The Book of Famous Inspirational Quotes
Edited by Scott Douglas
The Book of Famous Inspirational Quotes
Copyright © 2009 by Scott Douglas
All rights reserved.
Cover design by Scott Douglas
Published 2009 by Douglas Editions
Smashwords Edition 1.0, October 2009
Age
Young people are in a condition like permanent intoxication, because youth is sweet and they are growing.
Aristotle (384 BC - 322 BC), 'Nicomachean Ethics'
A young man is embarrassed to question an older one.
Homer (800 BC - 700 BC), The Odyssey
Young men's minds are always changeable, but when an old man is concerned in a matter, he looks both before and after.
Homer (800 BC - 700 BC), The Iliad
To get back my youth I would do anything in the world, except take exercise, get up early, or be respectable.
Oscar Wilde (1854 - 1900), The Picture of Dorian Gray
Anger
Anger as soon as fed is dead-
'Tis starving makes it fat.
Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886)
Anger makes dull men witty, but it keeps them poor.
Elizabeth I (1533 - 1603), in Francis Bacon, Apophthegms
Birth
There is no cure for birth and death save to enjoy the interval.
George Santayana (1863 - 1952), "War Shrines"
Books
I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading! How much sooner one tires of anything than of a book! When I have a house of my own, I shall be miserable if I have not an excellent library.
Jane Austen (1775 - 1817), Pride and Prejudice
A room without books is like a body without a soul.
Cicero (106 BC - 43 BC), (Attributed)
Many books require no thought from those who read them, and for a very simple reason; they made no such demand upon those who wrote them.
Charles Caleb Colton (1780 - 1832), Lacon
Books are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the most accessible and wisest of counsellors, and the most patient of teachers.
Charles W. Eliot (1834 - 1926), The Happy Life
The love of learning, the sequestered nooks,
And all the sweet serenity of books.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807 - 1882), 'Morituri Salutamus,'
When I read a book I seem to read it with my eyes only, but now and then I come across a passage, perhaps only a phrase, which has a meaning for me, and it becomes part of me.
W. Somerset Maugham (1874 - 1965), 'Of Human Bondage'
I aimed at the public's heart, and by accident I hit it in the stomach.
Upton Sinclair (1878 - 1968), on his novel, "The Jungle"
Knowing I lov'd my books, he furnish'd me
From mine own library with volumes that
I prize above my dukedom.
William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), "The Tempest", Act 1 scene 2
How many a man has dated a new era in his life from the reading of a book.
Henry David Thoreau (1817 - 1862), Walden
There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written or badly written.
Oscar Wilde (1854 - 1900), The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1891, preface
Children
D'you call life a bad job? Never! We've had our ups and downs, we've had our struggles, we've always been poor, but it's been worth it, ay, worth it a hundred times I say when I look round at my children.
W. Somerset Maugham (1874 - 1965), 'Of Human Bondage'
How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is
To have a thankless child!
William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), "King Lear", Act 1 scene 4
It is a wise father that knows his own child.
William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), "The Merchant of Venice", Act 2 scene 2
Children begin by loving their parents; as they grow older they judge them; sometimes they forgive them.
Oscar Wilde (1854 - 1900), The Picture of Dorian Gray
Confidence
All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence; then success is sure.
Mark Twain (1835 - 1910), Letter to Mrs Foote, Dec. 2, 1887
Death
Do not fear death so much, but rather the inadequate life.
Bertolt Brecht (1898 - 1956), The Mother
Death is nothing to us, since when we are, death has not come, and when death has come, we are not.
Epicurus (341 BC - 270 BC), from Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers
Pale Death with impartial tread beats at the poor man's cottage door and at the palaces of kings.
Horace (65 BC - 8 BC), Odes
Think not disdainfully of death, but look on it with favor; for even death is one of the things that Nature wills.
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (121 AD - 180 AD), Meditations
The fear of death is more to be dreaded than death itself.
Publilius Syrus (~100 BC), Maxims
Democracy
If liberty and equality, as is thought by some are chiefly to be found in democracy, they will be best attained when all persons alike share in the government to the utmost.
Aristotle (384 BC - 322 BC), Politics
Democracy substitutes election by the incompetent many for appointment by the corrupt few.
George Bernard Shaw (1856 - 1950)
Desire
Again, men in general desire the good, and not merely what their fathers had.
Aristotle (384 BC - 322 BC), Politics
I count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who overcomes his enemies.
Aristotle (384 BC - 322 BC), In Stobaeus, Florilegium
It is the nature of desire not to be satisfied, and most men live only for the gratification of it.
Aristotle (384 BC - 322 BC), Politics
There are two tragedies in life. One is not to get your heart's desire. The other is to get it.
George Bernard Shaw (1856 - 1950), "Man and Superman" (1903), act 4
Manifest plainness,
Embrace simplicity,
Reduce selfishness,
Have few desires.
Lao-tzu (604 BC - 531 BC), The Way of Lao-tzu
There is no calamity greater than lavish desires.
There is no greater guilt than discontentment.
And there is no greater disaster than greed.
Lao-tzu (604 BC - 531 BC), The Way of Lao-tzu
We desire nothing so much as what we ought not to have.
Publilius Syrus (~100 BC), Maxims
Those who restrain desire, do so because theirs is weak enough to be restrained.
William Blake (1757 - 1827), The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
Every man has business and desire,
Such as it is.
William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), "Hamlet", Act 1 scene 5
Dignity
It is not wealth one asks for, but just enough to preserve one's dignity, to work unhampered, to be generous, frank and independent.
W. Somerset Maugham (1874 - 1965), 'Of Human Bondage'
Dreams
I know how men in exile feed on dreams of hope.
Aeschylus (525 BC - 456 BC), Agamemnon
Hope is a waking dream.
Aristotle (384 BC - 322 BC), from Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers
Those who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night.
Edgar Allan Poe (1809 - 1849), "Eleonora"
Dreams surely are difficult, confusing, and not everything in them is brought to pass for mankind. For fleeting dreams have two gates: one is fashioned of horn and one of ivory. Those which pass through the one of sawn ivory are deceptive, bringing tidings which come to nought, but those which issue from the one of polished horn bring true results when a mortal sees them.
Homer (800 BC - 700 BC), The Odyssey
There is nothing like dream to create the future. Utopia to-day, flesh and blood tomorrow.
Victor Hugo (1802 - 1885), Les Miserables
Drinking
It is better to hide ignorance, but it is hard to do this when we relax over wine.
Heraclitus (540 BC - 480 BC), On the Universe
The wine urges me on, the bewitching wine, which sets even a wise man to singing and to laughing gently and rouses him up to dance and brings forth words which were better unspoken.
Homer (800 BC - 700 BC), The Odyssey
Failure
It is possible to fail in many ways...while to succeed is possible only in one way.
Aristotle (384 BC - 322 BC), Nichomachean Ethics
Faith
Hold faithfulness and sincerity as first principles.
Confucius (551 BC - 479 BC), The Confucian Analects
He wears his faith but as the fashion of his hat.
William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), "Much Ado about Nothing", Act 1 scene 1
Family
It is dismal coming home, when there is nobody to welcome one!
Ann Radcliffe, The Mysteries of Udolpho
Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.
Leo Tolstoy (1828 - 1910), Anna Karenina
Fashion
Every generation laughs at the old fashions, but follows religiously the new.
Henry David Thoreau (1817 - 1862), "Walden", 1854
Food
Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you what you are.
Anthelme Brillat-Savarin (1755 - 1826), The Physiology of Taste
There is no love sincerer than the love of food.
George Bernard Shaw (1856 - 1950), Man and Superman
What is food to one, is to others bitter poison.
Lucretius (96 BC - 55 BC), De Rerum Natura
Freedom
The basis of a democratic state is liberty.
Aristotle (384 BC - 322 BC), Politics
Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.
Benjamin Franklin (1706 - 1790), Historical Review of Pennsylvania
In the truest sense, freedom cannot be bestowed; it must be achieved.
Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882 - 1945), Speech, September 22, 1936
While the State exists, there can be no freedom. When there is freedom there will be no State.
Lenin (1870 - 1924), "State and Revolution"
Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end.
Lord Acton, Lecture, February 26, 1877
It is by the goodness of God that in our country we have those three unspeakably precious things: freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, and the prudence never to practice either of them.
Mark Twain (1835 - 1910), Following the Equator
I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it.
Thomas Jefferson (1743 – 1826)
Friends
He who has a thousand friends has not a friend to spare,
And he who has one enemy will meet him everywhere.
Ali ibn-Abi-Talib (602 AD - 661 AD), A Hundred Sayings
Misfortune shows those who are not really friends.
Aristotle (384 BC - 322 BC), Eudemian Ethics
Without friends no one would choose to live, though he had all other goods.
Aristotle (384 BC - 322 BC), Nichomachean Ethics
Friendship is certainly the finest balm for the pangs of disappointed love.
Jane Austen (1775 - 1817), Northanger Abbey
True happiness is of a retired nature, and an enemy to pomp and noise; it arises, in the first place, from the enjoyment of one's self, and in the next from the friendship and conversation of a few select companions.
Joseph Addison (1672 - 1719), The Spectator, March 17, 1911
Giving
The excellence of a gift lies in its appropriateness rather than in its value.
Charles Dudley Warner (1829 - 1900), 'Eleventh Study,' Backlog Studies
There is no benefit in the gifts of a bad man.
Euripides (484 BC - 406 BC), Medea,
A gift in season is a double favor to the needy.
Publilius Syrus (~100 BC), Moral Sayings
He doubly benefits the needy who gives quickly.
Publilius Syrus (~100 BC), Maxims
The spirit in which a thing is given determines that in which the debt is acknowledged; it's the intention, not the face-value of the gift, that's weighed.
Seneca (5 BC - 65 AD), Letters to Lucilius
God
This only is denied to God: the power to undo the past.
Agathon (448 BC - 400 BC), from Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics
Everyone ought to worship God according to his own inclinations, and not to be constrained by force.
Flavius Josephus (37 AD - 100 AD), Life
Live among men as if God beheld you; speak to God as if men were listening.
Seneca (5 BC - 65 AD), Epistles
Gossip
Scandal is gossip made tedious by morality.
Oscar Wilde (1854 - 1900), Lady Windermere's Fan
Have I inadvertently said some evil thing?
Phocion (402 BC - 318 BC), from Plutarch, Apothegms
Rumor travels faster, but it don't stay put as long as truth.
Will Rogers (1879 - 1935), 'Politics Getting Ready to Jell,'
Gratitude
Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others.
Cicero (106 BC - 43 BC), 'Pro Plancio’
Grief
Employment is the surest antidote to sorrow.
Ann Radcliffe, The Mysteries of Udolpho
Even his griefs are a joy long after to one that remembers all that he wrought and endured.
Homer (800 BC - 700 BC), The Odyssey
Grief teaches the steadiest minds to waver.
Sophocles (496 BC - 406 BC), Antigone
The greatest griefs are those we cause ourselves.
Sophocles (496 BC - 406 BC), Oedipus Rex
Happiness
Happiness arises in a state of peace, not of tumult.
Ann Radcliffe, The Mysteries of Udolpho
The discovery of a new dish does more for human happiness than the discovery of a new star.
Anthelme Brillat-Savarin (1755 - 1826), Physiologie du Gout
Man is the artificer of his own happiness.
Henry David Thoreau (1817 - 1862), Journal, January 21, 1838
Health
Health is not valued till sickness comes.
Dr. Thomas Fuller (1654 - 1734), Gnomologia
A wise man should consider that health is the greatest of human blessings, and learn how by his own thought to derive benefit from his illnesses.
Hippocrates (460 BC - 377 BC), Regimen in Health
Health is worth more than learning.
Thomas Jefferson (1743 - 1826), letter to his cousin John Garland Jefferson, June 11, 1790
History
History is the witness that testifies to the passing of time; it illumines reality, vitalizes memory, provides guidance in daily life and brings us tidings of antiquity.
Cicero (106 BC - 43 BC), Pro Publio Sestio
Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
George Santayana (1863 - 1952), The Life of Reason
History is more or less bunk. It's tradition. We don't want tradition. We want to live in the present and the only history that is worth a tinker's dam is the history we made today.
Henry Ford (1863 - 1947), Interview in Chicago Tribune, May 25th, 1916
Honesty
The day is for honest men, the night for thieves.
Euripides (484 BC - 406 BC), Iphigenia in Tauris.
An honest man can feel no pleasure in the exercise of power over his fellow citizens.
Thomas Jefferson (1743 - 1826), letter to John Melish, January 13, 1813
Every man has his fault, and honesty is his.
William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), "Timon of Athens", Act 3 scene 1
Hope
I know how men in exile feed on dreams of hope.
Aeschylus (525 BC - 456 BC), Agamemnon
Until the day when God shall deign to reveal the future to man, all human wisdom is summed up in these two words,--'Wait and hope'.
Alexandre Dumas (1802 - 1870), The Count of Monte Cristo
Hope is a waking dream.
Aristotle (384 BC - 322 BC), from Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers
While there's life, there's hope.
Cicero (106 BC - 43 BC), Ad Atticum
Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul.
And sings the tune
Without the words,
and never stops at all.
Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886)
He who has never hoped can never despair.
George Bernard Shaw (1856 - 1950), Caesar and Cleopatra
Hope, like the gleaming taper's light,
Adorns and cheers our way;
And still, as darker grows the night,
Emits a brighter ray.
Oliver Goldsmith (1730 - 1774)
Humility
He who speaks without modesty will find it difficult to make his words good.
Confucius (551 BC - 479 BC), The Confucian Analects
The firm, the enduring, the simple, and the modest are near to virtue.
Confucius (551 BC - 479 BC), The Confucian Analects
The superior man is modest in his speech, but exceeds in his actions.
Confucius (551 BC - 479 BC), The Confucian Analects
Humor
The world is a tragedy to those who feel, but a comedy to those who think.
Horace Walpole (1717 - 1797)
Humor is the great thing, the saving thing. The minute it crops up, all our irritations and resentments slip away and a sunny spirit takes their place.
Mark Twain (1835 - 1910)
Wit makes its own welcome, and levels all distinctions. No dignity, no learning, no force of character, can make any stand against good wit.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803 - 1882)
Idealism
I'm an idealist. I don't know where I'm going, but I'm on my way.
Carl Sandburg (1878 - 1967), Incidentals
Ideas
The best ideas are common property.
Seneca (5 BC - 65 AD), Epistles
An invasion of armies can be resisted, but not an idea whose time has come.
Victor Hugo (1802 - 1885), 'Histoire d'un crime,' 1852
Ignorance
To be conscious that you are ignorant is a great step to knowledge.
Benjamin Disraeli (1804 - 1881), Sybil
All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence; then success is sure.
Mark Twain (1835 - 1910), Letter to Mrs Foote, Dec. 2, 1887
Better be ignorant of a matter than half know it.
Publilius Syrus (~100 BC), Maxims
Imagination
You cannot depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.
Mark Twain (1835 - 1910), A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
Immortality
The soul of man is immortal and imperishable.
Plato (427 BC - 347 BC), The Republic
Immortality. I notice that as soon as writers broach this question they begin to quote. I hate quotation. Tell me what you know.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803 - 1882), Journal
Instinct
I decided that it was not wisdom that enabled [poets] to write their poetry, but a kind of instinct or inspiration, such as you find in seers and prophets who deliver all their sublime messages without knowing in the least what they mean.
Socrates (469 BC - 399 BC), In "Apology," sct. 21, by Plato.
Integrity
Though the vicious can sometimes pour affliction upon the good, their power is transient and their punishment certain; and that innocence, though oppressed by injustice, shall, supported by patience, finally triumph over misfortune!
Ann Radcliffe, The Mysteries of Udolpho
What are riches - grandeur - health itself, to the luxury of a pure conscience, the health of the soul; - and what the sufferings of poverty, disappointment, despair - to the anguish of an afflicted one!
Ann Radcliffe, The Mysteries of Udolpho
Intelligence
One man that has a mind and knows it can always beat ten men who haven't and don't.
George Bernard Shaw (1856 - 1950), "The Apple Cart" (1930), act I
Beware when the great God lets loose a thinker on this planet.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803 - 1882)
I not only use all the brains that I have, but all that I can borrow.
Woodrow Wilson (1856 - 1924)
Invention
To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk.
Thomas A. Edison (1847 - 1931)
Jealousy
It is in the character of very few men to honor without envy a friend who has prospered.
Aeschylus (525 BC - 456 BC), Agamemnon
Such is the inconsistency of real love, that it is always awake to suspicion, however unreasonable; always requiring new assurances from the object of its interest.
Ann Radcliffe, The Mysteries of Udolpho
Do not envy a sinner; you don't know what disaster awaits him.
Bible, Old Testament
Moral indignation is jealousy with a halo.
H. G. Wells (1866 - 1946), The Wife of Sir Isaac Harman (1914)
It is better to be envied than pitied.
Herodotus (484 BC - 430 BC), The Histories of Herodotus
Justice
I have always found that mercy bears richer fruits than strict justice.
Abraham Lincoln (1809 - 1865), speech in Washington D.C., 1865
Justice consists not in being neutral between right and wrong, but in finding out the right and upholding it, wherever found, against the wrong.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858 - 1919)
Kindness
No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.
Aesop (620 BC - 560 BC), The Lion and the Mouse
Recompense injury with justice, and recompense kindness with kindness.
Confucius (551 BC - 479 BC), The Confucian Analects
Knowledge
All men by nature desire knowledge.
Aristotle (384 BC - 322 BC), Metaphysics
To be conscious that you are ignorant is a great step to knowledge.
Benjamin Disraeli (1804 - 1881), Sybil
When you know a thing, to hold that you know it; and when you do not know a thing, to allow that you do not know it - this is knowledge.
Confucius (551 BC - 479 BC), The Confucian Analects
Convinced myself, I seek not to convince.
Edgar Allan Poe (1809 - 1849), Berenice
People are difficult to govern because they have too much knowledge.
Lao-tzu (604 BC - 531 BC), The Way of Lao-tzu
Knowledge and timber shouldn't be much used till they are seasoned.
Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809 - 1894), The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table
Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information on it.
Samuel Johnson (1709 - 1784), quoted in Boswell's Life of Johnson
Mankind have a great aversion to intellectual labor; but even supposing knowledge to be easily attainable, more people would be content to be ignorant than would take even a little trouble to acquire it.
Samuel Johnson (1709 - 1784), quoted in Boswell's Life of Johnson
There is only one good, knowledge, and one evil, ignorance.
Socrates (469 BC - 399 BC), from Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers
Knowledge must come through action; you can have no test which is not fanciful, save by trial.
Sophocles (496 BC - 406 BC), Trachiniae
Language
We have too many high sounding words, and too few actions that correspond with them.
Abigail Adams (1744 - 1818), letter to John Adams
Words are the physicians of the mind diseased.
Aeschylus (525 BC - 456 BC), Prometheus Bound
High thoughts must have high language.
Aristophanes (450 BC - 388 BC), Frogs
We have really everything in common with America nowadays except, of course, language.
Oscar Wilde (1854 - 1900), The Canterville Ghost
Laughter
We cannot really love anybody with whom we never laugh.
Agnes Repplier (1855 - 1950), Americans and Others
In this life he laughs longest who laughs last.
John Masefield (1878 - 1967), "Window in Bye Street"
Man is distinguished from all other creatures by the faculty of laughter.
Joseph Addison (1672 - 1719), The Spectator, September 26, 1712
The human race has one really effective weapon, and that is laughter.
Mark Twain (1835 - 1910)
Laws
Let me not be understood as saying that there are no bad laws, nor that grievances may not arise for the redress of which no legal provisions have been made. I mean to say no such thing. But I do mean to say that although bad laws, if they exist, should be repealed as soon as possible, still, while they continue in force, for the sake of example they should be religiously observed.
Abraham Lincoln (1809 - 1865)
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.
Anatole France (1844 - 1924), The Red Lily
Even when laws have been written down, they ought not always to remain unaltered.
Aristotle (384 BC - 322 BC), Politics
I have gained this by philosophy: that I do without being commanded what others do only from fear of the law.
Aristotle (384 BC - 322 BC), from Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers
Law is order, and good law is good order.
Aristotle (384 BC - 322 BC), Politics
Law stands mute in the midst of arms.
Cicero (106 BC - 43 BC), Pro Milone
The people's good is the highest law.
Cicero (106 BC - 43 BC), De Legibus
The more laws and order are made prominent,
The more thieves and robbers there will be.
Lao-tzu (604 BC - 531 BC), The Way of Lao-tzu
Laziness
Idleness and lack of occupation tend - nay are dragged - towards evil.
Hippocrates (460 BC - 377 BC), Decorum
That indolent but agreeable condition of doing nothing.
Pliny the Younger (62 AD - 114 AD), Letters
He that is busy is tempted by but one devil; he that is idle, by a legion.
Thomas Fuller (1608 - 1661), Gnomologia
Determine never to be idle...It is wonderful how much may be done if we are always doing.
Thomas Jefferson (1743 - 1826)
Learning
Learning is not attained by chance, it must be sought for with ardor and attended to with diligence.
Abigail Adams (1744 - 1818)
Learning without thought is labor lost; thought without learning is perilous.
Confucius (551 BC - 479 BC), The Confucian Analects
Whoso neglects learning in his youth,
Loses the past and is dead for the future.
Euripides (484 BC - 406 BC), Phrixus
Much learning does not teach understanding.
Heraclitus (540 BC - 480 BC), On the Universe
Whenever you are asked if you can do a job, tell 'em, 'Certainly I can!' Then get busy and find out how to do it.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858 - 1919)
Lies
Liars when they speak the truth are not believed.
Aristotle (384 BC - 322 BC), from Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers
Repetition does not transform a lie into a truth.
Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882 - 1945), radio address, October 26, 1939
False words are not only evil in themselves, but they infect the soul with evil.
Plato (427 BC - 347 BC), Dialogues, Phaedo
Ambition drove many men to become false; to have one thought locked in the breast, another ready on the tongue.
Sallust (86 BC - 34 BC), The War with Catiline
Oh what a tangled web we weave,
When first we practise to deceive!
Sir Walter Scott (1771 - 1832), Marmion, Canto vi. Stanza 17.
Truly, to tell lies is not honorable;
but when the truth entails tremendous ruin,
To speak dishonorably is pardonable.
Sophocles (496 BC - 406 BC), Creusa
Life
Life is a fatal complaint, and an eminently contagious one.
Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809 - 1894), "The Poet at the Breakfast-Table",
Life is far too important a thing ever to talk seriously about.
Oscar Wilde (1854 - 1900), Lady Windermere's Fan, 1892, Act I
The unexamined life is not worth living.
Socrates (469 BC - 399 BC), in Plato, Dialogues, Apology
Light
Any one who has common sense will remember that the bewilderments of the eyes are of two kinds, and arise from two causes, either from coming out of the light or from going into the light, which is true of the mind's eye, quite as much as of the bodily eye; and he who remembers this when he sees any one whose vision is perplexed and weak, will not be too ready to laugh; he will first ask whether that soul of man has come out of the brighter light, and is unable to see because unaccustomed to the dark, or having turned from darkness to the day is dazzled by excess of light.
Plato (427 BC - 347 BC), The Republic
Loneliness
When you close your doors, and make darkness within, remember never to say that you are alone, for you are not alone; nay, God is within, and your genius is within. And what need have they of light to see what you are doing?
Epictetus (55 AD - 135 AD), Discourses
Love
When love is in excess it brings a man no honor nor worthiness.
Euripides (484 BC - 406 BC), Medea,
There is always some madness in love. But there is also always some reason in madness.
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844 - 1900), "On Reading and Writing"
There is no remedy for love but to love more.
Henry David Thoreau (1817 - 1862), Journal, July 25, 1839
But when a young lady is to be a heroine, the perverseness of forty surrounding families cannot prevent her. Something must and will happen to throw a hero in her way.
Jane Austen (1775 - 1817), Northanger Abbey
Friendship is certainly the finest balm for the pangs of disappointed love.
Jane Austen (1775 - 1817), Northanger Abbey
I cannot think well of a man who sports with any woman's feelings; and there may often be a great deal more suffered than a stander-by can judge of.
Jane Austen (1775 - 1817), Mansfield Park
I pay very little regard...to what any young person says on the subject of marriage. If they profess a disinclination for it, I only set it down that they have not yet seen the right person.
Jane Austen (1775 - 1817), Mansfield Park
The enthusiasm of a woman's love is even beyond the biographer's.
Jane Austen (1775 - 1817), Mansfield Park
For one human being to love another; that is perhaps the most difficult of all our tasks, the ultimate, the last test and proof, the work for which all other work is but preparation.
Rainer Maria Rilke (1875 - 1926)
He who is in love is wise and is becoming wiser, sees newly every time he looks at the object beloved, drawing from it with his eyes and his mind those virtues which it possesses.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803 - 1882), Address on The Method of Nature
One word frees us of all the weight and pain of life: That word is love.
Sophocles (496 BC - 406 BC)
Life's greatest happiness is to be convinced we are loved.