Quotes to inspire and reflect

America's abundance was not created by public sacrifices to "the common good", but by the productive genius of free men who pursued their own personal interests and the making of their own private fortunes.

America is a mistake, a giant mistake.

America makes prodigious mistakes, America has colossal faults, but one thing cannot be denied: America is always on the move. She may be going to Hell, of course, but at least she isn't standing still.

An asylum for the sane would be empty in America.

We can have no "50-50" allegiance in this country. Either a man is an American and nothing else, or he is not an American at all.

Half of the American people have never read a newspaper. Half never voted for President. One hopes it is the same half.

You can always count on Americans to do the right thing - after they've tried everything else.

The cost of freedom is always high, but Americans have always paid it. And one path we shall never choose, and that is the path of surrender, or submission.

A cat has absolute emotional honesty: human beings, for one reason or another, may hide their feelings, but a cat does not.

America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between.

A cat will be your friend, but never your slave.

The clever cat eats cheese and breathes down rat holes with baited breath.

In nine lifetimes, you'll never know as much about your cat as your cat knows about you.

Always remember, a cat looks down on man, a dog looks up to man, but a pig will look man right in the eye and see his equal.

Dogs are our link to paradise. They don't know evil or jealousy or discontent. To sit with a dog on a hillside on a glorious afternoon is to be back in Eden, where doing nothing was not boring--it was peace.

Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read.

No one appreciates the very special genius of your conversation as the dog does.

If you want a friend in Washington, get a dog.

Many who have spent a lifetime in it can tell us less of love than the child that lost a dog yesterday.

A dog has the soul of a philosopher.

No human being, however great, or powerful, was ever so free as a fish.

Somebody just back of you while you are fishing is as bad as someone looking over your shoulder while you write a letter to your girl.

It has always been my private conviction that any man who pits his intelligence against a fish and loses has it coming.

Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing it is not fish they are after.

I'm not feeling very well - I need a doctor immediately. Ring the nearest golf course.

While playing golf today I hit two good balls. I stepped on a rake.

The problem with golf is I have to deal with a humiliation factor.

To find a man's true character, play golf with him.

I once delivered a simple ball, which I was told, had it gone far enough, would have been considered a wide.

It (cricket) requires one to assume such indecent postures.

It’s not bragging if you can back it up.

The English are not very spiritual people, so they invented cricket to give them some idea of eternity.

It’s just a job. Grass grows, birds fly, waves pound the sand. I beat people up.

I hated every minute of training, but I said, ‘Don’t quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion’.

Boxing is a celebration of the lost religion of masculinity all the more trenchant for its being lost.

I am the astronaut of boxing. Joe Louis and Dempsey were just jet pilots. I'm in a world of my own.

Boxing is a lot of white men watching two black men beat each other up.

The fight is won or lost far away from witnesses - behind the lines, in the gym and out there on the road, long.

I'll beat him so bad he'll need a shoehorn to put his hat on.

I am the greatest, I said that even before I knew I was.

Infamy, infamy, they've all got it in for me!

Poets are like baseball pitchers. Both have their moments. The intervals are the tough things.

If you want a happy ending it depends, of course, on where you end the story.

One morning I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got in my pajamas, I don't know.

The book is a film that takes place in the mind of the reader. That's why we go to movies and say, "Oh, the book is better”.

All you need to make a movie is a girl and a gun.

The length of a film should be directly related to the endurance of the human bladder.

Give them pleasure. The same pleasure they have when they wake up from a nightmare.