A place for quotes I have run across that have especially caught my eye. This page will be constantly growing and changing.

 

 

 

We are what we repeatedly do; excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.  —  Aristotle

It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.  —  Aristotle

 

Without effort, you cannot be prosperous. Though the land be good, You cannot have an abundant crop without cultivation.  –  Plato

 

He is richest who is content with the least, for content is the wealth of nature. – Socrates

 

As a single footstep will not make a path on the earth, so a single thought will not make a pathway in the mind. To make a deep physical path, we walk again and again. To make a deep mental path, we must think over and over the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate our lives.  –  Henry David Thoreau

Aim above morality. Be not simply good, be good for something. –  Henry David Thoreau

 

‘Tis better to be silent and be thought a fool, than to speak and remove all doubt. –  Mark Twain

A man’s character may be learned from the adjectives which he habitually uses in conversation.  –  Mark Twain

 

A hammer shatters glass but forges steel. Adversity is like the hammer, and what it does to a person depends on what they are made of.  –  Russian Proverb

 

Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none.  –  William Shakespeare

Give thy thoughts no tongue.  –  William Shakespeare

A fool thinks himself to be wise, but a wise man knows himself to be a fool.  –  William Shakespeare

Expectation is the root of all heartache.  –  William Shakespeare

Listen to many, speak to a few.  –  William Shakespeare

The empty vessel makes the loudest sound.  –  William Shakespeare

Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.  –   William Shakespeare

No legacy is so rich as honesty.  –  William Shakespeare

Brevity is the soul of wit.  –  William Shakespeare

 

Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it.  –  Charles R. Swindoll

God doesn’t improve…He perfects. He doesn’t enhance…He completes.  –  Charles R. Swindoll

God has more mercy than you have misery.  –  Charles R. Swindoll

When you understand that everything you have is on loan you are better prepared to release it when the Owner wants it back.  –  Charles R. Swindoll

Wisdom is looking at life from God’s point of view.  –  Charles R. Swindoll

God honors integrity. Maybe not immediately…but ultimately.  –  Charles R. Swindoll

Jesus says He is the solution for weariness of the soul.  –  Charles R. Swindoll

God is not only good all the time He is in control all the time.  –  Charles R. Swindoll

Don’t think trials are strange. They are the rule, not the exception.   –  Charles R. Swindoll

 

When we live apart from God, our lives get out of tune…out of harmony with others and with God. But if we live in tune with the Master, we, too, will find ourselves surrounded by His beautiful music.  –  Billy Graham

Happiness depends on circumstances. Joy depends on God. – Billy Graham

The family is the most important institution in the world.  –   Billy Graham

God’s quarrel is not with material goods but with material gods. – Billy Graham

Let Christ fill your life and there won’t be room for the world.  –  Billy Graham

The opposite of love isn’t hate. The opposite of love is selfishness. – Billy Graham

Instead of turning to God as a last resort turn to Him as a first resource.  –  Billy Graham

The root cause of discouragement is unbelief.  –  Billy Graham

The world does not need any more lukewarm Christians, lazy Christians, or quarrelsome Christians.  –  Billy Graham

Even life’s happiest experiences last but a moment, yet Heaven’s joy is eternal.  –  Billy Graham

When evil & temptation stalk us our first response should be to flee.  –  Billy Graham

 

God’s work done in God’s way will never lack God’s provision.   –  Anonymous

 

Kind hearts are quietly kind.  –  Max Lucado

The Bible is not a newspaper to be skimmed but rather a mine to be quarried.  –   Max Lucado

Whether or not you are friendly could determine whether or not someone hears about Jesus.  –  Max Lucado

When no one else will give you the time of day Jesus will give you the words of eternity.  –  Max Lucado

 

Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer – Don Michael Corleone, The Godfather Part II

 

Common looking people are the best in the world: that is the reason the Lord makes so many of them.  –  Abraham Lincoln

Character is like a tree and reputation like a shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.  –  Abraham Lincoln

America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.  – Abraham Lincoln

Books serve to show a man that those original thoughts of his aren’t very new at all.  –  Abraham Lincoln

 

That which does not kill you makes you stronger.  –  Friederich Nietzsche

 

A superior man is modest in his speech, but exceeds in his actions. –  Confucius

 

Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.  –  Ernest Hemingway

 

“I am” is reportedly the shortest sentence in the English language. Could it be that “I do” is the longest sentence? –  George Carlin

 

I sometimes wonder whether all pleasures are not substitutes for joy.  –  C.S. Lewis

Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art… It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things that give value to survival.  –  C. S. Lewis

God cannot give us happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing.  –  C. S. Lewis

I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.  –  C. S. Lewis

Failures are finger posts on the road to achievement.  –  C. S. Lewis

 

Applause dies. Awards tarnish. Achievements are forgotten. Accolades and certificates are buried with their owners. The people who make a difference in your life are not the ones with the most credentials, the most money, or the most awards. They are the ones that care.  –  Charles Schulz

 

Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are.   –  John Wooden

 

I have just three things to teach: simplicity, patience, compassion. These three are your greatest treasures.  –  Lao Tzu

 

A man is what he thinks about all day long.  –  Ralph Waldo Emerson

 

They’re not that different from you, are they? Same haircuts. Full of hormones, just like you. Invincible, just like you feel. The world is their oyster. They believe they’re destined for great things, just like many of you, their eyes are full of hope, just like you. Did they wait until it was too late to make from their lives even one iota of what they were capable? Because, you see gentlemen, these boys are now fertilizing daffodils. But if you listen real close, you can hear them whisper their legacy to you. Go on, lean in. Listen, you hear it? – – Carpe – – hear it? – – Carpe, carpe diem, seize the day boys, make your lives extraordinary. – Professor Keating, Dead Poets Society

 

Never tell your problems to anyone…20% don’t care and the other 80% are glad you have them. – Coach Lou Holtz

 

Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind. –  Dr. Seuss

 

Watch your thoughts; they become words. Watch your words; they become actions. Watch your actions; they become habits. Watch your habits; they become character. Watch your character; it becomes your destiny. – Frank Outlaw

 

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 that has opened for us.  – Alexander Graham Bell

 

Forgive your enemies, but never, never forget their names. – John F. Kennedy

 

Never be afraid to try. Remember…amateurs built the ark, professionals built the Titanic. – unknown

 

You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.    – Wayne Gretzky

 

He who knows nothing and knows he knows nothing, he is a scholar; teach him. He who knows nothing and thinks he knows something, he is a fool; shun him. He who knows something and thinks he knows nothing, he is unsure; enlighten him. He who knows something and knows he knows something, he is wise; follow him.  –   Bruce Lee

 

Alice laughed: “There’s no use trying,” she said, “one can’t believe impossible things.” “I daresay you haven’t had much practice,” said the Queen. “When I was younger, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”  – Lewis Carroll

 

Do, or do not. There is no ‘try’.   – Yoda, The Empire Strikes Back

Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering.  –  Yoda, Star Wars Episode One: The Phantom Menace

 

Imagination was given to man to compensate him for what he is not, and a sense of humor was provided to console him for what he is.  — Oscar Wilde

 

When flowing water meets with obstacles on its path, a blockage in its journey, it pauses. It increases in volume and strength, filling up in front of the obstacle and eventually spilling past it.  – I Ching

 

When I was a boy I was told that anybody could become President. Now I’m beginning to believe it.  —  Clarence Darrow

 

To realize the value of ONE YEAR, ask a student who failed a grade. To realize the value of ONE MONTH, ask a mother who has given birth to a premature baby. To realize the value of ONE WEEK, ask the editor of a weekly newspaper. To realize the value of ONE HOUR, ask the lovers who are waiting to meet. To realize the value of ONE MINUTE, ask a person who just missed a train. To realize the value of ONE SECOND, ask someone who just avoided an accident. To realize the value of ONE MILLISECOND, ask the person who won a silver medal at the Olympics. Treasure every moment that you and remember time waits for no one. Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. Today is a gift. That’s why it’s called the present.  –   unknown

 

Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom. – Victor Frankl

 

You know we just don’t recognize the most significant moments of our lives while they’re happening.  Back then I thought, well, there’ll be other days.  I didn’t realize that that was the only day.  –  Moonlight Graham, Field of Dreams

 

Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen. –  Albert Einstein

We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.  –  Albert Einstein

Before God we are all equally wise – and equally foolish.  –  Albert Einstein

Anyone who doesn’t take truth seriously in small matters cannot be trusted in large ones either. –  Albert Einstein

Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.  –  Albert Einstein

Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school.  –  Albert Einstein

Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value.  –  Albert Einstein

Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I’m not sure about the former.  –  Albert Einstein

The world is a dangerous place not because of the people who are evil but because of the people who don’t do anything about it.  –  Albert Einstein

 

If we could read the secret history of our enemies, we should find in each man’s life sorrow and suffering enough to disarm all hostility. – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

 

If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted or Beethoven composed music or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say ‘Here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.’ – Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

 

Old age is the only disease that you don’t look forward to being cured of.  –  Mr. Bernstein, Citizen Kane

 

As I walked out the door toward the gate that would lead to my freedom I knew that if I didn’t leave my bitterness and hatred behind I’d still be in prison. – Nelson Mandela

 

People say that what we are all seeking is a meaning for life. I don’t think that is what we are really seeking. I think what we re seeking is an experience of being alive so that our life experiences on the purely physical plane will have resonance within our own innermost being and reality, so that we actually feel the rapture of being alive. That’s what it is all finally about. – Joseph Campbell

 

For a seed to achieve its greatest expression, it must come completely undone. The shell cracks, its insides come out and everything changes. To someone who doesn’t understand growth, it would look like complete destruction. – Marcel Proust

 

There is more to life than increasing its speed. – Mahatma  Ghandi

Humanity is like an ocean…if a few drops of the ocean are dirty the ocean does not become dirty. – Mahatma Gandhi

 

 

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