The only thing that makes life possible is permanent, intolerable uncertainty; not knowing what comes next.
—Ursula K. Le Guin (Science-fiction writer)
Our ideals are our better selves.
—Amos Bronson Alcott (American Teacher)
Now it is a funny thing about life; if you refuse to accept anything but the best you very often get it.
—W. Somerset Maugham (French Playwright)
Action and faith enslave thought, both of them in order not be troubled or inconvenienced by reflection, criticism, and doubt.
—Henri Frederic Amiel (Swiss Philosopher)
In the beginning you must subject yourself to the influence of nature. You must be able to walk firmly on the ground before you start walking of a tightrope.
—Henri Matisse
The only true happiness comes from squandering ourselves for a purpose.
—John Mason Brown (American Columnist)
Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional.
—Buddhist Teaching
Remember, you can earn more money, but when time is spent is gone forever.
—Zig Ziglar (American Author)
Our religion is itself profoundly sad—a religion of universal anguish, and one which, because of its very catholicity, grants full liberty to the individual and asks no better than to be celebrated in each man’s own language—so long as he knows anguish and is a painter.
—Charles Baudelaire (French Poet)
The mortality of all inanimate things is terrible to me, but that of books most of all.
—William Dean Howells (American Novelist)
Life marks us all down, so it’s just as well that we start out by overpricing ourselves.
—Mignon McLaughlin (American Journalist)
Art is the beautiful way of doing things. Science is the effective way of doing things. Business is the economic way of doing things.
—Elbert Hubbard (American Writer)
Stars may be seen from the bottom of a deep well, when they cannot be discerned from the top of a mountain? So are many things learned in adversity which the prosperous man dreams not of?
—Charles Spurgeon (British Baptist Preacher)
If an idiot were to tell you the same story every day for a year, you would end by believing him.
—Edmund Burke (Irish Political leader)
It is a fine thing to have ability, but the ability to discover ability in others is the true test.
—Elbert Hubbard (American Writer)
Honor is like an island, rugged and without a landing-place; we can nevermore re-enter when we are once outside of it.
—Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux
Common experience shows how much rarer is moral courage than physical bravery. A thousand men will march to the mouth of the cannon where one man will dare espouse an unpopular cause.
—Clarence Darrow (American Lawyer)