Quotes

I don't like the sound of all those lists he's making - it's like taking too many notes at school; you feel you've achieved something when you haven't. -- Dodie Smith, I Capture the Castle, 1948

Labor to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial fire called conscience. -- George Washington

The problem of power is how to achieve its responsible use rather than its irresponsible and indulgent use - of how to get men of power to live for the public rather than off the public. -- Robert F. Kennedy, 'I Remember, I Believe,' The Pursuit of Justice, 1964

'Never put off until tomorrow what you can do today.' Under the influence of this pestilent morality, I am forever letting tomorrow's work slop backwards into today's, and doing painfully and nervously today what I could do quickly and easily tomorrow. -- J. A. Spender

Remember! Things in life will not always run smoothly. Sometimes we will be rising toward the heights - then all will seem to reverse itself and start downward. The great fact to remember is that the trend of civilization itself is forever upward, that a line drawn through the middle of the peaks and the valleys of the centuries always has an upward trend. -- Endicott Peabody

Say not, when I have leisure I will study; you may not have leisure. -- The Mishnah

Whatever you fear most has no power - it is your fear that has the power. -- Oprah Winfrey, O Magazine

At my age the bones are water in the morning until food is given them. -- Pearl Buck

I have a simple philosophy. Fill what's empty. Empty what's full. And scratch where it itches. -- Alice Roosevelt Longworth

Genuine beginnings begin within us, even when they are brought to our attention by external opportunities. -- William Bridges

Every time we remember to say "thank you," we experience nothing less than heaven on earth. -- Sarah Ban Breathnach

There is no shortage of good days. It is good lives that are hard to come by. -- Annie Dillard, 'The Writing Life'

Having once decided to achieve a certain task, achieve it at all costs of tedium and distaste. The gain in self-confidence of having accomplished a tiresome labor is immense. -- Arnold Bennett

Think like a man of action, act like a man of thought. -- Henri Bergson

Nothing has a stronger influence psychologically on their environment and especially on their children than the unlived life of the parent. -- Carl Jung

People who ask our advice almost never take it. Yet we should never refuse to give it, upon request, for it often helps us to see our own way more clearly. -- Brendan Francis

I cannot and will not cut my conscience to fit this year's fashions. -- Lillian Hellman, letter to Committee on Un-American Activities of the House of Representatives, May 19, 1952

God, I don’t have great faith, but I can be faithful. My belief in you may be seasonal, but my faithfulness will not. I will follow in the way of Christ. I will act as though my life and the lives of others matter. I will love. I have no greater gift to offer than my life. Take it. -- Real Live Preacher, RealLivePreacher.com Weblog, December 26, 2002

Anger at lies lasts forever. Anger at truth can't last. -- Greg Evans, Luann (comic), September 27, 2003

Learning to love yourself is the greatest love of all. -- Michael Masser and Linda Creed

Every big problem was at one time a wee disturbance. -- Unknown

Be not extravagantly high in expression of thy commendations of men thou likest, it may make the hearer's stomach rise. -- Thomas Fuller

Never lose sight of this important truth, that no one can be truly great until he has gained a knowledge of himself, a knowledge which can only be acquired by occasional retirement. -- Johann Georg von Zimmermann

They sicken of the calm, who knew the storm. -- Dorothy Parker, 'Fair Weather,' Sunset Gun, 1928

Life only demands from you the strength you possess. Only one feat is possible - not to have run away. -- Dag Hammarskjold

Don't be a fool and die for your country. Let the other sonofabitch die for his. -- George S. Patton, (attributed)

It's also helpful to realize that this very body that we have, that's sitting right here right now... with its aches and it pleasures... is exactly what we need to be fully human, fully awake, fully alive. -- Pema Chodron

We can draw lessons from the past, but we cannot live in it. -- Lyndon B. Johnson, December 13, 1963

No matter how much you disagree with your kin, if you are a thoroughbred you will not discuss their shortcomings with the neighbors. -- Tom Thompson

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

Don't confuse being 'soft' with seeing the other guy's point of view. -- George Bush, "All the Best, George Bush"

The roots of true achievement lie in the will to become the best that you can become. -- Harold Taylor

Think not those faithful who praise all thy words and actions; but those who kindly reprove thy faults. -- Socrates

The freethinking of one age is the common sense of the next. -- Matthew Arnold, 'God and the Bible,' 1875

An honor is not diminished for being shared. -- Lois McMaster Bujold, "Shards of Honor", 1986

Shallow men believe in luck. Strong men believe in cause and effect. -- Ralph Waldo Emerson

The good neighbor looks beyond the external accidents and discerns those inner qualities that make all men human and, therefore, brothers. -- Martin Luther King Jr., 'Strength to Love,' 1963

There is only one real deprivation, I decided this morning, and that is not to be able to give one's gifts to those one loves most. -- May Sarton

To deny our own impulses is to deny the very thing that makes us human. -- Andy & Larry Wachowski, The Matrix, 1999

After all it is those who have a deep and real inner life who are best able to deal with the irritating details of outer life. -- Evelyn Underhill