The cradle rocks above an abyss, and common sense tells us that our existence is but a brief crack of light between two eternities of darkness.
—Vladimir Nabokov (Russian-born American Novelist)
And when a man injures and oppresses you and deals unjustly with you, you should deal kindly with him and forgive him. This you will strike at the root of hatred and enmity and he who is your enemy will become your friend.
—The Holy Quran (Sacred Scripture of Islam)
There’s nothing in the world so demoralizing as money.
—Sophocles (Ancient Greek Dramatist)
I believe we would be happier to have a personal revolution in our individual lives and go back to simpler living and more direct thinking. It is the simple things of life that make living worthwhile, the sweet fundamental things such as love and duty, work and rest and living close to nature.
—Laura Ingalls Wilder (American Author of Children’s Novels)
We do not consider our principles as dogmas contained in books that are said to come from heaven. We derive our inspiration, not from heaven, or from an unseen world, but directly from life.
—Mustafa Kemal Ataturk (Founder of the Turkish Republic)
We’re all just guessing, but some of us have fancier math.
—Josh Brown (American Financial Advisor)
It seems to me that the advice of the Buddha was not to change how you think about things so that you’re happy and content with them as they are, but rather to see things as they are.
—Richard K. Payne (American Buddhist Theologian, Author)
Two starving men cannot be twice as hungry as one; but two rascals can be ten times as vicious as one.
—George Bernard Shaw (Irish Playwright)
Macro worries are like sports talk radio. Everyone has a good opinion, which probably means that none of them are good.
—Seth Klarman (American Investor)
The current flows fast and furious. It issues in a spate of words from the loudspeakers and the politicians. Every day they tell us that we are a free people fighting to defend freedom. That is the current that has whirled the young airman up into the sky and keeps him circulating there among the clouds. Down here, with a roof to cover us and a gas mask handy, it is our business to puncture gas bags and discover the seeds of truth.
—Virginia Woolf (English Novelist)
Cultivation of mind should be the ultimate aim of human existence.
—B. R. Ambedkar (Indian Jurist, Economist, Politician, Social Refor)