Famous Quotes |
| Socialism is nothing but the capitalism of the lower classes. |
Oswald Spengler, The Hour of Decision, 1933 |
German historian & philosopher
(1880 - 1936) |
| Man, unlike any other thing organic
or inorganic in the universe, grows beyond his work, walks up the stairs of his concepts, emerges ahead of his
accomplishments. |
John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath (1939) |
US novelist (1902 - 1968) |
| I know this--a man got to do what he got to do. |
John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath (1939) |
US novelist (1902 - 1968) |
| The history of the Victorian Age
will never be written: we know too much about it. For ignorance is the first requisite of the historian - ignorance, which
simplifies and clarifies, which selects and omits, with a placid perfection
unattainable by the highest art. |
Lytton Strachey, Eminent Victorians (1918) |
English biographer (1880 - 1932) |
| My music is best understood by children and animals. |
Igor Stravinsky, In Observer 8 Oct. 1961 |
Russian composer in US (1882 -
1971) |
| People who want to understand
democracy should spend less time in the library with Aristotle and more time on the buses and in the subway. |
Simeon Strunsky, No Mean City (1944) |
(1879 - 1948) |
| Do not go gentle into that good
night,<br> Old age should burn and rave at close of day;<br> Rage, rage against the dying of the light. |
Dylan Thomas, Collected poems (1952) |
Welsh poet (1914 - 1953) |
| Be wise with speed . A fool at forty is a fool indeed. |
Edward Young |
English poet (1683 - 1765) |
| The past is the only dead thing that smells sweet. |
Edward Thomas, Poems (1917) "Early One Morning" |
| Contrary to general belief, I do not
believe that friends are necessarily the people you like best, they are merely the people who got there first. |
Peter Ustinov, Dear Me (1977) |
English actor & author (1921 -
2004) |
| Art is the imposing of a pattern on
experience, and our aesthetic enjoyment is recognition of the pattern. |
Alfred North Whitehead, Dialogues (1954) |
English mathematician & philosopher
(1861 - 1947) |
| Civilization advances by extending
the number of important operations which we can perform without thinking about them. |
Alfred North Whitehead, Introduction to Mathematics (1911) |
English mathematician & philosopher
(1861 - 1947) |
| The nice thing about quotes is that
they give us a nodding acquaintance with the originator which is often socially impressive. |
Kenneth Williams, Acid Drops (1980) |
| I have always depended on the kindness of strangers. |
Tennessee Williams, A Streetcar Named Desire (1947) |
US dramatist (1911 - 1983) |
| The constitution does not provide for first and second class citizens. |
Wendell Willkie, An American Programme (1944) |
US businessman & politician
(1892 - 1944) |
| No nation is fit to sit in judgement upon any other nation. |
Woodrow Wilson, Speech in New York, Apr. 20, 1915 |
28th president of US (1856 - 1924) |
| There is such a thing as a man being
too proud to fight; there is such a thing as a nation being so right that it does not need to convince others by force
that it is right. |
Woodrow Wilson, Speech in Philadelphia, May 10, 1915 |
28th president of US (1856 - 1924) |
| If you would thoroughly know anything, teach it to others. |
Tryon Edwards |
(1809 - 1894) |
| The world must be made safe for
democracy. Its peace must be planted
upon the tested foundations of political liberty. |
Woodrow Wilson, Speech to Congress, Apr. 2, 1917 |
28th president of US (1856 - 1924) |
| The limits of my language mean the limits of my world. |
Ludwig Wittgenstein, Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (1922) |
Austrian philosopher (1889 - 1951) |
| The world of the happy is quite
different from that of the unhappy. |
Ludwig Wittgenstein, Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (1922) |
Austrian philosopher (1889 - 1951) |
| I do not know what I may appear to
the world; but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, and diverting myself in now and
then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the
great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me. |
Isaac Newton, From Brewster, Memoirs of Newton (1855) |
English mathematician & physicist
(1642 - 1727) |
| I am a kind of paranoiac in reverse. I suspect people of plotting to make
me happy. |
J. D. Salinger |
US novelist & short story author
(1919 - ) |
| Do not be fooled into believing that
because a man is rich he is necessarily smart. There is ample proof to the contrary. |
Julius Rosenwald |
US merchant & philanthropist
(1862 - 1932) |
| A woman can forgive a man for the
harm he does her...but she can never forgive him for the sacrifices he makes on her account. |
W. Somerset Maugham, The Moon and Sixpence |
English dramatist & novelist
(1874 - 1965) |
| Sometimes people carry to such
perfection the mask they have assumed that in due course they actually become the person they seem. |
W. Somerset Maugham, The Moon and Sixpence |
English dramatist & novelist
(1874 - 1965) |
| An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind. |
Mahatma Gandhi, (attributed) |
Indian ascetic & nationalist leader
(1869 - 1948) |
| Convinced myself, I seek not to convince. |
Edgar Allan Poe, Berenice |
US short story author, editor, & poet
(1809 - 1849) |
| Genius is entitled to respect only
when it promotes the peace and improves the happiness of mankind. |
Lord Essex |
| I am not afraid of storms for I am learning how to sail my ship. |
Helen Keller |
US blind & deaf educator (1880
- 1968) |
| Love goes toward love as schoolboys
from their books; but love from look, toward school with heavy looks. |
William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet |
Greatest English dramatist & poet
(1564 - 1616) |
| Our greatest natural resource is the minds of our children. |
Walt Disney, On the inside wall of the American Adventure in Epcot Center |
US cartoonist & movie producer
(1901 - 1966) |
| There are people who make things
happen, there are people who watch things happen, and there are people who wonder what happened. To be successful,
you need to be a person who makes things happen. |
James Lovell, speech to Girl Scouts
in DuPage County, Illinois, 1997 - quoted in the Chicago Tribune 2-3-03 |
| Today my spirit is going to school while my body stays in bed. |
Bill Watterson, "Calvin", Attack of the Deranged Mutant Killer
Monster Snow Goons |
US cartoonist (1958 - ) |
| The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook. |
William James |
US Pragmatist philosopher & psychologist (1842 - 1910) |
| Nudists have no fashion sense. |
Peter Kunkel |
| Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends? |
Abraham Lincoln |
16th president of US (1809 - 1865) |
| Success is to be measured not so
much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome while trying to succeed. |
Booker T. Washington |
US educator (1856 - 1915) |
| If a man cannot forget, he will never amount to much. |
Soren Kierkegaard |
Danish philosopher (1813 - 1855) |
| True greatness consists in the use of a powerful understanding to
enlighten oneself and others. |
Voltaire |
French author, humanist, rationalist, & satirist (1694 - 1778) |
| The joy of discovery is certainly the liveliest that the mind of man can
ever feel. |
Claude Bernard (1813-78) |
| You cannot teach a man anything; you can only help him find it within
himself. |
Galileo Galilei |
Italian astronomer & physicist
(1564 - 1642) |
| Better be wise by the misfortunes of others than by your own. |
Aesop |
Greek slave & fable author
(620 BC - 560 BC) |
| To surrender to ignorance and call
it God has always been premature, and it remains premature today. |
Isaac Asimov |
US science fiction novelist & scholar
(1920 - 1992) |
| If a man cannot choose, he ceases to be a man. |
Anthony Burgess, A Clockwork Orange |
British composer & novelist
(1917 - 1993) |
| He who fights monsters should look
into it that he himself does not become a monster. When you gaze long into the Abyss, the Abyss also gazes into
you. |
Friedrich Neitzsche |
| Four things come not back -- the
spoken word, the sped arrow, the past life, and the neglected opportunity. |
Arabian Proverb |
| Be humble for you are made of earth. Be noble for you are made of stars. |
Serbian Proverb |
| I cannot conceive otherwise than
that He, the Infinite Father, expects or requires no worship or praise from us, but that He is even infinitely above it. |
Benjamin Franklin |
US author, diplomat, inventor, physicist, politician, & printer (1706 - 1790) |
| Gods are fragile things; they may be killed by a whiff of science or a
dose of common sense. |
Chapman Cohen, (1868-1954) |
| Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich. |
Napoleon |
| The beauty of religious mania is
that it has the power to explain everything. Once God (or Satan) is accepted as the first cause of everything which
happens in the mortal world, nothing is left to chance...logic can be happily
tossed out the window. |
Stephen King |
US horror novelist & screenwriter
(1947 - ) |
| This only is certain, that there is
nothing certain; and nothing more miserable and yet more arrogant than man. |
Gaius Plinius Secundus, ("The
Elder") (23-79) |
| In these days, a man who says a
thing cannot be done is quite apt to be interrupted by some idiot doing it. |
Elbert Hubbard |
US author (1856 - 1915) |
| There is hardly anything<br>
in the world<br> that some man<br> cannot make a little
worse<br> cannot make a little
cheaper<br> and the people<br> who consider price only<br>
are this manÆs lawful prey. |
John Ruskin (1819-1900), British poet, artist, |
| It is a sad fact that 50 percent of
marriages in this country end in divorce. But hey, the other half end in death. You could be one of the lucky ones! |
Richard Jeni |
| The greatest lesson in life is to know that even fools are right
sometimes. |
Winston Churchill |
| Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss it you will land among the stars. |
Les Brown |
| Black holes are where God divided by zero. |
Stephen Wright |
| Nothing in this world is to be feared... only understood. |
Marie Curie |
French (Polish-born) chemist & physicist (1867 - 1934) |
| An elephant is a mouse, built to government specifications. |
John Herro |
| Every living thing is a sort of
imperialist, seeking to transform as much as possible of its environment into itself. |
Bertrand Russell |
British author, mathematician, & philosopher (1872 - 1970) |
| Whenever you look at a piece of work
and you think the fellow was crazy, then you want to pay some attention to that. One of you is likely to be, and
you had better find out which one it is. It makes an awful lot of difference. |
Charles Franklin Kettering, (1876-1958) |
| Europe is spreading its wings. In
freedom. In prosperity. And in peace. It is a truly proud moment for the European Union. It is a triumph for liberty and
democracy. To our new members I say: ôWarmly welcome to our familyö. Our new
Europe is born. |
Anders Fogh Rasmussen, (Prime
Minister of Denmark) Family photo after the European Council meeting in
Copenhagen, 13 December 20 |
| It is a brave act of valor to
condemn death, but where life is more terrible than death it is then the truest valor to dare to live. |
Sir Thomas Brown |
| Mankind must put an end to war, or war will put an end to mankind. |
John F. Kennedy |
US Democratic politician (1917 -
1963) |
| Life is beautiful. Life is sad. |
Vladimir Nabakov, Lolita |
| A man should never put on his best trousers when he goes out to battle
for freedom and truth. |
Henrik Ibsen |
Norwegian dramatist (1828 - 1906) |
| In the begining there was nothing, and it exploded. |
Terry Pratchet, (on the big bang theory) |
| No physical quantity can continue to change exponentially forever. Your
job is delaying forever. |
Gordon Moore, in a keynote address
at the International Solid-State Circuits Conference in San Francisco in 2003 |
| We cannot direct the wind, but we can adjust the sails. |
Dolly Parton |
| If women are expected to do the same work as men, we must teach them the
same things. |
Plato |
Greek author & philosopher in Athens
(427 BC - 347 BC) |
| The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the
rain. |
Dolly Parton |
| Do not be afraid to give up the good to go for the great. |
Kenny Rogers |
| In the long run, you hit only what you aim at: Therefore aim high. |
Henry David Thoreau |
US Transcendentalist author (1817
- 1862) |
| Expose yourself to your deepest
fear; after that, fear has no power, and the fear of freedom shrinks and vanishes. You are free. |
Jim Morrison |
| We dance in a circle and suppose, while the secret sits in the middle and
knows. |
Robert Frost |
US poet (1874 - 1963) |
| The sin which makes you sad and
repentant is more liked by Allah than the good deed which turns you arrogant. |
Imam Ali, Peak of Eloquence (Nahjul Balagha) |
| 205. A greedy man will always find himself in the shackles of humility. |
Imam Ali, Peak of Eloquence (Nahjul Balagha) |
| 148. One who does not realize his
own value is condemned to utter failure. (Every kind of complex, superiority or inferiority is harmful to man). |
Imam Ali, Peak of Eloquence (Nahjul Balagha) |
| Say all you have to say in the
fewest possible words, or your reader will be sure to skip them; and in the plainest possible words or he will certainly
misunderstand them. |
John Ruskin |
English critic, essayist, & reformer
(1819 - 1900) |
| Wise sayings often fall on barren ground; but a kind word is never thrown
away. |
Sir Arthur Helps |
| Going to war without France is like
going deer hunting without an accordion. You just leave a lot of useless, noisy baggage behind. |
Jed Babbin, former Deputy
Undersecretary of Defense |
| I never came upon any of my discoveries through the process of rational
thinking. |
Albert Einstein |
US (German-born) physicist (1879 -
1955) |
| Science is not only compatible with spirituality; it is a profound source
of spirituality. |
Carl Sagan |
US astronomer & popularizer of astronomy (1934 - 1996) |
| Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding. |
Albert Einstein |
US (German-born) physicist (1879 -
1955) |
| Heroism on command, senseless
violence, and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism -- how passionately I hate them! |
Albert Einstein |
US (German-born) physicist (1879 -
1955) |
| He who cherishes the values of culture cannot fail to be a pacifist. |
Albert Einstein |
US (German-born) physicist (1879 -
1955) |
| The aim (of education) must be the
training of independently acting and thinking individuals who, however, can see in the service to the community their
highest life achievement. |
Albert Einstein |
US (German-born) physicist (1879 -
1955) |
| Broadly speaking, the short words are the best, and the old words best of
all. |
Sir Winston Churchill |
British politician (1874 - 1965) |
| The conscientious objector is a
revoultionary. On deciding to disobey the law he sacrifices his personal interests to the most important cause of working
for the betterment of society. |
Albert Einstein |
US (German-born) physicist (1879 -
1955) |
| To my mind, to kill in war is not a whit better than to commit ordinary
murder. |
Albert Einstein |
US (German-born) physicist (1879 -
1955) |
| It is characteristic of the military
mentality that nonhuman factors (atom bombs, strategic bases, weapons of all sorts, the possession of raw materials,
etc) are held essential, while the human being, his desires, and thoughts -
in short, the psychological factors - are considered as unimportant and
secondary...The individual is degraded...to "human materiel". |
Albert Einstein |
US (German-born) physicist (1879 -
1955) |
| There are two ways of resisting war:
the legal way and the revolutionary way. The legal way involves the offer of alternatinve service not as a privilege
for a few but as a right for all. The revolutionary view involves an
uncompromising resistance, with a view to breaking the power of militarism in
time of peace or the resources of the state in time of war. |
Albert Einstein |
US (German-born) physicist (1879 -
1955) |
| After a certain high level of
technical skill is achieved, science and art tend to coalesce in esthetics, plasticity, and form. The greatest sceintists are
always artists as well. |
Albert Einstein |
US (German-born) physicist (1879 -
1955) |
| Nothing is more destructive of
respect for the government and the law of the land than passing laws which cannot be enforced. It is an open secret that
the dangerous increase of crime in this counrty is closely related with this. |
Albert Einstein |
US (German-born) physicist (1879 -
1955) |
| Anger dwells only in the bosom of fools. |
Albert Einstein |
US (German-born) physicist (1879 -
1955) |
| Holding on to anger is like grasping
a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned. |
Buddha |
Indian philosopher & religious leader
(563 BC - 483 BC) |
| Beware of the fury of the patient man. |
John Dryden |
English dramatist & poet (1631
- 1700) |
| Great anger is more destructive than the sword |
Tamil Proverb |
| Do not accustom yourself to use big words for little matters. |
Samuel Johnson |
English author, critic, & lexicographer (1709 - 1784) |
| Every time you get angry, you poison your own system. |
Alfred Montapert |
| Whatever is begun in anger ends in shame. |
Benjamin Franklin |
US author, diplomat, inventor, physicist, politician, & printer (1706 - 1790) |
| Good people do not need laws to tell
them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws. |
Plato |
Greek author & philosopher in Athens
(427 BC - 347 BC) |
| It is essential to know that to be a
happy person, a happy family, a happy society, it is very crucial to have a good heart, that is very crucial. World
peach must develop from inner peace. Peace is not just the absence of
violence but the manifestation of human compassion. |
Dalai Lama, (in exile) Associated Press, 5/14/01 |
| Peace is not a relationship of
nations. It is a condition of mind brought about by a serenity of soul. Peace is not merely the absence of war. It is also a
state of mind. Lasting peace can come only to peaceful people. |
Jawaharlal Nehru |
Indian politician (1889 - 1964) |
| High fashion has the shelf life of potato salad. |
Barbara Kingsolver, "Life Without Go-Go Boots" (personal essay) |
| I am free of all prejudice. I hate everyone equally. |
W. C. Fields |
US actor (1880 - 1946) |
| Grasp the subject, the words will follow. |
Cato the Elder |
Roman orator & politician (234
BC - 149 BC) |
| Long experience has taught me this
about the status of mankind with regard to matters requiring thought: the less people know and understand about them,
the more positively they attempt to argue concerning them, while on the other
hand to know and understand a multitude of things renders men cautious in
passing judgement upon anything new. |
Galileo Galilei, The Assayer |
Italian astronomer & physicist
(1564 - 1642) |
| Good sense is, of all things among
men, the most equally distributed: for every one thinks himself so abundantly provided with it, that those even who are
the most difficult to satisfy in everything else, do not usually desire a
larger measure of this quality than they already possess. |
Rene Descartes, Discourse on Method |
French mathematician & philosopher
(1596 - 1650) |
| You can always chase a dream but it will not count if you never catch it. |
Malcolm X, Autobiography of
Malcolm X chap 4 |
US black nationalist leader (1925
- 1965) |
| When one door of happiness closes,
another one opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us. |
Helen Keller |
US blind & deaf educator (1880
- 1968) |
| To know one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to
have succeeded. |
Ralph Waldo Emerson |
US essayist & poet (1803 -
1882) |
| There are many people who reach
their conclusions about life like schoolboys: they cheat their master by copying the answer out of a book without having
worked the sum out for themselves. |
S°ren Kierkegaard |
| 1. During civil disturbance adopt
such an attitude that people do not attach any importance to you - they neither burden you with complicated affairs, nor
try to derive any advantage out of you. |
Imam Ali-Ibn-Abi-Talib, Nahjul-Balgha (Peak of Eloquence), saying no1 |
| 2. He who is greedy is disgraced; he
who discloses his hardship will always be humiliated; he who has no control over his tongue will often have to face
discomfort. |
Imam Ali-Ibn-Abi-Talib, Nahjul Balgha (Peak of Eloquence), saying no. 2 |
| Experience becomes possible because of language. |
Noam Chomsky, Ruth Anshen, Biography
of an Idea (Mt. Kisco, NY: Moyer Bell Limited, 1986), pg. 196 |
US activist & linguist (1928
- ) |
| Do pleasant things yourself, but unpleasant things through others. |
Baltasar Gracian |
| The structure of language determines not only thought, but reality
itself. |
Noam Chomsky, Ruth Anshen, Biography
of an Idea (Mt. Kisco, NY: Moyer Bell Limited, 1986), pg. 196 |
US activist & linguist (1928
- ) |
| People say they love truth, but in reality they want to believe that
which they love is true. |
Robert J. Ringer |
| Are you going out after the truth, or are you going out after something
you believe? |
Richard D. Rosen |
| Truth will always be truth, regardless of lack of understanding,
disbelief, or ignorance. |
W. Clement Stone |
| If a rich man is proud of his wealth, he should not be praised until it
is known how he employs it. |
Socrates |
Greek philosopher in Athens (469
BC - 399 BC) |
| Life is like a ten-speed bike; most of us have gears we never use. |
Charles M. Schulz |
US cartoonist (1922 - 2000) |
| It is well enough that the people of
this nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a
revolution before tomorrow morning. |
Henry Ford |
US automobile industrialist (1863
- 1947) |
| Babylon violated diminishes
Alexander; Rome enslaved diminishes Caesar; massacred Jerusalem diminishes Titus. Tyranny follows the tyrant. Woe to
the man who leaves behind a shadow that bears his form. |
Victor Hugo, Les Miserables |
French dramatist, novelist, & poet
(1802 - 1885) |
| To study the phenomenon of disease
without books is to sail an uncharted sea, while to study books without patients is not to go to sea at all. |
Sir William Osler |
British (Canadian-born) physician
(1849 - 1919) |
| Never let your inferiors do you a favor - it will be extremely costly. |
H. L. Mencken |
US editor (1880 - 1956) |
| We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful what we pretend to
be. |
Kurt Vonnegut, Mother Night |
US novelist (1922 - ) |
| A purpose of human life, no matter who is controlling it, is to love
whoever is around to be loved. |
Kurt Vonnegut, Sirens of Titan |
US novelist (1922 - ) |
| I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set it free. |
Michaelangelo |
| Nothing happens to any man that he is not formed by nature to bear. |
Marcus Aureluis |
| She is not perfect. You are not
perfect. The question is whether or not you are perfect for each other. |
Robin Williams, Good Will Hunting |
US actor & comedian (1951
- ) |
| Never make a defense or an apology until you are accused. |
King Charles I, of England |
| We choose to go to the Moon in this
decade and do the other things, not because they are easy - but because they are hard! Because that challenge is
one we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone and one we
intend to win! |
John F. Kennedy, Rice University speech on September 12, 1962 |
US Democratic politician (1917 -
1963) |
| I smoke in moderation, only one cigar at a time. |
Mark Twain |
US humorist, novelist, short story author, & wit (1835 - 1910) |
| Cleave to no faith when faith brings blood. |
Arthur Miller, The Crucible, act II |
US dramatist (1915 - 2005) |
| The happiest people seem to be those
who have no particular reason for being happy except that they are so. |
William Inge |
| Digressions, objections, delight in
mockery, carefree mistrust are signs of health; everything unconditional belongs in pathology. |
Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil |
German philosopher (1844 - 1900) |
| The future is a hundred thousand threads, but the past is a fabric that
can never be rewoven. |
Orson Scott Card, Xenocide |
US science fiction author (1951
- ) |
| Since the dawn of time there have
been those among us who have been willing to go to extraordinary lengths to gain access to that domain normally
reserved for birds, angels, and madmen. |
Steven B. Beach, Paraglider magazine, Vol. 1 No. 2 |
| Love is a perky elf dancing a merry
little jig, and then suddenly he turns on you with a miniature machine gun. |
Matt Groening |
US cartoonist & satirist (1954
- ) |
| The more you sweat during peace, The less you bleed during war. |
Brian Wilson |
| In this age, which believes that
there is a short cut to everything, the greatest lesson to be learned is that the most difficult way is, in the long run, the
easiest. |
Henry Miller, The Books in My Life |
US author (1891 - 1980) |
| By heritage and by choice, the United States of America will make that
stand. |
George W. Bush, Speech to the United Nations, September 12, 2002 |
43rd President of US (1946 - ) |
| I have no money, no resources, no hopes. I am the happiest man alive. |
Henry Miller |
US author (1891 - 1980) |
| Every man has his own destiny: the
only imperative is to follow it, to accept it, no matter where it leads him. |
Henry Miller, The Wisdom of the Heart |
US author (1891 - 1980) |
| I pay very little regard...to what
any young person says on the subject of marriage. If they profess a disinclination for it, I only set it down that they
have not yet seen the right person. |
Jane Austen, Mansfield Park |
English novelist (1775 - 1817) |
| There will be little rubs and
disappointments everywhere, and we are all apt to expect too much; but then, if one scheme of happiness fails, human nature
turns to another; if the first calculation is wrong, we make a second better:
we find comfort somewhere. |
Jane Austen, Mansfield Park |
English novelist (1775 - 1817) |
| He who is in love is wise and is
becoming wiser, sees newly every time he looks at the object beloved, drawing from it with his eyes and his mind those
virtues which it possesses. |
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Address on The Method of Nature, 1841 |
US essayist & poet (1803 -
1882) |
| Poor Mexico - so far from God and so close to the United States. |
Porfirio Diaz, Biography of Porfirio Diaz |
| The only thing sadder than a battle won is a battle lost. |
Robert Jordan |
| For all its flaws, I would feel
safer to have my children grow up in a world dominated by the United States than by any other country. |
Kobsak Chutikul, (deputy leader in Thailand), AP news release 3/7/03 |
| Nothing is particularly hard if you divide it into small jobs. |
Henry Ford |
US automobile industrialist (1863
- 1947) |
| The only thing that comes from a sleeping man are dreams. |
Tupac Amaru Shakur |
| Arrogant and right is surely better than humble and wrong. |
Geoff Arbuthnot |
| Love is substance; Lust, illusion. Only in the surge of passion do the
two mingle in confusion. |
Calvin Miller, The Singer Trilogy |
| All governments suffer a recurring
problem: Power attracts pathological personalities. It is not that power corrupts but that it is magnetic to the
corruptable. Such people have a tendency to become drunk on violence, a
condition to which they are quickly addicted. |
Frank Herbert, Chapterhouse Dune, Missionaria Protectiva |
US science fiction novelist (1920
- 1986) |
| Ready comprehension is often a
knee-jerk response and the most dangerous form of understanding. It blinks an opaque screen over your ablility to
learn. The judgemental precedents of law function that way, littering your
path with dead ends. Be warned. Understand nothing. All comprehension is
temporary. |
Frank Herbert, Chapterhouse Dune, Mentat Fixe |
US science fiction novelist (1920
- 1986) |
| I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or
give me death! |
Patrick Henry, Meeting of the First Continental Congress in 1774 |
US orator, patriot, & politician in American Revolution (1736 - 1799) |
| God can be addressed, but not expressed. |
Martin Buber |
| Better to rely on one powerful king than on many little princes. |
Jean de La Fontaine |
French poet (1621 - 1695) |
| Rap music... sounds like somebody feeding a rhyming dictionary to a
popcorn popper. |
Tom Robbins |
US novelist (1936 - ) |
| I would rather discover one scientific fact than become King of Persia. |
Democritus |
Greek philosopher (460 BC - 370
BC) |
| Maybe most people were fundamentally contradictory. The real people at
any rate. |
Tom Robbins |
US novelist (1936 - ) |
| There exists a false aristocracy
based on family name, property, and inherited wealth. But there likewise exists a true aristocracy based on intelligence,
talent and virtue. |
Tom Robbins |
US novelist (1936 - ) |
| Meditation... disolves the mind. It erases itself. Throws the ego out on
its big brittle ass. |
Tom Robbins |
US novelist (1936 - ) |
| Nothing exists except atoms and empty space;everything else is opinion. |
Democritus |
Greek philosopher (460 BC - 370
BC) |
| History is a vision of GodÆs creation on the move. |
Arnold Toynbee |
English historian & historical philosopher (1889 - 1975) |
| Write something to suit yourself and
many people will like it; write something to suit everybody and scarcely anyone will care for it. |
Jesse Stuart |
| The more laws, the less justice. |
Cicero |
Roman author, orator, & politician
(106 BC - 43 BC) |
| Wit is educated insolence. |
Aristotle |
Greek critic, philosopher, physicist, & zoologist (384 BC - 322 BC) |
| To Thales the primary question was not what do we know, but how do we
know it. |
Aristotle |
Greek critic, philosopher, physicist, & zoologist (384 BC - 322 BC) |
| The whole is more than the sum of its parts. |
Aristotle, Metaphysica |
Greek critic, philosopher, physicist, & zoologist (384 BC - 322 BC) |
| He mobilized the English language
and sent it into battle to steady his fellow countrymen and hearten those Europeans upon whom the long dark night of
tyranny had descended. |
Edward R. Murrow, On Winston Churchill, 1954 |
US broadcast journalist & newscaster
(1908 - 1965) |
| Somewhere between the Angels and the French lies the rest of humanity. |
Mark Twain |
US humorist, novelist, short story author, & wit (1835 - 1910) |
| Now we are all sons of bitches. |
Robert J. Oppenheimer, After viewing
1st full test of manhattan project at trinity, NM. Invention and Technology magazine, 2001 |
| War is a way of shattering to
pieces, or pouring into the stratosphere, or sinking in the depths of the sea, materials which might otherwise be used to make
the masses too comfortable, and hence, in the long run, too intelligent. |
George Orwell, 1984 |
English essayist, novelist, & satirist (1903 - 1950) |
| Horse, you are truly a creature
without equal, for you fly without wings and conquer without sword. |
The Koran |
| Praise youth and it will prosper. |
Irish Proverb |
| To err is human; to forgive, divine. |
Alexander Pope |
English poet & satirist (1688
- 1744) |
| The greatness of a nation and its
moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated. |
Mahatma Gandhi |
Indian ascetic & nationalist leader
(1869 - 1948) |
| No amount of time can erase the
memory of a good cat and no amount of masking tape can ever totally remove his fur from your couch. |
Leo Buscaglia |
| All is ephemeral--fame and the famous as well. |
Marcus Aurelius |
| Everybody likes to go their own way--to choose their own time and manner
of devotion. |
Jane Austen, Mansfield Park |
English novelist (1775 - 1817) |
| It will, I believe, be everywhere
found, that as the clergy are, or are not what they ought to be, so are the rest of the nation. |
Jane Austen, Mansfield Park |
English novelist (1775 - 1817) |
| Oh! do not attack me with your
watch. A watch is always too fast or too slow. I cannot be dictated to by a watch. |
Jane Austen, Mansfield Park |
English novelist (1775 - 1817) |
| Where any one body of educated men,
of whatever denomination, are condemned indiscriminately, there must be a deficiency of information, or...of
something else. |
Jane Austen, Mansfield Park |
English novelist (1775 - 1817) |
| For there is no question but a just
fear of an imminent danger, though there be no blow given, is a lawful cause of war. |
Sir Francis Bacon, Of Empire |
English author, courtier, & philosopher (1561 - 1626) |
| We make war that we may live in peace. |
Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, bk. 10, ch. 7, sct. 1177b |
Greek critic, philosopher, physicist, & zoologist (384 BC - 322 BC) |
| The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams. |
Eleanor Roosevelt |
US diplomat & reformer (1884 -
1962) |
| Begin doing what you want to do now.
We are not living in eternity. We have only this moment, sparkling like a star in our hand ¡ and melting like a
snowflake. Let us use it before it is too late. |
Marie Beyon Ray |
| We are students of words: we are
shut up in schools, and colleges, and recitation-rooms, for ten or fifteen years, and come out at last with a bag of
wind, a memory of words, and do not know a thing. |
Ralph Waldo Emerson |
US essayist & poet (1803 -
1882) |
| The man who stops making new friends eventually will have none. |
James Boswell |
Scottish author & biographer
(1740 - 1795) |
| Religions change; beer and wine remain. |
Harvey Allen |
| In England there are sixty different religions and only one sauce. |
Francesco Caracciolo, on alcohol |
| Stupidity has a certain charm - ignorance does not. |
Frank Zappa |
US musician, singer, & songwriter
(1940 - 1993) |
| I am not sincere, even when I say I am not. |
Jules Renard |
(1864 - 1910) |
| Mankind must put an end to war, or war will put an end to mankind. |
#NAME? |
| The world is divided into two kinds
of people, those who spend a great deal of time saving money, and those who spend a great deal of money saving time. |
Peter Cochrane, Head of BT Labs UK taling about the internet - November
2000 |
| And I can fight only for something
that I love, love only what I respect, and respect only what I at least know. |
Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf |
German Nazi dictator, orator, & politician (1889 - 1945) |
| When spider webs unite, they can tie up a lion. |
Ethiopian Proverb |
| The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you got to put up with the
rain. |
Dolly Parton |
| The shah always falls in the end,
Saddam always turns on you, and the Saudis always betray you. If we support evil, the long-term price is almost
always too high. |
Lt. Col. (Ret.) Ralph Peters, Interview in American Heritage |
| I can take any amount of criticism as long as I can consider it
unqualified praise. |
Noel Coward |
English actor, dramatist, & songwriter (1899 - 1973) |
| Keep true to the dreams of thy youth. |
Friedrich von Schiller |
German dramatist & poet (1759
- 1805) |
| A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they know
they shall never sit. |
Greek proverb |
| If you are ever in doubt as to
whether or not you should kiss a pretty girl, give her the benefit of the doubt. |
Thomas Carlyle |
Scottish author, essayist, & historian (1795 - 1881) |
| The West won the world not by the
superiority of its ideas or values or religion but rather by its superiority in applying organized violence. Westerners
often forget this fact, non-Westerners never do. |
Samuel P. Huntington |
| I was not looking for my dreams to interpret my life, but rather for my
life to interpret my dreams. |
Susan Sontag |
US author & critic (1933
- ) |
| I am still determined to be cheerful
and happy, in whatever situation I may be; for I have also learned from experience that the greater part of our
happiness or misery depends upon our dispositions, and not upon our
circumstances. |
Martha Washington |
US wife of George Washington 1759
(1732 - 1802) |
| Be gentle with the young. |
Juvenal |
Roman poet & satirist (55 AD -
127 AD) |
| That which we fear to touch is often the fabric of our salvation. |
Don DeLillo, White Noise |
| He that plants trees loves others beside himself. |
Dr. Thomas Fuller, Gnomologia, 1732 |
British physician (1654 - 1734) |
| Money is the sinew of love as well as war. |
Dr. Thomas Fuller, Gnomologia, 1732 |
British physician (1654 - 1734) |
| With foxes we must play the fox. |
Dr. Thomas Fuller, Gnomologia, 1732 |
British physician (1654 - 1734) |
| Get the facts, or the facts will get
you. And when you get them, get them right, or they will get you wrong. |
Dr. Thomas Fuller, Gnomologia, 1732 |
British physician (1654 - 1734) |
| Education begins a gentleman, conversation completes him. |
Dr. Thomas Fuller, Gnomologia, 1732 |
British physician (1654 - 1734) |
| The skill of writing is to create a context in which other people can
think. |
Edwin Schlossberg |
| Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter. |
Martin Luther King Jr. |
US black civil rights leader & clergyman (1929 - 1968) |
| Everywhere I go I find a poet has been there before me. |
Sigmund Freud |
Austrian psychologist (1856 -
1939) |
| If any one faculty of our nature may
be called more wonderful than the rest, I do think it is memory. There seems something more speakingly incomprehensible
in the powers, the failures, the inequalities of memory, than in any other of
our intelligences. The memory is sometimes so retentive, so serviceable, so
obedient; at others, so bewildered and so weak; and at others again, so
tyrannic, so beyond control! We are, to be sure, a miracle every way; but our
powers of recollecting and of forgetting do seem peculiarly past finding out. |
Jane Austen, Mansfield Park |
English novelist (1775 - 1817) |
| A large income is the best recipe for happiness I ever heard of. |
Jane Austen, Mansfield Park |
English novelist (1775 - 1817) |
| Nothing amuses me more than the easy
manner with which everybody settles the abundance of those who have a great deal less than themselves. |
Jane Austen, Mansfield Park |
English novelist (1775 - 1817) |
| Curiosity killed the cat, but for a while I was a suspect. |
Steven Wright |
US comedian and actor (1955 - ) |
| Regret for the things we did can be
tempered by time; it is regret for the things we did not do that is inconsolable. |
Sydney J. Harris, Strictly Personal |
| It is men who wait to be selected,
and not those who seek, from whom we may expect the most efficient service. |
Ulysses S. Grant, Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant, Chapter 46 |
US general & politician (1822
- 1885) |
| What is more mortifying than to feel
that you have missed the plum for want of courage to shake the tree? |
Logan Pearsall Smith |
(1865 - 1946) |
| From birth to age eighteen, a girl
needs good parents.<br> From eighteen to thirty-five, she needs good looks.<br> From thirty-five to fifty-five,
she needs a good personality.<br> From fifty-five on, she needs good
cash. |
Sophie Tucker |
| I believe in the possibility of miracles but more to the point, I believe
in our need for them. |
Dean Koontz, Fear Nothing, Page 4 , final paragraph |
| Beat a man with the strength of you argument, not with the strength of
your arm. |
Oliver Wendell Holmes |
US author & physician (1809 -
1894) |
| Love is not a crime, denying it is.
Having dreams is not a crime, not chasing them is. Making mistakes is not a crime, not learning from them is. Life is
not a crime, not living it is. |
Alexander Senturia |
| If you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the
universe. |
Carl Sagan |
US astronomer & popularizer of astronomy (1934 - 1996) |
| A child only educated at school is an uneducated child. |
George Santayana |
US (Spanish-born) philosopher
(1863 - 1952) |
| Life is short. Forgive quickly. Kiss slowly. |
Robert Doisneau |
| Thou shall not steal. I mean defensively. On offense, thou shall steal
and thou must. |
Branch Rickey/ Dogers GM (1943-50) |
| Life cannot find reasons to sustain
it, cannot be a source of decent natural regard, unless each of us resolves to breathe such qualities into it. |
Frank Herbert, Chenoeh: "Coversations with Leto II" |
US science fiction novelist (1920
- 1986) |
| Have not all races had their first unity from a mythology that marries
them to rock and hill? |
William Butler Yeats, The Celtic Twilight, Introduction |
Irish dramatist & poet (1865 -
1939) |
| Let them have their ways, but let us never loose ours. |
Rossella Camerlingo |
| We taste and feel and see the truth. We do not reason outselves into it. |
William Butler Yeats |
Irish dramatist & poet (1865 -
1939) |
| Our own acts are isolated and one act does not buy absolution for
another. |
William Butler Yeats, Autobiography |
Irish dramatist & poet (1865 -
1939) |
| The best audience is intelligent, well-educated, and a little drunk. |
Alben W. Barkley, (vice president under Harry Truman) |
| It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our
abilities. |
J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets |
British fantasy author |
| What other people think about me is not my business. |
Michael J. Fox, Lucky Man - a memoir |
US (Canadian-born) actor (1961
- ) |
| Music gives a soul to the universe,
wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, a charm to sadness, gaiety and life to everything. It is the essence of
order, and leads to all that is god, just, and beautiful, of which it is the
invisible, but never less, dazzaling, passionate, and eternal form. |
Plato |
Greek author & philosopher in Athens
(427 BC - 347 BC) |
| Never be bored, and you will never be boring. |
Eleanor Roosevelt |
US diplomat & reformer (1884 -
1962) |
| The pursuit of knowledge for its own
sake, an almost fanatical love of justice, and the desire for personal independence - these are the features of Jewish
tradition that make me thank my stars that I belong to it. |
Albert Einstein, The World As I See It (autobio, 1934) |
US (German-born) physicist (1879 -
1955) |
| Here is a great body of our Jewish
citizens from whom have sprung men of genius in every walk of our varied life; men who have conceived of its ideals
with singular clearness; and led enterprises with sprit & sagacity...
They are not Jews in America, they are American citizens. |
Woodrow Wilson |
28th president of US (1856 - 1924) |
| I suggest that the only books that
influence us are those for which we are ready, and which have gone a little farther down our own particular path than
we have yet got ourselves. |
E. M. Forster, Two Cheers for Democracy, 1951 |
British novelist (1879 - 1970) |
| I am eternally grateful.. for my
knack of finding in great books, some of them very funny books, reason enough to feel honored to be alive, no matter what
else might be going on. |
Kurt Vonnegut, Timequake, 1997 |
US novelist (1922 - ) |
| Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are
stupider than that. |
George Carlin |
US comedian and actor (1937 - ) |
| Education is an admirable thing, but
it is well worth remembering from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught. |
Oscar Wilde |
Irish dramatist, novelist, & poet
(1854 - 1900) |
| Men are so stupid and concerned with
their present needs, they will always let themselves be deceived. |
Machiavelli, The Prince |
| A nation that draws too broad a
difference between its scholars and its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards, and its fighting done by fools. |
Thucydides |
Greek historian (471 BC - 400 BC) |
| We have all a better guide in ourselves, if we would attend to it, than
any other person can be. |
Jane Austen, Mansfield Park |
English novelist (1775 - 1817) |
| In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king. <br> [In
regione caecorum rex est luscus.] |
Desiderius Erasmus, Adagia (III, IV, 96) |
Dutch author, philosopher, & scholar
(1466 - 1536) |
| The darkest places in hell are
reserved for those who maintain their neutrality in times of moral crisis. |
Dante Alighieri |
Italian national epic poet (1265 -
1321) |
| Marriage: the state or condition of
a community consisting of a master, a mistress, and two slaves, making in all, two. |
Ambrose Bierce |
US author & satirist (1842 -
1914) |
| Evolution crawls to imperfection. It ends in extinction. |
J. Gregory Keyes, "Babylon 5: Dark Genesis: The Birth of the Psi
Corps" |
| The mirror never sees itself. The reflection never is itself. |
J. Gregory Keyes, "Babylon 5: Dark Genesis: The Birth of the Psi
Corps" |
| Consult your dragon before you wager his hide. |
Melaine Rawn, Dragon Star 1: Stronghold |
| In that instant he learned what
jealousy was. He wanted to know the name of every other man she had ever looked at, whether they had touched her- and
most especially where to find these men so that he could kill them. |
Melaine Rawn, "Dragon Prince 1: Dragon Prince" |
| And yesterday he would have killed
me to get to his foe. But now we serve each other. Only a fool walks into the future backward. |
Terry Goodkind, "Stone of Tears" |
| But if used for retribution, magic is vengeance incarnate. |
Terry Goodkind, "Blood of the Fold" |
| There are now two great nations in
the world, which starting from different points, seem to be advancing toward the same goal: the Russians and the
Anglo-Americans...Each seems called by some secret design of Providence one
day to hold in its hands the destinies of half the world. |
Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America 1835 |
| Fear less, hope more;<br>
Whine less, breathe more;<br> Talk less, say more;<br> Hate less,
love more;<br> And all good things are
yours. |
"Swedish Proverb" |
| I am not young enough to know everything. |
Oscar Wilde |
Irish dramatist, novelist, & poet
(1854 - 1900) |
| Never in the course of history, have so many owed so much to so few. |
Winston Churchill, Speech about World War II |
| All you touch and all you see, is all your life will ever be. |
Roger Waters, Pink Floyd, The Dark Side of the Moon |
| Why, you may take the most gallant
sailor, the most intrepid airman or the most audacious soldier, put them at a table together- what do you get? The
sum of all fears. |
Winston Churchill, The Sum of All Fears by Tom Clancy |
| Times of general calamity and
confusion create great minds. The purest ore is produced from the hottest furnace, and the brightest thunderbolt is
elicited from the darkest storms. |
Charles Caleb Colton |
(1780 - 1832) |
| Their element is to attack, to
track, to hunt, and to destroy the enemy. Only in this way can the eager and skillful fighter pilot display his ability. Tie
him to a narrow and confined task, rob him of his initiative, and you take
away from him the best and most valuable qualities he posses: aggressive
spirit, joy of action, and the passion of the hunter. |
LtGen Adolf Galland, Luftwaffe |
| Only in the spirit of attack, born
in a brave heart, will bring success to any fighter aircraft, no matter how highly developed it may be. |
LtGen Adolf Galland, Luftwaffe |
| There are only two types of aircraft û fighters and targets. |
Doyle æWahooÆ Nicholson, USMC |
| The aggressive spirit, the
offensive, is the chief thing everywhere in war, and the air is no exception. |
Baron Manfred von Richthofen ("Red Baron") |
| I have plentyof common sense! I just choose to ignore it. |
Bill Watterson, Calvin and Hobbes |
US cartoonist (1958 - ) |
| The supreme happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved. |
Victor Hugo |
French dramatist, novelist, & poet
(1802 - 1885) |
| In simplest terms, a leader is one who knows where he wants to go, and
gets up, and goes. |
John Erksine, The Complete Life |
| All the beautiful sentiments in the world weigh less than a single lovely
action. |
James Russell Lowell |
| Nobody ever died of laughter. |
Max Beerbohm |
English author and satirist (1872
- 1956) |
| I was born old and get younger every day. At present I am sixty years
young. |
Herbert Beerbohm Tree |
| Every generation imagines itself to
be more intelligent than the one that went before it, and wiser than the one that comes after it. |
George Orwell |
English essayist, novelist, & satirist (1903 - 1950) |
| Nothing is illegal if one hundred businessmen decide to do it. |
Andrew Young |
| At sixteen I was stupid, confused,
insecure and indecisive. At twenty-five I was wise, self- confident, prepossessing and assertive. At forty-five I am
stupid, confused, insecure and indecisive. Who would have supposed that
maturity is only a short break in adolescence? |
Jules Feiffer |
US cartoonist & satirist (1929
- ) |
| It is sobering to consider that when Mozart was my age he had already
been dead for a year. |
Tom Lehrer |
US humorist, singer, & songwriter
(1928 - ) |
| Those who will not reason are
bigots, those who cannot, are fools, and those who dare not, are slaves. |
George Gordon Noel Byron |
| As long as people will accept crap, it will be financially profitable to
dispense it. |
Dick Cavett |
US comedian & television host
(1936 - ) |
| God gave you a gift of 86,400 seconds today. Have you used one to say
"thank you"? |
William Arthur Ward |
| Any society that needs disclaimers has too many lawyers. |
Erik Pepke |
| Two men look out through the same bars; one sees the mud and one the
stars. |
Frederick Langbridge |
(1849 - 1923) |
| A person usually has two reasons for doing something: a good reason and
the real reason. |
Thomas Carlyle |
Scottish author, essayist, & historian (1795 - 1881) |
| About the time we can make ends meet, somebody moves the ends. |
Herbert Hoover |
US mining engineer & politician
(1874 - 1964) |
| Gather ye rose-buds while ye may,
<br> Old Time is still a-flying;<br> And this same flower that smiles today,<br> Tomorrow will be dying. |
Robert Herrick, To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time |
English lyric poet (1591 - 1674) |
| Action may not always bring happiness, but there is no happiness without
action. |
Benjamin Disraeli |
British politician (1804 - 1881) |
| The jungle is dark but full of diamonds... |
Arthur Miller, Death of a Salesman |
US dramatist (1915 - 2005) |
| The road to hell is paved with adverbs. |
Stephen King |
US horror novelist & screenwriter
(1947 - ) |
| The most wasted day of all is that during which we have not laughed. |
Sebastian R. N. Chamfort |
| He has the right to criticize who has the heart to help. |
Abraham Lincoln |
16th president of US (1809 - 1865) |
| A child is not likely to find a father in God unless he finds something
of God in his father. |
Austin L. Sorensen |
| Big shots are only little shots who kept on shooting. |
Dale Carnegie |
| Middle age is when your age starts to show around the middle. |
Bob Hope |
US (English-born) actor & comedian
(1903 - 2003) |
| The Christian does not consider death to be the end of his life, but the
end of his troubles. |
A. Mark Wells |
| Music is well said to be the speech of angels. |
Thomas Carlyle |
Scottish author, essayist, & historian (1795 - 1881) |
| Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter. |
Martin Luther King, Jr. |
| I am certainly not one of those who need to be prodded. In fact, if
anything, I am the prod. |
Sir Winston Churchill |
British politician (1874 - 1965) |
| They are never alone that are accompanied with noble thoughts. |
Sir Philip Sidney |
English poet, politician, & soldier
(1554 - 1586) |
| Be glad of life because it gives you
the chance to love, and to work, and to play and to look up at the stars. |
Henry Van Dyke |
| Natives who beat drums to drive off
evil spirits are objects of scorn to smart Americans who blow horns to break up traffic jams. |
Mary Ellen Kelly |
| Death is nothing, but to live defeated and inglorious is to die daily. |
Napoleon Bonaparte |
French general & politician
(1769 - 1821) |
| Never does the human soul appear so
strong and noble as when it foregoes revenge and dares to forgive an injury. |
E. H. Chapin |
| All great truths begin as blasphemies. |
George Bernard Shaw |
Irish dramatist & socialist
(1856 - 1950) |
| If you lose money you lose
much,<br> If you lose friends you lose more,<br> If you lose
faith you lose all. |
Eleanor Roosevelt |
US diplomat & reformer (1884 -
1962) |
| When one loses the deep intimate
relationship with nature, then temples, mosques and churches become important. |
J. Krishnamurti, Beginnings of Learning |
| Love and hate are not opposites. The opposite of love is indifference. |
A. S. Neill, Summerhill |
| In obedience there is always fear, and fear darkens the mind. |
J. Krishnamurti, Beginnings of Learning |
| Free children are not easily
influenced; the absence of fear accounts for this phenomenon. Indeed, the absence of fear is the finest thing that can happen
to a child. |
A. S. Neill, Summerhill |
| The difficult child is the child who
is unhappy. He is at war with himself; and in consequence, he is at war with the world. |
A. S. Neill, Summerhill |
| Cleverness is like a lens with a very sharp focus. Wisdom is more like a
wide-angle lens. |
Edward de Bono, Textbook of Wisdom |
| Whoever finds love<br> beneath
hurt and grief<br> disappears into emptiness<br> with a thousand new disguises. |
Jelaluddin Rumi |
| The neurotic and the artist - since
both live out the unconscious of the race - reveal to us what is going to emerge endemically in the society later on. |
Rollo May |
| Let the beauty we love be what we do. There are hundreds of ways to kneel
and kiss the ground. |
Jelaluddin Rumi |
| No leader sets out to become a
leader. People set out to live their lives, expressing themselves fully. When that expression is of value, they become
leaders. So the point is not to become a leader. The point is to become
yourself, to use yourself completelyùall your skills, gifts, and energiesùin
order to make your vision manifest. You must withhold nothing. You must, in
sum, become the person you started out to be and enjoy the process of
becoming. |
Warren Bennis, From an article in a meeting industry magazine. |
| The men who create power make an
indispensable contribution to the NationÆs greatness, but the men who question power make a contribution just as
indispensable, especially when that questioning is disinterested, for they
determine whether we use power or power uses us. |
John F. Kennedy, Amherst College, Oct 26, 1963 - Source JFK Library,
Boston, Mass. |
US Democratic politician (1917 -
1963) |
| Wanting to be someone else is a waste of the person you are. |
Kurt Cobain |
| I believe in God, Mozart, and Beethoven. |
Richard Wagner |
| We mortals with immortal minds are
only born for sufferings and joys, and one could almost say that the most excellent receive joy through sufferings. |
Ludwig van Beethoven |
German Romantic composer (1770 -
1827) |
| Music is a higher revelation than philosophy. |
Ludwig van Beethoven |
German Romantic composer (1770 -
1827) |
| Music, verily, is the mediator
between intellectual and sensuous life... the one incorporeal entrance into the higher world of knowledge which comprehends
mankind but which mankind cannot comprehend. |
Ludwig van Beethoven |
German Romantic composer (1770 -
1827) |
| I have never thought of writing for
reputation and honor. What I have in my heart must come out; that is the reason why I compose. |
Ludwig van Beethoven |
German Romantic composer (1770 -
1827) |
| I wish you music to help with the
burdens of life ,and to help you release your happiness to others. |
Ludwig van Beethoven |
German Romantic composer (1770 -
1827) |
| (Kenneth) Star...(has) done what I
could not do in a quarter century: make pornography more widely available. |
Larry Flint, on the evidence against Pres Bill Clinton |
| Only the curious will learn and only
the resolute overcome the obstacles to learning. The quest quotient has always excited me more than the intelligence
quotient. |
Eugene S. Wilson |
| Dick, frankly you do not have the war plan... which makes me quite happy. |
Donald Rumsfeld, 1st briefing after "shock and awe" started |
| Give us this day our daily Faith, but deliver, dear God, from Belief. |
A. Huxley, Island |
| ...simple fact that any land looks like Eden after months at sea. |
Robert Hughes, Fatal Shore |
| A good plan violently executed right now is far better than a perfect
plan executed next week. |
George S. Patton |
US general (1885 - 1945) |
| Not to be absolutely certain is, I think, one of the essential things in
rationality. |
Bertrand Russell, "Am I An Atheist Or An Agnostic?", 1947 |
British author, mathematician, & philosopher (1872 - 1970) |
| When one admits that nothing is
certain one must, I think, also admit that some things are much more nearly certain than others. |
Bertrand Russell, "Am I An Atheist Or An Agnostic?", 1947 |
British author, mathematician, & philosopher (1872 - 1970) |
| When one admits that nothing is
certain one must, I think, also admit that some things are much more nearly certain than others. It is much more nearly
certain that we are assembled here tonight than it is that this or that
political party is in the right. Certainly there are degrees of certainty,
and one should be very careful to emphasize that fact, because otherwise one
is landed in an utter skepticism, and complete skepticism would, of course,
be totally barren and completely useless. |
Bertrand Russell, "Am I An Atheist Or An Agnostic?", 1947 |
British author, mathematician, & philosopher (1872 - 1970) |
| We are not afraid to entrust the
American people with unpleasant facts, foreign ideas, alien philosophies and competitive values. For a nation that is
afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a
nation that is afraid of its people. |
John F. Kennedy |
US Democratic politician (1917 -
1963) |
| The supreme happiness in life is the
conviction that we are loved, or rather, loved in spite of ourselves. |
Victor Hugo |
French dramatist, novelist, & poet
(1802 - 1885) |
| Just turn left at Greenland... |
John Lennon, When asked how the Beatles found America on their first U.S.
visit |
English singer & songwriter
(1940 - 1980) |
| There is no reciprocity. Men love women, women love children, children
love hamsters. |
Alice Thomas Ellis |
| Never go out to meet trouble. If you
will just sit still, nine cases out of ten someone will intercept it before it reaches you. |
Calvin Coolidge |
30th president of US (1872 - 1933) |
| The price of freedom of religion, or
of speech, or of the press, is that we must put up with a good deal of rubbish. |
Robert Jackson |
| Reading made Don Quixote a gentleman. Believing what he read made him
mad. |
George Bernard Shaw |
Irish dramatist & socialist
(1856 - 1950) |
| Books have the same enemies as people: fire, humidity, animals, weather,
and their own content. |
Paul Valery |
French critic & poet (1871 -
1945) |
| When you are eight years old, nothing is any of your business. |
Lenny Bruce |
(1923 - 1966) |
| Like its politicians and its wars, society has the teenagers it deserves. |
J. B. Priestley |
English critic, dramatist, & novelist
(1894 - 1984) |
| What is youth except a man or a woman before it is ready or fit to be
seen? |
Evelyn Waugh |
English novelist & satirist
(1903 - 1966) |
| I believe that people would be alive today if there were a death penalty. |
Nancy Reagan |
US 2nd wife of Ronald Reagan 1952
(1921 - ) |
| The time not to become a father is eighteen years before a war. |
E. B. White |
US author & humorist (1899 -
1985) |
| Setting a good example for children takes all the fun out of middle age. |
William Feather |
(1908 - 1976) |
| There is no such thing as "fun for the whole family." |
Jerry Seinfeld |
US comedian & television actor
(1954 - ) |
| Thirty-five is a very attractive
age. London society is full of women of the very highest birth who have, of their own free choice, remained thirty-five for
years. |
Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest, Act 3 |
Irish dramatist, novelist, & poet
(1854 - 1900) |
| If you live long enough, the
venerability factor creeps in; first, you get accused of things you never did, and later, credited for virtues you never had. |
I. F. Stone |
US journalist & newspaper publisher
(1907 - 1989) |
| Scorching my seared heart with a pain, not hell shall make me fear again. |
Edgar Allan Poe, Tamerlane, Part II |
US short story author, editor, & poet
(1809 - 1849) |
| My wife Mary and I have been married
for forty-seven years and not once have we had an argument serious enough to consider divorce; murder, yes, but
divorce, never. |
Jack Benny |
US comedian (1894 - 1974) |
| All truly great thoughts are conceived by walking. |
Friedrich Nietzsche |
German philosopher (1844 - 1900) |
| Old age means realizing you will never own all the dogs you wanted to. |
Joe Gores |
| A man can be happy with any woman as long as he does not love her. |
Oscar Wilde |
Irish dramatist, novelist, & poet
(1854 - 1900) |
| Love is the delightful interval
between meeting a beautiful girl and discovering that she looks like a haddock. |
John Barrymore |
US actor (1882 - 1942) |
| The way to write American music is
simple. All you have to do is be an American and then write any kind of music you wish. |
Virgil Thompson |
| Hell is full of musical amateurs. |
George Bernard Shaw |
Irish dramatist & socialist
(1856 - 1950) |
| Es tan corto el amor, y tan largo el olvido. <br> (Love is so
short, and forgetting is so long.) |
Pablo Neruda |
Chilean dilpomat & poet (1904
- 1973) |
| The man who is swimming against the stream knows the strength of it. |
Woodrow Wilson |
28th president of US (1856 - 1924) |
| We would never learn to be patient if there were only joy in the world. |
Helen Keller |
US blind & deaf educator (1880
- 1968) |
| Kindness in words creates
confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness. Kindness in giving creates love. |
Lao-Tzu |
Chinese philosopher (604 BC - 531
BC) |
| Learning is not attained by chance,
it must be sought for with ardor and attended to with diligence. |
Abigail Adams, 1780 |
US wife of John Adams 1764 (1744 -
1818) |
| Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of overcoming
it. |
Helen Keller |
US blind & deaf educator (1880
- 1968) |
| Conquering others takes force, conquering yourself is true strength. |
Lao-Tzu |
Chinese philosopher (604 BC - 531
BC) |
| The true test of a civilization is
not the census, nor the size of the cities, nor the cropsùno, but the kind of man the country turns out. |
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Society and Solitude |
US essayist & poet (1803 -
1882) |
| Free men cannot start a war, but
once it is started, they can fight on in defeat. Herd men, followers of a leader, cannot do that, and so it is always the
herd men who win battles and the free men who win wars. |
John Steinbeck, The Moon is Down |
US novelist (1902 - 1968) |
| Happiness is not achieved by the
conscious pursuit of happiness; it is generally the by-product of other activities. |
Aldous Huxley, Vendeta for the Western World, 1945 |
English critic & novelist
(1894 - 1963) |
| The key to immortality is first to live a life worth remembering. |
Bruce Lee, Film: (Dragon The Bruce
Lee Story. Quotation posted at end of film just before credits) |
US martial arts expert & movie actor
(1940 - 1973) |
| It is foolish to wish for beauty.
Sensible people never either desire it for themselves or care about it in others. If the mind be but well cultivated, and the
heart well disposed, no one ever cares for the exterior. |
Anne Bronte, Agnes Grey |
English novelist (1820 - 1849) |
| Drop out of school before your mind rots from our mediocre educational
system. |
Frank Zappa, Liner notes from the album, "Freak Out," 1965 |
US musician, singer, & songwriter
(1940 - 1993) |
| Seek not, my soul, the life of the
immortals; but enjoy to the full the resources that are within thy reach. |
Pindar, 518-438 B.C. |
Greek lyric poet (522 BC - 443 BC) |
| The function of government ought to
be: make sure you have good water to drink, somebody picking up the garbage, good roads to drive on, enough
electricity to turn your light bulbs and your record player on, and whatever
smaller amounts of regulatory assistance is necessary to make this society
work. |
Frank Zappa, Interview with this submitter, New York City, 5/08/1980 |
US musician, singer, & songwriter
(1940 - 1993) |
| Your purpose in relationships is simply to be your best self, regardless
of the circumstances. |
Rosalene Glickman, Ph.D., Optimal Thinking: How to Be Your Best Self |
| Have you ever noticed that there are
people who do things which are most indelicate, and yet at the same time - beautiful? |
E. M. Forster, "A Room with a View" |
British novelist (1879 - 1970) |
| Hope is definitely not the same
thing as optimism. It is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense,
regardless of how it turns out. |
Vßclav Havel, Disturbing the Peace, ch. 5 (1986; tr. 1990). |
Czech dissident, dramatist, & politician (1936 -
) |
| ...obstacles do not exist to be surrendered to, but only to be broken. |
Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf |
German Nazi dictator, orator, & politician (1889 - 1945) |
| My soldiers ask of me, why surrender a military advantage in the field
... I could not answer. |
General Douglas MacArthur, His final address to the joint session of the
congress |
US WWII general & war hero
(1880 - 1964) |
| Nobody can be exactly like me. Sometimes even I have trouble doing it. |
Tallulah Bankhead |
US movie actress (1903 - 1968) |
| The Pythagorean ... having been
brought up in the study of mathematics, thought that things are numbers ... and that the whole cosmos is a scale and a
number. |
Aristotle, quoted in
http://www-gap.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Pythagoras.html |
Greek critic, philosopher, physicist, & zoologist (384 BC - 322 BC) |
| Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it. |
Confucius |
Chinese philosopher & reformer
(551 BC - 479 BC) |
| The journey in between what you once
were, and who you are now becoming is where the dance of life really takes place. |
Barbara De Angelis |
| Never forget the days I spent with
you. Continue to be my friend, as you will always find me yours. |
Ludwig van Beethoven |
German Romantic composer (1770 -
1827) |
| God gives us memory so that we may have roses in December. |
J. M. Barrie |
| Every gun that is made, every
warship launched, every rocket fired, represents, in the final analysis, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, who
are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone.
It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the
hopes of its children. |
Dwight D. Eisenhower |
US general & Republican politician
(1890 - 1969) |
| The Sufis advise us to speak only
after our words have managed to pass through three gates. At the first gate we ask ourselves, Are these words true? If
so, we let them pass on; if not, back they go. At the second gate we ask, Are
they necessary? At the last gate we ask, Are they kind? |
Eknath Easwaran |
| When you close your doors, and make
darkness within, remember never to say that you are alone, for you are not alone; nay, God is within, and your
genius is within. And what need have they of light to see what you are doing? |
Epictetus, Discourses |
Roman (Greek-born) slave & Stoic philosopher (55 AD - 135 AD) |
| In the midst of winter, I finally learned that there was in me an
invincible summer. |
Albert Camus |
French existentialist author & philosopher (1913 - 1960) |
| Men go abroad to wonder the heights
of mountains, at the huge waves of the sea, at the long courses of the rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at
the circular motions of the stars; and they pass by themselves without
wondering. |
St. Augustine |
| Art is a lie that makes us realize the truth. |
Pablo Picasso |
Spanish Cubist painter (1881 -
1973) |
| He waited for the mask to drop off, but at the same time he did not
question her right to wear it. |
F. Scott Fitzgerald |
US novelist (1896 - 1940) |
| Good instincts usually tell you what to do long before your head has
figured it out. |
Michael Burke |
| Example is not the main thing in influencing others. It is the only
thing. |
Albert Schweitzer |
French philosopher & physician
(1875 - 1965) |
| Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could
only do a little. |
Edmund Burke |
Irish orator, philosopher, & politician (1729 - 1797) |
| Children are likely to live up to what you believe of them. |
Lady Bird Johnson |
US wife of Lyndon Johnson 1934
(1912 - ) |
| A good many things go around in the dark besides Santa Claus. |
Herbert Hoover |
US mining engineer & politician
(1874 - 1964) |
| My religion consists of a humble
admiration of the illimitable superior spirit who reveals himself in the slight details we are able to perceive with our frail
and feeble mind. |
Albert Einstein |
US (German-born) physicist (1879 -
1955) |
| The Price Of Freedom Is Eternal Vigilance. |
Thomas Jefferson |
3rd president of US (1743 - 1826) |
| The vision of a champion is someone
who is bent over, drenched in sweat, at the point of exhaustion when no one else is watching. |
Anson Dorrance, Go for the Goal by Mia Hamm |
| Sir, it is not God who will assemble
us on the battlefield, nor position our troops, nor place the cannon, and it is not God who will aim the musket. |
Winfield Hancock, Gods and Generals, pg 128, paragraph 3 |
| Love as Thought is Truth.<br>
Love as Action is Right Conduct.<br> Love as Understanding is Peace.<br> Love as Feeling is Non-violence. |
Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba |
| There is no conversation more boring than the one where everybody agrees. |
Michel de Montaigne |
French essayist (1533 - 1592) |
| He who establishes his argument by noise and command shows that his
reason is weak. |
Michel de Montaigne |
French essayist (1533 - 1592) |
| You get the best out of others when you give the best of yourself. |
Harry Firestone |
| The fellow that agrees with everything you say is either a fool or he is
getting ready to skin you. |
Kin Hubbard |
(1868 - 1930) |
| Everyone is kneaded out of the same dough but not baked in the same oven. |
Yiddish Proverb |
| He is able who thinks he is able. |
Buddha |
Indian philosopher & religious leader
(563 BC - 483 BC) |
| Listen or thy tongue will keep thee deaf. |
American Indian Proverb |
| Duty without love is deplorable.<br> Duty with love is
desirable.<br> Love without duty is Divine. |
Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba |
| It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are. |
e.e. cummings |
| But when a young lady is to be a
heroine, the perverseness of forty surrounding families cannot prevent her. Something must and will happen to throw a
hero in her way. |
Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey |
English novelist (1775 - 1817) |
| Friendship is certainly the finest balm for the pangs of disappointed
love. |
Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey |
English novelist (1775 - 1817) |
| One of the things that has helped me
as much as any other, is not how long I am going to live, but how much I can do while living. |
George Washington Carver |
| It is the greatest art of the devil to convince us he does not exist. |
Charles Baudelaire |
French poet (1821 - 1867) |
| We do not first get all the answers
and then live in the light of our understanding. We must rather plunge into life meeting what we have to meet and
experiencing what we have to experience and in the light of living try to
understand. if insight comes at all, it will not before, but only through and
after experience. |
John Claypool |
| My mother had morning sickness after I was born. |
Rodney Dangerfield, monologue |
US actor & comedian (1921 -
2004) |
| The whole secret of life is to be interested in one thing profoundly and
in a thousand things well. |
Horace Walpole |
English author (1717 - 1797) |
| When you helped somebody, right away
you were responsible for that person. And things always followed for which you were never prepared. |
Martha Brooks, True Confessions of a Heartless Girl |
| There is no avoiding war; it can only be postponed to the advantage of
others. |
Niccolo Machiavelli |
Italian dramatist, historian, & philosopher (1469 - 1527) |
| Revolution is not something fixed in
ideology, nor is it something fashioned to a particular decade. It is a perpetual process embedded in the human spirit. |
Abbie Hoffman |
US radical activist (1936 - 1989) |
| The foolish man lies awake all
night<br> Thinking of his many problems;<br> When the morning comes he is worn out<br> And his trouble is just as
it was. |
Norse Proverb, Myth and Meaning page 72 |
| I worked myself up from nothing to a state of extreme poverty. |
Groucho Marx |
US comedian with Marx Brothers
(1890 - 1977) |
| I have nothing but confidence in you. And very little of that. |
Groucho Marx |
US comedian with Marx Brothers
(1890 - 1977) |
| The only good is knowledge and the only evil is ignorance. |
Socrates |
Greek philosopher in Athens (469
BC - 399 BC) |
| Women are like teabags. You dont know how strong they are until you put
them in hot water. |
Eleanor Roosevelt |
US diplomat & reformer (1884 -
1962) |
| What the great ones do, the less will prattle of |
William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night , Act I scene ii |
Greatest English dramatist & poet
(1564 - 1616) |
| I installed a skylight in my apartment. The people who live above me are
furious! |
Steven Wright, Standup Comedy Routine |
US comedian and actor (1955 - ) |
| I went to a restaurant that serves
"breakfast at any time". So I ordered French Toast during the Renaissance. |
Steven Wright, Standup Comedy Routine |
US comedian and actor (1955 - ) |
| I just bought a microwave fireplace. You can spend an evening in front of
it in only eight minutes. |
Steven Wright, Standup Comedy Routine |
US comedian and actor (1955 - ) |
| Violence, naked force, has settled
more issues in history than any other factor, and the contrary opinion is wishfull thinking at its worst. Breeds that
forget this basic truth have always paid for it with their lives and
freedoms. |
Robert A. Heinlein, Starship Troopers chapter 4 |
| The work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives and the dream
shall never die. |
Edward M. Kennedy, Democratic National Convention, 1980 |
US Democratic politician (1932
- ) |
| Time has no divisions to mark its
passage, there is never a thunder-storm or blare of trumpets to announce the beginning of a new month or year. Even when
a new century begins it is only we mortals who ring bells and fire off
pistols. |
Thomas Mann |
German writer (1875 - 1955) |
| When you look at yourself from a
universal standpoint, something inside always reminds or informs you that there are bigger and better things to worry
about. |
Albert Einstein, The World as I See It. |
US (German-born) physicist (1879 -
1955) |
| I can think of nothing more boring
for the American people than to have to sit in their living rooms for a whole half hour looking at my face on their
television screens. |
Dwight D. Eisenhower |
US general & Republican politician
(1890 - 1969) |
| Between two evils, I always pick the one I never tried before. |
Mae West, Klondike Annie (1936 film) |
US movie actress (1892 - 1980) |
| We never regret having eaten too little. |
Thomas Jefferson |
3rd president of US (1743 - 1826) |
| Depend upon it, after all, Thomas,
Literature is the most noble of professions. In fact, it is about the only one fit for a man. For my own part, there is no
seducing me from the path. |
Edgar Allan Poe, From a letter to Frederick W. Thomas (February 14,
1849). |
US short story author, editor, & poet
(1809 - 1849) |
| Perhaps when we find ourselves
wanting everything, it is because we are dangerously close to wanting nothing. |
Sylvia Plath |
US novelist & poet (1932 -
1963) |
| Our friends should be companions who inspire us, who help us rise to our
best. |
Joseph B. Wirthlin |
| Love is this divine ingredient. It
alone describes what can be our perfect relationship to our Heavenly Father and our family and neighbors, and the means by
which we accomplish His work. |
David B. Haight |
| I fear not, I see not reason for
fear. In the end we will be the victors. For though at times the flame of liberty may cease to shine, the ember will never
expire. |
Thomas Paine |
US patriot & political philosopher
(1737 - 1809) |
| Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your
temper. |
Robert Frost |
US poet (1874 - 1963) |
| A man is like a fraction whose
numerator is what he is and whose denominator is what he thinks of himself. The larger the denominator the smaller the
fraction. |
Leo Tolstoy |
Russian mystic & novelist
(1828 - 1910) |
| Common-sense appears to be only
another name for the thoughtlessness of the unthinking. It is made of the prejudices of childhood, the idiosyncrasies
of individual character and the opinion of the newspapers. |
W. Somerset Maugham, The Moon and Sixpence |
English dramatist & novelist
(1874 - 1965) |
| It is the mind that makes the man. |
Ovid |
Roman poet (43 BC - 17 AD) |
| Nowhere can a man find a quieter or more untroubled retreat than in his
own soul. |
Marcus Aurelius |
| After the greatest clouds, the sun. |
Alan of Lille |
| Meet the sunrise with confidence. |
Alonzo Newton Benn |
| For the uncontrolled there is no
wisdom. For the uncontrolled there is no concentration, and for him without concentration, there is no peace. And for the
unpeaceful how can there ever be happiness? |
Unknown, The Bhagavad Gita |
Quotations by unknown authors |
| The downside to being better than everyone is that people seem to think
you are pretentious. |
Despair.com |
| To find yourself, think for yourself. |
Socrates, The Apology |
Greek philosopher in Athens (469
BC - 399 BC) |
| ...for advice is a dangerous gift, even from the wise to the wise, and
all courses may run ill. |
J. R. R. Tolkien |
British scholar & fantasy novelist
(1892 - 1973) |
| Which way I fly is Hell; myself am Hell. |
John Milton, Paradise Lost |
English poet (1608 - 1674) |
| When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro. |
Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas |
US journalist (1939 - 2005) |
| If you do not wish to be prone to
anger, do not feed the habit; give it nothing which may tend to its increase. |
Epictetus |
Roman (Greek-born) slave & Stoic philosopher (55 AD - 135 AD) |
| Let the coming hour overflow with joy, and let pleasure drown the brim. |
William Shakespeare |
Greatest English dramatist & poet
(1564 - 1616) |
| Land and Freedom! |
Emiliano Zapata |
| I am Cuban, Argentine, Bolivian, Peruvian, Ecuadorian, etc... You
understand. |
Che Guevara, when asked his nationality |
| It is forbidden to kill; therefore
all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets. |
Voltaire |
French author, humanist, rationalist, & satirist (1694 - 1778) |
| The revolution is not a tea party. |
Mao Tse-tung |
Chinese Communist politician (1893
- 1976) |
| Ask not what you can do for your country, ask what your country did to
you. |
KMFDM, from "Dogma" |
| The finest qualities of our nature,
like the bloom on fruits, can be preserved only by the most delicate handling. Yet we do not treat ourselves nor one
another thus tenderly. |
Henry David Thoreau, Walden, Chapter 1: Economy |
US Transcendentalist author (1817
- 1862) |
| Its embarrassing, you try to overthrow the government and you wind up on
a Best Sellers List. |
Abbie Hoffman, In response to the success of his book; Steal this Book |
US radical activist (1936 - 1989) |
| What we have to do is to be forever curiously testing new opinions and
courting new impressions. |
Walter Pater, 1873 |
English critic & essayist
(1839 - 1894) |
| I am more afriad of an army of 100
sheep lead by a lion than an army of 100 lions lead by a sheep. |
Tallyrand |
| An aim of an argument should be progress, but progress ultimately means
little without victory. |
Gary L. Francione, (American Legal
Philosopher), Reaction to quote by Joseph Joubert |
| Dreams are but interludes that fancy
makes...<br> Sometimes forgotten things, long cast behind<br> Rush forward in the brain, and come to mind. |
John Dryden |
English dramatist & poet (1631
- 1700) |
| Existence would be intolerable if we were never to dream. |
Anatole France |
French novelist (1844 - 1924) |
| In dreams we see ourselves naked and
acting our real characters, even more clearly than we see others awake. |
Henry David Thoreau |
US Transcendentalist author (1817
- 1862) |
| Sleep is often the only occasion in
which man cannot silence his conscience; we forget what we knew in our dream. |
Erich Fromm |
US (German-born) psychologist
(1900 - 1980) |
| To me dreams are part of nature,
which harbors no intention to deceive but expresses something as best it can. |
Carl Jung |
Swiss psychologist (1875 - 1961) |
| Look before you leap. |
Aesop |
Greek slave & fable author
(620 BC - 560 BC) |
| Education is the ability to listen
to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence. |
Robert Frost |
US poet (1874 - 1963) |
| Dictionaries are like watches; the
worst is better than none, and the best cannot be expected to go quite true. |
Samuel Johnson |
English author, critic, & lexicographer (1709 - 1784) |
| Virtue can only flourish among equals. |
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley |
English novelist (1797 - 1851) |
| What is a kiss? Why this, as some approve:<br> The sure, sweet
cement, glue, and lime of love. |
Robert Herrick |
English lyric poet (1591 - 1674) |
| I believe it to be true that dreams
are the true interpreters of our inclinations; but there is art required to sort and understand them. |
Michel de Montaigne |
French essayist (1533 - 1592) |
| Men have conceived a twofold use of
sleep; it is a refreshing of the body in this life, and a preparing of the soul for the next. |
John Donne |
English clergyman & poet (1572
- 1631) |
| Dreams take us to levels we would otherwise be afraid to strive for. |
Bill Beham |
| If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man
as it is, infinite. |
William Blake |
English engraver, illustrator, & poet
(1757 - 1827) |
| And yet, as angels in some brighter
dreams<br> Call to the soul when man doth sleep,<br> So some strange thoughts transcend our wonted
themes,<br> And into glory peep. |
Henry Vaughn |
| I belong to an ancient, idle, wild, and useless tribe... I am a
storyteller. |
Isak Dinesen, (Karen Blixen) |
| Nothing contributes so much to
tranquilize the mind as a steady purpose- a point on which the soul may fix its intellectual eye. |
Mary Shelley |
| And dreams in their development have
breath, <br> And tears, and tortures, and the touch of joy;<br> They leave a weight upon our waking
thoughts,<br> They take a weight from off our waking toils,<br>
They do divide our being. |
Lord Byron |
English poet & satirist (1788
- 1824) |
| [Poetry] is the lava of the imagination whose eruption prevents an
earthquake. |
Lord Byron |
English poet & satirist (1788
- 1824) |
| But words are things; and a small
drop of ink,<br> Falling, like dew, upon a thought, produces<br> That which makes thousands, perhaps millions,
think. |
Lord Byron |
English poet & satirist (1788
- 1824) |
| A man, to be greatly good, must
magine intensely and comprehensively; he must put himself in the place of another and in many others; the pains and
pleasures of his species must become his own. |
Percy Bysshe Shelley |
| Always laugh when you can. It is cheap medicine. |
Lord Byron |
English poet & satirist (1788
- 1824) |
| ...For the unquiet heart and brain,<br> A use in measured language
lies. |
Alfred, Lord Tennyson |
| My candle burns at both
ends;<br> It will not last the night;<br> But, ah, my foes, and
oh, my friends,<br> It gives a lovely light. |
Edna St. Vincent Millay |
US poet (1892 - 1950) |
| I bid him look into the lives of men
as though into a mirror, and from others to take an example for himself. |
Terence |
Roman comic dramatist (185 BC -
159 BC) |
| By the work one knows the workmen. |
Jean De La Fontaine |
French poet (1621 - 1695) |
| One person with a belief is equal to a force of 99 who have only
interests. |
John Stuart Mill |
English economist & philosopher
(1806 - 1873) |
| Learn from me, if not by my
precepts, then by my example, how dangerous is the pursuit of knowledge and how much happier is that man who believes his
native town to be the world than he who aspires to be greater than his nature
will allow. |
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, Frankenstein |
English novelist (1797 - 1851) |
| Ever notice that anyone going slower than you is an idiot, but anyone
going faster is a maniac? |
George Carlin |
US comedian and actor (1937 - ) |
| The IQ and the life expectancy of
the average American recently passed each other going in opposite directions. |
George Carlin, Napalm and Silly Putty |
US comedian and actor (1937 - ) |
| The human mind is not capable of
grasping the Universe. We are like a little child entering a huge library. The walls are covered to the ceilings with books
in many different tongues. The child knows that someone must have written
these books. It does not know who or how. It does not understand the
languages in which they are written. But the child notes a definite plan in
the arrangement of the books - a mysterious order which it does not
comprehend, but only dimly suspects. |
Albert Einstein |
US (German-born) physicist (1879 -
1955) |
| Nature has a great simplicity and therefore a great beauty. |
Richard Feynman |
US educator & physicist (1918
- 1988) |
| When we see men of a contrary character, we should turn inwards and
examine ourselves. |
Confucius |
Chinese philosopher & reformer
(551 BC - 479 BC) |
| To love another person is to see the face of God. |
Victor Hugo, Les Miserables |
French dramatist, novelist, & poet
(1802 - 1885) |
| Acts of injustice done<br>
Between the setting and the rising sun<br> In history lie like bones,
each one. |
W. H. Auden |
US (English-born) critic & poet
(1907 - 1973) |
| When once you have tasted flight,
you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to
return. |
Leonardo da Vinci |
Italian engineer, painter, & sculptor
(1452 - 1519) |
| What we obtain too cheap, we esteem
too lightly. It is dearness only that gives everything its value. |
Thomas Paine, "The American Crisis" |
US patriot & political philosopher
(1737 - 1809) |
| The sun illuminates only the eye of the man, but shines into the eyes and
the heart of the child. |
Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Nature" |
US essayist & poet (1803 -
1882) |
| Petty fears and petty pleasures are but the shadow of reality. |
Henry David Thoreau, Walden |
US Transcendentalist author (1817
- 1862) |
| When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know
peace. |
Jimi Hendrix |
| It is no use to blame the looking glass if your face is awry. |
Nikolai Gogol, 1836 |
Russian author & humorist
(1809 - 1852) |
| If eyes were made for seeing, then beauty is its own excuse for being. |
Ralph Waldo Emerson, "The Rhodora" |
US essayist & poet (1803 -
1882) |
| The reason I dont play ballads? Because I love to play them. |
Miles Davis, Film: The Miles Davis Story |
US jazz musician & trumpeter
(1926 - 1991) |
| When lip service to some mysterious
deity permits bestiality on Wednesday and absolution on Sunday, cash me out. |
Frank Sinatra |
US actor & singer (1915 -
1998) |
| Without cultural sanction, most or
all our religious beliefs and rituals would fall into the domain of mental disturbance. |
John Schumaker |
| No man ever believes that the Bible
means what it says: He is always convinced that it says what he means. |
George Bernard Shaw |
Irish dramatist & socialist
(1856 - 1950) |
| I contend that we are both atheists.
I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you
will understand why I dismiss yours. |
Stephen Roberts |
| Although the most acute judges of
the witches and even the witches themselves, were convinced of the guilt of witchery, the guilt nevertheless was
non-existent. It is thus with all guilt. |
Friedrich Nietzsche |
German philosopher (1844 - 1900) |
| I cannot believe in a God who wants to be praised all the time. |
Friedrich Nietzsche |
German philosopher (1844 - 1900) |
| All credibility, all good conscience, all evidence of truth come only
from the senses. |
Friedrich Nietzsche |
German philosopher (1844 - 1900) |
| I could prove God statistically. |
George Gallup |
US statistician & pollster
(1901 - 1984) |
| The best mirror is an old friend. |
George Herbert, 1651 |
English clergyman & metaphysical poet
(1593 - 1633) |
| Hope in reality is the worst of all evils because it prolongs the
torments of man. |
Friedrich Nietzsche |
German philosopher (1844 - 1900) |
| The Christian resolution to find the world ugly and bad has made the
world ugly and bad. |
Friedrich Nietzsche |
German philosopher (1844 - 1900) |
| A casual stroll through the lunatic asylum shows that faith does not
prove anything. |
Friedrich Nietzsche |
German philosopher (1844 - 1900) |
| Where it is a duty to worship the sun it is pretty sure to be a crime to
examine the laws of heat. |
John Morley |
| The beauty of religious mania is
that it has the power to explain everything. Once God (or Satan) is accepted as the first cause of everything which
happens in the mortal world, nothing is left to chance... logic can be
happily tossed out the window. |
Stephen King |
US horror novelist & screenwriter
(1947 - ) |
| This is my simple religion. There is
no need for temples; no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy
is kindness. |
Dalai Llama |
| If a man would follow, today, the
teachings of the Old Testament, he would be a criminal. If he would follow strictly the teachings of the New, he would be
insane. |
Robert Green Ingersoll |
| Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich. |
Napoleon Bonaparte |
French general & politician
(1769 - 1821) |
| I believe that producing pictures,
as I do, is almost solely a question of wanting so very much to do it well. |
M.C. Escher |
| I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a
terrible resolve. |
Isoroku Yamamoto, After Pearl Harbor, Japanese Admiral |
| One half of the world can not understand the pleasures of the other. |
Jane Austen |
English novelist (1775 - 1817) |
| What we have done for ourselves
alone dies with us; what we have done for others and the world remains and is immortal. |
Albert Pike |
| Even at our birth, death does but
stand aside a little. And every day he looks towards us and muses somewhat to himself whether that day or the next he
will draw nigh. |
Robert Bolt |
| In addition to my other numerous
acquaintances, I have one more intimate confidant. My depression is the most faithful mistress I have known -- no
wonder, then, that I return the love. |
Soren Kierkegaard |
Danish philosopher (1813 - 1855) |
| Creativity is a drug I cannot live without. |
Cecil B. DeMille |
US movie producer (1881 - 1959) |
| The reason why so few people are
agreeable in conversation is that each is thinking more about what he intends to say than about what others are saying,
and we never listen when we are eager to speak. |
Francois La Rochefoucauld |
| Too often we underestimate the power
of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which
have the potential to turn a life around. |
Leo Buscaglia |
| To be idle is a short road to death
and to be diligent is a way of life; foolish people are idle, wise people are diligent. |
Buddha |
Indian philosopher & religious leader
(563 BC - 483 BC) |
| Death is not extinguishing the light; it is putting out the lamp because
dawn has come. |
Rabindranath Tagore |
| Not many can admit their fears, but
those who can lead a fulfilling life of happiness knowing they hide nothing and need not to. |
Cyrus Corteise |
| Trying is the first step towards failure. |
Homer Simpson, The Simpsons |
| ...and that this country shall have
a new birth of freedom, and that this government, of the people, for the people, by the people, shall not perish from the
Earth. |
Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg Address |
16th president of US (1809 - 1865) |
| Becuase I could not stop for
Death<br> He kindly stopped for me<br> The carriage held but just
ourselves<br> And Immortality |
Emily Dickinson |
US poet (1830 - 1886) |
| Heroes are often the most ordinary of men. |
Henry David Thoreau |
US Transcendentalist author (1817
- 1862) |
| I hold before you my hand with each
finger standing erect and alone, and as long as they are held thus, not one of the tasks that the hand may preform can
be accomplished. I cannot lift. I cannot grasp. I cannot hold. I cannot even
make an intelligible sign until my fingers organize and work together. In
this we should also learn a lesson. |
George Washington Carver |
| Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate
version of someone else. |
Judy Garland |
US actress & singer (1922 -
1969) |
| Talent does what it can, Genius does what it must. |
Edward George Bulwer-Lytton |
| I was astonished at the effect my
successful landing in France had on the nations of the world. To me, it was like a match lighting a bonfire. |
Charles A. Lindbergh |
| Adversity does teach who your real friends are. |
Lois McMaster Bujold, A Civil Campaign, 1999 |
US science fiction author |
| Man is his own star and the soul
that can render an honest and perfect man commands all light, all influence, all fate. |
John Fletcher, 1647 |
English dramatist (1579 - 1625) |
| You have to be careful who you let define your good. |
Lois McMaster Bujold, A Civil Campaign, 1999 |
US science fiction author |
| When you give each other everything, it becomes an even trade. Each wins
all. |
Lois McMaster Bujold, A Civil Campaign, 1999 |
US science fiction author |
| Reputation is what other people know about you. Honor is what you know
about yourself. |
Lois McMaster Bujold, "A Civil Campaign", 1999 |
US science fiction author |
| Guard your honor. Let your reputation fall where it will. And outlive the
bastards. |
Lois McMaster Bujold, "A Civil Campaign", 1999 |
US science fiction author |
| A tactical retreat is not a bad
response to a surprise assault, you know. First you survive. Then you choose your own ground. Then you counterattack. |
Lois McMaster Bujold, A Civil Campaign, 1999 |
US science fiction author |
| The real distinction is between
those who adapt their purposes to reality and those who seek to mold reality in the light of their purposes. |
Henry Kissinger |
US (German-born) diplomat & scholar
(1923 - ) |
| You only live once - but if you work it right, once is enough. |
Joe E. Lewis |
| Nothing is as far away as one minute ago. |
Jim Bishop |
| Accept what people offer. Drink their milkshakes. Take their love. |
Wally Lamb |
| As we look deeply within, we
understand our perfect balance. There is no fear of the cycle of birth, life and death. For when you stand in the present
moment, you are timeless. |
Rodney Yee |
| Work is not always required. There is such a thing as sacred idleness. |
George MacDonald |
Scottish novelist & poet (1824
- 1905) |
| Realize deeply that the present moment is all you ever have. |
Eckhart Tolle |
| Life is consciousness. |
Emmet Fox |
| If you can solve your problem, then
what is the need of worrying? If you cannot solve it, then what is the use of worrying? |
Shantideva |
| If one speaks or acts with a cruel
mind, misery follows, as the cart follows the horse... If one speaks or acts with a pure mind, happiness follows, as a
shadow follows its source. |
the Dhammapada |
| If you want your life to be more rewarding, you have to change the way
you think. |
Oprah Winfrey, O Magazine |
US actress & television talk show host (1954 -
) |
| Trust one who has gone through it. |
Virgil, The Aeneid |
Roman epic poet (70 BC - 19 BC) |
| Trust yourself. Think for yourself.
Act for yourself. Speak for yourself. Be yourself. Imitation is suicide. |
Marva Collins |
| It is impossible to go through life
without trust: That is to be imprisoned in the worst cell of all, oneself. |
Graham Greene, The Ministry of Fear |
| If you have built castles in the
air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them. |
Henry David Thoreau |
US Transcendentalist author (1817
- 1862) |
| It is only by following your deepest
instinct that you can lead a rich life, and if you let your fear of consequence prevent you from following your deepest
instinct, then your life will be safe, expedient and thin. |
Katharine Butler Hathaway |
| The greatest thing in the world is to know how to belong to oneself. |
Michel de Montaigne |
French essayist (1533 - 1592) |
| I looked always outside of myself to
see what I could make the world give me instead of looking within myself to see what was there. |
Belle Livingstone |
| It is better to suffer wrong than to do it, and happier to be sometimes
cheated than not to trust. |
Samuel Johnson |
English author, critic, & lexicographer (1709 - 1784) |
| Insist on yourself; never imitate... Every great man is unique. |
Ralph Waldo Emerson |
US essayist & poet (1803 -
1882) |
| Trust thyself only, and another shall not betray thee. |
Thomas Fuller |
English clergyman & historian
(1608 - 1661) |
| Our lives teach us who we are. |
Salman Rushdie |
British (Indian-born) author (1947
- ) |
| Just to be is a blessing. Just to live is holy. |
Rabbi Abraham Heschel |
| Imagination is more important than knowledge... |
Albert Einstein |
US (German-born) physicist (1879 -
1955) |
| One single grateful thought raised to heaven is the most perfect prayer. |
G. E. Lessing |
German critic & dramatist
(1729 - 1781) |
| There shall be eternal summer in the grateful heart. |
Celia Thaxter |
| Every time we remember to say "thank you," we experience
nothing less than heaven on earth. |
Sarah Ban Breathnach |
| Let us be grateful to people who
make us happy: They are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom. |
Marcel Proust |
French novelist (1871 - 1922) |
| I awoke this morning with devout thanksgiving for my friends, the old and
the new. |
Ralph Waldo Emerson |
US essayist & poet (1803 -
1882) |
| Feeling grateful to or appreciative
of someone or something in your life actually attracts more of the things that you appreciate and value into your life. |
Christiane Northrup, M.D. |
| For all that has been, thanks. For all that will be, yes. |
Dag Hammarskjold |
Swedish diplomat (1905 - 1961) |
| Abundance is, in large part, an attitude. |
Sue Patton Thoele |
| Everyone is necessarily the hero of his own life story. |
John Barth |
US novelist & short story author
(1930 - ) |
| Gratitude
is our most direct line to God and the angels. If we take the time, no matter
how crazy and troubled we feel, we can find
something to be thankful for. |
Terry Lynn Taylor |
