Quotes
Quotes to inspire and reflect
A different language is a different vision of life.
13
He who does not know foreign languages does not know anything about his own.
12
The rule for traveling abroad is to take our common sense with us, and leave our prejudices behind.
12
Men travel faster now, but I do not know if they go to better things.
14
It proves, on close examination, that work is less boring than amusing oneself.
25
What is traveling? Changing your place? By no means! Traveling is changing your opinions and your prejudices.
12
We work to become, not to acquire.
10
Work consists of whatever a body is obliged to do, and play consists of whatever a body is not obliged to do.
12
What you have inherited from your fathers, earn over again for yourselves, or it will not be yours.
16
When we do the best that we can, we never know what miracle is wrought in our life or in the life of another.
13
Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably the reason so few engage in it.
8
Look at a day when you are supremely satisfied at the end. It’s not a day when you lounge around doing nothing. It’s when you’ve had everything to do, and you’ve done it.
14
The reward of a thing well done is to have done it.
18
It takes as much courage to have tried and failed as it does to have tried and succeeded.
12
Use what talents you possess: the woods would be very silent if no birds sang there except those that sang best.
17
There is no comparison between that which is lost by not succeeding and that which is lost by not trying.
11
Nine times out of ten, the first thing a man’s companion knows of his shortcomings is from his apology.
25
If all else fails, immortality can always be assured by spectacular error.
9
The greatest mistake you can make in life is continually to be fearing you will make one.
11
The worst part is not in making a mistake but in trying to justify it, instead of using it as a heaven-sent warning of our mindlessness or our ignorance.
20
When you have to make a choice and don’t make it, that is in itself a choice.
12
Give me the benefit of your convictions, if you have any; but keep your doubts to yourself, for I have enough of my own.
13
A man would do nothing if he waited until he could do it so well that no one could find fault.
12
He who hesitates is sometimes saved.
12
Believe one who has tried it.
13
The person who has had a bull by the tail once has learned 60 or 70 times as much as a person who hasn’t.
13
A man sits as many risks as he runs.
20
People wish to learn to swim and at the same time to keep one foot on the ground.
12
Not many sounds in life, and I include all urban and all rural sounds, exceed in interest a knock at the door.
12
The world is before you, and you need not take it or leave it as it was when you came in.
10
Standing in the middle of the road is very dangerous; you get knocked down by the traffic from both sides.
11
In the end it will not matter to us whether we fought with flails or reeds. It will matter to us greatly on what side we fought.
9
Compromise makes a good umbrella, but a poor roof.
10
Never give in—in nothing, great or small, large or petty—except to convictions of honor and good sense.
10
Just as iron rusts from disuse, even so does inaction spoil the intellect.
23
Not everything that is faced can be changed. But nothing can be changed until it is faced.
9
Everything comes to he who hustles while he waits.
13
Well done is better than well said.
10
When a man’s willing and eager, the gods join in.
9
Determine that the thing can and shall be done, and then we shall find the way.
14
Rank does not confer privilege or give power. It imposes responsibility.
13
Asking “Who ought to be boss?” is like asking “Who ought to be the tenor in the quartet?” Obviously, the man who can sing tenor.
9
Consensus is the negation of leadership.
10
High sentiments always win in the end. The leaders who offer blood, toil, tears and sweat always get more out of their followers than those who offer safety and a good time. When it comes to the pinch, human beings are heroic.
8
The only cure for vanity is laughter. And the only fault that’s laughable is vanity.
17
Men often mistake notoriety for fame, and would rather be remarked for their vices and follies than not be noticed at all.
13
The intelligent man who is proud of his intelligence is like the condemned man who is proud of his large cell.
15
Ignorance is bold, and knowledge reserved.
9