Winston Churchill
I didn't attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying that I approved of it. Mark Twain (1835 - 1910)
If you tell the truth you don't have to remember anything. Mark Twain (1835 - 1910)
You cannot depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus. Mark Twain (1835 - 1910)
Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities. Truth isn't. Mark Twain (1835 - 1910)
It could probably be shown by facts and figures that there is no distinctly American criminal class except Congress. Mark Twain (1835 - 1910)
Always acknowledge a fault. This will throw those in authority off their guard and give you an opportunity to commit more. Mark Twain (1835 - 1910)
In the first place, God made idiots. That was for practice. Then he made school boards. Mark Twain (1835 - 1910)
It is easier to stay out than get out. Mark Twain (1835 - 1910)
I was gratified to be able to answer promptly. I said I don't know. Mark Twain (1835 - 1910)
The man who doesn't read good books has no advantage over the man who can't read them. Mark Twain (1835 - 1910)
Wagner's music is better than it sounds. Bill Nye (1850 - 1896), quoted in Mark Twain's Autobiography, 1924
Water, taken in moderation, cannot hurt anybody. Mark Twain (1835 - 1910)
The human race has one really effective weapon, and that is laughter. Mark Twain (1835 - 1910)
The human race has one really effective weapon, and that is laughter. Mark Twain (1835 - 1910)
Often it does seem a pity that Noah and his party did not miss the boat. Mark Twain (1835 - 1910)
Often it does seem a pity that Noah and his party did not miss the boat. Mark Twain (1835 - 1910)
Never put off until tomorrow what you can do the day after tomorrow. Mark Twain (1835 - 1910)
Never put off until tomorrow what you can do the day after tomorrow. Mark Twain (1835 - 1910)
Never put off until tomorrow what you can do the day after tomorrow. Mark Twain (1835 - 1910)
My mother had a great deal of trouble with me, but I think she enjoyed it. Mark Twain (1835 - 1910)
Just the omission of Jane Austen's books alone would make a fairly good library out of a library that hadn't a book in it. Mark Twain (1835 - 1910)
It usually takes more than three weeks to prepare a good impromptu speech. Mark Twain (1835 - 1910)
It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt. Mark Twain (1835 - 1910)
In Paris they simply stared when I spoke to them in French; I never did succeed in making those idiots understand their language. Mark Twain (1835 - 1910)
If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you. This is the principal difference between a dog and a man. Mark Twain (1835 - 1910)
I thoroughly disapprove of duels. If a man should challenge me, I would take him kindly and forgivingly by the hand and lead him to a quiet place and kill him. Mark Twain (1835 - 1910)
I don't give a damn for a man that can only spell a word one way. Mark Twain (1835 - 1910)
Get your facts first, and then you can distort them as much as you please. Mark Twain (1835 - 1910)
Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society. Mark Twain (1835 - 1910)
Be careful about reading health books. You may die of a misprint. Mark Twain (1835 - 1910)
Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest. Mark Twain (1835 - 1910)
All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence; then success is sure. Mark Twain (1835 - 1910), Letter to Mrs Foote, Dec. 2, 1887
A banker is a fellow who lends you his umbrella when the sun is shining, but wants it back the minute it begins to rain. Mark Twain (1835 - 1910)
Few things are harder to put up with than the annoyance of a good example. Mark Twain (1835 - 1910), Pudd'nhead Wilson (1894)
Good breeding consists of concealing how much we think of ourselves and how little we think of the other person. Mark Twain (1835 - 1910), Notebooks (1935)
Familiarity breeds contempt - and children. Mark Twain (1835 - 1910), Notebooks (1935)
The report of my death was an exaggeration. Mark Twain (1835 - 1910), New York Journal, June 2, 1897
Man is the Only Animal that Blushes. Or needs to. Mark Twain (1835 - 1910), Following the Equator (1897)
Truth is more of a stranger than fiction. Mark Twain (1835 - 1910)
Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time. Sir Winston Churchill, Hansard, November 11, 1947
I would say to the House, as I said to those who have joined this Government: 'I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat." Sir Winston Churchill, Hansard, May 13, 1940
The British nation is unique in this respect. They are the only people who like to be told how bad things are, who like to be told the worst. Sir Winston Churchill, Hansard, June 10, 1941
Don't talk to me about naval tradition. It's nothing but rum, sodomy and the lash. Sir Winston Churchill
When the eagles are silent, the parrots begin to jabber. Sir Winston Churchill
When I am abroad, I always make it a rule never to criticize or attack the government of my own country. I make up for lost time when I come home. Sir Winston Churchill
We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give. Sir Winston Churchill
There are a terrible lot of lies going around the world, and the worst of it is half of them are true. Sir Winston Churchill
Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm. Sir Winston Churchill
Personally I'm always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught. Sir Winston Churchill
The reserve of modern assertions is sometimes pushed to extremes, in which the fear of being contradicted leads the writer to strip himself of almost all sense and meaning. Sir Winston Churchill
One ought never to turn one's back on a threatened danger and try to run away from it. If you do that, you will double the danger. But if you meet it promptly and without flinching, you will reduce the danger by half. Sir Winston Churchill
Never, never, never believe any war will be smooth and easy, or that anyone who embarks on the strange voyage can measure the tides and hurricanes he will encounter. The statesman who yields to war fever must realize that once the signal is given, he is no longer the master of policy but the slave of unforeseeable and uncontrollable events. Sir Winston Churchill
Never, never, never believe any war will be smooth and easy, or that anyone who embarks on the strange voyage can measure the tides and hurricanes he will encounter. The statesman who yields to war fever must realize that once the signal is given, he is no longer the master of policy but the slave of unforeseeable and uncontrollable events. Sir Winston Churchill
Never hold discussions with the monkey when the organ grinder is in the room. Sir Winston Churchill
Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened. Sir Winston Churchill
I like pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals. Sir Winston Churchill
I have always felt that a politician is to be judged by the animosities he excites among his opponents. Sir Winston Churchill
I cannot pretend to feel impartial about colours. I rejoice with the brilliant ones and am genuinely sorry for the poor browns. Sir Winston Churchill
History will be kind to me for I intend to write it. Sir Winston Churchill
He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire. Sir Winston Churchill
From now on, ending a sentence with a preposition is something up with which I will not put. Sir Winston Churchill
Every day you may make progress. Every step may be fruitful. Yet there will stretch out before you an ever-lengthening, ever-ascending, ever-improving path. You know you will never get to the end of the journey. But this, so far from discouraging, only adds to the joy and glory of the climb. Sir Winston Churchill
Broadly speaking, the short words are the best, and the old words best of all. Sir Winston Churchill
Never give in--never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy. Sir Winston Churchill, Speech, 1941, Harrow School
A love of tradition has never weakened a nation, indeed it has strengthened nations in their hour of peril; but the new view must come, the world must roll forward. Sir Winston Churchill, speech in the House of Commons, November 29, 1944
We shall show mercy, but we shall not ask for it. Sir Winston Churchill, speech in the House of Commons, July 14, 1940
Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning. Sir Winston Churchill, Speech in November 1942
From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic an iron curtain has descended across the Continent. Sir Winston Churchill, Speech in March 1946
For myself I am an optimist - it does not seem to be much use being anything else. Sir Winston Churchill, speech at the Lord Mayor's banquet, London, November 9, 1954
The empires of the future are the empires of the mind. Sir Winston Churchill, Speech at Harvard University, September 6, 1943
One day President Roosevelt told me that he was asking publicly for suggestions about what the war should be called. I said at once 'The Unnecessary War'. Sir Winston Churchill, Second World War (1948)
It is a good thing for an uneducated man to read books of quotations. Bartlett's Familiar Quotations is an admirable work, and I studied it intently. The quotations when engraved upon the memory give you good thoughts. They also make you anxious to read the authors and look for more. Sir Winston Churchill, Roving Commission: My Early Life, 1930, Chapter 9
Here is the answer which I will give to President Roosevelt... We shall not fail or falter; we shall not weaken or tire. Neither the sudden shock of battle nor the long-drawn trials of vigilance and exertion will wear us down. Give us the tools and we will finish the job. Sir Winston Churchill, Radio speech, 1941
I cannot forecast to you the action of Russia. It is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma: but perhaps there is a key. That key is Russian national interest. Sir Winston Churchill, Radio speech, 1939
I am reminded of the professor who, in his declining hours, was asked by his devoted pupils for his final counsel. He replied, 'Verify your quotations.' Winston Churchill
I am prepared to meet my Maker. Whether my Maker is prepared for the great ordeal of meeting me is another matter. Sir Winston Churchill, on the eve of his 75th birthday
So they [the Government] go on in strange paradox, decided only to be undecided, resolved to be irresolute, adamant for drift, solid for fluidity, all-powerful to be impotent. Sir Winston Churchill, Hansard, November 12, 1936
I did never know so full a voice issue from so empty a heart: but the saying is true 'The empty vessel makes the greatest sound'. William Shakespeare
I am not bound to please thee with my answers. William Shakespeare
How use doth breed a habit in a man. William Shakespeare
How poor are they who have not patience! What wound did ever heal but by degrees. William Shakespeare
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
He who has injured thee was either stronger or weaker than thee. If weaker, spare him; if stronger, spare thyself. William Shakespeare
He is winding the watch of his wit; by and by it will strike. William Shakespeare
God bless thee; and put meekness in thy mind, love, charity, obedience, and true duty! William Shakespeare
Glory is like a circle in the water, Which never ceaseth to enlarge itself, Till by broad spreading it disperses to naught. William Shakespeare
Give every man thine ear, but few thy voice; take each man's censure but reserve thy judgement. William Shakespeare
Free from gross passion or of mirth or anger constant in spirit, not swerving with the blood, garnish'd and deck'd in modest compliment, not working with the eye without the ear, and but in purged judgement trusting neither? Such and so finely bolted didst thou seem. William Shakespeare
For they are yet ear-kissing arguments. William Shakespeare
Cowards die many times before their deaths, The valiant never taste of death but once. William Shakespeare
Blow, blow, thou winter wind Thou art not so unkind, As man's ingratitude. William Shakespeare
Be great in act, as you have been in thought. William Shakespeare
Assume a virtue, if you have it not. William Shakespeare
And thus I clothe my naked villainy With old odd ends, stol'n forth of holy writ; And seem a saint, when most I play the devil. William Shakespeare
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
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
The beauty of the world has two edges, one of laughter, one of anguish, cutting the heart asunder. Wolf, Virginia
Beauty is a form of genius - is higher, indeed, than genius, as it needs no explanation. It is of the great facts in the world like sunlight, or springtime, or the reflection in dark water of that silver shell we call the moon. Wilde, Oscar
No object is so beautiful that, under certain conditions, it will not look ugly. Wilde, Oscar
Is there anything in the universe more beautiful and protective than the simple complexity of a spider's web? White, E.B.
Truth exists for the wise, beauty for the feeling heart. von Schiller, Johann
Someday there is going to be a book about a middle-aged man with a good job, a beautiful wife and two lovely children who still manages to be happy. Vaughan, Bill
What a strange illusion it is to suppose that beauty is goodness. Tolstoy, Leo
It is something to be able to paint a particular picture, or to carve a statue, and so to make a few objects beautiful; but it is far more glorious to carve and paint the very atmosphere and medium through which we look, which morally we can do. To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts. Thoreau, Henry David
To give pain is the tyranny; to make happy, the true empire of beauty. Steele, Richard
I would warn you that I do not attribute to nature either beauty or deformity, order or confusion. Only in relation to our imagination can things be called beautiful or ugly, well-ordered or confused. Spinoza, Benedict
Beauty is a short-lived tyranny. Socrates
What a piece of work is man! How noble in reason; how infinite in faculties; in form and moving, how express and admirable! In action, how like an angel; in apprenhension, how like a god; the beauty of the world the paragon of animals! And yet to me what is this quintessence of dust? Shakespeare, William
Honesty coupled to beauty is to have honey a sauce to sugar. Shakespeare, William
A bachelor never quite gets over the idea that he is a thing of beauty and a boy forever. Rowland, Helen
Beauty attracts us men; but if, like an armed magnet it is pointed, beside, with gold and silver, it attracts with tenfold power. Richter, Jean Paul
Beauty is power; a smile is its sword. Reade, Charles
Remember if you marry for beauty, thou bindest thyself all thy life for that which perchance, will neither last nor please thee one year: and when thou hast it, it will be to thee of no price at all. Raleigh, Walter
For, when with beauty we can virtue join, We paint the semblance of a form divine. Prior, Matthew
Conceit is to nature what paint is to beauty; it is not only needless, but impairs what it would improve Pope, Alexander
Age before beauty ... And pearls before swine. Parker, Dorothy
We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm and adventure. There is no end to the adventures that we can have if only we seek then with our eyes open. Nehru, Jawaharial
Walk on a rainbow trail; walk on a trail of song, and all about you will be beauty. There is a way out of every dark mist, over a rainbow trail. Navajo Song
In every man's heart there is a secret nerve that answers to the vibrations of beauty. Morley, Christopher
Beauty is nature's brag, and must be shown in courts, at feasts, and high solemnities, where most may wonder at the workmanship. Milton, John
Beauty is the first present nature gives to woman and the first it takes away. Méré, George Brossin
Time's gradual touch has moulder'd into beauty many a tower which when it frown'd with all its battlements, was only terrible. Mason
There are three great questions which in life we have over and over again to answer: Is it right or wrong? Is it true or false? Is it beautiful or ugly? Our education ought ot help us to answer these questions. Lubbock, John
Every man feels instinctively that all the beautiful sentiments in the world weigh less than a single lovely action. Lowell, James Russell
Nothing makes a woman more beautiful than the belief she is beautiful. Loren, Sophia
Delusions are often functional. A mother's opinions about her children's beauty, intelligence, goodness, et cetera ad nauseam, keep her from drowning them at birth. Long, Lazarus
My heart that was rapt away by the wild cherry blossoms -- will it return to my body when they scatter? Kotomichi
I'm tired of all this nonsense about beauty being only skin deep. That's deep enough. What do you want, an adorable pancreas? Kerr, Jean
Beauty is truth, truth beauty, that is all Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know. Keats, John
Rare is the union of beauty and purity. Juvenal
Beauty is only skin deep, but it's a valuable asset if you're poor or haven't any sense. Hubbard, Kin
Nothing's beautiful from every point of view. Horace
Plain women know more about men than beautiful ones do. But beautiful women don't need to know about men. It's the men who have to know about beautiful women. Hepburn, Katherine
The criterion of true beauty is, that it increases in examination; of false, that it lessens. There is something, therefore, in true beauty that corresponds with the right reason, and it is not merely the creature of fancy. Grenville
When a girl ceases to blush, she has lost the most powerful charm of her beauty. Gregory I
Beauty is an outward gift which is seldom despised, except by those to whom it has been refused. Gibbon, Edward
Ten years of rejection slips is nature's way of telling you to stop writing. Geis, R.
The vain beauty cares most for the conquest which employed the whole artillery of her charms. Garrett, Edward
Beauty and folly are old companions. Franklin, Benjamin
There's a difference between beauty and charm. A beautiful woman is one I notice. A charming woman is one who notices me. Erskine, John
Love that has nothing but beauty to keep it in good health is short lived, and apt to have ague fits. Erasmus
A beautiful form is better than a beautiful face; it gives a higher pleasure than statues or pictures; it is the finest of the fine arts. Emerson, Ralph Waldo
Beauty without grace is the hook without the bait. Emerson, Ralph Waldo
It seems to me we can never give up longing and wishing while we are thoroughly alive. There are certain things we feel to be beautiful and good, and we must hunger after them. Eliot, George
It is good that the young are beautiful; it is the only advantage they have. Duchess of Windsor
Beauty, like ice, our footing does betray; Who can tread sure on the smooth, slippery way: Pleased with the surface, we glide swiftly on, And see the dangers that we cannot shun. Dryden, John
Love built on beauty, soon as beauty dies. Donne, John
The average man is more interested in a woman who is interested in him than he is in a woman, any woman, with beautiful legs. Dietrich. Marlene
Beauty is not caused. It is. Dickinson, Emily
Champagne is the only wine a woman can drink and still remain beautiful. de Pompadour, Madame
Imagination is the one weapon in the war against reality. de Gaultier, Jules
There is no cosmetic for beauty like happiness. Countess of Blessington
Pleasure is to Women what the Sun is to the Flower; if moderately enjoyed, it beautifies, it refreshes, and it improves; if immoderately, it withers, etiolates, and destroys. Colton
Let no man value at a little price a virtuous woman's counsel; her winged spirit is feathered often times with heavenly words, and, like her beauty, ravishing and pure. Chapman
Everything beautiful has its moment and then passes away Cernuda, Luis
Beauty is unbearable, drives us to despair, offering us for a minute the glimpse of an eternity that we should like to stretch out over the whole of time. Camus, Albert
Beauty's tears are lovelier than her smile. Campbell Thomas
In life, as in art, the beautiful moves in curves. Bulwer-Lytton, Edward Robert
The beautiful seems right by force of beauty, and the feeble wrong because of weakness. Browning, Elizabeth B.
Exuberance is beauty. Blake, William
Beauty, n: the power by which a woman charms a lover and terrifies a husband. Bierce, Ambrose
...It's a sort of bloom on a woman. If you have it you don't need to have anything else; and if you don't have it, it doesn't much matter what else you have. Barrie, James Matthew
Beauty itself is but the sensible image of the Infinite. Bancroft, George
The beautiful are never desolate, but someone always loves them. Bailey
The best part of beauty is that which no picture can express. Bacon, Francis
There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion. Bacon, Francis
Personal beauty is a greater recommendation than any letter of reference. Aristotle
Two stones build two houses, three stones build six houses, four build twenty-four houses, five build one hundred and twenty houses, six build seven hundred and twenty houses and seven build five thousand and forty houses. From thence further go and reckon what the mouth cannot express and the ear cannot hear. Yezirah, Sepher
Knowledge is not achieved until shared. Unknown
Knowledge may give weight, but accomplishments give lustre, and many more people see than weigh Stanhope, Philip D.
The learning and knowledge that we have, is, at the most, but little compared with that of which we are ignorant. Plato
Insurrection of thought always precedes insurrection of arms. Phillips, Wendell
In expanding the field of knowledge we but increase the horizon of ignorance. Miller, Henry
The only good is knowledge, and the only evil is ignorance. Laertius, Diogenes
If a little knowledge is dangerous, where is the man who has so much as to be out of danger? Huxley, Thomas H.
Of all men's miseries the bitterest is this: to know so much and to have control over nothing. Herodotus
Much learning does not teach understanding. Heraclitus
Learning is its own exceeding great reward. Hazlitt, William
Seldom ever was any knowledge given to keep, but to impart; the grace of this rich jewel is lost in concealment. Hall, Joseph
The one self-knowledge worth having is to know one’s own mind. Bradley, F.H.
If thou would'st have that stream of hard-earn'd knowledge, of Wisdom heaven-born, remain sweet running waters, thou should'st not leave it to become a stagnant pond. Blavatsky, H. P.
He that hath knowledge spareth his words. (Proverbs 17:27) Bible
I'm not smart, but I like to observe. Millions saw the apple fall, but Newton was the one who asked why. Baruch, Bernard Mannes
If a man will begin with certainties, he will end in doubts; but if he will be content to begin with doubts, he will end in certainties. Bacon, Francis
If a man will begin with certainties, he will end in doubts; but if he will be content to begin with doubts, he will end in certainties. Bacon, Francis
Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body. Addison, Joseph
There is a point at which even justice does injury. Sophocles
Justice without force is powerless; force without justice is tyrannical. Blaise Pascal
Justice is an unassailable fortress, built on the brow of a mountain which cannot be overthrown by the violence of torrents, nor demolished by the force of armies. Koran
Fidelity is the sister of justice. Horace
If we are to keep our democracy, there must be one commandment: "Thou shalt not ration justice." Learned Hand
Justice delayed, is justice denied. William E. Gladstone
We win justice quickest by rendering justice to the other party. Mahatma Gandhi
There is no such thing as justice - in or out of court. Clarence S. Darrow
Justice, sir, is the great interest of man on earth. It is the ligament which holds civilized beings and civilized nations together. Daniel Webster
Justice consists in doing no injury to men; decency in giving them no offense. Cicero
He who is only just is cruel. Who on earth could live were all judged justly? Lord Byron
Judges must beware of hard constructions and strained inferences, for there is no worse torture than that of laws. Francis Bacon
To be perfectly just is an attribute of the divine nature; to be so to the utmost of our abilities, is the glory of man. Joseph Addison
A child is a gift from God. He is not an accident or a consequence. Unknown
Children are the keys of paradise. Stoddard, Richard
Call not that man wretched, who whatever ills he suffers, has a child to love. Southey, Robert
That children link us with the future is hardly news. . . . When we participate in the growth of children, a sense of wonder must take hold of us, providing for us a sense of future. Nemiroff, Greta Hofmann
A torn jacket is soon mended; but hard words bruise the heart of a child. Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth
Children are remarkable for their intelligence and ardor, for their curiosity, their intolerance of shams, the clarity and ruthlessness of their vision. Huxley, Aldous
It is the malady of our age that the young are so busy teaching us that they have no time left to learn. Hoffer, Eric
Many children, many cares; no children, no felicity. Bovee, Christian Nestell
A single death is a tragedy, a million deaths is a statistic. Stalin, Joseph
The stroke of death is as a lover's pinch, Which hurts and is desired. Shakespeare, William
That which is so universal as death must be a benefit. Schiller, Johann Von
He whom the gods love dies young, while he is in health, has his senses and his judgments sound. Plautus, Titus Maccius
Property is unstable, and youth perishes in a moment. Life itself is held in the grinning fangs of Death, Yet men delay to obtain release from the world. Alas, the conduct of mankind is surprising. Nagarjuna
Death, they say, acquits us of all obligations. Montaigne, Michel De
If you don't know how to die, don't worry; Nature will tell you what to do on the spot, fully and adequately. She will do this job perfectly for you; don't bother your head about it. Montaigne, Michel De
It is not death, it is dying that alarms me. Montaigne, Michel De
Death is delightful. Death is dawn, The waking from a weary night Of fevers unto truth and light. Miller, Joaquin
Of all escape mechanisms, death is the most efficient. Mencken, H.L.
We begin to die as soon as we are born, and the end is linked to the beginning. Manilius
The gods conceal from men the happiness of death, that they may endure life. Lucan
We look at death through the cheap-glazed windows of the flesh, and believe him the monster which the flawed and cracked glass represents him. Lowell, James Russell
Dying is like getting out of a car. You leave a shell behind, but you're the same person as ever. Klein
Strange - is it not? - that of the myriads who Before us passed the door of Darkness through, Not one returns to tell us of the road Which to discover we must travel too. Khayyam, Omar
Pale death, with impartial step, knocks at the hut of the poor and the towers of kings. Horace
This man is freed from servile bands, Of hope to rise, or fear to fall; Lord of himself, though not of lands, And leaving nothing, yet hath all. Herrick, Robert
We sometimes congratulate ourselves at the moment of waking from a troubled dream; it may be so at the moment after death. Hawthorne, Nathaniel
And I hear from the outgoing ship in the bay The song of the sailors in glee: So I think of the luminous footprints that bore The comfort o'er dark Galilee, And wait for the signal to go to the shore, To the ship that is waiting for me. Harte, Bret
Man has the possibility of existence after death. But possibility is one thing and the realization of the possibility is quite a different thing. Gurdjieff
Death is a commingling of eternity with time; in the death of a good man, eternity is seen looking through time. Goethe, Johann Von
The goal of all life is death. Freud, Sigmund
We do not know what to do with this short life, yet we yearn for another that will be eternal. France, Antole
All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter another. France, Antole
The The path of immortality is hard, and only a few find it. The rest await the Great Day when the wheels of the universe shall be stopped and the immortal sparks shall escape from the sheaths of substance. Woe unto those who wait, for they must return again, unconscious and unknowing, to the seed-ground of stars, and await a new beginning. Divine Pymander
The Few cross the river of time and are able to reach non-being. Most of them run up and down only on this side of the river. But those who when they know the law follow the path of the law, they shall reach the other shore and go beyond the realm of death. Dhammapada
The life of the dead is placed in the memory of the living. Cicero
That last day does not bring extinction to us, but change of place. Cicero
If there is a sin against life, it consists perhaps not so much in despairing of life as in hoping for another life and in eluding the implacable grandeur of this life. Camus, Albert
Death, so called, is a thing which makes men weep, And yet a third of life is passed in sleep. Byron, Lord
There are five things which no one is able to accomplish in this world: first, to cease growing old when he is growing old; second, to cease being sick; third, to cease dying; fourth, to deny dissolution when there is dissolution; fifth, to deny non-being. Buddha
The mark of your ignorance is the depth of your belief in in justice and tragedy. What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly. Bach, Richard
Labour not after riches first, and think thou afterwards wilt enjoy them. He who neglecteth the present moment, throweth away all that he hath. As the arrow passeth through the heart, while the warrior knew not that it was coming; so shall his life be taken away before he knoweth that he hath it. Akhenaton
The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. Wilde, Oscar
I generally avoid temptation unless I can't resist it. West, Mae
If you haven't all the things you want, be grateful for the things you don't have that you wouldn't want. Unknown
Help me to resist temptation, Lord, especially when I know no one is looking. Unknown
What is my loftiest ambition? I've always wanted to throw an egg at an electric fan. Unknown
I never resist temptation, because I have found that things that are bad for me do not tempt me. Shaw, George Bernard
There are two tragedies in life. One is to lose your heart's desire. The other is to gain it. Shaw, George Bernard
I'm a simple man. All I want is enough sleep for two normal men, enough whiskey for three, and enough women for four. Rosenberg, Joel
Whatever you want too much you can't have, so when you REALLY want something, try to want it a little less. Rosenberg, Joel
Those who flee temptation generally leave a forwarding address. Olinghouse, Lane
Lord, grant that I may always desire more than I accomplish. Michelangelo
Ambition is a poor excuse for not having sense enough to be lazy. McCarthy, Charlie
It's not peace I want, not mere contentment. It's boundless joy and ecstasy for me. Kugell
You know, sometimes a man just can't satisfy all of a woman's desires. Which is why God invented dental floss. Kollrack , Susanne
Love and desire are the spirit's wings to great deeds. Goethe, Johann Von
Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp -- or what's a heaven for? Browning, Robert
Better murder an infant in its cradle than nurse an unacted desire. Blake, William
When one door closes another door opens; but we so often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door, that we do not see the ones which open for us. Bell, Alexander Graham
what a tangled web we weave when first we practise to deceive! Sir Walter Scott
I believed thee true, And I was blest in thus believing; But now I mourn that ever I knew A girl so fair and so deceiving. Thomas MooreOne who deceives will always find those who allow themselves to be deceived. Niccolo Machiavelli
It is double pleasure to deceive the deceiver. La Fontaine, Jean
Distrust all those who love you extremely upon a very slight acquaintance and without any visible reason. Lord Chesterfield
The road goes ever on and on down from the door where it began. Now far ahead the road has gone and I must follow if I can. Pursuing it with weary feet until it joins some larger way, where many paths and errands meet -and whither then, I cannot say. Tolkien, J.R.R.
Fate is not satisfied with inflicting one calamity. Syrus, Publilius
Immortality--a fate worse than death. Shoaff, Edgar A.
There is no armor against fate; Death lays his icy hand on kings. Shirley, James
Men at some time are masters of their fates: The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, But in ourselves, that we are underlings. Shakespeare, William
Fate leads the willing and drags along the unwilling. Seneca
We may become the makers of our fate when we have ceased to pose as its prophets. Popper, Karl
But blind to former as to future fate, What mortal knows his pre-existent state? Pope, Alexander
There's someone out there for everyone-even if you need a pickaxe, a compass, and night goggles to find them. (L.A. Story) Martin, Steve
It matters not how straight the gate How charged with punishments the scroll I am the master of my fate I am the captain of my soul. Henley, William E.
What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us. Emerson, Ralph Waldo
Death and life have their determined appointments; riches and honours depend upon heaven. Confucius
I do not believe in a fate that falls on men however they act; but I do believe in a fate that falls on them unless they act. Chesterton, G.K.
There is no fate that cannot be surmounted by scorn. Camus, Albert
Destiny is not a matter of chance, it is a matter of choice; it is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved. Bryan, William Jennings
Fate is not an eagle, it creeps like a rat. Bowen, Elizabeth
Destiny: A tyrant's authority for crime and a fool's excuse for failure. Bierce, Ambrose
Ability lies in the mind and the heart. To tell your mind to limit your abilities and to ignore the calls of your heart is only disabling yourself. Unknown
No one knows what he can do until he tries. Syrus, Publilius
Ability is the art of getting credit for all the home runs somebody else hits. Stengel, Casey
Competence, like truth, beauty and contact lenses, is in the eye of the beholder. Peter, Laurence J.
Ability hits the mark where presumption overshoots and diffidence falls short. Newman, John Henry
From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs. Marx, Karl
Ability wins us the esteem of the true men; luck that of the people. La Rochefoucauld, François
There is great ability in knowing how to conveal one's ability. La Rochefoucauld, François
The extraordinary ability of a woman to forget is not the same as the talent of a lady not to be able to remember. Kraus, Karl
When people find a man of the most distinguished abilities as a writer their inferior while he is with them, it must be highly gratifying to them. Johnson, Samuel
A man dies still if he has done nothing, as one who has done much. Homer
Skill and confidence are an unconquered army. Herbert, George
The carpenter is not the best who makes more chips than all the rest. Guiterman, Arthur
Reason and the ability to use it are two separate skills. Grillparzer, Franz
The winds and the waves are always on the side of the ablest navigators. Gibbon, Edward
'Tis skill not strength that governs a ship. Fuller, Thomas
Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence. Frost, Robert
If they try to rush me, I always say, I've only got one other speed and it's slower. Ford, Glenn
Our chief want in life is somebody who shall make us do what we can. Emerson, Ralph Waldo
People are always ready to admit a man's ability after he gets there. Edwards, Bob
The ability to get to the verge without getting into the war is the necessary art.... If you try to run away from it, if you are scared to go to the brink, you are lost. Dulles, John Foster
If you can't learn to do it well, learn to enjoy doing it badly. Brilliant, Ashleigh
Men take only their needs into consideration never their abilities. Bonaparte, Napoleon
Ability is of little account without opportunity. Bonaparte, Napoleon
Ability is commonly found to consist mainly in a high degree of solemnity. Bierce, Ambrose
Natural abilities are like natural plants, that need pruning by study; and studies themselves do give forth directions too much at large, except they be bounded in by experience. Bacon, Francis
Do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Let the day's own trouble be sufficient for the day. Christ, Jesus
Heaven lent you a soul Earth will lend a grave. -- Chinese Proverb
Earth took her shining station as a star, In Heaven's dark hall, high up the crowd of worlds. -- Gamaliel Bailey
Fact of the matter is, there is no hip world, there is no straight world. There's a world, you see, which has people in it who believe in a variety of different things. Everybody believes in something and everybody, by virtue of the fact that they believe in something, use that something to support their own existence. Zappa, Frank
At the core of all well founded belief, lies belief that is unfounded. Wittgenstein, Ludwig
A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it. Wilde, Oscar
To believe is very dull. To doubt is intensely engrossing. To be on the alert is to live, to be lulled into security is to die. Wilde, Oscar
Man can believe the impossible, but can never believe the improbable. Wilde, Oscar
We are never deceived; we deceive ourselves. von Goethe, Johann Wolfgang
Belief is not the beginning but the end of all knowledge. von Goethe, Johann Wolfgang
Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd. Voltaire
If you resist reading what you disagree with, how will you ever acquire deeper insights into what you believe? The things most worth reading are precisely those that challenge our convictions. Unknown
We all live in the protection of certain cowardices which we call our principles. Twain, Mark
Most people are bothered by those passages of Scripture they do not understand, but the passages that bother me are those I do understand. Twain, Mark
I know that most men, including those at ease with problems of the greatest complexity, can seldom accept even the simplest and most obvious truth if it be such as would oblige them to admit the falsity of conclusions which they have delighted in explaining to colleagues, which they have proudly taught to others, and which they have woven, thread by thread, into the fabric of their lives. Tolstoy, Leo
You believe that easily which you hope for earnestly. Terence
The man scarce lives who is not more credulous than he ought to be. The natural disposition is always to believe. It is acquired wisdom and experience only that teach incredulity, and they very seldom teach it enough. Smith, Adam
Martyrdom has always been a proof of the intensity, never of the correctness of a belief. Schnitzler, Arthur
In all affairs it's a healthy thing now and then to hang a question mark on the things you have long taken for granted. Russell, Bertrand
What we think, or what we know, or what we believe is, in the end, of little consequence. The only consequence is what we do. Ruskin, John
Those who obstinately oppose the most widely held opinions more often do so because of pride than lack of intelligence. They find the best places in the right set already taken, and they do not want backseats. Rochefoucauld, Francois
So as this only point among the rest remaineth sure and certain, namely, that nothing is certain... Pliny the Elder
A very popular error: having the courage of one's convictions; rather it is a matter of having the courage for an attack on one's convictions. Nietzsche, Friedrich
One person with a belief is equal to a force of ninety-nine who have only interests. Mill, John Stuart
The public demands certainties; it must be told definitely and a bit raucously that this is true and that is false. But there are no certainties. Mencken, H.L.
You can always pick up your needle and move to another groove. Leery, Timothy
Credulity is the man's weakness, but the child's strength. Lamb, Charles
There are two ways to slide easily through life; to believe everything or to doubt everything. Both ways save us from thinking. Korzybski, Alfred
If a man hasn't discovered something that he will die for, he isn't fit to live. King Jr, Martin Luther
Believe that life is worth living, and your belief will help create the fact. James, William
The believer is happy; the doubter is wise. Hungarian Proverb
I can tell you, honest friend, what to believe: believe life; it teaches better than book or orator. Goethe, Johann Von
Man is made by his belief. As he believes, so he is. Gita, Bhagavad
Idealism increases in direct proportion to one's distance from the problem. Galsworthy, John
The practical effect of a belief is the real test of its soundness. Froude, James A.
To die for an idea is to place a pretty high price upon conjectures. France, Antole
There is a certain impertinence in allowing oneself to be burned for an opinion. France, Antole
We are born believing. A man bears beliefs, as a tree bears beauty. Emerson, Ralph Waldo
Man is ready to die for an idea, provided that idea is not quite clear to him. Eldridge, Paul
Conceptions without experience are void; experience without conceptions is blind. Einstein, Albert
The Bible is a window in this prison of hope, through which we look into eternity. Dwight, John Sullivan
Nothing is so firmly believed as that which we least know. de Montaigne, Michel
I hear and I forget. I see and I believe. I do and I understand. Confucious
The final delusion is the belief that one has lost all delusions. Chapelain, Maurice
It is always easier to believe than to deny. Our minds are naturally affirmative. Burroughs, John
Every time a child says, "I don't believe in fairies" there is a little fairy somewhere that falls down dead. Barrie, James Matthew
If a man will begin incertainties he shall end in doubts; but if he will be content to begin in doubts he shall end in certainties Bacon, Francis
Theory: when you have ideas. Ideology: when ideas have you. Anon.
It is easier to fight for principles than to live up to them. Adler, Alfred
Belief in God? An afterlife? I believe in rock: this apodictic rock beneath my feet. Abbey, Edward
Men love their ideas more than their lives. And the more preposterous the idea, the more eager they are to die for it. And to kill for it. Abbey, Edward
That depends on what your definition of 'is' is. President Clinton
Nought shall prevail against us, or disturb Our cheerful faith, that all which we behold Is full of blessings. Young Faith is not reason's labor, but repose. Wordsworth, William
When faith is lost, when honor dies, the man is dead. Whittier, John Greenleaf
Doubt isn't the opposite of faith; it is an element of faith. Tillich, Paul
The smallest seed of faith is better than the largest fruit of happiness. Thoreau, Henry David
It's not dying for faith that's so hard, it's living up to it. Thackeray, William Makepeace
Kind hearts are more than coronets, And simple faith than Norman blood. Tennyson
Alas, reason is not effective against faith, or against searches for miracles by the desperate. Shimkin, Dr. Michael B.
We have not lost faith, but we have transferred it from God to the medical profession. Shaw, George Bernard
Bid, then, the tender light of faith to shine By which alone the mortal heart is led Unto the thinking of the thought divine. Santayana, George
For modes of faith let graceless zealots fight, His can't be wrong whose life is in the right. Alexander PopeIf the work of God could be comprehended by reason, it would be no longer wonderful, and faith would have no merit if reason provided proof. Pope Gregory I
Faith: not wanting to know what is true. Nietzsche, Friedrich
Faith may be defined briefly as an illogical belief in the occurrence of the improbable. Mencken, H.L.
The world cannot always understand a person's profession of faith, but it can understand service. Maclaren, Ian
A wise ruler ought never to keep faith when by doing so it would be against his interests. Machiavelli, Nicolo
There is no wild beast so ferocious as Christians who differ concerning their faith. Lecky, W.E.H
Faith is often the boast of the man who is too lazy to investigate. Knowles, F.M.
I always prefer to believe the best of everybody - it saves so much trouble. Kipling, Rudyard
Without risk there is no faith. Faith is precisely the contradiction between the infinite passion of the individual's inwardness and the objective uncertainty. If I am capable of grasping God objectively, I do not believe, but precisely because I cannot do this I must believe. If I wish to preserve myself in faith I must constantly be intent upon holding fast the objective uncertainty, so as to remain out upon the deep, over seventy thousand fathoms of water, still preserving my faith. Kierkegaard, Soren
Faith means intense, usually confident, belief that is not based on evidence sufficient to command assent from every reasonable person. Kauffman, Walter
Faith means belief in something concerning which doubt is theoretically possible. James, William
Faith in a holy cause is to a considerable extent a substitute for lost faith in ourselves. Hoffer, Eric
Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Hebrews
Treat the other man's faith gently: it is all he has to believe with. Haskins, Henry S.
Cutting the space budget really restores my faith in humanity. It eliminates dreams, goals, and ideals and lets us get straight to the business of hate, debauchery, and self-annihilation. Hart, Johnny
Faith is one of those words that connotes, however irrationally, some kind of virtue in itself. Halle, Louis J.
Doubt is a pain too lonely to know that faith is his twin brother. Gibran, Kahlil
The faith that stands on authority is not faith. Emerson, Ralph Waldo
Life is doubt, and faith without doubt is nothing but death. de Unamuno, Miguel
Faith lights us through the dark to Deity. Davenant
Faith is love taking the form of aspiration. Channing, William Ellery
Faith is the soul going out of itself for all its wants. Boston
Faith: Belief without evidence in what is told by one who speaks, without knowledge, of things without parallel. Bierce, Ambrose
If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. (James I, 5&6)
And now abideth faith, hope and charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity. (I Corinthians)
Cast thy bread upon the waters: for thou shalt find it after many days. (Ecclesiastes 11:1)
Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. (Hebrews 11 1)
Faith is never identical with piety. Barth, Karl
I am mortified to be told that, in the United States of America, the sale of a book can become a subject of inquiry, and of criminal inquiry too. Thomas Jefferson
Not in the clamor of the crowded street, Not in the shouts and plaudits of the throng, But in ourselves, are triumph and defeat. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Be good, be kind, be humane, and charitable; love your fellows; console the afflicted; pardon those who have done you wrong. Zoroaster
Diligence is the mother of good fortune. Cervantes
Little darling, it's been a long cold lonely winter Harrison
Don't let grass grow on the path of friendship. (Blackfoot Indian)
You can't see the whole sky through a bamboo tube. (Japanese)
People show their character by what they laugh at. (German)
Spending is quick, earning is slow. (Russian)
It is better to prevent than to cure. (Peruvian)
Promise little and do much. (Hebrew)
What one hopes for is always better than one has. (Ethiopian)
A good example is the best sermon. (English)There is often wisdom under a shaggy coat. (Latin)
Prayer only from the mouth is no prayer. (Jamaican)
Prayer only from the mouth is no prayer. (Jamaican)
Postpone today's anger until tomorrow. (Tagalog, Filipino)
Doubt is the key to knowledge. (Iranian)
Liberty has no price. (Spanish)
Children have more need of models than of critics. (French)
Success has many parents, but failure is an orphan (American)
Better to suffer for truth than to prosper by falsehood (Danish)
Heroism consists of hanging on one minute longer (Norwegian)
One head cannot hold all wisdom (Maasai, East Africa)
We've got to judge the judge Pete Townshend
Take this bus to Cuba. Monty Python
You're crashing by design. Pete Townshend
And you, without question, know your first love is your last, and you, you will never, you will never, you will never, you will never love again! Pete Townshend
The White City, that's a joke of a name, It's a black violent place if I remember the game. Pete Townshend
you gotta fool the fool... Pete Townshend
He's a lumberjack and he's OK He sleeps all night and he works all day. Monty Python
Now if anybody else pinches my phrase I'll throw them under a camel Monty Python
Give blood, and some will say blood's not enough... Pete Townshend
In my life I've loved them all Lennon/MaCartney
Didn't anybody tell her, didn't anybody see... Lennon/MaCartney
Elenor Rigby wearing a face that she keeps in a jar by the door Lennon/MaCartney
Aint it just like the night to play tricks when your trying to be so quiet Bob Dylan
His clothes are dirty but his hands are clean. Bob Dylan
I have always been an admirer. I regard the gift of admiration as indispensable if one is to amount to something; I don't know where I would be without it. Thomas Mann
We always love those who admire us; we do not always love those whom we admire. Francois De La Rochefoucauld
Oh! death will find me long before I tire of watching you. Rupert Brooke
The secret of happiness is to admire without desiring. Francis H. Bradley
Admiration is a very short-lived passion that immediately decays upon growing familiar with its object, unless it be still fed with fresh discoveries, and kept alive by a new perpetual succession of miracles rising up to its view. Joseph Addison
As a rule, I am very careful to be shallow and conventional where depth and originality are wasted. Lucy Maud Montgomery
To the man who only has a hammer, everything he encounters begins to look like a nail. Abraham H. Maslow
A well adjusted person is one who makes the same mistake twice without getting nervous. Jane Heard
We must make the best of those ills which cannot be avoided. Alexander Hamilton
Singularity shows something wrong in the mind. Clarissa
One learns to itch where one can scratch. Ernest Bramah
I found out that if you are going to win games, you had better be ready to adapt. Scotty Bowman
Learn to adjust yourself to the conditions you have to endure, but make a point of trying to alter or correct conditions so that they are most favorable to you. William Frederick Book
Ability is a poor man's wealth. M. Wren
Ability may get you to the top, but it takes character to keep you there. John Wooden
We all have ability. The difference is how we use it. Stevie Wonder
Whatever women do they must do twice as well as men to be thought half as good. Luckily, this is not difficult. Charlotte Whitton
The world cares very little about what a man or woman knows; it is what a man or woman is able to do that counts. Booker T. Washington
They are able because they think they are able. Virgil
Wicked people are always surprised to find ability in those that are good. Marquis De Vauvenargues
God does not ask about our ability, but our availability. Source Unknown
I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by conscious endeavor. Henry David Thoreau
A genius can't be forced; nor can you make an ape an alderman. Thomas Somerville
Martyrdom is the only way a man can become famous without ability. George Bernard Shaw
Natural abilities can almost compensate for the want of every kind of cultivation, but no cultivation of the mind can make up for the want of natural abilities. Arthur Schopenhauer
When love and skill work together, expect a masterpiece. John Ruskin
No great intellectual thing was ever done by great effort. John Ruskin
The country needs and, unless I mistake its temper, the country demands bold, persistent, experimentation. It is common sense to take a method and try it, if it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something. Theodore Roosevelt
If you count all your assets you always show a profit. Robert Quillen
When one must, one can. Yiddish Proverb
Behind every able man, there are always other able men. Chinese Proverb
Executive ability is deciding quickly and getting somebody else to do the work. John G. Pollard
The boy was as useless as rubber lips on a woodpecker. Earl Pitts
Man cannot live by incompetence alone. Laurence J. Peter
Ability is sexless. Christabel Pankhurst
Ability hits the mark where presumption overshoots and diffidence falls short. John Henry Newman
Analyzing what you haven't got as well as what you have is a necessary ingredient of a career. Grace Moore
The Creator has not given you a longing to do that which you have no ability to do. Orison Swett Marden
Not many men have both good fortune and good sense. Titus Livy
To know how to hide one's ability is great skill. Francois De La Rochefoucauld
The height of ability consists in a thorough knowledge of the real value of things, and of the genius of the age in which we live. Francois De La Rochefoucauld
It's pretty hard to be efficient without being obnoxious. Kin Hubbard
It is a fine thing to have ability, but the ability to discover ability in others is the true test. Elbert Hubbard
I won't accept anything less than the best a player's capable of doing... and he has the right to expect the best that I can do for him and the team! Lou Holtz
As life is action and passion, it is required of a man that he should share the passion and action of his time, at the peril of being not to have lived. Oliver Wendell Holmes
Never tell a young person that anything cannot be done. God may have been waiting centuries for someone ignorant enough of the impossible to do that very thing. John Andrew Holmes
Every person is responsible for all the good within the scope of his abilities, and for no more, and none can tell whose sphere is the largest. Gail Hamilton
There is something that is much more scarce, something rarer than ability. It is the ability to recognize ability. Robert Half
The person born with a talent they are meant to use will find their greatest happiness in using it. Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
Our work is the presentation of our capabilities. Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
The winds and waves are always on the side of the ablest navigators. Edward Gibbon
I know I have the ability to do so much more than just stand in front of the camera the rest of my life. Jennie Garth
As we advance in life we learn the limits of our abilities. James A. Froude
Whether you think you can or whether you think you can't, you're right! Henry Ford
It is all one to me if a man comes from Sing Sing Prison or Harvard. We hire a man, not his history. Henry Ford
Ability will never catch up with the demand for it. Malcolm S. Forbes
Others have done it before me. I can, too. Corporal John Faunce
When my horse is running good, I don't stop to give him sugar. William Faulkner
There are some people who live in a dream world, and there are some who face reality; and then there are those who turn one into the other. Douglas Everett
The fox has many tricks. The hedgehog has but one. But that is the best of all. Desiderius Erasmus
People with great gifts are easy to find, but symmetrical and balanced ones never. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Big jobs usually go to the men who prove their ability to outgrow small ones. Ralph Waldo Emerson
The first requisite for success is the ability to apply your physical and mental energies to one problem incessantly without growing weary. Thomas A. Edison
To sentence a man of true genius, to the drudgery of a school is to put a racehorse on a treadmill. Charles Caleb Colton
Aptitude found in the understanding and is often inherited. Genius coming from reason and imagination, rarely. Samuel Taylor Coleridge
I add this, that rational ability without education has oftener raised man to glory and virtue, than education without natural ability. Marcus T. Cicero
I have learnt that I am me, that I can do the things that, as one might put it, me can do, but I cannot do the things that me would like to do. Agatha Christie
When it is a question of God's almighty Spirit, never say, "I can't." Oswald Chambers
No amount of ability is of the slightest avail without honor. Andrew Carnegie
The king is the man who can. Thomas Carlyle
What you see, but can't see over is as good as infinite. Thomas Carlyle
The extent of your consciousness is limited only by your ability to love and to embrace with your love the space around you, and all it contains Ken Carey
Ability is of little account without opportunity. Napoleon Bonaparte
Knowing what you can not do is more important than knowing what you can do. In fact, that's good taste. Lucille Ball
I thought he was a young man of promise, but it appears he is a young man of promises. [Speaking Of Winston Churchill] Arthur James Balfour
Natural abilities are like natural plants; they need pruning by study. Francis Bacon
Just do what you do best. Red Auerbach
In my hut this spring, there is nothing -- there is everything! Sodo
The universe is full of magical things patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper. Eden Phillpotts
Not what we have But what we enjoy, constitutes our abundance. John Petit-Senn
Nothing is enough for the man to whom enough is to little. Epicurus
Everything you need you already have. You are complete right now, you are a whole, total person, not an apprentice person on the way to someplace else. Your completeness must be understood by you and experienced in your thoughts as your own personal reality. Wayne Dyer
A man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth. [Luke 12:15] Bible
Self-denial is the shining sore on the leprous body of Christianity. Oscar Wilde
Always rise from the table with an appetite, and you will never sit down without one. William Penn
Abstaining is favorable both to the head and the pocket. Horace Greeley
Once, during Prohibition, I was forced to live for days on nothing but food and water. W. C. Fields
All philosophy lies in two words, sustain and abstain. Epictetus
Renunciation remains sorrow, though a sorrow borne willingly. George Eliot
Subdue your appetites, my dears, and you've conquered human nature. Charles Dickens
The best thing to do with the best things in life is to give them up. Dorothy Day
With renunciation life begins. Amelia E. Barr
Renouncement: the heroism of mediocrity. Natalie Clifford Barney
Complete abstinence is easier than perfect moderation. St. Augustine
Greater things are believed of those who are absent. Publius Cornelius Tacitus
How like a winter hath my absence been. From thee, the pleasure of the fleeting year! What freezings have I felt, what dark days seen, What old December's bareness everywhere! William Shakespeare
Failing to be there when a man wants her is a woman's greatest sin, except to be there when he doesn't want her. Helen Rowland
Never find fault with the absent. Proverb
A short absence is the safest. Ovid
Absence and death are the same -- only that in death there is no suffering. Walter Savage Landor
When a man is out of sight, it is not too long before he is out of mind. Thomas ã Kempis
Talk well of the absent whenever you have the opportunity. Sir Matthew Hale
The people who are absent are the ideal; those who are present seem to be quite commonplace. Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
Absence sharpens love, presence strengthens it. Thomas Fuller
The absent are never without fault. Nor the present without excuse. Benjamin Franklin
Absence of proof is not proof of absence. Michael Crichton
Absence from whom we love is worse than death, and frustrates hope severer than despair. William Cowper
It takes time for the absent to assume their true shape in our thoughts. After death they take on a firmer outline and then cease to change. Sidonie Gabrielle Colette
Our hours in love have wings; in absence, crutches. Colley Cibber
Absence -- that common cure of love. Miguel De Cervantes
No man is so perfect, so necessary to his friends, as to give them no cause to miss him less. Jean De La Bruyère
Sometimes I need what only you can provide, your absence. Ashleigh Brilliant
Absence blots people out. We really have no absent friends. Elizabeth Bowen
Woman absent is woman dead. Ambrose Bierce
Separation penetrates the disappearing person like a pigment and steeps him in gentle radiance. Walter Benjamin
I was court-martial in my absence, and sentenced to death in my absence, so I said they could shoot me in my absence. Brendan F. Behan
Absence does not make the heart grow fonder, but it sure heats up the blood. Elizabeth Ashley
Even a stopped clock is right twice a day. Source Unknown
Accuracy is to a newspaper what virtue is to a lady, but a newspaper can always print a retraction. Adlai E. Stevenson
Accuracy is the twin brother of honesty; inaccuracy, of dishonesty. Charles Simmons
From principles is derived probability, but truth or certainty is obtained only from facts. Nathaniel Hawthorne
Accuracy of statement is one of the first elements of truth; inaccuracy is a near kin to falsehood. Tryon Edwards
We must accept life for what it actually is -- a challenge to our quality without which we should never know of what stuff we are made, or grow to our full stature. Ida R. Wylie
Some people swallow the universe like a pill; they travel on through the world, like smiling images pushed from behind. Robert Louis Stevenson
Happiness can exist only in acceptance. Denis De Rougamont
For the ordinary man is passive. Within a narrow circle (home life, and perhaps the trade unions or local politics) he feels himself master of his fate, but against major events he is as helpless as against the elements. So far from endeavoring to influence the future, he simply lies down and lets things happen to him. George Orwell
Accept everything about yourself -- I mean everything, You are you and that is the beginning and the end -- no apologies, no regrets. Clark Moustakas
The art of acceptance is the art of making someone who has just done you a small favor wish that he might have done you a greater one. Russell Lynes
We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people. Martin Luther King Jr.
Ah, when to the heart of man was it ever less than a treason to go with the drift of things to yield with a grace to reason and bow and accept at the end of a love or a season. Robert Frost
Once we accept our limits, we go beyond them. Brendan Francis
One must not attempt to justify them, but rather to sense their nature simply and clearly. Albert Einstein
How can men who've never seen light be enlightened? Pete Townshend
The minute you settle for less than you deserve, you get even less than you settled for. Maureen Dowd
To make oneself an object, to make oneself passive, is a very different thing from being a passive object. Simone De Beauvoir
Don't go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first. Mark Twain
If you treat your wife like a thoroughbred, you'll never end up with a nag. Zig Ziglar
For what it's worth, it was worth all the while. Green Day
If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice. Neal Peart
Cauliflower is nothing but Cabbage with a College Education. Mark Twain
A fool's brain digests philosophy into folly, science into superstition, and art into pedantry. Hence University education. George Bernard Shaw
A fool's brain digests philosophy into folly, science into superstition, and art into pedantry. Hence University education. George Bernard Shaw
The telephone is a good way to talk to people without having to offer them a drink. Fran Leibowitz
Those who can -- do. Those who can't -- teach. H. L. Mencken
Success is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm. Winston Churchill
When I hear a man preach, I like to see him act as if he were fighting bees. Abraham Lincoln
There's no one... no one, loves you like yourself. Brendan Behan
The trouble with the rat race is that even if you win you are still a rat. Lily Tomlin
Why is it that we rejoice at a birth and grieve at a funeral? It is because we are not the person involved. Mark Twain
I do not object to people looking at their watches when I am speaking. But I do strongly object when they start shaking them to make sure they are still going. Lord Birkett
I've been on a calendar, but never on time. Marilyn Monroe
There are two things in this life for which we are never fully prepared and that is twins. Josh Billings
It is impossible to travel faster than light, and certainly not desirable, as one's hat keeps blowing off. Woody Allen
Everything is miraculous. It is miraculous that one does not melt in ones' bath. Pablo Picasso
When I was younger, I could remember anything, whether it had happened or not; but my faculties are decaying now and soon I shall be so I cannot remember any but the things that never happened. It is sad to go to pieces like this but we all have to do it. Mark Twain
For those who like this sort of thing, this is the sort of thing they like. Abraham Lincoln
Life was a funny thing that occurred on the way to the grave. Quentin Crisp
She had a penetrating sort of laugh. Rather like a train going into a tunnel. P.G. Wodehouse
Anything aweful makes me laugh. I misbehaved once at a funeral. Charles Lamb
The human race has one really effective weapon, and that is laughter. Mark Twain
The government is the only known vessel that leaks from the top. James Reston
Why is it when we talk to God, we're said to be praying, but when God talks to us, we're schizophrenic. Lily Tomlin
As the poet said, "Only God can make a tree" -- probably because it's so hard to figure out how to get the bark on. Woody Allen
Experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first, the lesson afterward. Vernon Law
When in doubt, tell the truth. Mark Twain
It's not that I'm afraid to die. I just don't want to be there when it happens. Woody Allen
There cannot be a crisis next week. My schedule is already full. Henry Kissinger
Conscience is the inner voice that warns us somebody may be looking. H. L. Mencken
He reminds me of the man who murdered both his parents, and then, when sentence was about to be pronounced pleaded for mercy on the grounds that he was an orphan. Abraham Lincoln
I have a new philosophy. I'm only going to dread one day at a time. Charles Schultz
Having a baby is like taking your lower lip and forcing it over your head. Carol Burnett
A bank is a place where they lend you an umbrella in fair weather and ask for it back when it begins to rain. Robert Frost
The best audience is intelligent, well-educated and a little drunk. Alben W. Barkley (U.S. Vice President)
A narrow mind and a fat head invariably come on the same person. Zig Ziglar
I was gratified to be able to answer promptly, and I did. I said I didn't know. Mark Twain
Put all your eggs in one basket, and watch that basket. Mark Twain
Always do right! This will gratify some people and astonish the rest. Mark Twain
One of the most important things to remember about infant care is never change diapers in midstream. Don Marquis
Never try to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and it annoys the pig. Paul Dickson
Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power. Abraham Lincoln
My dear boy, forget about the motivation. Just say the lines and don't trip over the furniture. Noel Coward
Man ceased to be an ape, vanquished the ape, on the day the first book was written. Yevgeny Zamyatin
Choose an author as you choose a friend. Sir Christopher Wren
Old books that have ceased to be of service should no more be abandoned than should old friends who have ceased to give pleasure. Sir Peregrine Worsthorne
Books had instant replay long before televised sports. Bert Williams
Camerado! This is no book; who touches this touches a man. Walt Whitman
Fiction reveals truth that reality obscures. Jessamyn West
Ideally a book would have no order to it, and the reader would have to discover his own. Raoul Vaneigem
My books are water; those of the great geniuses are wine -- everybody drinks water. Mark Twain
One half who graduate from college never read another book. Herbert True
Education... has produced a vast population able to read but unable to distinguish what is worth reading, an easy prey to sensations and cheap appeals. G. M. Trevelyan
No matter how busy you may think you are, you must find time for reading, or surrender yourself to self-chosen ignorance. Atwood H. Townsend
Read the best books first, or you may not have a chance to read them at all. Henry David Thoreau
What is a diary as a rule? A document useful to the person who keeps it. Dull to the contemporary who reads it and invaluable to the student, centuries afterwards, who treasures it. Helen Terry
Books, like proverbs, receive their chief value from the stamp and esteem of the ages through which they have passed Sir William Temple
Most books, like their authors, are born to die; of only a few books can it be said that death has no dominion over them; they live, and their influence lives forever. J. Swartz
A great book should leave you with many experiences and slightly exhausted at the end. You should live several lives while reading it. William Styron
Why pay a dollar for a bookmark? Why not use the dollar for a bookmark? Fred Stoller
Only a generation of readers will span a generation of writers. Steven Spielberg
People say that life is the thing, but I prefer reading. Logan Pearsall Smith
What is the most precious, the most exciting smell awaiting you in the house when you return to it after a dozen years or so? The smell of roses, you think? No, moldering books. Andre Sinyavsky
How can you dare teach a man to read until you've taught him everything else first? George Bernard Shaw
Don't ask me who's influenced me. A lion is made up of the lambs he's digested, and I've been reading all my life. Giorgos Seferis
I've never know any trouble than an hour's reading didn't assuage. Charles de Secondat
I am what libraries and librarians have made me, with little assistance from a professor of Greek and poets. B. K. Sandwell
A library is thought in cold storage. Herbert Samuel
Be sure that you go to the author to get at his meaning, not to find yours. John Ruskin
Prerequisite for rereadability in books: that they be forgettable. Jean Rostand
Very young children eat their books, literally devouring their contents. This is one reason for the scarcity of first editions of Alice in Wonderland and other favorites of the nursery. A. S. W. Rosenbach
The reason that fiction is more interesting than any other form of literature, to those who really like to study people, is that in fiction the author can really tell the truth without humiliating himself. Eleanor Roosevelt
Everything you need for better future and success has already been written. And guess what? All you have to do is go to the library. Jim Rohn
Upon books the collective education of the race depends; they are the sole instruments of registering, perpetuating and transmitting thought. Henry C. Rogers
The more sins you confess, the more books you will sell. American Proverb
Reading makes immigrants of us all. It takes us away from home, but more important, it finds homes for us everywhere. Hazel Rochman
No one can read with profit that which he cannot learn to read with pleasure. Noah Porter
The last thing one discovers in composing a work is what to put first. Blaise Pascal
A bibliophile of little means is likely to suffer often. Books don't slip from his hands but fly past him through the air, high as birds, high as prices. Pablo Neruda
A dose of poison can do its work but once. A bad book can go on poisoning minds for generations. William Murray
Books and marriage go ill together. Molière
Deep versed in books and shallow in himself. John Milton
Any book that helps a child to form a habit of reading, to make reading one of his deep and continuing needs, is good for him. Richard McKenna
The book to read is not the one which thinks for you, but the one which makes you think. No book in the world equals the Bible for that. Mccosh
Readers are plentiful: thinkers are rare. Harriet Martineau
Once we have learned to read, meaning of words can somehow register without consciousness. Anthony Marcel
The pleasure of reading is doubled when one lives with another who shares the same books. Katherine Mansfield
Everything in the world exists to end up in a book. Stephane Mallarme
A novel must be exceptionally good to live as long as the average cat. Hugh Maclennan
In science, read by preference the newest works. In literature, read the oldest. The classics are always modern. Lord Edward Lytton
For books are more than books, they are the life, the very heart and core of ages past, the reason why men lived and worked and died, the essence and quintessence of their lives. Amy Lowell
A book is a mirror: If an ass peers into it, you can't expect an apostle to look out. Georg C. Lichtenberg
You've really got to start hitting the books because it's no joke out here. Spike Lee
Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing. Harper Lee
What is reading, but silent conversation. Walter Savage Landor
I am a part of everything that I have read. John Kieran
Everywhere I have sought rest and not found it, except sitting in a corner by myself with a little book. Thomas ã Kempis
The worst thing about new books is that they keep us from reading the old ones. Joseph Joubert
Books like friends, should be few and well-chosen. Joineriana
Books that you carry to the fire, and hold readily in your hand, are most useful after all. Samuel Johnson
Books constitute capital. A library book lasts as long as a house, for hundreds of years. It is not, then, an article of mere consumption but fairly of capital, and often in the case of professional men, setting out in life, it is their only capital. Thomas Jefferson
Read as you taste fruit or savor wine, or enjoy friendship, love or life. Holbrook Jackson
The newest books are those that never grow old. George Holbrook Jackson
A book might be written on the injustice of the just. Anthony Hope
The books we read should be chosen with great care, that they may be, as an Egyptian king wrote over his library, "The medicines of the soul." Paxton Hood
The best of a book is not the thought which it contains, but the thought which it suggests; just as the charm of music dwells not in the tones but in the echoes of our hearts. Oliver Wendell Holmes
Books give not wisdom where none was before. But where some is, there reading makes it more. John Harington
The greatest gift is the passion for reading. It is cheap, it consoles, it distracts, it excites, it gives you knowledge of the world and experience of a wide kind. It is a moral illumination. Elizabeth Hardwick
The first time I read an excellent work, it is to me just as if I gained a new friend; and when I read over a book I have perused before, it resembles the meeting of an old one. Sir James Goldsmith
I know every book of mine by its smell, and I have but to put my nose between the pages to be reminded of all sorts of things. George Robert Gissing
When you have mastered numbers, you will in fact no longer be reading numbers, any more than you read words when reading books You will be reading meanings. Harold S. Geneen
A house is not a home unless it contains food and fire for the mind as well as the body. Margaret Fuller
Read much, but not many books. Benjamin Franklin
Read in order to live. Gustave Flaubert
If the riches of the Indies, or the crowns of all the kingdom of Europe, were laid at my feet in exchange for my love of reading, I would spurn them all. Francois FéNelon
There is creative reading as well as creative writing. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Our high respect for a well read person is praise enough for literature. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Never judge a book by its movie. J. W. Eagan
There is an art of reading, as well as an art of thinking, and an art of writing. Isaac Disraeli
The man who is fond of books is usually a man of lofty thought, and of elevated opinions. Christopher Dawson
Next, in importance to books are their titles. Paul Davies
The great American novel has not only already been written, it has already been rejected. Frank Dane
You are wise, witty and wonderful, but you spend too much time reading this sort of stuff. Jim Critchfield
The book salesman should be honored because he brings to our attention, as a rule, the very books we need most and neglect most. Frank Crane
I used to walk to school with my nose buried in a book. Coolio
Perhaps there are none more lazy, or more truly ignorant, than your everlasting readers. William Cobbett
A room without books is like a body without a soul. Marcus T. Cicero
The mere brute pleasure of reading -- the sort of pleasure a cow must have in grazing. Gilbert K. Chesterton
Let blockheads read what blockheads wrote. Lord Chesterfield
The flood of print has turned reading into a process of gulping rather than savoring. Warren Chappell
A good title is the title of a successful book. Raymond Chandler
Books are the blessed chloroform of the mind. Robert Chambers
Books are standing counselors and preachers, always at hand, and always disinterested; having this advantage over oral instructors, that they are ready to repeat their lesson as often as we please. Oswald Chambers
The novel can't compete with cars, the movies, television, and liquor. A guy who's had a good feed and tanked up on good wine gives his old lady a kiss after supper and his day is over. Finished. Louis-Ferdinand Celine
After all manner of professors have done their best for us, the place we are to get knowledge is in books. The true university of these days is a collection of books. Thomas Carlyle
A novel is never anything, but a philosophy put into images. Albert Camus
It is well to read everything of something, and something of everything. Lord Henry P. Brougham
There are worse crimes than burning books. One of them is not reading them. Joseph Brodsky
You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them. Ray Bradbury
Reading is not a duty, and has consequently no business to be made disagreeable. Augustine Birrell
I read the newspaper avidly. It is my one form of continuous fiction. Aneurin Bevan
All the best stories in the world are but one story in reality -- the story of escape. It is the only thing which interests us all and at all times, how to escape. Arthur Christopher Benson
Books are not men and yet they stay alive. Stephen Vincent Benet
A book is a garden, an orchard, a storehouse, a party, a company by the way, a counselor, a multitude of counselors. Henry Ward Beecher
Hypocrite reader -- my fellow -- my brother! Charles Baudelaire
The world may be full of fourth-rate writers but it's also full of fourth-rate readers. Stan Barstow
He that loves a book will never want a faithful friend, a wholesome counselor, a cheerful companion, an effectual comforter. By study, by reading, by thinking, one may innocently divert and pleasantly entertain himself, as in all weathers, as in all fortunes. Barrow
To feel most beautifully alive means to be reading something beautiful, ready always to apprehend in the flow of language the sudden flash of poetry. Gaston Bachelard
The printing press is either the greatest blessing or the greatest curse of modern times, sometimes one forgets which it is. Sir James M. Barrie
Books are men of higher stature; the only men that speak aloud for future times to hear. E.S. Barrett
To feel most beautifully alive means to be reading something beautiful, ready always to apprehend in the flow of language the sudden flash of poetry. Gaston Bachelard
He had read much, if one considers his long life; but his contemplation was much more than his reading. He was wont to say that if he had read as much as other men he should have known no more than other men. John Aubrey
I am not a speed reader. I am a speed understander. Isaac Asimov
Reading is a basic tool in the living of a good life. Mortimer J. Adler
Of all the diversions of life, there is none so proper to fill up its empty spaces as the reading of useful and entertaining authors. Joseph Addison
Show me the books he loves and I shall know the man far better than through mortal friends. Dawn Adams
I never worry about action; only inaction Winston Churchill
If one is master of one thing and understands one thing well, one has at the same time, insight into and understanding of many things. Van Gogh
Certain flaws are necessary for the whole. It would seem strange if old friends lacked certain quirks. Goethe
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 (Samuel Clemens)
Man is the only animal that blushes. Or needs to. Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens)
The secret source of humour itself is not joy, but sorrow. There is no humour in heaven. Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens)
It is not best that we should all think alike; it is difference of opinion that make horseraces. Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens), from Pudd'nhead Wilson's Calendar(1894)
Let us endeavor to live that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry. Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens), from Pudd'nhead Wilson's Calendar(1894)
The radical of one century is the conservative of the next. The radical invents the views. When he has worn them out, the conservative adopts them. Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens)
Good friends, good books and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life. (The conviction of the rich that the poor are happier is no more foolish than the conviction of the poor that the rich are.) Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens)
It is better to deserve honours and not have them than to have them and not to deserve them. Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens)
Good breeding consists in concealing how much we think of ourselves and how little we think of the other person. Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens), Notebooks(1935)
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 (Samuel Clemens), What Is Man?(1906)
Loyalty to petrified opinion never yet broke a chain or freed a human soul. Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens), Inscription beneath his bust in the Hall of Fame.
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 (Samuel Clemens)
It was enough to make a body ashamed of the human race. Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens), spoken by Huck Finn, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Take Nothing but Pictures. Leave nothing but footprints. Kill nothing but time. Motto of the National Speleological Society
The man who goes alone can start today; but he who travels with another must wait till that other is ready. Henry David Thoreau, Walden(1854),I,Economy
Civilization is the progress toward a society of privacy. The savage's whole existence is public, ruled by the laws of his tribe. Civilization is the process of setting man free from men. Ayn Rand, The Fountainhead (1943)
He that would make his own liberty secure must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself. Thomas Paine
In wildness is the preservation of the world. Henry David Thoreau, Walking(1862)
Money often costs too much. Ralph Waldo Emerson
He that would make his own liberty secure must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself. Thomas Paine
One man scorned and covered with scars still strove with his last ounce of courage to reach the unreachable stars; and the world will be better for this. Mitch Leigh, The Quest, based on Cervantes
Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, Creeps in this petty pace from day to day To the last syllable of recorded time, And all our yesterdays have lighted fools The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle! Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player That struts and frets his hour upon the stage And then is heard no more: it is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing. William Shakespeare, spoken by Macbeth, Macbeth,(Act V, scene v)
He was a man, take him for all in all, I shall not look upon his like again. William Shakespeare, Hamlet,(Act I, scene ii)
What a piece of work is man! how noble in reason! how infinite in faculty! in form and moving how express and admirable! in action how like an angel! in apprehension how like a god! the beauty of the world, the paragon of animals! William Shakespeare, spoken by Hamlet, Hamlet,(Act II, scene ii)
This above all: to thine own self be true William Shakespeare, Hamlet,(Act I, scene iii)
What's in a name? That which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet. William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet,(Act II, scene ii)
Everything should be as simple as possible, but no simpler. Albert Einstein
How I wish that somewhere there existed an island for those who are wise and of good will. Albert Einstein
Never do anything against conscience even if the state demands it. Albert Einstein
Heroism on command, senseless violence, and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism -- how passionately I hate them! Albert Einstein
Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocrities. The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary prejudices but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence. Albert Einstein
The further the spiritual evolution of mankind advances, the more certain it seems to me that the path to genuine religiosity does not lie through the fear of life, and the fear of death, and blind faith, but through striving after rational knowledge. Albert Einstein
A man's ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death. Albert Einstein
Beware of all enterprises that require new clothes. Henry David Thoreau, Walden(1854),I,Economy
Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind. Bertrand Russell, Autobiography
What a poor appearance the tales of poets make when stripped of the colours which music puts upon them, and recited in simple prose. Plato, The Republic. Book X. 601B
Democracy, which is a charming form of government, full of variety and disorder, and dispensing a sort of equality to equals and unequals alike. Plato, The Republic. Book VIII. 558
Bodily exercise, when compulsory, does no harm to the body; but knowledge which is acquired under compulsion obtains no hold on the mind. Plato, The Republic. Book VII. 536
Astronomy compels the soul to look upwards and leads us from this world to another. Plato, The Republic. Book VII. 529
If at first you don't succeed, well, so much for skydiving. Victor O'Reilly, Games of the Hangman
In a mad world, only the mad are sane. Akiro Kurosawa
Our care should not be to have lived long as to have lived enough. Seneca
I think; therefore I am. Rene Descartes
Every man is the architect of his own fortune. Appius Claudius
No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man. Heraclitus
Nothing endures but change. Heraclitus
Better to rule in Hell than to serve in Heaven. Milton
"A is A" Poster on wall of Ayn Rand preschool on The Simpsons.
Necessity, who is the mother of invention. Plato, The Republic. Book II. 369C
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, end of A Tale of Two Cities
The books that the world calls immoral are the books that show the world its own shame. Oscar Wilde
Let deeds match words. Platus
Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as one wishes to live. Oscar Wilde
"When the first baby laughed for the first time, the laugh broke into a thousand pieces and they all went skipping about, and that was the beginning of fairies. And now when every new baby is born its first laugh becomes a fairy. So there ought to be one fairy for every boy or girl." -- James Matthew Barrie Peter Pan
"One unquenchable longing has the mastery of me, which hitherto I neither would nor could repress; 'tis an insatiable craving for books, although, perhaps, I already have more than I ought." -- Francesco Petrarch, in Francesco Petrarca by E.H.R. Tatham
"There are some people... who are constantly drunk on books, as other men are drunk on whiskey or religion. They wander through this most diverting and stimulating of worlds in a haze, seeing nothing and hearing nothing." -- H.L. Mencken, Minority Report: H.L. Mencken's Notebooks, 1956
"An inconvenience is only an adventure wrongly considered; an adventure is an inconvenience rightly considered." -- On Running After Ones Hat, All Things Considered, G.K. Chesterton
"Outside of a dog, a book is Man's best friend. And inside of a dog, it's too dark to read." -- Groucho Marx
"When I want a book, it is as a tiger wants a sheep. I must have it with one spring, and, if I miss it, go away defeated and hungry." -- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., The Poet at the Breakfast-Table, 1872
"There is no true love without some sensuality. One is not happy in books unless one loves to caress them." -- Anatole France, On Life and Letters, 1914
"What wild desires, what restless torments seize The hapless man, who feels the book-disease." -- Dr. John Ferriar, "The Bibliomania: An Epistle to Richard Herber, Esq.," 1863
"Bibliomaniac: A victim of the obsessive-compulsive neurosis characterized by a congested library and an atrophied bank account" -- Maurice Dunbar, Hooked on Books, 1997
"The bibliophile is the master of his books, the bibliomaniac their slave." -- Hanns Bohatta
"Where is human nature so weak as in the bookstore!" -- Henry Ward Beecher, Star Papers; or Experiences of Art and Nature, 1855
"She is too fond of books, and it has turned her brain." -- Louisa May Alcott
"There are two ways of disliking poetry, one way is to dislike it, the other is to read Pope." -- Oscar Wilde
"You will find poetry nowhere unless you bring some with you." -- Joubert (1754-1824)
"A poem is never finished, only abandoned." -- Paul Valery, 1874-1945
"The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who cannot read them." -- Mark Twain
"My books are water; those of the great geniuses are wine -- everybody drinks water." -- Mark Twain
"A classic is something that everybody wants to have read and nobody has read." -- Mark Twain
"A bookstore is one of the only pieces of evidence we have that people are still thinking." --Jerry Seinfeld
""Classic": a book which people praise and don't read." -- Mark Twain
"Outside of a dog, a book is Man's best friend. And inside of a dog, it's too dark to read." -- Groucho Marx
Steal not this book, my worthy friend For fear the gallows will be your end; Up the ladder, and down the rope, There you'll hang until you choke; Then I'll come along and say - "Where's that book you stole away?" -- Medieval Book Curse
He who steals this book may he die the death may he be frizzled in a pan... -- Medieval Book Curse
"Oh for a book and a shady nook, either in door or out." -- John Wilson, poem for a catalogue of secondhand books.
"A book is a mirror: If an ass peers into it, you can't expect an apostle to look out." -- Georg Lichtenberg, 1742-1799
"There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written." -- Oscar Wilde
"When you read a classic you do not see in the book more than you did before. You see more in you than there was before." -- Clifton Fadiman (American Essayist)
"Censorship always defeats its own purpose, for it creates in the end the kind of society that is incapable of exercising real discretion." -- Henry Steele Commager (Historian)
"Just the knowledge that a good book is waiting one at the end of a long day makes that day happier." -- Kathleen Norris (1880-1966)
"Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world." -- Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822)
"It is only by the love of reading that the evil resulting from the association with little minds can be counteracted." -- Elizabeth Hamilton
"A book is the only immortality." -- Rufus Choate
"Eliminate all other factors, and the one which remains must be the truth." -- Sherlock Holmes to Watson, in The Sign of Four(1890) by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
"In the case of good books, the point is not to see how many of them you can get through, but rather how many can get through to you" -- Mortimer Jerome Adler
"Where they have burned books, they will end in burning human beings." -Heinrich Heine
"Without free speech no search for truth is possible... no discovery of truth is useful... Better a thousandfold abuse of free speech than denial of free speech. The abuse dies in a day, but the denial slays the life of the people, and entombs the hope of the race." -Charles Bradlaugh
"If there had been a censorship of the press in Rome we should have had today neither Horace nor Juvenal, nor the philosophical writings of Cicero." -Voltaire
"Censorship reflects a society's lack of confidence in itself." -Potter Stewart
"Only the suppressed word is dangerous." -Ludwig Börne
"I wrote 'Tom Sawyer' and 'Huck Finn' for adults exclusively, and it always distressed me when I find that boys and girls have been allowed access to them. The mind that becomes soiled in youth can never again be washed clean." -Mark Twain
"You have not converted a man because you have silenced him." -John Morley
"Did you ever hear anyone say, 'That work had better be banned because I might read it and it might be very damaging to me'?" -Joseph Henry Jackson
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." -Voltaire
"Free speech is the whole thing, the whole ball game. Free speech is life itself." -Salman Rushdie
"If we don't believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don't believe in it at all." -Noam Chomsky
The tallest blade of grass is the first to be cut by the scythe. -- Russian Proverb
All foods are good to eat, but not all words are fit to speak. -- Haitian proverb
He who does not honor his wife dishonors himself. -- Mexican proverb
All good things come to those who wait. -- English proverb
A happy heart is better than a full purse. -- Italian probverb
"God could not be everywhere and therefore he made mothers." -- Jewish Proverb
You can't dance at two weddings at the same time; nor can you sit on two horses with one behind. -- Yiddish Proverb
Don't spit into the well--you might drink from it later. -- Yiddish Proverb
In a restaurant choose a table near a waiter. -- Jewish proverb
A person who gets used to telling lies will always be enticed to falsehood. --Jewish proverb
Let him who dictates the letter be the carrier. -- Jewish proverb
Light is not recognized except through darkness. -- Jewish proverb
A timely verse is as good as bread in famine. -- Jewish proverb
A dog with two homes is never any good. -- Irish proverb
The fox never found a better messenger than himself. -- Irish proverb
Everyone is nice till the cow gets into the garden. -- Irish proverb
The best horse doesn't always win the race. -- Irish proverb
A man is known by his company. -- Irish proverb
Never buy through your ears but through your eyes. -- Irish proverb
"Teachers open the door, but you must enter by yourself." -- Chinese Proverb
"Learning is a treasure that will follow its owner everywhere." -- Chinese Proverb
A day of sorrow is longer than a month of joy. -- Chinese Proverb
Those who play the game do not see it as clearly as those who watch. -- Chinese Proverb
One who damages the character of another damages his own. -- Yoruba of Nigeria proverb
The way you bring up a child is the way it grows up. -- Swahili proverb
Peace is costly but it is worth the expense. -- Kikuyu of Kenya proverb
Turina keessatt killen millaan adeemti. (By persevering the egg walks on legs.) -- Oromo (Ethiopia) Proverb
You lament not the dead, but lament the trouble of making a grave; the way of the ghost is longer than the grave. -- Efik
Because friendship is pleasant, we partake of our friend's entertainment; not because we have not enough to eat in our own house. -- Yoruba
The house-roof fights with the rain, but he who is sheltered ignores it. -- Wolof
It is the fool whose own tomatoes are sold to him. -- Akan proverb
When elephants fight it is the grass that suffers. -- Kikuyu proverb
What is wrong today won't be right tomorrow. -- Dutch proverb
"A nickel will get you on the subway, but garlic will get you a seat." -- old New York proverb
"Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of the facts and evidence."