Quotes to inspire and reflect

A great flame follows a little spark.

Men may change their climate, but they cannot change their nature. A man that goes out a fool cannot ride or sail himself into common sense.

A thought which does not result in an action is nothing much, and an action which does not proceed from a thought is nothing at all.

Without a sense of urgency, desire loses its value.

A fool’s paradise is a wise man’s hell!

Wealth is not a matter of intelligence it’s a matter of inspiration.

Change your thoughts and you Change your world.

Look at frustration as a positive thing. It is the frustration that drives you to improve.

A little bit added to what you’ve already got gives you a little bit more.

You only lose energy when life becomes dull in your mind. Your mind gets bored and therefore tired of doing nothing. Get interested in something! Get absolutely enthralled with something! Get out of yourself! Be somebody! Do something! The more you lose yourself in something bigger than yourself, the more energy you will have.

Our inheritance of well founded, slowly conceived codes of honor, morals and manners, the passionate convictions which so many hundreds of millions share together of freedom and justice, are far more precious to us than anything which scientific discoveries can bestow.

It is not the strongest of the species that survive nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.

If passion drives you, let reason hold the reins.

Through zeal, knowledge is gotten; through lack of zeal, knowledge is lost.

In the final analysis there is no solution to man’s progress but the day’s honest work, the day’s honest decisions, the day’s generous utterances and the day’s good deed.

Nature does not bestow virtue; to be good is an art.

Nothing will ever be attempted, if all possible objections must first be overcome.

Men have been taught that it is a virtue to agree with others. But the creator is the man who disagrees. Men have been taught that it is a virtue to swim with the current. But the creator is the man who goes against the current. Men have been taught that it is a virtue to stand together. But the creator is the man who stands alone.

Live your beliefs and you can turn the world around.

And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.

Dream no small dreams, for they have no power to stir the souls of men.

Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.

Your own mind is a sacred enclosure into which nothing harmful can enter except by your permission.

I’ve learned that no matter what happens, or how bad it seems today, life does go on, and it will be better tomorrow.

Anyone can escape into sleep, we are all geniuses when we dream, the butcher’s the poet’s equal there.

He is the freeman whom the truth makes free.

But what is Hope? Nothing but the paint on the face of Existence; the least touch of truth rubs it off, and then we see what a hollow-cheeked harlot we have got hold of.

Loyalty is still the same, Whether it win or lose the game; True as a dial to the sun, Although it be not shined upon.

A dwarf standing on the shoulders of a giant may see farther than a giant himself.

The illuminable, silent, never-resting thing called Time, rolling, rushing on, swift, silent, like an all-embracing oceantide, on which we and all the universe swim like exhalations, like apparitions which are, and then are not: this is forever very literally a miracle; a thing to strike us dumb, for we have no word to speak about it.

Justice is being allowed to do whatever I like. Injustice is whatever prevents my doing so.

Justice while she winks at crimes, stumbles on innocence sometimes.

Nothing in education is so astonishing as the amount of ignorance it accumulates in the form of inert facts.

Reality is a question of perspective; the further you get from the past, the more concrete and plausible it seems—but as you approach the present, it inevitably seems incredible.

My mistakes are my life.

The imagination is man’s power over nature.

He that first cries out "Stop thief!", is often he that has stolen the treasure.

Great wisdom is generous; petty wisdom is contentious. Great speech is impassioned, small speech cantankerous.

There is no such thing on earth as an uninteresting subject; the only thing that can exist is an uninterested person.

It is in vain to say human beings ought to be satisfied with tranquility: they must have action; and they will make it if they cannot find it.

The bird of paradise alights only upon the hand that does not grasp.

The fact is, it seems, that the most you can hope is to be a little less, in the end, the creature you were in the beginning, and the middle.

He that will not sail till all dangers are over must never put to sea.

In every great time there is some one idea at work which is more powerful than any other, and which shapes the events of the time and determines their ultimate issues.

Is the oak better than the acorn which is its fullness and completion?

Many individuals have, like uncut diamonds, shining qualities beneath a rough exterior.

Be not afraid of life. Believe that life is worth living, and your BELIEF will help create the fact.

You can preach a better sermon with your life than with your lips.