ling Po, (Chinese, 701762),
To be an adult is to b
To be an adult is to be alone., Jean Rostand, Thoughts of a biologist (1939), (1894 1977)
You know, of course, t
You know, of course, that the Tasmanians, who never committed adultery, are now extinct., William Somerset Maugham, The BreadWinner,
Better shun the bait,
Better shun the bait, than struggle in the snare., John Dryden, English dramatist poet (1631 1700)
Being another characte
Being another character is more interesting than being yourself., Sir John Gielgud,
To ask advice is in ni
To ask advice is in nine cases out of ten to tout for flattery., John Churton Collins,
Adventure must be held
Adventure must be held in delicate fingers. It should be handled, not embraced. It should be sipped, not swallowed at a gulp., Ashley Dukes, The Man with a Load of Mischief (1924),
I hate middle age. Too
I hate middle age. Too young for the bowling green, too old for Ecstasy., Ian Pattison, Rab C. Nesbitt, television series,
We rarely think people
We rarely think people have good sense unless they agree with us., Francois de La Rochefoucauld, Maximes (1678), French author moralist (1613 1680)
Work while you have th
Work while you have the light. You are responsible for the talent that has been entrusted to you., HenriFrédéric Amiel,
History teaches us tha
History teaches us that men and nations behave wisely once they have exhausted all other alternatives., Abba Eban, Israeli (S. Africanborn) diplomat politician (1915 2002)
The angry man always t
The angry man always thinks he can do more than he can., Albertano of Brescia, Liber Consolationis,
Animals are always loy
Animals are always loyal and love you, whereas with children you never know where you are., Christina Foyle, The Times (1993),
Beware the fury of a p
Beware the fury of a patient man., John Dryden, Absalom and Achitophel (1681), English dramatist poet (1631 1700)
It is a good rule in l
It is a good rule in life never to apologize. The right sort of people do not want apologies, and the wrong sort take a mean advantage of them., P. G. Wodehouse, The Man Upstairs (1914), British humorist novelist in US (1881 1975)
Arguments out of a pre
Arguments out of a pretty mouth are unanswerable., Joseph Addison, Women and Liberty, English essayist, poet, politician (1672 1719)
The Lord prefers commo
The Lord prefers commonlooking people. That is why he makes so many of them., Abraham Lincoln, 16th president of US (1809 1865)
It takes in reality on
It takes in reality only one to make a quarrel. It is useless for the sheep to pass resolutions in favour of vegetarianism while the wolf remains of a different opinion., William Ralph Inge, Outspoken Essays (1919), English author Anglican prelate (1860 1954)
To the accountants, a
To the accountants, a true work of art is an investment that hangs on the wall., Hilary Alexander, Sunday Telegraph (1993),
I say that good painte
I say that good painters imitated nature but that bad ones vomited it., Miguel de Cervantes, Exemplary Novels (1613), Spanish adventurer, author, poet (1547 1616)
Put yourself on view.
Put yourself on view. This brings your talents to light., Baltasar Gracian,
Outside every fat man
Outside every fat man there was an even fatter man trying to close in., Kingsley Amis, One Fat Englishman (1963), English author humorist (1922 )
Beauty is handed out a
Beauty is handed out as undemocratically as inherited peerages, and beautiful people have done nothing to deserve their astonishing reward., John Mortimer, The Observer (1999),
The absence of flaw in
The absence of flaw in beauty is itself a flaw., Havelock Ellis, Impressions and Comments (1914), English sexual psychologist (1859 1939)
Men generally believe
Men generally believe what they wish., Gaius Julius Caesar, De Bello Gallico,
Unless you believe, yo
Unless you believe, you will not understand., Saint Augustine, De Libero Arbitrio, Carthaginian author, saint, church father (354 AD 430 AD)
The future depends on
The future depends on what we do in the present., Mahatma Gandhi, Indian ascetic nationalist leader (1869 1948)
Where would this count
Where would this country be without this great land of ours?, Ronald Reagan, 40th president of US (1911 2004)
The more the fruits of
The more the fruits of knowledge become accessible to men, the more widespread is the decline of religious belief., Sigmund Freud, The Future of an Illusion (1927), Austrian psychologist (1856 1939)
For that which is born
For that which is born death is certain, and for the dead birth is certain. Therefore grieve not over that which is unavoidable., Bhagavad Gita, (250 BC 250 AD)
I came upstairs into t
I came upstairs into the world for I was born in a cellar., William Congreve, Love for Love (1695), English dramatist (1670 1729)
I wanted to be bored t
I wanted to be bored to death, as good a way to go as any., Peter De Vries, Comfort me with Apples (1956),
There is no such thing
There is no such thing on earth as an uninteresting subject the only thing that can exist is an uninterested person., G. K. Chesterton, Heretics (1905), English author mystery novelist (1874 1936)
I prefer complexity to
I prefer complexity to certainty, cheerful mysteries to sullen facts., Claude T. Bissell,
The only certainty is
The only certainty is that nothing is certain., Pliny the Elder, Roman scholar scientist (23 AD 79 AD)
But in this world noth
But in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes., Benjamin Franklin, Letter to Jean Baptiste Le Roy (1789), US author, diplomat, inventor, physicist, politician, printer (1706 1790)
Change is inevitable.
Change is inevitable. In a progressive country change is constant., Benjamin Disraeli, Speech, Edinburgh (1867), British politician (1804 1881)
They must often change
They must often change who would be constant in happiness or wisdom., Confucius, Analects, Chinese philosopher reformer (551 BC 479 BC)
The issues are the sam
The issues are the same. We wanted peace on earth, love, and understanding between everyone around the world. We have learned that change comes slowly., Paul McCartney, The Observer (1987),
The more things change
The more things change the more they remain the same., Alphonse Karr, Les Guępes,
You cannot step twice
You cannot step twice into the same river., Heraclitus, In Plato, Cratylus, Greek philosopher (540 BC 480 BC)
There is nothing in th
There is nothing in this world constant, but inconsistancy., Jonathan Swift, A Critical Essay upon the Faculties of the Mind (1709), Irish essayist, novelist, satirist (1667 1745)
Things do not change w
Things do not change we change., Henry David Thoreau, Walden (1970), US Transcendentalist author (1817 1862)
Every man has three ch
Every man has three characters: that which he exhibits, that which he has, and that which he thinks he has., Alphonse Karr,
Whatever you are by na
Whatever you are by nature, keep to it never desert your line of talent. Be what nature intended you for and you will succeed., Sydney Smith, English essayist (1771 1845)
The living need charit
The living need charity more than the dead., George Arnold, The Jolly Old Pedagogue (1866),
In charity there is no
In charity there is no excess., Sir Francis Bacon, Of Goodness, and Goodness of Nature (1625), English author, courtier, philosopher (1561 1626)
The man who leaves mon
The man who leaves money to charity in his will is only giving away what no longer belongs to him., Voltaire, Letter (1769), French author, humanist, rationalist, satirist (1694 1778)
It was no wonder that
It was no wonder that people were so horrible when they started life as children., Kingsley Amis, One Fat Englishman (1963), English author humorist (1922 )
I love children espec
I love children especially when they cry, for then someone takes them away., Nancy Mitford,
Remember that as a tee
Remember that as a teenager you are at the last stage of your life when you will be happy to hear that the phone is for you., Fran Lebowitz, Social Studies (1981), US writer and humorist (1950 )
It is only rarely that
It is only rarely that one can see in a little boy the promise of a man, but one can almost always see in a little girl the threat of a woman., Alexandre Dumas, French dramatist novelist (1802 1870)
Toil to make yourself
Toil to make yourself remarkable by some talent or other., Seneca, Roman dramatist, philosopher, politician (5 BC 65 AD)
Children sweeten labou
Children sweeten labours, but they make misfortunes more bitter., Francis Bacon, Essays (1625),
Cannibals prefer those
Cannibals prefer those who have no spines., Stanislaw Lem, Holiday, 1963, Polish science fiction author (1921 )
As a matter of princip
As a matter of principle, I never attend the first annual anything., George Carlin, US comedian and actor (1937 )
Some national parks ha
Some national parks have long waiting lists for camping reservations. When you have to wait a year to sleep next to a tree, something is wrong., George Carlin, US comedian and actor (1937 )
Do not speak of your h
Do not speak of your happiness to one less fortunate than yourself., Plutarch, Greek biographer moralist (46 AD 120 AD)
Adults are just obsole
Adults are just obsolete children and the hell with them., Dr. Seuss, US author illustrator (1904 1991)
Man is equally incapab
Man is equally incapable of seeing the nothingness from which he emerges and the infinity in which he is engulfed., Blaise Pascal, French mathematician, physicist (1623 1662)
Mediocrity knows nothi
Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself, but talent instantly recognizes genius., Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, (Sherlock Holmes) Valley of Fear, 1915, British mystery author physician (1859 1930)
It is a profitable thi
It is a profitable thing, if one is wise, to seem foolish., Aeschylus, Greek tragic dramatist (525 BC 456 BC)
There are people who t
There are people who think that everything one does with a serious face is sensible., Georg Christoph Lichtenberg, (1742 1799)
Idealism is what prece
Idealism is what precedes experience cynicism is what follows., David T. Wolf, (1943 )
With most men, unbelie
With most men, unbelief in one thing springs from blind belief in another., Georg Christoph Lichtenberg, (1742 1799)
It is not enough to do
It is not enough to do good one must do it the right way., John Viscount Morley, of Blackburn,
A wise man will make m
A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds., Sir Francis Bacon, English author, courtier, philosopher (1561 1626)
What the world needs i
What the world needs is more geniuses with humility, there are so few of us left., Oscar Levant, (1906 1972)
You must not think me
You must not think me necessarily foolish because I am facetious, nor will I consider you necessarily wise because you are grave., Sydney Smith, English essayist (1771 1845)
Procrastination is the
Procrastination is the thief of time., Edward Young, English poet (1683 1765)
The only really good p
The only really good place to buy lumber is at a store where the lumber has already been cut and attached together in the form of furniture, finished, and put inside boxes., Dave Barry, The Taming of the Screw, US columnist humorist (1947 )
Electricity is actuall
Electricity is actually made up of extremely tiny particles called electrons, that you cannot see with the naked eye unless you have been drinking., Dave Barry, The Taming of the Screw, US columnist humorist (1947 )
You never know till yo
You never know till you try to reach them how accessible men are but you must approach each man by the right door., Henry Ward Beecher, US abolitionist clergyman (1813 1887)
The great masses of th
The great masses of the people... will more easily fall victims to a great lie than to a small one., Adolf Hitler, German Nazi dictator, orator, politician (1889 1945)
Faith is, at one and t
Faith is, at one and the same time, absolutely necessary and altogether impossible., Stanislaw Lem, Polish science fiction author (1921 )
Advice to writers: Som
Advice to writers: Sometimes you just have to stop writing. Even before you begin., Stanislaw J. Lec, Unkempt Thoughts, Polish writer (1909 1966)
There are grammatical
There are grammatical errors even in his silence., Stanislaw J. Lec, Unkempt Thoughts, Polish writer (1909 1966)
The first condition of
The first condition of immortality is death., Stanislaw J. Lec, Unkempt Thoughts, Polish writer (1909 1966)
All is in the hands of
All is in the hands of man. Therefore wash them often., Stanislaw J. Lec, Unkempt Thoughts, Polish writer (1909 1966)
Channeling is just bad
Channeling is just bad ventriloquism. You use another voice, but people can see your lips moving., Penn Jillette, US magician showman (1955 )
America believes in ed
America believes in education: the average professor earns more money in a year than a professional athlete earns in a whole week., Evan Esar, American Humorist (1899 1995)
Most new books are for
Most new books are forgotten within a year, especially by those who borrow them., Evan Esar, American Humorist (1899 1995)
Never tell a man you c
Never tell a man you can read him through and through most people prefer to be thought enigmas., Marchioness Townsend,
The saying Getting the
The saying Getting there is half the fun became obsolete with the advent of commercial airlines., Henry J. Tillman,
The little reed, bendi
The little reed, bending to the force of the wind, soon stood upright again when the storm had passed over., Aesop, Greek slave fable author (620 BC 560 BC)
My kids can do whateve
My kids can do whatever they want as long as they are not Republicans or junkies. That is where I draw the line., Steven Bernstein, Interview,
War is hell, and I mea
War is hell, and I mean to make it so., William Tecumseh Sherman,
In the end, our societ
In the end, our society will be defined not only by what we create but by what we refuse to destroy., John C. Sawhill,
History is the version
History is the version of past events that people have decided to agree upon., Napoleon Bonaparte, French general politician (1769 1821)
Courage is fear that h
Courage is fear that has said its prayers., Dorothy Bernard,
Reality continues to r
Reality continues to ruin my life., Bill Watterson, Calvin and Hobbes, US cartoonist (1958 )
Everyone has his day a
Everyone has his day and some days last longer than others., Winston Churchill,
Too often the strong s
Too often the strong silent man is silent because he does not know what to say, and is reputed strong only because he has remained silent., Winston Churchill,
Many go fishing withou
Many go fishing without knowing it is fish they are after., Henry David Thoreau, ?, US Transcendentalist author (1817 1862)
You will never be alon
You will never be alone with a poet in your pocket., John Adams, Instructions to his son Johnny in the biography John Adams by David McCullough (p. 19), US diplomat politician (1735 1826)
All great lovers are a
All great lovers are articulate, and verbal seduction is the surest road to actual seduction., Marya Mannes, The Quotable Woman...on Love Relationships,
A man of genius makes
A man of genius makes no mistakes his errors are volitional and are the portals of discovery., James Joyce, Irish author (1882 1941)
One of the many major
One of the many major problems with governing people is that of whom you get to do it or rather of who manages to get people to let them do it to them: It is a well known fact, that those people who most want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it. Anyone who is capable of getting themselves into a position of power should on no account be allowed to do the job. Another problem with governing people is people., Douglas Adams, English humorist science fiction novelist (1952 2001)
Therefore search and s
Therefore search and see if there is not some place where you may invest your humanity., Albert Schweitzer, French philosopher physician (1875 1965)
Nothing great was ever
Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm., Ralph Waldo Emerson, US essayist poet (1803 1882)
From what we get, we c
From what we get, we can make a living what we give, however, makes a life., Arthur Ashe,
A man travels the worl
A man travels the world over in search of what he needs and returns home to find it., George Moore,
No one can be right al
No one can be right all of the time, but it helps to be right most of the time., Robert Half,
The trees that are slo
The trees that are slow to grow bear the best fruit., Moliere, French actor comic dramatist (1622 1673)
Laughing is the sensat
Laughing is the sensation of feeling good all over and showing it principally in one spot., Josh Billings, US Humorist (1818 1885)
Small opportunities ar
Small opportunities are often the beginning of great enterprises., Demosthenes, Greek orator politician in Athens (384 BC 322 BC)
If you wish me to weep
If you wish me to weep, you must mourn first yourself., Horace, Roman lyric poet satirist (65 BC 8 BC)
Management is nothing
Management is nothing more than motivating other people., Lee Iacocca, US automobile businessman (1924 )
The time to repair the
The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining., John F. Kennedy, US Democratic politician (1917 1963)
When I think of talkin
When I think of talking, it is of course with a woman. For talking at its best being an inspiration, it wants a corresponding divine quality of receptiveness, and where will you find this but in a woman?, Oliver Wendell Holmes, US author physician (1809 1894)
Acceptance is such an
Acceptance is such an important commodity, some have called it the first law of personal growth., Peter McWilliams, Life 101,
The simple solution fo
The simple solution for disappointment depression: Get up and get moving. Physically move. Do. Act. Get going., Peter McWilliams, Life 101,
The more severe the pa
The more severe the pain or illness, the more severe will be the necessary changes. These may involve breaking bad habits, or acquiring some new and better ones., Peter McWilliams, Life 101,
To use fear as the fri
To use fear as the friend it is, we must retrain and reprogram ourselves...We must persistently and convincingly tell ourselves that the fear is herewith its gift of energy and heightened awarenessso we can do our best and learn the most in the new situation., Peter McWilliams, Life 101,
You desire to know the
You desire to know the art of living, my friend? It is contained in one phrase: make use of suffering., HenriFrédéric Amiel,
If our early lessons o
If our early lessons of acceptance were as successful as our early lessons of anger, how much happier we would all be., Peter McWilliams, Life 101,
Many people weigh the
Many people weigh the guilt they will feel against the pleasure of the forbidden action they want to take., Peter McWilliams, Life 101,
Guilt is anger directe
Guilt is anger directed at ourselvesat what we did or did not do., Peter McWilliams, Life 101,
Resentment is anger di
Resentment is anger directed at othersat what they did or did not do., Peter McWilliams, Life 101,
To avoid situations in
To avoid situations in which you might make mistakes may be the biggest mistake of all., Peter McWilliams, Life 101,
Mistakes, obviously, s
Mistakes, obviously, show us what needs improving. Without mistakes, how would we know what we had to work on?, Peter McWilliams, Life 101,
Many would be cowards
Many would be cowards if they had courage enough., Thomas Fuller, English clergyman historian (1608 1661)
Fanaticism consists in
Fanaticism consists in redoubling your effort when you have forgotten your aim., George Santayana, Life of Reason 1905 vol. 1 Introduction, US (Spanishborn) philosopher (1863 1952)
Some have been thought
Some have been thought brave because they were afraid to run away., Thomas Fuller, English clergyman historian (1608 1661)
The truth that many pe
The truth that many people never understand, until it is too late, is that the more you try to avoid suffering the more you suffer because smaller and more insignificant things begin to torture you in proportion to your fear of being hurt., Thomas Merton, US religious author, clergyman, Trappist monk (1915 1968)
Against criticism a ma
Against criticism a man can neither protest nor defend himself he must act in spite of it, and then it will gradually yield to him., Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, German dramatist, novelist, poet, scientist (1749 1832)
The ultimate result of
The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools., Herbert Spencer, English philosopher (1820 1903)
Much of the social his
Much of the social history of the Western world over the past three decades has involved replacing what worked with what sounded good. In area after area crime, education, housing, race relations the situation has gotten worse after the bright new theories were put into operation. The amazing thing is that this history of failure and disaster has neither discouraged the social engineers nor discredited them., Thomas Sowell, Is Reality Optional?, 1993, (1930 )
Much of the social his
Much of the social history of the Western world over the past three decades has involved replacing what worked with what sounded good., Thomas Sowell, Is Reality Optional?, 1993, (1930 )
Last year I went fishi
Last year I went fishing with Salvador Dali. He was using a dotted line. He caught every other fish., Steven Wright, US comedian and actor (1955 )
To know even one life
To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded., Ralph Waldo Emerson, US essayist poet (1803 1882)
Anyone who clings to t
Anyone who clings to the historically untrue and thoroughly immoral doctrine that violence never settles anything I would advise to conjure up the ghosts of Napoleon Bonaparte and the duke of Wellington and let them debate it. The ghost of Hitler would referee. Violence, naked force, has settled more issues in history than any other factor, and the contrary opinion is wishful thinking at its worst. Breeds that forgot this basic truth have always paid for it with their lives and there freedoms., Robert Heinlein, US science fiction author (1907 1988)
Either define the mome
Either define the moment or the moment will define you., Walt Whitman, US poet (1819 1892)
Between two groups of
Between two groups of men that want to make inconsistent kinds of worlds I see no remedy except force... It seems to me that every society rests on the death of men., Oliver Wendell Holmes, US author physician (1809 1894)
I can honestly say to
I can honestly say to you, slaves of the press, that if I had as many love affairs as you have given me credit for, I would now be speaking to you from a jar at the Harvard Medical School., Frank Sinatra, US actor singer (1915 1998)
There is only one corn
There is only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that is your own self. So you have to begin there, not outside, not on other people. That comes afterwards, when you have worked on your own corner., Aldous Huxley, English critic novelist (1894 1963)
My philosophy, in esse
My philosophy, in essence, is the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute., Ayn Rand, US (Russianborn) novelist (1905 1982)
Men have been taught t
Men have been taught that it is a virtue to agree with others. But the creator is the man who disagrees. Men have been taught that it is a virtue to swim with the current. But the creator is the man who goes against the current. Men have been taught that it is a virtue to stand together. But the creator is the man who stands alone., Ayn Rand, US (Russianborn) novelist (1905 1982)
I chose and my word wa
I chose and my word was shaken. So what? The choice may have been mistaken — the choosing was not. Just keep moving on..., Stephen Sondheim, Sunday in the Park with George (1984), Act 2,
For the villainy of th
For the villainy of the world is great, and a man has to run his legs off to keep them from being stolen out fom underneath him., Bertolt Brecht, The Threepenny Opera (1928), Act I Scene 3, German Communist dramatist (1898 1956)
The illegal we do imme
The illegal we do immediately. The unconstitutional takes a little longer., Henry Kissinger, New York Times, Oct. 28 1973, US (Germanborn) diplomat scholar (1923 )
Gratitude is born in h
Gratitude is born in hearts that take time to count up past mercies., Charles E. Jefferson, (1860 1937)
A great secret of succ
A great secret of success is to go through life as a man who never gets used up., Albert Schweitzer, French philosopher physician (1875 1965)
The supreme irony of l
The supreme irony of life is that hardly anyone gets out of it alive., Robert Heinlein, Job, 1984, US science fiction author (1907 1988)
Sometimes I lie awake
Sometimes I lie awake at night, and I ask, Where have I gone wrong? Then a voice says to me, This is going to take more than one night., Charles M. Schulz, Charlie Brown in Peanuts, US cartoonist (1922 2000)
Life is lighter than a
Life is lighter than a feather, duty heavier than a mountain., Robert Jordan, The Great Hunt, Book 2 of The Wheel of Time,
Oh would some power th
Oh would some power the giftie gie us, to see ourselves as others see us, Robert Burns, To A Louse, Scottish national poet (1759 1796)
The glory of a good ta
The glory of a good tale is that it is limitless and fluid a good tale belongs to each reader in its own particular way., Steven King, The Stand,
How exquisite that gaz
How exquisite that gaze of yours would be if you were being whipped to death, in the last agony., Leopold von SacherMasoch, Venus in Furs,
When a man cannot choo
When a man cannot choose he ceases to be a man., Anthony Burgess, A Clockwork Orange, British composer novelist (1917 1993)
Computers are incredib
Computers are incredibly fast, accurate, and stupid. Human beings are incredibly slow, inaccurate, and brilliant. Together they are powerful beyond imagination., Albert Einstein, US (Germanborn) physicist (1879 1955)
Two people do not have
Two people do not have to agree on what is right to be together. They just have to want to be together. If this sounds simple, try it sometime., Paul Williams, Das Energi,
When you learn how to
When you learn how to die, you learn how to live., Morrie Schwartz, Tuesdays with Morrie,
They know enough who k
They know enough who know how to learn., Hendry Adams,
There are three princi
There are three principal ways to lose money: wine, women, and engineers. While the first two are more pleasant, the third is by far the more certain., Baron Rothschild, ca. 1800,
The sum of all human w
The sum of all human wisdom is contained in these two words: Wait and Hope., Alexander Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo,
Friendship is the hard
Friendship is the hardest thing in the world to explain. It’s not something you learn in school. But if you haven’t learned the meaning of friendship, you haven’t really learned anything., Mohammad Ali, Newspaper, Daily Herald,
Pressure? This is just
Pressure? This is just a football match. When you do not know how to feed your children, that is pressure., Jose Luis Chilavert, Goal keeper for Paraguay, said during France 98 World Cup (soccer/football),
The trouble with leavi
The trouble with leaving your feet on the ground is you never get to take your pants off., Ringo Starr,
Television is the firs
Television is the first truly democratic culture the first culture available to everybody and entirely governed by what the people want. The most terrifying thing is what people do want., Clive Barnes,
When a stupid man is d
When a stupid man is doing something he is ashamed of, he always declares that it is his duty., George Bernard Shaw, Caesar and Cleopatra (1901), Irish dramatist socialist (1856 1950)
First they came for th
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,
Two roads diverged in
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference., Robert Frost, The Road Not Taken, US poet (1874 1963)
If you wish success in
If you wish success in life, make perseverance your bosom friend, experience your wise counselor, caution your elder brother and hope your guardian genius., Joseph Addison, English essayist, poet, politician (1672 1719)
Say nothing of my reli
Say nothing of my religion. It is known to God and myself alone. Its evidence before the world is to be sought in my life: if it has been honest and dutiful to society the religion which has regulated it cannot be a bad one., Thomas Jefferson, 3rd president of US (1743 1826)
In heaven all the inte
In heaven all the interesting people are missing., Friedrich Nietzsche, German philosopher (1844 1900)
The First Amendment is
The First Amendment is often inconvenient. But that is besides the point. Inconvenience does not absolve the government of its obligation to tolerate speech., Justice Anthony Kennedy, US jurist (1936 )
Men fear thought as th
Men fear thought as they fear nothing else on earth more than ruin more even than death.... Thought is subversive and revolutionary, destructive and terrible, thought is merciless to privilege, established institutions, and comfortable habit. Thought looks into the pit of hell and is not afraid. Thought is great and swift and free, the light of the world, and the chief glory of man., Bertrand Russell, British author, mathematician, philosopher (1872 1970)
Great spirits have alw
Great spirits have always encountered opposition from mediocre minds. The mediocre mind is incapable of understanding the man who refuses to bow blindly to conventional prejudices and chooses instead to express his opinions courageously and honestly., Albert Einstein, quoted in New York Times, March 13 1940, US (Germanborn) physicist (1879 1955)
There are people who s
There are people who strictly deprive themselves of each and every eatable, drinkable, and smokable which has in any way acquired a shady reputation. They pay this price for health. And health is all they get for it. How strange it is. It is like paying out your whole fortune for a cow that has gone dry., Mark Twain, US humorist, novelist, short story author, wit (1835 1910)
It is better to deserv
It is better to deserve honors and not have them than to have them and not to deserve them., Mark Twain, US humorist, novelist, short story author, wit (1835 1910)
The fact that man know
The fact that man knows right from wrong proves his intellectual superiority to other creatures but the fact that he can do wrong proves his moral inferiority to any creature that cannot., Mark Twain, What Is Man? (1906), US humorist, novelist, short story author, wit (1835 1910)
I went to the woods be
I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived., Henry David Thoreau, Walden (1854), US Transcendentalist author (1817 1862)
This world is given as
This world is given as the prize for the men in earnest and that which is true of this world, is truer still of the world to come., Frederick William Robertson,
History is the short t
History is the short trudge from Adam to atom., Leonard Louis Levinson,
Humor is the great thi
Humor is the great thing, the saving thing. The minute it crops up, all our irritations and resentments slip away and a sunny spirit takes their place., Mark Twain, US humorist, novelist, short story author, wit (1835 1910)
It was enough to make
It was enough to make a body ashamed of the human race., Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, US humorist, novelist, short story author, wit (1835 1910)
It was the best of tim
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all doing direct the other way in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only., Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities, English novelist (1812 1870)
His house was perfect,
His house was perfect, whether you liked food, or sleep, or work, or storytelling, or singing, or just sitting and thinking, best, or a pleasant mixture of them all., J. R. R. Tolkien, The Hobbit, British scholar fantasy novelist (1892 1973)
To err is human, to fo
To err is human, to forgive divine., Alexander Pope, An Essay on Criticism, English poet satirist (1688 1744)
It is a far, far bette
It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done it is a far, far better rest that I go to, than I have ever known., Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities, English novelist (1812 1870)
Selfishness is not liv
Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as one wishes to live., Oscar Wilde, Irish dramatist, novelist, poet (1854 1900)
Try not to become a ma
Try not to become a man of success but rather to become a man of value., Albert Einstein, US (Germanborn) physicist (1879 1955)
If a dog jumps in your
If a dog jumps in your lap, it is because he is fond of you but if a cat does the same thing, it is because your lap is warmer., Alfred North Whitehead, English mathematician philosopher (1861 1947)
To be nobodybutyoursel
To be nobodybutyourself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight and never stop fighting., e e cummings, US poet (1894 1962)
When a true genius app
When a true genius appears in this world, you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against him., Jonathan Swift, Thoughts on Various Subjects, Irish essayist, novelist, satirist (1667 1745)
Do not do unto others
Do not do unto others as you would that they should do unto you. Their tastes may not be the same., George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman (1903), Maxims for Revolutionists, Irish dramatist socialist (1856 1950)
When I do good, I feel
When I do good, I feel good when I do bad, I feel bad, and that is my religion., Abraham Lincoln, (attributed), 16th president of US (1809 1865)
True philosophy invent
True philosophy invents nothing it merely establishes and describes what is., Victor Cousin, French philosopher (1792 1867)
I am a man: I hold tha
I am a man: I hold that nothing human is alien to me., Terence, Roman comic dramatist (185 BC 159 BC)
Truth often suffers mo
Truth often suffers more by the heat of its defenders, than from the arguments of its opposers., William Penn, English religious leader and colonist (1644 1718)
If an injury has to be
If an injury has to be done to a man it should be so severe that his vengeance need not be feared., Niccolo Machiavelli, Italian dramatist, historian, philosopher (1469 1527)
Always bear in mind th
Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any one thing., Abraham Lincoln, 16th president of US (1809 1865)
No one can make you fe
No one can make you feel inferior without your consent., Eleanor Roosevelt, US diplomat reformer (1884 1962)
No amount of artificia
No amount of artificial reinforcement can offset the natural inequalities of human individuals., Henry P. Fairchild,
God bless thee and put
God bless thee and put meekness in thy mind, love, charity, obedience, and true duty!, William Shakespeare, Greatest English dramatist poet (1564 1616)
And since you know you
And since you know you cannot see yourself, so well as by reflection, I, your glass, will modestly discover to yourself, that of yourself which you yet know not of., William Shakespeare, Greatest English dramatist poet (1564 1616)
The trust I have is in
The trust I have is in mine innocence, and therefore am I bold and resolute., William Shakespeare, Greatest English dramatist poet (1564 1616)
Thou shalt be both the
Thou shalt be both the plaintiff and the judge of thine own cause., William Shakespeare, Greatest English dramatist poet (1564 1616)
If any man wish to wri
If any man wish to write in a clear style, let him be first clear in his thoughts and if any would write in a noble style, let him first possess a noble soul., Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, German dramatist, novelist, poet, scientist (1749 1832)
I hate ingratitude mor
I hate ingratitude more in a man than lying, vainness, babbling, drunkenness, or any taint of vice whose strong corruption inhabits our frail blood., William Shakespeare, Greatest English dramatist poet (1564 1616)
The peace of heaven is
The peace of heaven is theirs that lift their swords, in such a just and charitable war., William Shakespeare, Greatest English dramatist poet (1564 1616)
Be great in act, as yo
Be great in act, as you have been in thought., William Shakespeare, Greatest English dramatist poet (1564 1616)
I am not bound to plea
I am not bound to please thee with my answers., William Shakespeare, Greatest English dramatist poet (1564 1616)
It was once said that
It was once said that the moral test of Government is how that Government treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children those who are in the twilight of life, the elderly and those who are in the shadows of life, the sick, the needy and the handicapped., Hubert H. Humphrey, US politician (1911 1978)
Public confidence in t
Public confidence in the integrity of the Government is indispensable to faith in democracy and when we lose faith in the system, we have lost faith in everything we fight and spend for., Adlai E. Stevenson Jr., US diplomat Democratic politician (1900 1965)
Grief is the agony of
Grief is the agony of an instant, the indulgence of grief the blunder of a life., Benjamin Disraeli, British politician (1804 1881)
A wretched soul, bruis
A wretched soul, bruised with adversity, We bid be quiet when we hear it cry But were we burdened with like weight of pain, As much or more we should ourselves complain., William Shakespeare, Greatest English dramatist poet (1564 1616)
The surest way to corr
The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently., Friedrich Nietzsche, The Dawn, Sec. 297, German philosopher (1844 1900)
Conversation should be
Conversation should be pleasant without scurrility, witty without affectation, free without indecency, learned without conceitedness, novel without falsehood., William Shakespeare, Greatest English dramatist poet (1564 1616)
Say not, when I have l
Say not, when I have leisure I will study you may not have leisure., The Mishnah,
Civilization begins wi
Civilization begins with order, grows with liberty, and dies with chaos., Will Durant, US historian (1885 1981)
The more minimal the a
The more minimal the art, the more maximum the explanation., Hilton Kramer,
Natural abilities are
Natural abilities are like natural plants they need pruning by study., Sir Francis Bacon, English author, courtier, philosopher (1561 1626)
Think it the greatest
Think it the greatest impiety to prefer life to disgrace, and for the sake of life to lose the reason for living., Juvenal, Roman poet satirist (55 AD 127 AD)
Do not fight verbosity
Do not fight verbosity with words: speech is given to all, intelligence to few., Moralia,
Without an adversary p
Without an adversary prowess shrivels. We see how great and efficient it really is only when it shows by endurance what it is capable of., Seneca, Roman dramatist, philosopher, politician (5 BC 65 AD)
Of writing well the so
Of writing well the source and fountainhead is wise thinking., Horace, Roman lyric poet satirist (65 BC 8 BC)
Ready tears are a sign
Ready tears are a sign of treachery, not of grief., Publilius Syrus, (~100 BC)
To someone seeking pow
To someone seeking power, the poorest man is the most useful., Sallust, Roman historian politician (86 BC 34 BC)
Men decide far more pr
Men decide far more problems by hate, love, lust, rage, sorrow, joy, hope, fear, illusion, or some other inward emotion, than by reality, authority, any legal standard, judicial precedent, or statute., Cicero, Roman author, orator, politician (106 BC 43 BC)
The name of peace is s
The name of peace is sweet, and the thing itself is beneficial, but there is a great difference between peace and servitude. Peace is freedom in tranquillity, servitude is the worst of all evils, to be resisted not only by war, but even by death., Cicero, Roman author, orator, politician (106 BC 43 BC)
A man whose life has b
A man whose life has been dishonourable is not entitled to escape disgrace in death., Lucius Accius, (170 BC 86 BC)
To have respect for ou
To have respect for ourselves guides our morals and to have a deference for others governs our manners., Lawrence Sterne, Irish novelist satirist (1713 1768)
Repentance may begin i
Repentance may begin instantly, but reformation often requires a sphere of years., Henry Ward Beecher, US abolitionist clergyman (1813 1887)
There is an art of whi
There is an art of which every man should be a master the art of reflection. If you are not a thinking man, to what purpose are you a man at all?, William Hart Coleridge,
When we would prepare
When we would prepare the mind by a forcible appeal, an opening quotation is a symphony preluding on the chords those tones we are about to harmonize., Benjamin Disraeli, British politician (1804 1881)
I pray you bear me hen
I pray you bear me henceforth from the noise and rumour of the field, where I may think the remnant of my thoughts in peace, and part of this body and my soul with contemplation and devout desires., William Shakespeare, Greatest English dramatist poet (1564 1616)
I conceive the essenti
I conceive the essential task of religion to be to develop the consciences, the ideals, and the aspirations of mankind. , Robert Millikan, US physicist (1868 1953)
Property left to a chi
Property left to a child may soon be lost but the inheritance of virtuea good name an unblemished reputationwill abide forever. If those who are toiling for wealth to leave their children, would but take half the pains to secure for them virtuous habits, how much more serviceable would they be. The largest property may be wrested from a child, but virtue will stand by him to the last., William Graham Sumner, US economist sociologist (1840 1910)
The principles now pla
The principles now planted in thy bosom will grow, and one day reach maturity and in that maturity thou wilt find thy heaven or thy hell., David Thomas,
What a mistake to supp
What a mistake to suppose that the passions are strongest in youth! The passions are not stronger, but the control over them is weaker! They are more easily excited, they are more violent and apparent but they have less energy, less durability, less intense and concentrated power than in the maturer life., Edward BulwerLytton, English dramatist, novelist, politician (1803 1873)
How sweet and soothing
How sweet and soothing is this hour of calm! I thank thee, night! for thou has chased away these horrid bodements which, amidst the throng, I could not dissipate and with the blessing of thy benign and quiet influence now will I to my couch, although to rest is almost wronging such a night as this., Lord Byron, English poet satirist (1788 1824)
Modern Man is the vict
Modern Man is the victim of the very instruments he values most. Every gain in power, every mastery of natural forces, every scientific addition to knowledge, has proved potentially dangerous, because it has not been accompanied by equal gains in selfunderstanding and selfdiscipline., Lewis Mumford, US architect sociologist (1895 1990)
It violates right orde
It violates right order whenever capital so employees the working or wageearning classes as to divert business and economic activity entirely to its own arbitrary will and advantage without, the social character of economic life, social justice, and the common good., Pope Pius XI, Italian scholar pope 19221939 (1857 1939)
The good devout man fi
The good devout man first makes inner preparation for the actions he has later to perform. His outward actions do not draw him into lust and vice rather it is he who bends them into the shape of reason and right judgement. Who has a stiffer battle to fight than the man who is striving to conquer himself., Thomas a Kempis, German mystic religious author (1380 1471)
Who overcomes by force
Who overcomes by force hath overcome but half his foe., John Milton, English poet (1608 1674)
But O the truth, the t
But O the truth, the truth. The many eyes That look on it! The diverse things they see., George Meredith, English novelist poet (1828 1909)
Presumption means noth
Presumption means nothing more than as stated by Lord Mansfield, the weighing of probabilities, and deciding, by the powers of common sense, on which side the truth is., Sir William Draper,
The conscience of a pe
The conscience of a people is their power., John Dryden, English dramatist poet (1631 1700)
An act against my will
An act against my will is not my act., Unknown, Legal Maxim, Quotations by unknown authors )
Nothing is more wretch
Nothing is more wretched than the mind of a man conscious of guilt., Titus Maccius Plautus, Roman comic dramatist (254 BC 184 BC)
The wise are instructe
The wise are instructed by reason ordinary minds by experience the stupid, by necessity and brutes by instinct., Cicero, Roman author, orator, politician (106 BC 43 BC)
He is not deemed to gi
He is not deemed to give consent who is under a mistake., Unknown, Latin Legal Phrase, Quotations by unknown authors )
Human nature constitut
Human nature constitutes a part of the evidence in every case., Elisha Potter,
Be mild with the mild,
Be mild with the mild, shrewd with the crafty, confiding to the honest, rough to the ruffian, and a thunderbolt to the liar. But in all this, never be unmindful of your own dignity., John Brown,
There was never anythi
There was never anything by the wit of man so well devised, or so sure established, which in continuance of time hath not been corrupted., Book of Common Prayer,
One man may hit the ma
One man may hit the mark, another blunder but heed not these distinctions. Only from the alliance of the one, working with and through the other, are great things born., Antoine de SaintExupery, French writer (1900 1944)
I thought ten thousand
I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards to avenge even a look that threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone., Edmund Burke, Irish orator, philosopher, politician (1729 1797)
He who has injured the
He who has injured thee was either stronger or weaker than thee. If weaker, spare him if stronger, spare thyself., William Shakespeare, Greatest English dramatist poet (1564 1616)
To all, to each, a fai
To all, to each, a fair good night, And pleasing dreams, and slumbers light., Sir Walter Scott, Scottish author novelist (1771 1832)
Conscience and reputat
Conscience and reputation are two things. Conscience is due to yourself, reputation to your neighbour., Saint Augustine, Carthaginian author, saint, church father (354 AD 430 AD)
I submit that an indiv
I submit that an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for the law., Martin Luther King Jr., US black civil rights leader clergyman (1929 1968)
Men keep agreements wh
Men keep agreements when it is to the advantage of neither to break them., Solon, Greek lawgiver politician in Athens (638 BC 559 BC)
Advice is judged by re
Advice is judged by results, not by intentions., Cicero, Roman author, orator, politician (106 BC 43 BC)
If you can react the s
If you can react the same way to winning and losing, that is a big accomplishment. That quality is important because it stays with you the rest of your life., Chris Evert, US tennis player (1954 )
Forming characters! Wh
Forming characters! Whose? Our own or others? Both. And in that momentous fact lies the peril and responsibility of our existence., Elihu Burritt,
Overlook our deeds, si
Overlook our deeds, since you know that crime was absent from our inclination., Ovid, Roman poet (43 BC 17 AD)
Cease, every joy, to g
Cease, every joy, to glimmer on my mind, But leaveoh! leave the light of Hope behind., Thomas Campbell, Scottish poet (1777 1844)
Glory built on selfish
Glory built on selfish principles is shame and guilt., William Cowper, English poet translator (1731 1800)
Cowards are cruel, but
Cowards are cruel, but the brave Love mercy, and delight to save., John Gay, English dramatist, librettist, poet (1685 1732)
When we are born, we c
When we are born, we cry, that we are come To this great stage of fools., William Shakespeare, Greatest English dramatist poet (1564 1616)
His life was gentle an
His life was gentle and the elements So mixed in him, that Nature might stand up, And say to all the world, THIS WAS A MAN!, William Shakespeare, Greatest English dramatist poet (1564 1616)
So may he rest, his fa
So may he rest, his faults lie gently on him!, William Shakespeare, Greatest English dramatist poet (1564 1616)
Avoid the crowd. Do yo
Avoid the crowd. Do your own thinking independently. Be the chess player, not the chess piece., Ralph Charell,
So long as thou are ig
So long as thou are ignorant be not ashamed to learn. Ignorance is the greatest of all infirmities, and when justified, the chiefest of all follies., Izaak Walton, English biographer fishing author (1593 1683)
Have the courage to be
Have the courage to be ignorant of a great number of things, in order to avoid the calamity of being ignorant of everything., Sydney Smith, English essayist (1771 1845)
Assume a virtue, if yo
Assume a virtue, if you have it not., William Shakespeare, Greatest English dramatist poet (1564 1616)
Tis the witching hour
Tis the witching hour of night, Orbed is the moon and bright, And the stars they glisten, glisten, Seeming with bright eyes to listen For what listen they?, John Keats, English lyric poet (1795 1821)
She is not fair to out
She is not fair to outward view As many maidens be Her loveliness I never knew Until she smiled on me Oh! then I saw her eye was bright, A well of love, a spring of light., Hartley Coleridge,
Let us, then be up and
Let us, then be up and doing, With a heart for any fate Still achieving, still pursuing, Learn to labour and to wait., Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, US poet (1807 1882)
The shortest and sures
The shortest and surest way to live with honour in the world, is to be in reality what we would appear to be and if we observe, we shall find, that all human virtues increase and strengthen themselves by the practice of them., Socrates, Greek philosopher in Athens (469 BC 399 BC)
There is a demand in t
There is a demand in these days for men who can make wrong appear right., Terence, Roman comic dramatist (185 BC 159 BC)
I pray thee cease thy
I pray thee cease thy counsel, Which falls into mine ears as profitless as water in a sieve., William Shakespeare, Greatest English dramatist poet (1564 1616)
Art may make a suit of
Art may make a suit of clothes: but nature must produce a man. , David Hume, Scottish historian philosopher (1711 1776)
I have found you an ar
I have found you an argument I am not obliged to find you an understanding., James Boswell, Scottish author biographer (1740 1795)
Remember thisthat ther
Remember thisthat there is a proper dignity and proportion to be observed in the performance of every act of life., Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, Roman Emperor, A.D. 161180 (121 AD 180 AD)
Thou art all the comfo
Thou art all the comfort, The Gods will diet me with., William Shakespeare, Greatest English dramatist poet (1564 1616)
I must be cruel only t
I must be cruel only to be kind Thus bad begins, and worse remains behind., William Shakespeare, Greatest English dramatist poet (1564 1616)
For they are yet earki
For they are yet earkissing arguments., William Shakespeare, Greatest English dramatist poet (1564 1616)
Let arms give place to
Let arms give place to the robe, and the laurel of the warriors yield to the tongue of the orator., Cicero, Roman author, orator, politician (106 BC 43 BC)
People vote their rese
People vote their resentment, not their appreciation. The average man does not vote for anything, but against something., William Bennet Munro,
Talk not of wasted aff
Talk not of wasted affection, affection never was wasted, If it enrich not the heart of another, its waters returning Back to their springs, like the rain shall fill them full of refreshment That which the fountain sends forth returns again to the fountain., Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, US poet (1807 1882)
You must lose a fly to
You must lose a fly to catch a trout., George Herbert, English clergyman metaphysical poet (1593 1633)
Thy words, I grant are
Thy words, I grant are bigger, for I wear not, my dagger in my mouth., William Shakespeare, Greatest English dramatist poet (1564 1616)
Nothing is so dangerou
Nothing is so dangerous as an ignorant friend A wise enemy is worth more., Jean De la Fontaine, French poet (1621 1695)
Knowledge is essential
Knowledge is essential to conquest only according to our ignorance are we helpless. Thought creates character. Character can dominate conditions. Will creates circumstances and environment., Anne Besant, English social reformer mystic in India (1847 1933)
Discourtesy does not s
Discourtesy does not spring merely from one bad quality, but from severalfrom foolish vanity, from ignorance of what is due to others, from indolence, from stupidity, from distraction of thought, from contempt of others, from jealousy., Jean de la Bruyere, French moralist (1645 1696)
Nay, tempt me not to l
Nay, tempt me not to love again: There was a time when love was sweet Dear Nea! had I known thee then, Our souls had not been slow to meet! But oh! this weary heart hath run So many a time the rounds of pain, Not even for thee, thou lovely one! Would I endure such pangs again., Sir Thomas More, English author, courtier, humanist, saint (1478 1535)
What though the radian
What though the radiance which was once so bright Be not forever taken from my sight, Though nothing can bring back the hour Of splendour in the grass, of glory in the flowerGrief not, rather find, Strength in what remains behind, In the primal sympathy Which having been must ever be, In the soothing thoughts that spring Out of Human suffering, In the faith that looks through death In years that bring philophic mind., William Wordsworth, English poet (1770 1850)
It is not growing like
It is not growing like a tree in bulk doth make man better be Or standing long an oak, three hundred year, To fall a log at last, dry, bald, and sere, A lily of a day is fairer in May Although it fall and die that night, It was the plant of flower and light, In small proportions we just beauties see And in short measures, life may perfect be., Benjamin Johnson,
Sick I am of idle word
Sick I am of idle words, past all reconciling, Words that weary and perplex and pander and conceal, Wake the sounds that cannot lie, for all their sweet beguiling The language one need fathom not, but only hear and feel., George Du Maurier, British artist, cartoonist, novelist (1834 1896)
I find the great thing
I find the great thing in this world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving., Oliver Wendell Holmes, US author physician (1809 1894)
Buy on the rumor sell
Buy on the rumor sell on the news., Wall Street Proverb,
Words without actions
Words without actions are the assassins of idealism., Herbert Hoover, US mining engineer politician (1874 1964)
Education is like a do
Education is like a doubleedged sword. It may be turned to dangerous uses if it is not properly handled., Wu TingFang,
A politician thinks of
A politician thinks of the next election a statesman of the next generation., James Clarke, US politician (1854 1916)
Never leave that till
Never leave that till tomorrow which you can do today., Benjamin Franklin, US author, diplomat, inventor, physicist, politician, printer (1706 1790)
It is light grief that
It is light grief that can take counsel., Anonymous,
Few are agreeable in c
Few are agreeable in conversation, because each thinks of what he intends to say than of what others are saying, and listens no more when he himself has a chance to speak., Francois de La Rochefoucauld, French author moralist (1613 1680)
You add insult to inju
You add insult to injury. (Injuriae Addis Contumeliam), Anonymous,
There are no thanks fo
There are no thanks for a kindness, which has been delayed., Anonymous,
Speak clearly, if you
Speak clearly, if you speak at all carve every word before you let it fall., Oliver Wendell Holmes, US author physician (1809 1894)
They envy the distinct
They envy the distinction I have won let them therefore, envy my toils, my honesty, and the methods by which I gained it., Sallust, Roman historian politician (86 BC 34 BC)
I am a man, and whatev
I am a man, and whatever concerns humanity is of interest to me., Terence, Roman comic dramatist (185 BC 159 BC)
Nothing deters a good
Nothing deters a good man from doing what is honourable., Seneca, Roman dramatist, philosopher, politician (5 BC 65 AD)
Let your desires be ru
Let your desires be ruled by reason. (Appetitus Rationi Pareat), Cicero, Roman author, orator, politician (106 BC 43 BC)
By courage I repel adv
By courage I repel adversity. (Adversa Virtute Repello), Anonymous,
May no portent of evil
May no portent of evil be attached to the words I say., Anonymous,
The man who has receiv
The man who has received a benefit ought always to remember it, but he who has granted it ought to forget the fact at once., Demosthenes, Greek orator politician in Athens (384 BC 322 BC)
The sufferings that fa
The sufferings that fate inflicts on us should be borne with patience, what enemies inflict with manly courage., Thucydides, Greek historian (471 BC 400 BC)
The mind ought sometim
The mind ought sometimes to be diverted that it may return the better to thinking., Phaedrus, Roman author of fables (15 BC 50 AD)
He who blinded by ambi
He who blinded by ambition, raises himself to a position whence he cannot mount higher, must thereafter fall with the greatest loss., Niccolo Machiavelli, Italian dramatist, historian, philosopher (1469 1527)
First learn the meanin
First learn the meaning of what you say, and then speak., Epictetus, Roman (Greekborn) slave Stoic philosopher (55 AD 135 AD)
To harken to evil conv
To harken to evil conversation is the road to wickedness.. (Pravis Assuescere Sermonibus Est Via Ad Rem Ipsam), Anonymous,
Rest assured that ther
Rest assured that there is nothing which wounds the heart of a noble man more deeply than the thought his honour is assailed., Moliere, French actor comic dramatist (1622 1673)
Not to know what has b
Not to know what has been transacted in former times is to be always a child. If no use is made of the labors of past ages, the world must remain always in the infancy of knowledge., Cicero, Roman author, orator, politician (106 BC 43 BC)
Unity in things necess
Unity in things necessary, liberty in things doubtful, charity in everything., Anonymous,
It does not prove a th
It does not prove a thing to be right because the majority say it is so., Friedrich von Schiller, German dramatist poet (1759 1805)
Dare to be wise. (Sape
Dare to be wise. (Sapere Aude), Anonymous,
Music like religion, u
Music like religion, unconditionally brings in its train all the moral virtues to the heart it enters, even though that heart is not in the least worthy., Jean Baptiste Montegut,
The character of a man
The character of a man is known from his conversations., Menander, Greek comic dramatist (342 BC 292 BC)
Readiness of speech is
Readiness of speech is often inability to hold the tongue., Jean Baptiste Rousseau,
You do not need to lea
You do not need to leave your room. Remain sitting at your table and listen. Do not even listen, simply wait, be quiet, still and solitary. The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked, it has no choice, it will roll in ecstasy at your feet., Franz Kafka, Austrian (Czechoslovakianborn) author (1883 1924)
Comments are free but
Comments are free but facts are sacred., Charles Prestwich Scott,
Taxation without repre
Taxation without representation is tyranny., James Otis, US politician in American Revolution (1725 1783)
History is a voice for
History is a voice forever sounding across the centuries the laws of right and wrong. Opinions alter, manners change, creeds rise and fall, but the moral law is written on the tablets of eternity., James A. Forude,
Praising what is lost
Praising what is lost makes the remembrance dear., William Shakespeare, Greatest English dramatist poet (1564 1616)
If you are idle, be no
If you are idle, be not solitary if you are solitary be not idle., Samuel Johnson, English author, critic, lexicographer (1709 1784)
Merely corroborative d
Merely corroborative detail, intended to give artistic verisimilitude to an otherwise bald and unconvincing narrative., W. S. Gilbert, English librettist writer of comic operettas (1836 1911)
He is not only dull hi
He is not only dull himself, but the cause of dullness in others., Samuel Foote, English actor dramatist (1720 1777)
My mind to me a kingdo
My mind to me a kingdom is, Such present joys therein I find, That it excels all other bliss., Sir Edward Dyer,
We must beat the iron
We must beat the iron while it is hot, but we may polish it at leisure., John Dryden, English dramatist poet (1631 1700)
But far more numerous
But far more numerous was the herd of such, Who think too little and who talk too much., John Dryden, English dramatist poet (1631 1700)
Property has its dutie
Property has its duties as well as its rights., Thomas Brummond,
With affection beaming
With affection beaming out of one eye, and calculation shining out of the other., Charles Dickens, English novelist (1812 1870)
Mine honour is my life
Mine honour is my life both grow in one take honour from me and my life is done., William Shakespeare, Greatest English dramatist poet (1564 1616)
History is philosophy
History is philosophy teaching by example, and also warning its two eyes are geography and chronology., James A. Garfield, US general politician (1831 1881)
For the sword outwears
For the sword outwears its sheath, And the soul wears out the breast, And the heart must pause for breath, And love itself have rest., Lord Byron, English poet satirist (1788 1824)
The object of governme
The object of government in peace and in war is not the glory of rulers or of races, but the happiness of the common man., Lord William Beveridge, English economist (1879 1963)
No man is demolished b
No man is demolished but by himself., Richard Bently,
In what concerns you m
In what concerns you much, do not think that you have companions: know that you are alone in the world., Henry David Thoreau, US Transcendentalist author (1817 1862)
In necessary things, u
In necessary things, unity in doubtful things, liberty in all things, charity., Richard Baxter, English author Puritan (1615 1691)
Hear the other side. (
Hear the other side. (Audi Partem Alteram), Saint Augustine, Carthaginian author, saint, church father (354 AD 430 AD)
Few men have virtue to
Few men have virtue to withstand the highest bidder., George Washington, First president of US (1732 1799)
Do not speak of your h
Do not speak of your happiness to one less fortunate than yourself., Plutarch, Greek biographer moralist (46 AD 120 AD)
I am more and more con
I am more and more convinced that our happiness or unhappiness depends far more on the way we meet the events of life, than on the nature of those events themselves., Wilhelm von Humboldt, German diplomat philologist (1767 1835)
Grow old along with me
Grow old along with me the best is yet to be., Robert Browning, English poet (1812 1889)
Lady you bereft me of
Lady you bereft me of all words, Only my blood speaks to you in my veins, And there is such confusion in my powers., William Shakespeare, Greatest English dramatist poet (1564 1616)
I wish you well and so
I wish you well and so I take my leave, I Pray you know me when we meet again., William Shakespeare, Greatest English dramatist poet (1564 1616)
So many men so many qu
So many men so many questions. (Quot Homines Tot Sententiae), Terence, Roman comic dramatist (185 BC 159 BC)
Happy the man, and hap
Happy the man, and happy he alone, He, who can call today his own: He who, secure within, can say, Tomorrow do thy worst, for I have lived today., John Dryden, English dramatist poet (1631 1700)
In early childhood you
In early childhood you may lay the foundation of poverty or riches, industry or idleness, good or evil, by the habits to which you train your children. Teach them right habits then, and their future life is safe., Lydia Sigourney,
No government can be l
No government can be long secure without formidable opposition., Benjamin Disraeli, British politician (1804 1881)
We must, however, ackn
We must, however, acknowledge as it seems to me, that a man with all his noble qualities...still bears in his bodily frame the indelible stamp of his lowly origin., Charles Darwin, English biologist (1809 1882)
I beseech you, in the
I beseech you, in the bowels of Christ, think it possible you may be mistaken., Oliver Cromwell, English general politician (1599 1658)
He who allows himself
He who allows himself to be insulted, deserves to be., Pierre Corneille, French dramatist (1606 1684)
All ambitions are lawf
All ambitions are lawful except those which climb upward on the miseries or credulities of mankind., William Congreve, English dramatist (1670 1729)
Put duties aside at le
Put duties aside at least an hour before bed and perform soothing, quiet activities that will help you relax., Dianne Hales,
Hegel was right when h
Hegel was right when he said that we learn from history that man can never learn anything from history., George Bernard Shaw, Irish dramatist socialist (1856 1950)
Everything has its bea
Everything has its beauty but not everyone sees it., Confucius, Chinese philosopher reformer (551 BC 479 BC)
What the superior man
What the superior man seeks is in himself what the small man seeks is in others. , Confucius, Chinese philosopher reformer (551 BC 479 BC)
The welfare of the peo
The welfare of the people is the ultimate law. (Salus Populi Suprema Est Lex), Cicero, Roman author, orator, politician (106 BC 43 BC)
Mistake not. Those ple
Mistake not. Those pleasures are not pleasures that trouble the quiet and tranquillity of thy life., Jeremy Taylor, English prelate (1613 1667)
How use doth breed a h
How use doth breed a habit in a man., William Shakespeare, Greatest English dramatist poet (1564 1616)
Hence it is clear how
Hence it is clear how much more cruel the pen is than the sword. (Hinc Gham Sit Calmus Saevior Ense Patet), Robert Burton, English author, clergyman, scholar (1577 1640)
Let us determine to di
Let us determine to die here, and we will conquer., Barnard Elliot Bee,
One of the greatest pa
One of the greatest pains to human nature is the pain of a new idea., Walter Bagehot, English economist journalist (1826 1877)
So long as little chil
So long as little children are allowed to suffer, there is no true love in this world., Isodore Duncan,
Better to get up late
Better to get up late and be wide awake than to get up early and be asleep all day., Anonymous,
The habit of common an
The habit of common and continuous speech is a symptom of mental deficiency., Walter Bagehot, English economist journalist (1826 1877)
A man may learn wisdom
A man may learn wisdom even from a foe., Aristophanes, Greek Athenian comic dramatist (450 BC 388 BC)
The voice of the peopl
The voice of the people is the voice of God. (Vox Populi, Vox Dei), Alcuin, AngloSaxon mathematician scholar (732 AD 804 AD)
Let them hate so long
Let them hate so long as they fear. (Oderint Dum Metuant), Lucius Accius, Fragment, (170 BC 86 BC)
The use of force alone
The use of force alone is but temporary. It may subdue for a moment but it does not remove the necessity of subduing again: and a nation is not governed, which is perpetually to be conquered., Gelett Burgess, US humorist illustrator (1866 1951)
Boredom is a sign of s
Boredom is a sign of satisfied ignorance, blunted apprehension, crass sympathies, dull understanding, feeble powers of attention, and irreclaimable weakness of character., James Bridie,
A precedent embalms a
A precedent embalms a principle., Benjamin Disraeli, British politician (1804 1881)
The angry man always t
The angry man always thinks he can do more than he can., Albertano of Brescia,
An orator is a man who
An orator is a man who says what he thinks and feels what he says., William Jennings Bryan, US lawyer, orator, politician (1860 1925)
To see a world in a Gr
To see a world in a Grain of Sand, And a Heaven in a Wild Flower, Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand, And eternity in an hour., William Blake, English engraver, illustrator, poet (1757 1827)
I show you doubt, to p
I show you doubt, to prove that faith exists., Robert Browning, English poet (1812 1889)
No bird soars too high
No bird soars too high if he soars with his own wings., William Blake, English engraver, illustrator, poet (1757 1827)
The important thing is
The important thing is to know when to laugh, or since laughing is somewhat undignified to smile. But the smile must be of the right kind must have understanding in it, and friendliness, and a good deal of patience., Roderic Owen,
Better to remain silen
Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt., Abraham Lincoln, 16th president of US (1809 1865)
Reading is sometimes a
Reading is sometimes an ingenious device for avoiding thought., Sir Arthur Helps,
True glory consists in
True glory consists in doing what deserves to be written in writing what deserves to be read and in so living as to make the world happier for our living in it., Pliny The Elder, Roman scholar scientist (23 AD 79 AD)
The difference of race
The difference of race is one of the reasons why I fear war may always exist because race implies difference, difference implies superiority, and superiority leads to predominance., Benjamin Disraeli, British politician (1804 1881)
A really great man is
A really great man is known by three signs... generosity in the design, humanity in the execution, moderation in success., Otto von Bismarck, German Prussian politician (1815 1898)
The man who backbites
The man who backbites an absent friend, nay, who does not stand up for him when another blames him, the man who angles for bursts of laughter and for the repute of a wit, who can invent what he never saw, who cannot keep a secret that man is black at heart: mark and avoid him., Cicero, Roman author, orator, politician (106 BC 43 BC)
It is bad to be oppre
It is bad to be oppressed by a minority, but it is worse to be oppressed by a majority. For there is a reserve of latent power in the masses which, if it is called into play, the minority can seldom resist. But from the absolute will of an entire people there is no appeal, no redemption, no refuge but treason., Lord Acton,
The great and invigora
The great and invigorating influences in American life have been the unorthodox: the people who challenge an existing institution or way of life, or say and do things that make people think., William O. Douglas, US jurist (1898 1980)
The proposition that t
The proposition that the people are the best keepers of their own liberties is not true. They are the worst conceivable, they are no keepers at all they can neither judge, act, think, or will, as a political body., John Adams, US diplomat politician (1735 1826)
Leisure is the mother
Leisure is the mother of philosophy., Thomas Hobbes, English political philosopher (1588 1679)
Nearly all legislation
Nearly all legislation involves a weighing of public needs as against private desires and likewise a weighing of relative social values., Louis D. Brandeis, US jurist (1856 1941)
Enjoy present pleasure
Enjoy present pleasures in such a way as not to injure future ones., Seneca, Roman dramatist, philosopher, politician (5 BC 65 AD)
Peace is not an absenc
Peace is not an absence of war, it is a virtue, a state of mind, a disposition for benevolence, confidence, justice., Baruch Spinoza, Dutch Jewish philosopher (1632 1677)
The deepest sin agains
The deepest sin against the human mind is to believe things without evidence., Thomas H. Huxley, English biologist (1825 1895)
A happy life consists
A happy life consists in tranquillity of mind., Cicero, Roman author, orator, politician (106 BC 43 BC)
Believe nothing agains
Believe nothing against another but on good authority and never report what may hurt another, unless it be a greater hurt to some other to conceal it., William Penn, English religious leader and colonist (1644 1718)
The way to combat noxi
The way to combat noxious ideas is with other ideas. The way to combat falsehoods is with truth., William O. Douglas, US jurist (1898 1980)
I am a firm believer i
I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crises. The great point is to bring them the real facts., Abraham Lincoln, 16th president of US (1809 1865)
All men have an equal
All men have an equal right to the free development of their faculties they have an equal right to the impartial protection of the state but it is not true, it is against all the laws of reason and equity, it is against the eternal nature of things, that the indolent man and the laborious man, the spendthrift and the economist, the imprudent and the wise, should obtain and enjoy an equal amount of goods., Victor Cousin, French philosopher (1792 1867)
Consistency is the qua
Consistency is the quality of a stagnant mind., John Sloan, US painter (1871 1951)
There is a wide differ
There is a wide difference between speaking to deceive, and being silent to be impenetrable., Voltaire, French author, humanist, rationalist, satirist (1694 1778)
Toward no crime have m
Toward no crime have men shown themselves so coldbloodedly cruel as in punishing differences of belief., James R. Lowell, US diplomat, essayist, poet (1819 1891)
Ill deeds are doubled
Ill deeds are doubled with an evil word., William Shakespeare, Greatest English dramatist poet (1564 1616)
It is forbidden to dec
It is forbidden to decry other sects the true believer gives honour to whatever in them is worthy of honour., Asoka, king of India 272BC?232BC? (200 BC 232 BC)
The ideals which have
The ideals which have lighted my way, and time after time have given me new courage to face life cheerfully, have been Kindness, Beauty, and Truth. The trite subjects of human efforts, possessions, outward success, luxury have always seemed to me contemptible., Albert Einstein, US (Germanborn) physicist (1879 1955)
A lost battle is a bat
A lost battle is a battle one thinks one has lost., Ferdinand Foch, French general (1851 1929)
Have patience awhile s
Have patience awhile slanders are not longlived. Truth is the child of time erelong she shall appear to vindicate thee., Immanuel Kant, German philosopher (1724 1804)
If you wish to know wh
If you wish to know what a man is, place him in authority., Yugoslav Proverb,
The man who prefers hi
The man who prefers his country before any other duty shows the same spirit as the man who surrenders every right to the state. They both deny that right is superior to authority., Lord Acton,
The best effect of any
The best effect of any book is that it excites the reader to selfactivity., Thomas Carlyle, Scottish author, essayist, historian (1795 1881)
Reading is to the mind
Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body., Sir Richard Steele,
Books are hindrances t
Books are hindrances to persisting stupidity., Spanish Proverb,
A good book is the bes
A good book is the best of friends, the same today and forever., Martin Fraquhar Tupper,
You despise books you
You despise books you whose lives are absorbed in the vanities of ambition, the pursuit of pleasure or indolence but remember that all the known world, excepting only savage nations, is governed by books., Voltaire, French author, humanist, rationalist, satirist (1694 1778)
True gentleness is fou
True gentleness is founded on a sense of what we owe to him who made us and to the common nature which we all share. It arises from reflection on our own failings and wants, and from just views of the condition and duty of man. It is native feeling heightened and improved by principle., Hugh Blair,
How many a man has dat
How many a man has dated a new era in his life from the reading of a book., Henry David Thoreau, US Transcendentalist author (1817 1862)
Tis the good reader th
Tis the good reader that makes the good book., Ralph Waldo Emerson, US essayist poet (1803 1882)
Without words, without
Without words, without writing and without books there would be no history, there could be no concept of humanity., Hermann Hesse, Swiss (Germanborn) author (1877 1962)
The price good men pay
The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men., Plato, Greek author philosopher in Athens (427 BC 347 BC)
We cannot change anyth
We cannot change anything unless we accept it. Condemnation does not liberate, it oppresses., Carl Jung, Swiss psychologist (1875 1961)
If we say a little it
If we say a little it is easy to add, but having said too much it is hard to withdraw and never can it be done so quickly as to hinder the harm of our success., Francis Saint De Sales, French saint bishop of Geneva (1567 1622)
No man has the right t
No man has the right to dictate what other men should perceive, create or produce, but all should be encouraged to reveal themselves, their perceptions and emotions, and to build confidence in the creative spirit., Ansel Adams, US nature photographer (1902 1984)
A weak man has doubts
A weak man has doubts before a decision, a strong man has them afterwards., Karl Kraus, Austrian author and journalist (1874 1936)
There are risks and co
There are risks and costs to a program of action. But they are far less than the longrange risks and costs of comfortable inaction., John F. Kennedy, US Democratic politician (1917 1963)
Whoever is open, loyal
Whoever is open, loyal, true of humane and affable demeanour honourable himself, and in his judgement of others faithful to his word as to law, and faithful alike to God and man....such a man is a true gentleman., Ralph Waldo Emerson, US essayist poet (1803 1882)
It is not enough to he
It is not enough to help the feeble up, but to support him after., William Shakespeare, Greatest English dramatist poet (1564 1616)
It is an error to imag
It is an error to imagine that evolution signifies a constant tendency to increased perfection. That process undoubtedly involves a constant remodelling of the organism in adaptation to new conditions but it depends on the nature of those conditions whether the directions of the modifications effected shall be upward or downward., Thomas H. Huxley, English biologist (1825 1895)
In human life, art may
In human life, art may arise from almost any activity, and once it does so, it is launched on a long road of exploration, invention, freedom to the limits of extravagance, interference to the point of frustration, finally discipline, controlling constant change and growth., Susanne Langer, US educator philosopher (1895 1985)
The reading of all goo
The reading of all good books is indeed like a conversation with the noblest men of past centuries who were the authors of them, nay a carefully studied conversation, in which they reveal to us none but the best of their thoughts., Rene Descartes, French mathematician philosopher (1596 1650)
The history of the hum
The history of the human race, viewed as a whole may be regarded as the realization of a hidden plan of nature to bring about a political constitution, internally, and for this purpose, also externally perfect, as the only state in which all the capacities implanted by her in mankind can be fully developed., Immanuel Kant, German philosopher (1724 1804)
The soul of this man i
The soul of this man is in his clothes., William Shakespeare, Greatest English dramatist poet (1564 1616)
Fashion is the science
Fashion is the science of appearances, and it inspires one with the desire to seem rather than to be., Michel de Montaigne, French essayist (1533 1592)
Perfection of moral vi
Perfection of moral virtue does not wholly take away the passions, but regulates them., Saint Thomas Aquinas, Italian saint theologian (1225 1274)
Experience teaches onl
Experience teaches only the teachable., Aldous Huxley, English critic novelist (1894 1963)
Justice is the end of
Justice is the end of government. It is the end of civil society. It ever has been and ever will be pursued until it be obtained, or until liberty be lost in the pursuit. In a society under the forms of which the stronger faction can readily unite and oppress the weaker, anarchy may as truly be said to reign as in a state of nature, where the weaker individual is not secured against the violence of the stronger and as, in the latter state, even the individuals are prompted, by the uncertainty of their condition, to submit to a government which may protect the weak as well as themselves so, in the former state, will the more powerful factions or parties be gradually induced, by a like motive to wish for a government which will protect all parties, the weaker as well as the more powerful., Alexander Hamilton, US (Scottishborn) lawyer politician (1755 1804)
Give me the liberty to
Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties., John Milton, English poet (1608 1674)
Mistrust the man who f
Mistrust the man who finds everything good, the man who finds everything evil and still more the man who is indifferent to everything., Johann K. Lavater,
Liberty means responsi
Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it., George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman 1903 Maxims for Revolutionists, Irish dramatist socialist (1856 1950)
Falsehood often lurks
Falsehood often lurks upon the tongue of him, who, by selfpraise, seeks to enhance his value in the eyes of others., Arnold Bennett,
There are some duties
There are some duties we owe even to those who have wronged us. There is, after all, a limit to retribution and punishment., Cicero, Roman author, orator, politician (106 BC 43 BC)
Under a government whi
Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is in prison., Henry David Thoreau, US Transcendentalist author (1817 1862)
Justice is a contract
Justice is a contract of expediency, entered upon to prevent men harming or being harmed., Epicurus, Greek philosopher (341 BC 270 BC)
Laws are partly formed
Laws are partly formed for the sake of good men, in order to instruct them how they may live on friendly terms with one another, and partly for the sake of those who refuse to be instructed, whose spirit cannot be subdued, or softened, or hindered from plunging into evil., Plato, Greek author philosopher in Athens (427 BC 347 BC)
In the state of nature
In the state of nature...all men are born equal, but they cannot continue in this equality. Society makes them lose it, and they recover it only by the protection of the law., Charles de Montesquieu, French lawyer philosopher (1689 1755)
We are obliged to resp
We are obliged to respect, defend and maintain the common bonds of union and fellowship that exist among all members of the human race., Cicero, Roman author, orator, politician (106 BC 43 BC)
Let us have a care not
Let us have a care not to disclose our hearts to those who shut up theirs against us., Francis Beaumont, English dramatist (1584 1616)