Quotes to inspire and reflect

Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire, you will what you imagine and at last you create what you will.

Time cools, time clarifies; no mood can be maintained quite unaltered through the course of hours.

Cheerfulness, it would appear, is a matter which depends fully as much on the state of things within, as on the state of things without and around us.

For the sense of smell, almost more than any other, has the power to recall memories and it is a pity that you use it so little.

When I am attacked by gloomy thoughts, nothing helps me so much as running to my books. They quickly absorb me and banish the clouds from my mind.

One must know oneself, if this does not serve to discover truth, it at least serves as a rule of life and there is nothing better.

They were so strong in their beliefs that there came a time when it hardly mattered what exactly those beliefs were; they all fused into a single stubbornness.

A man can do all things if he but wills them.

[Water is] the only drink for a wise man.

To establish oneself in the world, one has to do all one can to appear established.

Our feelings are our most genuine paths to knowledge.

The good or ill of a man lies within his own will.

To will is to select a goal, determine a course of action that will bring one to that goal, and then hold to that action till the goal is reached. The key is action.

[Medicine is] a collection of uncertain prescriptions the results of which, taken collectively, are more fatal than useful to mankind.

A ruffled mind makes a restless pillow.

Guilt is a rope that wears thin.

We turn not older with years, but newer every day.

I think I should have no other mortal wants, if I could always have plenty of music. It seems to infuse strength into my limbs and ideas into my brain. Life seems to go on without effort, when I am filled with music.

Human beings, by changing the inner attitudes of their minds, can change the outer aspects of their lives.

The one thing more difficult than following a regimen is not imposing it on others.

Silence is more musical than any song.

Appetite, with an opinion of attaining, is called hope; the same, without such opinion, despair.

Arranging a bowl of flowers in the morning can give a sense of quiet in a crowded day - like writing a poem, or saying a prayer.

Consult your friend on all things, especially on those which respect yourself. His counsel may then be useful where your own self-love might impair your judgment.

It is better wither to be silent, or to say things of more value than silence. Sooner throw a pearl at hazard than an idle or useless word; and do not say a little in many words, but a great deal in a few.

There is no safety in numbers, or in anything else.

Under all speech that is good for anything there lies a silence that is better. Silence is deep as Eternity; speech is shallow as Time.

In the attitude of silence, the soul finds the path in a clearer light, and what is elusive and deceptive resolves itself into crystal clearness. Our life is a long and arduous quest after Truth.

I have learnt silence from the talkative, toleration from the intolerant, and kindness from the unkind; yet strange, I am ungrateful to these teachers.

Self-confidence is the first requisite to great undertakings.

Gluttony is not a secret vice.

I consider being ill as one of the great pleasures of life, provided one is not too ill.

Thanksgiving is a typically American holiday...The lavish meal is a symbol of the fact that abundant consumption is the result and reward of production.

I am at two with nature.

Great services are not canceled by one act or by one single error.

A sound mind in a sound body is a short but full description of a happy state in this world.

All things must change to something new, to something strange.

Tradition is a guide and not a jailer. W.

The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco.

What saves a man is to take a step. Then another step. It is always the same step, but you have to take it.

Nothing endures but personal qualities.

Nietsche is Pietsche.

The poet judges not as a judge judges but as the sun falling around a helpless thing.

My writing is like a ten-gallon spring. It can issue from the ground anywhere at all. On smooth ground it rushes swiftly on and covers a thousand li in a single day without difficulty. When it twists and turns among mountains and rocks, it fits its form to things it meets: unknowable. What can be known is, it always goes where it must go, always stops where it cannot help stopping -- nothing else. More than that, even I cannot know.

We must laugh before we are happy, for fear we die before we laugh at all.

There are very few people who are not ashamed of having been in love when they no longer love each other.

While the gentleman cherishes benign rule, the small man cherishes his native land. While the gentleman cherishes a respect for the law, the small man cherishes generous treatment.

O, throw away the worse part of it, and live the purer with the other half.