50 Great Quotes

Most collectors collect tangibles.

As a quotation collector, I collect wisdom, life, invisible beauty, souls alive in ink.

(Terri Guillemets)

Quotes about Quotes I love quotes because good quotes are vitamins for the brain! (Patrick Driessen)

Precepts or maxims are of great weight; and a few useful ones at hand do more toward a happy life than whole volumes that we know not where to find. (Seneca)

The excellence of aphorisms consists not so much in the expression of some rare or abstruse sentiment, as in the comprehension of some useful truth in few words. (Samuel Johnson)

When a thing has been said and said well, have no scruple. Take it and copy it. (Anatole France)

All of us encounter, at least once in our life, some individual who utters words that make us think forever. There are men whose phrases are oracles; who can condense in one sentence the secrets of life; who blurt out an aphorism that forms a character, or illustrates an existence. (Benjamin Disraeli)

The only way to read a book of aphorisms without being bored is to open it at random and, having found something that interests you, close the book and meditate. (Prince de Ligne)

Quotations help us remember the simple yet profound truths that give life perspective and meaning. When it comes to life’s most important lessons, we can all use gentle reminders. (Chriswell Freeman)

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1. We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are.

(Anais Nin, 1903-1977, French-American writer)

2. To him who is in fear, everything rustles. (Sophocles, 497 BC- 406 BC, Greek playwright)

3. Things turn out best for the people who make the best of the way things turn out.

(John Wooden, 1910-2010, one of the most successful college basketball coaches of all time)

4. I like living. I have sometimes been wildly, despairingly, acutely miserable, racked with sorrow,

but through it all I still know quite certainly that just to be alive is a grand thing.

(Agatha Christie, 1890-1976, English mystery writer)

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5. Use your health, even to the point of wearing it out. That is what it is for. Spend all you have before you die;

and do not outlive yourself. (George Bernard Shaw, 1856-1950, Irish dramatist and critic, Nobel Prize for Literature)

This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by

yourself as a mighty one; the being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that

the world will not devote itself to making you happy. I want to be thoroughly used up when I die. Life is no "brief candle" for me. It is a

sort of splendid torch which I have got hold of for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on

to future generations. (George Bernard Shaw)

6. If you cry because the sun has gone out of your life, your tears will prevent you from seeing the stars.

(Tagore, 1861-1941, Indian poet, author, Nobel Prize for Literature)

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7. It is said an Eastern monarch once charged his wise men to invent him a sentence, to be ever in view, and which should be true and appropriate in all times and

situations. They presented him the words: “And this, too, shall pass away.”

(Abraham Lincoln, 1809-1865, 16th U.S. president)

8. If I were asked to give what I consider the single most useful bit of advice for all humanity, it would be this: Expect trouble as an inevitable part of life…Look

it squarely in the eye, and say, “I will be bigger than you. You cannot defeat me.”

(Ann Landers, 1907-1955, American advice columnist)

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9. The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven.

(John Milton, 1608-1674, English poet)

10. In times like these, it helps to recall that there have always been times like these.

(Paul Harvey, 1918-2009, American radio broadcaster)

11. When I look back on all these worries, I remember the story of the old man who said on his deathbed that

he had a lot of trouble in his life, most of which had never happened.

(Sir Winston Churchill, 1874-1965, English prime minister)

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12. Happy the man, and happy he alone, He who can call today his own: He who, secure within, can say,

Tomorrow do thy worst, for I have lived today. Be fair or foul or rain or shine

The joys I have possessed, in spite of fate, are mine. Not heaven itself upon the past has power,

But what has been, has been, and I have had my hour. (Horace, 65 B.C.-8B.C., Latin poet)

13. Sometimes our light goes out but is blown into flame by another human being. Each of us owes deepest

thanks to those who have rekindled this light. (Albert Schweitzer, 1875-1965, theologian, medical missionary Nobel Prize winner in philosophy)

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14. To give pleasure to a single heart by a single kind act is better than a thousand head-bowings in prayer.

(Saadi, 1184-1291, Persian mystic poet)

15. Kindness is more important than wisdom, and the recognition of this is the beginning of wisdom.

(Theodore Isaac Rubin, 1923, American psychiatrist and author)

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16. Enjoy the spring of love and youth, To some good angel leave the rest;

For time will teach thee soon the truth, There are no birds in last year’s nest. (Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, 1807-1882, American poet)

17. Reflect upon your present blessings, of which every man has plenty; not on your past misfortunes

of which all men have some. (Charles Dickens, 1812-1870, English novelist)

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18. Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.

(Antoine de Saint-Exupery, 1900-1944, French writer)

Mahatma Gandhi’s possessions

19. Prosperity depends more on wanting what you have than having what you want.

(Geoffrey Abert, late 20th century author)

20. In the long run, we shape our lives, and we shape ourselves. The process never ends until we die.

And the choices we make are ultimately our own responsibility.

(Eleanor Roosevelt, 1884-1962, American first lady, diplomat)

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21. Life is an adventure in forgiveness. (Norman Cousins, 1915-1990, American editor and author)

The Return of the Prodigal Son - Rembrandt

22. If you don’t like something change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude. Don’t complain.

(Maya Angelou, 1928-present, author, poet laureate)

23. God, give us the grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed, courage to change the things which should be changed, and the wisdom to

distinguish the one from the other. (Reinhold Niebuhr, 1892-1971, theologian)

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24. The liar’s punishment is not in the least that he is not believed, but that he cannot believe anyone else. (George Bernard Shaw, 1856-1950, Irish dramatist and critic, Nobel Prize for Literature)

25. Lying to ourselves is more deeply ingrained than lying to others.

(Fyodor Dostoyevsky, 1821-1881, Russian novelist)

26. A man must be big enough to admit his mistakes, smart enough to profit from them, and strong enough

to correct them. (John C. Maxwell, 1947, author)

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27. Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.

(Sir Winston Churchill, 1874-1965, English prime minister)

28. If you’re not making mistakes, you’re not trying hard enough.

(Vince Lombardi, 1913-1970, one of the most successful football coaches of all time)

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29. The obstacle is the path. (Zen aphorism, a school of Buddhism, 6th century)

30. My face is overrun with wrinkles; my head is marked with gray. My limbs have gone flaccid;

craving alone keeps its youth and vigor. (Vairagya-Shataka, Hindu)

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31. There is only one success – to be able to spend your life in your own way.

(Christopher Morley, 1890-1957,American author)

32. I don’t know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody.

(Bill Cosby, 1937-present, American comedian and actor)

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33. The conventional view serves to protect us from the painful job of thinking.

(John Kenneth Galbraith, 1908-2006, economist)

34. A belief is not true because it is useful. (Henri Frederic Amiel, 1821-1881, Swiss philosopher, poet)

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35. One of the lessons of history is that nothing is often a good thing to do and always a clever thing to say.

(Will Durant, 1885-1981, American historian)

Meher Baba, 1894-1969

From 1925 to the end of his life, Meher Baba maintained silence,

communicating by means of an alphabet board or by unique hand gestures.

36. The most difficult thing in the world is to know how to do a thing and to watch someone else do it wrong,

without comment. (T. H. White, 1915-1986, American political journalist)

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37. The longer I live, the more beautiful life becomes. (Frank Lloyd Wright, 1869-1959, American architect)

38. One can savor sights and sounds more deeply when one gets old. It may be the last time you see a

sunset, a tree, the snow, or know winter. The sea, a lake, all become as in childhood, magical

and a great wonder: then seen for the first time, now perhaps for the last. Music, bird songs, the wind,

the waves: One listens to tones with deeper delight and appreciation.

(Helen Nearing, 1904-1995, American author)

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39. Love is a great beautifier. (Louisa May Alcott, 1832-1888, American novelist)

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40. One of the oldest human needs is having someone to wonder where you are when you don’t come home

at night. (Margaret Mead, 1901-1978, American cultural anthropologist)

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41. Taking joy in life is a woman’s best cosmetic. (Rosalind Russell, 1912-1976, actress)

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42. The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools.

(Herbert Spencer, 1820-1903, British philosopher)

43. It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society. (J. Krishnamurti, 1895-1986, Indian philosopher)

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44. If there is anything we wish to change in the child, we should first examine it and see whether it is not something that could better be changed in ourselves.

(Carl Jung, 1875-1961, Swiss psychiatrist)

45. The young always have the same problem – how to rebel and conform at the same time. They have solved this by defying their parents and copying one another.

(Quentin Crisp, 1908-1999, English autobiographer)

46. My father always said there are four things a child needs: plenty of love, nourishing food, regular sleep,

and lost of soap and water. After that, what he needs most is some intelligent neglect.

(Ivy Baker Priest, 1905-1975, treasurer of the U.S.)

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47. The highest reward for a man’s toil is not what he gets for it but what he becomes by it.

(John Ruskin, 1819-1900, British art critic)

48. Perhaps the most valuable result of all education is the ability to make yourself do the thing you have to do,

when it ought to be done, whether you like it or not. (Walter Bagehot, 1826-1877, British journalist and economist)

49. I wasted time, and now doth time waste me. (William Shakespeare, 1564-1616, English dramatist)

50. Be of good cheer about death and know this as a truth – that no evil can happen to a good man,

either in life or after death. (Socrates, 469 B.C.-399 B.C., Greek philosopher)

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence is therefore not an act but a habit.

(Aristotle)

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