Quotes

Be not so bigoted to any custom as to worship it at the expense of truth. -- Johann Georg von Zimmermann

In every power, of which taste is the foundation, excellence is pretty fairly divided between the sexes. -- Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey

My favorite thing is to go where I've never been. -- Diane Arbus

Take what you can use and let the rest go by. -- Ken Kesey

Learn the art of patience. Apply discipline to your thoughts when they become anxious over the outcome of a goal. Impatience breeds anxiety, fear, discouragement and failure. Patience creates confidence, decisiveness, and a rational outlook, which eventually leads to success. -- Brian Adams

Trust yourself. Think for yourself. Act for yourself. Speak for yourself. Be yourself. Imitation is suicide. -- Marva Collins

Thus, in a real sense, I am constantly writing autobiography, but I have to turn it into fiction in order to give it credibility. -- Katherine Paterson, The Spying Heart, 1989

In prosperity our friends know us; in adversity we know our friends. -- John Churton Collins

I've always followed my father's advice: he told me, first to always keep my word and, second, to never insult anybody unintentionally. If I insult you, you can be goddamn sure I intend to. And, third, he told me not to go around looking for trouble. -- John Wayne

Living apart and at peace with myself, I came to realize more vividly the meaning of the doctrine of acceptance. To refrain from giving advice, to refrain from meddling in the affairs of others, to refrain, even though the motives be the highest, from tampering with another's way of life - so simple, yet so difficult for an active spirit. Hands off! -- Henry Miller

Pray as if everything depended upon God and work as if everything depended upon man. -- Francis Cardinal Spellman

Things won are done; joy's soul lies in the doing. -- William Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida, Act 1, Scene 2

Mistakes, obviously, show us what needs improving. Without mistakes, how would we know what we had to work on? -- Peter McWilliams, Life 101

A man travels the world over in search of what he needs and returns home to find it. -- George Moore

When we were children, we used to think that when we were grown-up we would no longer be vulnerable. But to grow up is to accept vulnerability... To be alive is to be vulnerable. -- Madeleine L'Engle, "Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art", 1980

Farming looks mighty easy when your plow is a pencil, and you're a thousand miles from the corn field. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower, September 11, 1956

The only cure for grief is action. -- George Henry Lewes

Be a craftsman in speech that thou mayest be strong, for the strength of one is the tongue, and speech is mightier than all fighting. -- Maxims of Ptahhotep, 3400 B.C.

A hero is no braver than an ordinary man, but he is braver five minutes longer. -- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Set up as an ideal the facing of reality as honestly and as cheerfully as possible. -- Dr. Karl Menninger

Patterning your life around other's opinions is nothing more than slavery. -- Lawana Blackwell, The Dowry of Miss Lydia Clark, 1999

By the work one knows the workmen. -- Jean De La Fontaine

Facing it, always facing it, that's the way to get through. Face it. -- Joseph Conrad

We should manage our fortunes as we do our health - enjoy it when good, be patient when it is bad, and never apply violent remedies except in an extreme necessity. -- Francois de La Rochefoucauld

Recommend to your children virtue; that alone can make them happy, not gold. -- Ludwig van Beethoven

Love is union with somebody, or something, outside oneself, under the condition of retaining the separateness and integrity of one's own self. -- Erich Fromm

Music has charms to soothe a savage breast To soften rocks, or bend a knotted oak. -- William Congreve

Even God cannot change the past. -- Agathon

Of all the self-fulfilling prophecies in our culture, the assumption that aging means decline and poor health is probably the deadliest. -- Marilyn Ferguson, The Aquarian Conspiracy, 1980

If the wind will not serve, take to the oars. -- Latin Proverb

Money is like a sixth sense without which you cannot make a complete use of the other five. -- W. Somerset Maugham, 'Of Human Bondage', 1915

It's choice - not chance - that determines your destiny. -- Jean Nidetch

Most people rust out due to lack of challenge. Few people rust out due to overuse. -- Unknown

Character - the willingness to accept responsibility for one's own life - is the source from which self respect springs. -- Joan Didion, "Slouching Towards Bethlehem"

You have to recognize when the right place and the right time fuse and take advantage of that opportunity. There are plenty of opportunities out there You can't sit back and wait. -- Ellen Metcalf

I always remember an epitaph which is in the cemetery at Tombstone, Arizona It says: 'Here lies Jack Williams. He done his damnedest.' I think that is the greatest epitaph a man can have - When he gives everything that is in him to do the job he has before him. That is all you can ask of him and that is what I have tried to do. -- Harry S Truman

Assumptions are the termites of relationships. -- Henry Winkler

The past is a source of knowledge, and the future is a source of hope. Love of the past implies faith in the future. -- Stephen Ambrose, in Fast Company

Never fear the want of business. A man who qualifies himself well for his calling, never fails of employment. -- Thomas Jefferson

Anger makes you smaller, while forgiveness forces you to grow beyond what you were. -- Cherie Carter-Scott, "If Love Is a Game, These Are the Rules"