Inspirational Quotations

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)

Here is the secret of inspiration: Tell yourself that thousands and tens of thousands of people, not very intelligent and certainly no more intelligent than the rest of us, have mastered problems as difficult as those that now baffle you.
—William Feather (American Author, Publisher)

The hardest thing you can do is smile when you are ill, in pain, or depressed. But this no-cost remedy is a necessary first half-step if you are to start on the road to recovery.
—Allen Klein (American Author)

The robot is going to lose. Not by much. But when the final score is tallied, flesh and blood is going to beat the damn monster.
—George Goodman (American Economist)

What “love” is I don’t know if it’s not the response of our deepest natures to one another.
—William Carlos Williams (American Poet, Novelist, Cultural Historian)

Finding practical answers to tough problems seems to take a backseat to ideology.
—Christopher R. Hill (American Diplomat)

The delicate and infirm go for sympathy, not to the well and buoyant, but to those who have suffered like themselves.
—Catharine Beecher ((1800–78) American Educationalist, Reformer)

You can employ men and hire hands to work for you, but you will have to win their hearts to have them work with you.
—William J. H. Boetcker (American Presbyterian Minister)

Our judgments judge us, and nothing reveals us, exposes our weaknesses, more ingeniously than the attitude of pronouncing upon our fellows.
—Paul Valery (French Critic, Poet)

Towns are excrescences, gray fluxions, where men, hurrying to find one another, have lost themselves.
—E. M. Forster (English Novelist)

Nothing terrible has ever happened except in our thinking. Reality is always good, even in situations that seem like nightmares. The story we tell is the only nightmare that we have lived.
—Byron Katie (American Speaker)

It seems to me that I will always be happy in the place where I am not.
—Paul Auster (American Novelist, Poet)

No man is ever old enough to know better.
—Holbrook Jackson (British Journalist, Writer)

Real happiness is cheap enough, yet how dearly we pay for its counterfeit.
—Hosea Ballou (American Theologian)

The traditional disputes of philosophers are, for the most part, as unwarranted as they are unfruitful.
—A. J. Ayer (English Philosopher)

Half of the secular unrest and dismal, profane sadness of modern society comes from the vain ideas that every man is bound to be a critic for life.
—Henry van Dyke Jr. (American Author, Educator, Clergyman)

Where there are friends there is wealth.
—Plautus (Titus Maccius Plautus) (Roman Comic Playwright)

Sometimes when we are generous in small, barely detectable ways it can change someone else’s life forever.
—Margaret Cho (American Stand-Up Comedian)

Fears are nothing more than states of mind.
—Napoleon Hill (American Author)

Take not from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned.
—Thomas Jefferson (American Head of State)

One way of getting an idea of our fellow-countrymen’s miseries is to go and look at their pleasures.
—George Eliot (Mary Anne Evans) (English Novelist)

True glory consists in doing what deserves to be written; in writing what deserves to be read; and in so living as to make the world happier and better for our living in it.
—Pliny the Elder (Roman Scholar)

The lucky man is the one who arrives at everything. The unlucky is the one to whom everything happens.
—Eugene Labiche (French Dramatist)

Learning how to learn is life’s most important skill.
—Tony Buzan (British Writer, Educational Consultant)

A committee is an animal with four back legs.
—John le Carre (English Novelist)

Man’s unique agony as a species consists in his perpetual conflict between the desire to stand out and the need to blend in.
—Sydney J. Harris (American Essayist, Drama Critic)

Prudence is the virtue by which we discern what is proper to do under various circumstances in time and place.
—John Milton (English Poet)

God’s holiness is not just a moral category; it is the very essence of His ‘otherness.’ To understand the Law is to understand how a holy God can dwell among an unholy people.
—James Edward Smith (English Botanist)

Those who have employed the study of history, as they ought, for their instruction, for the regulation of their private manners, and the management of public affairs, must agree with me that it is the most pleasant school of wisdom.
—John Dryden (English Poet)

I paint objects as I think them, not as I see them.
—Pablo Picasso (Spanish Painter)

The men of the past had convictions, while we moderns have only opinions.
—Heinrich Heine (German Poet, Writer)

It is a very fine thing to have an open mind. But it is a fine thing only if you have the ability to make a decision after considering all sides of a question.
—James Edward Smith (English Botanist)

Speaking much is a sign of vanity, for he that is lavish in words is a niggard in deed.
—Walter Raleigh (English Explorer, Courtier)

Never retract, never explain, never apologize; get things done and let them howl.
—Nellie McClung (Canadian Suffragist, Author)

Biblical wisdom is not the pursuit of high intelligence, but the application of God’s truth to the ‘nitty-gritty’ of daily existence.
—James Edward Smith (English Botanist)

Humor does not diminish the pain – it makes the space around it get bigger.
—Allen Klein (American Author)

The worse you’re performing, the more you must work mentally and emotionally. The greatest and toughest art in golf is “playing badly well.” All the true greats have been masters at it.
—Jack Nicklaus (American Sportsperson)

Truth does not become more true by virtue of the fact that the entire world agrees with it, nor less so even if the whole world disagrees with it.
—Moses Maimonides (Jewish Philosopher, Rabbinic Scholar)

That is the saving grace of humor, if you fail no one is laughing at you.
—A. Whitney Brown (American Comedian)

War is nothing but the continuation of politics with the admixture of other means.
—Carl von Clausewitz (Prussian General)

A man who trims himself to suit everybody will soon whittle himself away.
—Charles M. Schwab (American Businessperson)

You can always tell when a man is a great way from God—when he is always talking about himself, how good he is.
—Dwight L. Moody (Christian Religious Leader)

We are all faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as unsolvable problems.
—John W. Gardner (American Activist)

In the herb of the field, as well as in the stars of heaven, the finger of God is clearly to be traced.
—James Edward Smith (English Botanist)

Too often new ideas are studied and analyzed until they are suffocated.
—C. William Pollard (American Businessman, Author)

When we are dealing with death we are constantly being dragged down by the event: Humor diverts our attention and lifts our sagging spirits.
—Allen Klein (American Author)

Hunger makes a thief of any man.
—Pearl S. Buck (American Novelist)

Who would not give a trifle to prevent what he would give a thousand worlds to cure?
—Edward Young (English Poet)

The really great novel tends to be the exact negative of its author’s life.
—Andre Maurois (French Novelist, Biographer)

I hope I shall always possess firmness and virtue enough to maintain what I consider the most enviable of all titles, the character of an “Honest Man.”
—George Washington (American Head of State)

When the flatterer pipes, then the devil dances.
—Thomas Fuller (English Cleric, Historian)

To fail is a natural consequence of trying, To succeed takes time and prolonged effort in the face of unfriendly odds. To think it will be any other way, no matter what you do, is to invite yourself to be hurt and to limit your enthusiasm for trying again.
—David Viscott (American Psychiatrist, Author)

The one word that makes a good manager—decisiveness.
—Lee Iacocca (American Businessperson)

The best teacher one can have is necessity.
—Francois de La Noue (French Huguenot)

Every theory of love, from Plato down teaches that each individual loves in the other sex what he lacks in himself.
—G. Stanley Hall (American Psychologist)

Art is so wonderfully irrational, exuberantly pointless, but necessary all the same. Pointless and yet necessary, that’s hard for a puritan to understand.
—Gunter Grass (German Novelist, Poet)

If you don’t have a dream, how are you going to make a dream come true?
—Walt Disney (American Entrepreneur)

There are two ways of meeting difficulties: you alter the difficulties or you alter yourself meeting them.
—Phyllis Bottome (British Novelist)

Opportunity rarely knocks until you are ready. And few people have ever been really ready without receiving opportunity’s call.
—Channing Pollock (American Playwright, Critic)

In a narrow circle the mind grows narrow. The more one expands, the larger their aims.
—Friedrich Schiller (German Poet)

Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin to slit throats.
—H. L. Mencken (American Journalist, Literary Critic)

Free will is not the liberty to do whatever one likes, but the power of doing whatever one sees ought to be done, even in the very face of otherwise overwhelming impulse. There lies freedom, indeed.
—George MacDonald (Scottish Poet, Novelist)

Fame is the inheritance not of the dead, but of the living. It is we who look back with lofty pride to the great names of antiquity.
—William Hazlitt (English Essayist)

A pessimist is one who, when he has the choice of two evils, chooses both.
—Oscar Wilde (Irish Poet, Playwright)

Where you see valid achievements or virtue being attacked, it’s by someone viewing them as a mirror of their own inadequacy instead of an inspiring beacon for excellence.
—Vanna Bonta (American Writer)

Man dies of cold, not of darkness.
—Miguel de Unamuno (Spanish Philosopher, Writer)

There was a time when the reader of an unexciting newspaper would remark, ‘How dull is the world today!’ Nowadays he says, ‘What a dull newspaper!’
—Daniel J. Boorstin (American Historian)

A nation is great not by its size alone. It is the will, the cohesion, the stamina, the discipline of its people and the quality of their leaders, which ensure it an honourable place in history.
—Lee Kuan Yew (Singaporean Statesman)

You have to sow excellent seeds to have an excellent life. You must start with sowing excellent thoughts.
—John C. Maxwell (American Author, Speaker)

Learning is the dictionary, but sense the grammar of science.
—Laurence Sterne (Irish Anglican Novelist)

Real elation is when you feel you could touch a star without standing on tiptoe.
—Doug Larson (American Columnist)

A story has no beginning or end: arbitrarily one chooses that moment of experience from which to look back or from which to look ahead.
—Graham Greene (British Novelist)

The ordinary man with extraordinary power is the chief danger for mankind—not the fiend or the sadist.
—Erich Fromm (German Social Philosopher)

Gardening gives one back a sense of proportion about everything – except itself.
—May Sarton (American Children’s Books Writer)

They’re only truly great who are truly good.
—George Chapman (English Poet, Playwright)

What is learned out of necessity is inevitably more powerful than the learning that comes easily.
—Malcolm Gladwell (Canadian Journalist, Author)

There are those who believe something, and therefore will tolerate nothing; and on the other hand, those who tolerate everything, because they believe nothing.
—Robert Browning (English Poet)

The happiness of every country depends upon the character of its people, rather than the form of its government.
—Thomas Chandler Haliburton (Canadian Author, Jurist)

Books give not wisdom where none was before. But where some is, there reading makes it more.
—Elizabeth Hardwick (American Critic)

Before enlightenment, I chopped wood and carried water. After enlightenment, I chopped wood and carried water.
—Zen Proverb (Japanese School of Mahayana Buddhism)

It is not money, nor is it mere intellect, that governs the world; it is moral character, and intellect associated with moral excellence.
—Theodore Dwight Woolsey (American Academic)

Each one, reach one. Each one, teach one. Until all are taught.
—Mark Victor Hansen (American Speaker, Author)

Friendship that insists upon agreement on all matters is not worth the name. Friendship to be real must ever sustain the weight of honest differences, however sharp they be.
—Mohandas K. Gandhi (Indian Hindu Political leader)

In retrospect, all these exercises in self-gratification seem pure fantasy, what Pascal called, licking the earth.
—Malcolm Muggeridge (English Journalist)

We become moral when we are unhappy.
—Marcel Proust (French Novelist)

Humor can help you cope with the unbearable so that you can stay on the bright side of things until the bright side actually comes along.
—Allen Klein (American Author)

A chain is no stronger than its weakest link, and life is after all a chain.
—William James (American Philosopher)

Men of principle are always bold, but those who are bold are not always men of principle.
—Confucius (Chinese Philosopher)

There are very few monsters who warrant the fear we have of them.
—Andre Gide (French Novelist)

A rich man’s joke is always funny.
—Thomas Edward Brown (Manx Poet)

If you want a golden rule that will fit everything, this is it: Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.
—William Morris (British Artist, Author)

A poet’s pleasure is to withhold a little of his meaning, to intensify by mystification. He unzips the veil from beauty, but does not remove it.
—E. B. White (American Essayist, Humorist)

Metaphors have a way of holding the most truth in the least space.
—Orson Scott Card (American Author)

The more faithfully you listen to the voices within you, the better you will hear what is sounding outside.
—Dag Hammarskjold (Swedish Statesman)

The best theology would need no advocates; it would prove itself.
—Karl Barth (Swiss Protestant Theologian)

More joyful eyes look at the setting, than at the rising sun.—Burdens are laid down by the poor, whom the sun consoles more than the rich.—I yearn toward him when he sets, not when he rises.
—Jean Paul (German Novelist)

Live as long as you may, the first twenty years are the longest half of your life.
—Robert South (English Theologian)

I will permit no man to narrow and degrade my soul by making me hate him.
—Booker T. Washington (African-American Educationist)

He that never changes his opinion never corrects mistakes and will never be wiser on the morrow than he is today.
—Tryon Edwards (American Theologian)

Punctuality is the virtue of the bored.
—Evelyn Waugh (British Novelist, Satirist)

We, the people, elect leaders not to rule but to serve.
—Dwight D. Eisenhower (American Head of State)

One arrow does not bring down two birds.
—Turkish Proverb

To study and not think is a waste. To think and not study is dangerous.
—Confucius (Chinese Philosopher)

An ant on the move does more than a dozing ox.
—Mexican Proverb

So shines the setting sun on adverse skies, and paints a rainbow on the storm.
—Isaac Watts (English Hymn writer)

Those who place their affections at first on trifles for amusement, will find these become at last their most serious concerns.
—Oliver Goldsmith (Anglo-Irish Novelist, Poet)

It is almost never when a state of things is the most detestable that it is smashed, but when, beginning to improve, it permits men to breathe, to reflect, to communicate their thoughts with each other, and to gauge by what they already have the extent of their rights and their grievances. The weight, although less heavy, seems then all the more unbearable.
—Alexis de Tocqueville (French Historian, Political Scientist)

Men are only as great as they are kind.
—Elbert Hubbard (American Writer)

It has yet to be proven that intelligence has any survival value.
—Arthur C. Clarke (English Science-fiction Writer)

Unless a reviewer has the courage to give you unqualified praise, I say ignore the bastard.
—John Steinbeck (American Novelist)

The condition of being forgiven is self-abandonment. The proud man prefers self-reproach, however painful—because the reproached self isn’t abandoned; it remains intact.
—Aldous Huxley (English Humanist)

The real object of the drama is the exhibition of the human character.
—Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay (English Writer, Politician)

The revenge that is postponed is not forgotten.
—Icelandic Proverb