TELLING IT LIKE IT IS
A book of quotations that give good advice or are useful truths
Compiled And Edited By Paul Bowden
SMASHWORDS EDITION
Published on Smashwords by Paul Bowden
Copyright © Paul Bowden 2011
Smashwords Edition License Notes
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Editor's Introduction
The quotations in this book are not always exact quotations of an author's original words. I have changed spelling and punctuation if I felt it appropriate. (With punctuation in particular I have simplified it to suit today's generation of texters and tweeters, who have an aversion to colons and semicolons.) With quotes that were originally in a foreign language I have chosen the translation that appeals to me the most. With quotes that are too specific for my liking (e.g. referring to just one sex rather than to all people) I have changed them so that they can be read as being more generally applicable. With old quotes I have often updated the language. With all quotes I have been prepared to paraphrase an author's words to give my own interpretation of the underlying meaning of the original words. Ultimately I am only interested in getting across some useful advice or some reflection of a worthwhile truth.
The quotations are arranged by listing authors' surnames alphabetically, and then listing their individual quotations alphabetically.
Here are three quotations to start you off.
It could be said of me in this book that I have only made up a bunch of other people's flowers, providing of my own only the string that ties them together. - Montaigne
Famous remarks are very seldom quoted correctly. - Simeon Strunsky
A book of quotations can never be complete. - Robert M. Hamilton
THE BEGINNING
Grown-ups do not need leaders. - Edward Abbey
Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell. - Edward Abbey
If the end does not justify the means, what can? - Edward Abbey
One person alone can be pretty dumb sometimes but for real bona fide stupidity there isn't anything that can beat teamwork. - Edward Abbey
Patriots must always be ready to defend their country against their government. - Edward Abbey
Power attracts the worst and corrupts the best. - Edward Abbey
Sentiment without action is the ruin of the soul. - Edward Abbey
Society is like a stew. If you don't stir it up every once in a while, a layer of scum floats to the top. - Edward Abbey
Taxation is how the sheep are shorn. - Edward Abbey
That which today calls itself science gives us more and more information, an indigestible glut of information, and less and less understanding. - Edward Abbey
The person who is angered by nothing cares about nothing. - Edward Abbey
The tragedy of modern war is that the young people die fighting each other instead of fighting their real enemies back home. - Edward Abbey
There are many teachers who can ruin you. Before you know it you could be a pale copy of this teacher or that teacher. You have to evolve on your own. - Berenice Abbott
'How do you know so much about everything?' was asked of a very wise and intelligent person. The answer was 'By never being afraid or ashamed to ask questions about anything of which I am ignorant'. - John Abbott
Every life is a march from innocence through temptation to virtue or vice. - Lyman Abbott
It is easy to condemn but it is better to pity. - Lyman Abbott
Patience is passion tamed. - Lyman Abbott
Earth's dispossessed are vulnerable targets for extremists who teach that global justice is meaningless and that satisfaction can come only in violence, division and intellectual isolation. - King Abdallah II
Today more than ever we need creative minds to address the issues of the age, one of the most urgent of which is how can humanity know so much and achieve so much yet still fail so many people so badly? - King Abdallah II
The key to wisdom is constant and frequent questioning, for by doubting we are led to question, and by questioning we arrive at the truth. - Peter Abelard
Marriage in life is like a duel in the midst of a battle. - Edmond About
All the stuff that you visualized that was going to work so beautifully, you discover is trashed, so you jump to something else. - F. Murray Abraham
A considerable number of people are able to protect themselves against the outbreak of serious neurotic phenomena only through intense work. - Karl Abraham
When eating an elephant, take one bite at a time. - Creighton Abrams
If the people who make the decisions were the people who would also bear the consequences of those decisions, then perhaps better decisions would result. - John Abrams
If you learn one thing from having lived through decades of changing views it is that all predictions are wrong. - M. H. Abrams
Let people hate you so long as they fear you. - Lucius Accius
A memorandum is written not to inform the reader but to protect the writer. - Dean Acheson
Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. - Lord Acton
The most certain test by which we judge whether a country is really free is the amount of security enjoyed by minorities. - Lord Acton
The one prevailing evil of democracy is the tyranny of the majority, or rather that party, not always the majority, that succeeds by force or fraud in winning elections. - Lord Acton
You can learn as much by writing as by reading. - Lord Acton
Learning is not attained by chance. It must be sought for with ardor and attended to with diligence. - Abigail Adams
People are dangerous creatures, and power, whether vested in many or a few, is ever grasping and like the grave cries, "Give! Give!" - Abigail Adams
We have too many high-sounding words and too few actions that correspond with them. - Abigail Adams
Learn the art of patience. Apply discipline to your thoughts, especially when they become anxious over the outcome of a goal. Impatience breeds anxiety, fear, discouragement and failure. Patience, however, creates confidence, decisiveness and a rational outlook which eventually leads to success. - Brian Adams
Law is merely the expression of the will of the strongest at any particular time. Therefore laws are not fixed but shift from generation to generation. - Brooks Adams
You live and learn. At any rate, you live. - Douglas Adams
Elections are won by the winners chiefly because most people vote against somebody rather than for somebody. - Franklin P. Adams
I find that a great part of the information I have was acquired by looking up something and finding something else on the way. - Franklin P. Adams
When the political columnists say 'every thinking person', they mean themselves, and when political candidates appeal to 'every intelligent voter', they mean everybody who is going to vote for them. - Franklin P. Adams
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 can accomplish almost anything within our ability if we only think we can. - George Matthew Adams
A friend in power is a friend lost. - Henry Brook Adams
At best the renewal of a broken relationship is a nervous matter. - Henry Brook Adams
No one likes to have their intelligence or good faith questioned, especially if they have doubts about themselves. - Henry Brook Adams
No one means all they say and very few say all they mean. - Henry Brook Adams
Nothing in education is as astonishing as the amount of ignorance accumulated in the form of useless facts. - Henry Brook Adams
One friend in a lifetime is much, two are many, and three are hardly possible. - Henry Brook Adams
Practical politics consists of ignoring facts. - Henry Brook Adams
Teachers affect eternity. There is no telling where their influence stops. - Henry Brook Adams
If it weren't for the fact that the TV-set and the refrigerator are so far apart, some people wouldn't get any exercise at all. - Joey Adams
Of course it's very easy to be witty tomorrow, after you get a chance to do some research and rehearse your ad-libs. - Joey Adams
Democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts and murders itself. There was never a democracy that did not commit suicide. - John Adams
Facts are stubborn things, and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the facts and the evidence. - John Adams
One useless person is a shame, two is a law firm, and three or more is a government. - John Adams
There are two ways to conquer and enslave a nation. One is with weapons. The other is with debt. - John Adams
Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish. - John Quincy Adams
To believe that everyone is honest is folly, but to believe that no one is honest is worse. - John Quincy Adams
People have vast potential. Most people can do extraordinary things if they have the confidence or take the risks. Yet most people don't. They sit in front of the television and treat life as if it goes on forever. - Philip Adams
Creativity involves allowing yourself to make mistakes. - Scott Adams
I'm suspicious of anyone who has a strong opinion on a complicated issue. - Scott Adams
If there are no stupid questions, then what kind of questions do stupid people ask? Do they get smart just in time to ask their questions? - Scott Adams
Men want sex. If men ruled the world they could get sex anywhere, anytime. Restaurants would give you sex instead of breath mints on the way out. Gas stations would give sex with every fill-up. Banks would give sex to anyone who opened a checking account. - Scott Adams
Nothing inspires forgiveness quite like having got your revenge. - Scott Adams
The best way to compile inaccurate information that no one wants is to make it up. - Scott Adams
Work when people are watching. - Scott Adams
You can never underestimate the stupidity of the general public. - Scott Adams
Health and happiness give rise to each other. - Joseph Addison
If people would consider not so much how they differ as how they agree, there would be far less uncharitableness and angry feeling. - Joseph Addison
If you wish success in life make perseverance your bosom friend, experience your wise counselor, caution your elder brother, and hope your guardian genius. - Joseph Addison
It is folly for an eminent person to think of escaping censure, and it is a weakness to be affected by it. All the illustrious people of antiquity, indeed of every age, have passed through this fiery persecution. There is no defense against reproach other than obscurity. It is a kind of concomitant to greatness, just as satires and invectives were an essential part of a Roman triumph. - Joseph Addison
Ostentatious people would rather relate a blunder or an absurdity they have committed than be prevented from talking about themselves. - Joseph Addison
Self-discipline is that which, next to virtue, truly and essentially raises one person above another. - Joseph Addison
The truth of it is, learning, like travelling and all other methods of improvement, to the extent that it destroys good sense, so it makes a silly person ten thousand times more insufferable by supplying more substance and variety for their impertinence, so giving them an opportunity for abounding in absurdities. - Joseph Addison
The woman that deliberates is lost. - Joseph Addison
True happiness arises in the first place from the enjoyment of one's self. - Joseph Addison
What an absurd thing it is to pass over all the valuable qualities of a person and fix our attention on their failings. - Joseph Addison
When people are comfortable in their circumstances they are natural enemies of innovation. - Joseph Addison
There are some people so primitive that they do not know how to get money except by work. - George Ade
In view of the fact that God limited the intelligence of people, it seems unfair that he did not also limit their stupidity. - Konrad Adenauer
It is easier to fight for one's principles than to live up to them. - Alfred Adler
The chief danger in life is that you may take too many precautions. - Alfred Adler
The purpose of learning is growth, and our minds, unlike our bodies, can continue growing as we continue to live. - Mortimer Adler
You have to allow yourself some free time in which you are doing nothing so that things can occur to you, to let your mind think for you. - Mortimer Adler
Stripped of ethical rationalizations and philosophical pretensions, a crime is anything that a group in power chooses to prohibit. - Freda Adler
Even the old should learn. - Aeschylus
Even the wisest of the wise may err. - Aeschylus
Everyone is ready to speak ill of a stranger. - Aeschylus
From suffering comes wisdom. - Aeschylus
Happiness is a choice that requires effort at times. - Aeschylus
If you are not envied, you are not enviable. - Aeschylus
In war, truth is the first casualty. - Aeschylus
It is best for a wise person not to seem wise. - Aeschylus
It is in the character of very few people to honor without envy a friend who has prospered. - Aeschylus
Those who would learn must suffer. In our own despair, against our will, wisdom comes to us. - Aeschylus
Time teaches all things. - Aeschylus
Be careful in case you lose the substance by grasping at the shadow. - Aesop
Better to learn wisdom from other people's misfortunes than from your own. - Aesop
Conceit may bring about one's own downfall. - Aesop
Familiarity gives rise to contempt. - Aesop
In critical moments even the most powerful have need of the weakest. - Aesop
Injuries are sometimes forgiven but not usually forgotten. - Aesop
It is easier to become entangled with an enemy than to disentangle oneself afterwards. - Aesop
It is easy to be brave from a safe distance. - Aesop
It is with our passions as it is with fire and water. They are good servants but bad masters. - Aesop
Never trust the advice of someone in difficulties. - Aesop
People often begrudge others what they cannot have themselves. - Aesop
Persuasion is often more effective than force. - Aesop
Prepare today for the demands of tomorrow. - Aesop
The gods help them that help themselves. - Aesop
The smaller the mind, the more conceited it is. - Aesop
We hang the petty criminals and appoint the great ones to public office. - Aesop
We often give our enemies the means of our own destruction. - Aesop
What makes something special is not just what you have to gain, but what you feel there is to lose. - Andre Agassi
A professional is someone who can do their job when they don't feel like it. An amateur is someone who can't do their job even when they do feel like it. - James Agate
Even God cannot change the past. - Agathon
If we were to wake up one morning and find that everyone was the same race, creed and color, by noon we would have found some other grounds for prejudice. - George Aiken
The mad person who knows that they are mad is close to sanity. - Ruiz de Alarcón
If you look confident you can pull off anything, even if you have no clue what you're doing. - Jessica Alba
A person can do anything if they only will it strongly enough. - Leon Battista Alberti
It is never shameful to learn from any teacher things that it is useful to know. - Leon Battista Alberti
Nothing overshadows truth as completely as authority. - Leon Battista Alberti
Secret thoughts and an open countenance will travel safely anywhere in the world. - Scipione Alberti
All endings are also beginnings, it's just that we don't always know it at the time. - Mitch Albom
Anger is a poison. It eats you from the inside. We think that hatred is a weapon that attacks the person who harmed us, but hatred is a curved blade. The harm we do, we do to ourselves. - Mitch Albom
Sometimes when you sacrifice something precious you're not really losing it, you're just passing it on to someone else. - Mitch Albom
The most important thing in life is to learn how to give out love and to let it come in. - Mitch Albom
A positive attitude may not solve all your problems but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort. - Herm Albright
Civilization degrades many in order to exalt the few. - Amos Bronson Alcott
One must be a wise reader to quote wisely and well. - Amos Bronson Alcott
The best teachers don't allow their own personal views to influence their teaching. - Amos Bronson Alcott
To be ignorant of their ignorance is a failing of the truly ignorant. - Amos Bronson Alcott
It isn't necessary to be rich and famous to be happy, it's only necessary to be rich. - Alan Alda
Your creative side is the place where no one else has ever been. You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. What you'll discover will be wonderful. What you'll discover will be yourself. - Alan Alda
Tradition is what you resort to when you don't have the time or the money to do things right. - Kurt Herbert Alder
If all be true that I do think,
There are five reasons we should drink.
Good wine, a friend, or being dry,
Or lest we should be by and by,
Or any other reason why. - Dean Aldrich
Those who buy what they don't need, end up selling what they do need. - Alemán
The sad truth is that excellence makes people nervous. - Shana Alexander
We strain to renew our capacity for wonder, to shock ourselves into astonishment once again. - Shana Alexander
If the Lord Almighty had consulted me before embarking upon creation, I would have recommended something simpler. - Alfonso X
Never sleep with anybody whose troubles are worse than your own. - Nelson Algren
Silence is golden when you can't think of a good answer. - Muhammad Ali
The person who views the world at fifty the same as they did at twenty has wasted thirty years of their life. - Muhammad Ali
The function of a bourgeois democracy is to secure the consent of the masses to their own exploitation and oppression. - Tariq Ali
If your world isn't right, the cause is in you. - Dante Alighieri
There is no greater sorrow than to remember happy times when in misery. - Dante Alighieri
Life is a corrupting process from the time a child learns to play its mother off against its father in the politics of when to go to bed. The person who fears corruption fears life. - Saul Alinsky
Almost anything is easier to get into than get out of. - Agnes Allen
A committee is a group of people who individually can do nothing but as a group can decide that nothing can be done. - Fred Allen
If one understands that socialism is not a share-the-wealth program but is in reality a method to consolidate and control wealth, then the seeming paradox of super-rich people promoting socialism becomes no paradox at all. Instead it becomes logical. It is the perfect tool of power-seeking megalomaniacs. Communism or socialism is not a movement of the downtrodden masses but of the economic elite. - Gary Allen
People of mediocre ability sometimes achieve outstanding success because they don't know when to quit. Most people succeed because they are determined to. - George Allen
All that you achieve and all that you fail to achieve is the direct result of your own thoughts. - James Allen
Change your thoughts and you will change your life. - James Allen
If you would accomplish little, sacrifice little. If you would accomplish much, sacrifice much. - James Allen
Let a person radically alter their thoughts and they will be astonished at the rapid transformation it will effect in the material conditions of their life. - James Allen
People are anxious to improve their circumstances but are unwilling to improve themselves. Their circumstances therefore remain the same. - James Allen
The soul attracts that which it secretly harbors, that which it loves, but also that which it fears. - James Allen
Work joyfully and peacefully, knowing that right thoughts and right efforts will inevitably bring about right results. - James Allen
You are today where your thoughts have brought you. You will be tomorrow where your thoughts today take you. - James Allen
Your circumstances may be uncongenial but they will not remain so if you only imagine an ideal and strive to reach it. You cannot travel within and stand still without. - James Allen
Many an optimist has become rich by buying out a pessimist. - Robert G. Allen
In case you're worried about what's going to become of the younger generation, it's going to grow up and start worrying about the younger generation. - Roger Allen
Eighty percent of success comes from just showing up. - Woody Allen
If only God would give me some clear sign that He exists, like making a large deposit in my name at a Swiss bank. - Woody Allen
The talent for being happy is appreciating and liking what you have instead of what you don't have. - Woody Allen
The world is divided into good and bad people. The good ones sleep better. The bad ones seem to enjoy the waking hours much more. - Woody Allen
When the habitually even-tempered suddenly fly into a passion, that explosion is apt to be more impressive than the outburst of the most violent amongst us. - Margery Allingham
Just as you begin to feel that you could make good use of time, there is no time left to you. - Lisa Alther
The degree of a person's intelligence is directly reflected by the number of conflicting attitudes they can bring to bear on the same topic. - Lisa Alther
To play it safe is not to play at all. - Robert Altman
Everyone needs a strong sense of self. It is our base of operations for everything that we do in life. - Julia T. Alvarez
Liberty has never lasted long in a democracy, and democracy never ends in anything other than despotism. - Fisher Ames
A belief is not necessarily true just because it is useful. - Henri-Frédéric Amiel
A lively, disinterested, persistent liking for truth is extraordinarily rare. Habit and belief enslave thought, both of them in order not to be troubled or inconvenienced by reflection, criticism and doubt. - Henri-Frédéric Amiel
All appears to change when we change. - Henri-Frédéric Amiel
Charm is that quality in others that makes us more satisfied with ourselves. - Henri-Frédéric Amiel
Great people are real people, the people in whom nature has succeeded. They are not extraordinary. They are simply in tune with nature. It is the other sorts of people who are not what they ought to be. - Henri-Frédéric Amiel
Learn to limit yourself, to content yourself with some definite thing, and some definite work. Dare to be what you are, and learn to resign with a good grace all that you are not, and to believe in your own individuality. - Henri-Frédéric Amiel
The person who insists on seeing everything clearly before deciding never decides anything. - Henri-Frédéric Amiel
To know how to grow old is the master work of wisdom and one of the most difficult chapters in the great art of living. - Henri Frédéric Amiel
We are never more discontented with others than when we are discontented with ourselves. - Henri Frédéric Amiel
If you can't annoy somebody with what you write, I think there's little point in writing. - Kingsley Amis
More generally means worse. - Kingsley Amis
No pleasure is worth giving up for the sake of two more years in a geriatric home. - Kingsley Amis
Everybody is their own worst enemy. - Anacharsis
The only people you think are normal are the ones you don't know very well. - Joe Ancis
Focus on the journey not the destination. Joy is found not in finishing an activity but in doing it. - Greg Anderson
Our lives improve only when we take chances, and the first and most difficult risk we can take is to be honest with ourselves. - Walter Anderson
If everything seems under control you're just not trying hard enough. - Mario Andretti
If you wait, all that happens is that you get older. - Mario Andretti
If you have something that's interesting enough, people will come to you. - Joanna Angel
Determine to live life with flair and laughter. - Maya Angelou
If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude, but don't complain. - Maya Angelou
I have found that among its other benefits, giving liberates the soul of the giver. - Maya Angelou
Life loves to be taken by the lapel and told, "I'm with you kid. Let's go." - Maya Angelou
Life's a bitch. You've got to go out and kick ass. - Maya Angelou
Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it. - Maya Angelou
The needs of society determine its ethics. - Maya Angelou
If true love has been eluding you, I suggest looking inside yourself. The love or lack of love you see in others is a direct reflection of the love you feel for your self. - Gene Anger
You can never love someone more than you love yourself since it is impossible to give more than you have. - Gene Anger
It takes a certain courage and a certain greatness to be truly base. - Jean Anouilh
Forget about all the reasons why something may not work. You only need to find one good reason why it will work. - Dr. Robert Anthony
Most people would rather be certain they're miserable than risk being happy. - Dr. Robert Anthony
As iron is eaten by rust, so are the envious consumed by envy. - Antisthenes
Insecure people use jargon. - Bryan Appleyard
A liar needs to have a good memory. - Apuleius
Perfection of moral virtue does not wholly take away the passions. Rather it regulates them. - Saint Thomas Aquinas
Three things are necessary for our salvation - to know what we ought to believe, to know what we ought to desire, and to know what we ought to do. - Saint Thomas Aquinas
If you make use of fools, you have to put up with them. - Cabillo de Aragon
The purpose of genius is to provide idiots with ideas twenty years later. - Louis Aragon
All political parties die at last of swallowing their own lies. - John Arbuthnot
Where you find the most laws, there you also find the most injustice. - Arcesilaus
Economic growth may one day turn out to be a curse rather than a blessing. - Hannah Arendt
A person who does not know how to dissimulate does not know how to live. Dissimulation is a shield that blunts every weapon, and a weapon that pierces every shield. - Pietro Aretino
A person's homeland should be whatever place they prosper in. - Aristophanes
Everyone should do that at which they are most skilful. - Aristophanes
Old people become children again. - Aristophanes
You can learn even from your enemy. - Aristophanes
All human actions have one or more of these seven causes - chance, nature, compulsion, habit, reason, passion and desire. - Aristotle
All paid jobs absorb and degrade the mind. - Aristotle
A tyrant must put on the appearance of uncommon devotion to religion. Subjects are less apprehensive of illegal treatment from a ruler whom they consider god-fearing and pious. Also they are less keen to make a move against a ruler who they believe has the gods on their side. - Aristotle
Dignity consists not in possessing honors but in believing that we deserve them. - Aristotle
Education is the best provision for the journey to old age. - Aristotle
Happiness belongs to the self-sufficient. - Aristotle
Happiness depends upon ourselves. - Aristotle
Humor is the only test of gravity, and gravity is the only test of humor, for a subject which will not bear raillery is suspicious, and a jest which will not bear serious examination is false wit. - Aristotle
It is not always the same thing to be a good person and a good citizen. - Aristotle
It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it. - Aristotle
Misfortune reveals false friends. - Aristotle
Modesty is a kind of fear of disrepute. - Aristotle
Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work. - Aristotle
Poverty is the parent of revolution and crime. - Aristotle
Republics decline into democracies, and democracies degenerate into despotisms. - Aristotle
Revolutions are not about trifles, but spring from trifles. - Aristotle
The aim of politics should be the welfare of the people. - Aristotle
The educated are to the uneducated as the living are to the dead. - Aristotle
The goal of war is peace. The goal of business is leisure. - Aristotle
The moral virtues are produced in us neither by nature nor against nature. Nature prepares in us the ground for their reception but their complete formation is the product of habit. - Aristotle
The only stable state is the one in which everyone is equal before the law. - Aristotle
There has never been great genius without some madness. - Aristotle
The roots of education are bitter but the fruit is sweet. - Aristotle
The young think they know everything and are confident in their assertions. - Aristotle
Think like the wise but speak like the masses. - Aristotle
Those who have many friends have no real friend. - Aristotle
To give a satisfactory decision as to the truth it is necessary to be an arbitrator rather than a party to the dispute. - Aristotle
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence therefore is not an act but a habit. Moral excellence comes about as a result of habit. We become just by doing just acts, temperate by doing temperate acts, and brave by doing brave acts. - Aristotle
We become temperate by abstaining from indulgence and we are better able to abstain from indulgence after we have become temperate. - Aristotle
We cannot learn without pain. - Aristotle
We learn by doing. - Aristotle
We stop feeling angry towards those who admit they have been justly punished. - Aristotle
What lies in our power to do, it lies in our power not to do. - Aristotle
Wishing to be friends is quick work but friendship is a slow ripening fruit. - Aristotle
Wit is cultured insolence. - Aristotle
You have to be even braver to overcome your desires than to overcome your enemies. - Aristotle
Young people are in a condition like permanent intoxication. - Aristotle
Failure to hit the bull's eye is never the fault of the target. To improve your aim improve yourself. - Gilbert Arland
Humility is the only wise way in which we can prepare our minds for all the changes life inflicts on us. - George Arliss
I keep the telephone of my mind open to peace, harmony, health, love and abundance. Then whenever doubt, anxiety or fear try to call me they keep getting a busy signal and soon they forget my number. - Edith Armstrong
Sleep on it before you decide to fight. - John Armstrong
Culture is or ought to be the study and pursuit of perfection. - Matthew Arnold
Culture means acquainting ourselves with the best that has been known and said in the world. - Matthew Arnold
Education should produce firstly good morals, secondly good conduct, and thirdly intellectual ability. - Matthew Arnold
How many noble thoughts,
How many precious feelings of one's heart,
How many loves, how many gratitudes,
Do twenty years wear out and see expire! - Matthew Arnold
Learn and propagate the best that is known and thought in the world. - Matthew Arnold
Most people eddy about here and there, eat and drink, chatter and love and hate, gather and squander, are raised aloft, are hurled in the dust, strive blindly, achieve nothing, and then they die. - Matthew Arnold
One thing only has been lent to both youth and age, and that is discontent. - Matthew Arnold
Patience is a close neighbor to despair. - Matthew Arnold
Religion is morality touched by emotion. - Matthew Arnold
Resolve to be yourself. Know that those who find themselves lose their misery. - Matthew Arnold
The freethinking of one age is the common sense of the next. - Matthew Arnold
Truth is to be found on the lips of the dying. - Matthew Arnold
It is costly wisdom that is bought by experience. The right learning can teach more in one year than experience can in twenty. - Roger Ascham
There is no better whetstone for sharpening a good wit and encouraging a desire to learn than praise. - Roger Ascham
Dare to risk public criticism. - Mary Kay Ash
Pretend that every single person you meet has a sign around their neck that says 'Make me feel important'. Not only will you succeed in sales but you will succeed in life. - Mary Kay Ash
When you come to a roadblock take a detour. - Mary Kay Ash
Self-education is I firmly believe the only kind of education there is. - Isaac Asimov
Some people surrender to ignorance but call it God. - Isaac Asimov
The first law of dietetics seems to be that if it tastes good it's bad for you. - Isaac Asimov
The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds the most discoveries, is not 'Eureka!' but 'That's funny...' - Isaac Asimov
Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent. - Isaac Asimov
You must keep sending your written work out. You must never let a manuscript do nothing but lie in a drawer. You send that work out again and again while you're working on another one. If you have talent you will receive some measure of success, but only if you persist. - Isaac Asimov
The person who does not know how to be silent will not know how to speak. - Asonius
Youth would be an ideal state if it came a little later in life. - Herbert Henry Asquith
Deserting your friends is not a good way to try to conciliate your enemies. - Margot Asquith
When someone tells you something defies description you can be pretty sure they're going to have a go at it anyway. - Clyde B. Aster
Power is the ability to do good things for others. - Brooke Astor
I used to dread getting older because I thought I would not be able to do all the things I wanted to do, but now that I am older I find that I don't want to do them. - Nancy Astor
One reason I don't drink is that I want to know when I am having a good time. - Nancy Astor
The most dangerous people in life are those who want to change everything or change nothing. - Nancy Astor
The only thing I like about rich people is their money. - Nancy Astor
The penalty for success is to be bored by the people who used to snub you. - Nancy Astor
In every age, 'the good old days' are a myth. No one ever thought they were good at the time. - Brooks Atkinson
The perfect bureaucrat everywhere is the person who manages to make no decisions and to escape all responsibility. - Brooks Atkinson
Dignity comes not from control but from understanding who you are and taking your rightful place in the world. - Gordon Atkinson
External signs of wealth and success are often cheap storefronts that hide internal mediocrity or even incompetence. - Gordon Atkinson
If you tell the truth you never have to cover your tracks. - Gordon Atkinson
It's not foresight or hindsight we need. We need sight, plain and simple. We need to see right. - Gordon Atkinson
Knowing that there is worse pain doesn't make present pain hurt any less. - Gordon Atkinson
My spiritual quest is the painful process of learning to let go of things that are not essential. - Gordon Atkinson
There isn't much better in this life than finding a way to spend a few hours in conversation with people you respect and love. You have to carve this time out of your life because you aren't really living without it. - Gordon Atkinson
Things are getting out of hand, or maybe I'm discovering that things were never in my hands. - Gordon Atkinson
You can't know everything you'd like to know. You can't do everything you'd like to do. You must hold onto some things and let go of others. Learning to make that choice is one of the big lessons of this life. - Gordon Atkinson
If you don't run your own life somebody else will. - John Atkinson
Don't undervalue yourself or overvalue others. - William Walker Atkinson
Mental attitudes may be acquired and cultivated and changed and discarded at will. - William Walker Atkinson
Nine-tenths of worries are over things that never come to pass. - William Walker Atkinson
One may repress, increase, develop and change one's emotions just as one may regulate habits of action and lines of thought. - William Walker Atkinson
To succeed in anything you must want it very much. You must get in love with the thing you want, and you must be prepared to pay the price for it. - William Walker Atkinson
We must be on guard at all times to prevent the forming of undesirable habits. There may be no special harm in doing a certain thing today, or perhaps again tomorrow, but there may be much harm in setting up the habit of doing that particular thing. If you are confronted with the question 'Which of these two things should I do?' the best answer is 'I will do that which I would like to become a habit with me'. - William Walker Atkinson
When you wish to eradicate a feeling or emotion, cultivate the one that is directly opposed to it. The best way to overcome undesirable or negative thoughts and feelings is to cultivate positive ones. - William Walker Atkinson
Silence is a text that is easy to misread. - A. A. Attanasio
Ageing seems to be the only available way to live a long life. - Daniel Francois Esprit Auber
False enchantment can last a lifetime. - W. H. Auden
Some books are undeservedly forgotten but none are undeservedly remembered. - W. H. Auden
The only way to spend New Year's Eve is either quietly with friends or in a brothel, otherwise when the evening ends and people pair off, someone is bound to be left in tears. - W. H. Auden
You cannot conquer time. - W. H. Auden
Discontent is the source of all trouble but also of all progress, in individuals and nations. - Berthold Auerbach
If stock market experts were so expert they would be buying stock not selling advice. - Norman Augustine
Do what you want and do it with love. - Saint Augustine
Give me chastity and continence, Lord, but not yet. - Saint Augustine
If you would become what you are not, you must always be displeased by what you are. Where you are pleased with yourself, there you will remain. - Saint Augustine
Patience is the companion of wisdom. - Saint Augustine
The world is like a great book, and if you never move away from home you will only ever read one page of it. - St. Augustine
Total abstinence is easier than perfect moderation. - St. Augustine
To wisdom belongs the intellectual comprehension of things eternal. To knowledge belongs the rational comprehension of things temporal. - St. Augustine
Because a thing seems difficult for you, do not imagine it is impossible for someone else to accomplish. - Marcus Aurelius
How ridiculous not to flee from one's own wickedness, which is possible, yet endeavor to flee from another's wickedness which is inescapable. - Marcus Aurelius
If it is not right, do not do it. If it is not true, do not say it. - Marcus Aurelius
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 change or banish completely whenever you choose. - Marcus Aurelius
Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present. - Marcus Aurelius
Our anger and annoyance are more detrimental to us than are the things or people that anger or annoy us. - Marcus Aurelius
Our life is what our thoughts make it. - Marcus Aurelius
The act of dying is also one of the acts of life. - Marcus Aurelius
The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts, so guard accordingly and take care that you entertain no notions that are unsuited to virtue and reason. - Marcus Aurelius
We have inside us the power to live happily. - Marcus Aurelius
Difficulties are meant to rouse us not discourage us. The human spirit should grow strong through conflict. - William Ellery Channing
Very little is needed to make a happy life. - Marcus Aurelius
Waste no more time talking about great people. Become one yourself! - Marcus Aurelius
Whatever is in any way beautiful has its source of beauty within itself and is complete in itself. Praise forms no part of it. Therefore it is none the worse, nor better, for being praised. - Marcus Aurelius
You can save much time by not looking to see what your neighbor says or does or thinks. - Marcus Aurelius
You will find rest from vain fancies if you perform every act in life as though it were your last. - Marcus Aurelius
Death comes even to monuments and to the names engraved on them. - Ausonius
Forgive many things in others but forgive nothing in yourself. - Ausonius
A large income is the best recipe for happiness. - Jane Austen
Friendship is certainly the finest balm for the pangs of disappointed love. - Jane Austen
Good company consists of clever, well-informed people who have a great deal of conversation. - Jane Austen
Happiness in marriage is entirely a matter of chance. - Jane Austen
One half of the world cannot understand the pleasures of the other half. - Jane Austen
The pleasantness of someone's employment is not always evidence of its propriety. - Jane Austen
There certainly are not as many men of large fortune in the world as there are pretty women who deserve them. - Jane Austen
There is no enjoyment like reading. How much sooner one tires of anything other than of a book. - Jane Austen
There is no difference in matrimonial affairs between being mercenary and being prudent. - Jane Austen
Where so many hours have been spent in convincing yourself that you are right, is there not some reason to fear that you may be wrong? - Jane Austen
Why not seize the pleasure at once? How often happiness is missed out on by hesitation or preparation! - Jane Austen
Homosexuality is God's way of ensuring that the truly gifted aren't burdened with children. - Sam Austin
A man should woo a woman with a self-defense manual in one hand and a family planning leaflet in the other. - Alan Ayckbourn
If you are flattering a woman it pays to be a little subtle. With men you don't have to bother being subtle. They automatically believe any compliment. - Alan Ayckbourn
Sarcasm is the greatest weapon of the smallest minds. - Alan Ayckbourn
No moral system can rest solely on authority. - A. J. Ayer
It wasn't until I got divorced that I understood the value of money. - Mel B
Don't believe what your eyes are telling you. All they show is limitation. Look with your understanding. Find what you already know. Then you will see how to fly. - Richard Bach
Here is the test to find whether your mission on earth is finished. If you're alive, it isn't. - Richard Bach
In order to win, you must expect to win. - Richard Bach
The more I want to get something done, the less I call it work. - Richard Bach
You are never given a wish without also being given the power to make it true, but you may have to work at it. - Richard Bach
Even a minor event in the life of a child is an event of that child's world and thus a world event. - Gaston Bachelard
Many a man owes his success to his first wife, and his second wife to his success. - Jim Backus
Age increases the powers of understanding rather than affection and virtuous inclinations. - Francis Bacon
All rising to greatness is by a winding stair. - Francis Bacon
Anger makes dull people witty but it keeps them poor. - Francis Bacon
An inappropriately retained custom is as troublesome a thing as an innovation. - Francis Bacon
Authority goes with age while favors and popularity go with youth. - Francis Bacon
Avoid comparison and you avoid envy. - Francis Bacon
Be aware of ageing and don't keep doing what you did when you were younger. - Francis Bacon
Boldness is a child of ignorance and baseness but nevertheless it fascinates those who are either shallow in judgment or weak in courage, and they are the majority. It even prevails with wise people in their weaker moments. - Francis Bacon
Boldness is always blind for it does not see dangers and inconveniences, therefore it is bad in counsel but it is good in execution. Consequently the right use of bold people is that they should never be in command but instead they should be under the direction of others, for in counsel it is good to see dangers and in execution not to see them except when they are very great. - Francis Bacon
By far the best proof of anything is experience of it. - Francis Bacon
By indignities people come to dignity. - Francis Bacon
By taking revenge a person becomes only even with their enemy but by forgiving them they become superior. - Francis Bacon
Choose the life that is most useful. Habit will make it most agreeable. - Francis Bacon
Crafty people condemn learning, simple people admire it, and wise people use it. - Francis Bacon
Death has this about it. It opens the gate to fame and it extinguishes envy. - Francis Bacon
Discretion in speech is better than eloquence. - Francis Bacon
Don't ignore any change in your body. Instead find out what it signifies. - Francis Bacon
Don't read in order to contradict and argue, nor yet to believe, taking what you read for granted, nor merely for the sake of having something to talk about. Instead read in order to weigh and consider. - Francis Bacon
Fame is like a river that bears up things light and swollen but drowns things weighty and solid. - Francis Bacon
Friends are thieves of time. - Francis Bacon
Great boldness is seldom without some absurdity. - Francis Bacon
Habits are best that are begun young. This we call education, which is in effect early habits. - Francis Bacon
Hope is a good breakfast but a bad supper. - Francis Bacon
Houses are built to live in, so therefore let convenient accommodation be preferred to good appearance, except where both may be had. - Francis Bacon
If a person will begin with certainties they will end in doubts, but if they will be content to begin with doubts they will end in certainties. - Francis Bacon
If you look sharply and attentively you will see Fortune, for though she is blind she is not invisible. - Francis Bacon
In nature things move violently to their place and then rest calmly once there. Likewise virtue is violent when ambitious but settled and calm when it has achieved a position of authority. - Francis Bacon
In peace children bury their parents, in war parents bury their children. - Francis Bacon
It is a miserable state of mind to have few things to desire but to have many things to fear. - Francis Bacon
It is a rare thing, except when it comes from a perfect and complete friend, to have advice given that isn't bent and twisted to serve some ends of the person giving it. - Francis Bacon
It is a strange desire to seek power and to lose liberty, to seek power over others and to lose power over oneself. - Francis Bacon
It is impossible to love and be wise. - Francis Bacon
It is lazy to spend too much time in studying. - Francis Bacon
Knowledge is power. - Francis Bacon