Right Attitudes

It is God who is the ultimate reason of things, and the knowledge of God is no less the beginning of science than his essence and will are the beginning of beings.
—Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (German Philosopher, Mathematician)

The angel of the Family is Woman. Mother, wife, or sister, Woman is the caress of life, the soothing sweetness of affection shed over its toils, a reflection for the individual of the loving providence which watches over Humanity. In her there is treasure enough of consoling tenderness to allay every pain. Moreover for every one of us she is the initiator of the future. The mother’s first kiss teaches the child love; the first holy kiss of the woman he loves teaches man hope and faith in life; and love and faith create a desire for perfection and the power of reaching towards it step by step; create the future, in short, of which the living symbol is the child, link between us and the generations to come. Through her the Family, with its divine mystery of reproduction, points to Eternity.
—Giuseppe Mazzini (Italian Revolutionary)

A style is not a matter of camera angles or fancy footwork, it’s an expression, an accurate expression of your particular opinion.
—Karel Reisz (Czech-British Film Director)

There are two kinds of writers—the great ones who can give you truths, and the lesser ones, who can only give you themselves.
—Clifton Fadiman (American Intellectual)

Great men are rarely isolated mountain-peaks; they are the summits of ranges.
—Thomas Wentworth Higginson (American Reformer, Editor)

The best armor of old age is a well-spent life preceding it.
—Charlie Munger (American Investor, Philanthropist)

Man can never escape pleasure or pain, because his body, which is a product of his good or bad actions, is by nature transient. After pleasure pain, after pain pleasure: creatures cannot escape these two, as they cannot the succession of day and night….It is, therefore, that the Sages knowing that all is but illusion, remain steadfast and neither are aggrieved nor joyous for events unhappy or happy.
—Adhyatma Ramayana (Hindu Religious Text)

An atheist is a man who has no invisible means of support.
—John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir (Scottish Novelist)

The only criterion for what is a fact is what it is rational to accept.
—Hilary Putnam (American Philosopher)

Steady as a clock, busy as a bee, and cheerful as a cricket.
—Martha Washington (American First Lady)

Everything you want is out there waiting for you to ask. Everything you want also wants you. But you have to take action to get it.
—Jack Canfield (American Self-Help Author)

He who seeks vengeance must dig two graves: one for his enemy and one for himself.
—Chinese Proverb

It’s precisely when people can’t see what it is that could make things turn down that risk is highest, since they tend not to price in risks they can’t see.
—Howard Marks (American Investor)

Time will always follow its rules. It will never transgress those boundaries it imposes on itself. Nobody can harm time. Hence, nobody can change what fate has in store for them.
—The Ramayana (Hindu Religious Text)

Equal opportunity is good, but special privilege is better.
—Anna Chennault (American Journalist)

Expecting good things to last and unwanted things to stay away forever is simply unrealistic, even when we are amid good karma and bounty aplenty.
—Lama Surya Das (American Buddhist Scholar)

The only thing that can save the world is the reclaiming of the awareness of the world. That’s what poetry does.
—Allen Ginsberg (American Poet)

There is no greater impediment to the advancement of knowledge than the ambiguity of words.
—Thomas Reid (Scottish Philosopher)

I suppose that everyone of us hopes secretly for immortality; to leave, I mean, a name behind him which will live forever in this world, whatever he may be doing, himself, in the next.
—A. A. Milne (British Humorist, Children’s Writer)

In questions of science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual.
—Galileo Galilei (Italian Astronomer)

The most important, the most fundamental and the deepest investigations are those that affect human life and activities most profoundly. Only those scientists who have laboured, not with the aim of producing this or that, but with the sole desire to advance knowledge ultimately prove to be the greatest benefactors of humanity.
—C. V. Raman (Indian Physicist)

Love, you are eternal like springtime.
—Juan Ramon Jimenez (Spanish Lyric Poet)

Drastic action can be costly, but it can be less expensive than continuing inaction.
—Richard Neustadt (American Historian)

The great use of life is to spend it for something that will outlast it.
—William James (American Philosopher)

If Fortune calls, offer him a seat.
—Yiddish Proverb

There is just one rule for politicians all over the world. Don’t say in Power what you say in Opposition: if you do you only have to carry out what the other fellows have found impossible.
—John Galsworthy (English Novelist, Playwright)

Immature poets imitate, mature poets steal.
—Philip Massinger (English Playwright)

Love, friendship and respect do not unite people as much as a common hatred for something.
—Anton Chekhov (Russian Short Story Writer)

Better one word less than one too many.
—Maltese Proverb

A cherefull look makes a dish a feast.
—George Herbert (Welsh Anglican Poet)

Enlightenment must come little by little—otherwise it would overwhelm.
—Idries Shah (Indian-born Sufi Author)

Whatever your grade or position, if you know how and when to speak, and when to remain silent, your chances of real success are proportionately increased.
—Ralph C. Smedley (Founder of Toastmasters)

The kindest and the happiest pair, will find occasion to forbear; find something every day they live, to pity, and perhaps forgive.
—William Cowper (English Anglican Poet)

The winning team has a dedication. It will have a core of veteran players who set the standards. They will not accept defeat.
—Merlin Olsen (American Sportsman)

Don’t simply retire from something; have something to retire to.
—Harry Emerson Fosdick (American Baptist Minister)

The important thing is to know how to take all things quietly.
—Michael Faraday (British Physicist, Chemist)

The moral virtues, without religion, are but cold, lifeless, and insipid; it is only religion which opens the mind to great conceptions, fills it with the most sublime ideas, and warns the soul with more than sensual pleasures.
—Joseph Addison (English Poet, Playwright, Politician)

One swallow does not make a summer, but one skein of geese, cleaving the murk of March thaw, is the Spring.
—Aldo Leopold (American Conservationist)

Happy is he who still loves something he loved in the nursery: he has not been broken in two by time; he is not two men, but one, and he has saved not only his soul but his life.
—G. K. Chesterton (English Journalist)

If you’re in the luckiest 1 per cent of humanity, you owe it to the rest of humanity to think about the other 99 per cent.
—Warren Buffett (American Investor)

Inspiration is a slender river of brightness leaping from a vast and eternal knowledge, it exceeds reason more perfectly than reason exceeds the knowledge of the senses.
—Sri Aurobindo (Indian Mystic, Philosopher, Poet)

He who is prepared for the future and he who deals cleverly with any situation that may arise are both happy; but the fatalistic man who wholly depends on luck is ruined.
—Chanakya Neeti (Anthology of Indian Aphorisms)

Hard work is the key to success, so work diligently on any project you undertake. If you truly want to be successful, be prepared to give up your leisure time and work past 5 PM and on weekends. Also, have faith in yourself. If you come up with a new idea that you believe in, don’t allow other people to discourage you from pursuing it.
—Charles Lazarus (American Entrepreneur)