Quotes

The lesson which life repeats and constantly enforces is 'look under foot.' You are always nearer the divine and the true sources of your power than you think. -- John Burroughs

Trust men and they will be true to you; treat them greatly, and they will show themselves great. -- Ralph Waldo Emerson, Essays, First Series: Prudence, 1841

No great deed, private or public, had ever been undertaken in a bliss of certainty. -- Leon Wieseltier, in The New Republic

The real hero is always a hero by mistake; he dreams of being an honest coward like everybody else. -- Umberto Eco, Travels in Hyperreality

The best of us must sometimes eat our words. -- J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets, 1999

Usually when people are sad, they don't do anything. They just cry over their condition. But when they get angry, they bring about a change. -- Malcolm X, Malcolm X Speaks, 1965

It is well to give when asked but it is better to give unasked, through understanding. -- Kahlil Gibran, 'On Giving,' The Prophet, 1923

September tries its best to have us forget summer. -- Bern Williams

The words that enlighten the soul are more precious than jewels. -- Hazrat Inayat Khan

I've always thought that a big laugh is a really loud noise from the soul saying, "Ain't that the truth." -- Quincy Jones, Victory of the Spirit

God loved the birds and invented trees. Man loved the birds and invented cages. -- Jacques Deval, Afin de vivre bel et bien

No matter how old you are, there's always something good to look forward to. -- Lynn Johnston, For Better or For Worse, 01-04-04

To look backward for a while is to refresh the eye, to restore it, and to render it the more fit for its prime function of looking forward. -- Margaret Fairless Barber

Your first appearance, he said to me, is the gauge by which you will be measured; try to manage that you may go beyond yourself in after times, but beware of ever doing less. -- Jean Jacques Rousseau

Before you contradict an old man, my fair friend, you should endeavor to understand him. -- George Santayana

Prefer loss to the wealth of dishonest gain; the former vexes you for a time; the latter will bring you lasting remorse. -- Chilo

One doesn't discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time. -- Andre Gide

Seek not happiness too greedily, and be not fearful of happiness. -- Lao-tzu

Sleep after toil, port after stormy seas, ease after war, death after life does greatly please. -- Edmund Spenser, 1590

America's greatest strength, and its greatest weakness, is our belief in second chances, our belief that we can always start over, that things can be made better. -- Anthony Walton

Illusions are art, for the feeling person, and it is by art that you live, if you do. -- Elizabeth Bowen

The only good is knowledge and the only evil is ignorance. -- Socrates

No matter how slow the film, Spirit always stands still long enough for the photographer It has chosen. -- Minor White

Do not be awe struck by other people and try to copy them. Nobody can be you as efficiently as you can. -- Norman Vincent Peale

Toil to make yourself remarkable by some talent or other. -- Seneca

If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion. -- The Dalai Lama

Fall seven times, stand up eight. -- Japanese Proverb

The first and great commandment is: Don't let them scare you. -- Elmer Davis

Every great mistake has a halfway moment, a split second when it can be recalled and perhaps remedied. -- Pearl Buck

Think like a wise man but communicate in the language of the people. -- William Butler Yeats

Live in the sunshine, swim the sea, drink the wild air… -- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Blessed are they who heal you of self-despising. Of all services which can be done to man, I know of none more precious. -- William Hale White

The time to stop talking is when the other person nods his head affirmatively but says nothing. -- Henry S. Haskins

Do what thy manhood bids thee do, from none but self expect applause; He noblest lives and noblest dies who makes and keeps his self-made laws. -- Sir Richard Francis Burton

I think people that have a brother or sister don't realize how lucky they are. Sure, they fight a lot, but to know that ther's always somebody there, somebody that's family. -- Trey Parker and Matt Stone, South Park, Cat Orgy, 1999

The fragrance always remains in the hand that gives the rose. -- Heda Bejar

Better be ill spoken of by one before all than by all before one. -- Scottish Proverb

Be wise with speed. A fool at forty is a fool indeed. -- Edward Young

The older I get, the more I feel almost beautiful... -- Sharon Olds, Oprah Magazine, May 2004

Every man is the architect of his own fortune. -- Sallust