Quotes to inspire and reflect

Women wish to be loved without a why or a wherefore; not because they are pretty, or good, or well-bred, or graceful, or intelligent, but because they are themselves.

Boys will be boys, and so will a lot of middle-aged men.

Men forget but never forgive. Women forgive but never forget.

In wars, boy, fools kill other fools for foolish causes.

If war is ever lawful, then peace is sometimes sinful.

The curious task of economics is to demonstrate to men how little they really know about what they imagine they can design.

If women didn't exist, all the money in the world would have no meaning .

Economics is the painful elaboration of the obvious.

It is no crime to be ignorant of economics, which is, after all, a specialized discipline and one that most people consider to be a ‘dismal science.’ But it is totally irresponsible to have a loud and vociferous opinion on economic subjects while remaining in this state of ignorance.

For it is in giving that we receive.

The most wasted day of all is that in which we have not laughed.

The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it.

Charm is the quality in others that makes us more satisfied with ourselves.

No one worth possessing can be quite possessed.

A glimpse is not a vision. But to a man on a mountain road by night, a glimpse of the next three feet of road may matter more than a vision of the horizon.

Now and then an innocent man is sent to the legislature.

Only a fool thinks price and value are the same.

There are those who will say that the liberation of humanity, the freedom of man and mind, is nothing but a dream. They are right. It is the American dream.

 

The cause of freedom, of the defense of man’s conscience, is indivisible. By defending it in one country, we defend it everywhere in the world.

The Pyramids will not last a moment compared with the daisy.

 

We haven’t got too much time left to ensure that government of the earth, by the earth, for the earth, shall not perish from the people.

I never knew how soothing trees are—many trees and patches of open sunlight, and tree presences; it is almost like having another being.

There’s no secret about success. Did you ever know a successful man who didn’t tell you about it?

The present is the point at which time touches eternity.

 

The wit of conversation consists more in finding it in others than in showing a great deal yourself.

Those who make the worst use of their time are the first to complain of its shortness.

“Tell me what you read and I’ll tell you who you are” is true enough, but I’d know you better if you told me what you reread.

It is easy enough to hold an opinion, but hard work to actually know what one is talking about.

 

Why doesn’t the fellow who says “I’m no speechmaker” let it go at that instead of giving a demonstration?

I make the most of all that comes and the least of all that goes.

 

Lots of folks confuse bad management with destiny.

Come good times or bad, there is always a market for things nobody needs.

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

 

Forgiving and being forgiven are two names for the same thing. The important thing is that a discord has been resolved.

It is only our bad temper that we put down to being tired or worried or hungry; we put our good temper down to ourselves.

 

We’d all like to vote for the best man, but he’s never a candidate.

Life is short and we never have enough time for gladdening the hearts of those who travel the way with us. Oh, be swift to love! Make haste to be kind.

Sin has many tools, but a lie is the handle which fits them all.

Power is the most persuasive rhetoric.

A modest garden . . . contains, for those who know how to look and to wait, more instruction than a library.

Facts were never pleasing to him. He acquired them with reluctance and got rid of them with relief. He was never on terms with them until he had stood them on their heads.

To know how to grow old is the masterwork of wisdom, and one of the most difficult chapters in the great art of living.

I’ve dreamt in my life dreams that have stayed with me ever after, and changed my ideas: they’ve gone through and through me, like wine through water, and altered the color of my mind.

for it means pushing back a boundary-line and adding to one’s liberty.

I think there is no suffering greater than what is caused by the doubts of those who want to believe.

The greater part of the truth is always hidden, in regions out of the reach of cynicism.

The man who insists upon seeing with perfect clearness before he decides, never decides.

The most important things are the hardest to say, because words diminish them.