Quotations

Q U O T A T I O N S

All great truths begin as blasphemies. --George Bernard Shaw
"If a thing is old, it is a sign that it was fit to live. ... The guarantee of continuity is quality." -Eddie Rickenbacker
"Art is not chaste. Those ill prepared should be allowed no contact with art. Art is dangerous. If it is chaste, it is not art." Picasso
Why should I fear death? If I am, death is not. If death is, I am not. Why should I fear that which can only exist when I do not? --Epicurus
"Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young." -Henry Ford
A man's ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death. --Albert Einstein
It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness. --Carl Sagan
You gain strength, experience and confidence by every experience where you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing you cannot do. --Eleanor Roosevelt
Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call to her tribunal every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blindfolded fear. --Thomas Jefferson
"So out went the candle, and we were left a darkling." - Shakespeare, King Lear
"To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded." - Ralph Waldo Emerson
"Be the change you want to see in the world." - Gandhi.
Progress always involves risk; you can't steal second base and keep your foot on first. --Frederick Wilcox
I shall give a propagandist cause for starting the war. Never mind whether it is plausible or not. The victor will not be asked, later on, whether he told the truth or not. In starting and waging a war, it is not Right that matters but Victory. Have no pity. Adopt a brutal attitude...Right is on the side of the strongest. --Adolph Hitler, 09/22/39, Speech to high officers
"Life is a God-damned, stinking, treacherous game and nine hundred and ninety-nine men out of a thousand are bastards." --Theodore Dreiser (American novelist), quoting an unnamed newspaper editor.
"The world is a toilet. And the people are the shit." - Vincent Crowley of Acheron.
"In the darkness, everything is clearer than daylight." - King Diamond.
"Left is right and right is wrong." - Draconis Blackthorne.
"Greater Am I in the I Am than the herd who are in the world." - Draconis Blackthorne.
"Whatever you do, do it with all your might. Work at it, early and late, in season and out of season, not leaving a stone unturned, and never deferring for a single hour that which can be done just as well as now." -P.T. Barnum
It is better by noble boldness to run the risk of being subject to half the evils we anticipate than to remain in cowardly listlessness for fear of what might happen. --Herodotus
"Those who foresee the future and recognize it as tragic are often seized by a madness which forces them to commit the very acts which makes it certain that what they dread shall happen." -Dame Rebecca West
"The secret of success is to know something nobody else knows." -Aristotle Onassis
But doubt is as crucial to faith as darkness is to light. Without one, the other has no context and is meaningless. Faith is, by definition, uncertainty. It is full of doubt, steeped in risk. It is about matters not of the known, but of the unknown. --Carter Heywood, Reverend and author
By means of shrewd lies, unremittingly repeated, it is possible to make people believe that heaven is hell - and hell heaven. The greater the lie, the more readily it will be believed. --Adolph Hitler, from Mein Kampf
"An armed society is a polite society. Manners are good when one may have to back up his acts with his life." -Robert A. Heinlein
If there is any principle of the Constitution that more imperatively calls for attachment than any other, it is the principle of free thought - not free thought only for those who agree with us, but freedom for the thought we hate. --Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., Supreme Court Justice
You can discover what your enemy fears most by observing the means he uses to frighten you. --Eric Hoffer
"I feel very old sometimes...I carry on and would not like to die before having emptied a few more buckets of shit on the heads of my fellow men."
--Gustave Flaubert (1821-1880), author of MADAME BOVARY
The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher regard those who think alike than those who think differently. - Friedrich Nietzche
"Science is organized knowledge. Wisdom is organized life." -Immanuel Kant
"Freedom of speech and freedom of action are meaningless without freedom to think. And there is no freedom of thought without doubt." -Bergen Baldwin Evans
Enthusiasm is the element of success in everything. It is the light that leads and the strength that lifts people on and up in the great struggles of scientific pursuits and of professional labor. It robs endurance of difficulty, and makes pleasure of duty.
"Cat’s Motto: No matter what you’ve done wrong, always try to make it look like the dog did it." Unknown
"The average dog is a nicer person than the average person." Andrew A. Rooney
"Take your love and shove it up your big, fat ass." ---Vincent Laguardia Gambini
"The common people are worth dying for until you bunch them together and give then a cold once-over, then they impress the impartial observer as being slightly bovine, with a large percentage of vegetable tissue." --George Ade, 1886-1944
"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy." -Martin Luther King, Jr.

"Men of genius sometimes accomplish most when they work the least, for they are thinking out inventions and forming in their minds the perfect idea that they subsequently express with their hands." - Leonardo da Vinci
"Revolution is not something fixed in ideology, nor is it something fashioned to a particular decade. It is a perpetual process embedded in the human spirit." -Abbie Hoffman.
"Life only demands from you the strength you possess. Only one feat is possible - not to have run away." - Dag Hamarskjold, Swedish statesman
"The Christian resolve to see the world as ugly and bad, has made the world ugly and bad." ~ Nietzsche "The Antichrist"
"No written law has ever been more binding than unwritten custom supported by popular opinion." - Carrie Chapman Catt
"Miracles are propitious accidents, the natural causes of which are too complicated to be readily understood." - George Santayana
"No amount of study or learning will make a man a leader unless he has the natural qualities of one." - Archibald Wavell
"Nothing astonishes men so much as common sense and plain dealing." - Ralph Waldo Emerson
"In all life one should comfort the afflicted, but verily, also, one should afflict the comfortable, and especially when they are comfortably, contentedly, even happily wrong." - John Kenneth Galbraith, Economist
"The true charter of liberty is independence, maintained by force." - Voltaire
"Contentment makes poor men rich; discontent makes rich men poor." - Ben Franklin
"There are two insults which no human will endure: the assertion that he hasn't a sense of humor, and the doubly impertinent assertion that he has never known trouble." - Sinclair Lewis
"No idea is so antiquated that it was not once modern. No idea is so modern that it will not some day be antiquated.... To seize the flying thought before it escapes us is our only touch with reality."
"One worthwhile task carried to a successful conclusion is worth half-a-hundred half-finished tasks." - Bertie Charles Forbes, Publisher
"The Constitution only gives people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself." - Ben Franklin
"Use your power from within to combat the forces from above." - Googie horror-scope 6/12/02
"If we take care of the minutes, the years will take care of themselves." - Ben Franklin
"A good listener tries to understand thoroughly what the other person is saying. In the end he may disagree sharply, but before he disagrees, he wants to know exactly what it is he is disagreeing with." - Kenneth A. Wells
"Start by doing what's necessary, then what's possible and suddenly you are doing the impossible." - Thomas Carlyle
"What progress we are making. In the Middle Ages they would have burned me. Now they are content with burning my books." -Sigmund Freud
"Half the world is composed of idiots, the other half of people clever enough to take indecent advantage of them." -Walter Kerr
"He who chooses the beginning of a road chooses the place it leads to. It is the means that determines the end." - Henry Emerson Fosdick, American clergyman and author
"Time does not become sacred to us until we have lived it, until it has passed over us and taken with it a part of ourselves." -John Burroughs
"Do not be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better. What if they are a little course, and you may get your coat soiled or torn? What if you do fail, and get fairly rolled in the dirt once or twice. Up again, you shall never be so afraid of a tumble." -Ralph Waldo Emerson, American essayist
"Whatever games are played with us, we must play no games with ourselves, but deal in our privacy with the last honesty and truth." - Ralph Waldo Emerson, American essayist
You and I want our lives to matter. We want our lives to make a real difference -- to be of genuine consequence in the world. We know that there is no satisfaction in merely going through the motions, even if those motions make us successful, or even if we have arranged to make those motions pleasant. We want to know we have made some impact on the world. In fact, you and I want to contribute to the quality of life. We want to make the world work." - Werner Erhard
"Sometimes I wonder whether the world is being run by smart people who are putting us on or by imbeciles who really mean it." - Mark Twain
"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy." - Martin Luther King, Jr.
"There is no such thing as can't, only won't. If you're qualified, all it takes is a burning desire to accomplish, to make a change. Go forward, go backward. whatever it takes." - Jan Ashford
"The true perfection of man lies, not in what man has, but in what man is....Nothing should be able to harm a man but himself....What is outside of him should be a matter of no importance." - Oscar Wilde
"Life is a great big canvas, and you should throw all the paint on it you can." - Danny Kaye
"History is a better guide than good intentions." - Jeane J. Kirkpatrick
"Sometimes I wonder whether the world is being run by smart people who are putting us on or by imbeciles who really mean it." - Mark Twain
Reach high, for stars lie hidden in your soul. Dream deep, for every dream precedes the goal." - Ralph Vaull Starr
"There is no such thing as can't, only won't. If you're qualified, all it takes is a burning desire to accomplish, to make a change. Go forward, go backward. whatever it takes." - Jan Ashford
"The true perfection of man lies, not in what man has, but in what man is....Nothing should be able to harm a man but himself....What is outside of him should be a matter of no importance." --Oscar Wilde
"Life is a great big canvas, and you should throw all the paint on it you can." -Danny Kaye
"History is a better guide than good intentions." -Jeane J. Kirkpatrick

"Aim at perfection in everything, though in most things it is unattainable. However, they who aim at it, and persevere, will come much nearer to it than those whose laziness and despondency make them give it up as unattainable." - Lord Chesterfield, 17th Century English statesman.
"What is life? It is the flash of a firefly in the night. It is the breath of a buffalo in the wintertime. It is the little shadow which runs across the grass and loses itself in the sunset." - Crowfoot, Blackfoot warrior (1890)
"Here's freedom to him who would speak, Here's freedom to him who would write, For there's none ever feared that the truth should be heard, Except he who the truth would indict." - Robert Burns
"Let us be thankful for the fools. But for them the rest of us could not succeed." - Mark Twain
"To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded." - Ralph Waldo Emerson
Beware the leader who bangs the drums of war in order to whip the citizenry into a patriotic fervor, for patriotism is indeed a double-edged sword. It both emboldens the blood, just as it narrows the mind. And when the drums of war have reached a fever pitch and the blood boils with hate and the mind has closed, the leader will have no need in seizing the rights of the citizenry. Rather, the citizenry, infused with fear and blinded by patriotism, will offer up all of their rights unto the leader and gladly so. How do I know? For this is what I have done. And I am Caesar. -- Julius Caesar
"Never tell the truth to people who are not worthy of it." -Mark Twain
Do not fear the enemy, for your enemy can only take your life. It is far better that you fear the media, for they will steal your HONOR. That awful power, the public opinion of a nation, is created in America by a horde of ignorant, self-complacent simpletons who failed at ditching and shoemaking and fetched up in journalism on their way to the poorhouse. - Mark Twain.
Neither philosophy, nor religion, nor morality, nor wisdom, nor interest will ever govern nations or parties against their vanity, their pride, their resentment or revenge, or their avarice or ambition. --John Adams.
"Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young." -Henry Ford

"The myth is the public domain and the dream is the private myth. If your private myth, your dream, happens to coincide with that of the society, you are in good accord with your group. If it isn't, you've got a long adventure in the dark forest ahead of you." --Joseph Campbell, Author (1904-1987).

Every new opinion, at its starting, is precisely in a minority of one. - Thomas Carlysle (1795-1881) Scottish essayist & historian
One of the most tragic things I know about human nature is that "all of us" tend to put off living. We are all dreaming of some magical rose garden over the horizon, instead of enjoying the roses that are blooming outside our windows today. - Dale Carnegie

The block of granite which was an obstacle in the path of the weak, becomes a steppingstone in the path of the strong. --Thomas Carlysle (1795-1881) Scottish essayist and historian.

"Why of course the people don't want war. Why should some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece? Naturally the common people don't want war: neither in Russia, nor in England, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country." - Hermann Goering
"A collective tyrant, spread over the length and breadth of the land, is no more acceptable than a single tyrant ensconced on his throne". -Georges Clemenceau (French Diplomat, circa WWI)
Only those who risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go. - T.S. Eliot

"Kill one man and you are a murderer. Kill millions and you are a conqueror. Kill them all and you are God." - Jean Rostand.

United Satanic America
Thanks to Ms. Honey Hellfire for compiling the following quotes. Originally broadcast on The Honey Hellfire Show for Independance Day XXXVI Anno Satanas.

The Bible
Thomas Jefferson: "I have examined all the known superstitions of the word, and I do not find in our particular superstition of Christianity one redeeming feature. They are all alike founded on fables and mythology. Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined and imprisoned. What has been the effect of this coercion? To make one half the world fools and the other half hypocrites; to support roguery and error all over the earth."
"Christianity...(has become) the most perverted system that ever shone on man. ...Rogueries, absurdities and untruths were perpetrated upon the teachings of Jesus by a large band of dupes and importers led by Paul, the first great corrupter of the teaching of Jesus."
"The clergy converted the simple teachings of Jesus into an engine for enslaving mankind and adulterated by artificial constructions into a contrivance to filch wealth and power to themselves...these clergy, in fact, constitute the real Anti-Christ.
Jefferson's word for the Bible? "Dunghill."
John Adams: "The doctrine of the divinity of Jesus is made a convenient cover for absurdity."
Adams signed the Treaty of Tripoli. Article 11 states: "The Government of the United States is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion."
Thomas Paine
"Among the most detestable villains in history, you could not find one worse than Moses. Here is an order, attributed to 'God' to butcher the boys, to massacre the mothers and to debauch and rape the daughters. I would not dare so dishonor my Creator's name by (attaching) it to this filthy book (the Bible)."
"It is the duty of every true Deist to vindicate the moral justice of God against the evils of the Bible."
"Accustom a people to believe that priests and clergy can forgive sins...and you will have sins in abundance."
"The Christian church has set up a religion of pomp and revenue in pretended imitation of a person who lived a life of poverty."
"Whenever we read the obscene stories, the voluptuous debaucheries, the cruel and torturous executions, the unrelenting vindictiveness, with which more than half the Bible is filled, it would be more consistent that we called it the word of a demon, than the word of God. It is a history of wickedness, that has served to corrupt and brutalize mankind."
"I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish church, by the Roman church, by the Greek church, by the Turkish church, by the Protestant church, nor by any church that I know of... Each of those churches accuse the other of unbelief; and for my own part, I disbelieve them all."
James Madison
"What influence in fact have Christian ecclesiastical establishments had on civil society? In many instances they have been upholding the thrones of political tyranny. In no instance have they been seen as the guardians of the liberties of the people. Rulers who wished to subvert the public liberty have found in the clergy convenient auxiliaries. A just government, instituted to secure and perpetuate liberty, does not need the clergy."
"Religion and government will both exist in greater purity, the less they are mixed together."
"During almost fifteen centuries has the legal establishment of Christianity been on trial. What have been its fruits? More or less in all places, pride and indolence in the Clergy, ignorance and servility in the laity; in both, superstition, bigotry and persecution."
''The civil rights of none shall be abridged on account of religious belief or worship, nor shall any national religion be established, nor shall the full and equal rights of conscience be in any manner, or on any pretence, infringed.''
Religion Quotes:
Thomas Jefferson:
"Question with boldness even the existence of a god."
"All persons shall have full and free liberty of religious opinion; nor shall any be compelled to frequent or maintain any religious institution."
"I consider the government of the United States as interdicted by the Constitution from intermeddling with religious institutions, their doctrines, discipline, or exercises. This results not only from the provision that no law shall be made respecting the establishment or free exercise of religion, but from that also which reserves to the States the powers not delegated to the United States. Certainly, no power to prescribe any religious exercise, or to asssume authority in religious discipline, has been delegated to the General Government."
"I do not find in orthodox Christianity one redeeming feature."
"The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods, or no God. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg."
Where the phrase "Church and State" came from:
"I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should 'make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,' thus building a wall of separation between church and State."
"The care of every man's soul belongs to himself. But what if he neglect the care of it? Well what if he neglect the care of his health or his estate, which would more nearly relate to the state. Will the magistrate make a law that he not be poor or sick? Laws provide against injury from others; but not from ourselves. God himself will not save men against their wills. But a short time elapsed after the death of the great reformer of the Jewish religion, before his principles were departed from by those who professed to be his special servants, and perverted into an engine for enslaving mankind, and aggrandizing their oppressors in Church and State."
Jefferson's Bible:
"It is not to be understood that I am with him (Jesus Christ) in all his doctrines. I am a Materialist; he takes the side of Spiritualism; he preaches the efficacy of repentence toward forgiveness of sin; I require a counterpoise of good works to redeem it. Among the sayings and discourses imputed to him by his biographers, I find many passages of fine imagination, correct morality, and of the most lovely benevolence; and others, again, of so much ignorance, so much absurdity, so much untruth, charlatanism and imposture, as to pronounce it impossible that such contradictions should have proceeded from the same being. I separate, therefore, the gold from the dross; restore him to the former, and leave the latter to the stupidity of some, the roguery of others of his disciples. Of this band of dupes and imposters, Paul was the great Coryphaeus, and the first corruptor of the doctrines of Jesus."
"But the greatest of all reformers of the depraved religion of his own country, was Jesus of Nazareth. Abstracting what is really his own from the rubbish in which it is buried, easily distinguished by its lustre from the dross of his biographers, and as separable from that as the diamond from the dunghill, we have the outlines of a system of the most sublime morality which has ever fallen from the lips of man."
In a footnote appended to this letter, Jefferson identified that to which he referred to as "rubbish" thus: "The immaculate conception of Jesus, his deification, the creation of the world by him, his miraculous powers, his resurrection and visible ascension, his corporeal presence in the Eucharist, the Trinity, original sin, atonement, regeneration, election, orders of the Hierarchy, etc."
Jefferson again:
"...no man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship or ministry or shall otherwise suffer on account of his religious opinions or belief, but all men shall be free to profess and by argument to maintain, their opinions in matters of religion, and that the same shall in no wise... affect their civil capacities."
Against Bush's Faith Based Intiatives, which give taxpayer monies to religious groups:
"[no citizen] shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place, or ministry whatsoever...[to] compell a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of [religious] opinions which he disbelieves is sinful and tyrannical."
About Christians: "The Christian god can be easily pictured as virtually the same as the many ancient gods of past civilizations. The Christian god is a three headed monster; cruel, vengeful and capricious. If one wishes to know more of this raging, three headed beast-like god, one only needs to look at the caliber of the people who say they serve him. They are always of two classes: fools and hypocrites."
John Adams: "How has it happened that millions of fables, tales, legends, have been blended with both Jewish and Christian revelation that have made them the most bloody religion that ever existed?"
"As to religion, I hold it to be the indispensable duty of government to protect all conscientious protesters thereof, and I know of no other business government has to do therewith."
On the Trinity:
"even if God himself had tried to tell us that three was one . . . and one equals three, you and I would never have believed it. We would never fall victims to such lies."
"Nothing is more dreaded than the national government meddling with religion."
Ethan Allen: "In those parts of the world where learning and science have prevailed, miracles have ceased; but in those parts of it as are barbarous and ignorant, miracles are still in vogue."
"...denominated a Deist, the reality of which I never disputed, being conscious I am no Christian."
Benjamin Franklin: "When a religion is good, I conceive it will support itself; and when it cannot support itself, and God does not take care to support it, so that its professors are obliged to call for the help of the civil power, it is a sign, I apprehend, of its being a bad one."
"I cannot conceive otherwise than that He, the Infinite Father, expects or requires no worship or praise from us, but that He is even infinitely above it."
"I have found Christian dogma unintelligible. "
Franklin found his religion much as I (Miss Honey Hellfire) found mine: By reading Christian books against it!
"My parents had early given me religious impressions, and brought me through my childhood piously in the dissenting [puritan] way. But I was scarce fifteen, when, after doubting by turns of several points, as I found them disputed in the different books I read, I began to doubt of Revelation itself. Some books against Deism fell into my hands... It happened that they wrought an effect on me quite contrary to what was intended by them; for the arguments of the deists, which were quoted to be refuted, appeared to me much stronger than the refutations; in short, I soon became a thorough deist."
James Madison: "Who does not see that the same authority, which can establish Christianity, in exclusion of all other religions, may establish with the same ease any particular sect of Christians, in exclusion of all other sects? That the same authority which can force a citizen to contribute three pence only of his property for the support of any one establishment, may force him to conform to any other establishment in all cases whatsoever."
Patrick Henry: "That religion, ... and the manner of discharging it, can be directed only by reason and conviction, not by force or violence; and therefore all men are equally entitled to the free exercise of religion, according to the dictates of conscience."

"A religion is sometimes a source of happiness and I would not deprive anyone of happiness. But it is a comfort appropriate for the weak, not for the strong--and you are strong. The great trouble with religion--any religion--is that a religionist, having accepted certain propositions by faith, cannot thereafter judge those propositions by evidence. One may bask at the warm fire of faith or choose to live in the bleak uncertainty of reason--but one cannot have both." - Robert A. Heinlein. Dr. Hartley M. Baldwin, in "Friday."
"There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening, that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique." - Martha Graham
"Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other thing." - Abraham Lincoln
"One ought never to turn one's back on a threatened danger and try to run away from it. If you do that, you will double the danger. But if you meet it promptly and without flinching, you will reduce the danger by half. Never run away from anything. Never!" - Winston Churchill

"All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them." - Walt Disney
"An intelligent hell would be better than a stupid paradise." - Victor Hugo
"The universe is full of magical things, patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper." - Eden Phillpotts
"Originality and a feeling of one's own dignity are achieved only through work and struggle." - Feodor Dostoyevsky
"Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgment. For even the very wise cannot see all ends." - Gandalf the Grey, by J.R.R Tolkien

"Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail." -Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)
"The great courage is to stare as squarely at the light as at death." --Albert Camus, Existential philospher and writer.

"Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all." - Dale Carnegie
"Education is a private matter between the person and the world of knowledge and experience, and has little to do with school or college.'' - Lillian Smith, American writer.

"One is never so dangerous when one has no shame, than when one has grown too old to blush." -Marquis de Sade.
"Education is a private matter between the person and the world of knowledge and experience, and has little to do with school or college.'' - Lillian Smith, American writer.

A Native American grandfather was talking to his grandson about how he felt. He said, I feel as if I have two wolves fighting in my heart. One wolf is the vengeful, angry, violent one. The other wolf is the loving, compassionate one. The grandson asked him, 'which wolf will win the fight in your heart?' The grandfather answered, 'The one I feed.' -Unknown.
"The fastest way to succeed is to look as if you're playing by somebody else's rules, while quietly playing by your own." - Michael Konda.

"Hold on to your power:...don't let others squash it. Hold on to your courage:...don't let others preach it out of you. Hold on to your independence:...don't let others scare it out of you." - Patricia Lynn Reilly
"Dream is the spark of passion; talent is the firework of its expression; perseverance, the sacred fire of its accomplishment." -Daniel Chabot (Psychologist)
"Never interrupt an enemy when he is making a mistake." - Napoleon.

Be courteous to all, but intimate with few, and let those few be well tried before you give them your confidence. True friendship is a plant of slow grow, and must undergo and withstand the shocks of adversity before it is entitled to the appellation." - George Washington
There is a continuing, mandatory need for heresy in its most profound sense; for freedom to choose and follow truth wherever it leads. --William Edelen (Contemporary American author/clergyman)

The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood...who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and ...if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.--Theodore Roosevelt.
"It matters not whether you win or lose; what matters is whether I win or lose." - Darrin Weinberg

Ink- n. A villainous compound of tanno-gallate of iron, gum-Arabic and water, chiefly used to facilitate the infection of idiocy and promote intellectual crime..." - Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary.
"I fear that all we have done is awakened a sleeping giant, and filled it with a desire for vengeance." - Adm. Yamamoto, after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

"The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of Hell, a hell of Heaven." - John Milton.
"These are the times that try men's souls...Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered: yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph." - Thomas Paine

"The degree of one's emotion varies inversely with one's knowledge of the facts - the less you know the hotter you get." --Bertrand Russell.

"I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have." - Thomas Jefferson, United Satanic America president (1743-1826).

"Well done is better than well said." - Benjamin Franklin, inventor (1706-1790).

Never forget that life can only be nobly inspired and rightly lived if you take it bravely and gallantly, as a splendid adventure in which you are setting out into an unknown country, to face many a danger, to meet many a joy, to find many a comrade, to win and lose many a battle. --Annie Besant, English Peace and Social Justice Advocate

The greatest thing a man can do in this world is to make the most possible out of the stuff that has been given him. This is success, and there is no other. --Orison Swett Marden, founder of Success Magazine "Obstacles cannot crush me. Every obstacle yields to stern resolve. He who is fixed to a star does not change his mind." -Leonardo da Vinci
"When one door closes another door opens; but we so often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door, that we do not see the ones which open for us." - Alexander Graham Bell, inventor, (1847-1922).

"There is much to learn from beasts." - Prince Vlad of Wallachia.
"The luckiest man who walks the earth is he who finds true love." - Prince Vlad of Wallachia.
"Your impotent men with their foolish spells cannot protect you from My Power." - Prince Vlad of Wallachia.
"The cowards think of what they can lose, the heroes of what they can win." --J.M. Charlier
"The greater the difficulty, the more the glory in surmounting it." - Epicurus, philosopher (341-271 B.C.).

"The characteristic of genuine heroism is its persistency. All men have wandering impulses, fits and starts of generosity. But when you have resolved to be great, abide by yourself, and do not try to reconcile yourself with the world. The heroic cannot be common, nor the common heroic." - Ralph Waldo Emerson, poet (1803-1882).

"You can tell whether a man is clever by his answers. You can tell whether a man is wise by his questions." --Naguib Mahfouz, Egyptian author.

"Ordinary riches can be stolen; real riches cannot. In your soul are infinitely precious things that cannot be taken from you." - Oscar Wilde, writer (1854-1900).
"We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we will never surrender." --Winston Churchill

"All life is an experiment." - Ralph Waldo Emerson, author (1803-1882).
"There are only two ways by which to rise in this world, either by one's own industry or by the stupidity of others." - Jean de LaBruyere, philosopher (1645-1696).
"Enthusiasm is the element of success in everything. It is the light that leads and the strength that lifts people on and up in the great struggles of scientific pursuits and of professional labor. It robs endurance of difficulty, and makes pleasure of duty." --Bishop Doane

Omen, n. A sign that something will happen if nothing happens. --- Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary
Idiot, n. A member of a large and powerful tribe whose influence in human affairs has always been dominant and controlling. The Idiot's activity is not confined to any special field of thought or action, but "pervades and regulates the whole." He has the last word in everything; his decision is unappealable. He sets the fashions of opinion and taste, dictates the limitations of speech and circumscribes conduct with a dead-line. --- Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary.

"Destiny is not a matter of chance, it is a matter of choice; it is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved." - William Jennings Bryan, politician (1860-1925).

"True wisdom is less presuming than folly. The wise man doubteth often, and changeth his mind; the fool is obstinate, and doubteth not; he knoweth all things but his own ignorance." -- Akhenaton
"Nature arms each man with some faculty which enables him to do easily some feat impossible to any other." - Ralph Waldo Emerson.
"The shortest and surest way to live with honor in the world is to be in reality what we would appear to be; all human virtues increase and strengthen themselves by the practice and experience of them." - Socrates, philosopher (469 B.C.-399 B.C.).

"It is not enough to have a good mind. The main thing is to use it well." - Rene Descartes, mathematician (1596-1650).

"The winners in life think constantly in terms of I can, I will, and I am. Losers, on the other hand, concentrate their waking thoughts on what they should have or would have done, or what they can't do." --Dennis Waitley
"It's kind of fun to do the impossible." - Walt Disney (1901-1966).

"A man should not strive to eliminate his complexes, but to get into accord with them, for they are legitimately what directs his conduct in the world." - Sigmund Freud.

"One of the greatest joys known to man is to take a flight into ignorance in search of knowledge." --Robert Lynd
"People will do anything, no matter how absurd, in order to avoid facing their own soul." - Carl G. Jung

"Man is quite insane. He wouldn't know how to create a maggot, and he creates Gods by the dozen." -Michel de Montaigne (1533-92).
"Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And when you look long into an abyss, the abyss also looks into you." --Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil, (1885-86).
"If you stop searching, you stop living, because then you're dwelling in the past. If you're not reaching forward to any growth or future, you might as well be dead." -- Wynn Bullock
"You can understand and relate to most people better if you look at them - no matter how old or impressive they may be - as if they are children. For most of us never really grow up or mature all that much - we simply grow taller. O, to be sure, we laugh less and play less and wear uncomfortable disguises like adults, but beneath the costume is the child we always are, whose needs are simple, whose daily life is still best described by fairy tales." - Leo Rosten, author (1908-1997).
"The customs and fashions of men change like leaves on the bough, some of which go and others come." -- Dante Alighieri, Italian poet.
"Worldly fame is but a breath of wind that blows now this way, and now that, and changes name as it changes direction." -- Dante Alighieri, Italian poet.
"I never truckled; I never took off the hat to Fashion and held it out for pennies. By God, I told them the truth." -- Frank Norris, US novelist.
"I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. 'Tis the business of little minds to shrink, but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death."--Thomas Paine (1737-1809).
"A man is only as old as the woman he feels." ---Groucho Marx.
"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age 18." - Albert Einstein, physicist (1879-1955).

"There is a continuing, mandatory need for heresy in its most profound sense; for freedom to choose and follow truth wherever it leads." -- William Edelen (Contemporary American author/clergyman).

"You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong. You cannot help small men by tearing down big men. You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich. You cannot lift the wage earner by pulling down the wage-payer. You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than your income. You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatreds. You cannot build character and courage by taking away a man's initiative and independence. You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves." --Abraham Lincoln

"Too often, we lose sight of life's simple pleasures. Remember, when somebody annoys you, it takes 42 muscles in your face to frown, BUT it only takes 4 muscles to extend your arm and bitch-slap that mother fucker upside the head!" - Anonymous

"If I lose the light of the sun, I will write by candlelight, moonlight, no light. If I lose paper and ink, I will write in blood on forgotten walls. I will write always. I will capture nights all over the world and bring them to you." --Dino Corvino, Italian Poet.

Gaining Glory
Thoughts on how to achieve glory in life:
"The greater the difficulty the more glory in surmounting it. Skillful pilots gain their reputation from storms and tempests." -- Epictetus, Greek philosopher.
"True glory consists in doing what deserves to be written; in writing what deserves to be read; and in so living as to make the world happier and better for our living in it." -- Pliny the Elder, Roman naturalist.
"Look at everything as though you were seeing it either for the first or last time. Then your time on earth will be filled with glory." -- Betty Smith, American novelist.
"All glory comes from daring to begin." -- Eugene F. Ware, American novelist and editor.

"I still find each day too short for all of the thoughts I want to think, all of the walks I want to take, all of the books I want to read, and all of the friends I want to see." - John Burroughs (1837-1921).
When one door closes, another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us. --Alexander Graham Bell
"It requires a great deal of boldness and a great deal of caution to make a great fortune, and when you have it, it requires ten times as much skill to keep it." -- Ralph Waldo Emerson, American philosopher, poet, essayist.
"I am, as Protagoras says, the judge of the existence of the things that are to me and of the non existence of those that are not to me. . . knowledge is nothing else than perception. . . man is the measure of all things" -- Socrates.
"For apprehension by the senses supplies after all, directly or indirectly, the material of all human knowledge, or at least the stimulus necessary to develop every inborn faculty of the mind." -- Helmoholtz.
"The knower and the known are one. Simple people imagine that they should see God, as if He stood there as they here. This is not so. God and I, we are one in knowledge." --Meister Eckhart.

Before the gates of excellence the high gods have placed sweat; long is the road thereto and rough and steep at first; but when the heights are reached, then there is ease, though grievously hard in the winning. --Hesiod.
"Sing as though no one can hear you. Dance as if no one were watching. Love as if you've never been hurt. Live as though heaven is on earth." - Anonymous.

The Makings of Genius
Differing perspectives on what makes a person a genius:
"Doing easily what others find is difficult is talent; doing what is impossible for talent is genius." -- Henri Frederic Amiel, Swiss writer
"Geniuses are the luckiest mortals because what they must do is the same as what they most want to do." -- W. H. Auden, poet, dramatist, and editor.
"One is not born a genius. One becomes a genius." -- Simone de Beauvoir, French writer
"These are the prerogatives of genius: to know without having learned; to draw just conclusions from unknown premises; to discern the soul of things." -- Ambrose Bierce, American journalist and short-story writer.

"He who is unable to live in society, or who has no need because he is sufficient for himself, must be either a beast or a god." - Aristotle.
"Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm." - Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882).

An Understanding of Duty
Thoughts on duty:
"Our duty, as men and women, is to proceed as if limits to our ability did not exist. We are collaborators in creation." -- Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, French philosopher and paleontologist.
"How can you come to know yourself? Never by thinking; always by doing. Try to do your duty, and you'll know right away what you amount to." -- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, German poet and dramatist.

Becoming an Expert
Advice on becoming an expert:
"Never become so much of an expert that you stop gaining expertise. View life as a continuous learning experience." -- Denis Waitley, American motivational speaker.
"Observe, record, tabulate, communicate. Use your five senses... Learn to see, learn to hear, learn to feel, learn to smell, and know that by practice alone you can become expert." -- Sir William Osler, Canadian-born British physician

Flowers... are a proud assertion that a ray of beauty out-values all the utilities of the world." -- Ralph Waldo Emerson, American philosopher, poet, essayist.
"The world belongs to the enthusiast who keeps cool." --William McFee
"There are three ingredients in the good life: learning, earning and yearning." --Christopher Morely.

Fighting Conformity
Reflections on conformity as a threat to individuality:
"If we value independence, if we are disturbed by the growing conformity of knowledge, of values, of attitudes, which our present system induces, then we may wish to set up conditions of learning which make for uniqueness, for self-direction, and for self-initiated learning." -- Carl Rogers, American psychologist.
"I, for one, hope that youth will again revolt and again demoralize the dead weight of conformity that now lies upon us." -- Howard M. Jones, American author, literary critic, educator, and president of American Academy of Arts and Sciences from 1944 to 1951.
"Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth." John F. Kennedy, 35th president of the United States.

Understanding Competence
Thoughts on competence and success:
"'What would you call the highest happiness?' Wratislaw was asked. 'The sense of competence,' was the answer, given without hesitation." -- John Buchan, Scottish author and government official
"Don't give up whatever you're trying to do -- especially if you're convinced that you're botching it up. Giving up reinforces a sense of incompetence; going on gives you a commitment to success." -- George Weinberg, English writer, activist.
"[W]e must believe in ourselves or no one else will believe in us; we must match our aspirations with the competence, courage, and determination to succeed." Rosalyn Sussman Yalow, American medical physicist.

Winning an Argument
Keep in mind these words of wisdom when trying to win an argument:
"He who wants to persuade should put his trust not in the right argument, but in the right word. The power of sound has always been greater than the power of sense." Joseph Conrad, Polish novelist and short-story writer.
"Men are apt to mistake the strength of their feeling for the strength of their argument. The heated mind resents the chill touch and relentless scrutiny of logic." William E. Gladstone, English statesman and author.
"Don't take the wrong side of an argument just because your opponent has taken the right side." -- Baltasar Gracian, Spanish philosopher and writer.
"The sounder your argument, the more satisfaction you get out of it." -- Edgar Watson Howe, US editor, novelist, and essayist.
"He who establishes his argument by noise and command shows that his reason is weak." -- Michel Eyquem de Montaigne, French essayist, courtier.

The Necessity of Conflict
Conflict makes life meaningful and interesting:
"Change means movement. Movement means friction. Only in the frictionless vacuum of a nonexistent abstract world can movement or change occur without that abrasive friction of conflict." -- Saul Alinsky, American political activist.
"Light is meaningful only in relation to darkness, and truth presupposes error. It is these mingled opposites whichpeople our life, which make it pungent, intoxicating. We only exist in terms of this conflict, in the zone where black and white clash." -- Louis Aragon, French poet
"[The] world [is] in everlasting conflict between the new idea and the old allegiances, new arts and new inventions against the old establishment." -- Joyce Cary, English novelist
"Difficulties are meant to rouse, not discourage. The human spirit is to grow strong by conflict." -- William E. Channing, American moralist, author and clergyman.
"Great art is the statement of a solution of the conflict between the demands of the world without and that within." -- Edith Hamilton, American writer and educator.

"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead; his eyes are closed." - Albert Einstein.

"Be not afraid of greatness: Some are born great, some achieve greatness and some have greatness thrust upon them." - William Shakespeare, playwright (1564-1616).

"You cannot teach a man anything, You can only help him to find it within himself." --Galileo.
"A visionary is one who can find his way by moonlight, and see the dawn before the rest of the world." --Oscar Wilde (1854-1900).

"The only way in which one human being can properly attempt to influence another is by encouraging him to think for himself, instead of endeavoring to instill ready made opinions into his head." --Sir Leslie Stephen, British biographer {1832-1904}.
"What can we gain by sailing to the moon if we are not able to cross the abyss that separates us from ourselves? This is the most important of all voyages of discovery, and without it, all the rest are not only useless, but disastrous." --Thomas Merton.

Putting Ambition to Work
On the role that ambition plays in success:
"The men who succeed are the efficient few. They are the few who have the ambition and will power to developthemselves." -- Herbert N. Casson, English poet.
"Intelligence without ambition is a bird without wings." -- C. Archie Danielson, Spanish painter and printmaker.
"Without ambition one starts nothing. Without work one finishes nothing. The prize will not be sent to you. You have to win it. The man who knows how will always have a job. The man who also knows why will always be his boss." -- Ralph Waldo Emerson, American philosopher, poet and essayist.

Making the Effort
Ceaselessly trying to accomplish something can be a reward in itself, regardless of the outcome:
"In all human affairs there are efforts, and there are results, and the strength of the effort is the measure of the result." -- James Allen, American novelist
"The mode by which the inevitable comes to pass is effort." -- Oliver Wendell Holmes, American writer and physician.

"Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail." - Ralph Waldo Emerson, author, poet, philosopher (1803-1882).

"The Ten Commandments is a political document. You only need two. First, thou shalt always be honest and true to the source of thy nookie. Second, thou shalt try real hard not to kill anyone unless, of course, they deserve it." - George Carlin explains his theology to a Yale audience.

Discipline and Desire
Some thoughts on desires and self-mastery:
"He who reigns within himself and rules passions, desires, and fears is more than a king." -- John Milton, British poet.
"I count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who conquers his enemies; for the hardest victory is over self." -- Aristotle, Greek writer, philosopher.

Achievement of Goals and Dreams
On having goals and dreams, and on the effort and courage required to fulfill them:
"Happiness is that state of consciousness which proceeds from the achievement of one's values." -- Ayn Rand, American novelist and philosopher.
"Cherish your visions and your dreams as they are the children of your soul; the blueprints of your ultimate achievements." -- Napoleon Hill, motivational author
"The virtue of achievement is victory over oneself. Those who know this can never know defeat." --A. J. Cronin, author of "The Citadel".
"For a man to achieve all that is demanded of him he must regard himself as greater than he is." --Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, German poet, dramatist, novelist, and scientist.
"Happiness lies in the joy of achievement and the thrill of creative effort." -- Franklin D. Roosevelt, 32nd president of the United States.
"The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams." - Eleanor Roosevelt, diplomat, humanitarian and American first lady (1884-1962).

I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. 'Tis the business of little minds to shrink, but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death. - Thomas Paine (1737-1809)
Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you. - Carl Sandburg

Using one's gifts
It is good to know one's gifts and to use them:
"Life is not easy for any of us. But what of that? We must have perseverance and above all confidence in ourselves. We must believe that we are gifted for something and that this thing must be attained." - Marie Curie, Polish-French chemist.
"When one has great gifts, what answer to the meaning of existence should one require beyond the right to exercise them?" -- W. H. Auden, English-US poet, dramatist, editor.

A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write if he is to be ultimately at peace with himself. What one can be, one must be. - Abraham Moslow.

Some thoughts on how to Succeed in Life
Hard work and ambition seem to naturally lead to success:
"To succeed, jump as quickly at opportunities as you do at conclusions." -- Benjamin Franklin, US statesman, diplomat, inventor, and printer.
"We must believe in ourselves or no one else will believe in us; we must match our aspirations with the competence, courage and determination to succeed." -- Rosalyn Sussman Yalow, US medical physicist.
"Successful men usually snatch success from seeming failure. If they know there is such a word as defeat, they will not admit it. They may be whipped, but they are not aware of it. That is why they succeed." -- A. P. Gouthey, businessman.
"The men who succeed are the efficient few. They are the few who have the ambition and will power to develop themselves." -- Herbert N. Casson, English clergyman and author.

Enjoyment of Life
Some thoughts on what it means to truly enjoy the world and life:
"To preserve an unclouded capacity for the enjoyment of life is an unusual moral and psychological achievement. Contrary to popular belief, it is not the prerogative of mindlessness, but the exact opposite: it is the reward of self-esteem." - Nathaniel Branden, US psychologist
"True enjoyment comes from activity of the mind and exercise of the body; the two are ever united." -- Wilhelm von Humboldt, German scholar, philosopher, diplomat, educator
"Learning is pleasurable but doing is the height of enjoyment." -- Novalis, German poet

The Usefulness of Enemies
Dealing with enemies wisely can lead to better self-knowledge:
"Blessed is he who has a sprinkling of enemies, for they shall make him a hero!" - Anton Szandor LaVey, The Satanic Bible.
"Man's greatest joy is to slay his enemy, plunder his riches, ride his steeds, see the tears of his loved ones and ravish his women." - Genghis Khan.
"Pay attention to your enemies, for they are the first to discover your mistakes." -- Antisthenes, Greek philosopher.
"Men of sense often learn from their enemies. It is from their foes, not their friends, that cities learn the lesson of building high walls and ships of war..." -- Aristophanes, Greek dramatist
"When my enemies stop hissing, I shall know I'm slipping." -- Maria Callas, US opera singer

Creativity and Destruction
"The thinker dies, but his thoughts are beyond the reach of destruction. Men are mortal; but ideas are immortal." -- Walter Lippmann, US journalist, editor, author.
"Every act of creation is first of all an act of destruction." -- Pablo Picasso, Spanish painter, sculptor.
"Without an understanding of myth or religion, without an understanding of the relationship between destruction and creation, death and rebirth, the individual suffers the mysteries of life as meaningless mayhem alone." -- Marion Woodman, Canadian analyst, writer.
"All my humor is based upon destruction and despair. If the whole world were tranquil, without disease and violence, I'd be standing on the breadline right in back of J. Edgar Hoover." -- Lenny Bruce, US comedian, satirist, author.

The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher regard those who think alike than those who think differently. --Friedrich Nietzche
Vision is where tomorrow begins, for it expresses what you and others who share the vision will be working hard to create. Since most people don't take the time to think systematically about the future, those who do, and who base their strategies and actions on their visions, have inordinate power to shape the future. --Burt Nanus

"Freedom of speech and freedom of action are meaningless without freedom to think. And there is no freedom of thought without doubt." --Bergen Evans, The Natural History of Nonsense

Learning
"Learning... should be a joy and full of excitement. It is life's greatest adventure; it is an illustrated excursion into the mind of noble and learned men, not a conducted tour through a jail." -- Taylor Caldwell, English novelist
"The growth of the human mind is still high adventure, in many ways the highest adventure on earth." -- Norman Cousins, US editor, essayist.

Chance
There are those who believe in chance, and those who think there's no such thing:
"Nothing happens quite by chance. It's a question of accretion of information and experience." -- Jonas Edward Salk, American physician and epidemiologist
"How often events, by chance, and quite unexpectedly, come to pass, which you had not dared even to hope for!" -- Terence, Roman playwright
"The beauty of the soul shines out when a man bears with composure one heavy mischance after another, not because he does not feel them, but because he is a man of high and heroic temper." - Aristotle, Greek philosopher and scientist
Asshole, n. The most commonly employed word in American English. Frequently used by both sides in an argument, more often than not, accurately. - Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary.
"All people dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their mind, wake in the morning to find that it was vanity. But the dreamers of the day are dangerous people, for they dream their dreams with open eyes, and make them come true." - T.E. Lawrence {AKA "Lawrence of Arabia"}

Belief
On the power of belief:
"The thing always happens that you really believe in; and the belief in a thing makes it happen." -- Frank Lloyd Wright, architect
"Be not afraid of life. Believe that life is worth living, and your belief will help create the fact." -- Henry James, author

Charm
On the power of charm:
"Brains, integrity, and force may be all very well, but what you need today is charm. Go ahead and work on your economic programs if you want to, I'll develop my radio personality." -- Gracie Allen, US comedienne, in "How to Become President"
"Charm is getting the answer yes without asking a clear question." -- Albert Camus, French philosopher, novelist, dramatist

Decision Making & Indecision
It is good to behave decisively; life is built out of a million small but definite decisions:

"We are given one life, and the decision is ours whether to wait for circumstances to make up our mind or whether to act, and in acting, to live." -- Omar Bradley, US army general
"Every decision is liberating, even if it leads to disaster. Otherwise, why do so many people walk upright and with open eyes into their misfortune?" -- Elias Canetti, Bulgarian-born novelist, dramatist, and essayist.
"Indecision and delays are the parents of failure." - George Canning, English statesman.
"No trumpets sound when the important decisions of our life are made. Destiny is made known silently." -- Agnes George DeMille, US dancer, choreographer.
"Once you make a decision, the universe conspires to make it happen." -- Ralph Waldo Emerson, US philosopher, poet, essayist.
"It's the tragedy of the world that no one knows what he doesn't know - and the less a man knows, the more sure he is that he knows everything." - Joyce Cary, author (1888-1957).

"When you are right, no one remembers; when you are wrong, no one forgets." - Irish proverb.
"Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined." - Henry David Thoreau.
"I do not confer praise or blame: I accept. I am the measure of all things. I am the center of the world." -- W. Somerset Maugham, author, in Of Human Bondage
"Of course there is no formula for success except perhaps an unconditional acceptance of life and what it brings." -- Arthur Rubinstein, American pianist
"Living apart and at peace with myself, I came to realize more vividly the meaning of the doctrine of acceptance. To refrain from giving advice, to refrain from meddling in the affairs of others, to refrain, even though the motives be the highest, from tampering with another's way of life - so simple, yet so difficult for an active spirit. Hands off!" -- Henry Miller, author, Tropic of Cancer

Blind Love
Love in its initial stages blurs one's perception of reality, for better or worse.
"The last thing a woman will consent to discover in a man whom she loves, or on whom she simply depends, is want of courage." -- Joseph Conrad, Polish-born British novelist
"Sometimes the heart sees what is invisible to the eye." -- H. Jackson Brown Jr., author of "Live and Learn and Pass It On"
"Love does not consist in gazing at each other, but in looking together in the same direction." -- Antoine de Saint-Exupery, French writer and aviator

"You better live your best and act your best and think your best today, for today is the sure preparation for tomorrow and all the other tomorrows that follow." -- Harriet Martineau, British writer, illustrator
"Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason, which today arm you against the present." -- Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, Roman Emperor

"Even when laws have been written down, they ought not always to remain unaltered." -- Aristotle, Greek philosopher.
"He who knows nothing, doubts nothing." - Italian proverb.

"The only thing we have to fear on this planet is man." - Carl Jung, psychologist (1875-1961).

A Productive Life
Staying productive, throughout the day and throughout life, can keep a person centered and content.
"Things won are done; joy's soul lies in the doing." -- William Shakespeare, British playwright and poet, Troilus and Cressida, Act 1, Scene
"Genius begins great works; labour alone finishes them." -- Joseph Joubert, French essayist and moralist
"I look on that man as happy, who, when there is a question of success, looks into his work for a reply." -- Ralph Waldo Emerson, American writer, philosopher, poet, and essayist.

Attitudes & Learning
An open attitude toward the learning process is the key to continuous self-improvement.
"Only the curious will learn and only the resolute overcome the obstacles to learning. The quest quotient has always excited me more than the intelligence quotient." -- Eugene S. Wilson, Dean of Admissions, Amherst College.

"I have never met a man so ignorant that I couldn't learn something from him." -- Galileo Galilei, Italian astronomer and physicist.
"One learns by doing a thing; for though you think you know it, you have no certainty until you try." -- Sophocles, Greek dramatist.

"Resolve to be thyself: and know, that he who finds himself, loses his misery." - Matthew Arnold, British poet and critic.
"A lie told often enough becomes truth." - Lenin, Marxist revolutionary (1870-1924)
"As a rule, there is no surer way to the dislike of men than to behave well where they have behaved badly." - Lew Wallace, author (1827-1905).

Courage
Courage is, in some ways, a perspective on life itself.
"Courage is the ladder on which all the other virtues mount." -- Brandan Francis Behan, Irish writer, playwright
"Courage is the first of human qualities because it is the quality which guarantees the others." -- Aristotle, Greek philosopher

"Often the test of courage is not to die but to live." Conte Vittorio Alfieri, Italian playwright
"Courage is a special kind of knowledge: the knowledge of how to fear what ought to be feared and how not to fear what ought not to be feared." -- David Ben-Gurion, State of Israel's first prime minister
"This is courage in a man: to bear unflinchingly what heaven sends." -- Euripides, Greek dramatist
"Everyone has talent. What is rare is the courage to follow talent to the dark place where it leads." -- Erica Jong, American author.

Optimism
"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty." -- Winston Churchill, British statesman, prime minister, author
"I'm a pessimist because of intelligence, but an optimist because of will." Antonio Gramsci, Italian political theorist

Changes of Opinion
The ability to change one's mind can be a good thing:
"If in the last few years you haven't discarded a major opinion or acquired a new one, check your pulse, you may be dead." -- Frank Gelett Burgess, American writer, illustrator
"When a man you like switches from what he said a year ago, or 4 years ago, he is a broad-minded person who has courage enough to change his mind with changing conditions. When a man you don't like does it, he is a liar who has broken his promises." -- Franklin P. Adams, American journalist, humorist.
"Loyalty to petrified opinion never yet broke a chain or freed a human soul." -- Mark Twain, American author, humorist.

"A man cannot be too careful in the choice of his enemies." - Oscar Wilde (1854-1900).
"Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great." - Mark Twain (1835-1910).
"It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative statement and knowledge." - Albert Einstein, mathematical physicist.
Innovators and Human Advancement
Human advancement depends on breaking molds:
"He that will not apply new remedies must expect new evils; for time is the greatest innovator." - Francis Bacon, English philosopher and statesman.
"When men are easy in their circumstances, they are naturally enemies to innovations." - Joseph Addison, English essayist and politician.
"The vast majority of human beings dislike and even dread all notions with which they are not familiar. Hence, it comes about that at their first appearance innovators have always been divided as fools and madmen." - Aldous Leonard Huxley, English novelist and essayist
When choosing between two evils, I always like to try the one I've never tried before. - Mae West
I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells. Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living. - Dr. Seuss
Man's mind stretched to a new idea never goes back to its original dimensions. - Oliver Wendell Holmes
Convictions are more dangerous foes of truth than lies. -- Nietzsche
"What the mass media offers is not popular art, but entertainment which is intended to be consumed like food, forgotten, and replaced by a new dish." - W.H. Auden
Creativity involves breaking out of established patterns in order to look at things in a different way. -- Edward De Bono
Creativity is inventing, experimenting, growing, taking risks, breaking rules, making mistakes, and having fun. -- Mary Lou Cook
A hundred times every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life depend on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received and am still receiving. -- Albert Einstein
Behold the turtle. He only makes progress when he sticks his neck out. - James Bryant Conant"
ALL our dreams can come true- if we have the courage to persue them" -Walt Disney.
A human being has a natural desire to have more of a good thing than he needs. -Mark Twain
Mark Twain said: "The secret to success is - find out where the people are going and get there first".
Wit
The wittiest people aren't always the most likable.
"Wit is educated insolence." -- Aristotle.
"The next best thing to being witty one's self, is to be able to quote another's wit." -- Christian Nestell Bovee
Dreams
The importance of dreaming: "Dream lofty dreams, and as you dream, so you shall become. Your vision is the promise of what you shall one day be; your ideal is the prophecy of what you shall at last unveil." -- James Lane Allen
Heroes
We rely on our heroes to inspire us and pave the way for innovation: "The vast majority of human beings dislike and even dread all notions with which they are not familiar. Hence it comes about, that at their first appearance, innovators have always been divided as fools and madmen." -- Aldous Leonard Huxley,
British writer, "Brave New World" "It seems to be a law of nature, inflexible and inexorable, that those who will not risk cannot win." -- Paul Jones, Revolutionary War naval hero.
"In this world no one rules by love; if you are but amiable, you are no hero; to be powerful, you must be strong, and to have dominion you must have a genius for organizing." -- John Henry Newman, [Cardinal] British prelate, theologian, founder Oxford
Sight
Vision is more than the ability to see all that surrounds you in the physical world: "Your vision will become clear only when you look into your heart... Who looks outside, dreams. Who looks inside, awakens." - Carl Gustav Jung, Swiss psychiatrist
"Perception is strong and sight weak. In strategy, it is important to see distant things as if they were close and to take a distanced view of close things." -- Miyamoto Musashi, Japanese warrior and strategist.
Sense of smell
Our sense of smell brings us guidance, perception, and insight:
"For the sense of smell, almost more than any other, has the power to recall memories and it is a pity that we use it so little." -- Rachel Louise Carson, American environmentalist, biologist, writer
"The act of smelling something, anything, is remarkably like the act of thinking. Immediately at the moment of perception, you can feel the mind going to work, sending the odor around from place to place, setting off complex repertories through the brain." -- Lewis Thomas, English biologist and essayist
"There is no odor so bad as that which arises from goodness tainted." -- Henry David Thoreau, US essayist, poet, and naturalist
"The test and the use of man's education is that he finds pleasure in the exercise of his mind." -- Jacques Martin Barzun, American educator, historian, Dean of Graduate School, Columbia University.
"Why not be oneself? That is the whole secret of a successful appearance. If one is a greyhound why try to look like a Pekinese?" -- Edith Sitwell, British Poet
Solitude
Some thoughts on the importance of solitude:
"Solitude is not something you must hope for in the future. Rather, it is a deepening of the present, and unless you look for it in the present you will never find it." -- Thomas Merton, quoted by Monica Furlong Merton, Harper & Row Magazine
"Be able to be alone. Lose not the advantage of solitude, and the society of thyself." -- Sir Thomas Browne, English physician, writer
"Solitude is the beginning of all freedom." -- William Orville Douglas, American jurist and associate justice US Supreme Court
Books
The joy of reading:
"It is chiefly through books that we enjoy the intercourse with superior minds... In the best books, great men talk to us, give us their most previous thought, and pour their souls into ours." -- William Ellery Channing
"Generally speaking, men are influenced by books which clarify their own thought, which express their own notions well, or which suggest to them ideas which their minds are already predisposed to accept." -- Carl Lotus Becker
"In the case of good books, the point is not to see how many of them you can get through, but how many can get through to you." -- Mortimer Adler
"A truly great book should be read in youth, again in maturity, and once more in old age, as a fine building should be seen by morning light, at noon, and by moonlight." -- Robertson Davies
"I could not, at any age, be content to take my place by the fireside and simply look on. Life was meant to be lived. Curiosity must be kept alive. One must never, for whatever reason, turn his back on life." -- Eleanor Roosevelt
"Whatever you do, you need courage. Whatever course you decide upon, there is always someone to tell you that you are wrong. There are always difficulties arising that tempt you to believe your critics are right. To map out a course of action and follow it to an end requires some of the same courage that a soldier needs. Peace has its victories, but it takes brave men and women to win them." -- Ralph Waldo Emerson.
The battle against ignorance is constant
"Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity." -- Martin Luther King, Jr.
"If knowledge can create problems, it is not through ignorance that we can solve them." -- Isaac Asimov
"There are two things which cannot be attacked in front: ignorance and narrow-mindedness. They can only be shaken by the simple development of the contrary qualities. They will not bear discussion." -- Lord John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton
"The mark of your ignorance is the depth of your belief in injustice and tragedy. What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly." -- Richard David Bach