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)