Make of these what you will
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.
-- Tom Stoppard, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead
Sometimes it is harder to deprive oneself of a pain than of a pleasure.
-- F. Scott Fitzgerald, Tender is the Night
Live your life as though there is great joy to be experienced... an abundance of
goodness in each person you come in contact with, and the knowledge that you
have enough inner wisdom to answer the mysteries that challenge you.
-- Meladee McCarty
In our civilization, and under our republican form of government, intelligence
is so highly honored that it is rewarded by exemption from the cares of office.
-- Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary
We think in generalities, but we live in detail.
-- Alfred North Whitehead
Most men pursue pleasure with such breathless haste that they hurry past it.
-- Soren Kierkegaard
There are only two kinds of people who are really fascinating: people who know
absolutely everything, and people who know absolutely nothing.
-- Oscar Wilde
Summer afternoon - Summer afternoon... the two most beautiful words in the
English language.
-- Henry James
Good communication is as stimulating as black coffee and just as hard to sleep
after.
-- Anne Morrow Lindbergh, 'Gift From the Sea'
America's greatest strength, and its greatest weakness, is our belief in second
chances, our belief that we can always start over, that things can be made
better.
-- Anthony Walton
Even if you do learn to speak correct English, whom are you going to speak it
to?
-- Clarence Darrow
If at first you don't succeed, find out if the loser gets anything.
-- Bill Lyon
Rogues are preferable to imbeciles because they sometimes take a rest.
-- Alexandre Dumas
Art is science made clear.
-- Jean Cocteau
Irrigation of the land with seawater desalinated by fusion power is ancient.
It's called 'rain'.
-- Michael McClary
Take everything you like seriously, except yourselves.
-- Rudyard Kipling
He hoped and prayed that there wasn't an afterlife. Then he realized there was a
contradiction involved here and merely hoped that there wasn't an afterlife.
-- Douglas Adams
The only courage that matters is the kind that gets you from one moment to the
next.
-- Mignon McLaughlin, The Second Neurotic's Notebook, 1966
It is not advisable, James, to venture unsolicited opinions. You should spare
yourself the embarrassing discovery of their exact value to your listener.
-- Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged, 1957
The sweat of hard work is not to be displayed. It is much more graceful to
appear favored by the gods.
-- Maxine Hong Kingston, The Woman Warrior, 1976
If we take care of the moments, the years will take care of themselves.
-- Maria Edgeworth
Students achieving Oneness will move on to Twoness.
-- Woody Allen
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.
-- Mark Twain, Notebook, 1935
The illegal we do immediately. The unconstitutional takes a little longer.
-- Henry Kissinger, New York Times, Oct. 28, 1973
Beware of too much laughter, for it deadens the mind and produces oblivion.
-- The Talmud
Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.
-- Abraham Lincoln
Breathe. Let go. And remind yourself that this very moment is the only one you
know you have for sure.
-- Oprah Winfrey, O Magazine, September 2002
But the life that no longer trusts another human being and no longer forms ties
to the political community is not a human life any longer.
-- Martha Nussbaum, O Magazine, November 2003
Temptation rarely comes in working hours. It is in their leisure time that men
are made or marred.
-- W. N. Taylor
Aim at the sun, and you may not reach it; but your arrow will fly far higher
than if aimed at an object on a level with yourself.
-- Joel Hawes
Life ought to be a struggle of desire toward adventures whose nobility will
fertilize the soul.
-- Rebecca West
When we do the best that we can, we never know what miracle is wrought in our
life, or in the life of another.
-- Helen Keller
Conceit is God's gift to little men.
-- Bruce Barton
Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it.
-- Henry David Thoreau
Traditions are group efforts to keep the unexpected from happening.
-- Barbara Tober
The problem with the designated driver program, it's not a desirable job, but if
you ever get sucked into doing it, have fun with it. At the end of the night,
drop them off at the wrong house.
-- Jeff Foxworthy
Laziness is nothing more than the habit of resting before you get tired.
-- Jules Renard
All is in the hands of man. Therefore wash them often.
-- Stanislaw J. Lec, "Unkempt Thoughts"
I've never known any trouble that an hour's reading didn't assuage.
-- Charles De Secondat
Where there is hatred, let me sow love. Where there is injury, pardon. Where
there is doubt, faith.
-- Saint Francis of Assisi
Man is the artificer of his own happiness.
-- Henry David Thoreau, Journal, January 21, 1838
I have found power in the mysteries of thought.
-- Euripides, 438 B.C.
In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice; In practice,
there is.
-- Chuck Reid
There are more fools in the world than there are people.
-- Heinrich Heine
Happiness is always a by-product. It is probably a matter of temperament, and
for anything I know it may be glandular. But it is not something that can be
demanded from life, and if you are not happy you had better stop worrying about
it and see what treasures you can pluck from your own brand of unhappiness.
-- Robertson Davies
You will find that the mere resolve not to be useless, and the honest desire to
help other people, will, in the quickest and delicatest ways, improve yourself.
-- John Ruskin
One must also accept that one has 'uncreative' moments. The more honestly one
can accept that, the quicker these moments will pass.
-- Etty Hillesum
The whole life of man is but a point of time; let us enjoy it.
-- Plutarch
Courage is the price that Life exacts for granting peace.
-- Amelia Earhart, Courage, 1927
If you have made mistakes, even serious ones, there is always another chance for
you. What we call failure is not the falling down but the staying down.
-- Mary Pickford
Fortune does not change men, it unmasks them.
-- Suzanne Necker
Life is a zoo in a jungle.
-- Peter De Vries
To knock a thing down, especially if it is cocked at an arrogant angle, is a
deep delight of the blood.
-- George Santayana
If Beethoven had been killed in a plane crash at the age of 22, it would have
changed the history of music... and of aviation.
-- Tom Stoppard
I am just going outside and may be some time.
-- Captain Lawrence Oates, last words
A timid person is frightened before a danger, a coward during the time, and a
courageous person afterward.
-- Jean Paul Richter
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.
-- Oscar Wilde, "The Remarkable Rocket"
The bird of paradise alights only upon the hand that does not grasp.
-- John Berry, Flight of White Crows
Some are kissing mothers and some are scolding mothers, but it is love just the
same.
-- Pearl Buck
It's so easy to be wicked without knowing it, isn't it?
-- L. M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables, 1908
Give what you have. To someone, it may be better than you dare to think.
-- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Speak clearly, if you speak at all; carve every word before you let it fall.
-- Oliver Wendell Holmes
Do something. If it doesn't work, do something else. No idea is too crazy.
-- Jim Hightower, The New York Times, March 9, 1986
There's a fine line between fishing and just standing on the shore like an
idiot.
-- Steven Wright
Lying increases the creative faculties, expands the ego, and lessens the
frictions of social contacts.
-- Clare Booth Luce
Not to be absolutely certain is, I think, one of the essential things in
rationality.
-- Bertrand Russell, "Am I An Atheist Or An Agnostic?", 1947
We are made to persist. That's how we find out who we are.
-- Tobias Wolff, 'In Pharaoh's Army'
Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice.
-- William Shakespeare, 'Hamlet,' Act I, Scene iii
It is in vain to say human beings ought to be satisfied with tranquillity: they
must have action; and they will make it if they cannot find it.
-- Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre, 1847
Never try to reason the prejudice out of a man. It was not reasoned into him,
and cannot be reasoned out.
-- Sydney Smith
No matter how old you are, there's always something good to look forward to.
-- Lynn Johnston, For Better or For Worse, 01-04-04
We live in an age when unnecessary things are our only necessities.
-- Oscar Wilde
All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to
discover them.
-- Galileo Galilei
Women want mediocre men, and men are working hard to become as mediocre as
possible.
-- Margaret Mead
I take my children everywhere, but they always find their way back home.
-- Robert Orben
Some people are born on third base and go through life thinking they hit a
triple.
-- Barry Switzer
If you're here for four more years or four more weeks, you're here right now. I
think when you're somewhere, you ought to be there. It's not about how long you
stay in a place, it's about what you do while you're there, and when you go, is
that place any better for your having been there?
-- Karen Hall and Jerry Stahl, Northern Exposure, Soapy Sanderson,
1990
We lie the loudest when we lie to ourselves.
-- Eric Hoffer
In the end, we decide if we're remembered for what happened to us or for what we
did with it.
-- Randy K. Milholland, Something Positive Comic, 06-29-06
I think that somehow, we learn who we really are and then live with that
decision.
-- Eleanor Roosevelt
A university is what a college becomes when the faculty loses interest in
students.
-- John Ciardi
When you look at yourself from a universal standpoint, something inside always
reminds or informs you that there are bigger and better things to worry about.
-- Albert Einstein, The World as I See It
Historians are like deaf people who go on answering questions that no one has
asked them.
-- Leo Tolstoy
The difference between a violin and a viola is that a viola burns longer.
-- Victor Borge
It has always been the prerogative of children and half-wits to point out that
the emperor has no clothes. But the half-wit remains a half-wit, and the emperor
remains an emperor.
-- Neil Gaiman, Sandman
The point of living and of being an optimist, is to be foolish enough to believe
the best is yet to come.
-- Peter Ustinov
If you would convince a man that he does wrong, do right. Men will believe what
they see.
-- Henry David Thoreau
Do not be awe struck by other people and try to copy them. Nobody can be you as
efficiently as you can.
-- Norman Vincent Peale
Life is a risk.
-- Diane Von Furstenberg
I don't think of the past. The only thing that matters is the everlasting
present.
-- W. Somerset Maugham, The Moon and Sixpence
In this life we get only those things for which we hunt, for which we strive,
and for which we are willing to sacrifice.
-- George Matthew Adams
We allow our ignorance to prevail upon us and make us think we can survive
alone, alone in patches, alone in groups, alone in races, even alone in genders.
-- Maya Angelou
Nothing travels faster than the speed of light with the possible exception of
bad news, which obeys its own special laws.
-- Douglas Adams, "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy"
When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.
-- Hunter S. Thompson
True love comes quietly, without banners or flashing lights. If you hear bells,
get your ears checked.
-- Erich Segal
There will be little rubs and disappointments everywhere, and we are all apt to
expect too much; but then, if one scheme of happiness fails, human nature turns
to another; if the first calculation is wrong, we make a second better: we find
comfort somewhere.
-- Jane Austen, Mansfield Park
It is characteristic of all deep human problems that they are not to be
approached without some humor and some bewilderment.
-- Freeman Dyson
The only difference between the Democrats and the Republicans is that the
Democrats allow the poor to be corrupt, too.
-- Oscar Levant
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.
-- George Bernard Shaw, "Mrs. Warren's Profession" (1893) act II
They always talk who never think.
-- Matthew Prior
As soon as you trust yourself, you will know how to live.
-- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Faust
Underpromise; overdeliver.
-- Tom Peters, in The Chicago Tribune
My future starts when I wake up every morning... Every day I find something
creative to do with my life.
-- Miles Davis
All people want is someone to listen.
-- Hugh Elliott
It is difficult to say what is impossible, for the dream of yesterday is the
hope of today and the reality of tomorrow.
-- Robert H. Goddard
Fools admire, but men of sense approve.
-- Alexander Pope
For what I have received, may the Lord make me truly thankful. And more truly
for what I have not received.
-- Storm Jameson
You can talk about anything if you go about it the right way, which is never
malicious.
-- Rodney Carrington
No animal should ever jump up on the dining-room furniture unless absolutely
certain that he can hold his own in the conversation.
-- Fran Lebowitz
God must become an activity in our consciousness.
-- Joel S. Goldsmith
I am not an adventurer by choice but by fate.
-- Vincent van Gogh
He who reigns within himself and rules his passions, desires, and fears is more
than a king.
-- John Milton
Emergencies have always been necessary to progress. It was darkness which
produced the lamp. It was fog that produced the compass. It was hunger that
drove us to exploration. And it took a depression to teach us the real value of
a job.
-- Victor Hugo
One should always play fairly when one has the winning cards.
-- Oscar Wilde
An intellectual is a person who has discovered something more interesting than
sex.
-- Aldous Huxley