To achieve great things, two things are needed; a plan, and not quite enough time.
—Leonard Bernstein (American Composer, Conductor)
The poverty of being unwanted, unloved and uncared for is the greatest poverty.
—Mother Teresa (Roman Catholic Nun)
Man goes far away or near but God never goes far-off; he is always standing close at hand, and even if he cannot stay within he goes no further than the door.
—Meister Eckhart (German Christian Mystic)
If you trust before you try, you may repent before you die.
—Common Proverb
Read not books alone, but men, and amongst them chiefly thyself.—If thou find anything questionable there, use the commentary of a severe friend, rather than the gloss of a sweet-lipped flatterer; there is more profit in a distasteful truth than in deceitful sweetness.
—Francis Quarles (English Religious Poet)
I am conservative by temperament. I disapprove of criminal activity. I am very solidly and markedly on the side of authority. The truth is I would rather err on the side of too much authority than too little.
—James Ellroy (American Crime Fiction Writer)
None sigh deeper than those who have no troubles.
—Norwegian Proverb
To be a champ, you have to believe in yourself when nobody else will.
—Sugar Ray Robinson (American Boxer)
The key to growth is the introduction of higher dimensions of consciousness into our awareness.
—Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan (British Sufi Mystic)
Take time to deliberate, but when the time for action has arrived, stop thinking and go in.
—Napoleon I (Emperor of France)
The chains of marriage are so heavy that it takes two to bear them, and sometimes three.
—Alexandre Dumas fils (French Dramatist, Novelist)
At court, far from regarding ambition as a sin, people regard it as a virtue, or if it passes for a vice, then it is regarded as the vice of great souls, and the vices of great souls are preferred to the virtues of the simple and the small.
—Louis Bourdaloue (French Jesuit Preacher)
People will try to tell you that all the great opportunities have been snapped up. In reality, the world changes every second, blowing new opportunities in all directions, including yours.
—Ken Hakuta (American Inventor)
For my own part, I had rather suffer any inconvenience from having to work occasionally in chambers and kitchen … than witness the subservience in which the menial class is held in Europe.
—Harriet Martineau (English Sociologist)
To me it’s not the big things in life that thrill me as much as the small moments of beauty—rare and wondrous, a simple breeze after a hard workout—a kiss from God.
—Marie Chapian (American Christian Writer)