Quotes to inspire and reflect

When lenity and cruelty play for a kingdom, the gentler gamester is the soonest winner.

For blessings ever wait on virtuous deeds,
And though a late, a sure reward succeeds.

The most dangerous folly of old people who were once attractive is to forget that they are not so any longer.

The man whom no one pleases is much more unhappy than the man who pleases no one.

The sort of liveliness which increases with age is not far distant from madness.

There are very few women in society whose virtue outlasts their beauty.

And virtue, though in rags, will keep me warm.

We do not die because we have to die; we die because one day, and not so long ago, our consciousness was forced to deem it necessary.

I object to being told that I am saving daylight when my reason tells me that I am doing nothing of the kind... At the back of the Daylight Saving scheme, I detect the bony, blue-fingered hand of Puritanism, eager to push people into bed earlier, and get them up earlier, to make them healthy, wealthy, and wise in spite of themselves.

The goal of all life is death.

Evil is powerless if the good are unafraid.

Rules too soft are seldomly followed; rules too harsh are seldomly executed.

This world is the will to power - and nothing besides!

He has never written a single book, so you can imagine how much he knows.

If someone betrays you once, it's their fault; if they betray you twice, it's your fault.

If one is forever cautious, can one remain a human being?

I would not attack the faith of a heathen without being sure I had a better one to put in its place.

If all men knew what each said of the other, there would not be four friends in the world.

I wonder what fool it was that first invented kissing.

I will prepare and some day my chance will come.

I must say that acting was good training for the political life that lay ahead of us.

All thought is naught but a footnote to Plato.

I hope that I may always desire more than I can accomplish.

I have seen gross intolerance shown in support of tolerance.

Nature and Books belong to the eyes that see them.

I hate cameras. They are so much more sure than I am about everything.

I do not know the American gentleman, god forgive me for putting two such words together.

I do not mind lying, but I hate inaccuracy.

I do not fear Satan half so much as I fear those who fear him.

I am in the prime of senility.

Humanity is composed but of two categories, the invalids and the nurses.

I am as bad as the worst, but, thank God, I am as good as the best.

How important it is for us to recognize and celebrate our heroes and she-roes!

It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.

The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past, nor to worry about the future, but to live the present moment wisely and earnestly.

It is a very sad thing that nowadays there is so little useless information.

Just as a candle cannot burn without fire, men cannot live without a spiritual life.

Just as treasures are uncovered from the earth, so virtue appears from good deeds, and wisdom appears from a pure and peaceful mind. To walk safely through the maze of human life, one needs the light of wisdom and the guidance of virtue.

Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment.

However many holy words you read, However many you speak, What good will they do you, If you do not act upon them?

For what is it to die but to stand naked in the wind and to melt into the sun?
And what is it to cease breathing, but to free the breath from its restless tides, that it may rise and expand and seek God unencumbered?

Beauty is life when life unveils her holy face.
But you are life and you are the veil.
Beauty is eternity gazing at itself in a mirror.
But you are eternity and you are the mirror.

For what is evil but good tortured by its own hunger and thirst?
Verily, when good is hungry is seeks food even in dark caves, and when it thirsts it drinks even of dead waters.

Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding.

You shall be free indeed when your days are not without a care nor your nights without a want and a grief, But rather when these things girdle your life and yet you rise above them naked and unbound.

Love gives naught but itself and takes naught but from itself.
Love possesses not nor would it be possessed;
For love is sufficient unto love.

Let him think I am more man that I am and I will be so.

Knowledge would be fatal, it is the uncertainty that charms one. A mist makes things beautiful.