Inspirational Quotations

Power isn’t doing something terrible to someone who’s weaker than you, … It’s having the strength to do something terrible, and choosing not to.
—Jodi Picoult (American Novelist)

I believe fundamental honesty is the keystone of business.
—Harvey Samuel Firestone (American Industrialist)

All the wars of the world, all the Caesars, have not the staying power of a lily in a cottage garden.
—Reginald Farrer (English Botanist)

The present age prefers the sign to the thing signified, the copy to the original, fancy to reality, the appearance to the essence for in these days illusion only is sacred, truth profane.
—Ludwig Andreas Feuerbach (German Philosopher)

For out of the eyes of every stranger looks either a friend or an enemy, waiting to be known.
—Owen Wister (American Novelist)

The buyer needs a hundred eyes; the seller but one.
—Italian Proverb

Good is the enemy of great. That good is the enemy of great is not just a business problem. It is a human problem.
—Jim Collins (American Management Consultant)

It is the things we are unaware of in ourselves which make us so very angry when we see them in other people.
—Irene Claremont de Castillejo (British Psychoanalyst)

We learn more by looking for the answer to a question and not finding it than we do from learning the answer itself.
—Lloyd Alexander (American Writer)

Acting deals with very delicate emotions. It is not putting up a mask. Each time an actor acts, he does not hide; he exposes himself.
—Jeanne Moreau (French Actress)

Religion is something left over from the infancy of our intelligence, it will fade away as we adopt reason and science as our guidelines.
—Bertrand A. Russell (British Philosopher, Mathematician)

Our conscience, which is a great ledger book, wherein are written all our offenses…grinds our souls with the remembrance of some precedent sins, makes us reflect upon, accuse and condemn ourselves.
—Robert Burton (English Scholar, Clergyman)

Action indeed is the sole medium of expression for ethics.
—Jane Addams (American Social Reformer)

Be advised what thou dost discourse of, and what thou maintainest whether touching religion, state, or vanity; for if thou err in the first, thou shalt be accounted profane; if in the second, dangerous; if in the third, indiscreet and foolish.
—Walter Raleigh (English Explorer, Courtier)

Most successful people in the world share something in common. They had a mentor or a life coach that helped them along the way, guiding them as they grew as a person in their career.

Being a coach, you can mentor others in your area of expertise. With your years of experience and expertise, which you have fine-tuned, you can share them with others as you help to train them to succeed.

One of the best aspects of coaching is coaching others in almost all areas of life. There are endless, valuable reasons to become a life coach. The value is not just for others, they are also for you.

The Role Of A Life Coach

Being a life coach is like being a mentor. You coach and help others by encouraging them and showing them areas of their life where they could improve or view things from a different perspective. A life coach helps others do more of what is the most important to them but do them better.

Becoming a life coach will be a rewarding experience. You can help someone improve their lives. Along the way, you will also help yourself. You can guide someone as they work towards achieving their set goals, especially the targets that they believed were impossible. As a life coach, you will help people discover their limiting beliefs and support them as they remove the strains holding them back throughout the years.

Type Of Life Coaching

Similar to the different types of sports coaches, there are various types of life coaches. To decide what type you could be, ask yourself what you are good at doing? What would you like to help others succeed at in their life? After answering those questions, you can help yourself choose the kind of life coach you want to be.

• Personal Life Coach – Those who seek the guidance of a personal life coach want them to help with their life. Additionally, they want the support to be successful in their career. All of which is what a personal life coach aims to achieve. A personal life coach aims to help others achieve their targets as they work to overcome the setbacks and obstacles that fall on their path. Being able to help people move on from the things that have held them back for so long can be extremely rewarding. There is great satisfaction in being able to help some who might be struggling. They help them to realize things about themselves. In turn, this will help you to learn qualities about yourself. As a personal life coach, you will also be helping yourself to succeed – doubling the reward!
• Business Life Coach – Businesses coaches will show others how to bring in more income for the business. They will teach others how to improve their ability to make good decisions that will help in the growth of the business. Additionally, business coaches can create owner accountability and build actionable plans. They can help others to succeed in areas of business where they had previously struggled.
• Career Life Coach – Not to be confused with a business life coach, career life coaches focus on a particular industry. Often it is one where coaching is needed. Since they have experience in a specific industry, career life coaches will have a deep understanding of the language used, the mentality and other factors to help someone succeed in the sector. With their in-depth knowledge and understanding, combined with the experience, career life coaches can identify areas where people have struggled with and help them to breakthrough and succeed.

How To Become A Life Coach

After deciding to pursue a career as a life coach, next comes understanding how to become one. Whilst becoming a life coach does sound like a daunting career path, it does not have to be. There are various choices available that you can make, all of which will push you forward towards a career as a life coach. During your time as a life coach, you will have an impact on the lives of so many individuals. You will support them in improving their own life.

Before you set out on your journey, have a clear understanding of what you are aiming to achieve. Know exactly what it is you want to do to help others accomplish their own goals. Take time to decide what it is that you want to accomplish in your career. Understand what you have to offer others and why you are the best qualified to offer it.

With this clear understanding of what it is you want to and the goals you want to achieve, you can begin to look at ways to become a life coach. Here are some of the steps that you can take to help you begin your career.

Online Courses Available

Participating in an online training program is one of the best, most flexible options for those looking to become a life coach. You can coordinate your learning schedule around your current timetable. Due to the course being online only, it sometimes will be cheaper than attending a course in person.

You can undergo an NLP training course, which will provide you with valuable skills that will help you in your pursuit of becoming a life coach. It allows you to harness the power of language, which can help to break down the mental barriers many of us create for ourselves without realizing it. Being a life coach, means harnessing the power of language. The power of language is crucial to succeeding and helping others to also succeed.

Create Memorable Experiences

When giving a lecture, ensure that you create one that is memorable and can help in transforming a person’s mindset. Most lectures often go unforgotten. If nothing is engaging or disciplines offered that are memorable, they will likely be forgotten in the days following the lecture. Those that do not apply any of the lessons that they learned immediately, then they are most likely to forget about them.

The Qualities Of A Great Life Coach

Knowing what type of life coach, you want to become, as well as the ways to become one, is only part of the journey. To be a successful life coach, one that can have a positive impact on the lives of their clients, they need to possess certain qualities. These qualities can make the difference between a good life coach and a great one. Here are a few of the qualities that great life coaches possess.

• Help To Identify Emotional Blocks – A great life coach can help their audiences to identify their emotional blocks. The obstacles in their life have inhibited them from moving forward to become the best possible version of themselves or achieve their career goals. Having the ability to help your audience identify their emotional blocks, you can support them as they look to move past them. In turn, it will enable them to achieve real and lasting results.
• Challenges Their Clients – Some of the best coaches in the industry will challenge their clients to gain a deeper understanding of their issues. A great coach will challenge their clients in a manner that will cause them to have to face the reality surrounding them with focus, honesty, and clarity.
• Hold No Judgments – Everyone has their opinions. There are people in this world who have an opinion you do not agree with. However, in their view of the world, these opinions might be accurate. With every client, a great coach will create a safe space where their client can feel comfortable to speak about their thoughts without feeling judged. In doing so, they can both be transparent and find ways to achieve the targets set.
• Maintains A Positive Attitude – Life coaches are some of the biggest supporters of their clients. They want to see them succeed. Life coaches have a desire to watch them free themselves of their past limitations and reach their goals. There will be times where both parties will experience setbacks. Moments where you are struggling with finding ways to succeed. In these challenging times, it is crucial to maintain a positive attitude. Having a positive attitude will help to inspire your clients, motivating them to believe in themselves.

The Benefits Of Becoming A Life Coach

You know how to become a life coach. Know about each type of coach you can become, and the qualities needed to be a great coach. The last thing is the benefits of becoming a life coach. Most of the benefits are some of the main reasons why people become life coaches. Some of the reasons you might already know, others might be new. Regardless, here are a few of the benefits you can reap should you choose to move forward and become a life coach.

Develop A New Sense Of Listening

As a life coach, you will tap into a newfound sense of listening. Throughout your career, you will interact with a diverse range of people. You will begin to listen to each of your clients in profounds ways, which over time will grow your ability to listen in an innovative way tremendously. Aside from hearing what they are saying, you will also notice exterior clues. For instance, as your client is speaking, you may see a change in their body language when discussing particular topics.

In addition to this, you will be more attuned to their passions and hear their wants and desires in life. By listening to all of these hidden factors, you can provide them with more personalized support. The tailored support is what you know could work well for them.

Impact Your Own Life

The purpose of a life coach is to help others. You will listen to their desires and wants. Then you will work in collaboration to support them as they work towards achieving these targets. Alongside their growth, you will also be part of this journey. You will be a co-writer in their life story, watching their adventures unfold before your eyes. Additionally, you will provide a safe space where they can identify their challenges. When they reach their goals, you will be on the side-line cheering on them.

As you support people in their journey, you will become an expert in your own life. You will share stories and experiences that you have had, which could be beneficial in helping your client reaching their next set goal.

Be Your Boss

By being a life coach, you can become your boss. A boss that you have always wanted to work for and once dreamed of becoming. Transitioning into a role of a life coach, you will become an entrepreneur. You will start to promote yourself, share your passions and strengths with your clients.

The additional perk of being your boss is that you can set your schedule. You can schedule more time to spend with loved ones. If you have the travel bug, you may consider offering your services regionally or nationally, compared to just staying local. It will provide you with the chance of exploring new avenues whilst widening your client base.

The Bottom Line

Undoubtedly, becoming a life coach will be a transformative experience. There will be an abundance of opportunities to interact with a diverse range of people. Your skills will become more refined. Your experiences and knowledge will expand tremendously in a short period.

A career as a life coach is a rewarding role. If you are someone who possesses the willingness and courage to take on a unique position and move in this direction, you can anticipate that your life will change forever. Throughout your career, you will have opportunities to help clients navigate their way through their optimal levels of functioning. You will accelerate holding their vision for the future. In addition to this, you will work collaboratively to develop new strategies for achievement. Ultimately, you will be changing the lives of others and also your own.

Nature is the art of God.
—Thomas Browne (English Author, Physician)

I think in our own heads we’re never all that confident. I’m not.
—Tom Wilson (American Cartoonist)

Books are the carriers of civilization. Without books, history is silent, literature dumb, science crippled, thought and speculation at a standstill. They are engines of change, windows on the world, lighthouses erected in the sea of time.
—Edwin Percy Whipple (American Literary Critic)

The past is always tense, the future perfect.
—Zadie Smith (English Novelist, Essayist)

One of the most important resources that a garden makes available for use, is the gardener’s own body. A garden gives the body the dignity of working in its own support. It is a way of rejoining the human race.
—Wendell Berry (American Author, Environmentalist)

Politics is the art of the possible, the attainable…the art of the next best.
—Otto von Bismarck (Prusso-German Statesman)

If we are a metaphor of the universe, the human couple is the metaphor par excellence, the point of intersection of all forces and the seed of all forms. The couple is time recaptured, the return to the time before time.
—Octavio Paz (Mexican Poet, Diplomat)

I am a strong believer in the tyranny, the dictatorship, the absolute authority of the writer.
—Philip Pullman (English Children’s Author, Dramatist)

The big problem is not the haves and the have-nots—it’s the give-nots.
—Arnold Glasow (American Businessman)

Life moves on, whether we act as cowards or heroes. Life has no other discipline to impose, if we would but realize it, than to accept life unquestioningly. Everything we shut our eyes to, everything we run away from, everything we deny, denigrate or despise, serves to defeat us in the end. What seems nasty, painful, evil, can become a source of beauty, joy, and strength, if faced with an open mind. Every moment is a golden one for him who has the vision to recognize it as such.
—Henry Miller (American Novelist)

Nature yields her most profound secrets to the person who is determined to uncover them.
—Napoleon Hill (American Author)

The myths have always condemned those who “looked back.” Condemned them, whatever the paradise may have been which they were leaving. Hence this shadow over each departure from your decision.
—Dag Hammarskjold (Swedish Statesman)

Civilization is like a thin layer of ice upon a deep ocean of chaos and darkness.
—Werner Herzog (German Film Director)

Bombs and pistols do not make a revolution. The sword of revolution is sharpened on the whetting-stone of ideas.
—Bhagat Singh (Indian Revolutionary)

Everything in life is speaking, is audible, is communicating, in spite of its apparent silence.
—Pir Hazrat Vilayat Khan (Indian Sufi Mystic)

Over a period of time it’s been driven home to me that I’m not going to be the most popular writer in the world, so I’m always happy when anything in any way is accepted.
—Stephen Sondheim (American Musician)

The great man is he who does not lose his child’s-heart.
—Mencius (Chinese Philosopher, Sage)

Intelligence makes clear to us the interrelationship of means and ends. But mere thinking cannot give us a sense of the ultimate and fundamental ends. To make clear these fundamental ends and valuations and to set them fast in the emotional life of the individual, seems to me precisely the most important function which religion has to form in the social life of man.
—Albert Einstein (German-born Theoretical Physicist)

What looks like enjoyment is the sneer of contempt. That’s not a smile.
—Jack Kevorkian (American Pathologist)

Laugh and the world laughs with you;
Weep, and you weep alone;
For the sad old earth must borrow its mirth,
But has trouble enough of its own.
—Ella Wheeler Wilcox (American Poet, Journalist)

Forgiveness is all-powerful. Forgiveness heals all ills.
—Catherine Ponder (American Clergywoman)

Melancholy is sadness that has taken on lightness.
—Italo Calvino (Italian Novelist, Writer)

Do not give up devotional service even if there are innumerable dangers, countless insults and endless harassment. Do not become disheartened that most people in this world do not accept the message of unalloyed devotional service. Never give up your devotional service.
—Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura (Indian Hindu Religious Leader)

He who endeavors to serve, to benefit, and improve the world, is like a swimmer, who struggles against a rapid current, in a river lashed into angry waves by the wind. Often they roar over his head, often they beat him back and baffle him. Most men yield to the stress of the current. Only here and there the stout, strong heart and vigorous arms struggle on towards ultimate success.
—Albert Pike (American Masonic Scholar)

You should examine yourself daily. If you find faults, you should correct them. When you find none, you should try even harder.
—Israel Zangwill (English Writer, Political Activist)

If you make happiness your goal, then you’re not going to get to it. Philosophers have been saying it for thousands of years. The goal should be an interesting life.
—Dorothy Rowe (Australian Psychologist)

Progress is man’s ability to complicate simplicity.
—Thor Heyerdahl (Norwegian Ethnologist)

Among wellborn spirits courage does not depend on age.
—Pierre Corneille (French Playwright)

The gap between the committed and the indifferent is a Sahara whose faint trails, followed by the mind’s eye only, fade out in sand.
—Nadine Gordimer (South African Novelist)

To go against the dominant thinking of your friends, of most of the people you see every day, is perhaps the most difficult act of heroism you can perform.
—Theodore H. White (American Journalist)

The chiefest action for a man of spirit is never to be out of action; the soul was never put into the body to stand still.
—John Webster (English Dramatist)

Rest, rest, shall I have not all eternity to rest.
—Antoine Arnauld (French Theologian)

Without general elections, without freedom of the press, freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, without the free battle of opinions, life in every public institution withers away, becomes a caricature of itself, and bureaucracy rises as the only deciding factor.
—Rosa Luxemburg (German Socialist, Revolutionary)

The fact that political ideologies are tangible realities is not a proof of their vitally necessary character. The bubonic plague was an extraordinarily powerful social reality, but no one would have regarded it as vitally necessary.
—Wilhelm Reich (Austrian Psychoanalyst)

In wisdom gathered over time I have found that every experience is a form of exploration.
—Ansel Adams (American Photographer)

Part of the issue of achievement is to be able to set realistic goals, but that’s one of the hardest things to do because you don’t always know exactly where you’re going, and you shouldn’t.
—George Lucas (American Filmmaker)

Every great scientific truth goes through three stages.—First, people say it conflicts with the Bible.—Next they say it had been discovered before. Lastly, they say they always believed it.
—Louis Agassiz (Swiss-American Scientist)

Spiritual awakening does not depend initially on who we are or what we do; rather it is becoming attuned to the working of great compassion at the heart of existence.
—Taitetsu Unno (American Buddhist Scholar)

A historical romance is the only kind of book where chastity really counts.
—Barbara Cartland (English Romantic Novelist)

Fools follow after vanity, men of evil wisdom. The wise man keeps earnestness as his best jewel.
—The Dhammapada (Buddhist Anthology of Verses)

There is nothing with which it is so dangerous to take liberties as liberty itself.
—Andre Breton (French Poet, Critic)

A childhood is what anyone wants to remember of it. It leaves behind no fossils, except perhaps in fiction.
—Carol Shields (Canadian Author, Academic)

Some people are great at gift-giving. They instinctively seem to know what people will want and always have the perfect gift for any occasion. And then there are the rest of us, blearily combing through online craft sites late at night or hitting up the mall just as it’s closing for that last-minute perfect gift (which is, inevitably, very far from perfect.) Is there hope for the rest of us? We could just write this off as something that we’re not very good at and hope that our other qualities make up for our shortcomings, but you really can become a better gift-giver. Think of it as a skill that you can improve like any other.

Listen

Pay attention to what your friends and family members like and want all year round, not just in the weeks or days leading up to their birthday or a holiday. Most people do this casually all the time, mentioning a game they really want, for example. People also talk about indulgences that they’d enjoy but wouldn’t pay for themselves. When you hear someone mention something, make a note—literally, if you have to, just a quick few words tapped into your phone’s notepad. This will help ensure that when another occasion rolls around, you’ve got a good selection to choose from.

Stock Up

You can approach stocking up in two ways. One way is that whenever you’re out shopping, and you see something that a friend or family member would love, you grab it even if it’s nowhere near an occasion where you might give it to them. The other way is to keep a stockpile of nice gifts so that you always have something handy in a pinch. It’s less personal, but sometimes you need to produce a gift for someone you don’t know well, like a coworker.

Subscription Boxes

A kind of synthesis of the two above ideas is to research and plan ahead without actually buying anything until the time comes. Subscription boxes offer a great opportunity to do this because they are available in so many different varieties and at so many different price points. For example, do you have a friend who loves to travel, either for real or from the comfort of their armchair? A snack subscription box that offers snacks that are unique and best-tasting from all over the world and can be a great way of giving them a taste of being on the road without leaving home. There are plenty of other subscription boxes available as well for most budgets and interests, from flowers to wine to sports and many more.

Last-Minute Fixes

Let’s say you haven’t done any of the above, and you need a great gift within the next day or two. There’s still plenty you can do at this point to get it right. If you’re connected with the person on social media, scroll through their posts and look for something that sparks an idea. If you have to resort to a gift card—which is not the worst gift anyone ever received by any stretch of the imagination—you can still make it more thoughtful and personal by accompanying it with a handmade card or nestling it in a bouquet of flowers.

Faith, and belief without evidence in what is told by one who speaks without knowledge, of things without parallel.
—Ambrose Bierce (American Journalist, Author)

Wait long enough and people will surprise and impress. When you’re pissed off at someone and you’re angry at them, you just haven’t given them enough time. Just give them a little more time and they almost always will impress you.
—Randy Pausch (American Computer Scientist)

You try very hard to make up for something that was never your fault,” I suggested while a new kind of tugging started at the edges of my skin. “What I mean is, it’s not like you asked for this. You didn’t choose this kind of life, and yet you have to work so hard to be good.
—Stephenie Meyer (American Novelist)

Every morning I jump out of bed and step on a landmine. The landmine is me. After the explosion, I spend the rest of the day putting the pieces together.
—Ray Bradbury (American Science-Fiction Writer)

Man, mind yourself is the first commandment.
—James Hogg (Scottish poet)

Even a small star shines in the darkness.
—Finnish Proverb

Honesty is never seen sitting astride the fence.
—Lemuel K. Washburn (American Freethought Writer)

To be unconditionally present with our experience is the simplest thing we could possibly do. It means being present to what is, without relying on any view or concept about it. What could be simpler than that? And yet what could be more difficult?
—John Welwood (American Psychologist)

I have always felt that a politician is to be judged by the animosities he excites among his opponents.
—Winston Churchill (British Head of State)

Decisive inventions and discoveries always are initiated by an intellectual or moral stimulus as their actual motivating force, but, usually, the final impetus to human action is given by material impulses … merchants stood as a driving force behind the heroes of the age of discovery; this first heroic impulse to conquer the world emanated from very mortal forces.
—Stefan Zweig (British Novelist, Journalist, Biographer)

Man needs more to be reminded than instructed.
—Samuel Johnson (British Essayist)

Freedom is an indivisible word. If we want to enjoy it, and fight for it, we must be prepared to extend it to everyone, whether they are rich or poor, whether they agree with us or not, no matter what their race or the color of their skin.
—Wendell Willkie (American Politician)

It has been said that idleness is the parent of mischief—which is very true; but mischief itself is merely an attempt to escape from the dreary vacuum of idleness.
—George Borrow (English Writer, Traveler)

Unless you change how you are, you will always have what you’ve got.
—Jim Rohn (American Entrepreneur)

I believe that all religions are true and different religions are only the different ways to the same God. For me God is the power of life and justice and when I am talking about God I am just talking about happiness to live and to enjoy life on earth. I feel that humanity should be one, that mankind should not be divided. The people should together work for much good. Well, this is my belief in God. Maybe I am not clear.
—Svetlana Alliluyeva (Russian Defector, Memoirist)

The measure of greatness in a scientific idea is the extent to which it stimulates thought and opens up new lines of research.
—Paul Dirac (English Theoretical Physicist)

It is always sound business to take any obtainable net gain, at any cost and at any risk to the rest of the community.
—Thorstein Veblen (American Economist)

In truth, people can generally make time for what they choose to do; it is not really the time but the will that is lacking.
—John Lubbock (English Politician, Biologist)

Sorrow happens, hardship happens, the hell with it, who never knew the price of happiness, will not be happy.
—Yevgeny Yevtushenko (Russian Poet, Dissident)

One good punch on your enemy’s nose, gives more pleasure than hearing well-meaning advice from your elders.
—Tibetan Proverb

The Church is not a gallery for the exhibition of eminent Christians, but a school for the education of imperfect ones.
—Henry Ward Beecher (American Protestant Clergyman)

In the search for character and commitment, we must rid ourselves of our inherited, even cherished biases and prejudices. Character, ability and intelligence are not concentrated in one sex over the other, nor in persons with certain accents or in certain races or in persons holding degrees from some universities over others. When we indulge ourselves in such irrational prejudices, we damage ourselves most of all and ultimately assure ourselves of failure in competition with those more open and less biased.
—J. Irwin Miller (American Industrialist)

Many a man never fails because he never tries.
—Norman MacEwen (British Military Leader)

We must be truthful and fair in the ordinary affairs of life before we can be truthful and fair in patriotism and religion.
—E. W. Howe (American Novelist)

Every clique is a refuge for incompetence. It fosters corruption and disloyalty, it begets cowardice, and consequently is a burden upon and a drawback to the progress of the country. Its instincts and actions are those of the pack.
—Soong Mei-ling (Chinese Political Figure)

One individual may die for an idea, but that idea will, after his death, incarnate itself in a thousand lives.
—Subhas Chandra Bose (Indian Nationalist Leader)

It’s true that heroes are inspiring, but mustn’t they also do some rescuing if they are to be worthy of their name? Would Wonder Woman matter if she only sent commiserating telegrams to the distressed?
—Jeanette Winterson (English Novelist)

Calmness is the cradle of power.
—Josiah Gilbert Holland (American Editor, Novelist)

Boredom is like a pitiless zooming in on the epidermis of time. Every instant is dilated and magnified like the pores of the face.
—Jean Baudrillard (French Sociologist, Philosopher)

Tradition wears a snowy beard.
—John Greenleaf Whittier (American Poet, Abolitionist)

This world is so full of care and sorrow that it is a gracious debt we owe to one another to discover the bright crystals of delight hidden in somber circumstances and irksome tasks.
—Helen Keller (American Author)

One of the hardest things in life is having words in your heart that you can’t utter.
—James Earl Jones (American Actor)

Plurality should not be assumed without necessity.
—William of Ockham (English Philosopher, Polemicist)

Seek on earth what you have found in heaven.
—George William Russell (Irish Author)

There is neither happiness nor misery in the world; there is only the comparison of one state with another, nothing more. He who has felt the deepest grief is best able to experience supreme happiness. We must have felt what it is to die, that we may appreciate the enjoyments of life.
—Alexandre Dumas pere (French Novelist, Playwright)

In the best of times, our days are numbered anyway. So it would be a crime against nature for any generation to take the world crisis so solemnly that it put off enjoying those things for which we were designed in the first place: the opportunity to do good work, to enjoy friends, to fall in love, to hit a ball, and to bounce a baby.
—Alistair Cooke (British-American Journalist)

Everything that looks to the future elevates human nature; for life is never so low or so little as when occupied with the present.
—Letitia Elizabeth Landon (English Poet, Novelist)

A writer never reads his work. For him, it is the unreadable, a secret, and he cannot remain face to face with it. A secret, because he is separated from it.
—Maurice Blanchot (French Novelist, Critic)

There cannot be a more glorious object in creation than a human being replete with benevolence, meditating in what manner he may render himself most acceptable to the Creator by doing good to his creatures.
—Henry Fielding (English Novelist)

There are no old people nowadays; they are either ‘wonderful for their age’ or dead.
—Mary Pettibone Poole (American Aphorist)

So that ends my first experience of matrimony, which I always thought a highly over-rated performance.
—Isadora Duncan (American Dancer)

He who has known how to love the land has loved eternity.
—Stefan Zeromski (Polish Novelist)

Let us be careful to distinguish modesty, which is ever amiable, from reserve, which is only prudent. A man is hated sometimes for pride, when it was an excess of humility gave the occasion.
—William Shenstone (English Poet)

The cost of liberty is less than the price of repression.
—W. E. B. Du Bois (American Sociologist, Activist)

Dharma is not upheld by talking about it. Dharma is upheld by living in harmony with it.
—Buddhist Teaching

The conductor must make it possible to eliminate himself in the music. If the orchestra feels him doing that, then everything will go well.
—Giuseppe Sinopoli (Italian Conductor, Composer)

Think you are weak, think you lack what it takes, think you will lose, think you are second class—think this way and you are doomed to mediocrity.
—David J. Schwartz (American Self-help Author)

The composer does not sit around and wait for an inspiration to walk up and introduce itself… Making music is actually little else than a matter of invention aided and abetted by emotion. In composing we combine what we know of music with what we feel.
—George Gershwin (American Composer)

There’s small Revenge in Words, but Words may be greatly revenged.
—Benjamin Franklin (American Founding Father, Inventor)

The entire global business community is learning to learn together, becoming a learning community.
—Peter Senge (American Management Consultant)

The older I grow the more earnestly I feel that the few joys of childhood are the best that life has to give.
—Ellen Glasgow (American Novelist)

Gratitude—the meanest and most sniveling attribute in the world.
—Dorothy Parker (American Humorist, Journalist)

Pray not for lighter burdens, but for stronger backs.
—Theodore Roosevelt (American Head of State)

Never dig up in unbelief what you have sown in faith.
—James Gordon Lindsay (American Pentecostal Pastor)

O grant me, Heaven, a middle state,
Neither too humble nor too great;
More than enough, for nature’s ends,
With something left to treat my friends.
—David Mallet (Scottish Poet, Dramatist)

Sentimentality—that’s what we call the sentiment we don’t share.
—Graham Greene (British Novelist)

There is a wide difference between speaking to deceive, and being silent to be impenetrable.
—Voltaire (French Philosopher, Author)