Favorite Quotes

A ever-growing collection of quotes that have inspired me, made me think, made me laugh, or made me cry. Taken from a variety of novelists, poets, philosophers, theologians, statesmen, scientists, actors, artists, and even a few fictional characters, these quotes cover the gamut of subjects from spirituality, philosophy, and politics to humor, fashion, travel, and more. Note that just because it’s here, it doesn’t mean I necessarily agree with it or the person who said it. In fact, it might be quite the opposite.

Passion and Perseverance

“When heaven is about to confer a great responsibility on any man, it will exercise his mind with suffering, subject his sinews and bones to hard work, expose his body to hunger, put him to poverty, place obstacles in the paths of his deeds, so as to stimulate his mind, harden his nature, and improve wherever he is incompetent.”
- Meng Tzu, Confucian Philosopher (372-289 BC)

“The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain, too cheap, we esteem too lightly. ‘Tis dearness only that gives everything its value. Heaven knows how to set a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed, if so celestial an article as Freedom should not be highly rated. 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.”
- The American Crisis, Dec. 19, 1776, Thomas Paine, English-Born American Revolutionary (1737-1809)

“The real man smiles in trouble, gathers strength from distress, and grows brave by reflection.”
- Thomas Paine, English-Born American Revolutionary (1737-1809)

“This age will die not as a result of some evil, but from a lack of passion.”
- Soren Kierkegaard, Danish Theologian (1813-1855)

“If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours ... In proportion as he simplifies his life, the laws of the universe will appear less complex, and solitude will not be solitude, nor poverty poverty, nor weakness weakness.”
- Walden, 1854, Henry David Thoreau, American Author (1817-1862)

“The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present.”
- “Annual Message to Congress”, Dec. 1, 1862, Abraham Lincoln, 16th President of the United States (1809-1865)

“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.”
- “America’s Mission”, Feb. 22, 1899, William Jennings Bryan, American Statesman (1860-1925)

“It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust, blood and sweat, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions and spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly so that his place shall never be with these cold and timid souls who know neither defeat nor victory.”
- “Citizenship in a Republic”, April 23, 1910, Theodore Roosevelt, 26th President of the United States (1858-1919)

“I would rather be ashes than dust! I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry rot. I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet. The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time.”
- “San Francisco Bulletin”, Dec 2, 1916, Jack London, American Author

“What kind of man would live where there is no daring? I don’t believe in taking foolish chances, but nothing can be accomplished without taking any chance at all.”
- Statement at a news conference following his May 20-21, 1927 Transatlantic Flight, Charles Lindbergh, American Aviator (1902-1974)

“Life’s a forge! Yes, and hammer and anvil, too! You’ll be roasted, smelted, and pounded, and you’ll scarce know what’s happening to you. But stand boldly to it! Metal’s worthless till it’s shaped and tempered! More labor than luck. Face the pounding, don’t fear the proving; and you’ll stand well against any hammer and anvil.
- Taran Wanderer, 1967, Lloyd Alexander, American Author (1924-2007)

“The greatness comes not when things go always good for you, but the greatness comes when you are really tested, when you take some knocks, some disappointments, when sadness comes; because only if you've been in the deepest valley can you ever know how magnificent it is to be on the highest mountain... Always give your best. Never get discouraged. Never be petty. Always remember: Others may hate you. But those who hate you don't win, unless you hate them. And then, you destroy yourself.”
- “Speech to White House staff before his final departure”, Aug. 9, 1974, Richard Nixon, 37th President of the United States (1913-1994)

Courage

“What, after all, has maintained the human race on this globe despite all the calamities of nature and all the tragic failings of mankind, if not faith in new possibilities and courage to advocate them.”
- Peace and Bread in Time of War, 1922, Jane Addams, American Suffragist and Nobel Peace Prize Winner

“We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. We must remember always that accusation is not proof and that conviction depends upon evidence and due process of law. We will not walk in fear, one of another. We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason, if we dig deep in our history and our doctrine, and remember that we are not descended from fearful men – not from men who feared to write, to speak, to associate, and to defend causes that were, for the moment, unpopular”
- CBS News Broadcast, March 9, 1954, Edward R Murrow, American Broadcaster (1908-1965)

Courage is the most important of all virtues, because without courage you can’t practice any other virtue consistently. You can practice any virtue erratically, but nothing consistently without courage.
- Cornell University Convocation Address, May 24, 2008, Maya Angelou, American Poet (1928-2014)

Vision

“Bring me men to match my mountains. Bring me men to match my plains, men with empires in their purpose and new eras in their brains.”
- The Coming American, July 4, 1894, Sam Walter Foss, American Poet (1858-1911)

“I think the true discovery of America is before us. I think the true fulfillment of our spirit, of our people, of our might and immortal land is yet to come.” – You Can’t Go Home Again, 1940, Thomas Wolfe, American Novelist (1900-1938)

“Throughout the centuries, there were men who took first steps down new roads armed with nothing but their own vision.”
- The Fountainhead, 1943, Ayn Rand, Russian-American Novelist (1905-1982)

Principles and Morality

“When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle.”
- Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents, Apr. 23, 1770, Edmund Burke, Scottish Statesman (1729-1797) (This quote has been popularly paraphrased as “All that is required for evil to prevail is for good men to do nothing.”)

“Moderation in temper is always a virtue; but moderation in principle is always a vice.”
- Thomas Paine, English-Born American Revolutionary (1737-1809)

“...we have no government, armed with power, capable of contending with human passions, unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge and licentiousness would break the strongest cords of our Constitution, as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
- Letter to the Officers of the First Brigade of the Third Division of the Militia of Massachusetts, Oct. 11, 1798, John Adams, 2nd President of the United States (1735-1826)

“On matters of style, swim with the current, on matters of principle, stand like a rock.”
- Thomas Jefferson, 3rd President of the United States (1743-1826)

“First they came for the communists, and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a communist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak out for me.”
- “Confessional”, 1946, Martin Niemoller, German Lutheran Pastor (1892-1984)

“The world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch them without doing anything.”
- Note to Joseph Maria Corredor, author of “Conversations with Casals”, 1955, Albert Einstein, German Physicist (1879-1955)

“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.”
- God in the Dock: Essays on Theology and Ethics, 1970, C. S. Lewis, British Theologian (1898-1963)

Responsibility

“Freedom makes a huge requirement of every human being. With freedom comes responsibility. For the person who is unwilling to grow up, the person who does not want to carry is own weight, this is a frightening prospect.”
- Eleanor Roosevelt, First Lady of the United States (1884–1962)

Tolerance

“For each of us has within himself the inheritances of age-long hatreds, of racial and religious differences, and everyone has a tendency to find the cause for his own failures in some conspiracy of evil. It is, therefore, essential that we guard our own thinking and not be among those who cry out against prejudices applicable to themselves, while busy spawning intolerances for others… For now more than ever, we must keep in the forefront of our minds the fact that whenever we take away the liberties of

those we hate, we are opening the way to loss of liberty for those we love. Our way of living together in America is a strong but delicate fabric. It is made up of many threads. It has been woven over many centuries by the patience and sacrifice of countless liberty-loving men and women. It serves as a cloak for the protection of poor and rich, of black and white, of Jew and gentile, of foreign - and native-born. For God's sake, let us not tear it asunder. For no man knows, once it is destroyed, where or when man will find its protective warmth again.”
- Saturday Evening Post, June 27, 1942, Wendell Willkie, U.S. Presidential Candidate

Peace

“I like to believe that people in the long run are going to do more to promote peace than our governments. Indeed, I think that people want peace so much that one of these days, governments had better get out of the way and let them have it.”
- Radio and Television Broadcast With Prime Minister Macmillan in London, August 31, 1959 Dwight Eisenhower, 34^thPresident of the United States (1890-1969)Salvation

“If sinners must be damned, at least let them leap to hell over our bodies... and if they will perish, let them perish with our arms around their knees, imploring them to stay… and if Hell must be filled, let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions, and let not one go there unwarned or unprayed for.”
- “The Wailing of Risca” (Sermon), 1860, Charles Spurgeon, British Theologian (1834-1892)

Truth

“It does not require many words to speak the truth.”
- Chief Jospeh, Leader of the Nez Perce Tribe (1840-1904)

Community

“No matter what accomplishments you make, somebody helps you.”
- Althea Gibson, American Athlete (1927-2003)

Miracles

“There are only two ways to live life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is.”
- Albert Einstein, German Physicist (1879-1955)

Education

“I must study politics and war, that our sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. Our sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history and naval architecture, navigation, commerce and agriculture in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry and porcelain."

- Letter to wife Abigail Adams, 1780, John Adams, 2nd President of the United States (1735-1826)

“I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.”
- Mark Twain, American Author (1835-1910)

Children

“Our greatest natural resource is the minds of our children.”
- Walt Disney, American Animator (1901-1966)

Government Overreach

“Some malicious people, who like to meddle in other people’s affairs, try to hinder those who construct buildings from which they can see their neighbors… We do not consider a view of one’s neighbors to be a bad thing. Let he who thinks it is a bad thing take action to secure his own buildings and make them impregnable (to the eyes of strangers) either by installing what we call open railings, or with movable shutters, or in any way he thinks fit…” - Book of the Eparch, AD 531-533, Julian of Askalon, Byzantine Architect (AD 6^th Century)

“No man is good enough to govern another man without that other’s consent.”
- Speech at Peoria, Illinois, Oct. 16, 1854, Abraham Lincoln, 16th President of the United States (1809-1865)

“The only difference between a tax man and a taxidermist is that the taxidermist leaves the skin.”
- Mark Twain, American Author (1835-1910)

“A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves money from the public treasury. From that moment on the majority always vote for the candidates promising the most money from the public treasury, with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world's great civilizations has been two hundred years. These nations have progressed through the following sequence: from bondage to spiritual faith, from spiritual faith to great courage, from courage to liberty, from liberty to abundance, from abundance to selfishness, from selfishness to complacency, from complacency to apathy, from apathy to dependency, from dependency back to bondage.”
- generally and inaccurately attributed to Scottish Historian Alexander Tytler. In reality, it appears to have originated from a 1951 column in the Daily Oklahoman by Elmer T. Peterson and a 1943 speech by H.W. Prentis, President of the Armstrong Cork Company

“The only justifiable purpose of political institutions is to assure the unhindered development of the individual.”
- Albert Einstein, German American Physicist (1879-1955)

“You cannot legislate the poor into freedom by legislating the wealthy out of freedom. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that my dear friend, is about the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it.” – “The Cross and the Flag”, 1958, Gerald L.K. Smith, American Clergyman (1898-1976) (This is an example of a quote I happen to agree with but from a man I do not agree with on many other important issues, him being a segregationist and white supremacist.)

“Socialism only works in two places: Heaven where they don’t need it and hell where they already have it.”
- Ronald Reagan, 40th President of the United States (1911-2004)

“The bigger the state the smaller the citizen.”
- Dennis Prager, American Political Commentator (b. 1948)

“Man will always be man. There is no new man. We tried so hard to create a society that was equal, where there’d be nothing to envy your neighbor. But there’s always something to envy. A smile, a friendship, something you don’t have and want to appropriate. In this world, even a Soviet one, there will always be rich and poor. Rich in gifts, poor in gifts. Rich in love, poor in love.”
- Commissar Danilov, Enemy at the Gates (Film, 2001)

“Every helping hand is a controlling hand.”
- Soft Despotism, Democracy’s Drift, 2009 Paul Rahe, American Historian (b. 1948)

Individualism

“In order to be irreplaceable, one must always be different.”
- Coco Chanel, French Fashion Designer (1883-1971)

Oration

“Be not careless in deeds, nor confused in words, nor rambling in thought.”
- Meditations, Book VIII, v. 52, Marcus Aurelius, Roman Emperor (AD 121-180)

“Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people.” - Eleanor Roosevelt, First Lady of the United States (1884-1962)

Partisanship

“I never submitted the whole system of my opinions to the creed of any party of men whatever, in religion, in philosophy, in Politics, or in anything else, where I was capable of thinking for myself. Such an addiction is the last degradation of a free and moral agent. If I could not go to Heaven but with a party, I would not go there at all.”
- Letter to Francis Hopkins, Mar. 13, 1789, Thomas Jefferson, 3rd President of the United States (1743-1826)

Simplicity

“It will be of little avail to the people that the laws are made by men of their own choice if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood.”
– The Federalist, No. 62, February 27, 1799, James Madison, 4th President of the United States (1751-1836)

“A little simplification would be the first step toward rational living, I think.”
- Eleanor Roosevelt, First Lady of the United States (1884-1962)

“Any fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius-and a lot of courage-to move in the opposite direction.”
- Albert Einstein, German Physicist (1879-1955)

“Sometimes, if you stand on the bottom rail of a bridge and lean over to watch the river slipping slowly away beneath you, you will suddenly know everything there is to be known.”
- A.A. Milne, English Author (1882-1956)

“They say we offer simple answers to complex problems. Well, perhaps there is a simple answer- not an easy answer- but simple.”
- “A Time for Choosing”, Oct. 27, 1964, Ronald Reagan, 40th President of the United States (1911-2004)

Travel

“The gladdest moment in human life, methinks, is a departure into unknown lands. The blood flows with the fast circulation of childhood.”
- Journal Entry, Dec. 2, 1856, Sir Richard Burton, British Explorer (1821-1890)

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” – P.S. I Love You, 1990, Sarah Frances Brown as quoted by her son, author H. Jackson Brown, Jr. (1940-2021)

Uncategorized

“Never confuse the size of your paycheck with the size of your talent.”
- Marlon Brando

“Making money isn’t the main point of business. Money is a by-product.... A new product has been found, something of use to the world. A new industry moves into an undeveloped area. Factories go up, machines go in and you're in business. It's coincidental that people who've never seen a dime now have a dollar and barefooted kids wear shoes and have their faces washed. What’s wrong with an urge that gives people libraries, hospitals, baseball diamonds and movies on a Saturday night?”
- Humphrey Bogart

“Honey, we all got to go sometime, reason or no reason. Dying's as natural as living. The man who's too afraid to die is too afraid to live.”
- Clark Gable

“If we followed our own advice, we'd be successful.”
- Fred Astaire

“But I do nothing that I don't like, such as "inventing" up to the arty or "down" to the corny. I happen to relish a certain type of corn. What I think is the really dangerous approach is the "let's be artistic" attitude. I know that artistry just happens.”
- Fred Astaire

"All I know about getting something that you want is that there are three essential things: wanting, trying and getting the opportunity, the breaks. None works alone without the others. Wanting is basic. Trying is up to you. And the breaks - I do know this, they always happen.”
- Greer Garson

“If you tell me that there are obstacles in the way of your ambition that make it impossible to pursue, then I know it's not a real ambition. There are always obstacles. The 'perversity of events,' as someone once called it, is always ready to lick us. Events are never right for achieving what we most want to achieve. If this were not so, there would be no real fun in being 17 -- or even in being alive.”
- Helen Gahagan Douglas

“A good story cannot be devised; it has to be distilled.”
- Raymond Chandler

“The faster I write the better my output. If I'm going slow, I'm in trouble. It means I'm pushing the words instead of being pulled by them.”
- Raymond Chandler

“I regard psychiatry as fifty percent bunk, thirty percent fraud, ten percent parrot talk, and the remaining ten percent just a fancy lingo for the common sense we have had for hundreds and perhaps thousands of years, if we ever had the guts to read.”
- Raymond Chandler

“I think the mirror should be tilted slightly upward when it's reflecting life -- toward the cheerful, the tender, the compassionate, the brave, the funny, the encouraging, all those things -- and not tilted down to the gutter part of the time, into the troubled vistas of conflict.”
- Actress Greer Garson

“All my life I've been terrible at remembering people's names. I once introduced a friend of mine as Martini. Her name was actually Olive.”
- Actress Tallulah Bankhead

“My mother and my father were illiterate immigrants from Russia. When I was a child, they were constantly amazed that I could go to a building and take a book on any subject. They couldn't believe this access to knowledge we have here in America. They couldn't believe that it was free.”
- Kirk Douglas

“We cannot legislate equality, but we can legislate equal opportunity for all.”
- Progressive Democratic Congresswoman Helen Gahagan Douglas

“Any man who can write a page of living prose adds something to our life, and the man who can, as I can, is surely the last to resent someone who can do it even better. An artist cannot deny art, nor would he want to. A lover cannot deny love.”
- Raymond Chandler

“Aging is an inevitable process. I surely wouldn't want to grow younger. The older you become, the more you know; your bank account of knowledge is much richer.”
- William Holden

“Gratitude based on a faith that everything that happens or doesn’t happen in your life is for your own best interests. That we live in a purposeful universe. Life is always for you; it is never against you. It is a fact that blessings sometimes come wrapped in fear, pain, and tears. In choosing to practice unconditional gratitude you are choosing to trust the process, to honor your feelings and to place your faith in an outcome of inevitable grace.”
- William Holden

“Have you ever been up in your plane at night, alone, somewhere, 20,000 feet above the ocean?... Did you ever hear music up there?... It's the music a man's spirit sings to his heart, when the earth's far away and there isn't any more fear. It's the high, fine, beautiful sound of an earth-bound creature who grew wings and flew up high and looked straight into the face of the future. And caught, just for an instant, the unbelievable vision of a free man in a free world.”
- Dalton Trumbo

“When one man says, “No, I won’t,” Rome begins to fear.”
- Dalton Trumbo

“The only interesting thing that can happen in a Swiss bedroom is suffocation by feather mattress.”
- Dalton Trumbo

“Deep down, I'm pretty superficial.”
- Ava Gardner

“It is pretty obvious that the debasement of the human mind caused by a constant flow of fraudulent advertising is no trivial thing. There is more than one way to conquer a country.”
- Raymond Chandler

“Their constant yelping about a free press means, with a few honorable exceptions, freedom to peddle scandal, crime, sex, sensationalism, hate, innuendo and the political and financial uses of propaganda. A newspaper is a business out to make money through advertising revenue. That is predicated on the circulation, and you know what circulation depends on.”
- Raymond Chandler

“She was the kind of girl who'd eat all your cashews and leave you with nothing but peanuts and filberts.”
- Raymond Chandler

“It is impossible for us to break the law. We can only break ourselves against the law.”
– Cecil B. DeMille

“Trying to build the brotherhood of man without the fatherhood of God is like trying to make a wheel without a hub.”
- Irene Dunne, Golden Age Hollywood Actress

“There are times, sir, when men of good conscience cannot blindly follow orders. You acknowledge their sentience, but you ignore their personal liberties and freedom. Order a man to hand his child over to the state? Not while I'm his Captain.”
- Captain Jean-Luc Picard

“My race needs no special defense for the past history of them and this country. It proves them to be equal of any people anywhere. All they need is an equal chance in the battle of life.”
- Representative Robert Smalls

“In any nonviolent campaign there are four basic steps: collection of the facts to determine whether injustices exist; negotiation; self-purification; and direct action.”
- Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

“Blessed is the season which engages the whole world in a conspiracy of love.”
- Hamilton Wright Mabie

“Now they got the whole country sectioned off, you can't make a move without a form.”
– Harry Tuttle, Brazil (Movie)

”A man must have grown old and lived long in order to see how short life is.”
- Arthur Schopenhauer

“It is difficult to find happiness within oneself, but it is impossible to find it anywhere else.”
- Arthur Schopenhauer

“The majority of men are not capable of thinking, but only of believing, and are not accessible to reason, but only to authority.”
- Arthur Schopenhauer

“All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.”
- Arthur Schopenhauer

“Just remember, once you are over the hill you begin to pick up speed.”
- Arthur Schopenhauer

“Education perverts the mind since we are directly opposing the natural development of our mind by obtaining ideas first and observations last. This is why so few men of learning have such sound common sense as is quite common among the illiterate.”
- Arthur Schopenhauer

“Man is never happy, but spends his whole life in striving after something which he thinks will make him so.”
- Arthur Schopenhauer

“To use many words to communicate few thoughts is everywhere the unmistakable sign of mediocrity. To gather much thought into few words stamps the man of genius.”
- Arthur Schopenhauer

“People of Wealth and the so-called upper class suffer the most from boredom.”
- Arthur Schopenhauer

“The true test of a healthy democratic constitutional republic is how many people can say in public what they believe in private.”
– Vivek Ramaswamy

“Since the white man says he came from the evolution of animals, well, maybe the black man didn't. The white man has made so many errors in the handling of people that maybe he did come from a gorilla or a fish and crawl up on the sand and then into the trees. Of course, evolution doesn't take God into consideration. I don't think people learned to do all the things they do through evolution.”
- Charles Mingus

“Right action is better than knowledge; but in order to do what is right, we must know what is right.”
- Charlemagne

“A house is not a home unless it contains food and fire for the mind as well as the body.”
- Ben Franklin

“Gentlemen, you will permit me to put on my spectacles, for I have not only grown gray but almost blind in the service of my country.”
- George Washington

"The fear of death follows from the fear of life. One who lives life fully is prepared to die at any time.”
- Edward Abbey

“He is no fool who gives up that which he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.”
- Jim Elliot

THINK - True. Helpful. Inspiring. Necessary. Kind.
- Unknown

“I just want to do God’s will. And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve seen the Promised Land.”
- Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Instaurare omnia in Christo. To restore all things in Christ