Quotes to inspire and reflect

There are no clear paths. Only pitfalls and tripwires and darkness.

 

If human life were long enough to find the ultimate theory, everything would have been solved by previous generations. Nothing would be left to be discovered.

 

The lucky man is he who knows how much to leave to chance. C. S.

 

No other road, no other way, no day but today.

 

Thoughts are tyrants that return again and again to torment us.

 

Valour needs first strength, then a weapon. J. R. R.

 

Every man has inside himself a parasitic being who is acting not at all to his advantage. William S.

If everything on earth were rational, nothing would happen.

In the end, everything is a gag.

How do I know what I have to say until I see what I have said? E. M.

On the heights, all paths are paved with daggers.

 

Hammer the iron that lies on your anvil instead of daydreaming about working silver.

 

Beauty holds more worth than gold.

 

Hardness shatters; strength endures.

 

A great artist is always before his time or behind it.

Remorse: beholding heaven and feeling hell.

You cannot condemn a man for what may only be a figment of your own imagination.

For millions of years, mankind lived just like the animals. Then something happened which unleashed the power of our imaginations, we learned to talk.

We all make our limits, and we set them further out than we have any right.

 

It is better to have dreamed a thousand dreams that never were than never to have dreamed at all.

Life is a dream from which we must wake before we can dream again.

 

Witness at all times. If necessary, use words. St.

In the Soviet army it takes more courage to retreat than to advance.

Anything that can be done chemically can be done by other means. William S.

A functioning police state needs no police. William S.

The deeds will not be less valiant because they are unpraised. J. R. R.

 

Gratitude is a sickness, suffered by dogs.

He that breaks a thing to find out what it is has left the path of wisdom. J. R.R.

 

The only real power comes out of a long rifle.

Die, but do not retreat.

I believe in one thing only, the power of the human will.

The people who cast the votes do not decide an election, the people who count the votes do.

What do you mean? Do you wish me a good morning, or mean that it is a good morning whether I want it or not; or that you feel good on this morning; or that it is a morning to be good on? J. R. R.

 

I have no help to send, therefore I must go myself. J. R. R.

 

Few can foresee whither their road will lead them, till they come to its end. J. R. R.

For though I do not ask for aid, we need it. J. R. R.

 

He should not vow to walk in the dark, who has not seen the nightfall. J. R. R.

 

With hope or without hope we will follow the trail of our enemies. And woe to them, if we prove the swifter! J. R. R.

Some who have read the book, or at any rate have reviewed it, have found it boring, absurd, or contemptible, and I have no cause to complain, since I have similar opinions of their works... J. R. R.

I am in fact a Hobbit, in all but size. J. R .R.

Nothing is permanent in this wicked world - not even our troubles.

 

To be 70 years young is sometimes far more cheerful and hopeful than to be 40 years old.

Civilization is the process of reducing the infinite to the finite.

As for everything else, so for mathematical theory: beauty can be perceived but not explained.

Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace! Where there is hatred let me sow love; Where there is injury, pardon; Where there is doubt, faith; Where there is despair, hope; Where there is darkness, light; Where there is sadness, joy.

 

Their plans were improved with the best advice. J. R.

 

We are never late. We arrive precisely when we mean to. J. R.

 

The difficulty in life is the choice.