Inspirational Quotations

It’s the 175th birthday of one of America’s most famous writers, Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known by his nom de plume, Mark Twain. He was born on November 30, 1835 in Florida, Missouri. Mark Twain studied up to the fifth grade and quit school when his father died. He supported his family first as a typesetter and later as a riverboat captain until the Civil War broke out in 1861. He then headed west, worked as a miner, and eventually became a journalist. By 1866, Mark Twain had gained national fame as a humorist and travel writer.

Today, Mark Twain is much celebrated for, among many works, three novels that are often used as academic texts: “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” (1876), “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” (1885), and “Pudd’nhead Wilson” (1894), all of which are set in the Mississippi valley. Mark Twain’s writings are characterized by his natural wit, social criticism, and a keen understanding of human nature. Mark Twain toured widely as a renowned public speaker and continued to write until his death of a heart attack on April 21, 1910.

Further Reading

• The recently-released “Autobiography of Mark Twain”
• “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” (get a download for free)
• “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” (get a download for free)
• “Pudd’nhead Wilson” (get a download for free)
• “The Wit and Wisdom of Mark Twain”

Inspirational Quotations by Mark Twain

Each man must for himself alone decide what is right and what is wrong, which course is patriotic and which isn’t. You cannot shirk this and be a man. To decide against your conviction is to be an unqualified and inexcusable traitor, both to yourself and to your country, let men label you as they may.
—Mark Twain (American Humorist)

We should be careful to get out of an experience only the wisdom that is in it—and stop there; lest we be like the cat that sits down on a hot stove-lid. She will never sit down on a hot stove-lid again – and that is well; but also she will never sit down on a cold one anymore.
—Mark Twain (American Humorist)

Lord save us all from… a hope tree that has lost the faculty of putting out blossoms.
—Mark Twain (American Humorist)

Go to bed early, get up early—this is wise.
—Mark Twain (American Humorist)

Let us endeavor so to live that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry.
—Mark Twain (American Humorist)

Praise is well, compliment is well, but affection-that is the last and most precious reward that any man can win, whether by character or achievement.
—Mark Twain (American Humorist)

I am an old man and have known a great many troubles, but most of them never happened.
—Mark Twain (American Humorist)

Nothing that grieves us can be called little: by the eternal laws of proportion, a child’s loss of a doll and a king’s loss of a crown are events of the same size.
—Mark Twain (American Humorist)

That which we persist in doing becomes easier – not that the nature of the task has changed, but our ability to do has increased.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (American Philosopher)

Men spend their lives in anticipations, in determining to be vastly happy at some period when they have time. But the present time has one advantage over every other—it is our own. Past opportunities are gone, future are not come. We may lay in a stock of pleasures, as we would lay in a stock of wine; but if we defer the tasting of them too long, we shall find that both are soured by age.
—Charles Caleb Colton (English Angelic Priest)

And even if you were in some prison, the walls of which let none of the sounds of the world come to your senses – would you not then still have your childhood, that precious, kingly possession, that treasure-house of memories?
—Rainer Maria Rilke (Austrian Poet)

Anger is foremost enemy of humankind, which inherently resides within oneself only to destroy him, just like fire which is enkindled by a piece of wood ends up burning the piece.
—Subhashita Manjari

I can live without money, but I cannot live without love.
—Judy Garland

I believe in work, hard work, and long hours of work. Men do not breakdown from overwork, but from worry and dissipation.
—Charles Evans Hughes (American Elected Rep)

It is easier to act yourself into a better way of feeling than to feel yourself into a better way of action.
—Orval Hobart Mowrer (American Psychologist)

Authors and lovers always suffer some infatuation, from which only absence can set them free.
—Samuel Johnson (British Essayist)

The world is satisfied with words, few care to dive beneath the surface.
—Blaise Pascal (French Catholic Mathematician)

Who makes quick use of the moment, is a genius of prudence.
—Johann Kaspar Lavater (Swiss Christian Poet)

Money is power, freedom, a cushion, the root of all evil, the sum of blessings.
—Carl Sandburg (American Children’s Books Writer)

Do your little bit of good where you are; it’s those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.
—Desmond Tutu (South African Anglican Priest)

Almost all of the world-class athletes and other peak performers are visualizers. They see it; they feel it; they experience it before they actually do it. They begin with the end in mind.
—Stephen Covey (American Management Consultant)

I never enter a new company without the hope that I may discover a friend, perhaps the friend, sitting there with an expectant smile. That hope survives a thousand disappointments.
—A. C. Benson (English Essayist)

Let us remember that the times which future generations delight to recall are not those of ease and prosperity, but those of adversity bravely borne.
—Charles William Eliot (American Educator)

Justice is the tolerable accommodation of the conflicting interests of society, and I don’t believe there is any royal road to attain such accommodation concretely.
—Learned Hand

And a beautiful world we live in, when it is possible, and when many other such things are possible, and not only possible, but done under that sky there, every day.
—Charles Dickens (English Novelist)

Families with babies and families without babies are sorry for each other.
—E. W. Howe (American Novelist)

When you are genuinely strong, you neither attack nor defend and so retain your energy.
—Vernon Howard

Money is multiplied in practical value depending on the number of W’s you control in your life: what you do, when you do it, where you do it, and with whom you do it. I call this the freedom multiplier.
—Tim Ferriss

An idea that is developed and put into action is more important than an idea that exists only as an idea.
—Edward de Bono (Maltese Physician)

When I decided to go into politics I weighted the costs. I would get criticism. But I went ahead. So when virulent criticism came I wasn’t surprised. I was better able to handle it.
—Herbert Hoover (American Head of State)

Faith is believing where we cannot prove.
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson (British Poet)

A sailor chooses the wind that takes the ship from a safe port. Ah, yes, but once you’re abroad, as you have seen, winds have a mind of their own. Be careful of the wind you choose.
—Avi (Edward Irving Wortis) (American Writer)

You’ve got to get up every morning with a smile on your face, and show the world all the love in your heart, then people gonna treat you better. You’re gonna find, yes, you will, that you’re beautiful as you feel.
—Carole King (American Singer)

The world looks like a mathematical equation which, turn it how you will, balances itself. Every secret is told, every crime is punished, every virtue rewarded, every wrong redressed, in silence and certainty.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (American Philosopher)

The fact is, nothing comes; at least, nothing good. All has to be fetched.
—Charles Buxton

Every evil to which we do not succumb is a benefactor.—As the Sandwich Islander believes that the strength and valor of the enemy he kills passes into himself, so we gain the strength of the temptation we resist.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (American Philosopher)

Man often becomes what he believes himself to be. If I keep on saying to myself that I cannot do a certain thing, it is possible that I may end by really becoming incapable of doing it. On the contrary, if I shall have the belief that I can do it, I shall surely acquire the capacity to do it, even if I may not have it at the beginning.
—Mohandas K. Gandhi (Indian Hindu Political leader)

In minds crammed with thoughts, organs clogged with toxins, and bodies stiffened with neglect, there is just no space for anything else.
—Alison Rose Levy

Indolence is a delightful but distressing state; we must be doing something to be happy. Action is no less necessary than thought to the instinctive tendencies of the human frame.
—William Hazlitt (English Essayist)

If a society is to preserve stability and a degree of continuity, it must know how to keep its adolescents from imposing their tastes, attitudes, values and fantasies on everyday life.
—Eric Hoffer (American Philosopher)

Is there anyone so wise as to learn by the experience of others?
—Voltaire (French Philosopher)

So tonight you better stop and rebuild all your ruins, because peace and trust can win the day despite of all your losing.
—Led Zeppelin

Friendship is the only thing in the world concerning the usefulness of which all mankind are agreed.
—Cicero (Roman Philosopher)

Don’t let your throat tighten with fear. Take sips of breath all day and night, before death closes your mouth.
—Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi (Persian Muslim Mystic)

We change, whether we like it or not.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (American Philosopher)

Pain reaches the heart with electrical speed, but truth moves to the heart as slowly as a glacier.
—Barbara Kingsolver (American Novelist)

Reality doesn’t wait for your opinion, vote, or permission, sweetheart. It just keeps being what it is and doing what it does.
—Byron Katie (American Speaker)

Happy is the man who hath never known what it is to taste of fame—to have it is a purgatory, to want it is a Hell.
—Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton (English Poet)

No man is born into the world whose work is not born with him. There is always work, and tools to work with, for those who will, and blessed are the horny hands of toil. The busy world shoves angrily aside the man who stands with arms akimbo until occasion tells him what to do; and he who waits to have his task marked out shall die and leave his errand unfulfilled.
—James Russell Lowell (American Poet)

Today, we present inspirational quotations from the works of English poet and playwright, William Shakespeare (1564—1616.)

“The Bard of Avon” is widely regarded as the best English language writer ever. Shakespeare is believed to have been born on 23 April 1564 and passed away on his 52nd birthday, on 23 April 1616. Shakespeare produced most of his famous works, viz., Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, King Lear, Macbeth, Julius Caesar, and others, between the ages of 25 and 49. His authorship consists of about 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and several other poems.

Not many particulars of Shakespeare’s private life are documented. There is much speculation of various aspects of Shakespeare’s life, including the authorship and chronology of his works, his physical appearance, and religious affiliation. Countless literary scholars and historians have dedicated their careers to throw light on the mystery of Shakespeare.

Shakespeare’s epitaph reads,

Good friend, for Jesus’ sake forbeare
To dig the dust enclosed here.
Blessed be the man that spares these stones,
And cursed be he that moves my bones.

Suggested Resources

• William Shakespeare Complete Works (Modern Library)
• The Comedy of Errors – The Works of William Shakespeare [Cambridge Edition]
• The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (MIT)
• Annotated guide to the scholarly Shakespeare resources available on the Internet
• Plays by William Shakespeare

Quotations by William Shakespeare

If all the year were playing holidays, to sport would be as tedious as to work: but when they seldom come, they wished for come, and nothing pleaseth but rare accidents.
—William Shakespeare (British Playwright)

The lunatic, the lover, and the poet, are of imagination all compact.
—William Shakespeare (British Playwright)

Thieves for their robbery have authority when judges steal themselves.
—William Shakespeare (British Playwright)

Do you not know I am a woman? when I think, I must speak.
—William Shakespeare (British Playwright)

The jury, passing on the prisoner’s life, may have in the sworn twelve a thief or two guiltier than him they try.
—William Shakespeare (British Playwright)

How far that little candle throws his beams! So shines a good deed in a naughty world.
—William Shakespeare (British Playwright)

The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose. An evil soul, producing holy witness, is like a villain with a smiling cheek; a goodly apple rotten at the heart.
—William Shakespeare (British Playwright)

Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind,|And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.
—William Shakespeare (British Playwright)

Striving to better, oft we mar what’s well.
—William Shakespeare (British Playwright)

Foul cankering rust the hidden treasure frets,|But gold that’s put to use more gold begets.
—William Shakespeare (British Playwright)

People are lucky and unlucky … according to the ratio between what they get and what they have been led to expect.
—Samuel Butler

It is always possible to be thankful for what is given rather than to complain about what is not given.
—Elisabeth Elliot (American Christian Author)

Respect for the truth is an acquired taste.
—Mark Van Doren

Exchange the words ‘have to’ with ‘get to.’ Exchange the word ‘can’t’ with ‘unwilling.’
—Jamie Lee Curtis (American Children’s Books Writer)

Industry need not wish, and he that lives upon hopes will die fasting. There are no gains without pains. He that hath a trade hath an estate, and he that hath a calling hath an office of profit and honor; but then the trade must be worked at, and the calling followed, or neither the, estate nor the office will enable us to pay our taxes. If we are industrious, we shall never starve; for, at the workingman’s house hunger looks in, but dares not enter. Nor will the bailiff or the constable enter, for industry pays debts, while idleness and neglect increase them.
—Benjamin Franklin (American Political leader)

Every now and then, when the world sits just right, a gentle breath of heaven fills my soul with delight … .
—Hazelmarie ‘Mattie’ Elliott

We would frequently be ashamed of our good deeds if people saw all of the motives that produced them.
—Francois de La Rochefoucauld

I am only one; but still I am one. I cannot do everything; but still I can do something; and because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do the something that I can do.
—Edward Everett Hale (American Unitarian Clergyman)

Perfect courage is to do without witnesses what one would be capable of doing with the world looking on.
—Francois de La Rochefoucauld

Always imitate the behavior of the winners when you lose.
—George Meredith

Look up and not down, look forward and not back, look out and not in, and lend a hand!
—Edward Everett Hale (American Unitarian Clergyman)

So much of our time is spent in preparation, so much in routine, and so much in retrospect, that the amount of each person’s genius is confined to a very few hours.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (American Philosopher)

No man is quick enough to enjoy life to the full.
—Spanish Proverb

That it will never come again is what makes life so sweet.
—Emily Dickinson (American Poet)

The word ”Christianity” is already a misunderstanding—in reality there has been only one Christian, and he died on the Cross.
—Friedrich Nietzsche (German Philosopher, Scholar)

Enjoy yourself–it’s later than you think.
—Chinese Proverb

Catch, then, oh catch the transient hour;|Improve each moment as it flies!|Life’s a short summer, man a flower;|He dies – alas! how soon he dies.
—Samuel Johnson (British Essayist)

Enjoy yourself. It’s later than you think.
—Chinese Proverb

Be happy while you’re living, for you’re a long time dead.
—Scottish Proverb

We’re fools whether we dance or not, so we might as well dance.
—Japanese Proverb

Fear not that thy life shall come to an end, but rather fear that it shall never have a beginning.
—John Henry Newman (British Catholic Clergyman)

Use your health, even to the point of wearing it out. That is what it is for. Spend all you have before you die; do not outlive yourself.
—George Bernard Shaw (Irish Playwright)

Tears are the silent language of grief.
—Voltaire (French Philosopher)

Good things, when short, are twice as good.
—Baltasar Gracian

Happiness seems to require a modicum of external prosperity.
—Aristotle (Ancient Greek Philosopher)

It is not the magnitude of the task that matters, it is the magnitude of our courage that counts.
—Matthieu Ricard (French Buddhist Monk)

Few of us write great novels; all of us live them.
—Mignon McLaughlin (American Journalist)

The greatest crimes are caused by surfeit, not by want.
—Aristotle (Ancient Greek Philosopher)

To add a library to a house is to give that house a soul.
—Cicero (Roman Philosopher)

I find four great classes of students: The dumb who stay dumb. The dumb who become wise. The wise who go dumb. The wise who remain wise.
—Martin H. Fischer

I’d rather be a few pounds heavier and enjoy life than be worried all the time.
—Drew Barrymore (American Actor)

I am coming to feel that the people of ill will have used time much more effectively than the people of goodwill. We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the vitriolic words and actions of the bad people, but for the appalling silence of the good people. We must come to see that human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability. It comes through the tireless efforts and persistent work of men willing to be co-workers with God, and without this hard work time itself becomes an ally of the forces of social stagnation. We must use time creatively, and forever realize that the time is always ripe to do right. Now is the time to make real the promise of democracy, and transform our pending national elegy into a creative psalm of brotherhood. Now is the time to lift our national policy from the quicksand of racial injustice to the solid rock of human dignity.
—Martin Luther King, Jr. (American Civil Rights Leader)