Archives for October 2024

Inspiration never arrived when you were searching for it.
—Lisa Alther (American Novelist)

The writer does the most good who gives his reader the most knowledge and takes from him the least time.
—Sydney Smith (English Preacher)

Listen, my friend! Your helplessness is your best prayer. It calls from your heart to the heart of God with greater effect than all your uttered pleas. He hears it from the very moment that you are seized with helplessness, and He becomes actively engaged at once in hearing and answering the prayer of your helplessness.
—Ole Hallesby (Norwegian Theologian)

Think of yourself as an incandescent power, illuminated and perhaps forever talked to by God and his messengers.
—Brenda Ueland (American Journalist Memoirist)

If there were dreams to sell, what would you buy?
—Thomas Lovell Beddoes (English Poet)

The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery every day. Never lose a holy curiosity.
—Albert Einstein (German-born Theoretical Physicist)

Long absent, soon forgotten.
—Common Proverb

Life is made up, not of great sacrifices or duties, but of little things, in which smiles and kindness and small obligations, given habitually, are what win and preserve the heart and secure comfort.
—Humphry Davy (British Chemist)

Attention is the most basic form of love. By paying attention we let ourselves be touched by life, and our hearts naturally become more open and engaged.
—Tara Brach (American Psychologist, Author)

One golden day redeems a weary year.
—Celia Thaxter (American Poet)

Tyranny cannot defeat the power of ideas.
—Helen Keller (American Author)

In many lines of work, it isn’t how much you do that counts, but how much you do well and how often you decide right.
—William Feather (American Author, Publisher)

Where slavery is, there liberty cannot be; and where liberty is, there slavery cannot be.
—Charles Sumner (American Statesman)

We are all failures—at least, the best of us are.
—J. M. Barrie (Scottish Novelist)

One thing is clear to me, that no indulgence of passion destroys the spiritual nature so much as respectable selfishness.
—George MacDonald (Scottish Poet, Novelist)

The trick is growing up without growing old.
—Casey Stengel (American Sportsperson)

We do not know why we are born into the world, but we can try to find out what sort of a world it is—at least in its physical aspects.
—Edwin Hubble (American Astronomer)

God’s gifts put man’s best dreams to shame.
—Elizabeth Barrett Browning (English Poet)

Those that say they despise riches are saints or liars.
—Austin O’Malley (American Aphorist, Ophthalmologist)

We forget all too soon the things we thought we could never forget. We forget the loves and the betrayals alike, forget what we whispered and what we screamed, forget who we were.
—Joan Didion (American Essayist, Novelist, Memoirist)

The person who exalts himself … will be humbled, because a person who considers himself to be good, intelligent, and kind will not even try to become better, smarter, kinder. The humble person will be exalted, because he considers himself bad and will try to become better, kinder, and more reasonable.
—Leo Tolstoy (Russian Novelist)

Never kiss an ugly girl; she will tell everyone.
—Hebrew Proverb

The essence of love is getting out of oneself and into others. When we care less about our feelings, our rights, our happiness, our security, etc., and begin to concern ourselves with the feelings, rights, happiness, and security of others, we will have found the true power of love.
—Leo Buscaglia (American Motivational Speaker)

Many do with opportunities as children do at the seashore; they fill their little hands with sand, and then let the grains fall through, one by one, till all are gone.
—Thomas Jones

Power tends to confuse itself with virtue and a great nation is peculiarly susceptible to the idea that its power is a sign of god’s favor.
—J. William Fulbright (American Politician)

Though reason is not to be relied upon as a guide universally sufficient to direct us what to do, yet it is generally to be relied upon and obeyed when it tells us what we are not to do.
—Robert South (English Theologian)