Nagesh Belludi

It is not the facts which guide the conduct of men, but their opinions about facts; which may be entirely wrong. We can only make them right by discussion.
—Norman Angell (English Economist, Pacifist)

When occasions present themselves, in which the interests of the people are at variance with their inclinations, it is the duty of the persons whom they have appointed to be the guardians of those interests, to withstand the temporary delusion, in order to give them time and opportunity for more cool and sedate reflection.
—Alexander Hamilton (American Statesman)

Humour is the weapon of unarmed people: it helps people who are oppressed to smile at the situation that pains them.
—Simon Wiesenthal (Austrian Nazi-Hunter)

When you think you have a great idea, go out of your way to talk with someone who disagrees with it. At worst, you continue to disagree with them. More often, you’ll gain valuable perspective. Fight confirmation bias like the plague.
—Morgan Housel (American Financial Journalist, Investor)

This is a work of fiction. All the characters in it, human and otherwise, are imaginary, excepting only certain of the fairy folk, whom it might be unwise to offend by casting doubts on their existence. Or lack thereof.
—Neil Gaiman (British Writer)

To bear with patience wrongs done to oneself is a mark of perfection, but to bear with patience wrongs done to someone else is a mark of imperfection and even of actual sin.
—Thomas Aquinas (Italian Catholic Priest)

O, innocence, the sacred amulet against all the poisons of infirmity, and all misfortunes, injury, and death.
—George Chapman (English Poet, Playwright)

Anger represents a certain power, when a great mind, prevented from executing its own generous desires, is moved by it.
—Pietro Aretino (Italian Author)

Be as an cup, and the universe flows into you. Be as an arrow, and the universe retreats from you.
—Zen Proverb (Japanese School of Mahayana Buddhism)

Either you decide to stay in the shallow end of the pool or you go out in the ocean.
—Christopher Reeve (American Actor)

Death and taxes and childbirth! There’s never any convenient time for any of them!
—Margaret Mitchell (American Novelist)

The status quo is the only solution that cannot be vetoed.
—Clark Kerr (American Educator)

The mark of a well educated person is not necessarily in knowing all the answers, but in knowing where to find them.
—Douglas Hugh Everett (British Physical Chemist)

A man never reaches that dizzy height of wisdom that he can no longer be lead by the nose.
—Mark Twain (American Humorist)

Be unselfish. That is the first and final commandment for those who would be useful and happy in their usefulness. If you think of yourself only, you cannot develop because you are choking the source of development, which is spiritual expansion through thought for others.
—Charles William Eliot (American Educator)

You largely constructed your depression. It wasn’t given to you. Therefore, you can deconstruct it.
—Albert Ellis (American Psychologist)

A certain amount of opposition is a great help to a man; it is what he wants and must have to be good for anything. Hardship and opposition are the native soil of manhood and self-reliance.
—John Neal (American Author, Critic)

The blackest despair that can take hold of any society is the fear that living honestly is futile.
—Corrado Alvaro (Italian Novelist)

There is much of economic theory which is pursued for no better reason than its intellectual attraction; it is a good game. We have no reason to be ashamed of that, since the same would hold for many branches of mathematics.
—John Hicks (English Economist)

In questions of science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual.
—Galileo Galilei (Italian Astronomer)

People wish to be poets more than they wish to write poetry, and that’s a mistake. One should wish to celebrate more than one wishes to be celebrated.
—Lucille Clifton (American Poet)

Death was afraid of him because he had the heart of a lion.
—Arabic Proverb

Butterflies… not quite birds, as they were not quite flowers, mysterious and fascinating as are all indeterminate creatures.
—Elizabeth Goudge (English Novelist)

Hitch your wagon to a star. Let us not fag in paltry works which serve our pot and bag alone.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (American Philosopher)

A man can do all things if he but wills them.
—Leon Battista Alberti (Italian Architect)

Some lives drift here and there like reeds in a stream, depending on changing currents for their activity. Others are like swimmers knowing the depth of the water. Each stroke helps them onward to a definite objective.
—Margaret Sanger (American Social Reformer)

Better to trust the man who is frequently in error than the one who is never in doubt.
—Eric Sevareid (American Broadcast Journalist)

Hope never abandons you, you abandon it.
—George Weinberg (American Psychologist)

To me success means effectiveness in the world, that I am able to carry my ideas and values into the world—that I am able to change it in positive ways.
—Maxine Hong Kingston (American Novelist, Memoirist)

Man is the most intelligent of the animals—and the most silly.
—Diogenes Laertius (Greek Biographer)

Regret is an odd emotion because it comes only upon reflection. Regret lacks immediacy, and so its power seldom influences events when it could do some good.
—Edward William O’Rourke (American Catholic Priest)

Remember that there is a meaning beyond absurdity. Be sure that every little deed counts, that every word has power. Never forget that you can still do your share to redeem the world in spite of all absurdities and frustrations and disappointments.
—Abraham Joshua Heschel (American Jewish Rabbi)

Reason is the director of man’s will, discovering in action what is good, for the laws of well-doing are the dictates of right reason.
—Thomas Hooker (American Clergyman)

The difference between the impossible and the possible lies in a man’s determination.
—Tommy Lasorda (American Baseball Player, Coach)

Thinking is like loving and dying. Each of us must do it for himself.
—Josiah Royce (American Philosopher)

God gives to us according to the measure of our hearts.
—Persian Proverb

Life is neither a good nor an evil, but simply the scene of good and evil.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca) (Roman Stoic Philosopher)

Every great work of art has two faces, one toward its own time and one toward the future, toward eternity.
—Daniel Barenboim (Israeli Pianist, Conductor)

To know how to dispense with things is to possess them.
—Jean-Francois Regnard (French Dramatist)