Genius goes around the world in its youth incessantly apologizing for having large feet. What wonder that later in life it should be inclined to raise those feet too swiftly to fools and bores.
—F. Scott Fitzgerald (American Novelist)
Remember, no more effort is required to aim high in life, to demand abundance and prosperity, than is required to accept misery and poverty.
—Napoleon Hill (American Author)
That which exercises reason is more excellent than that which does not exercise reason; there is nothing more excellent than the universe, therefore the universe exercises reason.
—Zeno of Citium (Greek Philosopher)
Every one of us, whatever our speculative opinions, knows better than he practices, and recognizes a better law than he obeys.
—James Anthony Froude (British Historian)
Little by little, through patience and repeated effort, the mind will become stilled in the Self.
—The Bhagavad Gita (Hindu Scripture)
It might be a good idea if the various countries of the world would occasionally swap history books, just to see what other people are doing with the same set of facts.
—Burton Hillis (William E. Vaughan) (American Columnist)
An ignorant doctor is the aide-de-camp of death.
—Avicenna (Persian Physician, Philosopher, Polymath)
The highest activity a human being can attain is learning for understanding, because to understand is to be free.
—Baruch Spinoza (Dutch Philosopher)
Writing has laws of perspective, of light and shade just as painting does, or music. If you are born knowing them, fine. If not, learn them. Then rearrange the rules to suit yourself.
—Truman Capote (American Novelist)
Among those points of self-education which take up the form of mental discipline, there is one of great importance, and, moreover, difficult to deal with, because it involves an internal conflict, and equally touches our vanity and our ease. It consists in the tendency to deceive ourselves regarding all we wish for, and the necessity of resistance to these desires.
—Michael Faraday (British Physicist, Chemist)
The secrets of life are not shown except to sympathy and likeness.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (American Philosopher)
Familiarity breeds contempt, while rarity wins admiration.
—Apuleius (Roman Prose Writer)
We are not interested in the possibilities of defeat; they do not exist.
—Queen Victoria (British Royal)
Non-violence leads to the highest ethics, which is the goal of all evolution. Until we stop harming all other living beings, we are still savages.
—Thomas Edison (American Inventor)