An idea, to be suggestive, must come to the individual with the force of a revelation.
—William James (American Philosopher)
Night has come! Leaning from the window, we gaze at the vast sombre stretch of the city below us, pierced with multitudinous points of light. Jeanne presses her hand to her forehead as she leans upon the window-bar, and seems a little sad. And I say to myself as I watch her: All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves: we must die in one life before we can enter into another!|And as if answering my thought, the young girl murmurs to me.|My guardian, I am so happy; and still I feel as if I wanted to cry!
—Anatole France (French Novelist)
A baby is God’s opinion that life should go on.
—Carl Sandburg (American Children’s Books Writer)
Doubts and jealousies often beget the facts they fear.
—Thomas Jefferson (American Head of State)
Your purpose is to act on the resources God gives you. If God gives you a bucket of fish, you have to distribute those fish. If you don’t, they’re going to rot, attract a bunch of flies, and start stinking up your soul.
—Russell Simmons (American Entrepreneur)
Valuable advice can sometimes come from an unexpected source, and chance events can sometimes open new doors.
—N. R. Narayana Murthy (Indian Businessperson)
The answer to your prayer is not according to your faith while you are talking, but according to your faith while you are working.
—Wallace Wattles (American New Thought Author)
It is not work that kills men; it is worry. Work is healthy; you can hardly put more on a man than he can bear. But worry is rust upon the blade. It is movement that destroys the machinery, but friction.
—Henry Ward Beecher (American Protestant Clergyman)
Love doesn’t just sit there like a stone; it has to be made, like bread, remade all the time, made new.
—Ursula K. Le Guin (Science-fiction writer)
The cruelest lies are often told in silence.
—Robert Louis Stevenson (Scottish Novelist)
We mean by “politics” the people’s business—the most important business there is.
—Adlai Stevenson (American Diplomat)