My collection of quotes about...
The World we Live in...
...and Life in General
-
Martin Gore (Depeche Mode)
TABLE of CONTENTS
Achievement Change Character Charity Choices
The Art of the
Comeback Conscience Contributions Courage
The Days and Years of Our Lives Death Democracy Dreams
Education Failures and Mistakes Faith Fate and Destiny
Forgiveness Freedom Friends and Friendship Glory Days
Good and Evil Historical Quotes Historical Reflections
What is History Home Sweet Home Honor
Hope Huh
The Human Mind The Human Race The Human Spirit
The Humble Man Humor Ignorance The Importance of Man
Intelligence, Knowledge, and
Wisdom It's the End of the World as we
Know It
Kindness Law and Order Leadership Life in General
Love and Hate Me, Myself
& I Money & Wealth Music
Opportunity Oppression Our Fellow Man Past, Present, and Future
Persistence Philosophy Politics Poverty Power Principles
Procrastination Religion Revenge Revolution
Science and
Discovery The Spoken and Written Word Taxation
Trust Truth War and Peace Winning and Losing
Work and Success The World We Live In Don't Worry, Be Happy
ACHIEVEMENT
Julius Caesar (100BC-44BC)
Veni, Vidi, Vici. (I came. I saw. I conquered.)
Alberta Lee Cox
It’s not enough to be good if you have the ability to be better.
Franois de la Rochefoucauld
(1613-1680)
Those who apply themselves too closely to little things often become incapable
of great things.
Frederick Douglass
(1818-1895)
If there is no struggle, there is no progress.
Albert Einstein (1879-1955)
It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our
humanity.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
(1803-1882)
Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.
What you do speaks so loud
that I cannot hear what you say.
Benjamin Franklin
(1706-1790)
Well done is better than well said.
Millard Fuller
It’s what you do with your life that counts.
Thor Heyerdahl (1914-2002)
I haven't survived by good luck, but rather by the absence of bad luck.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
(1929-1968)
If a man is called a streetsweeper, he should sweep streets even as
Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote
poetry. He should sweep streets so
well that all the hosts of heaven and Earth will pause to say, ‘here lived a
great streetsweeper who did his job well.’
George Smith Patton
(1885-1945)
Always do more than is required of you.
Samuel Langhorne Clemens,
aka Mark Twain (1835-1910)
The reasonable man adapts himself to the conditions that surround him. The
unreasonable man adapts surrounding conditions to himself.
All progress depends on the
unreasonable man.
John Wooden (1910-present)
Don't let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi
(1869-1948)
Be the change you want to see in this world.
John Fitzgerald Kennedy
(1917-1963)
Change is the law. And those who look only to the past or present are certain
to miss the future.
Margaret Mead (1901-1978)
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the
world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.
Gail Sheehy
If we don't change, we don't grow. If we don't grow, we are not really living.
anonymous
What we are is God's gift to us. What we become is our gift to God.
H. Jackson Brown, Jr.
(?-present)
Character is what we do when we think no one is looking.
Winston Leonard Spencer
Churchill (1874-1965)
He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire.
Samuel Johnson (1709-1784)
The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no
good.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
(1929-1968)
The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and
convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.
Abigail Van Buren
(1918-present)
The best index to a person s character is how he treats people who can't do him
any good, and how he treats people who can't fight back.
German proverb
Chartiy sees the need, not the cause.
Naomi Judd (1946-present)
If you want a helping hand, first look to the end of your own arm.
Robert Frost (1874-1963)
Two paths diverged in a wood, and I - I took the one less traveled by. And that
has made all the difference.
Winston Leonard Spencer
Churchill (1874-1965)
Lady Astor to Churchill: Winston, if you were my husband I would flavour your
coffee with poison.
Churchill to Lady Astor:
Madam, if I were your husband, I should drink it.
Winston Leonard Spencer
Churchill (1874-1965)
Bessie Braddock to Churchill: Winston, you're drunk!
Churchill to Bessie Braddock:
Bessie, you're ugly, and tomorrow morning I shall be sober.
Lt. Colonel Claus Phillip
Maria Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg (1907-1944)
Better I be a traitor to my country than a traitor to my conscience.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
(1929-1968)
If a man hasn t discovered something he will die for, he isn't fit to live.
Eleanor Roosevelt
(1884-1962)
When you cease to make a contribution, you begin to die.
Muhammad Ali (1942-present)
He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life.
Joseph Brant - Thayendanegea
of the Mohawk Tribe (1743-1807)
No person among us deserves any other reward for performing a brave and worthy
action,
but the consciousness of having served his nation.
Cesar Chavez (1927-1993)
The truest act of courage is to sacrifice ourselves for others in a totally
non-violent struggle for justice.
Edward Estlin Cummings
(1894-1962)
It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.
The DAYS and YEARS of OUR LIVES
Quintus Horatius Flaccus,
aka Horace (65 B.C.- 8 B.C.)
Even as we speak, time flies. Seize the day (carpe diem), and believe as little
as possible in tomorrow.
John Fitzgerald Kennedy
(1917-1963)
We have the power to make this the best generation of mankind in the history of
the world - or to make it the last.
Robert Francis Kennedy
(1925-1968)
There is a Chinese curse which says may he live in interesting times. Like it
or not, we live in
interesting times.
Groucho Marx (1895-1977)
I had a wonderful time, but this wasn't it.
Hugh Mulligan
What I do today is important because I am exchanging a day of my life for it.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
(1749-1831)
Nothing is worth more than this day.
Woody Allen (1935-present)
I don't want to achieve immortality through my work; I want to achieve
immortality through not dying.
Jacques-Yves Cousteau
(1910-1995)
If we didn't die, we wouldn't appreciate life as we do.
Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519)
As a well spent day brings happy sleep, so life well used brings happy death.
David - Psalm 23
The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures; he leadeth me beside the still
waters.
He restoreth my soul; he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his
name's sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no
evil;
for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me.
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies;
thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life;
and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.
(From an article on
CNN.com) At hospice, patients are
taught five simple truths to tell their loved ones before they die:
I'll miss you. I love you. I forgive you. I'm sorry. Goodbye.
Ian L. Fleming (1908-1964)
I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them.
John Maynard Keynes
(1883-1946)
In the long-run, we are all dead.
Native American proverb
When you were born, you cried and the world rejoiced. Live your life in a
manner so that when you die the world cries and you rejoice.
Scottish proverb
Be happy while you're living, for you're a long time dead.
Josef Stalin (1879-1953)
One death is a tragedy. A million deaths is a statistic.
Voltaire (1694-1778) - On his
deathbed, after a priest asked that he renounce Satan.
Now, now my good man. This is no time for making enemies.
John Adams (1735-1824)
There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.
Winston Leonard Spencer
Churchill (1874-1965)
Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others.
Walt Disney (1901-1966)
If you can dream it, you can do it.
All our dreams can come true,
if we have the courage to pursue them.
George Bernard Shaw
(1856-1950)
Some men see things as they are and ask why? Others dream things that never
were and ask why not?
Francis Bacon (1561-1626)
Knowledge is power.
Chinese Proverbs
Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him
for a lifetime.
Teachers open the door, but
you must enter by yourself.
I hear and I forget. I see and
I remember. I do and I understand.
Samuel Langhorne Clemens,
aka Mark Twain (1835-1910)
The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who cannot
read them.
I have never let my schooling
interfere with my education.
John Dewey (1859-1952)
Education is the fundamental method of social progress and reform.
Will Durant (1885-1981)
Education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance.
Epictetus (50-130)
Only the educated are free.
Malcolm Stevenson Forbes
(1919-1990)
Education s purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one.
Benjamin Franklin
(1706-1790)
Genius without education is like silver in the mine.
Gail Godwin (1937-present)
Good teaching is one-fourth preparation and three-fourths theater.
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich
Hegel (1770-1831)
Education is the art of making man ethical.
Marie von Ebner Eschenbach
(1830-1916)
In youth we learn; in age we understand.
Sarah Lee (1986-present ) -
a freshmen student in my World History class, 1998-99
Good thinking habits + good study skills = good grades and good college = good
future
Burrhus Frederic Skinner
(1904-1990)
Education is what survives when what has been learned has been forgotten.
William Butler Yeats
(1865-1939)
Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.
anonymous
A man can fail many times, but he isn't a failure until he begins to blame
others.
Napoleon Bonaparte
(1769-1821)
Never interrupt your emeny when he is making a mistake.
Bill Cosby (1937-present)
I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please
everybody.
Franois de la Rochefoucauld
(1613-1680)
If we had no faults of our own, we would not take so much pleasure in noticing
those of others.
Benjamin Disraeli
(1804-1881)
It is much easier to be critical than to be correct.
Thomas Alva Edison
(1847-1931)
I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.
Milton Friedman (1912-2006)
If you make a mistake and refuse to admit it, you hurt yourself twice: once,
when you make the mistake; a second time, when you refuse to learn from your
mistake.
Robert Francis Kennedy
(1925-1968)
Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.
Randy Pausch (1960-)
Experience is what you get when you don't get what you wanted.
John Wesley Powell
(1834-1902)
The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt
(1882-1945)
Take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it frankly, and try another. But
by all means, try something.
Beverly Sills (1929-2007)
You may be disappointed if you fail, but you are doomed if you don't try.
Nadine Stair
If I had to live my life over again, I d dare to make more mistakes next time.
Turkish proverb
No matter how far you have gone on a wrong road, turn back.
Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)
Experience is the name that everyone gives to their mistakes.
Bud Wilkinson (1916-1994)
The man who tried his best and fails is superior to the man who never tried.
Frank Lloyd Wright
(1868-1959)
A doctor can bury his mistakes, but an architect can only advise his clients to
plant vines.
Samuel Butler (1835-1902)
You can do very little with faith alone, but you can do nothing without it.
William Jennings Bryan
(1860-1925)
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.
Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919)
When fate hands us a lemon, let s try to make lemonade.
Franois de la Rochefoucauld
(1613-1680)
Our repentance is not so much regret for the ill we have done as fear of the ill
that may happen to us in consequence.
John Fitzgerald Kennedy
(1917-1963)
Forgive your enemies, but never forget their names.
Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)
Always forgive your enemies. Nothing annoys them more.
A man can't be too careful in
the choice of his enemies.
Anonymous American slave
(pre-1864)
O, that I were free! I will run away: I had as well be killed running as die
standing.
Anonymous freed black man
in the pre-Civil War United States (pre-1864)
No day ever dawns for the slave, nor is it looked for. For the slave it is all
night -- all night, forever.
Elmer Davis (1890-1958)
This nation will remain the land of the free only so long as it is the home of
the brave.
John Fitzgerald Kennedy
(1917-1963)
Freedom is indivisible...When one man is enslaved, all are not free.
Soren Aabye Kierkegaard
(1813-1855)
People demand freedom of speech to make up for the freedom of thought which
they avoid.
Rosa Luxemburg (1870-1919)
Freedom is how free your opponent is.
Charles Schultz (1922-2000)
If all my friends were to jump off a bridge, I wouldn't jump with them. I'd be
at the bottom to catch them.
anonymous
You can judge a person's worth by the company he keeps.
Albert Camus (1913-1960)
Don't walk in front of me, I may not follow. Don't walk behind me, I may not
lead. Walk beside me
and just be my friend.
Charles Caleb Colton
(1780-1832)
True friendship is like sound health; the value of it is seldom known until it
be lost.
Tenzin Gyatso, The 14th
Dalai Lama of Tibet (1935-present)
Old friends pass away, new friends appear. It is just like the days. An old day
passes, a new day arrives. The
important thing is to make it meaningful: a meaningful friend - or a meaningful
day.
Robert Louis Stevenson
(1850-1894)
A friend is a present you give yourself.
Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924)
Friendship is the only cement that will ever hold the world together.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
(1803-1882)
The only way to have a friend is to be one.
Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821)
Glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever.
Cato the Elder (234-149
B.C.), aka Marcus Porcius Cato
After I'm dead I'd rather have people ask why I have no monument than why I
have one.
Edmund Burke (1729-1797)
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
(1929-1968)
Goodness defeated is stronger than evil triumphant.
Mae West (1892-1980)
When choosing between two evils, I always like to try the one I've never tried
before.
Neil Armstrong (20 July
1969 - revised 20 July 1999)
That s one small step for (a) man; one giant leap for mankind.
Winston Leonard Spencer
Churchill (1874-1965) - 13 May 1940, speech made to the House of Commons
I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat.
Winston Leonard Spencer
Churchill (1874-1965) - 18 June 1940, following the capitulation of France to
Nazi Germany
Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that if
the British Empire and Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still
say, this was their finest hour.
Winston Leonard Spencer
Churchill (1874-1965) - 20 August 1940 speech in the House of Commons, during
the Battle of Britain
Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.
Winston Leonard Spencer
Churchill (1874-1965) - 1942 speech to Parliament.
We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the
beaches. We shall fight on the landing grounds. We shall fight in the fields
and in the streets. We shall fight in the hills. We shall never surrender!
Winston Leonard Spencer
Churchill (1874-1965)
Victory at all costs; victory in spite of all terror; victory however long and
hard the road may be.
Georges Clemenceau
(1841-1929) - French president, speaking at the Paris Peace Conference of 1919.
God has his Ten Commandments.
Wilson his Fourteen Points.
We shall see.
William Jefferson Clinton
(1946-present)
The real differences around the world today are not between Jews and Arabs;
Protestants and Catholics; Muslims, Croats, and Serbs. The real differences are
between those who embrace peace and those who would destroy it. Between those who
look to the future and those who cling to the past. Between those who open
their arms and those who are determined to clench their fists.
The Constitution of the
United States of America, 1787
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union,
establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense,
promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves
and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States
of America.
Frank Rudolph Crosswaith
(1892-1965) - African-American labor leader addressing a rally in 1942.
Someday the flag for which my son is about to die in Europe may wave freely
over his race and his class and his children.