Quotes to inspire and reflect

Life being all inclusion and confusion, and art being all discrimination and selection.

The artist must be in his work as God is in creation, invisible and all-powerful; one must sense him everywhere but never see him.

You can calculate the worth of a man by the number of his enemies and the importance of a work of art by the harm that is spoken of it.

Feet, why do I need them if I have wings to fly?

Art is a revolt against fate.

The possession of a book becomes a substitute for reading it.

I hate like death the situation of the plagiarist; the glass I drink from is not large, but at least it is my own.

Valour is stability, not of legs and arms, but of courage and the soul.

A single feat of daring can alter the whole conception of what is possible.

Being tactful in audacity is knowing how far one can go too far.

When I dare to be powerful, to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid.

Those who are at war with others are not at peace with themselves.

My subject is War, and the pity of War. The Poetry is in the pity.

It is a most mistaken way of teaching men to feel they are brothers, by imbuing their mind with perpetual hatred.

It [the Channel] is a mere ditch, and will be crossed as soon as someone has the courage to attempt it.

Wars begin when you will, but they do not end when you please.

You must not fight too often with one enemy, or you will teach him all your art of war.

Non-violence is the first article of my faith. It is also the last article of my creed.

A war can perhaps be won single-handedly. But peace — lasting peace — cannot be secured without the support of all.

All the war-propaganda, all the screaming and lies and hatred, comes invariably from people who are not fighting.

There are not fifty ways of fighting, there’s only one, and that’s to win. Neither revolution nor war consists in doing what one pleases.

It is not violence that best overcomes hate — nor vengeance that most certainly heals injury.

My idea of Christmas, whether old-fashioned or modern, is very simple: loving others. Come to think of it, why do we have to wait for Christmas to do that?

Peace is the only battle worth waging.

I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future. The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons that they teach!

At Christmas I no more desire a rose

There is no effort without error or shortcoming.

When you have exhausted all possibilities, remember this — you haven’t.

God answers sharp and sudden on some prayers, And thrusts the thing we have prayed for in our face, A gauntlet with a gift in’t.

In all important questions, man has learned to cope without recourse to God as a working hypothesis.

I cannot forgive Descartes; in all his philosophy he did his best to dispense with God. But he could not avoid making Him set the world in motion with a flick of His finger; after that he had no more use for God.

Both read the Bible day and night,

If the sun and moon should doubt, they’d immediately go out.

He who gains an indulgence is not, strictly speaking, absolved from the debt of punishment, but is given the means whereby he may pay it.

Religion, which should most distinguish us from the beasts, and ought most particularly elevate us, as rational creatures, above brutes, is that wherein men often appear most irrational, and more senseless than beasts.

All good moral philosophy is but a handmaid to religion.

Not things, but opinions about things, trouble men.

Zen … does not confuse spirituality with thinking about God while one is peeling potatoes. Zen spirituality is just to peel the potatoes.

At the age of six I wanted to be a cook. At seven I wanted to be Napoleon. And my ambition has been growing steadily ever since.

To show your true ability is always, in a sense, to surpass the limits of your ability, to go a little beyond them.

It will never rain roses: when we want to have more roses, we must plant more roses.

What happens to a dream deferred?

We are not creatures of circumstance; we are creators of circumstance.

I am here to live out loud.

One does not discover new lands without consenting to lose sight, for a very long time, of the shore.

I saw him even now going the way of all flesh, that is to say towards the kitchen.

Great eaters of meat are in general more cruel and ferocious than other men. The English are known for their cruelty.

A cheerful look makes a dish a feast.