Quotable Quotes

QUOTABLE QUOTES

Anarchism is founded on the observation that since few men are wise enough to rule themselves, even fewer are wise enough to rule others.
Abbey, Edward


No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets.
Abbey, Edward


One man alone can be pretty dumb sometimes, but for real bona fide stupidity, there ain't nothin' can beat teamwork.
Abbey, Edward


A memorandum is written not to inform the reader but to protect the writer.
Acheson, Dean


No public character has ever stood the revelation of private utterance and correspondence.
Acton, Lord


The danger is not that a particular class is unfit to govern. Every class is unfit to govern.
Acton, Lord


He attacked everything in life with a mix of extraordinary genius and naive incompetence, and it was often difficult to tell which was which.
Adams, Douglas


Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so.
Adams, Douglas


I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be.
Adams, Douglas


In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and has been widely regarded as a bad move.
Adams, Douglas


Nothing travels faster than the speed of light with the possible exception of bad news, which obeys its own special laws.
Adams, Douglas


Elections are won by men and women chiefly because most people vote against somebody rather than for somebody.
Adams, Franklin P


I find that a great part of the information I have was acquired by looking up something and finding something else on the way.
Adams, Franklin P


Seeing ourselves as others see us would probably confirm our worst suspicions about them.
Adams, Franklin P


The trouble with this country is that there are too many politicians who believe, with a conviction based on experience, that you can fool all of the people all of the time.
Adams, Franklin P


When a man you like switches from what he said a year ago, or four years ago, he is a broad minded person who has courage enough to change his mind with changing conditions. When a man you don’t like does it, he is a liar who has broken his promises.
Adams, Franklin P


Chaos often breeds life, when order breeds habit.
Adams, Henry


The creator of the universe works in mysterious ways. But he uses a base ten counting system and likes round numbers.
Adams, Scott


I hate liberality. 9 times out of 10 it is cowardice, and the 10th time, lack of principle.
Addington, Henry


It is always easier to fight for one’s principles than to live up to them.
Adler, Alfred


It is a profitable thing, if one is wise, to seem foolish.
Aeschylus


The smaller the mind the greater the conceit.
Aesop


The truth that makes men free is for the most part the truth which men prefer not to hear.
Agar, Herbert


Even God cannot change the past.
Agathon


If we were to wake up some morning and find that everyone was the same race, creed and color, we would find some other cause for prejudice by noon.
Aiken, George


Don't worry about people stealing an idea. If it's original, you will have to ram it down their throats.
Aiken, Howard


Nothing is more dangerous than an idea when you have only one idea.
Alain


Life is a dream for the wise, a game for the fool, a comedy for the rich, a tragedy for the poor.
Aleichem, Sholem


No matter how bad things get, you got to go on living, even if it kills you.
Aleichem, Sholem


Never eat at a place called Mom’s. Never play cards with a man named Doc. And never lie down with a woman who’s got more troubles than you.
Algren, Nelson


You can take all the sincerity in Hollywood, place it in the navel of a firefly and still have room enough for three caraway seeds and a producer's heart.
Allen, Fred


It is better for civilization to be going down the drain than to be coming up it.
Allen, Henry


His lack of education is more than compensated for by his keenly developed moral bankruptcy.
Allen, Woody


I am at two with nature.
Allen, Woody


I hate reality. But where else can you get a good steak dinner?
Allen, Woody


I was thrown out of college for cheating on the metaphysics exam; I looked into the soul of the boy sitting next to me.
Allen, Woody


If it turns out that there is a God, I don't think that he's evil. But the worst that you can say about him is that basically he's an underachiever.
Allen, Woody


Is sex dirty? Only if it’s done right.
Allen, Woody


It's not that I'm afraid to die, I just don't want to be there when it happens.
Allen, Woody


Life is divided into the horrible and the miserable.
Allen, Woody


Life is full of misery, loneliness, and suffering - and it's all over much too soon.
Allen, Woody


More than any other time in history, mankind faces a crossroads. One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness. The other to total extinction. Let us pray we have the wisdom to choose correctly.
Allen, Woody


The lion and the calf shall lie down together but the calf won't get much sleep.
Allen, Woody


To know how to suggest is the art of teaching.
Amiel, Henri


Loving yourself does not mean being self-absorbed or narcissistic, or disregarding others. Rather it means welcoming yourself as the most honored guest in your own heart, a guest worthy of respect, a lovable companion.
Anand, Margo


I read once that the ancient Egyptians had fifty words for sand and the Eskimos had a hundred words for snow. I wish I had a thousand words for love, but all that comes to mind is the way you move against me while you sleep and there are no words for that.
Andreas, Brian


A cynic is an optimist with experience.
Anon


A little nonsense now and then, is relished by the wisest men.
Anon


A minor obstacle is often a stepping stone.
Anon


A pessimist is a person who blows out the candle to see how dark it is.
Anon


A scary thought – I’ll be happy as soon as my past improves! The past is gone; we can only deal in the present.
Anon


A useful idea is a useful idea. Never let the messenger get in the way of hearing it.
Anon


A volunteer is someone who hasn’t understood the question.
Anon


Barnum was wrong - it's more like every 30 seconds.
Anon


Behaviour is a function of an individual interacting with his environment.
Anon


Being useful almost always trumps being right.
Anon


Children are from heaven, but they don’t grow up, they grow down.
Anon


Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear.
Anon


Data is not information; information is not knowledge; knowledge is not understanding; understanding is not wisdom.
Anon


Emotional health is not about finding the right person but about being the right person.
Anon


Enjoy who you are. Don’t hate yourself for what you aren’t.
Anon


Everyone is entitled to be stupid, but some abuse the privilege.
Anon


Exits are on the way out.
Anon


Failure is never quite as frightening as regret
Anon


Fixity of purpose calls for flexibility of method.
Anon


God heals; and the doctor takes the fee.
Anon


He didn’t know it couldn’t be done, so he went ahead and did it.
Anon


I am no more important than the person who is offending me. Neither am I less important.
Anon


Ideally, the umpire should combine the integrity of a supreme court justice, the physical agility of an acrobat, the endurance of Job and the imperturbability of Buddha.
Anon


If a man by himself in a forest makes a statement that is not heard by a woman, is he still wrong?
Anon


If at first you don’t succeed, read the manual.
Anon


If we are willing to look at another person’s behaviour towards us as a reflection of the state of his relationship with himself rather than as a statement about our value as a person then we will, over a period of time, cease to react at all.
Anon


If we don't change the direction we are headed, we will end up where we are going.
Anon


If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got.
Anon


If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change the way you think about it.
Anon


If you’re 18 and not a socialist, there’s something wrong with your heart. If you’re 40 and still a socialist, there’s something wrong with your head.
Anon


If you define yourself by your negative experiences, you will be unhappy. To be able to change, you need to open yourself to the positive potential and possibilities in your life.
Anon


If you show me the facts and they’ve changed, then I need to change my opinion as well.
Anon


If you want to be a butterfly, you have to stop being a caterpillar.
Anon


I guess when all is said and done, you are who you believe you are … and that should be good enough for everybody else.
Anon


I have decided to adopt the belief that everything I perceive is merely an illusion created by my subconscious. If anyone calls, tell him that he doesn’t exist.
Anon


Is life fair? NO! Life isn’t fair. We are all at risk. We must choose how we will respond to pain.
Anon


Just once, I wish we would encounter an alien menace that wasn't immune to bullets.
Anon


Learn to pause now and then so that something worthwhile may catch up with you.
Anon


Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass—it’s about learning how to dance in the rain.
Anon


Life is short. Break the rules, forgive quickly, kiss slowly, love truly, laugh uncontrollably, and never regret anything that makes you smile.
Anon


Love is the delusion that one man differs from another.
Anon


Love: two vowels, two consonants, two fools.
Anon


Many men fancy that what they experience they also understand.
Anon


Many people find it easier to be a result of their past rather than be the cause of their future.
Anon


Moderation in everything – even moderation
Anon


Move with the times and age will not bother you.
Anon


Never argue with an Idiot, they will drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.
Anon


Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.
Anon


Never confuse vulnerability with weakness.
Anon


Never try to teach a pig to sing. You will waste your time, and it annoys the pig.
Anon


Nobody trips over mountains. It is the small pebble that causes you to stumble. Pass all the pebbles in your path and you will find you have crossed the mountain.
Anon


No-one, on their death bed ever wished that they had spent more time in the office.
Anon


Once we accept things (people, self, situations) as they are, then we are open to seeing what new, creative approaches are called for.
Anon


One of the real secrets of happiness is to be content with what you have.
Anon


Optimist: one who finds an opportunity in every difficulty. Pessimist: one who finds a difficulty in every opportunity.
Anon


People are more violently opposed to fur than leather because it's safer to harass rich women than motorcycle gangs.
Anon


People matter more than things - and being is more important than doing.
Anon


People who can laugh at themselves are never short of a source of amusement.
Anon


Professionalism is an outcome of achievement. It is not a function of employment.
Anon


Professionals built the Titanic; amateurs built the ark.
Anon


Quis custodiet custodes ipsos? (Who will watch the watchers?)
Anon


Rules are made for the guidance of the wise and the obedience of fools.
Anon


“So, apart from the assassination, Mrs Lincoln, how did you like the play?”
Anon


Sometimes the best way to figure out who you are is to get to that place where you don’t have to be anything else.
Anon


Talents are what we are born with, skills are what we learn.
Anon


The day the child realises all adults are imperfect, he becomes an adolescent. The day he forgives them, he becomes an adult. The day he forgives himself, he becomes wise.
Anon


The entire economy of the Western world is built on things that cause cancer.
Anon


The journey defines your destination.
Anon


The law of heredity is that all undesirable traits come from the other parent.
Anon


The loudest voice we hear is our own voice.
Anon


The mind can only absorb what the bladder can endure.
Anon


The opposite of talking is not listening – it is waiting to talk.
Anon


The problem with people who invent implausible plots is that they don’t recognise one when they see it.
Anon


The wages of sin are unreported.
Anon


The world owes you nothing. And if you think differently, you’re in for a lifetime of disappointment and misery.
Anon


There is no fury like a vested interest masquerading as a moral principle.
Anon


This is not about feeling better; this is about learning to feel.
Anon


Three things that never come back; the spent arrow, the spoken word, the lost opportunity.
Anon


Time is that quality of nature which keeps events from happening all at once. Lately it doesn't seem to be working.
Anon


To try is to give yourself permission to fail.
Anon


We are judged by our actions, not our intentions. We may have a heart of gold, but so does a hard-boiled egg.
Anon


What if this weren’t a hypothetical question?
Anon


When choice remains, power is retained.
Anon


When was the last time you really listened to raindrops; looked at the face of your spouse, child or mother; or looked at your own face in a moment of peace?
Anon


When you resent someone, they live rent-free in your head.
Anon


Which is worse, ignorance or apathy? Who knows? Who cares?
Anon


Who we are never changes. Who we think we are does.
Anon


Winning is not always a sign of success; losing is not always a sign of failure.
Anon


Winning is not always a victory; losing is not always a defeat.
Anon


Within each of us is a key that opens the gates of heaven. However, the same key also opens the gates of hell.
Anon


You can’t always fix what’s broken. You don’t always have an answer that someone wants to hear.
Anon


You can’t put the responsibility for your emotions onto other people. If you take the responsibility and esteem for positive feelings, you can’t blame negative feelings on others.
Anon


You may not be able to control external circumstances, but you can control your response to them.
Anon


You know your children have grown up when they stop asking you where they came from and refuse to tell you where they are going.
Anon


You must love yourself before you love another. By accepting yourself and fully being what you are, your simple presence can make others happy.
Anon


Love is, above all, the gift of oneself.
Anouilh, Jean


Most people would rather be certain they're miserable than risk being happy.
Anthony, Robert.


Observe your enemies for they first find out your faults.
Antisthenes


The most radical revolutionary will become a conservative the day after the revolution.
Arendt, Hannah


It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.
Aristotle


Resolve to be thyself: and know that he who finds himself loses his misery.
Arnold, Matthew


There is the view that poetry should improve your life. I think people confuse it with the Salvation Army.
Ashbery, John


Never let your sense of morals get in the way of doing what's right.
Asimov, Isaac


Part of the inhumanity of the computer is that, once it is competently programmed and working smoothly, it is completely honest.
Asimov, Isaac


The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not 'Eureka!' (I found it!) but 'That's funny ...'
Asimov, Isaac


Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent.
. Asimov, Isaac


The war office kept three sets of figures: one to mislead the public, one to mislead the Cabinet and one to mislead themselves.
Asquith, H H


The higher up you go, the more mistakes you are allowed. Right at the top, if you make enough of them, it's considered to be your style.
Astaire, Fred


Democracy means government by discussion, but it is only effective if you can stop people talking.
Atlee, Clement


Good judgement comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgement.
Attwood, Margaret


Propaganda is a monologue which seeks not a response but an echo.
Auden, W H


We are here on Earth to do good to others. What the others are here for, I don't know.
Auden, W H


A prudent question is one half of wisdom.
Bacon, Francis


Be so true to thyself as thou be not false to others.
Bacon, Francis


The mould of a man’s fortune is in his own hands.
Bacon, Francis


Whatever deserves to exist, deserves to be known.
Bacon, Francis


The first and worst of all frauds is to cheat oneself.
Bailey, Gamaliel


The goal of all inanimate objects is to resist man and ultimately defeat him.
Baker, Russell


Here's a rule I recommend. Never practice two vices at once.
Bankhead, Tallulah


Faith is a cop-out. If the only way you can accept an assertion is by faith, then you are conceding that it can’t be taken on its own merits.
Barker, Dan


Television is the first truly democratic culture - the first culture available to everybody and entirely governed by what the people want. The most terrifying thing is what people do want.
Barnes, Clive


Expecting life to treat you well because you are a good person is like expecting an angry bull not to charge because you are a vegetarian.
Barr, Shari R


It is the familiar that usually eludes us in life. What is before our nose is what we see last.
Barrett, William


I argue very well. Ask any of my remaining friends. I can win an argument on any topic, against any opponent. People know this, and steer clear of me at parties. Often, as a sign of their great respect, they don't even invite me.
Barry, Dave


You grow up the day you have your first real laugh - at yourself.
Barrymore, Ethel


If this life is all any of us have got, and that it time and again appears senseless to the point of lunacy, then the only choice is to get out and take it by the short hairs and make it sing something at least resembling our tune.
Barstow, Stan


No task is a long one but the task on which one dare not start. It becomes a nightmare.
Beaudelaire, Charles


A musicologist is a man who can read music but can’t hear it.
Beecham, Sir Thomas


Ignorance is the womb of monsters.
Beecher, Henry Ward


Music is a higher revelation than philosophy.
Beethoven


There’s no such thing as bad publicity, except your own obituary.
Behan, Brendan


Joy is what makes it possible to be in contact with sorrow and not be submerged by it.
Bein, Thomas


When one door closes another door opens; but we so often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the ones which open for us.
Bell, Alexander Graham


Drawing on my fine command of the English language, I said nothing.
Benchley, Robert


Life is not lost by dying; life is lost minute by minute, day by dragging day, in all the thousand small uncaring ways.
Benét, Stephen Vincent


Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines.
Benfield, John


Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it, whether it exists or not, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedy.
Benn, Sir Ernest


Journalists say a thing they know isn’t true in hope that if they keep on saying it long enough, it will be true
Bennett, Arnold


Why do writers write? Because it isn't there.
Berger, Thomas


You don’t have to be different to be good, but if you’re good, you’re different.
Berlin, Irving


You are very powerful, provided you know how powerful you are.
Bhajan, Yogi


Speak when you are angry and you will make the best speech you will ever regret.
Bierce, Ambrose


Prejudice (n). A vagrant opinion without visible means of support.
Bierce, Ambrose


Mankind had rather suspect something than to know it.
Billings, Josh


Silence is one of the hardest arguments to refute.
Billings, Josh


The opposite of a correct statement is a false statement. But the opposite of a profound truth may well be another profound truth.
Bohr, Nils


That great bourn of all common sense: compromise.
Bolitho, William


Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.
Bonaparte, Napoleon


Occupation is the scythe of time.
Bonaparte, Napoleon


A God who let us prove his existence would be an idol.
Bonhoeffer, Dietrich


Don’t fear failure so much that you refuse to try new things. The saddest summary of a life contains three descriptions: could have, might have and should have.
Boone, Louis E


Between what we were, and are going to be, is who and how we best love.
Booth, Philip


When in doubt, mumble; when in trouble, delegate; when in charge, ponder.
Boren, James H


Laughter is the closest distance between two people.
Borge, Victor


Nothing ever really sets human nature free but self-control.
Bottome, Phyllis


It is possible to store the mind with a million facts and still be entirely uneducated.
Bourne, Alec


Government is too big and too important to be left to the politicians.
Bowles, Chester


We are an impossibility in an impossible universe.
Bradbury, Ray


That which is not worked out will be acted out.
Bradshaw, John


My life does not belong to others and I am not here on earth to live up to someone else’s expectations.
Branden, Nathaniel


Americans are benevolently ignorant about Canada, while Canadians are malevolently well informed about the United States.
Brebner, J. Bartlett


The one function TV news performs very well is that when there is no news we give it to you with the same emphasis as if there were.
Brinkley, David


I finally figured out the only reason to be alive is to enjoy it.
Brown, Rita Mae


Ah, but a man’s reach should exceed his grasp, or what’s a heaven for?
Browning, Robert


Destiny is not a matter of chance, it is a matter of choice; it is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved.
Bryan, William Jennings


You will not be punished for your anger, you will be punished by your anger.
Buddha


Indecision may or may not be my problem.
Buffett, Jimmy


The problem with the world is that the intelligent people are full of doubt while the stupid ones are full of confidence.
Bukowski, Charles


I'm still an atheist, thank God.
Bunuel, Luis


Heredity is nothing but stored environment.
Burbank, Luther


It takes only one drink to get me drunk. The trouble is, I can't remember if it's the thirteenth or the fourteenth.
Burns, George


All truth is manipulated, because the universe is chaotic. What we divine from it is the superimposition of some kind of order, whether it's religion, superstition, story and art, literature, science — all of them are an attempt to keep the wolf from the door. And that wolf is the panic of chaos.
Burns. Ken


I myself am made entirely of flaws, stitched together with good intentions.
Burroughs, Augusten


The more I study religions the more I am convinced that man never worshipped anything but himself.
Burton, Sir Richard Francis


The one serious conviction that a man should have is that nothing is to be taken too seriously.
Butler, Nicholas


All progress is based on a universal innate desire on a part of every organism to live beyond its income.
Butler, Samuel


Any fool can tell the truth, but it requires a man of some sense to know how to lie well.
Butler, Samuel


Faith. You can do very little with it but you can do nothing without it.
Butler, Samuel


Too many people are thinking of security instead of opportunity. They seem more afraid of life than death.
Byrnes, James F


In solitude, where we are least alone.
Byron, Lord


The optimist proclaims that we live in the best of all possible worlds. The pessimist fears this is true.
Cabell, James


I can't understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I'm frightened of the old ones.
Cage, John


An honest politician is one who, when he is bought, will stay bought.
Cameron, Simon


Politics is made up largely of irrelevancies.
Camp, Dalton


Every revolutionary ends as an oppressor or a heretic.
Camus, Albert


He who despairs over an event is a coward but he who holds hopes for the human condition is a fool.
Camus, Albert


Nobody realizes that some people expend tremendous energy merely to be normal.
Camus, Albert


Politics and the fate of mankind are shaped by men without ideals and without greatness.
Camus, Albert


The need to be right - the sign of a vulgar mind.
Camus, Albert


When a person lacks character, he is badly in need of a method.
Camus, Albert


It's a scientific fact that if you stay in California you lose one point of your IQ every year.
Capote, Truman


When someone is impatient and says, “I haven’t got all day,” I always wonder how can that be? How can you not have all day?
Carlin, George


The greatest of faults, I should say, is to be conscious of none.
Carlyle, Thomas


Television news is like a lightning flash. It makes a loud noise, lights up everything around it, leaves everything else in darkness and then is suddenly gone.
Carter, Hodding


A strong nation, like a strong person, can afford to be gentle, firm, thoughtful, and restrained. It can afford to extend a helping hand to others. It is a weak nation, like a weak person, that must behave with bluster and boasting and rashness and other signs of insecurity.
Carter, Jimmy


You build on failure. You use it as a stepping stone. Close the door on the past. You don't try to forget the mistakes, but you don't dwell on it. You don't let it have any of your energy, or any of your time, or any of your space.
Cash, Johnny


As an adolescent I aspired to lasting fame, I craved factual certainty, and I thirsted for a meaningful vision of human life - so I became a scientist. This is like becoming an archbishop so you can meet girls.
Cartmill, M


Democracy is the art of saying “nice doggy” until you can find a rock.
Catlin, Wynn


As long as people will accept crap, it will be financially profitable to dispense it.
Cavett, Dick


An economist is a surgeon with an excellent scalpel and a rough-edged lancet, who operates beautifully on the dead and tortures the living.
Chamfort, Nicholas


In great affairs men show themselves as they wish to be seen; in small things they show themselves as they are.
Chamfort, Nicholas


Alcohol is like love; the first kiss is magic, the second is intimate, the third is routine. After that, you just take the girl’s clothes off.
Chandler, Raymond


Sport offers you two options - winning and losing. If you can’t cope with losing, you have no right to the other.
Charlesworth, Ric


Nothing is as dangerous as an idea when it is the only idea you have.
Chartier, Emile


Any idiot can face a crisis – it’s this day to day living that wears you out.
Chekhov, Anton


What is memory? A few stones, picked out of the river. Reassembled in a garden. You can make a wall of it, a skeleton, a bench, a stone table.
Chernin, Kim


Women’s beauty, like men’s wit, is generally fatal to the owners.
Chesterfield, Lord


By a curious confusion, many modern critics have passed from the proposition that a masterpiece may be unpopular to the other proposition that unless it is unpopular it cannot be a masterpiece.
Chesterton, G K


Democracy means government by the uneducated while aristocracy means government by the badly educated.
Chesterton, G K


Don’t ever take a fence down until you know the reason it was put up.
Chesterton, G K


Fallacies do not cease to be fallacies because they become fashions.
Chesterton, G K


It is not bigotry to be certain we are right; but it is bigotry to be unable to imagine how we might possibly have gone wrong.
Chesterton, G K


The Bible tells us to love our neighbours, and also to love our enemies; probably because they are generally the same people.
Chesterton, G K


The Christian ideal, it is said, has not been tried and found wanting: it has been found difficult and left untried.
Chesterton, G K


If one sticks too rigidly to one's principles, one would hardly see anybody.
Christie, Agatha


Success is going from failure to failure without a loss of enthusiasm.
Churchill, Sir Winston


Man will occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of the time he will pick himself up and continue on.
Churchill, Sir Winston


No one is compelled to serve great causes unless he feels fit for it.
Churchill, Sir Winston


Nothing recalls the past so potently as a smell.
Churchill, Sir Winston


All things have small beginnings.
Cicero


The good of the people is the chief law.
Cicero


You’re either part of the solution or part of the problem.
Cleaver, Eldridge


Never believe anything until it has been officially denied.
Cockburn, Claude


Ring the bells that still can ring; Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything; That's how the light gets in.
Cohen, Leonard (“Anthem”)


The art of taxation consists in so plucking the goose as to obtain the largest amount of feathers with the least possible amount of hissing.
Colbert, Jean Baptiste


By means of an image we are often able to hold on to our lost belongings. But it is the desperateness of losing which picks the flowers of memory, binds the bouquet.
Colette


Sit down and put down everything that comes into your head and then you're a writer. But an author is one who can judge his own stuff's worth, without pity, and destroy most of it.
Colette


It is better to light a small candle than to curse the darkness.
Confucius


To be wronged or robbed is nothing unless you continue to remember it.
Confucius


When anger rises, think of the consequences.
Confucius


Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self.
Connolly, Cyril


George Orwell would not blow his nose without moralising on conditions in the handkerchief industry.
Connolly, Cyril


There are many who dare not kill themselves for fear of what the neighbours will say.
Connolly, Cyril


A word carries far – very far – deals destruction through time as the bullets go flying through space.
Conrad, Josef


Being a woman is a terribly difficult trade since it consists principally of dealing with men.
Conrad, Josef


The belief in a supernatural source of evil is not necessary; men alone are quite capable of every wickedness.
Conrad, Josef


Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated failures. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.
Coolidge, Calvin


Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the Universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the Universe is winning.
Cook, Rick


The male is a domestic animal which, if treated with firmness, can be trained to do most things.
Cooper, Jilly


To get something done, a committee should consist of no more than three men, two of whom are absent.
Copeland, Robert


Though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.
Corinthians, 1


The manner of giving is worth more than the gift.
Corneille, Pierre


I don’t know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody.
Cosby, Bill


The very first law in advertising is to avoid the concrete promise and cultivate the delightfully vague.
Cosby, Bill


To the questions of your life, you are the only answer and to the problems of your life, you are the only solution.
Coudert, Jo


I am all that I have, to work with, to play with, to suffer and enjoy.
Coward, Noel


I like long walks, especially when they are taken by people who annoy me.
Coward, Noel


A committee is a cul-de-sac down which ideas are lured and then quietly strangled.
Cox, Sir Barnett


No people do so much harm as those who go about doing good.
Creighton, Bishop


An autobiography is an obituary in serial form, with the last instalment missing.
Crisp, Quentin


The very purpose of existence is to reconcile the glowing opinion we have of ourselves with the appalling things that other people think about us.
Crisp, Quentin


To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting.
Cummings, e.e.


Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.
Curie, Marie


Anger cannot be overcome by anger. If a person shows anger to you and you respond with anger, the result is disastrous. In contrast, if you control anger and show opposite attitudes – compassion, tolerance and patience – then not only do you yourself remain in peace, but the other’s anger will gradually diminish.
Dalai Lama


If you don’t love yourself, you cannot love others. You will not be able to love others. If you have no compassion for yourself then you are not capable of developing compassion for others.
Dalai Lama


The first half of our lives is ruled by our parents, the second by our children.
Darrow, Clarence


Your problem is you’re too busy holding onto your unworthiness.
Dass, Ram


A truly great book should be read in youth, again in maturity and once more in old age, as a fine building should be seen by morning light, at noon and by moonlight.
Davies, Robertson


The world is full of people whose notion of a satisfactory future is, in fact, a return to the idealised past.
Davies, Robertson


I heard that his library burned down and that both books were destroyed - and one of them hadn’t even been coloured in yet.
Dawkins, John


The really frightening thing about middle age is that you know you'll grow out of it.
Day, Doris


If you aren’t good at loving yourself, you will have a difficult time loving anyone, since you’ll resent the time and energy you give another person that you aren’t even giving to yourself.
De Angelis, Barbara


Behind every great fortune there is a crime.
De Balzac, Honoré


Unhappiness is the difference between our talents and our expectations.
De Bono, Edward


In order to become the master, the politician poses as the servant.
De Gaulle, Charles


Roosevelt, a false witness; Truman, a merchant; Eisenhower, I am told that on the golf links he is better with a putter than he is with the long shots and that doesn’t surprise me. Kennedy, the style of a hairdresser’s assistant - he combed his way through problems; Johnson, a truck driver or a stevedore - or a Legionnaire.
De Gaulle, Charles


Treaties are like girls and roses. They last while they last.
De Gaulle, Charles


Procrastination isn't the problem, it's the solution. So procrastinate now, don't put it off.
DeGeneres, Ellen


The only thing that scares me more than space aliens is the idea that there aren't any space aliens. We can't be the best that creation has to offer. I pray we're not all there is. If so, we're in big trouble.
DeGeneres, Ellen


Delicacy is to the affections what grace is to beauty.
De Gerando, Baron


A hungry stomach has no ears.
De La Fontaine, Jean


Hypocrisy is the homage paid by vice to virtue.
De La Rochefoucauld, Francois


It is far easier to be wise for others than to be so for oneself.
De La Rochefoucauld, Francois


Nothing prevents us from being natural so much as the desire to appear so.
De La Rochefoucauld, Francois


The glory of great men should always be measured by the means they have used to acquire it.
De La Rochefoucauld, Francois


The height of cleverness is to be able to conceal it.
De La Rochefoucauld, Francois


We all have strength enough to endure the misfortunes of others.
De La Rochefoucauld, Francois


When we are unable to find tranquility within ourselves, it is useless to seek it elsewhere.
De La Rochefoucauld, Francois


… we had to fight or die, it was as simple as that – but by the time it was all over I just couldn’t handle the way I’d gone back so quickly to what I’d been. It was like the violence was always there inside me, just aching to get out. It’s like it’s always going to be sitting there inside me.
De Lint, Charles (“Spiritwalk”)


A really intelligent man feels what other men only know.
De Montesquieu, Baron Charles


To become truly great, one has to stand with people, not above them.
De Montesquieu, Baron Charles


Language is the source of misunderstandings.
De Saint-Expury, Antoine


Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.
De Saint-Expury, Antoine


Moral indignation is, in most cases, 2% moral, 48% indignation and 50% envy.
De Sica, Vittorio


God save me from my friends - I can protect myself from my enemies.
De Villiers, Marshall


If there’s one major cause for the spread of mass illiteracy, it’s the fact that everyone can read and write.
De Vries, Peter


Many who have much knowledge have no understanding.
Democritus


If you would be a real seeker after truth, it is necessary that at least once in your life you doubt, as far as possible, all things.
Descartes, Rene


Four fifths of the perjury in the world is expended on tombstones, women and competitors.
Dewar


If we want things to stay as they are, things will have to change.
Di Lampedusa, Giuseppe


Everybody lies, but it doesn't matter because nobody listens.
Diamos, Nick


Don't try to solve serious matters in the middle of the night.
Dick, Philip K


No experiment is ever a complete failure. It can always be used as a bad example.
Dickson, Paul


There is no moral precept that does not have something inconvenient about it.
Diderot, Denis


In science one tries to tell people, in such a way as to be understood by everyone, something that no one ever knew before. But in poetry, it's the exact opposite.
Dirac, Paul


I never deny, I never contradict. I sometimes forget.
Disraeli, Benjamin


There is no act of treachery or meanness of which a political party is not capable; for in politics there is no honour.
Disraeli, Benjamin


Youth is a blunder, manhood a struggle, old age a regret.
Disraeli, Benjamin


The average PhD thesis is nothing but the transfer of bones from one graveyard to another.
Dobie, J Frank


Education is a state controlled manufacture of echoes.
Douglas, Norman


Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself, but talent instantly recognizes genius.
Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan


Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.
“Dr Seuss”


First things first, but not necessarily in that order.
“Dr Who”


The very powerful and the very stupid have one thing in common. Instead of altering their views to fit the facts, they alter the facts to fit their views.
“Dr Who”


So much of what we call management consists of making it difficult for people to work.
Drucker, Peter F


You will find, as you look back upon your life, that the moments when you have really lived are the moments when you have done things in the spirit of love.
Drummond, Henry


In pious times, ere priestcraft did begin, before polygamy was made a sin.
Dryden, John


None are so busy as the fool and knave.
Dryden, John


What this country needs is more free speech worth listening to.
Duckett, Hansell B


Humanity is like people packed in an automobile which is travelling downhill without lights at terrific speed and driven by a four year old child. The signposts along the way are all marked Progress.
Dunsany, Lord


In all large corporations, there is a pervasive fear that someone, somewhere is having fun with a computer on company time.
Dvorak, John C


Change the way you see things, and the things you see change.
Dyer, Wayne


You cannot be lonely if you like the person you`re alone with.
Dyer, Wayne


History teaches us that men and nations behave wisely once they have exhausted all other alternatives.
Eban, Abba


The living know that they shall die.
Ecclesiastes 9:5


I have come to believe that the whole world is an enigma, a harmless enigma that is made terrible by our own mad attempt to interpret it as though it had an underlying truth.
Eco, Umberto


A little learning is a dangerous thing but a lot of ignorance is just as bad.
Edwards, Bob


Rational arguments don't usually work on religious people. Otherwise, there wouldn't be religious people.
Egan, Doris


You talk to God, you're religious. God talks to you, you're psychotic.
Egan, Doris


Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most people are even incapable of forming such opinions.
Einstein, Albert


Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.
Einstein, Albert


I never teach my pupils. I only attempt to provide the conditions in which they can learn.
Einstein, Albert


Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.
Einstein, Albert


We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.
Einstein, Albert


Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge in the field of truth and knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods.
Einstein, Albert


For last year's words belong to last year's language and next year's words await another voice. And to make an end is to make a beginning.
Eliot, T S


Work is the rent you pay for the room you occupy on earth.
Elizabeth II


If you are loved properly, you will love properly.
Elliott, Margaret


The two most common elements in the universe are hydrogen and stupidity.
Ellison, Harlan


Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience.
Emerson, Ralph Waldo


An institution is the lengthened shadow of one man.
Emerson, Ralph Waldo


Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.
Emerson, Ralph Waldo


The louder he talked of his honour, the faster we counted our spoons.
Emerson, Ralph Waldo


To be great is to be misunderstood.
Emerson, Ralph Waldo


We boil at different degrees.
Emerson, Ralph Waldo


What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.
Emerson, Ralph Waldo


What you do speaks so loud that I cannot hear what you say.
Emerson, Ralph Waldo


Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist.
Emerson, Ralph Waldo


An ounce of action is worth a ton of theory.
Engels, Friedrich


Insane people are always sure that they are fine. It is only the sane people who are willing to admit that they are crazy.
Ephron, Nora


Men are disturbed not by things, but of the views which they take of them.
Epictetus


No man is free who is not master of himself.
Epictetus


We are not affected by events per se, but by our interpretation of those happenings.
Epictetus


A compromise is the art of dividing a cake in such a way that everyone believes he has the biggest piece.
Erhard, Ludwig


Many therapists take a client out to dinner and order for them. I allow them to order for themselves.
Erickson, Milton


Music is the only language in which you cannot say a mean or sarcastic thing.
Erskine, John


Millions long for immortality who don’t know what to do with themselves on a rainy Sunday afternoon.
Ertz, Susan


Anger is the feeling that makes your mouth work faster than your mind.
Esar, Evan


Nothing can bring you peace but yourself.
Euclid


People that seem so glorious are all show; underneath, they’re like anybody else.
Euripides


Fervor is the weapon of choice for the impotent
Fanon, Frantz


Setting a good example for children takes all the fun out of middle age.
Feather, William


I am free of all prejudice. I hate everyone equally.
Fields, W C


Never confuse a single defeat with a final defeat.
Fitzgerald, F Scott


It's so much easier to suggest solutions when you don't know too much about the problem.
Forbes, Malcolm


It is not the employer who pays wages – he only handles the money. It is the product that pays wages.
Ford, Henry


Whether you think you can or think you can’t – you are right.
Ford, Henry


If fifty million people say a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing.
France, Anatole


The average man, who does not know what to do with his life, wants another one which will last forever.
France, Anatole


The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread.
France, Anatole


True, you can’t take it with you, but then, that’s not the place where it comes in handy.
Francis, Brendan


A judicious silence is always better than truth spoken without charity.
Francis of Sales


The direct use of force is such a poor solution to any problem, it is generally employed only by small children and large nations.
Friedman, David


The life spirit and energy which contribute to the mastery of the creative process can never be fully engaged by a commitment to a compromise.
Fritz, Robert


Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence.
Frost, Robert


Love is an irresistible desire to be irresistibly desired.
Frost, Robert


The world is full of willing people, some willing to work, the rest willing to let them.
Frost, Robert


In tragedy every moment is eternity; in comedy, eternity is a moment.
Fry, Christopher


We all value least what comes most naturally to us.
Fry, Stephen


You find yourself in a place in your continuing journey where you look up and say, “Oh, so that’s where I was going”. I’ve never planned and said, “I’ll go there and I’ll do it this way, using these horses.” You just find yourself somewhere and say, “Oh my gosh! I never knew I would be taken here”.
Fry, Stephen


We compound our suffering by victimising each other.
Fugard, Athol


I have seen the future and it doesn't work.
Fulford, Robert


Everything you've learned in school as "obvious" becomes less and less obvious as you begin to study the universe. For example, there are no solids in the universe. There's not even a suggestion of a solid. There are no absolute continuums. There are no surfaces. There are no straight lines.
Fuller, R Buckminster


Nature is trying very hard to make us succeed, but nature does not depend on us. We are not the only experiment.
Fuller, R Buckminster


Sometimes I think we're alone. Sometimes I think we're not. In either case, the thought is staggering.
Fuller, R Buckminster


If one cannot invent a really convincing lie, it is often better to stick to the truth.
Furkel, Angela


Economic forecasting was invented to give astrology a good name.
Galbraith, John Kenneth


If all else fails, immortality can always be assured by spectacular error.
Galbraith, John Kenneth


Meetings are indispensable when you don’t want to do anything.
Galbraith, John Kenneth


Nothing is so admirable in politics as a short memory.
Galbraith, John Kenneth


Politics is not the art of the possible. It consists of choosing between the disastrous and the unpalatable.
Galbraith, John Kenneth


The days when men of all political faiths seek the comfortable and the accepted. When the bland lead the bland.
Galbraith, John Kenneth


Under capitalism, man exploits man. Under communism, it’s just the opposite.
Galbraith, John Kenneth


You will find that the State is the kind of organization which, though it does big things badly, does small things badly, too.
Galbraith, John Kenneth


If you put tomfoolery into a computer, nothing comes out of it but tomfoolery. But this tomfoolery, having passed through a very expensive machine, is somehow ennobled and no-one dares criticize it.
Gallois, Pierre


I believe in equality for everyone, except reporters and photographers.
Gandhi, Mahatma


Always be a first rate version of yourself and not a second rate version of someone else.
Garland, Judy


Reason can answer questions, but imagination has to ask them.
Gerard, Ralph W


Self-compassion is simply giving the same kindness to ourselves that we would give to others.
Germer, Christopher


The meek shall inherit the earth, but not its mineral rights.
Getty, John Paul


What greater urgency is there for wisdom and courage than the knowledge that what meaning our lives will have is what meaning we make?
Gibbons, Rev Kendyl


An exaggeration is a truth that has lost its temper.
Gibran, Khalil


Your body is the harp of your soul.
Gibran, Khalil


We cannot control the wind, we can only adjust the sails.
Gibran, Kahlil


Yesterday is but today’s memory, and tomorrow is today’s dream.
Gibran, Kahlil


Believe those who seek the truth; avoid those who have found it.
Gide, Andre


Losers visualise the penalties of failure. Winners visualise the rewards of success.
Gilbert, Rob


The employer generally gets the employees he deserves.
Gilbey, Walter


The community pays. It pays a mint. It pays because excessive remuneration at the top breeds excessive demands down the line, adds to the alienation and cynicism of workers, diminishes respect for real talent, and costs, costs, costs.
Gilmour, John


Happy people constantly evaluate themselves. Unhappy people constantly evaluate others.
Glasser, William


There’s only one problem in the world. People won’t do what you want them to.
Glasser, William


Genius is formed in quiet, character in the stream of human life.
Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von


The intelligent man finds almost everything ridiculous, the sensible man hardly anything.
Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von


Things cannot disappear, they can only change.
Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von


The squeaking wheel doesn't always get the grease. Sometimes it gets replaced.
Gold, Vic


Life is pain; anyone who says differently is selling something.
Goldman, William


Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey, where wealth accumulates and men decay.
Goldsmith, Oliver


He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone.
Gospel of John


Judge not, that ye be not judged.
Gospel of Matthew (7:1)


In science, 'fact' can only mean 'confirmed to such a degree that it would be perverse to withhold provisional assent.' I suppose that apples might start to rise tomorrow, but the possibility does not merit equal time in physics classrooms.
Gould, Stephen Jay


The most erroneous stories are those we think we know best - and therefore never scrutinize or question.
Gould, Stephen Jay


2 is not equal to 3, not even for large values of 2.
Grabel’s Law


A wise man gets more use from his enemies than a fool from his friends.
Gracian, Baltasar


Do not explain overmuch.
Gracian, Baltasar


The advantage of a classical education is that it enables you to despise the wealth that it prevents you from achieving.
Green, Russell


A story has no beginning or end: arbitrarily one chooses that moment from which to look back or from which to look ahead.
Greene, Graham


Despair is the price one pays for setting oneself an impossible aim.
Greene, Graham


Novelists are trying to write the truth and journalists are trying to write fiction.
Greene, Graham


In my experience, the worst thing you can do to an important problem is discuss it.
Grey, Simon


We fight to great disadvantage when we fight with those who have nothing to lose.
Guicciardini


The world belongs to the optimists. Pessimists are only spectators.
Guizot, Francois


Any woman who thinks the way to a man's heart is through his stomach is aiming about 10 inches too high.
Gusoff, Adrienne E


As I grow older , I regret to say that a detestable habit of thinking seems to be getting a hold of me.
Haggard, H Rider


Everyone lives in his own Australia. It is the creation of the imagination working on the data of strictly personal experience.
Hallows, John


Whenever I dwell for any length of time on my own shortcomings, they gradually begin to seem mild, harmless, rather engaging little things, not at all like the staring defects in other people's characters.
Halsey, Margaret


Asking a working writer what he thinks about critics is like asking a lamppost how it feels about dogs.
Hampton, Christopher


Come back to the present moment and find peace and joy.
Hanh, Thich Nhat


Every breath we take, every step we make, can be filled with peace, joy and serenity. We need only to be awake, alive in the present moment.
Hanh, Thich Nhat


To be beautiful means to be yourself. You don’t need to be accepted by others. You need to accept yourself.
Hanh, Thich Nhat


Pain is inevitable, but misery is optional.
Hansel, Tim


The word 'politics' is derived from the word 'poly', meaning 'many', and the word 'ticks', meaning 'blood sucking parasites'.
Hardiman, Larry


It is not worth an intelligent man's time to be in the majority. By definition, there are already enough people to do that.
Hardy, G H


Estimated amount of glucose used by an adult human brain each day, expressed in M&Ms: 250
Harper’s Index


A cynic is not merely one who reads bitter lessons from the past, he is one who is prematurely disappointed in the future.
Harris, Sidney J.


Our dilemma is that we hate change and love it at the same time; what we really want is for things to remain the same but get better.
Harris, Sidney J.


Nothing can be so amusingly arrogant as a young man who has just discovered an old idea and thinks it is his own.
Harris, Sidney J.


Regret for the things we did can be tempered by time; it is regret for the things we did not do that is inconsolable.
Harris, Sidney J


The only sure thing about luck is that it will change.
Harte, Brett


The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there
Hartley, L P


We create the situations and then we give our power away by blaming the other person for our frustration. No person, no place and no thing has any power over us for "WE" are the only thinkers in our mind.
Hay, Louise


Would you really dig into yesterday’s garbage to make tonight’s meal? Do you dig into yesterday’s mental garbage to create today’s experiences?
Hay, Louise


You’ve been criticising yourself for years and it hasn’t worked. Try approving of yourself and see what happens.
Hay, Louise


In your mind, time moves from the past to the future ... but in your experience, time moves from now to now to now to now.
Hayes, Steven


The probability of anything happening is in inverse ratio to its desirability.
Hazard, Arthur


Man is the only animal that laughs and weeps, for he is the only animal that is struck with the difference between what things are and what they ought to be.
Hazlitt, William


The love of liberty is the love of others. The love of power is the love of ourselves.
Hazlitt, William


People and governments never have learned anything from history or acted on principals deduced from it.
Hegel, George


An insult is like a drink; it only affects you if you accept it.
Heinlein, Robert


The most preposterous notion that H. sapiens has ever dreamed up, is that the Lord God of Creation, Shaper and Ruler of all the Universes, wants the saccharine adoration of His creatures, can be swayed by their prayers, and becomes petulant if He does not receive flattery. Yet this absurd fantasy, without a shred of evidence to bolster it, pays all the expenses of the oldest, largest, and least productive industry in all history.
Heinlein, Robert


Never confuse movement with action.
Hemingway, Ernest


No one steps in the same river twice.
Heraclitus


There is nothing permanent except change.
Heraclitus


Let’s stop somebody from doing something.
Herbert, Alan Patrick


The conception of two people living together for twenty-five years without having a cross word suggests a lack of spirit only to be admired in sheep.
Herbert, Alan Patrick


The people I distrust most are those who want to improve our lives but have only one course of action.
Herbert, Frank


Knowledge can be communicated, but not wisdom.
Hesse, Hermann


Humans have a fundamental need to create and maintain a narrative for their lives in which the universe is not implacable and heartless, that terrible things do not happen at random, and that catastrophe can be avoided if you are vigilant and responsible.
Hickling, Edward (Ed)


Laughing at our mistakes can lengthen our own life. Laughing at someone else's can shorten it.
Hightower, Cullen


Saying what we think gives us a wider conversational range than saying what we know.
Hightower, Cullen


If I am not for myself, who will be for me? And if I am only for myself, what am I? And if not now, when?
Hillel, Rabbi


There is no peace in the nursing of a grudge. There is no happiness in living for the day when you can “get even”.
Hinckley, Gordon B


I deny that I said that actors were like cattle. I said they should be treated like cattle.
Hitchcock, Alfred


What luck for rulers that men do not think.
Hitler, Adolf


Life is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short in the state of nature in which men lived without the benefits of government or state.
Hobbes, Thomas

Babies haven't any hair; old men's heads are just as bare; between the cradle and the grave lie a haircut and a shave.
Hoffenstein, Samuel


Absolute faith corrupts as absolutely as absolute power.
Hoffer, Eric


Far more crucial than what we know or do not know is what we do not want to know.
Hoffer, Eric


It is a sign of a creeping inner death when we no longer can praise the living.
Hoffer, Eric


Rudeness is the weak man's imitation of strength.
Hoffer, Eric


The opposite of the religious fanatic is not the fanatical atheist but the gentle cynic who cares not whether there is a god or not.
Hoffer, Eric


When people are free to do as they please, they usually imitate each other.
Hoffer, Eric


You can discover what your enemy fears most by observing the means he uses to frighten you.
Hoffer, Eric


Your relationship with yourself sets the tone for every other relationship you have.
Holden, Robert


Speech is conveniently located midway between thought and action, where it often substitutes for both.
Holmes, John Andrew


A person is always startled when he hears himself seriously called an old man for the first time.
Holmes, Oliver Wendell


If I could think that I had sent a spark to those who come after, I should be ready to say goodbye.
Holmes, Oliver Wendell


Man's mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions.
Holmes, Oliver Wendell


Ability is what you're capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it.
Holtz, Lou


The first thing education teaches you is to walk alone.
Horn, A A


If fools do not control the world, it isn’t because they are not in the majority.
Howe, Edgar Watson


The foolish reject what they see, not what they think; the wise reject what they think, not what they see.
Huang Po


An optimist is a fellow who believes what’s going to be, will be postponed.
Hubbard, Kim


If you really want to make a million, the quickest way is to start your own religion.
Hubbard, L Ron


There is always more misery among the lower classes than there is humanity in the higher.
Hugo, Victor


The right to be heard does not automatically include the right to be taken seriously.
Humphrey, Hubert


After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music.
Huxley, Aldous


An intellectual is a man who has discovered something more interesting than sex.
Huxley, Aldous


At least two-thirds of our miseries spring from human stupidity, human malice and those great motivators and justifiers of malice and stupidity: idealism, dogmatism and proselytizing zeal on behalf of religious or political ideas.
Huxley, Aldous


Experience is not what happens to a man; it is what a man does with what happens to him.
Huxley, Aldous


Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.
Huxley, Aldous


Happiness is not achieved by the conscious pursuit of happiness; it is generally the by-product of other activities.
Huxley, Aldous


Several excuses are always less convincing than one.
Huxley, Aldous


Specialised meaninglessness has come to be regarded in some circles as a kind of hallmark of true science.
Huxley, Aldous


That all men are equal is a proposition which, at ordinary times, no sane individual has ever given his assent.
Huxley, Aldous


Every great advance in natural knowledge has involved the absolute rejection of authority.
Huxley, Thomas Henry


The great tragedy of science – the slaying of a beautiful hypothesis by an ugly fact.
Huxley, Thomas Henry


We must rediscover the distinction between hope and expectation.
Ilich, Ivan


A nation is a society united by delusions about its ancestry and by common hatred of its neighbors.
Inge, William Ralph


Events in the past may be roughly divided into those which probably never happened and those which do not matter.
Inge, William Ralph


The proper time to influence a child is about a hundred years before he was born.
Inge, William Ralph


In nature there are neither rewards nor punishments - there are consequences.
Ingersoll, Robert


The price of freedom of religion, or of speech, or of the press, is that we must put up with a good deal of rubbish.
Jackson, Robert


She had an unequalled gift ... of squeezing big mistakes into small opportunities.
James, Henry


A great many people think they are thinking when they are really rearranging their prejudices.
James, William


I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies.
Jefferson, Thomas


Man’s contribution to human history is nothing more than a drop of sperm.
Jiang Quing


Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.
Jobs, Steve


He who reads and grows no wiser seldom suspects his own deficiency, but complains of hard words and obscure sentences, and asks why books are written which cannot be understood.
Johnson, Dr Samuel


Read over your compositions, and wherever you meet with a passage which you think is particularly fine, strike it out.
Johnson, Dr Samuel


Wine makes a man more pleased with himself; I do not say that it makes him more pleasing to others.
Johnson, Dr Samuel


What time he can spare from the adornment of his person he devotes to the neglect of his duties.
Jowatt, Benjamin


Every form of addiction is bad, no matter whether the narcotic be alcohol, or morphine, or idealism.
Jung, Carl


We are always on our guard against contagious diseases of the body, but we are exasperatingly careless when it comes to the even more dangerous collective diseases of the mind.
Jung, Carl


There art two cardinal sins from which all others spring: Impatience and Laziness.
Kafka, Franz


When you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail. When you don’t have a hammer, you try hard not to see anything that looks like a nail.
Kagan, Robert


Happiness is not an ideal of reason but of imagination.
Kant, Emmanuel


Daring as it is to investigate the unknown, even more daring it is to question the known.
Kaspar


It is not your job to like me – it’s mine.
Katie, Byron


The best way to predict the future is to invent it.
Kay, Alan


Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, vision cleared, ambition inspired and success achieved.
Keller, Helen


Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature … Life is either a daring adventure or it is nothing.
Keller, Helen


The English language was carefully, carefully cobbled together by three blind dudes and a German dictionary.
Kellett, Dave


The broad Australian accent is not a lovesome thing, I grant you. At its worst, it is reminiscent of a dehydrated crow uttering its last statement on life from the bough of a dead tree in the middle of a clay pan at the peak of the seven-year drought.
Kennedy, Buzz


A medical revolution has extended the life of our elderly citizens without providing the dignity and the security those late years deserve.
Kennedy, John Fitzgerald


When written in Chinese, the word for ‘crisis’ is composed of two characters. One represents danger and the other represents opportunity.
Kennedy, John Fitzgerald


The greatest enemy of the truth is not the lie – deliberate, contrived and dishonest – but the myth – persistent, pervasive and unrealistic.
Kennedy, John Fitzgerald


Always forgive your enemies - but never forget their names.
Kennedy, Robert


Life is a series of moments. To live each one is to succeed
Kent, Corita


If you can keep your head when others about you are losing theirs, it’s just possible you haven’t grasped the situation.
Kerr, Jean


First they tell you you’re are wrong, and they can prove it. Then they tell you you’re right, but it’s not important. Then they tell you it’s important, but they’ve known it for years.
Kettering, Charles F


A loving person lives in a loving world. A hostile person lives in a hostile world. Everyone you meet is your mirror.
Keyes, Ken


Most men pursue pleasure with such breathless haste that they hurry past it.
Kierkegaard, Soren


Prayer does not change God but changes him who prays.
Kierkegaard, Soren


To dare is to lose one's footing momentarily. To not dare is to lose oneself.
Kierkegaard, Soren


I've never learned anything while I was talking.
King, Larry


Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.
King, Martin Luther


We act as though comfort and luxury were the chief requirements of life, when all that we need to make us happy is something to be enthusiastic about.
Kingsley, Charles


Theocrats of the world, unite - you have nothing to lose but your gods.
Kinna, Andrew


Take everything you like seriously, except yourselves.
Kipling, Rudyard


The toad beneath the harrow knows, exactly where each tooth point goes.
The butterfly upon the road, preaches contentment to that toad.
Kipling, Rudyard


Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind
Kipling, Rudyard


The illegal we do immediately. The unconstitutional takes a little longer.
Kissinger, Henry


The responsiveness of a firm to the consumer is directly proportional to the distance on the organisation chart from the consumer to the Chairman of the Board.
Knauer


The art of being a woman can never consist of being a bad imitation of a man.
Knopf, Olga


Two half truths do not make a truth and two half-cultures do not make a culture.
Koestler, Arthur


If your compassion does not include yourself, it is incomplete.
Kornfield, Jack

Television – a medium. So called because it is neither rare nor well done.
Kovacs, Ernie


Pick battles big enough to matter, small enough to win.
Kozol, Jonathan


If we can really understand the problem, the answer will come out of it, because the answer is not separate from the problem.
Krishnamurti, Jiddu


In oneself lies the whole world and if you know how to look and learn, the door is there and the key is in your hand. Nobody on earth can give you either the key or the door to open, except yourself.
Krishnamurti, Jiddu


It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.
Krishnamurti, Jiddu


Religion is the frozen thought of man out of which they build temples.
Krishnamurti, Jiddu


So when you are listening to somebody, completely, attentively, then you are listening not only to the words, but also to the feeling of what is being conveyed, to the whole of it, not part of it.
Krishnamurti, Jiddu


The constant assertion of belief is an indication of fear.
Krishnamurti, Jiddu


The moment you have in your heart this extraordinary thing called love and feel the depth, the delight, the ecstasy of it, you will discover that for you the world is transformed.
Krishnamurti, Jiddu


There is no end to education. It is not that you read a book, pass an examination, and finish with education. The whole of life, from the moment you are born to the moment you die, is a process of learning.
Krishnamurti, Jiddu


Your belief in God is merely an escape from your monotonous, stupid and cruel life.
Krishnamurti, Jiddu


Being frustrated is disagreeable, but the real disasters in life begin when you get what you want.
Kristol, Irving


The quality of an individual is reflected in the standards they set for themselves.
Kroc, Ray


Life is a sexually transmitted disease.
Laing, R D


The range of what we think and do is limited by what we fail to notice.
Laing, R D


Credulity is the man’s weakness, but the child’s strength.
Lamb, Charles


We need to suffer that we may learn to pity.
Landon, E L


Two men look out through the same bars. One sees the mud, the other sees the stars.
Langbridge, Frederick


Because one believes in oneself, one doesn’t try to convince others. Because one is content with oneself, one doesn’t need others’ approval. Because one accepts oneself, the whole world accepts him or her.
Lao-Tzu


If I keep from commanding people, they behave themselves. If I keep from preaching at people, they improve themselves. If I keep from meddling with people, they take care of themselves. If I keep from imposing on people, they become themselves.
Lao Tzu


A lot of people mistake a short memory for a clear conscience.
Larson, Doug


If the English language made any sense, a catastrophe would be an apostrophe with fur.
Larson, Doug


The surprising thing about young fools is how many survive to become old fools.
Larson, Doug


Advertising is the science of arresting human intelligence long enough to get money from it.
Leacock, Stephen


Egotism is the anaesthetic that dulls the pain of stupidity.
Leahy, Frank


Women who seek to be equal with men lack ambition.
Leary, Timothy


i must take issue with the term 'a mere child,' for it has been my invariable experience that the company of a mere child is infinitely preferable to that of a mere adult.
Lebowitz, Fran


Remember that as a teenager you are at the last stage of your life when you will be happy to hear that the phone is for you.
Lebowitz, Fran


I wish people who have trouble communicating would just shut up.
Lehrer, Tom


Life is like a sewer. What you get out of it depends on what you put into it.
Lehrer, Tom

On my income tax 1040 it says 'Check this box if you are blind.' I wanted to put a check mark about three inches away.
Lehrer, Tom


Think wrongly, if you please, but in all cases think for yourself.
Lessing, Doris


Happiness isn't something you experience; it's something you remember.
Levant, Oscar


I once said cynically of a politician, 'He'll doublecross that bridge when he comes to it.’
Levant, Oscar


It was on my fifth birthday that Papa put his hand on my shoulder and said, 'Remember, my son, if you ever need a helping hand, you'll find one at the end of your arm.’
Levenson, Sam

Somewhere on this globe, every ten seconds, there is a woman giving birth to a child. She must be found and stopped.
Levenson, Sam


A pessimist sees only the dark side of the clouds, and mopes; a philosopher sees both sides, and shrugs; an optimist doesn't see the clouds at all - he's walking on them.
Levinson, Leonard Louis


She was the sort of woman who lives for others. You can always tell the others by their hunted expression.
Lewis, C S


Advertising is a valuable economic factor because it is the cheapest way of selling goods, particularly if the goods are worthless.
Lewis, Sinclair


What a blessing it would be if we could open and shut our ears as easily as we open and shut our eyes!
Lichtenberg, Georg Christoph


With most men, unbelief in one thing springs from blind belief in another.
Lichtenberg, Georg Christoph


Freedom of the press is limited to those who own one.
Liebling, A.J.


It has been my experience that folks who have no vices have very few virtues
Lincoln, Abraham


Tact is the ability to describe others as they see themselves.
Lincoln, Abraham


The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present.
Lincoln, Abraham


‘Tis better to be silent and be thought a fool, than to speak and remove all doubt.
Lincoln, Abraham


Successful politicians are insecure and intimidated men. They advance politically only as they placate, appease, bribe, seduce, bamboozle or otherwise manage to manipulate the demanding and threatening elements in their constituencies.
Lippman, Walter


Time sneaks up on you like a windshield on a bug.
Lithgow, John


There is no pleasure in having nothing to do; the fun is in having lots to do and not doing it.
Little, Mary Wilson


The ignorant man always adores what he cannot understand.
Lombroso, Cesare


The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time.
London, Jack


If we could read the secret histories of our enemies we should find sorrow and suffering enough to disarm all hostility.
Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth


The secret of eternal youth is arrested development.
Longworth, Alice Roosevelt


The average person thinks he isn’t.
Lorenzoni, Father Larry


Journalists are born. Why, nobody knows.
Lower, Lenny


There are no hopeless situations in life, there are only men who have grown hopeless about them.
Luce, Clare Booth


The trouble with America is that there are far too many wide-open spaces surrounded by teeth.
Luckman, Charles


Every journalist has a novel in him, which is an excellent place for it.
Lynes, Russell


The magic of the tongue is the most dangerous of all spells.
Lytton, Bulwer


There is no security on this earth, there is only opportunity.
Macarthur, General Douglas


It is a common delusion that you make things better by talking about them.
Macaulay, Dame Rose


The two symbols of the Republican Party: an elephant, and a big fat white guy who is threatened by change.
MacFarlane, Seth


We have learned the answers - all the answers. It is the questions we do not know.
MacLeish, Archibald


And remember, no matter where you go, there you are.
MacRauch, Earl


Once a newspaper touches a story, the facts are lost forever, even to the protagonists.
Mailer, Norman


The horror of the 20th Century is the size of each event and the paucity of its reverberation.
Mailer, Norman


An opinion should be the result of thought, not a substitute for it.
Mallett, Jeff


The greatest mystery is not that we have been flung at random between the profusion of matter and of the stars, but that within this prison we can draw from ourselves images powerful enough to deny our nothingness.
Malraux, Andre


Population, when unchecked, increases in geometrical ratio. Subsistence only increases in arithmetical ratio.
Malthus, Thomas


No man remains quite what he was when he recognizes himself.
Mann, Thomas


War is a cowardly escape from the problems of peace.
Mann, Thomas


A man may fail many times, but he isn’t a failure until he begins to blame someone else.
Manning, Knox


If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it. And this you have the power to revoke at any moment.
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus


Thou hast committed … fornication: but that was in another country; and besides, the wench is dead. (The Jew of Malta)
Marlow, Christopher


What matters in life is not what happens to you but what you remember and how you remember it.
Marquez, Gabriel Garcia


An optimist is a guy who has never had much experience.
Marquis, Don


If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you; but if you really make them think, they'll hate you.
Marquis, Don


Pity the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
Marquis, Don


All a manager has to do is keep 11 players happy; the 11 in the reserves. The first team are happy because they are the first team.
Marsh, Rod


If you drink, don’t drive—don’t even putt.
Martin, Dean


Let us make a special effort to stop communicating with each other, so we can have some conversation.
Martin, Judith


I’ve had a wonderful evening - but this wasn’t it.
Marx, Groucho


I never forget a face - but in your case I’ll make an exception.
Marx, Groucho


Please accept my resignation. I don’t want to belong to any club that would accept me as a member.
Marx, Groucho


If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail.
Maslow, Abraham


It is bad luck to be superstitious.
Mathis, Andrew W


Dying is a very dull, dreary affair. My advice to you is to have nothing to do with it.
Maugham, Somerset


Excess on occasion is exhilarating. It prevents moderation from acquiring the deadening effect of a habit.
Maugham, Somerset


Impropriety is the soul of wit.
Maugham, Somerset


People ask you for criticism but they only want praise.
Maugham, Somerset


The most useful thing about a principle is that it can always be sacrificed to expediency.
Maugham, Somerset


Your attitude determines your action. Your action determines your accomplishment.
Maxwell, John


If you haven’t got the time to do it right, when will you find the time to do it again?
Mayer, Jeffrey J


Love is the selfless promotion of the growth of the other.
Mayerhoff, Milton


It has never been a crime to love yourself first. Neither is it a crime to love yourself more.
Mbiaka, Edmond


It is impossible to defeat an ignorant man in argument.
McAdoo, William G.


An efficient bureaucracy is the greatest threat to liberty.
McCarthy, Eugene


Being in politics is like being a football coach. You have to be smart enough to understand the game and dumb enough to think it’s important.
McCarthy, Eugene


It is dangerous for a national candidate to say things that people might remember.
McCarthy, Eugene


Irrigation of the land with seawater desalinated by fusion power is ancient. It's called 'rain'.
McClary, Michael


I know that you believe that you understood what you think I said, but I am not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant.
McCloskey, Robert


Resentment is like taking poison and waiting for the other person to die.
McCourt, Malachy


The longer the title, the less important the job.
McGovern, George


The car has become the carapace, the protective and aggressive shell of urban and suburban man.
McLuhan, Marshall


To avoid situations in which you might make mistakes may be the biggest mistake of all.
McWilliams, Peter


Never doubt that a small group of committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.
Mead, Margaret


So you’re going to Australia? What are you going to sing? All I can say is - sing ‘em muck! It’s all they understand! (to Dame Clara Butt)
Melba, Dame Nellie


Of all the preposterous assumptions of humanity over humanity, nothing exceeds most of the criticisms made on the habits of the poor by the well-housed, well-warmed, and well-fed.
Melville, Herman


A judge is a law student who marks his own examination papers.
Mencken H L


A man always blames the woman who fooled him. In the same way he blames the door he walks into in the dark.
Mencken H L


A man may be a fool and not know it, but not if he is married.
Mencken H L


And what is a good citizen? Simply one who never says, does or thinks anything that is unusual. Schools are maintained in order to bring this uniformity up to the highest possible point. A school is a hopper into which children are heaved while they are still young and tender; therein they are pressed into certain standard shapes and covered from head to heels with official rubber stamps?
Mencken H L


An idealist is one who, on noticing that a rose smells better than a cabbage, concludes that it will also make better soup.
Mencken, H L


As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.
Mencken, H L


Democracy is a form of religion. It is the worship of jackals by jackasses.
Mencken, H L


Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.
Mencken H L


For every complex problem, there is a solution that is simple, neat, and wrong.
Mencken, H L


I believe that all government is evil, and that trying to improve it is largely a waste of time.
Mencken, H L


It is even harder for the average ape to believe that he has descended from man.
Mencken, H L


It is hard to believe that a man is telling the truth when you know that you would lie if you were in his place.
Mencken, H L


It is impossible to imagine Goethe or Beethoven being good at billiards or golf.
Mencken, H L


It is inaccurate to say that I hate everything. I am strongly in favor of common sense, common honesty, and common decency. This makes me forever ineligible for public office.
Mencken, H L


Love is the delusion that one woman differs from another.
Mencken, H L


Nobody ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public.
Mencken H L


Say what you will about the Ten Commandments, you must always come back to the pleasant fact that there are only ten of them.
Mencken H L


School days are the unhappiest in the whole span of human existence. They are full of dull, unintelligible tasks, new and unpleasant ordinances, with brutal violations of common sense and common decency.
Mencken H L


The aim of public education is not to spread enlightenment at all; it is simply to reduce as many individuals as possible to the same safe level, to breed a standard citizenry, to put down dissent and originality.
Mencken, H L


The men the American people admire most extravagantly are the most daring liars; the men they detest most violently are those who try to tell them the truth. A Galileo could no more be elected president of the United States than he could be elected Pope of Rome. Both high posts are reserved for men favored by God with an extraordinary genius for swathing the bitter facts of life in bandages of self-illusion.
Mencken, H L


The most common of all follies is to believe passionately in the palpably not true. It is the chief occupation of mankind.
Mencken, H L


The most dangerous man, to any government, is the man who is able to think things out for himself, without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. Almost invariably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane and intolerable, and so, if he is romantic, he tries to change it. And if he is not romantic personally, he is apt to spread discontent among those who are.
Mencken H L


The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed - and hence clamorous to be led to safety - by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.
Mencken, H L


Unquestionably, there is progress. The average American now pays out twice as much in taxes as he formerly got in wages.
Mencken H L


We are here and it is now. Further than that all human knowledge is moonshine.
Mencken, H L


We must respect the other fellow's religion, but only in the sense and to the extent that we respect his theory that his wife is beautiful and his children smart.
Mencken, H L


If you want to identify me, ask me not where I live, or what I like to eat, or how I comb my hair, but ask me what I am living for, in detail, ask me what I think is keeping me from living fully for the thing I want to live for.
Merton, Thomas


Don’t Take Anything Personally. Nothings others do is because of you. What others say and do is a projection of their own reality, their own dream. When you are immune to the opinions of others, you won’t be the victim of needless suffering.
Miguel, Don


If mankind minus one were of one opinion, then mankind is no more justified in silencing the one than the one - if he had the power - would be justified in silencing mankind.
Mill, John Stuart


That so few now dare to be eccentric marks the chief change of the time.
Mill, John Stuart


Most conversations are simply monologues delivered in the presence of witnesses.
Millar, Margaret


When a person tells you, “I’ll think it over and let you know” – you know.
Miller, Olin


You probably wouldn't worry about what people think of you if you could know how seldom they do.
Miller, Olin


Money can't buy friends, but it can get you a better class of enemy.
Milligan, Spike


Policemen are numbered in case they get lost.
Milligan, Spike


Some go to church to reveal that they are Christians. Others to hide the fact that they are not.
Mills, F J


The third-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking with the majority. The second-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking with the minority. The first-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking.
Milne, A A


To believe you are magnificent. And gradually to discover that you are not magnificent. Enough labor for one human life.
Milosz, Czeslaw


The first and wisest of them all professed; to know this only, that he nothing knew.
Milton, John


I respect faith, but doubt is what gets you an education.
Mizner, Wilson


Hollywood is a place where they'll pay you a thousand dollars for a kiss and fifty cents for your soul.
Monroe, Marilyn


Nothing fixes a thing so intensely in the memory as the wish to forget it.
Montaigne, Michel de


The best car safety device is a rear-view mirror with a cop in it.
Moore, Dudley


Read, every day, something no one else is reading. Think, every day, something no one else is thinking. Do, every day, something no one else would be silly enough to do. It is bad for the mind to be always part of unanimity.
Morley, Christopher


In politics, the choice is always between two evils.
Morley, John


The city is not a concrete jungle, it is a human zoo.
Morris, Desmond


Truth is what occurs; the telling of it can make it something different.
Moseley, Nicholas


Accept everything about yourself – I mean everything. You are you and that is the beginning and the end – no apologies, no regrets.
Moustakas, Clark



He (David Frost) rose without a trace.
Muggeridge, Kitty


Knowledge is power, if you know it about the right person.
Mumford, Ethel


Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional
Murakami, Haruki


Love is the difficult realization that something other than oneself is real.
Murdoch, Iris


The buck stops with the guy who signs the cheques.
Murdoch, Rupert


When the politicians complain that TV turns the proceedings into a circus, it should be made clear that the circus was already there, and that TV has merely demonstrated that not all the performers are well trained.
Murrow, Edward R.


Children aren’t happy with nothing to ignore, and that’s what parents were created for.
Nash, Ogden


Patriotism is often an arbitrary veneration of real estate above principles.
Nathan, George, Jean


I found in my research that the biggest reason people aren’t more self-compassionate is that they are afraid they’ll become self-indulgent. They believe self-criticism is what keeps them in line. Most people have gotten it wrong because our culture says being hard on yourself is the way to be.
Neff, Kristin


Democracy is good. I say this because other systems are worse.
Nehru, Pandit Jawaharlal


The real art of conversation is not only to say the right thing at the right place but to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment.
Nevill, Dorothy


It is more important to know where you are going than to get there quickly. Do not mistake activity for achievement.
Newcomer, Mabel


When a man blames others for his failures, it’s a good idea to credit others with his successes.
Newton, Howard W


God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference.
Niebuhr, Reinhold


And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music.
Nietsche, Friedrich


Distrust all men in whom the impulse to punish is powerful.
Nietsche, Friedrich


Here the ways of men part: if you wish to strive for peace of soul and pleasure, then believe; if you wish to be a devotee of truth, then inquire...
Nietsche, Friedrich


If you gaze for long into the abyss, the abyss also gazes into you.
Nietsche, Friedrich


“I have done that," says my memory. "I cannot have done that" -- says my pride, and remains adamant. At last -- memory yields.
Nietsche, Friedrich


I'm not upset that you lied to me, I'm upset that from now on I can't believe you
Nietsche, Friedrich


In heaven all the interesting people are missing.
Nietsche, Friedrich


The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently.
Nietsche, Friedrich


We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are.
Nin, Anaïs


Those who hate you don’t win unless you hate them – and then you destroy yourself.
Nixon, Richard


Wagner's music is better than it sounds.
Nye, Edgar Wilson


Most people would like to be delivered from temptation but would like it to keep in touch.
Orben, Robert


If you bungle raising your children, I don’t think that whatever else you do well matters very much.
Onassis, Jacqueline Kennedy


A little government and a little luck are necessary in life, but only a fool trusts either of them.
O’Rourke, P.J.


No drug, not even alcohol, causes the fundamental ills of society. If we're looking for the source of our troubles, we shouldn't test people for drugs, we should test them for stupidity, ignorance, greed and love of power.
O’Rourke, P.J.


There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences.
O’Rourke, P.J.


There's a whiff of the lynch mob or the lemming migration about any overlarge concentration of like-thinking individuals, no matter how virtuous their cause.
O’Rourke, P.J.


When buying and selling are controlled by legislation, the first things to be bought and sold are legislators.
O’Rourke, P.J.


Illegal aliens have always been a problem in the United States. Ask any Indian.
Orben, Robert


Sometimes I get the feeling the whole world is against me, but deep down I know that's not true. Some smaller countries are neutral.
Orben, Robert


In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.
Orwell, George


In certain kinds of writing, particularly in art criticism and literary criticism, it is normal to come across long passages which are almost completely lacking in meaning.
Orwell, George


In our time, there is no such thing as “keeping out of politics”. All issues are political issues and politics itself is a mass of lies, evasions, folly, hatred and schizophrenia.
Orwell, George


On the whole human beings want to be good, but not too good, and not quite all the time.
Orwell, George


Serious sport has nothing to do with fair play. It is bound up with hatred, jealousy, boastfulness, disregard of all rules and sadistic pleasure in witnessing violence; in other words, it is war minus the shooting.
Orwell, George


The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable.
Orwell, George


The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one's real and one's declared aims, one turns as it were instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish spurting out ink.
Orwell, George


There are some ideas so idiotic that only an intellectual could believe them.
Orwell, George


To exchange one orthodoxy for another is not necessarily an advance. The enemy is the gramophone mind, whether or not one agrees with the record that is being played at the moment.
Orwell, George


Look wise, say nothing, and grunt. Speech was given to conceal thought.
Osler, Sir William


When nobody else celebrates you, learn to celebrate yourself. When nobody else compliments you, then compliment yourself. It’s not up to other people to keep you encouraged. It’s up to you. Encouragement should come from the inside.
Osteen, Joel


Those who can laugh without cause have either found the true meaning of happiness or have gone stark raving mad.
Papernick, Norm


If you want to know what God thinks of money, just look at the people he gave it to.
Parker, Dorothy


The affair between Margot Asquith and Margot Asquith will live as one of the prettiest love stories in all literature.
Parker, Dorothy


Family isn't about whose blood you have. It's about who you care about.
Parker, Trey & Stone, Matt


Sometimes what's right isn't as important as what's profitable.
Parker, Trey & Stone, Matt


Man is equally incapable of seeing the nothingness from which he emerges and the infinity in which he is engulfed.
Pascal, Blaise


Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction.
Pascal, Blaise


The heart has its reasons which reason does not know.
Pascal, Blaise


We are generally the better persuaded by the reasons we discover ourselves than by those given to us by others.
Pascal, Blaise


Life is like riding a bicycle. You don’t fall off unless you plan to stop pedalling.
Pepper, Claude


Love is not the dying moan of a violin - it is the triumphant twang of a bedspring.
Perelman, S J


I am not in this world to live up to other people's expectations, nor do I feel that the world must live up to mine.
Perls, Fritz


Against logic there is no armor like ignorance.
Peter, Lawrence J


An economist is an expert who will know tomorrow why the things he predicted yesterday didn't happen today.
Peter, Lawrence J


If you don’t know where you are going, you will probably end up somewhere else.
Peter, Lawrence J & Hull, Raymond


The art of being yourself at your best is the art of unfolding yourself into the personality you want to be. Learn to love yourself, be gentle with yourself, to forgive yourself, for only as we have the right attitude toward ourselves can we have the right attitude toward others.
Peterson, Wilfred


I used to think that the brain was the most wonderful organ in my body. Then I realized who was telling me this.
Phillips, Emo


Some mornings it just doesn't seem worth it to gnaw through the leather straps.
Phillips, Emo


There are painters who transform the sun to a yellow spot, but there are others who with the help of their art and their intelligence, transform a yellow spot into the sun.
Picasso, Pablo


We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark. The real tragedy in life is when adults are afraid of the light.
Plato


Wise men talk because they have something to say. Fools talk because they must say something.
Plato


The more I practice, the luckier I get
Player, Gary


Science is facts; just as houses are made of stones, so is science made of facts; but a pile of stones is not a house and a collection of facts is not necessarily science.
Poincare, Henri


It is with narrow souled people as with narrow necked bottles; the less they have in them, the more noise they make in pouring it out.
Pope, Alexander


Manners are a sensitive awareness of the feelings of others. If you have that awareness, you have good manners, no matter what fork you use.
Post, Emily

The wages of sin are death, but by the time taxes are taken out, it's just sort of a tired feeling.
Poundstone, Paula


Dinner at the Huntercombes’ possessed only two dramatic features – the wine was a farce and the food a tragedy
Powell, Anthony


He fell in love with himself at first sight, and it is a passion to which he has always remained faithful.
Powell, Anthony


Understatement and irony, in which all classes in England communicate.
Powell, Anthony


I'll be more enthusiastic about encouraging thinking outside the box when there's evidence of any thinking going on inside it.
Pratchett, Terry


A minor obstacle is often a stepping stone.
Prescott


All money nowadays seems to be produced with a natural homing instinct for the Treasury.
Prince Philip


If we are to recover prosperity, we shall have to find ways of emancipating energy and enterprise from the frustrating control of timid ignoramuses.
Prince Philip


If you really want to get your teeth into the biggest rice pudding of all, I suggest you take a look at the duties of government and its administrative structure.
Prince Philip


You don't stop laughing because you grow old. You grow old because you stop laughing.
Pritchard, Michael


Happiness is beneficial for the body but it is grief that develops the power of the mind.
Proust, Marcel


The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.
Proust, Marcel


A truly great man never puts away the simplicity of a child.
Proverb


Believe nothing of what you hear and only half of what you see.
Proverb


Better bend than break.
Proverb


Better to be envied than pitied.
Proverb


Don’t let yesterday use up too much of today.
Proverb


He that has no children knows not what is love.
Proverb


Success makes a fool seem wise.
Proverb


Trouble brings experience and experience brings wisdom.
Proverb


Until lions have their historians, tales of hunting will always glorify the hunter.
Proverb


We never know the worth of water until the well is dry.
Proverb


When a finger points at the moon, the imbecile looks at the finger.
Proverb


Grab a chance, and you won’t be sorry for a might have been.
Ransome


To see yourself as the world sees you may be very brave, but it can be very foolish. What right have they to judge? To judge you they must have the capacity to feel as you feel. And who has?
Rattigan, Terence


A hippy is someone who looks like Tarzan, walks like Jane and smells like Cheetah.
Reagan, Ronald


The government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.
Reagan, Ronald


A man never discloses his own character so clearly as when he describes another’s.
Richter, Jean Paul


A timid person is frightened before a danger, a coward during the time, and a courageous person afterward.
Richter, Jean Paul


Happiness is an attitude. We either make ourselves miserable or happy and strong. The amount of work is the same.
Rieger, Francesca


For one human being to love another: that is perhaps the most difficult of our tasks; the ultimate, the last test and proof, the work for which all other work is but preparation.
Rilke, Rainer, Maria


A little work, a little sleep, a little love and it's all over.
Rinehart, Mary Roberts


Once we recognize that thoughts are empty, the mind will no longer have the power to deceive us.
Rinpoche, Khyetse


Disbelief in magic can force a poor soul into believing in government and business.
Robbins, Tom


What really nourishes our souls is the knowing that we can be trusted, that we never have to fear the truth, that the foundation of our very being is good stuff.
Rogers, Fred


I don't make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts.
Rogers, Will


There ought to be one day-- just one-- when there is open season on senators.
Rogers, Will


Computers make it easier to do a lot of things, but most of the things they make it easier to do don't need to be done.
Rooney, Andy


Nobody can make you feel inferior without your consent.
Roosevelt, Eleanor


You gain strength, experience and confidence by every experience where you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing you cannot do.
Roosevelt, Eleanor


With the new day comes new strength and new thoughts.
Roosevelt, Eleanor


A conservative is a man with two perfectly good legs who, however, has never learned to walk forward.
Roosevelt, Franklin D


The test of our progress is not whether we add to the abundance of those who have much. It is whether we provide enough to those who have little.
Roosevelt, Franklin D


Reason’s weakness is the belief that it has the capacity to convince unreason.
Rostand, Jean


Dogmatism is the security blanket of the spiritually infantile.
Roszak, Theodore


It’s like everyone tells a story about themselves inside their own head. Always. All the time. That story makes you what you are. We build ourselves out of that story.
Rothfuss, Patrick


A fine quotation is a diamond on the finger of a man of wit, and a pebble in the hand of a fool.
Roux, Joseph


Science is for those who learn; poetry for those who know.
Roux, Joseph


To be happy with a man you must understand him a lot and love him a little. To be happy with a woman, you must love her a lot and do not try to understand her at all.
Rowland, Helen


The problem is not that there are problems. The problem is expecting otherwise and thinking that having problems is a problem.
Rubin, Theodore


Let yourself be silently drawn by the stronger pull of what you really love.
Rumi


The wound is the place where the light enters you.
Rumi


Your task is not to seek for Love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.
Rumi


Happiness is not a state to arrive at but a manner of travelling.
Runbeck, Margaret


I long ago came to the conclusion that all life is 6 to 5 against.
Runyon, Damon


What we think, or what we know, or what we believe is, in the end, of little consequence. The only consequence is what we do.
Ruskin, John


A sense of duty is useful in work, but offensive in personal relations. People wish to be liked, not be endured with patient resignation.
Russell, Bertrand


Every man, wherever he goes, is encompassed by a cloud of comforting convictions, which move with him like flies on a summer day.
Russell, Bertrand


Fear is the main source of superstition and one of the main sources of cruelty. To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom.
Russell, Bertrand


Happiness is not best achieved by those who seek it directly.
Russell, Bertrand


I am persuaded that there is absolutely no limit to the absurdities that can, by government action, come to be generally believed.
Russell, Bertrand


In the part of this universe that we know there is great injustice, and often the good suffer, and often the wicked prosper, and one hardly knows which of those is the more annoying.
Russell, Bertrand


It has been said that man is a rational animal. All my life I have been searching for evidence which could support this.
Russell, Bertrand


It is a waste of energy to be angry with a man who behaves badly, just as it is to be angry with a car that won't go.
Russell, Bertrand


Man is a credulous animal, and must believe something; in the absence of good grounds for belief, he will be satisfied with bad ones.
Russell, Bertrand


Many people would sooner die than think; In fact, they do so.
Russell, Bertrand


Not to be absolutely certain is, I think, one of the essential things in rationality.
Russell, Bertrand


Patriotism is the willingness to kill and be killed for trivial reasons.
Russell, Bertrand


The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence whatever that it is not utterly absurd; indeed in view of the silliness of the majority of mankind, a widespread belief is more likely to be foolish than sensible.
Russell, Bertrand
The good life, as I conceive it, is a happy life. I do not mean that if you are good you will be happy - I mean that if you are happy you will be good.
Russell, Bertrand


The main things which seem to me important on their own account, and not merely as means to other things, are knowledge, art, instinctive happiness, and relations of friendship or affection.
Russell, Bertrand


The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.
Russell, Bertrand


The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts.
Russell, Bertrand


To be able to fill leisure intelligently is the last product of civilization, and at present very few people have reached this level.
Russell, Bertrand


What men really want is not knowledge but certainty.
Russell, Bertrand


The hardest thing to learn in life is which bridge to cross and which to burn.
Russell, David


We live in a Newtonian world of Einsteinian physics ruled by Frankensteinian logic.
Russell, David


It is necessary to write, if the days are not to slip emptily by. How else, indeed, to clap the net over the butterfly of the moment?
Sackville-West, Vita


Composition is a discipline; it forces us to think. If you want to 'get in touch with your feelings,' fine — talk to yourself; we all do. But, if you want to communicate with another thinking human being, get in touch with your thoughts. Put them in order; give them a purpose; use them to persuade, to instruct, to discover, to seduce. The secret way to do this is to write it down and then cut out the confusing parts."
Safire, William


If America cannot win a war in a week, it begins negotiating with itself.
Safire, William


Is sloppiness in speech caused by ignorance or apathy? I don't know and I don't care.
Safire, William


But the fact that some geniuses were laughed at does not imply that all who are laughed at are geniuses. They laughed at Columbus, they laughed at Fulton, they laughed at the Wright brothers. But they also laughed at Bozo the Clown.
Sagan, Carl


Skeptical scrutiny is the means, in both science and religion, by which deep insights can be winnowed from deep nonsense.
Sagan, Carl


One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. The bamboozle has captured us. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back.
Sagan, Carl


The young have aspirations that never come to pass. The old have reminiscences of what never happened.
Saki (H.H.Munro)


If you believe the doctors, nothing is wholesome; if you believe the theologians, nothing is innocent; if you believe the military, nothing is safe.
Salisbury, Lord


Fanaticism consists in redoubling your efforts when you have forgotten your aim.
Santayana, George


The truth is cruel, but it can be loved, and it makes free those who have loved it.
Santayana, George


Those who speak most of progress measure it by quantity and not by quality.
Santayana, George


What others think of us would be of little moment did it not, when known, so deeply tinge what we think of ourselves.
Santayana, George


Why shouldn't things be largely absurd, futile, and transitory? They are so, and we are so, and they and we go very well together.
Santayana, George


She believed in nothing; only her scepticism kept her from being an atheist.
Sartre, Jean Paul


Three o'clock is always too late or too early for anything you want to do.
Sartre, Jean Paul


Life is not the way it’s supposed to be; it’s the way it is. The way you cope with it is what makes the difference.
Satir, Virginia


Against stupidity the gods themselves contend in vain.
Schiller, Friedrich von


The voice of the majority is no proof of justice.
Schiller, Friedrich von


A historian is a prophet in reverse.
Schlegel, August Wilhelm von


After your death, you will be what you were before your birth.
Schopenhauer, Arthur


We forfeit three-fourths of ourselves in order to be like other people.
Schopenhauer, Arthur


For four-fifths of our history, our planet was populated by pond scum.
Schopf, J W


Sometimes I lie awake at night, and I ask, "Where have I gone wrong?" Then a voice says to me, "This is going to take more than one night."
Schulz, Charles M


Once you learn how to die, you learn how to live.
Schwartz, Morrie


The way you get meaning into your life is to devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning.
Schwartz, Morrie


We have to do something before we are able to want to do it
Segal, Zindel V


For every person who wants to teach, there are approximately 30 who don’t want to learn.
Sellars & Yeatman


Fear no more the heat o' the sun,
Nor the furious winter's rages;
Thou thy worldly task hast done,
Home art gone and ta'en thy wages:
Golden lads and girls all must,
As chimney-sweepers, come to dust.
Shakespeare (Cymbeline)


Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more: it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.
Shakespeare (MacBeth)


Society is no comfort to one not sociable.
Shakespeare


Some people think football is a matter of life and death. I don’t like that attitude. I can assure them it is much more serious than that.
Shankley, Bill


A fool's brain digests philosophy into folly, science into superstition, and art into pedantry. Hence University education.
Shaw, George Bernard


All great truths begin as blasphemies.
Shaw, George Bernard

Life does not cease to be funny when people die any more than it ceases to be serious when people laugh.
Shaw, George Bernard


Martyrdom is the only way a man can become famous without ability.
Shaw, George Bernard


People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don't believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and, if they can't find them, make them.
Shaw, George Bernard


Reading made Don Quixote a gentleman. Believing what he read made him mad.
Shaw, George Bernard


Silence is the most perfect expression of scorn.
Shaw, George Bernard


The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it.
Shaw, George Bernard


The savage bows down to idols of wood and stone; the civilised man to idols of flesh and blood.
Shaw, George Bernard


The worst sin toward our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them: that's the essence of inhumanity.
Shaw, George Bernard


We learn from history that we learn nothing from history.
Shaw, George Bernard


We all like to think we’re unique until someone tells us we’re different.
Shaw, P.K.


Growth demands a temporary surrender of security
Sheehey, Gail


The big print giveth and the fine print taketh away.
Sheen, Monsignor J. Fulton


You remember the way you told it, not the way the events happened.
Shields, Jody


Institutions will try to preserve the problem to which they are the solution.
Shirky, Clay


It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his job depends on not understanding it.
Sinclair, Upton


The future, according to some scientists, will be exactly like the past, only far more expensive.
Sladek, John


The mindless numbing fatuity of a Melbourne football weekend, from the first drooling over selection of teams to the final clutch of clichés on Monday morning.
Smark, Peter


An intense anticipation itself transforms possibility into reality; our desires being often but precursors of the things which we are capable of performing.
Smiles, Samuel


The very greatest things – great thoughts, discoveries, inventions – have usually been nurtured in hardship, often pondered over in sorrow and at length, established with difficulty.
Smiles, Samuel


In this business you either sink or swim or you don't.
Smith, David


It is through the cracks in our brains that ecstasy creeps in.
Smith, Logan Pearsall


The one thing they can’t interfere with is your death. Not in the long run. You have to die alone.
Snow, C P


The pursuit of happiness is a most ridiculous phrase; if you pursue happiness you'll never find it.
Snow, C P


There is great dignity in being a spectator, and if you do it for long enough, you are dead inside.
Snow, C P


When you think of the long and gloomy history of man, you will find more hideous crimes have been committed in the name of obedience than have ever been committed in the name of rebellion.
Snow, C P


You have to enjoy your joys and suffer your sufferings.
Snow, C P


The test of courage comes when we are in the minority. The test of tolerance comes when we are in the majority.
Sockman, Ralph W


For a long time it had seemed to me that life was about to begin – real life. But there was always some obstacle in the way, something to be gotten through first, some unfinished business, time still to be served, a debt to be paid. Then life would begin. At last it dawned on me that these obstacles were my life.
Souza, Alfred D


Much of the social history of the Western world over the past three decades has involved replacing what worked with what sounded good.
Sowell, Thomas


The great thing about democracy is that it gives every voter a chance to do something stupid.
Spander, Art


A living thing is distinguished from a dead thing by the multiplicity of changes at any moment taking place in it.
Spencer, Herbert


We feel and know that we are eternal.
Spinoza, Baruch


Anger manages everything badly.
Stadius


If all the rich men in the world divided up their money amongst themselves, there wouldn’t be enough to go around.
Stead, Christina


Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.
Steele, Sir Richard


What is the difference between unethical and ethical advertising? Unethical advertising uses falsehoods to deceive the public; ethical advertising uses truth to deceive the public.
Stefansson, Vilhjalmur


Originality consists in thinking for yourself and not in thinking unlike other people.
Stephen, J Fitzjames


A politician is a statesman who approaches every question with an open mouth.
Stevenson, Adlai


Flattery is all right as long as you don’t inhale.
Stevenson, Adlai


My definition of a free society is a society where it is safe to be unpopular.
Stevenson, Adlai


If you live long enough, the venerability factor creeps in; first, you get accused of things you never did, and later, credited for virtues you never had.
Stone, I F


I think age is a very high price to pay for maturity.
Stoppard, Tom


We cross our bridges when we come to them and burn them behind us, with nothing to show for our progress except a memory of the smell of smoke, and a presumption that once our eyes watered.
Stoppard, Tom


Everybody in government is just like a bunch of ants on a log floating down a river. Each one thinks he is in guiding the log, but it is really just going with the flow.
Straus, Robert


If there was someone up there who knew what they were doing, they’d’ve been shot as a troublemaker months ago.
“Surgical Spirit”


In Australia, if you don’t live in Sydney, you’re camping out.
Sweeney, Brian


No wise man ever wished to be younger.
Swift, Jonathan


A child becomes an adult when he realises that he has a right not only to be right but also to be wrong.
Szasz, Thomas

The stupid neither forgive nor forget, the naive forgive and forget, the wise forgive but do not forget.
Szasz, Thomas


Merely to exist is not enough.
Tagore, Rabindranath


Black as the devil, hot as hell, pure as an angel, sweet as love. (Coffee)
Talleyrand


The sun will set without thy assistance.
Talmud


The word 'conservative' is used by the BBC as a portmanteau word of abuse for anyone whose views differ from the insufferable, smug, sanctimonious, naive, guilt-ridden, wet pink orthodoxy of that sunset home of the third-rate members of that third-rate decade, the nineteen-sixties.
Tebbit, Norman


A fact is a simple statement that everyone believes. It is innocent, unless found guilty. A hypothesis is a novel suggestion that no one wants to believe. It is guilty, until found effective.
Teller, Edward


Nothing has yet been said that’s not been said before.
Terence


The scientists of today think deeply instead of clearly. One must be sane to think clearly, but one can think deeply and be quite insane.
Tesla, Nikola


The great thing about human language is that it prevents us from sticking to the matter at hand.
Thomas, Lewis


After two years in Washington, I often long for the realism and sincerity of Hollywood.
Thompson, Fred


A cap of good acid costs five dollars and for that you can hear the Universal Symphony with God singing solo and the Holy Ghost on drums.
Thompson, Hunter S


A man who procrastinates in his choosing will inevitably have his choice made for him by circumstance.
Thompson, Hunter S


In a closed society where everybody's guilty, the only crime is getting caught. In a world of thieves, the only final sin is stupidity.
Thompson, Hunter S


In a nation ruled by swine, all pigs are upward mobile.
Thompson, Hunter S


Morality is temporary, wisdom is permanent.
Thompson, Hunter S


When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.
Thompson, Hunter S


If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.
Thoreau, Henry David


It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.
Thoreau, Henry David


I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.
Thoreau, Henry David


Things do not change: we change.
Thoreau, Henry David


What lies before us and what lies beyond us is tiny compared to what lies within us.
Thoreau, Henry David


Early to rise and early to bed, makes a man healthy, wealthy and dead.
Thurber, James


Human Dignity has gleamed only now and then and here and there, in lonely splendor, throughout the ages, a hope of the better men, never an achievement of the majority.
Thurber, James


Nowadays men lead lives of noisy desperation.
Thurber, James


Traditions are group efforts to keep the unexpected from happening.
Tober, Barbara


All happy families resemble one another, but each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.
Tolstoy, Leo


Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.
Tolstoy, Leo


No matter how cynical you get, it is impossible to keep up.
Tomlin, Lily


Excellence and size are fundamentally incompatible.
Townsend, Robert C


If you cannot convince them, confuse them.
Truman, Harry S


It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.
Truman, Harry S


It's a recession when your neighbor loses his job; it's a depression when you lose yours.
Truman, Harry S


Whenever you have an efficient government, you have a dictatorship.
Truman, Harry S


In answer to the question of why it happened, I offer the modest proposal that our Universe is simply one of those things which happen from time to time.
Tryon, Edward P


It is a very waste of life to be and not to do.
Tupper


Do your little bit of good where you are; it’s those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.
Tutu Archbishop Desmond


Always acknowledge a fault. This will throw those in authority off their guard and give you an opportunity to commit more.
Twain, Mark


Don’t go around saying the world owes you a living; the world owes you nothing; it was here first.
Twain, Mark


Few things are harder to put up with than the annoyance of a good example.
Twain, Mark


Its name is Public Opinion. It is held in reverence. It settles everything. People think it is the voice of God.
Twain, Mark


Man is the only animal that blushes. Or needs to.
Twain, Mark


Most people are bothered by those passages of Scripture they do not understand, but the passages that bother me are those I do understand.
Twain, Mark


The radical of one century is the conservative of the next. The radical invents the views. When he has worn them out the conservative adopts them.
Twain, Mark


The right word may be effective, but no word was ever as effective as a rightly timed pause.
Twain, Mark


We are continually faced by great opportunities brilliantly disguised as insoluble problems.
Twain, Mark


When we remember we are all mad, the mysteries disappear and life stands explained.
Twain, Mark


The reason lightning doesn't strike twice in the same place is that the same place isn't there the second time.
Tyler, Willie


If you can find something everyone agrees on, it's wrong.
Udall, Mo


A healthy male adult bore consumes each year one and a half times his own weight in other people’s patience
Updike, John


Americans have been conditioned to respect newness, whatever it costs them.
Updike, John


Critics search for ages for the wrong word, which, to give them credit, they eventually find.
Ustinov, Peter


In America, through pressure of conformity, there is freedom of choice, but nothing to choose from.
Ustinov, Peter


It is our responsibilities, not ourselves, that we should take seriously.
Ustinov, Peter


A man is infinitely more complicated than his thoughts.
Valery, Paul


Books have the same enemies as people: fire, humidity, animals, weather, and their own content.
Valery, Paul


Politics is the art of preventing people from taking part in affairs which probably concern them.
Valery, Paul


That which has always been accepted by everyone, everywhere, is almost certain to be false.
Valery, Paul


What others think of us would be of little moment did it not, when known, so deeply tinge what we think of ourselves.
Valery, Paul


If we could sell our experiences for what they cost us, we’d all be millionaires.
Van Buren, Abigail


Human beings are perhaps never more frightening than when they are convinced beyond doubt that they are right.
Van der Post, Laurens


If there is anything the nonconformist hates worse than a conformist, it's another nonconformist who doesn't conform to the prevailing standard of nonconformity.
Vaughan, Bill


A crisis event often explodes the illusions that anchor our lives
Veninga, Robert


Any American who is prepared to run for president should automatically, by definition, be disqualified from ever doing so.
Vidal, Gore


There is no human problem which could not be solved if people would simply do as I advise.
Vidal, Gore


Strange as it seems, no amount of learning can cure stupidity, and higher education positively fortifies it.
Vizinczey, Stephen


If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him.
Voltaire


I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: 'O Lord, make my enemies ridiculous.' And God granted it.
Voltaire


It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.
Voltaire
It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.
Voltaire


Many people look for happiness like a drunk for his house. They can't find it, but they know it exists.
Voltaire


The art of medicine consists in amusing the patient while nature cures the disease.
Voltaire


The best is the enemy of the good.
Voltaire


Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.
Voltaire


When a man says he approves of something in principle, it means he hasn't the slightest intention of putting it into practice.
Von Bismarck, Otto


I have learned to use the word 'impossible' with the greatest caution.
Von Braun, Wernher


There is a tragic flaw in our precious Constitution, and I don't know what can be done to fix it. This is it: Only nut cases want to be president.
Vonnegut, Kurt


We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful what we pretend to be.
Vonnegut, Kurt


Success is achieved by developing our strengths, not by eliminating our weaknesses.
Vos Savant, Marilyn


Delusions of grandeur make me feel a lot better about myself.
Wagner, Jane


Reality is nothing but a collective hunch.
Wagner, Jane


One man’s red tape is another man’s system.
Waldo, Dwight


It’s not true that nice guys finish last. Nice guys are winners before the game even starts.
Walker, Addison
Why does the Air Force need expensive new bombers? Have the people we've been bombing over the years been complaining?
Wallace, George


The world is a tragedy to those who feel, but a comedy to those who think.
Walpole, Horace


Don’t play for safety – it’s the most dangerous thing in the world.
Walpole, Hugh


Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don't know which half.
Wanamaker, John


It is a curious thing... that every creed promises a paradise which will be absolutely uninhabitable for anyone of civilized taste.
Waugh, Evelyn


Punctuality is the virtue of the bored.
Waugh, Evelyn


People who get nostalgic about childhood were obviously never children.
Watterson, Bill


Reality continues to ruin my life.
Watterson, Bill


Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us.
Watterson, Bill


The future is made of the same stuff as the present.
Weil, Simon


Nothing is impossible for the man who doesn't have to do it himself.
Weiler A H


With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion.
Weinberg, Steven


We're born alone, we live alone, we die alone. Only through our love and friendship can we create the illusion for the moment that we're not alone.
Welles, Orson


Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe.
Wells, H G


Journalism - an ability to meet the challenge of filling space.
West, Rebecca


The point is that nobody likes having salt rubbed into their wounds, even if it is the salt of the earth.
West, Rebecca


I get up every morning determined to both change the world and have one hell of a good time. Sometimes this makes planning my day difficult.
White, E. B.


The time not to become a father is eighteen years before a war.
White, E. B.


Whatever women do, they must do twice as well as men to be thought half as good. Fortunately, this is not difficult.
Whitton, Charlotte


People very rarely think in groups; they talk together, they exchange information, they adjudicate, they make compromises. But they do not think. They do not create.
Whyte, William H


The opposite of love is not hate. The opposite of love is indifference.
The opposite of art is not ugliness. The opposite of art is indifference.
The opposite of faith is not heresy. The opposite of faith is indifference.
And the opposite of life is not death. The opposite of life is indifference.
Wiesel, Elie


A conservative is a man who believes that nothing should be done for the first time.
Wiggam, Alfred E.


And down the long and silent street, The dawn, with silver-sandaled feet, Crept like a frightened girl.
Wilde, Oscar


Experience; the name people give their mistakes.
Wilde, Oscar


Good resolutions are simply checks that men draw on a bank where they have no account.
Wilde, Oscar


Moderation is a fatal thing. Nothing succeeds like excess.
Wilde, Oscar


Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation.
Wilde, Oscar


Nowadays, to be intelligible is to be found out.
Wilde, Oscar


Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as one wishes to live.
Wilde, Oscar


The old believe everything, the middle-aged suspect everything, the young know everything.
Wilde, Oscar


The only thing that sustains one through life is the consciousness of the immense inferiority of everybody else, and this is a feeling that I have always cultivated.
Wilde, Oscar


To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance.
Wilde, Oscar


Truth is rarely pure, and never simple.
Wilde, Oscar


We have really everything in common with America nowadays except, of course, language.
Wilde, Oscar


When the gods wish to punish us, they answer our prayers.
Wilde, Oscar


Marriage is a bribe to make a housekeeper think she is a householder.
Wilder, Thornton


The man who tried his best and failed is superior to the man who never tried.
Wilkinson, Bud


The nice part about being a pessimist is that you are constantly being either proven right or pleasantly surprised.
Will, George F


Ah, yes, divorce, from the Latin word meaning to rip out a man’s genitals through his wallet.
Williams, Robin

Confident, cocky, lazy, dead.
Williams, Tad
Some mystery should be left in the revelation of character in a play, just as a great deal of mystery is always left in the revelation of character in life, even in one's own character to himself.
Williams, Tennessee


It only takes 20 years for a liberal to become a conservative without changing a single idea.
Wilson, Robert Anton


A conservative is a man who sits and thinks - mostly sits.
Wilson, Woodrow


What I call the past is my memory of it and my memory is conditioned by who I am now. The only way for me to handle what is happening now is to move myself forward into someone who has handled it.
Winterton, Jeanette


What is troubling us is the tendency to believe that the mind is like a little man within.
Wittgenstein, Ludwig


It is a good rule in life never to apologize. The right sort of people do not want apologies, and the wrong sort take a mean advantage of them.
Wodehouse, P G


The only time a woman really succeeds in changing a man is when he’s a baby.
Wood, Natalie


Blame someone else and get on with your life.
Woods, Alan


Idealism is what precedes experience; cynicism is what follows.
Wolf, David T


If you do not tell the truth about yourself, you cannot tell it about other people.
Woolfe, Virginia


Income tax returns are the most imaginative fiction being written today.
Wouk, Herman


The truth is more important than the facts.
Wright, Frank Lloyd


Tip the world over on its side and everything loose will land in Los Angeles.
Wright, Frank Lloyd


If everything seems to be going right, you have obviously overlooked something.
Wright, Stephen


I used to work in a fire hydrant factory. You couldn't park anywhere near the place.
Wright, Stephen


There is only one question, and the asking is the answer of it.
Wu Wei


Do or do not. There is no try.
Yoda


If two men on the same job agree all the time, then one is useless. If they disagree all the time, then both are useless.
Zanuck, Darryl F


In the fight between you and the world, back the world.
Zappa, Frank


Taking good care of yourself means the people in your life receive the best of you rather than what is left of you.
Zimmerman, Lucille