Archives for March 2014

For suffering and enduring there is no remedy, but striving and doing.
—Thomas Carlyle (Scottish Writer)

Changes are not only possible and predictable, but to deny them is to be an accomplice to one’s own unnecessary vegetation.
—Gail Sheehy (American Journalist)

Herein lies the tragedy of the age: not that men are poor-all men know something of poverty; not that men are wicked-who is good? Not that men are ignorant-what is truth? Nay, but that men know so little of men.
—W. E. B. Du Bois (American Civil Rights Activist)

Wars are, of course, as a rule to be avoided; but they are far better than certain kinds of peace.
—Theodore Roosevelt (American Head of State)

If there be no enemy there’s no fight. If no fight, no victory and if no victory there is no crown.
—Thomas Carlyle (Scottish Writer)

Life-complication Theory: Given a choice between an easy solution and a complicated one, the loser will usually opt to travel the complicated path. Don’t ignore a solution just because it’s simple.
—Robert Ringer (American Entrepreneur)

The tragedy of life is not so much what men suffer, but rather what they miss.
—Thomas Carlyle (Scottish Writer)

Great perils have this beauty, that they bring to light the fraternity of strangers.
—Victor Hugo (French Novelist)

Biography is the most universally pleasant and profitable of all reading.
—Thomas Carlyle (Scottish Writer)

To yackety-yak about the past is for me time lost. Every morning I wake up saying, ‘I’m still alive—a miracle.’ And so I keep on pushing.
—Jacques Cousteau (French Military Leader)

Philosophy is a purely personal matter. A genuine philosopher’s credo is the outcome of a single complex personality; it cannot be transferred. No two persons, if sincere, can have the same philosophy.
—Havelock Ellis (British Sexologist)

The wise man in the storm prays God, not for safety from danger, but for deliverance from fear.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (American Philosopher)

People praise virtue, but they hate it, they run away from it. It freezes you to death, and in this world you’ve got to keep your feet warm.
—Denis Diderot (French Philosopher)

It is a thousand times better to have common sense without education than to have education without common sense.
—Robert G. Ingersoll (American Atheist Politician)

You don’t hear things that are bad about your company unless you ask. It is easy to hear good tidings, but you have to scratch to get the bad news.
—Thomas J. Watson (American Businessperson)

The greatest test of courage on earth is to bear defeat without losing heart.
—Robert G. Ingersoll (American Atheist Politician)

There is great treasure there behind our skull and this is true about all of us. This little treasure has great, great powers, and I would say we only have learnt a very, very small part of what it can do.
—Isaac Bashevis Singer (Polish-born American Children’s Books Writer)

Probably the greatest harm done by vast wealth is the harm that we of moderate means do to ourselves when we let the vices of envy and hatred enter deep into our own natures.
—Theodore Roosevelt (American Head of State)

I am a little deaf, a little blind, a little impotent, and on top of this are two or three abominable infirmities, but nothing destroys my hope.
—Voltaire (French Philosopher)

Only passions, great passions, can elevate the soul to great things.
—Denis Diderot (French Philosopher)

There is no wisdom like frankness.
—Benjamin Disraeli (British Head of State)

No one is in control of your happiness but you; therefore, you have the power to change anything about yourself or your life that you want to change.
—Barbara De Angelis (American Lecturer)

You can dream, create, design and build the most wonderful place in the world, but it requires people to make the dream a reality.
—Walt Disney (American Entrepreneur)

Don’t be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (American Philosopher)

The measure of success is not whether you have a tough problem to deal with, but whether it’s the same problem you had last year.
—John Foster Dulles (American Lawyer)

Optimism is the madness of insisting that all is well when we are miserable.
—Voltaire (French Philosopher)

As much as we need a prosperous economy, we also need a prosperity of kindness and decency.
—Caroline Kennedy (American Author)

Hope is the only universal liar who never loses his reputation for veracity.
—Robert G. Ingersoll (American Atheist Politician)

To talk about the need for perfection in man is to talk about the need for another species.
—Norman Cousins (American Journalist)

The punishment of criminals should be of use; when a man is hanged he is good for nothing.
—Voltaire (French Philosopher)

I have found that the greatest help in meeting any problem with decency and self-respect and whatever courage is demanded, is to know where you yourself stand. That is, to have in words what you believe and are acting from.
—William Faulkner (American Novelist)

Happiness is a by-product. You cannot pursue it by itself.
—Sam Levenson (American Humorist)

Men of great genius and large heart sow the seeds of a new degree of progress in the world, but they bear fruit only after many years.
—Giuseppe Mazzini (Italian Philosopher)

It is nonsense to say there is not enough time to be fully informed … Time given to thought is the greatest timesaver of all.
—Norman Cousins (American Journalist)

The philosopher has never killed any priests, whereas the priest has killed a great many philosophers.
—Denis Diderot (French Philosopher)

It’s hard to lead a cavalry charge if you think you look funny on a horse.
—Adlai Stevenson (American Diplomat)