Inspirational Quotations

Only when the clamor of the outside world is silenced will you be able to hear the deeper vibration. Listen carefully.
—Sarah Ban Breathnach (American Self-help Author)

Laughter and levity habituate a man to lewdness.
—The Talmud (Sacred Text of the Jewish Faith)

We are all of us the worse for too much liberty.
—Terence (Roman Comic Dramatist)

Art distills sensations and embodies it with enhanced meaning.
—Jacques Barzun (American Cultural Historian)

Comfort and prosperity have never enriched the world as much as adversity has. Out of pain and problems have come the sweetest songs, and the most gripping stories.
—Billy Graham (American Baptist Religious Leader)

What rules the world is idea, because ideas define the way reality is perceived.
—Irving Kristol (American Political Writer)

What you are will show in what you do.
—Thomas Edison (American Inventor)

There are no mistakes or failures, only lessons.
—Denis Waitley (American Motivational Speaker)

There is a mean in everything.—Even virtue itself hath its stated limits, which, not being strictly observed, it ceases to be virtue.
—Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus) (Roman Poet)

There is no liberty to men whose passions are stronger than their religious feelings; there is no liberty to men in whom ignorance predominates over knowledge; there is no liberty to men who know not how to govern themselves.
—Henry Ward Beecher (American Protestant Clergyman)

If you want to annoy your neighbors, tell the truth about them.
—Pietro Aretino (Italian Author)

Bread of flour is good; but there is bread, sweet as honey, if we would eat it, in a good book.
—John Ruskin (English Art Critic)

Never ascribe to malice that which can adequately be explained by incompetence.
—Napoleon I (Emperor of France)

To accuse others for one’s own misfortunes is a sign of want of education. To accuse oneself shows that one’s education has begun. To accuse neither oneself nor others shows that one’s education is complete.
—Epictetus (Ancient Greek Philosopher)

The extremes of vice and virtue are alike detestable; absolute virtue is as sure to kill a man as absolute vice is, let alone the dullnesses of it and the pomposities of it.
—Samuel Butler

Nothing happens by itself. It all will come your way, once you understand that you have to make it come your way, by your own exertions.
—Ben Stein (American Writer)

Pride, which inspires us with so much envy, serves also to moderate it.
—Francois de La Rochefoucauld (French Writer)

History is the devil’s scripture.
—Lord Byron (George Gordon Byron) (English Romantic Poet)

The essence of pleasure is spontaneity.
—Germaine Greer (Australia Academic)

He is incapable of a truly good action who finds not a pleasure in contemplating the good actions of others.
—James Joyce (Irish Novelist)

I am a lie who always speaks the truth.
—Jean Cocteau (French Poet, Artist)

If we are not ashamed to think it, we should not be ashamed to say it.
—Cicero (Roman Philosopher)

Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth.
—Buddhist Teaching

Candor and generosity, unless tempered by due moderation, leads to ruin.
—Tacitus (Roman Orator, Historian)

When you set goals, something inside of you starts Saying, “Let’s go, let’s go,” and ceilings start to move up.
—Zig Ziglar (American Author)

Many a man in love with a dimple makes the mistake of marrying the whole girl.
—Stephen Leacock (Canadian Humorist)

There is no waste of time in life like that of making explanations.
—Benjamin Franklin (American Polymath)

Images also help me find and realise ideas. I look at hundreds of very different, contrasting images and I pinch details from them, rather like people who eat from other people
—Francis Bacon (English Philosopher)

Every generous illusion of youth leaves a wrinkle as it departs. Experience is the successive disenchanting of the things of life; it is reason enriched with the heart’s spoils.
—Jean Antoine Petit-Senn (Swiss Poet)

Let us not complain against men because of their rudeness, their ingratitude, their injustice, their arrogance, their love of self, their forgetfulness of others. They are so made. Such is their nature.
—Jean de La Bruyere (French Author)

For people who live on expectations, to face up to their realization is something of an ordeal.
—Elizabeth Bowen (Irish Novelist)

Power is not a means, it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship.
—George Orwell (English Novelist, Essayist, Journalist)

Emphatic always, forcible never.
—Christian Nestell Bovee (American Writer, Aphorist)

As long as a person doesn’t admit he is defeated, he is not defeated – he’s just a little behind, and isn’t through fighting.
—Darrell Royal (American Sportsperson)

No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man.
—Heraclitus (Ancient Greek Philosopher)

Faced with the choice between changing one’s mind and proving there is no need to do so, almost everyone gets busy on the proof.
—John Kenneth Galbraith (American Economist)

The happiness of the wicked passes away like a torrent.
—Jean Racine (French Dramatist)

It is better to be happy for a moment and be burned up with beauty than to live a long time and be bored all the while.
—Don Marquis (American Humorist, Journalist)

The good need fear no law; it is his safety, and the bad man’s awe.
—Philip Massinger (English Playwright)

Some theories are good for nothing except to be argued about.
—Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (German Philosopher, Physicist)

The degree of one’s emotion varies inversely with one’s knowledge of the facts—the less you know the hotter you get.
—Bertrand A. Russell (British Philosopher, Mathematician)

Historians give us the extraordinary events, and omit just what we want, the everyday life of each particular time and country.
—Richard Whately (English Philosopher, Theologian)

What impresses men is not mind, but the result of mind.
—Walter Bagehot (English Economist, Journalist)

The more sympathy you give, the less you need.
—Malcolm S. Forbes (American Publisher)

No man ever made an ill figure who understood his own talents, nor a good one, who mistook them.
—Jonathan Swift (Irish Satirist)

There is no mind, but various states of mind. The highest state embraces them all.
—Hans Taeger

It is loneliness that makes the loudest noise. This is as true of men as of dogs.
—Eric Hoffer (American Philosopher)

The laws of probability, so true in general, so fallacious in particular.
—Edward Gibbon (English Historian)

Soft data, hard conflicts.
—Gerhard Kocher (Swiss Publicist, Health Economist, Aphorist)

Of fortune’s sharp adversity, the worst kind of misfortune is this, that a man hath been in prosperity and it remembers when it passed is.
—Geoffrey Chaucer (English Poet)

A pleasant comedy, which paints the manners of the age, and exposes a faithful picture of nature, is a durable work, and is transmitted to the latest posterity. But a system, whether physical or metaphysical, commonly owes its success to its novelty; and is no sooner canvassed with impartiality than its weakness is discovered.
—David Hume (Scottish Philosopher, Historian)

Let not thy table exceed the fourth part of thy revenue: let thy provision be solid, and not far fetched, fuller of substance than art: be wisely frugal in thy preparation, and freely cheerful in thy entertainment: if thy guests be right, it is enough; if not, it is too much: too much is a vanity; enough is a feast.
—Francis Quarles (English Religious Poet)

That which we are we are all the while teaching, not voluntarily, but involuntarily.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (American Philosopher)

Ah just act the way ah feel.
—Elvis Presley (American Musician)

You cannot make a windmill go with a pair of bellows.
—George Herbert (Welsh Anglican Poet)

What is uttered is finished and done with.
—Thomas Mann (German Novelist)

Will localizes us; thought universalizes us.
—Henri Frederic Amiel (Swiss Philosopher, Writer)

A man with ambition and love for his blessings here on earth is ever so alive. Having been alive, it won’t be so hard in the end to lie down and rest.
—Pearl Bailey (American Singer, Actress)

Cheerfulness and contentment are great beautifiers and are famous preservers of youthful looks.
—Charles Dickens (English Novelist)

Parenthood remains the greatest single preserve of the amateur.
—Alvin Toffler (American Writer, Futurist)

A person can achieve everything by being simple and humble.
—The Vedas (Sacred Books of Hinduism)

We would rather have one man or woman working with us than three merely working for us.
—Frank Winfield Woolworth (American Retail Pioneer)

It may make a difference to all eternity whether we do right or wrong today.
—James Freeman Clarke (American Clergyman)

In many instances, marriage vows would be more accurate if the phrase were changed to ‘Until debt do us part’.
—Sam Ewing (American Writer)

The important thing is to concentrate upon what you can do—by yourself, upon your own initiative.
—Harry Browne (American Author, Economist)

The important thing to recognize is that it takes a team, and the team ought to get credit for the wins and the losses. Successes have many fathers, failures have none.
—Philip Caldwell (American Businessperson)

The weakness of ourselves and of our reason makes us see flaws in beauties by making us consider everything piece by piece.
—Johann Georg Hamann (German Philosopher)

Things are not always what they seem; the first appearance deceives many; the intelligence of a few perceives what has been carefully hidden.
—Plato (Ancient Greek Philosopher)

Intelligence is not to make no mistakes, but quickly to see how to make them good.
—Bertolt Brecht (German Poet)

If human progress had been merely a matter of leadership we should be in Utopia today.
—Thomas Brackett Reed (American Politician)

Time is short—your obligations are infinite.—Are your houses regulated, your children instructed, the afflicted relieved, the poor visited, the work of piety accomplished?
—Jean Baptiste Massillon (French Bishop)

Never trust a man who speaks well of everybody.
—John Churton Collins (British Literary Critic)

Better a thousand enemies outside the house than one inside.
—Arabic Proverb

Being a woman is a terribly difficult trade since it consists principally of dealings with men.
—Joseph Conrad (Polish-born British Novelist)

There are two primary choices in life: to accept conditions as they exist, or accept the responsibility for changing them.
—Denis Waitley (American Motivational Speaker)

There is a canyon of difference between doing your best to glorify God and doing whatever it takes to glorify yourself. The quest for excellence is a mark of maturity. The quest for power is childish.
—Max Lucado (American Author, Minister)

Do not remove a fly from your friend’s forehead with a hatchet.
—Chinese Proverb

Fear of failure must never be a reason not to try something.
—Frederick W. Smith (American Entrepreneur)

It is best to do things systematically, since we are only humans, and disorder is our worst enemy.
—Hesiod (Greek Poet)

That charity which longs to publish itself, ceases to be charity.
—Ulrich von Hutten (German Humanist, Reformer)

Writers are not just people who sit down and write. They hazard themselves. Every time you compose a book your composition of yourself is at stake.
—E. L. Doctorow (American Novelist)

There is nothing to which men cling more tenaciously than the privileges of class.
—Leonard Woolf (British Political Theorist)

Nothing is as frustrating as arguing with someone who knows what he’s talking about.
—Sam Ewing (American Writer)

If you haven’t forgiven yourself something, how can you forgive others?
—Dolores Huerta (American Labor Activist)

Too often, the opportunity knocks, but by the time you push back the chain, push back the bolt, unhook the two locks and shut off the burglar alarm, it’s too late.
—Rita Coolidge (American Singer, Songwriter)

Pride, like humility, is destroyed by one’s insistence that he possesses it.
—Kenneth Bancroft Clark (American Psychologist)

Let every man or woman here, if you never hear me again, remember this, that if you wish to be great at all, you must begin where you are and with what you are. He who would be great anywhere must first be great in his own Philadelphia.
—Russell Conwell (American Baptist Minister)

You should bring something into the world that wasn’t in the world before. It doesn’t matter what that is. It doesn’t matter if it’s a table or a film or gardening—everyone should create. You should do something, then sit back and say ‘I did that.’
—Ricky Gervais (British Comedian, Writer)

You know about a person who deeply interests you more than you can be told. A look, a gesture, an act, which to everybody else is insignificant tells you more about that one than words can.
—Henry David Thoreau (American Philosopher)

We may draw good out of evil; we must not do evil, that good may come.
—Maria Weston Chapman (American Abolitionist)

The purpose of life is to live a life of purpose.
—Richard Leider (American Executive Coach)

Time ripens all things; no man is born wise.
—Miguel de Cervantes (Spanish Novelist)

Every time I see an Erie Railroad engine bearing the name of its faithful driver a thrill goes through me, for I know that the man guiding it has won this rare honor by many years of the most loyal and efficient service. Who will argue that only public men and corporation heads are entitled to have their names emblazoned on the scroll of honor? All workmen care about is money, you say? Wrong. Workers are made of exactly the same stuff as generals or senators or presidents or governors or industrial leaders. It is just as fitting to honor the worthiest of our wage earners as it is to honor others.
—B. C. Forbes (Scottish-born American Journalist)

Satire is tragedy plus time. You give it enough time, the public, the reviewers will allow you to satirize it. Which is rather ridiculous, when you think about it.
—Lenny Bruce (American Comedian)

Better not be at all than not be noble.
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson (British Poet)

Many are called but few get up.
—Oliver Herford (Canadian-American Writer, Humorist)

He who comes up to his own idea of greatness must always have had a very low standard of it in mind.
—William Hazlitt (English Essayist)

The bravest are the most tender; the loving are the daring.
—Bayard Taylor (American Poet, Travel Writer)

Never trust the teller, trust the tale.
—D. H. Lawrence (English Novelist)

Those who lack the courage will always find a philosophy to justify it.
—Albert Camus (Algerian-born French Philosopher)

Grace tried is better than grace, and more than grace; it is glory in its infancy.
—Samuel Rutherford (Scottish Theologian)

The best answer to bad speech is good speech
—Alan M. Dershowitz (American Legal Scholar)

Satires and lampoons on particular people circulate more by giving copies in confidence to the friends of the parties, than by printing them.
—Richard Brinsley Sheridan (Irish-born British Playwright)

Our minds have the need to know. When we don’t know we make assumptions – they make us feel safer than not knowing. And we are pretty much always making assumptions.
—Miguel Angel Ruiz (Mexican Author)

Jump out the window if you are the object of passion. Flee it if you feel it. Passion goes, boredom remains.
—Coco Chanel (French Fashion Designer)

To me, the greatest pleasure of writing is not what it’s about, but the inner music that words make.
—Truman Capote (American Novelist)

When a man opens the car door for his wife, it’s either a new car or a new wife.
—Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (British Prince)

Never underestimate the stimulation of eccentricity.
—Neil Simon (American Playwright)

The future is here. It’s just not widely distributed yet.
—William Gibson (American-Canadian Sci-Fi Author)

A fresh mind keeps the body fresh. Take in the ideas of the day, drain off those of yesterday. As to the morrow, time enough to consider it when it becomes today.
—Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton (British Author, Politician)

To enjoy enduring success we should travel a little in advance of the world.
—John D. MacDonald (American Novelist)

The capacity to give one’s attention to a sufferer is a very rare and difficult thing; it is almost a miracle; it is a miracle. Nearly all those who think they have this capacity do not possess it. Warmth of heart, impulsiveness, pity are not enough.
—Simone Weil (French Philosopher, Political Activist)