Quotes to inspire and reflect

Thought is action in rehearsal.

The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitude.

The man with a new idea is a crank until the idea succeeds.

A cup is useful only when it is empty; and a mind that is filled with beliefs, with dogmas, with assertions, with quotations is really an uncreative mind.

An invasion of armies can be resisted, but not an idea whose time has come.

Serving God is doing good to man. But praying is thought an easier service and is therefore more generally chosen.

Prayer is the key of the morning and the bolt of the evening.

The greatest prayer is patience.

Quarrels would not last long if the fault were on one side only.

People generally quarrel because they cannot argue.

Praise, like gold and diamonds, owes its value only to its scarcity.

The great charm in argument is really finding one’s own opinions, not other people’s .

If you have an important point to make, don’t try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time a tremendous whack.

There is nothing in the world like a persuasive speech to fuddle the mental apparatus.

A good indignation makes an excellent speech.

The thing to do with good advice is to pass it on. It is never any good to oneself.

People who have what they want are fond of telling people who haven’t what they want that they really don’t want it.

We give advice by the bucket but take it by the grain.

We are never so generous as when giving advice.

Advice is what we ask for when we already know the answer but wish we didn’t.

You don’t need to take a person’s advice to make him feel good—just ask for it.

Every new opinion, at its starting, is precisely in a minority of one.

A public-opinion poll is no substitute for thought.

Refusing to have an opinion is a way of having one, isn’t it?

Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought.

Even when the experts all agree, they may well be mistaken.

The man who never alters his opinion is like standing water, and breeds reptiles of the mind.

It is only about things that do not interest one that one can give a really unbiased opinion, which is no doubt the reason why an unbiased opinion is always valueless.

My personal hobbies are reading, listening to music and silence.

I like the silent church before the service begins better than any preaching.

He who has a secret should not only hide it, but hide that he has it to hide.

If you reveal your secrets to the wind, you should not blame the wind for revealing them to the trees.

The vanity of being known to be entrusted with a secret is generally one of the chief motives to disclose it.

Blessed are they who have nothing to say and who cannot be persuaded to say it.

Hospitality consists in a little fire, a little food and an immense quiet.

Silence, along with modesty, is a great aid to conversation.

A good listener is not only popular everywhere, but after a while he knows something.

There is always hope when people are forced to listen to both sides.

Give every man thy ear but few thy voice.

Good communication is as stimulating as black coffee, and just as hard to sleep after.

In order that all men may be taught to speak truth, it is necessary that all likewise should learn to hear it.

Talk to a man about himself and he will listen for hours.

A letter is a soliloquy, but a letter with a postscript is a conversation.

The bitterest tears shed over graves are for words left unsaid and deeds left undone.

Look out how you use proud words. When you let proud words go, it is not easy to call them back.

Say what you have to say, not what you ought.

In certain trying circumstances, urgent circumstances, desperate circumstances, profanity furnishes a relief denied even to prayer.

Everything becomes a little different as soon as it is spoken out loud.