Quotes to inspire and reflect

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?

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

Art is a revolt against fate.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

Peace is the only battle worth waging.

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?

At Christmas I no more desire a rose

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!

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

There is no effort without error or shortcoming.

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

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.

Both read the Bible day and night,

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.

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.

All good moral philosophy is but a handmaid to religion.

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.

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

Not things, but opinions about things, trouble men.

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

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.

I am here to live out loud.

What happens to a dream deferred?

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

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

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

A cheerful look makes a dish a feast.

Bring in the bottled lightning, a clean tumbler, and a corkscrew.

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

Let our advance worrying become advance thinking and planning.

Too much and too little wine. Give him none, he cannot find truth; give him too much, the same.