Quotations should be showing up at random on the side of the site. This is a complete list of them.
Each place has its own advantages - heaven for the climate, and hell for the society.
An invasion of armies can be resisted, but not an idea whose time has come.
A stumble may prevent a fall.
Life is fascinating: You just have to look at it through the right pair of glasses.
If you cannot write well, you cannot think well, and if you cannot think well, others will do your thinking for you.
The quickest way of ending a war is to lose it.
We are our memory. We are this chimerical museum of shifting forms, this heap of broken mirrors.
If you don't want it associated with you, never say it online.
If you don't really want to hear the answer, don't ask me the question.
Love is, above all else, the gift of oneself.
The best armor is to keep out of range.
The bond that links your true family is not one of blood, but of respect and joy in each other's life. Rarely do members of one family grow up under the same roof.
Refuse to allow anyone to repress your vivid energies. . . that means your opinions, your thoughts, your ideas, your values, your morals, your ideals.
One regret, dear world,
That I am determined not to have
When I am lying on my deathbed
Is that
I did not kiss you enough.
That I am determined not to have
When I am lying on my deathbed
Is that
I did not kiss you enough.
What really matters is what you do with what you have.
The first method for estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the men he has around him.
Genius may have its limitations, but stupidity is not thus handicapped.
There is one art, no more, no less: to do all things with artlessness.
Happiness belongs to those who are sufficient unto themselves. For all external sources of happiness are, by their own nature, highly uncertain, precarious, ephemeral, and subject to chance.
Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest.
A great war leaves the country with three armies - an army of cripples, an army of mourners, and an army of thieves.
You can't stay in your corner of the forest waiting for others to come to you. You have to go to them sometimes.
After all is said and done, more is said than done.
The secret of eternal youth is arrested development.
Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge.
Dreams are necessary to life.
Our own life is the instrument with which we experiment with Truth.
Be true to your work, your word, and your friend.
A person who won't read has no advantage over one who can't read.
There is nothing more unequal than the equal treatment of unequal people.
The Goddess made the world with her needle.
First she embroidered the moon,
and then the shining stars,
and then the fine sun and
the warm clouds beneath.
Then the wet pines in the forest,
the pines with wild animals beneath,
then the shining waves of the sea,
the shining waves with fishes beneath.
Thus the Goddess embroidered
the world. The world flowered
from the swift needle of the Goddess.
First she embroidered the moon,
and then the shining stars,
and then the fine sun and
the warm clouds beneath.
Then the wet pines in the forest,
the pines with wild animals beneath,
then the shining waves of the sea,
the shining waves with fishes beneath.
Thus the Goddess embroidered
the world. The world flowered
from the swift needle of the Goddess.
Only the open gate can receive visitors.
Only the open hand can receive gifts.
Only the open mind can receive wisdom.
Only the open heart can receive love.
Only the open hand can receive gifts.
Only the open mind can receive wisdom.
Only the open heart can receive love.
Making music should not be left to the professionals.
It had never occurred to me before that music and thinking are so much alike. In fact you could say music is another way of thinking, or maybe thinking is another kind of music.
It is the duty of every patriot to protect his country from its government.
The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as pure as a cribhouse whore. We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.
Some people walk in the rain, others just get wet.
We lie the loudest when we lie to ourselves.
Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind.
Information is the currency of democracy.
To believe in something, and not to live it, is dishonest.
There is not such a cradle of democracy upon the earth as the Free Public Library, this republic of letters, where neither rank, office, nor wealth receives the slightest consideration.
He who exercises government by means of his virtue may be compared to the north polar star, which keeps its place and all the stars turn towards it.
Words ought to be a little wild, for they are the assault of thoughts on the unthinking.
A mature person is one who does not think only in absolutes, who is able to be objective even when deeply stirred emotionally, who has learned that there is both good and bad in all people and in all things, and who walks humbly and deals charitably with the circumstances of life, knowing that in this world no one is all knowing and therefore all of us need both love and charity.
Evil is like a shadow - it has no real substance of its own, it is simply a lack of light. You cannot cause a shadow to disappear by trying to fight it, stamp on it, by railing against it, or any other form of emotional or physical resistance. In order to cause a shadow to disappear, you must shine light on it.
We find comfort among those who agree with us, growth among those who don't.
Power always has to be kept in check; power exercised in secret, especially under the cloak of national security, is doubly dangerous.
As far as I'm concerned, "whom" is a word that was invented to make everyone sound like a butler.
Every man feels instinctively that all the beautiful sentiments in the world weigh less than a single lovely action.
He who dares not offend cannot be honest.
The more intelligent and cultured a man is, the more subtly he can humbug himself.
Those who never retract their opinions love themselves more than they love truth.
The belly is the reason why man does not mistake himself for a god.
The butterfly counts not years but moments and has time enough.
Kindness is loving people more than they deserve.
Man is the best computer we can put aboard a spacecraft and the only one that can be mass produced with unskilled labor.
The radical novelty of modern science lies precisely in the rejection of the belief ... that the forces which move the stars and atoms are contingent upon the preferences of the human heart.
A few minutes ago every tree was excited, bowing to the roaring storm, waving, swirling, tossing their branches in glorious enthusiasm like worship. But though to the outer ear these trees are now silent, their songs never cease.
He who would be a leader must be a bridge.
History teaches that grave threats to liberty often come in times of urgency, when constitutional rights seem too extravagant to endure.
Hunting is not a sport. In a sport, both sides should know they're in the game.
No man, for any considerable period, can wear one face to himself, and another to the multitude, without finally getting bewildered as to which may be true.
For every ten people who are clipping at the branches of evil, you're lucky to find one who's hacking at the roots.
It seldom happens that any felicity comes so pure as not to be tempered and allayed by some mixture of sorrow.
Seven blunders of the world that lead to violence: wealth without work, pleasure without conscience, knowledge without character, commerce without morality, science without humanity, worship without sacrifice, politics without principle.
Some people change when they see the light, others when they feel the heat.
We are never more discontented with others than when we are discontented with ourselves.
Those who know how to win are much more numerous than those who know how to make proper use of their victories.
The average pencil is seven inches long, with just a half-inch eraser - in case you thought optimism was dead.
You do not examine legislation in the light of the benefits it will convey if properly administered, but in the light of the wrongs it would do and the harms it would cause if improperly administered.
Performance enhancing drugs are banned in the Olympics. Ok, we can swing with that. But performance debilitating drugs should not be banned. Smoke a joint and win the hundred meters, fair play for you. That's pretty damn good. Unless someone's dangling a Mars bar off in the distance.
Pol Pot killed one point seven million Cambodians, died under house arrest, well done there. Stalin killed many millions, died in his bed, aged seventy-two, well done indeed. And the reason we let them get away with it is they killed their own people. And we're sort of fine with that. Hitler killed people next door. Oh, stupid man. After a couple of years we won't stand for that, will we?
There's a huge hole in the whole Flood drama, because anything that could float or swim got away scot-free, and it was the idea to wipe out everything, He didn't say, "I will kill everything, except the floating ones and the swimming ones, who will get out due to a loophole."
I want to bury myself in a den of books. I want to saturate myself with the elements of which they are made and breathe their atmosphere until I am of it.
Tis the business of little minds to shrink, but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death.
If you want happiness for an hour—take a nap.
If you want happiness for a day—go fishing.
If you want happiness for a month—get married.
If you want happiness for a year—inherit a fortune.
If you want happiness for a lifetime—help others.
If you want happiness for a day—go fishing.
If you want happiness for a month—get married.
If you want happiness for a year—inherit a fortune.
If you want happiness for a lifetime—help others.
Don't let your past hold your future hostage.
What children need most are the essentials that grandparents provide in abundance. They give unconditional love, kindness, patience, humor, comfort, lessons in life. And, most importantly, cookies.
A man travels the world over in search of what he needs and returns home to find it.
Only those who do nothing at all make no mistakes…but that would be a mistake.
Your current safe boundaries were once unknown frontiers.
There will always be times when you feel discouraged. I too, have felt despair many times in my life, but I do not keep a chair for it; I will not entertain it. It is not allowed to eat from my plate.
When there's a hill to climb, don't think that waiting will make it smaller.
Failure is only postponed success as long as courage 'coaches' ambition. The habit of persistence is the habit of victory.
When is the time for love to be born?
The inn is full on the planet earth.
And by greed & pride the sky is torn—
Yet Love still takes the risk of birth.
The inn is full on the planet earth.
And by greed & pride the sky is torn—
Yet Love still takes the risk of birth.
Sometimes idiosyncrasies which used to be irritating become endearing, part of the complexity of a partner who has become woven deep into our own selves.
Severe illness isolates those in close contact with it, because it inevitably narrows the focus of concern. To a certain extent this can lead to healing, but not if the circle of concern is so tight that is cannot be broken into or out of.
I suspect that in every good marriage there are times when love seems to be over.
Our teachers and parents tell us that what comes from our imagination isn't true; it's just 'imaginary.' I think that what's imaginary is truer than what's 'real.' Adults prefer facts, because facts are limited. Like truth, imagination is unlimited, so many people are afraid of it.
Human beings are the only creatures who are allowed to fail. If an ant fails, it's dead. But we're allowed to learn from our mistakes and from our failures. And that's how I learn, by falling flat on my face and picking myself up and starting all over again. If I'm not free to fail, I will never start another book, I'll never start a new thing.
There is nothing so secular that it cannot be sacred, and that is one of the deepest messages of the Incarnation.
That's the basic difference between reading a book and watching tv. In watching tv we are passive; sponges; we do nothing.
And there in the living room is, for me, the Church, an eclectic group, Congregational, Roman Catholic, Jewish, agnostic, Anglican, athiest.
We must push out to the moon, the solar system, our galaxy, beyond because they are there, because they are mysterious.
Nothing we do changes God—it just changes what we think about God. When we discovered that the earth is not the center of the universe, it didn't change God. It just changed us, and what we think. We have to be willing to allow what we think to change.
If we could forget religion and remember God we might live in a reasonable world.
(To make good literature) "your intuition and your intellect should be working together…making love."
Because you're not what I would have you be, I blind myself to who, in truth, you are.
Remember that sometimes monsters only need to be kissed to be turned into beautiful princes and princesses.
We've got to be free to fail.
I didn't really believe in God, but I couldn't live as though I didn't believe in him. I found life intolerable without God, so I lived as though I believed in God.
Freedom and discipline, rather than being antithetical, are complementary. Permissiveness, either from others toward you or toward yourself, ends up being restricting and crippling.
Freedom comes on the other side of work.
A Christian is someone who's met one.
In order to allow ourselves to be creative, we have to relinquish control and overcome fear. Why? Because real creativity is life-altering. It threatens the status quo; it make us see things differently. It brings about change, and we are terrified of change.
The unending paradox is that we learn through pain.
A great painting, or symphony, or play, doesn't diminish us, but enlarges us, and we, too, want to make our own cry of affirmation to the power of creation behind the universe. This surge of creativity has nothing to do with competition, or degree of talent… This response on the part of any artist is the need to make incarnate the new awareness we have been granted through the genius of someone else.
Truth is eternal. Knowledge is changeable. It is disastrous to confuse them.
You are sanity in an insane world. You're reason where there isn't any reason. Reason to live.
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