My Favorite Quotations, collected over a lifetime.

Anyone who imagines that all fruits ripen at the same time as strawberries knows nothing of grapes.- Paracelsus

There are certain queer times and occasions in this strange mixed affair we call life when a man takes his whole universe for a vast practical joke. -Herman Melville.

The world is divided into people that read, people that write, people that think, and hunters. –Willis Shetstone

All sunshine makes the desert.-Arabian proverb

A lame cat is better than a swift horse when there are rats in the castle. –Chinese proverb

For the unlearned, old age is winter; for the learned, it is the season of harvest. –Hasidic saying

Fire is a good test of gold. –Seneca

I would rather sit on a pumpkin and have it all to myself than be crowded on a velvet cushion.-Thoreau

The good man is a friend to all living things.–Albert Schweitzer

The absent are always in the wrong.–English proverb

Beware the fury of a patient man. –Dryden

Nothing is so good as it seems beforehand. –George Elliot

Old age is not so bad when you consider the alternatives. –Maurice Chevalier

Our doubts are wantons, and make us lose the good we oft might win by fearing to attempt. –Shakespeare

Who overcomes by force, hath overcome but half his foe.–Milton

Phases of a project:

1. Enthusiasm

2. Disillusionment

3. Panic

4. Search for the guilty

5. Punishment of the innocent

6. Praise and honor for the non-participant

Find tongues in trees, books in running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in everything. –Shakespeare

Pippa’s Song

The year’s at the spring,

And the day’s at the morn;

Morning’s at seven;

The hillside’s dew-pearled;

The lark’s on the wing;

The snail’s on the thorn;

God’s in His heaven-

All’s right with the world!

                -Robert Browning

Military Rule #26:When in trouble, when in doubt, run in circles, scream and shout.

One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one’s work is terribly important. –Bertrand Russell

Life is the art of drawing sufficient conclusions from insufficient premises. –Samuel Butler

It is even harder for the average ape to believe that he has descended from man.–H.L. Mencken

We trained hard…but every time we were beginning to form up into teams, we would be reorganized.I was to learn later in life that we tend to meet any new situation by reorganizing…and a wonderful method it can be for creating the illusion of progress while producing inefficiency and demoralization.–Petronius, 66 A.D.

It is better to know some of the questions than all of the answers.–Thurber

Mourn not the dead…

But rather mourn the apathetic throng—

The cowed and meek.

Who see the world’s great anguish

And its wrong,

And dare not speak.

         -Ralph Chaplain

Life must go on; I forget just why.–Edna St. Vincent Millay

We can lick gravity, but sometimes the paperwork is overwhelming.–Wernher von Braun

It is characteristic of wisdom not to do desperate things.–Thoreau

Friends may come and go, but enemies accumulate. –Anonymous

Whatever else you do or forbear, impose upon yourself the task of happiness; and now and then abandon yourself to the joy of laughter.–Max Ehrmann

It is kindness to refuse immediately what you intend to deny –Publius Syrus

Always carry a flagon of whiskey in case of snakebites, and furthermore always carry a small snake.  –W.C. Fields

It is easier to seek forgiveness than permission.–IBM Middle Management maxim

If three people say you are an ass, put on a bridle.–Spanish proverb

When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this sign---that the dunces are all in a confederacy against him.–Jonathan Swift

It is an undeniable fact that, if a fox terrier two feet long, with a tail an inch and a half high, can dig a hole three feet deep in ten minutes, to dig the Panama Canal in a single year would require only one fox terrier 15 miles long with a tail a mile and a half high. This is statistically true; yet one must seriously consider whether, after finding such a fox terrier, one could make it mind.–Burges Johnson

To try when there is little hope is to risk failure; not to try at all is to insure it. –Anonymous

There are several good protections against temptation, but the surest is cowardice.–Mark Twain

Any coward can fight a battle when he’s sure of winning; but give me the man who has the pluck to fight when he’s sure of losing. That’s my way, sir; and there are many victories worse than defeat.–George Elliot

It must be remembered that there is nothing more difficult to plan, more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to manage than the creation of a new system. For the initiator has the enmity of all who would profit from the preservation of the old institution and merely lukewarm defenders in those who would gain by the new ones.–Machiavelli, in “The Prince”, 1513

As silent as a painted ship upon a painted ocean.–Coleridge

Hi! Handsome Hunting man.

Fire your little gun.

Bang! Now the animal is dead

And dumb and done.

Nevermore to peep again,

Creep again, leap again,

Eat, or sleep, or drink again.

Oh, what fun!

-Walter de la Mare

I know a man who always carries a cut stone in his pocket, and delights to hold it in his hand. “At last I have found something both exquisite and everlasting”, he says. One day he has with him a cube of purple fluorspar from Derbyshire, or perhaps a pyramid of smoky quartz from Cumberland. The next it might be a rock crystal from Madagascar. To him the sense of tenancy in life is stronger than in anyone else I know. “We are passing through”, he says. Passing through. Flowers fade, timber crumbles, metal corrodes, but these stones will remain.” Few people realize the miraculous beauty of even the most common of stones; yet the insect who makes his home in a pile of gravel on the roadside lives in a palace. –Robert Gibbings

Criticism should not be querulous and wasting, all knife and root-puller, but guiding, instructive, inspiring—a south wind, not an east wind.  –Emerson

Lullaby

If, my dear, you seek to slumber,

Count of stars an endless number;

If you still continue wakeful,

Count the drops that make a lakeful;

Then, if vigilance yet above you hover,

Count the times I love you;

And if slumber still repel you,

Count the times I did not tell you.

-Franklin Pierce Adams

The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. –Thoreau

Lionel Trillium, a Botanist, had to give up his beloved study of angiosperms because he was asked to define his goals and objectives.

Some will never learn anything because they understand everything too soon.

If I can stop one heart from breaking,

I shall not live in vain:

If I can ease one life from aching,

Or cool one pain,’

Or help one fainting robin

Unto his nest again,

I shall not live in vain.

-Emily Dickinson

There is no frigate like a book

To take us lands away,

Nor any coursers, like a page

Of dancing poetry.

This traverse may the poorest take

Without oppress of toll:

How frugal is the chariot

That bears the human soul!

-Emily Dickinson

Do not delay; the golden moments fly. –Ralph Waldo Emerson

Cleaning and scrubbing can wait ‘til tomorrow

For babies grow up, we’ve learned to our sorrow.

So quiet down cobwebs, dust go to sleep…

I’m rocking my baby, and babies can’t keep.

We cannot prevent the birds of sorrow from flying over our heads, but we can refuse to let them build their nests in our hair. –Chinese proverb

There are two things to aim at in life: first, to get what you want; and after that, enjoy it. Only the wisest of mankind achieve the second. –Logan Smith

Measure a thousand times and cut once. Turkish proverb

Power corrupts, but lack of power corrupts absolutely. –Adlai Stevenson

A kind word warms for three winters. –Chinese proverb

We are only young once, but we can be immature forever.

Health nuts are going to feel stupid someday, lying in the hospital, dying of nothing. Redd Foxx

He who seeks equality should go to a cemetery. –Yiddish proverb

The ineffectiveness award goes to Colonel John Finnis, a British Army Commander in India. He was killed by his own men after he had lectured them on insubordination.

We savor power not when we move mountains, and tell rivers whither to flow, but when we can turn men into objects, robots, puppets, automata, or veritable animals. Power is power to dehumanize. –Eric Hoffer

You can get much further with a kind word and a gun than you can with a kind word alone. –Al Capone

Union General John Sedgwick stood before his men in 1864 and said, “Come, come! Why they couldn’t hit an elephant at this dist----.”

“All hope abandon, you who enter here.” Words over the gates of Hell, by Dante

The man that is governed by self, and not by principle, changes his front when his selfish comforts are threatened. Deeply intent upon defending and guarding his own interests, he regards all means as lawful that will subserve that end. He is continually scheming as to how he may protect himself against his enemies, being too self-centered to perceive that he is his own enemy. Such a man’s work crumbles away, for it is divorced from truth and power. All effort that is grounded upon self perishes; only that work endures that is built upon an indestructible principle.

-James Allen

Some circumstantial evidence is very strong, as when you find a trout in the milk. –Thoreau

Forty is the old age of youth; fifty is the youth of old age. –Victor Hugo

Take Time.

Take time to Work,

It is the price of success.

Take time to Think,

It is the source of power.

Take time to Play,

It is the secret of perpetual youth.

Take time to read,

It is the fountain of wisdom.

Take time to Worship,

It is the highway to reverence.

Take time to be Friendly,

It is the road to happiness.

Take time to Laugh,

It is the music of the soul.

Take time to Dream,

It is hitching your wagon to a star.

Take time to live.

To accomplish great things, we must not only act but also dream, not only plan, but also believe. –Anatole France

For of all words of tongue or pen,

The saddest of these: “It might have been!”

-Whittier

If, of all words of tongue or pen,

The saddest are, “It might have been”,

More sad are these we daily see:

“It is, but hadn’t ought to be.”

-Bret Harte

I wouldn’t want to belong to any club that would have me as a member. –Groucho Marx

Always do right. This will gratify some people and amaze the rest. –Mark Twain

A leader is best

When people barely know he exists.

Not so good, when people obey and acclaim him,’

Worse when they despise him.

But of a good leader, who talks little,

When his work is done, his aim fulfilled,

They will say:

We did it ourselves.

-Lao-tse (565B.C.)

Is it so bad then, to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood. –Ralph Waldo Emerson

Life is not so short but there is always time for courtesy. –Emerson

It is much easier to be critical than to be correct. –Disraeli

It is hard to fail, but worse yet never to have tried to succeed. In this life, we get nothing save by the effort. –T. Roosevelt

There is only one real failure in life that is possible, and that is, not to be true to the best one knows. –F. Farrar

The only people who never fail are those who never try. –Ilka Chase

There is so much good in the worst of us and so much bad in the best of us that it ill behooves any of us to find fault with the rest of us. –Author unknown

Half our mistakes in life arise from feeling where we ought to think, and thinking where we ought to feel. –John Churton Collins

And gain is gain, however small. –Robt. Browning

A new idea is delicate. It can be killed by a sneer or yawn; it can be stabbed to death by a quip and worried to death by a frown on the right man’s brow. –Chas. D. Brower

He that complies against his will

Is of the same opinion still.

-Shirley

If a man does not keep pace with his companions,

perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer.

Let him step to the music he hears,

however measured or far away. –Thoreau

Where ignorance is bliss, ‘tis folly to be wise. –Thomas Gray

It is better to wear out than rust out. –Richard Cumberland

To speak kindly does not hurt the tongue. –French proverb

The proper function of man is to live, not exist. –Jack London

Opposition and calumny are often the brightest tribute that vice and folly can pay virtue and wisdom. –R.B. Hayes

Egyptian Proverb:

The worst things:

To be in bed and sleep not;

To want for one who comes not;

To try to please and please not.

-F. Scott Fitzgerald

What people say behind your back is your standing in the community. –Edgar Howe

I am only one,

But still I am one.

I cannot do everything,

But still I can do something.

And because I cannot do everything

I will not refuse to do the something that I can do.

-Edward Everett Hale

To look up and not down,

To look forward and not back,

To look out and not in, and

To lend a hand.

-Edward Everett Hale

Oh, give me a man that whistles at his work.

Man is certainly stark mad; he cannot make a worm, and yet he will be making gods by the dozens. –Montaigne

Men are most apt to believe what they least understand.

A mind is its own place, and in itself,

Can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven.

-Milton

He who knows himself knows others. –Colton

Long life is denied us; therefore, let us do something to show that we have lived. –Cicero

A great deal of talent in the world is lost for want of a little courage. Every day sends to their graves obscure men whom timidity prevented from making a first effort: Who if the could have been induced to begin would have, in all probability, gone to great lengths in the career of fame. The fact is that to do anything in the world worth doing, we must not stand back shivering and thinking of danger and the cold, but jump in, and scramble through as best as we can. –Sydney Smith

It is better to know some of the questions than all of the answers. –Thurber

Be good and you will be lonesome. –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 little better place than we found it, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to know that even one life breathed easier because you lived. This is to have succeeded. –Bessie Anderson Stanley

To be good is noble. To tell people how to be good is even nobler and much less trouble.

–Mark Twain

Keep your face turned toward the sunshine and you’ll have real difficulty finding shadows.

–Helen Keller

Every man takes the limits of his own field of vision for the limits of the earth. –Schopenauer

Blessed is the man, who, having nothing to say, abstains from giving in words evidence to the fact. –George Elliot

We judge ourselves by what we feel capable of doing; others judge us by what we have done.

–Longfellow

Praise, like gold, owes its value only to its scarcity. _Samuel Jonson

Our deeds travel with us from afar, and what we have been makes us what we are. –George Elliot

Found on the back of a grandfather clock in England:

When as a child I laughed and wept,

Time crept.

When as a youth I waxed more bold,

Time strolled.

When I became a full grown man,

Time ran.

When older still I grew,

Time flew.

Soon I shall find, in passing on,

Time’s gone.

When, in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes,
I all alone beweep my outcast state
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries
And look upon myself and curse my fate,
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featur'd like him, like him with friends possess'd,
Desiring this man's art and that man's scope,
With what I most enjoy contented least;
Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising,
Haply I think on thee, and then my state,
Like to the lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven's gate;
For thy sweet love remember'd such wealth brings
That then I scorn to change my state with kings.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616)

Paige’s Six Rules for Life (guaranteed to bring anyone to a happy old age):

1. Avoid fried foods which angry up the blood.

2. If your stomach disputes you, pacify it with cool thoughts.

3. Keep the juices flowing by jangling around gently as you move.

4. Go very lightly on the vices, such as carrying on in society, as the social role ain’t restful.

5. Avoid running at all times.

6. Don’t look back, something might be gaining on you.

-Baseball Immortal Satchel Paige

Nothing will ever be attempted if all possible objections must first be overcome. –Samuel Johnson

Never give advice in a crowd. –Arabian proverb

There is no sorrow I have thought more about than that—to love what is great, and try to reach it, and yet fail. –George Elliot

It is for us to pray not for tasks equal to our powers but for powers equal to our task, to go forward with great desire forever beating at the door of our hearts as we travel towards our distant goal. –Helen Keller

When angry, count to four; when very angry, swear. –Mark Twain

Words are like leaves,

And where they most abound,

Much fruit of sense beneath

Is rarely found.

-Alexander Pope

I don’t like these cold, precise, perfect people who, in order not to speak wrong, never speaks at all, and in order not to do wrong, never do anything.

-Henry Ward Beecher

None pities him that’s in the snare,

Who warned before, would not beware.

-Robt Herrick

No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontorie were, as well as if a manor of thine friends or of thine own were; any man’s death diminishes me for I am involved in mankind; and therefore, never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.

-John Donne

One must be poor to know the luxury of giving. –George Elliot

An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile—hoping it will eat him last. –Winston Churchill

My candle burns at both ends,

It will not last the night;

But, ah, my foes, and oh, my friends—

It gives a lovely light.

-Edna St. Vincent Millay

Better bend than break.—Scottish Proverb

A mind not to be changed by place or time.

The mind is its own place, and in itself

Can make a heav’n of hell, a hell of heav’n.

-Milton

We all have strength enough to endure the misfortunes of others. –La Rouchefould

The opinion of the strongest is always best. –Jean de la Fontaine

If there be light, then there is darkness; if cold, then heat; if height, then depth also; if solid, then fluid; hardness and softness; roughness and smoothness; calm and tempest; prosperity and adversity; life and death. –Pythagoras

Custom reconciles us to everything. –Edmund Burke

Despair is the conclusion of fools. –Ben Franklin

He conquers who endures. –Persius

I think, therefore I am. –Descartes

Nothing is so good as it seems beforehand. –George Elliot

When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished how much the old man had learned in seven years. –Mark Twain

When I was young, I was sure of everything; in a few years, having been mistaken a thousand times, I was not half so sure of most things as I was before; at present, I am hardly sure of anything…. –J. Wesley

Any fact is better established by two or three good testimonies than by a thousand arguments. –Nathaniel Emmons

The moving finger writes,

And having writ, moves on;

Nor all your piety nor wit

Shall lure it back to cancel

Half a line, nor all your tears

Wash out a word of it.

-Rubiyat of Omar Khayam

Speak gently to yourself.

Speak freely in praise of what you are.

Speak clearly with pride in all you have been.

Speak bravely with hope for all you may become.

Find in yourself the powers that only you possess,

The pains that only you can overcome,

The promises that only you can keep.

Today, as never before, you can see yourself as someone truly special.

Someone to respect and believe in.

Someone to care about and love.

Today you have looked in the mirror of self-discovery

And found friends.

-Author unknown

Some say the world will end in fire,

Some say in ice.

From what I’ve tasted of desire

I hold with those who favor fire.

But if it had to perish twice,

I think I know enough of hate

To say that for destruction Ice

Is also great

And would suffice.

-Robert Frost

To find fault is easy;

To do better may be difficult. –Plutarch

Force is not a remedy. –John Bright

In life, as in chess, forethought wins. Sir Thomas Buxton

And we forget because we must

And not because we will.

-Matthew Arnold

Fortune knocks at every man’s door once in life, but in a good many cases, the man is in a neighboring saloon, and does not hear. –Mark Twain

Choose for your own good and call it good.

For I could never make you see

That no one knows what is good

Who knows not what is evil;

And no one knows what is true

Who knows not what is false.

-Edgar Lee Masters

If you wish to know what a man is, place him in authority. –Yugoslav proverb

Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored. –Aldous Huxley

As if you could kill time without injuring eternity. –Thoreau

I would rather sit on a pumpkin and have it all to myself than be crowded on a velvet cushion. –Thoreau

Any coward can fight a battle when he’s sure of winning; but give me the man who has pluck to fight when he’s sure of losing. That’s my way, sir; and there are many victories worse than defeat. –George Elliot

A beautiful theory, killed by a nasty, ugly, little fact. –Thomas Huxley

There are certain times and occasions in this strange mixed affair we call life when a man takes his whole universe for a vast practical joke. –Herman Melville

They’re only putting in a nickel, but they want a dollar song. –Melanie

Did you ever find yourself in some unfamiliar place and yet have the feeling you’ve never been there before? -Brice Hitchcock (play character)

It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere. –Voltaire

If it had not been for the discontent of a few fellows who had not been satisfied with their conditions, you would still be living in caves. You would never have emerged from the jungle. Intelligent discontent is the mainspring of civilization. Progress is born of agitation. It is agitation or stagnation. –Eugene Debs

Restlessness is discontent—and discontent is the first necessity of progress. Show me a thoroughly satisfied man—and I’ll show you a failure. –Thomas Edison

All cruelty springs from weakness. –Seneca

The foolish and the dead alone never change their opinions. –James Russell Lowell

Conform and be dull. –J. Frank Dobie

To die for an idea is to place a pretty high price on conjectures. –Anatole France

Fear less, hope more;

Eat less, chew more;

Whine less, breathe more;

Talk less, say more;

Hate less, love more;

And all good things are yours.

-Swedish proverb

Every dogma has its day, but ideals are eternal. Israel Zangwill

IF I HAD MY LIFE TO LIVE OVER

I'd dare to make more mistakes next time.

 I'd relax, I would limber up.
I would be sillier than I have been this trip.
 I would take fewer things seriously.
 I would take more chances.
  
I would climb more mountains and swim more rivers.
 I would eat more ice cream and less beans.
 I would perhaps have more actual troubles, 
 but I'd have fewer imaginary ones.
  
You see, I'm one of those people who live 
 sensibly and sanely hour after hour, day after day.
  
Oh, I've had my moments,
 And if I had it to do over again, 
 I'd have more of them.
 In fact, I'd try to have nothing else.
 Just moments, one after another,
  instead of living so many years ahead of each day.
 
I've been one of those people who never goes anywhere 
 without a thermometer, a hot water bottle, 
 a raincoat and a parachute.
If I had to do it again, I would travel lighter than I have.
 
If I had my life to live over,
 I would start barefoot earlier in the spring
 and stay that way later in the fall.
 I would go to more dances.
 I would ride more merry-go-rounds.
 I would pick more daisies.
 
 Nadine Stair,
 85 years old.
 
 

Shylock: To bait fish withal: if it feed nothing else, it will feed my revenge. He hath disgraced me, and hindered me half a million, laughed at my losses, mocked at my gains, scorned my nation, thwarted my bargains, cooled my friends, heated mine enemies; and what's his reason? I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer, as a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed? if you tickle us, do we not laugh? if you poison us, do we not die? and if you wrong us, shall we not revenge? If we are like you in the rest, we will resemble you in that. If a Jew wrong a Christian, what is his humility? Revenge! If a Christian wrong a Jew, what should his sufferance be by Christian example? Why, revenge! The villainy you teach me I will execute, and it shall go hard but I will better the instruction.

--Shakespeare, in “The Merchant of Venice”

The Impossible Dream (The Quest)

To dream the impossible dream
To fight the unbeatable foe
To bear with unbearable sorrow
To run where the brave dare not go.

To right the unrightable wrong
To be better far than you are
To try when your arms are too weary
To reach the unreachable star

This is my quest, to follow that star,
No matter how hopeless, no matter how far
To be willing to give when there's no more to give
To be willing to die so that honor and justice may live

And I know if I'll only be true to this glorious quest
That my heart will lie peaceful and calm when I'm laid to my rest

And the world will be better for this
That one man scorned and covered with scars
Still strove with his last ounce of courage
To reach the unreachable star.

THE MAN IN THE GLASS

When you get what you want in your struggle for self...
And the world makes you king for a day,
Just go to the mirror and look at yourself...
And see what that man has to say.

For it isn't what your father or mother or wife...
Whose judgement upon you must pass,
The fellow whose verdict counts the most in your life...
Is the one staring back from the glass.

Some people may think you a straight shooting chum...
And call you a wonderful guy,
But the man in the glass says you're only a bum...
If you cant look him straight in the eye.

He's the fellow to please, never mind all the rest...
For he's with you clear up to the end,
And you've passed your most dangerous, difficult test...
If the man in the glass is your friend.

You may fool the whole world down the pathway of years...
And get pats on the back as you pass,
But your final reward will be heartaches and tears...
If you've cheated the man in the glass.

Slow me down, Lord!
 Ease the pounding of my heart
 By the quieting of my mind.
 Steady my harried pace
 With a vision of the eternal reach of time.
 Give me,
 Amidst the confusions of my day,
 The calmness of the everlasting hills.
 Break the tensions of my nerves
 With the soothing music 
 Of the singing streams
 That live in my memory.
 Help me to know
 The magical power of sleep,
 Teach me the art
 Of taking minute vacations 
 Of slowing down
 To look at a flower;
 To chat with an old friend 
 Or make a new one;
 To pat a stray dog;
 To watch a spider build a web;
 To smile at a child;
 Or to read a few lines from a good book.
 Remind me each day
 That the race is not always to the swift;
 That there is more to life 
 Than increasing its speed.
 Let me look upward
 Into the branches of the towering oak
 And know that it grew great and strong
 Because it grew slowly and well.
 Slow me down, Lord,
 And inspire me to send my roots deep
 Into the soil of life's enduring values
 That I may grow toward the stars
 Of my greater destiny.
 Wilferd A. Peterson.
 
 
 

If you sometimes get discouraged, consider this man:

He dropped out of grade school.

Ran a country store.

Went broke.

Took 15 years to pay off his bills.

Took a wife.

Unhappy marriage.

Ran for House.

Lost twice.

Ran for Senate.

Lost twice.

Delivered speech that became a classic.

Audience indifferent.

Attacked daily by the press and despised by half the country.

Despite all this, imagine how many people all over the world
have been inspired by this awkward, rumpled, brooding man
who signed his name simply,

A. Lincoln.

My message is very modest and humble. It is against indifference. I think the greatest source of evil and danger in the world, to the world, is indifference. I have always believed that:

The opposite of love is not hate, but indifference;

The opposite of art is not ugliness, but indifference;

The opposite of life is not death, but indifference to life and death;

The opposite of peace is not war, but indifference to peace and war;

The opposite of culture, the opposite of beauty, the opposite of generosity?

Indifference is the enemy.

-Elie Wiesel (Concentration camp survivor and author)

People are unreasonable, illogical and self-centered.
Love them anyway.
If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives.
Do good anyway.
If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies.
Succeed anyway.
The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow.
Do good anyway.
Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.
Be honest and frank anyway.
The biggest person with the biggest ideas can be
shot down by the smallest person with the smallest mind.
Think big anyway.
What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.
Build anyway.
People really need help but may attack if you help them.
Help people anyway.
Give the world the best you have
and you might get kicked in the teeth.
Give the world the best you've got anyway.
- Unknown

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth.

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same.

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

--Robert Frost

After dark, all cats are leopards. –Zuni proverb

Fat pigs eat first. Roger Wm. Anderson

Bad is never good until worse happens. –Danish proverb

Be happy while you’re living,

For you’re a long time dead. –Scottish proverb

Better to light a candle than to curse the darkness. –Chinese proverb

Call on God, but row away from the rocks. –Indian proverb

Don’t dig your grave with your own knife and fork. –English proverb

Every path has its puddle. –English proverb

Everything passes, everything wears out, everything breaks. (tout passé, tout lasse, tout casse.)

-French proverb

Gratitude is the heart’s memory. –French proverb

A heart in love with beauty never grows old. –Turkish proverb

He who has health has hope; and he who has hope, has everything. –Arab proverb

If there is no wind, row. –Latin proverb

If three people say you are an ass, put on a bridle. –Spanish proverb

It is easier to pull down than build up. –Latin proverb

The journey is the reward. –Tao proverb

A little pot boils easily. –Dutch proverb

Measure a thousand times, and cut once. –Turkish proverb

What is hard to endure is sweet to recall. –French proverb

With money in your pocket you are wise, you are handsome, and sing well too. –Jewish proverb

The most dangerous thing in the world is to try to leap a chasm in two jumps. –David Lloyd George

Few things are harder to put up with than a good example. –Mark Twain

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. –Edmund Burke

We ought, every day, to hear a song, read a fine poem, and, if possible, to speak a few reasonable words. –Goethe

Nothing is so terrible to see as ignorance in action. –Goethe