Quotes
A
ADVERSITY
The art of living lies not in eliminating but in growing with troubles.
Bernard M. Baruch, American financer (1870-1965)
The gem cannot be polished without friction.
-Chinese proverb
Adversity introduces a man to himself.
- Unknown
A gem is not polished without rubbing, nor a man made perfect without trials.
- Chinese Proverb
B
BELIEFS
Conviction is worthless unless it is converted into conduct.
- Thomas Carlyle, Scottish historian and author (1795-1881)
Nurture your mind with great thoughts, for you will never go any higher than you think.
Benjamin Disraeli, British statesman and novelist (1804-1881
C
CHARACTER
Character, not circumstance, makes the person.
Booker T. Washington, American educator and civil rights activist (1856-1915)
Character is simply habit long conducted.
- Plutarch, Greek biographer (47-120 A.D.)
Every man has three characters: that which he shows, that which he has, and that which he thinks he has.
Alphonse Karr, French journalist (1808-1890)
Character is like a tree and reputation like its shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.
- Abraham Lincoln, 16th U.S. president (1809-1865)
Fame is a vapor, popularity by an accident, riches take wing, and only character endures.
Horace Greeley, American journalist and educator (1811-1872)
The measure of a man’s character is what he would do if he knew he never would be found out.
- Baron Thomas Babington Macauley, English historian and statesman (1800-1859)
Character is that which reveals moral purpose, exposing the class of things a man chooses and avoids.
- Aristotle, Greek philosopher (384-322 B.C.)
What lies behind us and what lies before us are small matters compared to what lies within us.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, American essayist, philosopher and poet (1803-1882)
If you will think about what you ought to do for other people, your character will take care of itself. Character is a by-product, and any man who devotes himself to its cultivation in his own case will become a selfish prig.
Woodrow Wilson, 28th American president (1856-1924)
It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters in the end.
- Ursula K. Le Guin
It is never too late to be what you might have been.
- George Eliot
CHILD REARING
CONVICTION
COURAGE
Courage is being scared to death – and saddling up anyway.
-John Wayne (Marion Morrison), American actor (1907-1919
The mighty oak was once a little nut that stood its ground.
- Uknown
Courage is a muscle; it is strengthened by use.
Ruth Gordon, American actress (1896-1985)
No one reaches a high position without daring.
Publilius Syrus, Syrian-born Latin writer of maxims (fl. 1st century B.C.)
Great occasions do not make heroes or cowards; they simply unveil them to the eyes. Silently and imperceptibly, as we wake or sleep, we grow or strong or we grow weak, and at last some crisis shows us what we have become.
Brooke Foss Westcott, British theology professor and bishop (1825-1901)
I believe that anyone can conquer fear by doing the things he fears to do, provided he keeps doing them until he gets a record of successful experiences behind him.
- Eleanor Roosevelt, American stateswoman, First Lady (1884-1962)
All problems become smaller if you don’t dodge them, but confront them. Touch a thistle timidly, and it pricks you; grasp it boldly, and its spines crumble.
William S. Halsey
It is better to die on one’s feet than to live on one’s knees.
- Albert Camus, French existentialist novelist (1913-1960)
CURIOSITY
He who is afraid of asking is ashamed of learning.
- Danish Proverb
D
DUTY
To protect those who are not able to protect themselves is a duty which every one owes to society.
- Edward Macnaghten
I am only one, but still, I am one. I cannot do everything but I can do something. And, because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do what I can.
- Edward Everett Hale, American clergyman and writer (1822-1909)
Our duty is to be useful, not according to our desires, but according to our powers.
- Henri F. Amiel, Swiss writer (1821-1881)
I long to accomplish some great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish small tasks as if they were great and noble.
- Helen Keller, American social activist, public speaker and author (1880-1968)
Any man’s life will be filled with constant and unexpected encouragement if he makes up his mind to do his level best each day.
- Booker T. Washington, American educator (1856-1915)
E
EDUCATION
The aim of education should be to teach us rather how to think, than what to think.
- Bill Beattie
He who studies books alone will know how things ought to be, and he who studies men will know how they are.
Charles Caleb Colton
The whole purpose of education is to turn mirrors into windows.
- Sydney J. Harris
A mind stretched to a new idea never goes back to its original dimensions.
- Oliver Wendell Holmes
Educate the heart. Let us have good men.
- Hiram Powers, American sculptor (1805-1873)
Education makes a people easy to lead, but difficult to drive; easy to govern, but impossible to slave.
- Omar N. Bradley, American general (1893-1981)
The college professor said,
"Such rawness in a student is a shame.
Lack of preparation in the high school
Is to blame."
Said the high school teacher,
"Good heavens, that boy's a fool.
The fault, of course, is with
The grammar school."
The grammar school teacher said,
"From such stupidity may I be spared;
They sent him up to me so unprepared."
The primary teacher huffed,
"Kindergarten blockheads all--
They call that preparation?
Why it's worse than none at all!"
The kindergarten teacher said,
"Such a lack of training never did I see,
What kind of woman
Must that mother be?"
The mother said, "pool helpless child.
"He's not to blame.
His father's people
Were all the same."
Said the father
At the end of the line,
"I doubt the rascal's
Even mine."
-Author Unknown
ETHICS
The first step in the evolution of ethics is a sense of solidarity with other human beings.
Albert Schweitzer, German Nobel Peace Prize-winning mission doctor and theologian (1875 – 1965)
Ethics is a coed of values which guide our choices and actions and determine the purpose and course of our lives.
- Ayn Rand, Russian-American novelist and philosopher (1905 – 1982)
F
FAME
Nothing is so commonplace as to wish to be remarkable.
- Unknown
FEAR
What you are afraid to do is a clear indicator of the next thing you need to do.
- Unknown
The basest of all things is to be afraid.
- William Faulkner, American novelist (1897-1962)
FRIENDSHIPS
Let us be grateful to people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.
- Marcel Proust
It is not so much our friends’ help that helps us, as the confident knowledge that they will help us.
- Epicurus
G
H
HAPPINESS
Happiness is not a matter of intensity but of balance, order, rhythm and harmony.
- Orison Swett Marden
HONOR
HUMAN NATURE
Somebody does somethin’ stupid, that’s human. They don’t stop when they see its wrong, that’s a fool.
- Elvis Presley, American rock’n’roll icon (1935 -1977)
Hate traps us by blinding us too tightly to our adversary.
- Milan Kundera, Czech novelist, poet and playwright (b. 1929)
Resentment is like taking poison and waiting for the other person to die.
- Malachy McCourt, Irish-American writer and actor (b. 1931)
Grief is the agony of an instant: the indulgence of grief the blunder of a life.
- Benjamin Disraeli, British prime minister and author (1804 – 1881)
Ciceros Six Mistakes of Man (according to Arthur F. Lenehan):
1. The delusion that individual advancement is made by crushing others
2. The tendency to worry about things that cannot be changed or corrected
3. Insisting that a thing is impossible because we cannot accomplish it
4. Refusing to set aside trvial preferences
5. Neglecting development and refinement of the mind and not acquiring the habit of reading and studying
6. Attempting to compel other persons to believe and live as we do.
HYPOCRISY
You can preach a better sermon with your life than with your lips.
- Oliver Goldsmith, English author (1728-1910)
I
IDENTITY
Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.
- Count Leo Tolstoy, Russian novelist (1828-1910)
To be nobody-but yourself – in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else – means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting.
- e e cummings, poet, artist, playwright and novelist (1894-1962)
Men’s minds are too ready to excuse guilt in themselves.
- Titus Livius, Roman historian and philosopher (59 BC-AD 17)
Be honorable yourself if you wish to associate with honorable people.
- Welsh proverb
It isn’t until you come to a spiritual understand of who you are – not necessiraly a religious feeling, but deep down, the spirit within – that you begin to take control.
- Oprah Winfrey, American talk-show host and actor (b. 1954)
Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster.
- Friedrich Nietzsche, German philosopher (1844-1900)
IMAGINATION
We are what and where we are because we have first imagined it.
Donald Curtis
If people did not sometimes do silly things, nothing intelligent would ever get done.
- Ludwig Wittgenstein
INSPIRATION
Inspiration usually comes during work, rather than before it.
- Madeleine L’Engle
There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it.
- Edith Wharton
INTEGRITY
Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful.
- Samuel Johnson, English writer and lexicographer (1709-1784)
In looking for people to hire, look for three qualities: integrity, intelligence and energy. And if they don’t have the first, the other two will kill you.
- Warren Buffet, American financier (b.1930)
INITIATIVE
You get in life what you have to courage to ask for.
- Oprah Winfrey
Striving for excellence motivates you; striving for perfection is demoralizing.
- Harriet Braiker
J
JOURNEY
We learn more by looking for the answer to a question and not finding it that we do from learning the answer itself.
- Lloyd Alexander
What you are afraid to do is a clear indicator of the next thing you need to do.
- Unknown
K
L
LEARNING
In the book of life, the answers aren’t in the back.
- Charlie Brown
Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.
- Mahatma Gandhi
Shutting off the thought process is not rejuvenating; the mind is like a car battery-it recharges by running.
- Bill Watterson
LIVING LIFE TO THE FULLEST
Never get so busy making a living that you forget to make a life.
- Anonymous
The goal is to balance a life that works with a life that counts.
- Peter Block
Life is what we make it, always has been, always will be.
- Grandma Moses
LOVE
We can’t all leave a prestigious background or lots of money to visit our children, but we can leave them a legacy of love.
- Naomi Rhode
M
MISCELLANEOUS
What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.
-Ralph Waldo Emerson
Experience is a brutal teacher, but you learn. My God, do you learn.
-C.S. Lewis
Profanity is the attempt of a weak mind to speak forcefully.
-Anonymous
MISTAKES
If I had to live my life again, I’d make the same mistakes, only sooner.
- Tallulah Bankhead
MORALITY
That which is beautiful is moral. That is all, nothing more.
- Gustave Flaubert, French novelist (1821 – 1880)
The essence of morality is the subjugation of nature in obedience of social needs
- John Morley, British statesman and writer (1838 – 1923)
There’s a hole in the moral ozone and it’s getting bigger.
- Michael Josephson, American ethicist
N
O
OBSTACLES
We cannot learn without pain.
- Aristotle, Greek philosopher (384-322 B.C.)
P
PATIENCE
Endurance is nobler than strength and patience than beauty.
- John Ruskin, British critic and author (1819-1900)
PERSEVERANCE
Every situation, properly perceived, becomes an opportunity.
Helen Schucman
People say, “What is the sense of our small effort?” They cannot see that we must lay one brick at a time.
- Dorothy Day
I never failed once. It just happened to be a 2000-step process.
- Thomas Edison, American inventor (1847-1931), responding to a reporter who asked how it felt to fail 2000 times successfully before inventing the light bulb.
Fall seven times. Stand up eight.
- Japanese proverb
The greater the obstacle the more glory in overcoming it.
- Moliere (Jean-Baptiste Poquelin), French dramatist (1622-1673)
What does not destroy makes me stronger.
- Friedrich Nietzsche, German philosopher (1844-1900)
Success consists of getting up just one more time than you fall.
- Oliver Goldsmith, English author (1730-1774)
Energy and persistence conquer all things.
- Benjamin Franklin, American Founding Father, inventor and statesman (1706-1790)
People may fail many times, but they become failures only when they begin to blame someone else.
- Unknown
One is defeated only when one accepts defeat.
- Marshal Foch, French general and war hero (1851-1929)
It is not falling into the water, but lying in it, that drowns.
- Unknown
Winners are losers who got up and gave it one more try.
- Dennis DeYoung, songwriter and member of the pop rock band Styx (b. 1947)
PRIDE
Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man.
-C.S. Lewis, British novelist and scholar (1898-1963)
When dealing with people, remember you are not dealing with creatures of logic, but with creatures bristling with prejudice and motivated by pride and vanity.
- Dale Carnegie, American motivational writer (1888-1955)
Q
R
RESOURCEFULNESS
What really matters is what you do with what you have.
- Shirley Lord
RESPONSIBILITY
You can’t escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.
- Abraham Lincoln, 16th U.S. president (1809-1865)
Provision for others is the fundamental responsibility of human life.
- Woodrow Wilson, 28th U.S. president (1856-1924)
Any man’s life will be filled with constant and unexpected encouragement if he makes up his mind to do his level best each day.
- Booker T. Washington, American educator (1856-1915)
The question for each man to settle is not what he would do if he had the means, time, influence and educational advantages, but what he will do with the things he has.
- Hamilton Wright Mabee
ROLE MODELS
Treat people as if they were what they ought to be, and you help them to become what they are capable of being.
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
The question for the child is not Do I want to be good? But Whom do I want to be like?
- Bruno Bettelheim, Austrian-American child psychologist, author (1903-1990)
Imitation is a necessity of human nature.
- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., American jurist, Supreme Court justice (1841-1935)
S
SPIRIT/SOUL
Never underestimate the power of dreams and the influence of the human spirit.
- Wilma Rudolph
STRENGTH
We deceive ourselves when we fancy that only weakness needs support. Strength needs it far more.
- Anne Sophie Swetchine
In times of stress, be bold and valiant.
- Horace, Roman poet (65-8 B.C.)
SUCCESS
It is a mistake to suppose that men succeed through success; they much oftener succeed through failure.
- Samuel Smiles
SUFFERING
The beauty of the soul shines out when a man bears with composure one heavy mischance after another, not because he does not feel them, but because he is a man of high and heroic temper.
- Aristotle, Greek philosopher (384-322 B.C.)
T
TEACHING
Tell me and I’ll forget; show me and I may remember; involve me and I’ll understand.
- Chinese Proverb
U
V
VANITY
Big egos are big shields for lots of empty space.
- Diana Black
If you let your head get too big, it’ll break your neck.
- Elvis Presley, American rock ‘n’ roll icon (1935-1977)
W
WISDOM
All receive advice. Only the wise profit from it.
- Publilius Syrus, Roman epigrammatist (fl. 42 B.C.)
If thou thinkest twice before thou speakest once, thou wilt speak twice the better for it.
- William Penn, Quaker and founder of Pennsylvania (1644-1718)
A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds.
-Francis Bacon, English philosopher of science and essayist (1561-1626)
Wise men learn more from fools than fools from the wise.
-Cato the Elder, Roman censor ( 234-149 BC)
Whatever your grade or position, if you know how and when to speak, and when to remain silent, your chances of real success are proportionately increased.
-Ralph C. Smedley, American founder of Toastmasters International
(1878-1965)
Think like a man of action, act like a man of thought.
-Henri Bergson, French philosopher (1859-1941)
WORRY
What worries you, masters you.
- Haddon W. Robinson, American preacher, author, professor and TV show host