Quotes to inspire and reflect

Those who restrain desire, do so because theirs is weak enough to be restrained.

Life loves to be taken by the lapel and told, ‘I’m with you kid. Let’s go.

Love all, trust a few. Do wrong to none.

He who boasts of his ancestry is praising the deeds of another.

The highest result of education is tolerance.

The man of knowledge must be able not only to love his enemies but also to hate his friends.

We must combine the toughness of the serpent and the softness of the dove, a tough mind and a tender heart.

Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that’s the stuff life is made of.

The best portion of a good man’s life is in his little nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and of love.

The best way to know God is to love many things.

I wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving.

Help us to be thankful for this day and every day and treat each one as a precious gem to be filled to the full with meaning and with love.

Gratitude takes three forms: a feeling in the heart, an expression in words and giving in return. Unknown Sometimes being a friend means mastering the art of timing. There is a time for silence, a time to let go and allow people to hurl themselves into their own destiny and a time to prepare to pick up the pieces when it’s all over.

Love conquers all things; let us too surrender to Love.

The smaller the heart, the bigger the hate it shelters.

Friendship makes prosperity more brilliant, and lightens adversity by dividing and sharing it.

There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it.

Trust men and they will be true to you; treat them greatly and they will show themselves great.

It is understanding that gives us an ability to have peace. When we understand the other fellow’s viewpoint, and he understands ours, then we can sit down and work out our differences.

Most men pursue pleasure with such breathless haste that they hurry past it.

The glory of friendship is not the outstretched hand, nor the kindly smile, nor the joy of companionship; it is the spiritual inspiration that comes to one when he discovers that someone else believes in him and is willing to trust him with his friendship.

So when you are listening to somebody, completely, attentively, then you are listening not only to the words, but also to the feeling of what is being conveyed, to the whole of it, not part of it.

Results! Why man, I have gotten a lot of results. I know several thousand things that won’t work.

What really distinguishes this generation in all countries from earlier generations … is its determination to act, its joy in action, the assurance of being able to change things by one’s own efforts.

No road is too long to the man who advances deliberately and without undue haste; and no honors are too distant for the man who prepares himself for them with patience.

The miracle, or the power, that elevates the few is to be found in their industry, application, and perseverance under the prompting of a brave, determined spirit.

Never measure the height of a mountain, until you have reached the top. Then you will see how low it was.

Energy and persistence conquer all things.

Never give up, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn.

Resolve says, ‘I will.’ The man says, ‘I will climb this mountain. They told me it is too high, too far, too steep, too rocky and too difficult. But it’s my mountain. I will climb it. You will soon see me waving from the top or dead on the side from trying.

The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong at the broken places.

If your determination is fixed, I do not counsel you to despair. Few things are impossible to diligence and skill. Great works are performed not by strength, but perseverance.

A timid person is frightened before a danger, a coward during the time, and a courageous person afterward.

He with whom neither slander that gradually soaks into the mind, nor statements that startle like a wound in the flesh, are successful may be called intelligent indeed.

Virtue is not the absence of vices or the avoidance of moral dangers; virtue is a vivid and separate ting, like pain or a particular smell.

Adversity is the first path to truth.

In the face of an obstacle which is impossible to overcome, stubbornness is stupid.

There is a difference between being convinced and being stubborn. I’m not certain what the difference is, but I do know that if you butt your head against a stone wall long enough, at some point you realize the wall is stone and that your head is flesh and blood.

Will is to grace as the horse is to the rider.

The quality of strength lined with tenderness is an unbeatable combination, as are intelligence and necessity when unblunted by formal education.

Fortune favors the brave.

There are some things you learn best in calm, and some in storm.

There will be little rubs and disappointments everywhere, and we are all apt to expect too much; but then, if one scheme of happiness fails, human nature turns to another; if the first calculation is wrong, we make a second better: we find comfort somewhere.

Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present.

Every artist was first an amateur.

What we hope ever to do with ease we may learn first to do with diligence.

We must all suffer one of two things: the pain of discipline or the pain of regret or disappointment.

Self-knowledge is best learned, not by contemplation, but by action. Strive to do your duty and you will soon discover of what stuff you are made.