Inspirational Quotations

Inspirational Quotations by Victor Hugo (#673)

February 26, 2017 By Nagesh Belludi Leave a Comment

Today marks the birthday of Victor Hugo (1802–1885,) one of France’s greatest poets. Hugo also wrote such celebrated novels as Notre-Dame de Paris and Les Misarables.

In his twenties, Victor Hugo wrote the French Romantic novel Notre-Dame de Paris (1831, Eng. trans. The Hunchback of Notre Dame.) Set in fifteenth century Paris, it tells a touching story of a gypsy girl named Esmeralda and a deformed and deaf bell-ringer named Quasimodo who loves her. The success of the book in France catapulted Hugo into great renown. He used his celebrity to criticize the autocratic regime of Napoleon III and encourage the French to revolt.

Napoleon III declared Hugo an enemy of the state. In 1851, just before soldiers arrived to arrest him at home, Hugo managed to flee the country in disguise. He lived in exile in Guernsey (an island in the English Channel) and wrote Les Chatiments (1853, Eng. trans. Castigations,) a volume of aggressive invectives against the emperor.

It was also during his exile that Hugo wrote most of his magnum opus Les Misarables (1865.) Considered one of the greatest novels of the 19th century, Les Misarables is a profound saga of the endless battle between good and evil. It focuses on Jean Valjean, a poor peasant sentenced to 20 years in prison for stealing a loaf of bread to feed his starving sister and her kids. Hugo’s dominant themes of personal transformation, human rights, broken dreams, love, sacrifice, revolution, and redemption made Les Misarables instantly popular upon release. In the preface to the book, Hugo wrote,

So long as there shall exist, by virtue of law and custom, decrees of damnation pronounced by society, artificially creating hells amid the civilization of earth, and adding the element of human fate to divine destiny; so long as the three great problems of the century—the degradation of man through pauperism, the corruption of woman through hunger, the crippling of children through lack of light—are unsolved; so long as social asphyxia is possible in any part of the world;—in other words, and with a still wider significance, so long as ignorance and poverty exist on earth, books of the nature of Les Mis?rables cannot fail to be of use.

By the time Hugo died in Paris at age 83, he was a national hero. Two million mourners joined his funeral procession from the Arc de Triomphe to the Panth?on, where he is buried.

Ideas can no more flow backward than can a river.
—Victor Hugo (French Novelist)

Where the telescope ends, the microscope begins. Which of the two has the grander view?
—Victor Hugo (French Novelist)

I’d rather be hissed at for a good verse, than applauded for a bad one.
—Victor Hugo (French Novelist)

He who every morning plans the transactions of the day and follows out that plan carries a thread that will guide him through the labyrinth of the most busy life. The orderly arrangement of his time is a like a ray of life which darts itself through all his occupations. But where no plan is laid, where the disposal of time is surrendered merely to the chance of incident, chaos will soon reign.
—Victor Hugo (French Novelist)

From the oyster to the eagle, from the swine to the tiger, all animals are to be found in men and each of them exists in some man, sometimes several at the time. Animals are nothing but the portrayal of our virtues and vices made manifest to our eyes, the visible reflections of our souls. God displays them to us to give us food for thought.
—Victor Hugo (French Novelist)

The human soul has still greater need of the ideal than of the real. It is by the real that we exist; it is by the ideal that we live.
—Victor Hugo (French Novelist)

One is not idle because one is absorbed. There is both visible and invisible labor. To contemplate is to toil, to think is to do. The crossed arms work, the clasped hands act. The eyes upturned to Heaven are an act of creation.
—Victor Hugo (French Novelist)

He who opens a school door, closes a prison.
—Victor Hugo (French Novelist)

It is from books that wise people derive consolation in the troubles of life.
—Victor Hugo (French Novelist)

People do not lack strength; they lack will.
—Victor Hugo (French Novelist)

The brutalities of progress are called revolutions. When they are over we realize this: that the human race has been roughly handled, but that it has advanced.
—Victor Hugo (French Novelist)

There are obstinate and unknown braves who defend themselves inch by inch in the shadows against the fatal invasion of want and turpitude. There are noble and mysterious triumphs which no eye sees. No renown rewards, and no flourish of trumpets salutes. Life, misfortune, isolation, abandonment, and poverty and battlefields which have their heroes.
—Victor Hugo (French Novelist)

Genius is a promontory jutting out into the infinite.
—Victor Hugo (French Novelist)

There is a sacred horror about everything grand. It is easy to admire mediocrity and hills; but whatever is too lofty, a genius as well as a mountain, an assembly as well as a masterpiece, seen too near, is appalling.
—Victor Hugo (French Novelist)

Strong and bitter words indicate a weak cause.
—Victor Hugo (French Novelist)

Have no fear of robbers or murderers. They are external dangers, petty dangers. We should fear ourselves. Prejudices are the real robbers; vices the real murders. The great dangers are within us. Why worry about what threatens our heads or purses? Let us think instead of what threatens our souls.
—Victor Hugo (French Novelist)

When grace is joined with wrinkles, it is adorable. There is an unspeakable dawn in happy old age.
—Victor Hugo (French Novelist)

Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent.
—Victor Hugo (French Novelist)

Sorrow is a fruit. God does not make it grow on limbs too weak to bear it.
—Victor Hugo (French Novelist)

A man is not idle because he is absorbed in thought. There is a visible labor and there is an invisible labor.
—Victor Hugo (French Novelist)

My tastes are aristocratic, my actions democratic.
—Victor Hugo (French Novelist)

Emergencies have always been necessary to progress. It was darkness which produced the lamp. It was fog that produced the compass. It was hunger that drove us to exploration. And it took a depression to teach us the real value of a job.
—Victor Hugo (French Novelist)

Forty is the old age of youth; fifty the youth of old age.
—Victor Hugo (French Novelist)

I met in the street a very poor young man who was in love. His hat was old, his coat worn, his cloak was out at the elbows, the water passed through his shoes—and the stars through his soul.
—Victor Hugo (French Novelist)

You can give without loving, but you can never love without giving. The great acts of love are done by those who are habitually performing small acts of kindness. We pardon to the extent that we love. Love is knowing that even when you are alone, you will never be lonely again. & great happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved. Loved for ourselves. & even loved in spite of ourselves.
—Victor Hugo (French Novelist)

So long as there shall exist, by reason of law and custom, a social condemnation, which, in the face of civilization, artificially creates hells on earth, and complicates a destiny that is divine, with human fatality; so long as the three problems of the age—the degradation of man by poverty, the ruin of woman by starvation, and the dwarfing of childhood by physical and spiritual night—are not solved; so long as, in certain regions, social asphyxia shall be possible; in other words, and from a yet more extended point of view, so long as ignorance and misery remain on earth, books like this cannot be useless.
—Victor Hugo (French Novelist)

If suffer we must, let’s suffer on the heights.
—Victor Hugo (French Novelist)

Solitude either develops the mental powers, or renders men dull and vicious.
—Victor Hugo (French Novelist)

Adversity makes men; good fortune makes monsters.
—Victor Hugo (French Novelist)

There exists, at the bottom of all abasement and misfortune, a last extreme which rebels and joins battle with the forces of law and respectability in a desperate struggle, waged partly by cunning and partly by violence, at once sick and ferocious, in which it attacks the prevailing social order with the pin-pricks of vice and the hammer-blows of crime.
—Victor Hugo (French Novelist)

Be like the bird that, passing on her flight awhile on boughs too slight, feels them give way beneath her, and yet sings, knowing that she hath wings.
—Victor Hugo (French Novelist)

Friend is sometimes a word devoid of meaning; enemy, never.
—Victor Hugo (French Novelist)

God created the flirt as soon as he made the fool.
—Victor Hugo (French Novelist)

A compliment is something like a kiss through a veil.
—Victor Hugo (French Novelist)

A mother’s arms are made of tenderness and children sleep soundly in them.
—Victor Hugo (French Novelist)

Each man should frame life so that at some future hour fact and his dreaming meet.
—Victor Hugo (French Novelist)

Inspirational Quotations #672

February 19, 2017 By Nagesh Belludi Leave a Comment

You cannot run with the hare and hunt with the hounds.
—Common Proverb

Thoughts are the shadows of our sensations—always darker, emptier, simpler than these.
—Friedrich Nietzsche (German Philosopher, Scholar)

Every failure, obstacle or hardship is an opportunity in disguise. Success in many cases is failure turned inside out. The greatest pollution problem we face today is negativity. Eliminate the negative attitude and believe you can do anything. Replace ‘if I can, I hope, maybe’ with ‘I can, I will, I must.’
—Mary Kay Ash (American Entrepreneur)

We cannot change anything unless we accept it. Condemnation does not liberate, it oppresses.
—Carl Jung (Swiss Psychologist)

It’s waiting that helps you as an investor, and a lot of people just can’t stand to wait. If you didn’t get the deferred-gratification gene, you’ve got to work very hard to overcome that.
—Charlie Munger

Principles have no real force except when one is well-fed.
—Mark Twain (American Humorist)

Lend only that which you can afford to lose.
—Common Proverb

Chance usually favors the prudent man.
—Joseph Joubert (French Essayist)

History never looks like history when you are living through it.
—John W. Gardner (American Government Official)

The tragedy is that so many have ambition and so few have ability.
—William Feather (American Publisher)

The man who is prepared has his battle half fought.
—Miguel de Cervantes (Spanish Novelist)

So difficult it is to show the various meanings and imperfections of words when we have nothing else but words to do it with.
—John Locke (English Philosopher)

Men must be governed by God or they will be ruled by tyrants.
—William Penn (American Entrepreneur)

The more we study the more we discover our ignorance.
—Percy Bysshe Shelley (English Poet)

Inspirational Quotations by Abraham Lincoln (#671)

February 12, 2017 By Nagesh Belludi 2 Comments

Inspirational Quotations by Abraham Lincoln

Today marks the birthday of Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865), one of the most recognized political leaders of all time.

Not much is known about the early life of the 16th President of the United States. Lincoln was born in a log cabin to a poor family, lost his mother at nine, completed just one year of traditional schooling, spent his youth in Indiana, and did manual labor until he was 21.

Lincoln pursued self-education by reading books on grammar and rhetoric and joined a debate society. At age 27, after years of private study of law, he obtained a license to practice and eventually became one of Illinois’s ablest lawyers. Lincoln also worked his way through the Illinois State Legislature and got elected to the US House of Representatives. He gained popularity for his down-to-earth wit, integrity, and opposition to the institution of slavery.

Lincoln’s leadership during the Civil War held the country together through the worst moral, constitutional, and political crisis in its history. Amidst the War, at his second inauguration, Lincoln addressed the nation with his famous words, “With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation’s wounds … .” John Wilkes Booth, an actor who had heard Lincoln speak at his second inauguration, fatally shot him just six weeks later at Ford’s Theater in Washington D.C.

Lincoln is arguably the most admired President of the United States. He was famous for his compassionate nature, gentle spirit, and great oratory. His iconic 1863 Gettysburg Address is revered for its reaffirmation of a major founding principle of the United States: that all humans are born equal. To this day, this speech remains a model of ideological rhetoric and oratorical simplicity:

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal … We here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Inspirational Quotations by Abraham Lincoln

Perhaps a man’s character was like a tree, and his reputation like its shadow; the shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.
—Abraham Lincoln (American Head of State)

When I get ready to talk to people, I spend two thirds of the time thinking what they want to hear and one third thinking about what I want to say.
—Abraham Lincoln (American Head of State)

With the catching ends the pleasures of the chase.
—Abraham Lincoln (American Head of State)

You can’t escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.
—Abraham Lincoln (American Head of State)

I believe each individual is naturally entitled to do as he pleases with himself and the fruit of his labor, so far as it in no wise interferes with any other man’s rights.
—Abraham Lincoln (American Head of State)

In times like the present men should utter nothing for which they would not willingly be responsible through time and in eternity.
—Abraham Lincoln (American Head of State)

No men living are more worthy to be trusted than those who toil up from poverty.
—Abraham Lincoln (American Head of State)

He who makes an assertion without knowing whether it is true or false, is guilty of falsehood; and the accidental truth of the assertion, does not justify or excuse him.
—Abraham Lincoln (American Head of State)

Every man is proud of what he does well; and no man is proud of what he does not do well. With the former, his heart is in his work; and he will do twice as much of it with less fatigue. The latter performs a little imperfectly, looks at it in disgust, turns from it, and imagines himself exceedingly tired. The little he has done, comes to nothing, for want of finishing.
—Abraham Lincoln (American Head of State)

Do not worry; eat three square meals a day; say your prayers; be courteous to your creditors; keep your digestion good; exercise; go slow and easy. Maybe there are other things your special case requires to make you happy, but my friend, these I reckon will give you a good lift.
—Abraham Lincoln (American Head of State)

Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends?
—Abraham Lincoln (American Head of State)

To believe in the things you can see and touch is no belief at all; but to believe in the unseen is a triumph and a blessing.
—Abraham Lincoln (American Head of State)

Truth is generally the best vindication against slander.
—Abraham Lincoln (American Head of State)

I shall try to correct errors when shown to be errors; and I shall adopt new views so fast as they shall appear to be true views.
—Abraham Lincoln (American Head of State)

A man watches his pear tree day after day, impatient for the ripening of the fruit. Let him attempt to force the process, and he may spoil both fruit and tree. But let him patiently wait, and the ripe fruit at length falls into his lap.
—Abraham Lincoln (American Head of State)

Wanting to work is so rare a merit that it should be encouraged.
—Abraham Lincoln (American Head of State)

Determine that the thing can and shall be done, and then we shall find the way.
—Abraham Lincoln (American Head of State)

When I do good I feel good, when I do bad I feel bad, and that’s my religion.
—Abraham Lincoln (American Head of State)

There’s no honorable way to kill, no gentle way to destroy. There is nothing good in war. Except its ending.
—Abraham Lincoln (American Head of State)

The shepherd drives the wolf from the sheep’s throat, for which the sheep thanks the shepherd as his liberator, while the wolf denounces him for the same act as the destroyer of liberty.
—Abraham Lincoln (American Head of State)

Every blade of grass is a study; and to produce two, where there was but one, is both a profit and a pleasure.
—Abraham Lincoln (American Head of State)

The better part of one’s life consists of his friendships.
—Abraham Lincoln (American Head of State)

I must study the plain physical facts of the case, ascertain what is possible, and learn what appears to be wise and right.
—Abraham Lincoln (American Head of State)

Everybody likes a compliment.
—Abraham Lincoln (American Head of State)

I am a slow walker, but I never walk backwards.
—Abraham Lincoln (American Head of State)

We hope all danger may be overcome; but to conclude that no danger may ever arise would itself be extremely dangerous.
—Abraham Lincoln (American Head of State)

Inspirational Quotations by Adlai Stevenson (#670)

February 5, 2017 By Nagesh Belludi Leave a Comment

Today marks the birthday of Adlai Stevenson II (1900–1965,) American politician and diplomat. Stevenson is renowned for his intellectual disposition, organizational skills, eloquent public speaking, and for advancing liberal ideologies within the Democratic Party.

Stevenson is also remembered for his significant landslide losses to popular war hero Dwight Eisenhower during both the 1952 and the 1956 presidential elections. Prior to the 1960 presidential election, Stevenson lost to Massachusetts Senator John F. Kennedy as the Democratic Party’s candidate. When Kennedy became President, Stevenson served as the US Ambassador to the United Nations until his death in 1965.

The 1949 “Cat Bill” in Illinois

When Stevenson was Governor of Illinois, the state legislature (supported by a committed group of bird-lovers) passed a bill protecting birds from their predators—notably cats—and declaring that cats roaming unescorted were a public nuisance. Stevenson felt the legislation was an absurd excuse to exterminate cats and have law enforcement deal with felines. He vetoed the bill with the following message:

I cannot agree that it should be the declared public policy of Illinois that a cat visiting a neighbor’s yard or crossing the highways is a public nuisance. It is in the nature of cats to do a certain amount of unescorted roaming. … Also consider the owner’s dilemma: To escort a cat abroad on a leash is against the nature of the cat, and to permit it to venture forth for exercise unattended into a night of new dangers is against the nature of the owner.

We are all interested in protecting certain varieties of birds. That cats destroy some birds, I well know, but I believe this legislation would further but little the worthy cause to which its proponents give such unselfish effort. The problem of cat versus bird is as old as time. If we attempt to resolve it by legislation who knows but what we may be called upon to take sides as well in the age old problems of dog versus cat, bird versus bird, or even bird versus worm. In my opinion, the State of Illinois and its local governing bodies already have enough to do without trying to control feline delinquency.

If we value the pursuit of knowledge, we must be free to follow wherever that search may lead us. The free mind is not a barking dog, to be tethered on a ten-foot chain.
—Adlai Stevenson (American Diplomat)

Power corrupts, but lack of power corrupts absolutely.
—Adlai Stevenson (American Diplomat)

The sound of tireless voices is the price we pay for the right to hear the music of our own opinions.
—Adlai Stevenson (American Diplomat)

A free society is a society where it is safe to be unpopular.
—Adlai Stevenson (American Diplomat)

What a man knows at fifty that he did not know at twenty is for the most part incommunicable.
—Adlai Stevenson (American Diplomat)

Our strength lies, not alone in our proving grounds and our stockpiles, but in our ideals, our goals, and their universal appeal to all men who are struggling to breathe free.
—Adlai Stevenson (American Diplomat)

Peace is the one condition of survival in this nuclear age.
—Adlai Stevenson (American Diplomat)

In youth, everything seems possible; but we reach a point in the middle years when we realize that we are never going to reach all the shining goals we had set for ourselves. And in the end, most of us reconcile ourselves, with what grace we can, to living with our ulcers and arthritis, our sense of partial failure, our less-than-ideal families—and even our politicians!
—Adlai Stevenson (American Diplomat)

We have confused the free with the free and easy.
—Adlai Stevenson (American Diplomat)

What do I believe? As an American I believe in generosity, in liberty, in the rights of man. These are social and political faiths that are part of me, as they are, I suppose, part of all of us. Such beliefs are easy to express. But part of me too is my relation to all life, my religion. And this is not so easy to talk about. Religious experience is highly intimate and, for me, ready words are not at hand.
—Adlai Stevenson (American Diplomat)

Freedom is not an ideal, it is not even a protection, if it means nothing more than freedom to stagnate, to live without dreams, to have no greater aim than a second car and another television set.
—Adlai Stevenson (American Diplomat)

For my part I believe in the forgiveness of sin and the redemption of ignorance.
—Adlai Stevenson (American Diplomat)

Laws are never as effective as habits.
—Adlai Stevenson (American Diplomat)

She would rather light candles than curse the darkness and her glow has warmed the world.
—Adlai Stevenson (American Diplomat)

Inspirational Quotations by Oprah Winfrey (#669)

January 29, 2017 By Nagesh Belludi Leave a Comment

Today marks the birthday of Oprah Winfrey (b. 1954,) media personality and philanthropist. She is one of the richest and most influential women in the United States.

Born into poverty, Winfrey ran away from home at age 13 after being subjected to domestic abuse. At 14, she had a son who was born prematurely and died shortly after birth. Winfrey then made education her top priority, worked as a radio reporter while in high school, and studied broadcasting at Tennessee State University.

At age 22, Winfrey co-anchored the evening news in Baltimore. Two years later, she started cohosting a talk-show called “People Are Talking.” In 1983, she moved to Chicago to host a 30-minute morning talk show called “AM Chicago” which was later renamed the “Oprah Winfrey Show” after her ratings skyrocketed. In 1986, her TV show became nationally syndicated and was broadcast in 138 cities. It became the most popular daytime talk show of all time and ended in 2011. In 1996, Winfrey started her televised book club; each book she selected for her club sold more than 500,000 copies.

Besides being a media mogul, Winfrey is also a prominent philanthropist and has donated to various educational and racial causes. She is the primary benefactor of the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls in South Africa.

Winfrey publishes O, The Oprah Magazine and has co-authored five books. Her memoir, The Life You Want, is due in 2017.

Inspirational Quotations by Oprah Winfrey

The more you praise and celebrate your life, the more there is in life to celebrate.
—Oprah Winfrey (American TV Personality)

I will just create, and if it works, it works, and if it doesn’t, I’ll create something else. I don’t have any limitations on what I think I could do or be.
—Oprah Winfrey (American TV Personality)

Real integrity is doing the right thing, knowing that nobody is going to know whether you did it or not.
—Oprah Winfrey (American TV Personality)

For every one of us that succeeds, it’s because there’s somebody there to show you the way out.
—Oprah Winfrey (American TV Personality)

Biology is the least of what makes someone a mother.
—Oprah Winfrey (American TV Personality)

What material success does is provide you with the ability to concentrate on other things that really matter. And that is being able to make a difference, not only in your own life, but in other people’s lives.
—Oprah Winfrey (American TV Personality)

I was raised to believe that excellence is the best deterrent to racism or sexism. And that’s how I operate my life.
—Oprah Winfrey (American TV Personality)

Living in the moment means letting go of the past and not waiting for the future. It means living your life consciously, aware that each moment you breathe is a gift.
—Oprah Winfrey (American TV Personality)

I don’t think of myself as a poor deprived ghetto girl who made good. I think of myself as somebody who from an early age knew I was responsible for myself, and I had to make good.
—Oprah Winfrey (American TV Personality)

I am a woman in process. I’m just trying like everybody else. I try to take every conflict, every experience, and learn from it. Life is never dull.
—Oprah Winfrey (American TV Personality)

Unless you choose to do great things with it, it makes no difference how much you are rewarded, or how much power you have.
—Oprah Winfrey (American TV Personality)

My philosophy is that not only are you responsible for your life, but doing the best at this moment puts you in the best place for the next moment.
—Oprah Winfrey (American TV Personality)

I believe that every single event in life happens as an opportunity to choose love over fear.
—Oprah Winfrey (American TV Personality)

If you want to accomplish the goals of your life, you have to begin with the spirit.
—Oprah Winfrey (American TV Personality)

Breathe. Let go. And remind yourself that this very moment is the only one you know you have for sure.
—Oprah Winfrey (American TV Personality)

The thing you fear most has no power. Your fear of it is what has the power. Facing the truth really will set you free.
—Oprah Winfrey (American TV Personality)

Every time you suppress some part of yourself or allow others to play you small, you are in essence ignoring the owner’s manual your creator gave you and destroying your design.
—Oprah Winfrey (American TV Personality)

I believe that you tend to create your own blessings. You have to prepare yourself so that when opportunity comes, you’re ready.
—Oprah Winfrey (American TV Personality)

Be thankful for what you have; you’ll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don’t have, you will never, ever have enough.
—Oprah Winfrey (American TV Personality)

The whole point of being alive is to evolve into a complete person you were intended to be.
—Oprah Winfrey (American TV Personality)

I believe that one of life’s greatest risks is never daring to risk.
—Oprah Winfrey (American TV Personality)

Create the highest, grandest vision possible for your life, because you become what you believe.
—Oprah Winfrey (American TV Personality)

Luck is preparation meeting opportunity.
—Oprah Winfrey (American TV Personality)

I don’t believe in failure. It is not failure if you enjoyed the process.
—Oprah Winfrey (American TV Personality)

The biggest adventure you can ever take is to live the life of your dreams.
—Oprah Winfrey (American TV Personality)

You can have it all. You just can’t have it all at once.
—Oprah Winfrey (American TV Personality)

Inspirational Quotations by Francis Bacon (#668)

January 22, 2017 By Nagesh Belludi Leave a Comment

Today marks the birthday of Francis Bacon (1561–1626,) the great English natural philosopher, statesman, and pioneer of modern scientific thought. Bacon’s abundant writing spanned scientific methodology, religion, moral philosophy, and judicial administration.

Bacon started his political career at age 23 when he became a Member of Parliament. He opposed Queen Elizabeth I’s tax program, fell out of her favor, and encountered difficulty advancing his career. After James I acceded the throne in 1603, Bacon’s career flourished; he ultimately rose to become the Lord Chancellor, one of Britain’s highest political offices. However, his political career ended in disgrace in 1621 when the British Parliament incriminated him for accepting bribes and banished him from holding public office. James I revoked Bacon’s sentence and allowed him to write in retirement.

Bacon’s real interests lay in science. He challenged the Aristotelian notion that scientific truth could be reached by means of authoritative argument (wherein knowledgeable people discuss a subject long enough to eventually ascertain the truth.) In his early text, Cogitata et Visa (1607,) Bacon first proposed the idea of inductive reasoning. And in his best-known work, Novum Organum (1620,) Bacon not only advocated observable evidence and rational investigation, but also promoted the dismissal of hypotheses founded on incomplete and insufficient proof. His philosophy, now known as the scientific method, has since been the basis of all experimental science.

Ironically, Bacon’s scientific method ultimately took his life. When journeying in the snow-filled countryside one day, Bacon hit upon the idea of using snow to preserve meat. To test his hypothesis, Bacon purchased a fowl and stuffed it with snow. Later that day, he developed a cold that advanced into pneumonia and killed him.

Inspirational Quotations by Francis Bacon

Truth will sooner come out from error than from confusion.
—Francis Bacon (English Philosopher)

For all knowledge and wonder (which is the seed of knowledge) is an impression of pleasure in itself.
—Francis Bacon (English Philosopher)

The job of the artist is always to deepen the mystery.
—Francis Bacon (English Philosopher)

The worst solitude is to have no real friendships.
—Francis Bacon (English Philosopher)

Money is like muck, not good except it be spread.
—Francis Bacon (English Philosopher)

Knowledge, that tendeth but to satisfaction, is but as a courtesan, which is for pleasure, and not for fruit or generation.
—Francis Bacon (English Philosopher)

Money makes a good servant, but a bad master.
—Francis Bacon (English Philosopher)

Be angry, but sin not. Let not the sun go down upon your anger. Anger must be limited and confined, both in race and in time.
—Francis Bacon (English Philosopher)

There is a difference between happiness and wisdom: he that thinks himself the happiest man is really so; but he that thinks himself the wisest is generally the greatest fool.
—Francis Bacon (English Philosopher)

Young people are fitter to invent than to judge; fitter for execution than for counsel; and more fit for new projects than for settled business.
—Francis Bacon (English Philosopher)

The monuments of wit survive the monuments of power.
—Francis Bacon (English Philosopher)

Riches are a good handmaid, but the worst mistress.
—Francis Bacon (English Philosopher)

Nothing is terrible except fear itself.
—Francis Bacon (English Philosopher)

Hope is a good breakfast, but it is a bad supper.
—Francis Bacon (English Philosopher)

Prosperity discovers vice, adversity discovers virtue.
—Francis Bacon (English Philosopher)

Read not to contradict and confute; nor to believe and take for granted; nor to find talk and discourse; but to weigh and consider.
—Francis Bacon (English Philosopher)

Men in great place are thrice servants; servants of the sovereign or state, servants of fame, and servants of business; so that they have no freedom, neither in their persons, in their actions, nor in their times.—It is a strange desire to seek power over others, and to lose power over a man’s self.
—Francis Bacon (English Philosopher)

Friendship increases in visiting friends, but in visiting them seldom.
—Francis Bacon (English Philosopher)

Knowledge itself is power.
—Francis Bacon (English Philosopher)

Seek first the virtues of the mind; and other things either will come, or will not be wanted.
—Francis Bacon (English Philosopher)

Reading maketh a full man, conference a ready man, and writing an exact man.
—Francis Bacon (English Philosopher)

By far the greatest hindrance and aberration of the human understanding proceeds from the dullness, incompetency, and deceptions of the senses.
—Francis Bacon (English Philosopher)

Who questions much, shall learn much, and retain much.
—Francis Bacon (English Philosopher)

It is a miserable state of mind to have few things to desire and many things to fear.
—Francis Bacon (English Philosopher)

No pleasure is comparable to the standing upon the vantage-ground of truth.
—Francis Bacon (English Philosopher)

Opportunity makes a thief.
—Francis Bacon (English Philosopher)

It is not possible to run a course aright when the goal itself has not been rightly placed.
—Francis Bacon (English Philosopher)

Nothing doth more hurt in a state than that cunning men pass for wise.
—Francis Bacon (English Philosopher)

A wise man will make more opportunities, than he finds.
—Francis Bacon (English Philosopher)

Inspirational Quotations by Martin Luther King, Jr. (#667)

January 15, 2017 By Nagesh Belludi Leave a Comment

Today marks the birthday of the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. (1929–68,) American leader of the civil rights movement. He was also known for his dedication to ending segregation peacefully and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964.

In 1955, when King was only 26 and serving as a priest in Montgomery, Alabama, a seamstress named Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat to a white passenger on a city bus. King took up her cause and led a year-long Montgomery bus boycott during which his house was bombed and he was assaulted and arrested. In 1957, the Supreme Court ruled that the segregation of buses and public facilities was unconstitutional.

The Montgomery bus boycott put King at the vanguard of the civil rights movement. In 1963, he joined other civil rights leaders at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom where he gave his famous “I Have a Dream” speech from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial to an audience of 200,000.

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. And the Voting Rights Act of 1965 ended voter discrimination in many Southern states.

In 1967, King delivered a speech called “Beyond Vietnam / A Time to Break Silence” denouncing America’s involvement in the Vietnam War and the recruitment of poor and minority soldiers. The next year, King was assassinated at age 39 while standing on the balcony of a Memphis motel. He was preparing to lead a protest rally in solidarity with sanitation workers who were on strike. His death sparked riots in sixty cities.

Since 1986, the third Monday of January is observed annually as a US-federal holiday in his honor.

Inspirational Quotations by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.
—Martin Luther King, Jr. (American Civil Rights Leader)

We are reaching out for the daybreak of freedom and justice and equality.
—Martin Luther King, Jr. (American Civil Rights Leader)

Every genuine expression of love grows out of a consistent and total surrender to God.
—Martin Luther King, Jr. (American Civil Rights Leader)

There is scarcely anything more tragic in human life than a child who is not wanted. That which should be a blessing becomes a curse for parent and child.
—Martin Luther King, Jr. (American Civil Rights Leader)

One of the sure signs of maturity is the ability to rise to the point of self criticism.
—Martin Luther King, Jr. (American Civil Rights Leader)

Non-cooperation with evil is as much a moral obligation as is cooperation with good.
—Martin Luther King, Jr. (American Civil Rights Leader)

I submit to you that if a man has not discovered something that he will die for, he isn’t fit to live.
—Martin Luther King, Jr. (American Civil Rights Leader)

It is love that will save our world and our civilization, love even for enemies.
—Martin Luther King, Jr. (American Civil Rights Leader)

Violence ends by defeating itself. It creates bitterness in the survivors and brutality in the destroyers.
—Martin Luther King, Jr. (American Civil Rights Leader)

The real problem is that through our scientific genius we’ve made of the world a neighborhood, but through our moral and spiritual genius we’ve failed to make of it a brotherhood.
—Martin Luther King, Jr. (American Civil Rights Leader)

It is not enough to know that two and two makes four, but we’ve got to know somehow that it’s right to be honest and just with our brothers. It’s not enough to know all about our philosophical and mathematical disciplines, but we’ve got to know the simple disciplines of being honest and loving and just with all humanity. If we don’t learn it, we will destroy ourselves by the misuse of our own powers.
—Martin Luther King, Jr. (American Civil Rights Leader)

There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies.
—Martin Luther King, Jr. (American Civil Rights Leader)

Violence is immoral because it thrives on hatred rather than love. It destroys community and makes brotherhood impossible.
—Martin Luther King, Jr. (American Civil Rights Leader)

I am not interested in power for power’s sake, but I’m interested in power that is moral, that is right and that is good.
—Martin Luther King, Jr. (American Civil Rights Leader)

Love is the supreme unifying principle of life.
—Martin Luther King, Jr. (American Civil Rights Leader)

There is little hope for us until we become tough-minded enough to break loose from the shackles of prejudice, half-truths, and downright ignorance.
—Martin Luther King, Jr. (American Civil Rights Leader)

An individual has not begun to live until he can rise above the narrow horizons of his particular individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity. And this is one of the big problems of life, that so many people never quite get to the point of rising above self. And so they end up the tragic victims of self-centeredness. They end up the victims of distorted and disrupted personality.
—Martin Luther King, Jr. (American Civil Rights Leader)

The thing that we need in the world today is a group of men and women who will stand up for right and to be opposed to wrong, wherever it is. A group of people who have come to see that some things are wrong, whether they’re never caught up with. And some things are right, whether nobody sees you doing them or not.
—Martin Luther King, Jr. (American Civil Rights Leader)

Power without love is reckless and abusive, and love without power is sentimental and anemic.
—Martin Luther King, Jr. (American Civil Rights Leader)

True peace is not merely the absence of tension: it is the presence of justice.
—Martin Luther King, Jr. (American Civil Rights Leader)

Nonviolent resistance is not aimed against oppressors, but against oppression.
—Martin Luther King, Jr. (American Civil Rights Leader)

It is no longer a choice between violence and nonviolence in this world; it’s nonviolence or nonexistence.
—Martin Luther King, Jr. (American Civil Rights Leader)

The best way to solve any problem is to remove the cause.
—Martin Luther King, Jr. (American Civil Rights Leader)

The time is always right to do what’s right.
—Martin Luther King, Jr. (American Civil Rights Leader)

When people are self-centered, they are self-centered because they are seeking attention, they want to be admired and this is the way they set out to do it. But in the process, because of their self-centeredness, they are not admired; they are mawkish and people don’t want to be bothered with them. And so the very thing they seek, they never get. And they end up frustrated and unhappy and disillusioned.
—Martin Luther King, Jr. (American Civil Rights Leader)

The richer we have become materially, the poorer we have become morally and spiritually. We have learned to fly the air like birds and swim the sea like fish, but we have not learned the simple art of living together as brothers.
—Martin Luther King, Jr. (American Civil Rights Leader)

As long as the mind is enslaved, the body can never be free.
—Martin Luther King, Jr. (American Civil Rights Leader)

No nation can rise to its full moral maturity so long as it subjects a segment of its citizenry on the basis of race or color.
—Martin Luther King, Jr. (American Civil Rights Leader)

Justice is love correcting that which revolts against love.
—Martin Luther King, Jr. (American Civil Rights Leader)

Ultimately a great nation is a compassionate nation. No individual or nation can be great if it does not have a concern for “the least of these”.
—Martin Luther King, Jr. (American Civil Rights Leader)

We must massively assert our dignity and worth. We must stand up amidst a system that still oppresses us and develop an unassailable and majestic sense of values.
—Martin Luther King, Jr. (American Civil Rights Leader)

Keep moving. Let nothing slow you up. Move on with dignity and honor and respectability.
—Martin Luther King, Jr. (American Civil Rights Leader)

Life at its best is a creative synthesis of opposites in fruitful harmony.
—Martin Luther King, Jr. (American Civil Rights Leader)

Science investigates; religion interprets. Science gives man knowledge which is power; religion gives man wisdom which is control. Science deals mainly with facts; religion deals mainly with values. The two are not rivals. They are complementary.
—Martin Luther King, Jr. (American Civil Rights Leader)

Find your sense of importance in something outside of the self. And you are then able to live because you have given your life to something outside and something that is meaningful, objectified. You rise above this self-absorption to something outside. This is the way to go through life with a balance, with the proper perspective because you’ve given yourself to something greater than self. Sometimes it’s friends, sometimes it’s family, sometimes it’s a great cause, it’s a great loyalty, but give yourself to that something and life becomes meaningful.
—Martin Luther King, Jr. (American Civil Rights Leader)

Life has its beginning and its maturity comes into being when an individual rises above self to something greater.
—Martin Luther King, Jr. (American Civil Rights Leader)

Men often hate each other because they fear each other; they fear each other because they don’t know each other; they don’t know each other because they cannot communicate; they cannot communicate because they are separated.
—Martin Luther King, Jr. (American Civil Rights Leader)

The basic thing about a man is not his specific but his fundamentum.
—Martin Luther King, Jr. (American Civil Rights Leader)

Ultimately a genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus, but a molder of consensus.
—Martin Luther King, Jr. (American Civil Rights Leader)

On some positions, Cowardice asks the question, “Is it safe?” Expediency asks the question, “Is it politic?” And Vanity comes along and asks the question, “Is it popular?” But Conscience asks the question “Is it right?” And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must do it because Conscience tells him it is right. I believe today that there is a need for all people of good will to come together with a massive act of conscience and say in the words of the old Negro spiritual, “We ain’t goin’ study war no more.” This is the challenge facing modern man.
—Martin Luther King, Jr. (American Civil Rights Leader)

Discover the element of good in your enemy. And as you seek to hate him, find the center of goodness and place your attention there and you will take a new attitude.
—Martin Luther King, Jr. (American Civil Rights Leader)

Man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.
—Martin Luther King, Jr. (American Civil Rights Leader)

Some things are right and some things are wrong, no matter if everybody is doing the contrary. Some things in this universe are absolute. The God of the universe has made it so. And so long as we adopt this relative attitude toward right and wrong, we’re revolting against the very laws of God himself.
—Martin Luther King, Jr. (American Civil Rights Leader)

If we are to go forward, we must go back and rediscover these precious values: that all reality hinges on moral foundations and that all reality has spiritual control.
—Martin Luther King, Jr. (American Civil Rights Leader)

When people get caught up with that which is right and they are willing to sacrifice for it, there is no stopping point short of victory.
—Martin Luther King, Jr. (American Civil Rights Leader)

In every age and every generation, men have envisioned a promised land.
—Martin Luther King, Jr. (American Civil Rights Leader)

We must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive. He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love.
—Martin Luther King, Jr. (American Civil Rights Leader)

We must discover the power of love, the power, the redemptive power of love. And when we discover that we will be able to make of this old world a new world. We will be able to make men better. Love is the only way.
—Martin Luther King, Jr. (American Civil Rights Leader)

Inspirational Quotations #666

January 8, 2017 By Nagesh Belludi Leave a Comment

If you expect nothing, you’re apt to be surprised. You’ll get it.
—Malcolm Forbes (American Publisher)

Give me health and a day, and I will make the pomp of emperors ridiculous.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (American Philosopher)

No man or woman of the humblest sort can really be strong, gentle and pure and good, without the world being better for it, without somebody being helped and comforted by the very existence of that goodness.
—Phillips Brooks (American Episcopal Clergyman)

The dignity of man is vindicated as much by the thinker and poet as by the statesman and soldier.
—James Bryant Conant (American Chemist)

Often it is just lack of imagination that keeps a man from suffering very much.
—Marcel Proust (French Novelist)

The great difference between those who succeed and those who fail does not consist in the amount of work done by each but in the amount of intelligent work. Many of those who fail most ignominiously do enough to achieve grand success but they labor haphazardly at whatever they are assigned, building up with one hand to tear down with the other. They do not grasp circumstances and change them into opportunities. They have no faculty for turning honest defeats into telling victories. With ability enough and ample time, the major ingredients of success, they are forever throwing back and forth an empty shuttle and the real web of their life is never woven.
—Og Mandino

You don’t become enormously successful without encountering and overcoming a number of extremely challenging problems.
—Mark Victor Hansen (American Public Speaker)

Inspirational Quotations by E. M. Forster (#665)

January 1, 2017 By Nagesh Belludi Leave a Comment

Today marks the birthday of E. M. Forster (1879–1970,) an influential British novelist and short story-writer.

Forster published Where Angels Fear to Tread (1905), The Longest Journey (1907,) and A Room with a View (1908.) He hit literary success with his fourth novel, Howards End (1910,) about the class system in England as exposed through the pursuits of three families.

During World War I, Forster worked for the Red Cross in Egypt and traveled all over the world. During a visit to India, he was inspired to write his masterpiece A Passage to India (1924.) Set during the British colonial rule in India, this best-selling, much-debated novel is about a young British schoolteacher who imagines being sexually assaulted by an Indian-Muslim doctor. She accuses him of attempted rape, but later retracts her charges. Considered one of the great novels of the 20th century, A Passage to India exposed the undercurrent of conflict and prejudice between the British and Indian cultures.

After publishing five novels before age 40, Forster never published any other novels during his lifetime. He subsequently wrote numerous short stories.

Forster wrote his sixth and last novel on the eve of the First World War and considered it among his best writing, but did not want it to be published in his lifetime because of its homosexual themes. Maurice (1971) was published posthumously to great renown.

Inspirational Quotations by E. M. Forster

I suggest that the only books that influence us are those for which we are ready, and which have gone a little farther down our particular path than we have yet gone ourselves.
—E. M. Forster (English Novelist)

Lord I disbelieve—help thou my unbelief.
—E. M. Forster (English Novelist)

Those who prepared for all the emergencies of life beforehand may equip themselves at the expense of joy.
—E. M. Forster (English Novelist)

Beauty ought to look a little surprised: it is the emotion that best suits her face. The beauty who does not look surprised, who accepts her position as her due—she reminds us too much of a prima donna.
—E. M. Forster (English Novelist)

Works of art, in my opinion, are the only objects in the material universe to possess internal order, and that is why, though I don’t believe that only art matters, I do believe in Art for Art’s sake.
—E. M. Forster (English Novelist)

Art for art’s sake? I should think so, and more so than ever at the present time. It is the one orderly product which our middling race has produced. It is the cry of a thousand sentinels, the echo from a thousand labyrinths, it is the lighthouse which cannot be hidden… it is the best evidence we can have of our dignity.
—E. M. Forster (English Novelist)

Failure and success seem to have been allotted to men by their stars. But they retain the power of wriggling, of fighting with their star or against it, and in the whole universe the only really interesting movement is this wriggle.
—E. M. Forster (English Novelist)

One must be fond of people and trust them if one is not to make a mess of life.
—E. M. Forster (English Novelist)

We are willing enough to praise freedom when she is safely tucked away in the past and cannot be a nuisance. In the present, amidst dangers whose outcome we cannot foresee, we get nervous about her, and admit censorship.
—E. M. Forster (English Novelist)

Creative writers are always greater than the causes that they represent.
—E. M. Forster (English Novelist)

There lies at the back of every creed something terrible and hard for which the worshipper may one day be required to suffer.
—E. M. Forster (English Novelist)

One always tends to overpraise a long book, because one has got through it.
—E. M. Forster (English Novelist)

I have only got down on to paper, really, three types of people: the person I think I am, the people who irritate me, and the people I’d like to be.
—E. M. Forster (English Novelist)

Death destroys a man, the idea of Death saves him.
—E. M. Forster (English Novelist)

Inspirational Quotations by Carlos Castaneda (#664)

December 25, 2016 By Nagesh Belludi Leave a Comment

Today marks the birthday of Carlos Castaneda (1925–1998,) a controversial American New Age icon. His 12 books sold 8 million copies in 17 languages before his death, and even more since.

Castaneda gained rapid celebrity during graduate school after his The Teachings of Don Juan (1968) became a best-seller in the late sixties. This and his other books describe the mystical drug-stimulated escapades he claimed he had with his mentor Don Juan, a Yaqui Indian sorcerer whom Castaneda supposedly met in 1960 while studying medicinal plants used by American Indians.

Castaneda’s writings are as mysterious as the details of his life and death. Though records proved that he was born in Peru, he claimed he was born in Brazil. Despite his fame and notoriety, he refused to be photographed, tape-recorded, or interviewed. His death was disclosed only after two months.

Citing contradictions, factual discrepancies, and the fact that Don Juan could never be traced, critics argue that Castaneda’s books are works of fiction and not based on anthropological fieldwork.

Although Castaneda’s writings were not intended to be self-help books, his followers enthusiastically interpreted them as offering a practical philosophy of living and a set of life-improvement practices.

Inspirational Quotations by Carlos Castaneda

All paths are the same: they lead nowhere. However, a path without a heart is never enjoyable. On the other hand, a path with heart is easy—it does not make a warrior work at liking it; it makes for a joyful journey; as long as a man follows it, he is one with it.
—Carlos Castaneda (Peruvian-born American Anthropologist)

Nothing in this world is a gift. Whatever must be learned must be learned the hard way.
—Carlos Castaneda (Peruvian-born American Anthropologist)

No person is important enough to make me angry.
—Carlos Castaneda (Peruvian-born American Anthropologist)

The trick is in what one emphasizes. We either make ourselves miserable, or we make ourselves strong. The amount of work is the same.
—Carlos Castaneda (Peruvian-born American Anthropologist)

The only thing we all have in common is that we play tricks in order to force ourselves to abandon the quest. The counter-measure is to persist in spite of all the barriers and disappointments.
—Carlos Castaneda (Peruvian-born American Anthropologist)

We talk to ourselves incessantly about our world. In fact we maintain our world with our internal talk. And whenever we finish talking to ourselves about ourselves and our world, the world is always as it should be. We renew it, we rekindle it with life, we uphold it with our internal talk. Not only that, but we also choose our paths as we talk to ourselves. Thus we repeat the same choices over and over until the day we die, because we keep on repeating the same internal talk over and over until the day we die. A warrior is aware of this and strives to stop his internal talk.
—Carlos Castaneda (Peruvian-born American Anthropologist)

Learn to see, and then you’ll know that there is no end to the new worlds of our vision.
—Carlos Castaneda (Peruvian-born American Anthropologist)

When a man has fulfilled all four of these requisites—to be wide awake, to have fear, respect, and absolute assurance—there are no mistakes for which he will have to account; under such conditions his actions lose the blundering quality of the acts of a fool. If such a man fails, or suffers a defeat, he will have lost only a battle, and there will be no pitiful regrets over that.
—Carlos Castaneda (Peruvian-born American Anthropologist)

It doesn’t matter how one was brought up. What determines the way one does anything is personal power.
—Carlos Castaneda (Peruvian-born American Anthropologist)

An average man is too concerned with liking people or with being liked himself. A warrior likes, that’s all. He likes whatever or whomever he wants, for the hell of it.
—Carlos Castaneda (Peruvian-born American Anthropologist)

We hardly ever realize that we can cut anything out of our lives, anytime, in the blink of an eye.
—Carlos Castaneda (Peruvian-born American Anthropologist)

The world is incomprehensible. We won’t ever understand it; we won’t ever unravel its secrets. Thus we must treat the world as it is: a sheer mystery.
—Carlos Castaneda (Peruvian-born American Anthropologist)

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