Right Attitudes

You cannot be fuelled by bitterness. It can eat you up but it cannot drive you.
—Benazir Bhutto (Pakistani Politician)

We are only activated by one desire—what we can do for the community and how we can help the nation strengthen itself.
—Stella Isaacs, Marchioness of Reading (English Humanitarian)

Omit needless words. Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts.
—William Strunk, Jr. (American Writer)

Never support two weaknesses at the same time. It’s your combination sinners—your lecherous liars and your miserly drunkards—who dishonor the vices and bring them into bad repute.
—Thornton Wilder (American Novelist, Dramatist)

Not being boring is quite a challenge.
—Ian McEwan (British Novelist, Short-Story Writer)

For the nearer any one approaches to God, the more he is illuminated, and therefore the more clearly does he see the majesty and mercy of God.
—Bonaventure (Italian Christian Scholar)

There are a thousand thousand reasons to live this life, every one of them sufficient.
—Marilynne Robinson (Novelist, Essayist)

Like most other things not apparently useful to man, it has few friends, and the blind question “Why was it made?” goes on and on, with never a guess that first of all it might have been made for itself.
—John Muir (American Naturalist)

The sleep of kings is on an anthill.
—Pashto Proverb

If the misery of the poor be caused not by the laws of nature, but by our institutions, great is our sin.
—Charles Darwin (British Naturalist)

Even overweight cats instinctively know the rule: when fat, arrange yourself in slim poses.
—John Weitz (American Fashion Designer)

Read, every day, something no one else is reading. Think, every day, something no one else is thinking. Do, every day, something no one else would be silly enough to do. It is bad for the mind to continually be part of unanimity.
—Christopher Morley (American Novelist, Essayist)

From quiet homes and first beginning,
Out to the undiscovered ends,
There’s nothing worth the winning,
But laughter and the love of friends.
—Hilaire Belloc (British Writer, Poet)

Human curiosity, the urge to know, is a powerful force and is perhaps the best secret weapon of all in the struggle to unravel the workings of the natural world.
—Aaron Klug (English Biophysicist)

Reflecting the values of the larger capitalistic society, there is no prestige whatsoever attached to actually working. Workers are invisible.
—Marge Piercy (American Poet)

Luxury is a matter not of all the things you have, but all the things you can afford to do without.
—Pico Iyer (British-born Essayist, Novelist of Indian Origin)

People think that stories are shaped by people. In fact, it’s the other way around.
—Terry Pratchett (English Fantasy Writer)

The purpose of psychology is to give us a completely different idea of the things we know best.
—Paul Valery (French Critic, Poet)

A speech should not just be a sharing of information, but a sharing of yourself.
—Ralph Archbold (American Actor)

Mythology is an integral part of religion. It is as necessary for religion and national culture as the skin and the skeleton that preserve a fruit with its juice and its taste. Form is no less essential than substance. Mythology and holy figures are necessary for any great culture to rest on its stable spiritual foundation and function as a life-giving inspiration and guide.
—Chakravarthi Rajagopalachari (Indian Statesman, Author)

One of the greatest joys known to man is to take a flight into ignorance in search of knowledge.
—Robert Wilson Lynd (Irish Essayist, Critic)

We who officially value freedom of speech above life itself seem to have nothing to talk about but the weather.
—Barbara Ehrenreich (American Social Critic)

We all have a little weakness, which is very natural but rather misleading, for supposing that this epoch must be the end of the world because it will be the end of us. How future generations will get on without us is indeed, when we come to think of it, quite a puzzle. But I suppose they will get on somehow, and may possibly venture to revise our judgments as we have revised earlier judgments
—G. K. Chesterton (English Journalist)

Strong political beliefs in either direction limit your ability to make rational decisions more than almost anything else.
—Morgan Housel (American Financial Journalist, Investor)

It is the critic’s duty to enter an artist’s individuality, to discover his intentions—intentions of which the artist himself is perhaps unconscious—so as to judge how far he has realized them, and then to determine what place he occupies in contemporary art.
—Sadakichi Hartmann (American Art Critic)

Consistently wise decisions can only be made by those whose wisdom is constantly challenged.
—Ted Sorensen (American Lawyer, Speechwriter)

Man is the measure of all things: of things which are, that they are, and of things which are not, that they are not.
—Protagoras (Ancient Greek Philosopher)

Man is a creature of hope and invention, both of which belie the idea that things cannot be changed.
—Tom Clancy (American Spy Novelist)

Our visions begin with our desires.
—Audre Lorde (American Poet, Feminist)

There is no fatigue so wearisome as that which comes from lack of work.
—Charles Spurgeon (English Baptist Preacher)

Conceit is incompatible with understanding.
—Leo Tolstoy (Russian Novelist)

Outside every fat man there was an even fatter man trying to close in.
—Kingsley Amis (English Novelist, Poet)

How disturbing it is that our illusions are often our most important beliefs.
—Hanif Kureishi (British Novelist, Screenwriter)

Wicked thoughts and worthless efforts gradually set their mark on the face, especially the eyes.
—Arthur Schopenhauer (German Philosopher)

A man never reaches that dizzy height of wisdom that he can no longer be lead by the nose.
—Mark Twain (American Humorist)

Nations without a past are contradictions in terms. What makes a nation is the past, what justifies one nation against others is the past, and historians are the people who produce it.
—Eric Hobsbawm (British Historian)

Think for yourself, question authority.
—Timothy Leary (American Psychologist)

True faith is belief in the reality of absolute values.
—William Motter Inge (American Playwright)

Children are tough, though we tend to think of them as fragile. They have to be tough. Childhood is not easy. We sentimentalize children, but they know what’s real and what’s not. They understand metaphor and symbol. If children are different from us, they are more spontaneous. Grown-up lives have become overlaid with dross.
—Maurice Sendak (American Writer, Illustrator)

If you’ve got it, flaunt it. If you do not, pretend.
—Wally Phillips (American Radio Personality)

Power is the recognition of necessity.
—Abraham Rotstein (Canadian Economist)

If you want creative workers, give them enough time to play.
—John Cleese (British Comic Actor, Writer)

Call for the grandest of all earthly spectacles, what is that? It is the sun going to his rest.
—Thomas de Quincey (English Essayist, Critic)

I have often repented speaking, but never of holding my tongue.
—Xenocrates (Greek Philosopher, Scientist)

I suppose the basic intuition that I have about it is very simply, this is a world in which there is a possibility of things going extraordinarily well or extraordinarily badly, where both the good things and the bad things are bigger than people think.
—Peter Thiel (American Entrepreneur)

Laughter is the corrective force which prevents us from becoming cranks.
—Henri Bergson (French Philosopher)

When you’re dying of thirst it’s too late to think about digging a well.
—Japanese Proverb

To govern is always to choose among disadvantages.
—Charles de Gaulle (French General, Statesman)