Quotes

Some of my favorite quotes and maxims – this list is consistently updated and will probably continue growing.

Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on earth.

MUHAMMAD ALI

What weakens us is feeling offended by the deeds and misdeeds of our fellow men. Our self-importance requires that we spend most of our lives offended by someone.

CARLOS CASTANEDA

There are only 2 ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.

ALBERT EINSTEIN

Treat people as if they were what they ought to be and you help them to become what they are capable of being.

JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE

We awaken in others the same attitude of mind we hold toward them.

ELBERT HUBBARD

You have the right to work, but never to the fruit of work. You should never engage in action for the sake of reward, nor should you long for inaction.

BHAGAVAD GITA (2:47)

I judge you unfortunate because you have never lived through misfortune. You have passed through life without an opponent – no one can ever know what you are capable of, not even you.

SENECA

The mind in itself has no needs, except for those it creates itself. Is undisturbed, except for its own disturbances. Knows no obstructions, except those from within.

MARCUS AURELIUS

People do not seem to realize that their opinion of the world is also a confession of character.

RALPH WALDO EMERSON

The cost of a thing is the amount of what I will call life which is required to be exchanged for it, immediately or in the long run.

HENRY DAVID THOREAU

Practice yourself, for heaven’s sake, in little things; and thence proceed to greater.

EPICTETUS

Hard times create strong men. Strong men create good times. Good times create weak men. And, weak men create hard times.

G. MICHAEL HOPF

It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.

JIDDU KRISHNAMURTI

Waste no more time arguing what a good man should be. Be one.

MARCUS AURELIUS

If a state is governed by the principles of reason, poverty and misery are subjects of shame; if a state is not governed by the principles of reason, riches and honours are the subjects of shame.

CONFUCIUS

Beware the barrenness of a busy life.

SOCRATES

All cruelty stems from weakness.

SENECA

A man is rich in proportion to the number of things which he can afford to let alone.

HENRY DAVID THOREAU

Those who bring sunshine to the lives of others cannot keep it from themselves.

J.M. BARRIE

I maintain that Truth is a pathless land, and you cannot approach it by any path whatsoever, by any religion, by any sect. That is my point of view, and I adhere to that absolutely and unconditionally. Truth, being limitless, unconditioned, unapproachable by any path whatsoever, cannot be organized; nor should any organization be formed to lead or to coerce people along any particular path.

JIDDU KRISHNAMURTI

This is the true joy in life, being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one. Being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy.

GEORGE BERNARD SHAW

No man is despised by another unless he is first despised by himself.

SENECA

I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, not the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill, but time and chance happeneth to them all.

ECCLESIASTES 9:11 (KJV)

Dying is no big deal; the least of us will manage it. Living is the trick.

RED SMITH

The safest road to Hell is the gradual one — the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.

C.S. LEWIS

But nothing delights the mind so much as fond and loyal friendship. What a blessing it is to have hearts that are ready and willing to receive all your secrets in safety, with whom you are less afraid to share knowledge of something than keep it to yourself, whose conversation soothes your distress, whose advice helps you make up your mind, whose cheerfulness dissolves your sorrow, whose very appearance cheers you up!

SENECA

If you suddenly and unexpectedly feel joy, don’t hesitate. Give in to it. There are plenty of lives and whole towns destroyed or about to be. We are not wise, and not very often kind. And much can never be redeemed. Still life has some possibility left. Perhaps this is its way of fighting back, that sometimes something happened better than all the riches or power in the world. It could be anything, but very likely you notice it in the instant when love begins. Anyway, that’s often the case. Anyway, whatever it is, don’t be afraid of its plenty. Joy is not made to be a crumb.

MARY OLIVER

Beautiful things don’t ask for attention.

THE SECRET LIFE OF WALTER MITTY

I shall pass this way but once; any good that I can do or any kindness I can show to any human being; let me do it now. Let me not defer nor neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.

STEPHEN GRELLET

Books are the carriers of civilization. Without books, history is silent, literature dumb, science crippled, thought and speculation at a standstill. Without books, the development of civilization would have been impossible. They are engines of change (as the poet said), windows on the world and lighthouses erected in the sea of time. They are companions, teachers, magicians, bankers of the treasures of the mind. Books are humanity in print.

BARBARA TUCHMAN

Faced with the choice between changing one’s mind and proving that there is no need to do so, almost everyone gets busy on the proof.

JOHN KENNETH GALBRAITH