Quotes

Acceptance is such an important commodity, some have called it "the first law of personal growth." -- Peter McWilliams, Life 101

I cannot live without books. -- Thomas Jefferson

Be life long or short, its completeness depends on what it was lived for. -- David Starr Jordan

Drink nothing without seeing it; sign nothing without reading it. -- Spanish Proverb

One's dignity may be assaulted, vandalized and cruelly mocked, but cannot be taken away unless it is surrendered. -- Michael J. Fox, in "Saving Milly" by Morton Kondrake

A compliment is a gift, not to be thrown away carelessly, unless you want to hurt the giver. -- Eleanor Hamilton

Hold a true friend with both hands. -- Nigerian Proverb

He who is not very strong in memory should not meddle with lying. -- Michel de Montaigne

Men are wise in proportion, not to their experience, but to their capacity for experience. -- James Boswell, Life of Samuel Johnson, 1791

If your daily life seems poor, do not blame it; blame yourself, tell yourself that you are not poet enough to call forth its riches. -- Rainer Maria Rilke

To believe in God or in a guiding force because someone tells you to is the height of stupidity. We are given senses to receive our information within. With our own eyes we see, and with our own skin we feel. With our intelligence, it is intended that we understand. But each person must puzzle it out for himself or herself. -- Sophy Burnham

Each moment in time we have it all, even when we think we don't. -- Melody Beattie

It is within the families themselves where peace can begin. -- Susan Partnow

Life-transforming ideas have always come to me through books. -- Bell Hooks, O Magazine, December 2003

The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. Resist it, and your soul grows sick with longing for the things it has forbidden to itself. -- Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1891

A raise is like a martini: it elevates the spirit, but only temporarily. -- Dan Seligman, in 'Forbes Magazine'

So long as we live among men, let us cherish humanity. -- Andre Gide

It's okay if you mess up. You should give yourself a break. -- Billy Joel

The secret of joy in work is contained in one word - excellence. To know how to do something well is to enjoy it. -- Pearl Buck, The Joy of Children, 1964

When you wish to instruct, be brief; that men's minds take in quickly what you say, learn its lesson, and retain it faithfully. Every word that is unnecessary only pours over the side of a brimming mind. -- Cicero

The highest result of education is tolerance. -- Helen Keller, 'Optimism,' 1903

Security is a kind of death. -- Tennessee Williams

If you cannot get rid of the family skeleton, you may as well make it dance. -- George Bernard Shaw

Whatever you are by nature, keep to it; never desert your line of talent. Be what nature intended you for and you will succeed. -- Sydney Smith

I have made my world and it is a much better world than I ever saw outside. -- Louise Nevelson

The path to our destination is not always a straight one. We go down the wrong road, we get lost, we turn back. Maybe it doesn't matter which road we embark on. Maybe what matters is that we embark. -- Barbara Hall, Northern Exposure, Rosebud, 1993

There are some things you learn best in calm, and some in storm. -- Willa Cather, The Song of the Lark, 1915

You might as well fall flat on your face as lean over too far backward. -- James Thurber

Subdue your appetites, my dears, and you've conquered human nature. -- Charles Dickens

It really doesn’t matter if the person who hurt you deserves to be forgiven. Forgiveness is a gift you give yourself. You have things to do and you want to move on. -- Real Live Preacher, RealLivePreacher.com Weblog, July 7, 2003

When a thing is done, it's done. Don't look back. Look forward to your next objective. -- George C. Marshall

An unhurried sense of time is in itself a form of wealth. -- Bonnie Friedman, in New York Times

Chance is always powerful. Let your hook be always cast; in the pool where you least expect it, there will be a fish. -- Ovid

All I can say about life is, Oh God, enjoy it! -- Bob Newhart

How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world. -- Anne Frank, Diary of a Young Girl, 1952

Don't be discouraged by a failure. It can be a positive experience. Failure is, in a sense, the highway to success, inasmuch as every discovery of what is false leads us to seek earnestly after what is true, and every fresh experience points out some form of error which we shall afterwards carefully avoid. -- John Keats

Life is like a game of cards. The hand that is dealt you is determinism; the way you play it is free will. -- Jawaharlal Nehru

To keep the heart unwrinkled, to be hopeful, kindly, cheerful, reverent - that is to triumph over old age. -- Thomas Bailey Aldrich, O Magazine, October 2003

As men, we are all equal in the presence of death. -- Publilius Syrus, Moral Sayings, First Century B.C.

It is an interesting question how far men would retain their relative rank if they were divested of their clothes. -- Henry David Thoreau, Walden, 1854