Quotes to inspire and reflect

There is no observation more frequently made by such as employ themselves in surveying the conduct of mankind, than that marriage, though the dictate of nature, and the institution of Providence, is yet very often the cause of misery, and that those who enter into that state can seldom forbear to express their repentance, and their envy of those whom either chance or caution hath withheld from it.

To live without killing is a thought which could electrify the world, if men were only capable of staying awake long enough to let the idea soak in.

Use harms and even destroys beauty. The noblest function of an object is to be contemplated.

As I was walking among the fires of Hell, delighted with the enjoyments of Genius; which to Angels look like torment and insanity. I collected some of their Proverbs.

It is necessary to work, if not from inclination, at least from despair. Everything considered, work is less boring than amusing oneself.

I once wanted to become an atheist, but I gave up - they have no holidays.

He had the entertainment of thinking that if he had for that moment stopped the clock it was to promote the next minute this still livelier motion.

The best remedy for a bruised heart is not, as so many people seem to think, repose upon a manly bosom. Much more efficacious are honest work, physical activity, and sudden acquisition of wealth.

She had fortunately always her appetite for news. The pure flame of the disinterested burned in her cave of treasures as a lamp in a Byzantine vault.

There are certainly moments," said Chad, "when you seem to me too good to be true. Yet if you are true," he added, "that seems to be all that need concern me.

Science knows no country, because knowledge belongs to humanity, and is the torch which illuminates the world. Science is the highest personification of the nation because that nation will remain the first which carries the furthest the works of thought and intelligence.

Splitting the atom is like trying to shoot a gnat in the Albert Hall at night and using ten million rounds of ammunition on the off chance of getting it. That should convince you that the atom will always be a sink of energy and never a reservoir of energy.

I feel how little she can like being told of her owing me anything. No woman ever enjoys such an obligation to another woman.

It struck him really that he had never so lived with her as during this period of her silence; the silence was a sacred hush, a finer clearer medium, in which her idiosyncrasies showed.

Wear a smile and have friends, wear a scowl and have wrinkles.

Our critics are our friends; they show us our faults.

Millions of men have lived to fight, build palaces and boundaries, shape destinies and societies; but the compelling force of all times has been the force of originality and creation profoundly affecting the roots of human spirit. Ansel Adams #8526The poor complain that they are governed badly. The rich complain that they are governed at all. G. K.

It is one of the great secrets of life that those things which are most worth doing, we do for others.

Education is a companion which no misfortune can depress, no crime can destroy, no enemy can alienate, no despotism can enslave. At home, a friend, abroad, an introduction, in solitude a solace and in society an ornament. It chastens vice, it guides virtue, it gives at once grace and government to genius. Without it, what is man? A splendid slave, a reasoning savage.

Books are the legacies that a great genius leaves to mankind, which are delivered down from generation to generation as presents to the posterity of those who are yet unborn.

Whenever a separation is made between liberty and justice, neither, in my opinion, is safe.

To me the meanest flower that blows can give Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears.

Through me you pass into the city of woe: Through me you pass into eternal pain: Through me among the people lost for aye. Justice the founder of my fabric moved: To rear me was the task of power divine, Supremes wisdom, and primeval love Before me things create were none, save things Eternal, and eternal I shall endure. All hope abandon, ye who enter here.

Avarice, envy, pride, three fatal sparks, have set the hearts of all On Fire.

Be not simply good - be good for something.

One should never direct people towards happiness, because happiness too is an idol of the market-place. One should direct them towards mutual affection. A beast gnawing at its prey can be happy too, but only human beings can feel affection for each other, and this is the highest achievement they can aspire to.

Thanks to his constant habit of shaking the bottle in which life handed him the wine of experience, he presently found the taste of the lees rising as usual into his draught.

I have always been impressed by the fact that there are a surprising number of individuals who never use their minds if they can avoid it, and an equal number who do use their minds, but in an amazingly stupid way.

The greatest and most important problems of life are all fundamentally insoluble. They can never be solved but only outgrown.

People can be in general pretty well trusted, of course--with the clock of their freedom ticking as loud as it seems to do here--to keep an eye on the fleeting hour.

The word "happiness" would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness.

He who would travel happily must travel light.

The strictest law sometimes becomes the severest injustice.

Own only what you can carry with you; know language, know countries, know people. Let your memory be your travel bag.

Distrust and caution are the parents of security.

The absent are never without fault, nor the present without excuse.

Think of how many religions attempt to validate themselves with prophecy. Think of how many people rely on these prophecies, however vague, however unfulfilled, to support or prop up their beliefs. Yet has there ever been a religion with the prophetic accuracy and reliability of science?

Laws too gentle are seldom obeyed; too severe, seldom executed.

If we long to believe that the stars rise and set for us, that we are the reason there is a Universe, does science do us a disservice in deflating our conceits?

Personally, I would be delighted if there were a life after death, especially if it permitted me to continue to learn about this world and others, if it gave me a chance to discover how history turns out.

Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. The fearful are caught as often as the bold.

To live is so startling it leaves little time for anything else.

As soon as there is life there is danger.

When you have told anyone you have left him a legacy the only decent thing to do is to die at once.

Be entirely tolerant or not at all; follow the good path or the evil one. To stand at the crossroads requires more strength than you possess.

Death? It’s the only thing we haven’t succeeded in completely vulgarizing.

Death is not the worst thing; rather, when one who craves death cannot attain even that wish.

There is a great deal of wishful thinking in such cases; it is the easiest thing of all to deceive one’s self.