Inspirational Quotations

One who is not interested in literature, music and arts is veritably an animal without tail or horns. Other animals are indeed fortunate, that he lives without eating grass.
—Subhashita Manjari (Sanskrit Anthology of Proverbs)

What I am concerned about in this fast-moving world in a time of crises, both in foreign and domestic affairs, is not so much a program as a spirit of approach, not so much a mind as a heart. A program lives today and dies tomorrow. A mind, if it be open, may change with each new day, but the spirit and the heart are as unchanging as the tides.
—Owen D. Young (American Businessman)

True patriotism for a man is his childhood.
—Lisandro Chavez Alfaro (Nicaraguan Author)

There is an increasingly pervasive sense not only of failure, but of futility. The legislative process has become a cruel shell game and the service system has become a bureaucratic maze, inefficient, incomprehensible, and inaccessible.
—Elliot Richardson (American Statesman)

Your past is important, but it is not nearly as important to your present as the way you see your future.
—Tony Campolo (American Sociologist)

‘As a matter of fact’ is an expression that precedes many an expression that isn’t.
—Laurence J. Peter (American Author)

Be thine own palace, or the world’s thy jail.
—John Donne (English Poet, Cleric)

Imagine what a harmonious world it could be if every single person, both young and old shared a little of what he is good at doing.
—Quincy Jones (American Record Producer)

Business is like war in one respect. If its grand strategy is correct, any number of tactical errors can be made and yet the enterprise proves successful.
—Robert E. Wood (American Business Executive)

Prudence is a rich, ugly, old maid courted by incapacity.
—William Blake (English Poet)

Mediocrity is fine if you accept it.
—David Mitchell (British Comedian)

Whatever the ups and downs of detail within our limited experience, the larger whole is primarily beautiful.
—Gregory Bateson (British Anthropologist)

Astronomy has revealed the great truth that the whole universe is bound together by one all-pervading influence.
—William Leitch (American Sports Journalist, Author)

Before the beginning of great brilliance, there must be chaos. Before a brilliant person begins something great, they must look foolish in the crowd.
—I Ching (Ancient Chinese Divination Text)

Some folks rail against other folks, because other folks have what some folks would be glad of.
—Henry Fielding (English Novelist)

A strange thing is memory, and hope; one looks backward, and the other forward; one is of today, the other of tomorrow. Memory is history recorded in our brain, memory is a painter, it paints pictures of the past and of the day.
—Grandma Moses (American Folk Artist)

Happiness is the sense that one matters. Happiness is an abiding enthusiasm. Happiness is single-mindedness. Happiness is whole-heartedness. Happiness is a by-product. Happiness is faith.
—Sam Shoemaker (American Clergyman)

Destiny is no matter of chance. It is a matter of choice. It is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved.
—William Jennings Bryan (American Statesman)

Difficulty is a nurse of greatness—a harsh nurse, who rocks her foster children roughly, but rocks them into strength and athletic proportions.—The mind, grappling with great aims and wrestling with mighty impediments, grows by a certain necessity to the stature of greatness.
—William Cullen Bryant (American Poet)

We were made to receive and give away way more love than we’re tempted to just settle for. Go for broke.
—Bob Goff (American Philanthropist)

Beauty is a precious trace that eternity causes to appear to us and that it takes away from us. A manifestation of eternity, and a sign of death as well.
—Eugene Ionesco (French Dramatist)

Never forget the power of silence, that massively disconcerting pause which goes on and on and may at last induce an opponent to babble and backtrack nervously.
—Lance Morrow (American Essayist)

Suffering by nature or chance never seems so painful as suffering inflicted on us by the arbitrary will of another.
—Arthur Schopenhauer (German Philosopher)

Appreciate the constructive; ignore the destructive.
—John Douglas (American FBI Agent)

When you hold resentment toward another, you are bound to that person or condition by an emotional link that is stronger than steel. Forgiveness is the only way to dissolve that link and get free.
—Catherine Ponder (American Clergywoman)

This is the artist, then—life’s hungry man, the glutton of eternity, beauty’s miser, glory’s slave.
—Thomas Wolfe (American Novelist)

As you would not bark back at a dog, do not waste your time arguing with foolish people.
—Yogaswami of Jaffna (Sri Lankan Hindu Religious Leader)

Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.
—Muhammad Ali (American Sportsperson)

All autobiography is self-indulgent.
—Daphne du Maurier (British Novelist)

Every man of genius is considerably helped by being dead.
—Robert Staughton Lynd (American Sociologist)

I have lived to know that the great secret of human happiness is this: never suffer your energies to stagnate. The old adage of “too many irons in the fire,” conveys an abominable lie. You cannot have too many—poker, tongs, and all—keep them all going.
—Adam Clarke (British Methodist Theologian)

Science and technology multiply around us. To an increasing extent they dictate the languages in which we speak and think. Either we use those languages, or we remain mute.
—J. G. Ballard (English Novelist)

Why should you be content with so little? Why shouldn’t you reach out for something big?
—Charles L. Allen (American Minister)

It is hardly surprising that children should enthusiastically start their education at an early age with the Absolute Knowledge of computer science; while they are unable to read, for reading demands making judgments at every line. Conversation is almost dead, and soon so too will be those who knew how to speak.
—Guy Debord (French Philosopher)

The moment the slave resolves that he will no longer be a slave. His fetters fall… freedom and slavery are mental states.
—Mohandas K. Gandhi (Indian Hindu Political leader)

Our minds can shape the way a thing will be because we act according to our expectations.
—Federico Fellini (Italian Filmmaker)

Conscience is the spiritual, supernatural principle in man, and it is not of social origin at all. It is rather the perversion and confusion of conscience that is of social origin.
—Nikolai Berdyaev (Russian Philosopher)

A man might pass for insane who should see things as they are.
—William Ellery Channing (American Theologian, Poet)

I cannot take human beings seriously. They seem to me to have been created solely to amuse those who regard them in a certain way.
—Eugene Labiche (French Dramatist)

Art does not lie in copying nature.—Nature furnishes the material by means of which to express a beauty still unexpressed in nature.—The artist beholds in nature more than she herself is conscious of.
—Henry James (American-born British Novelist)

Castles in the air – -they are so easy to take refuge in. And so easy to build as well.
—Henrik Ibsen (Norwegian Playwright)

Leaders are visionaries with a poorly developed sense of fear and no concept of the odds against them. They make the impossible happen.
—Robert Jarvik (American Scientist)

We are what we do to change what we are.
—Eduardo Galeano (Uruguayan Journalist)

The only valid censorship of ideas is the right of people not to listen.
—Tom Smothers (American Comedian)

You demand universal suffrage,—I demand universal education to go with it.
—William Edward Forster (British Statesman)

It is easy to ignore responsibility when one is only an intermediate link in a chain of action.
—Stanley Milgram (American Psychologist)

Our questions and answers are in part determined by the historical tradition in which we find ourselves. We apprehend truth from our own source within the historical tradition.
—Karl Jaspers (German Philosopher)

Like everybody else, when I don’t know what else to do, I seem to go in for catching colds.
—George Jean Nathan (American Critic, Editor)

Being realistic is the most commonly traveled road to mediocrity.
—Will Smith (American Actor)

All musical people seem to be happy; it is to them the engrossing pursuit; almost the only innocent and unpunished passion.
—Sydney Smith (English Preacher)

Where there is no belief, there is no blasphemy.
—Salman Rushdie (Indian-born British Novelist)

Opportunities are always everywhere, learn to see and create them.
—Jacob Gelt Dekker (Dutch Businessman)

Prohibition may be a disputed theory, but none can say that it doesn’t hold water.
—Thomas Lansing Masson (American Anthropologist)

I have always looked on disobedience toward the oppressive as the only way to use the miracle of having been born.
—Oriana Fallaci (Italian Journalist)

Remember if you marry for beauty, thou bindest thyself all thy life for that which perchance, will neither last nor please thee one year: and when thou hast it, it will be to thee of no price at all.
—Walter Raleigh (English Explorer, Courtier)

People may expect too much of journalism. Not only do they expect it to be entertaining, they expect it to be true.
—Lewis H. Lapham (American Journalist)

Small deeds done are better than great deeds planned.
—Peter Marshall (Scottish-American Preacher)

Man is always waiting for something that never quite arrives.
—Alejo Carpentier (Cuban Novelist)

Far more has been accomplished for the welfare and progress of mankind by preventing bad actions than by doing good ones.
—William Lyon Mackenzie King (Canadian Statesman)

Language exerts hidden power, like the moon on the tides.
—Rita Mae Brown (American Writer, Feminist)

There is no kind of harassment that a man may not inflict on a woman with impunity in civilized societies.
—Denis Diderot (French Philosopher, Writer)

Ignorance has always been the weapon of tyrants; enlightenment the salvation of the free.
—Bill Richardson (American Politician)

How you make sense of your childhood experiences has a profound effect on how you parent your own children.
—Dan Siegel (American Psychiatrist)

We should have learnt by now that laws and court decisions can only point the way. They can establish criteria of right and wrong. And they can provide a basis for rooting out the evils of bigotry and racism. But they cannot wipe away centuries of oppression and injustice—however much we might desire it.
—Hubert Humphrey (American Head of State)

Every person has some splendid traits and if we confine our contacts so as to bring those traits into action, there is no need of ever being bored or irritated or indignant.
—Gelett Burgess (American Humorist)

Truth exists, only falsehood has to be invented.
—Georges Braque (French Painter)

Be careful the environment you choose for it will shape you; be careful the friends you choose for you will become like them.
—W. Clement Stone (American Self-help Guru)

The hardest part of raising a child is teaching them to ride bicycles. A father can only ride beside the bicycle or stand yelling directions while the child falls. A shaky child on a bicycle for the first time needs both support and freedom.
—Sloan Wilson (American Author)

Our firmest convictions are apt to be the most suspect, they mark our limitations and our bounds. Life is a petty thing unless it is moved by the indomitable urge to extend its boundaries.
—Jose Ortega y. Gasset (Spanish Philosopher)

If everyone howled at every injustice, every act of barbarism, every act of unkindness, then we would be taking the first step towards a real humanity.
—Nelson DeMille (American Author)

Life is a constant negotiation between what one wants to be and what circumstances allow.
—Miguel Angel Asturias (Guatemalan Poet)

Half the skill of being educated is learning what you can ignore.
—Kevin Kelly (American Editor)

No one is more unhappy than a peeping tom in a nudist camp.
—Luciano De Crescenzo (Italian Film Actor, Director, Engineer)

Knock the “t” off the “can’t”.
—George Reeves (American Actor)

Who never doubted, never half believed. Where doubt is, there truth is—it is her shadow.
—Philip James Bailey (English Poet)

A man’s most open actions have a secret side to them.
—Joseph Conrad (Polish-born British Novelist)

Journalism consists largely in saying “Lord James is dead” to people who never knew Lord James was alive.
—G. K. Chesterton (English Journalist)

Success in life is a matter not so much of talent or opportunity as of concentration and perseverance.
—Charles William Wendte (American Minister)

Every religion is true one way or another. It is true when understood metaphorically. But when it gets stuck in its own metaphors, interpreting them as facts, then you are in trouble.
—Joseph Campbell (American Author)

There is no intrinsic worth in money but what is alterable with the times, and whether a guinea goes for twenty pounds or for a shilling, it is the labor of the poor and not the high and low value that is set on gold or silver, which all the comforts of life must arise from.
—Bernard Mandeville (British Writer)

Television has proved that people will look at anything rather than each other.
—Ask Ann Landers (American Advice Columnist)

Courage is acting in spite of fear.
—Howard W. Hunter (American Mormon Religious Leader)

If a dog will not come to you after he has looked you in the face, you ought to go home and examine your conscience.
—Woodrow Wilson (American Head of State)

Thought is an infection. In the case of certain thoughts, it becomes an epidemic.
—Wallace Stevens (American Poet)

Markets change, tastes change, so the companies and the individuals who choose to compete in those markets must change.
—An Wang (Chinese-born American Engineer)

It is usually the imagination that is wounded first, rather than the heart; it being much more sensitive.
—Henry David Thoreau (American Philosopher)

Enjoy your own life without comparing it with that of another.
—Marquis De Condorcet (French Philosopher)

The best way to put more money in people’s wallets is to leave it there in the first place.
—Edwin Feulner (American Political Scientist)

It is hard to cement any relations with any country based on promises that may not be deliverable.
—Jim Leach (American Politician)

The vicious obey their passions as slaves do their masters.
—Diogenes Laertius (Greek Biographer)

The circumstances of the world are so variable, that an irrevocable purpose or opinion is almost synonymous with a foolish one.
—William H. Seward (American Statesman)

Thou shalt not be a victim, thou shalt not be a perpetrator, but, above all, thou shalt not be a bystander.
—Yehuda Bauer (Israeli Historian)

Disagreement is not oppression. Argument is not assault. Words—even provocative or repugnant ones—are not violence.
—Douglas Murray (British Author)

Truth is a thing immortal and perpetual, and it gives to us a beauty that fades not away in time.
—Frederick II of Prussia (Prussian King)

When tillage begins, other arts follow. The farmers, therefore, are the founders of human civilization.
—Daniel Webster (American Statesman, Lawyer)

Life in the twentieth century is like a parachute jump; you have to get it right the first time.
—Margaret Mead (American Cultural Anthropologist)

Allow time and moderate delay; haste manages all things badly.
—Statius (Roman Poet)

Wicked people decry a modest person as dull, a person observing religious vows as showy, a holy person as a charlatan, a brave one as cruel, a hermit as foolish, a soft-spoken person as meek, a bright one as vain, an orator as a glib-talker and a patient person as weak. Is there any quality of the virtuous that the wicked do not condemn?
—Bhartrihari (Hindu Philosopher, Grammarian)

Real magic can never be made by offering someone else’s liver. You must tear out your own, and not expect to get it back.
—Peter S. Beagle (American Author)

To seek solitude like a wild animal. That is my only ambition.
—The 14th Dalai Lama (Tibetan Buddhist Religious Leader)

Nothing so soothes our vanity as a display of greater vanity in others; it makes us vain, in fact, of our modesty.
—Louis Kronenberger (American Literary Critic)

Life—how curious is that habit that makes us think it is not here, but elsewhere.
—V. S. Pritchett (British Short Story Writer)

When you give each other everything, it becomes an even trade. Each wins all.
—Lois McMaster Bujold (American Writer)

Blow the dust off the clock. Your watches are behind the times. Throw open the heavy curtains which are so dear to you—you do not even suspect that the day has already dawned outside.
—Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (Russian Novelist)

Heavy thoughts bring on physical maladies; when the soul is oppressed so is the body.
—Martin Luther (German Protestant Theologian)

The greatest challenge to any thinker is stating the problem in a way that will allow a solution.
—Bertrand A. Russell (British Philosopher, Mathematician)

I believe in grumbling; it is the politest form of fighting known.
—E. W. Howe (American Novelist)

A botanist should be a man of a liberal and enlarged mind, who looks upon all the productions of nature with an eye of science, but with a heart of sensibility.
—James Edward Smith (English Botanist)

Only the brave know how to forgive… A coward never forgave; it is not in his nature.
—Laurence Sterne (Irish Anglican Novelist)

How inimitably graceful children are in general before they learn to dance!
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge (English Poet)

Heaven will permit no man to secure happiness by crime.
—Vittorio Alfieri (Italian Poet, Dramatist)

While all deception requires secrecy, all secrecy is not meant to deceive.
—Sissela Bok (Swedish Philosopher)

When will poets learn that a grass-blade of their own raising is worth a barrow-load of flowers from their neighbor’s garden?
—James Russell Lowell (American Poet, Critic)

Time is nature’s way of keeping everything from happening at once.
—Woody Allen (American Film Actor, Director)

Yes, we must ever be friends; and of all who offer you friendship, let me be ever the first, the truest, the nearest and dearest!
—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (American Poet)

Raillery is a mode of speaking in favor of one’s wit against one’s good nature.
—Montesquieu (French Political Philosopher)

Fraud and prevarication are servile vices. They sometimes grow out of the necessities, always out of the habits, of slavish and degenerate spirits. It is an erect countenance, it is a firm adherence to principle, it is a power of resisting false shame and frivolous fear, that assert our good faith and honor, and assure to us the confidence of mankind.
—Edmund Burke (British Philosopher, Statesman)

A good drama critic is one who perceives what is happening in the theatre of his time. A great drama critic also perceives what is not happening.
—Kenneth Tynan (English Theatre Critic, Writer)

Intuition is the supra-logic that cuts out all the routine processes of thought and leaps straight from the problem to the answer.
—Robert Ranke Graves (British Writer)

The optimist thinks that this is the best of all possible worlds; the pessimist knows it.
—J. Robert Oppenheimer (American Physicist)

Fame is the circumstance of one man imparting an erotic terror to the dreams of the republic.
—Don DeLillo (American Author)

There is something else which has the power to awaken us to the truth. It is the works of writers of genius. They give us, in the guise of fiction, something equivalent to the actual density of the real, that density which life offers us every day but which we are unable to grasp because we are amusing ourselves with lies.
—Simone Weil (French Philosopher, Political Activist)

Since I couldn’t actuate the things that I wanted to do, the only weapon I had was to say no.
—Sidney Poitier (American Actor, Film Director)

No rule is so general, which admits not some exception.
—Robert Burton (English Scholar, Clergyman)