Popular Quotations
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I didn't attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying that I approved of it.
If you tell the truth you don't have to remember anything.
You cannot depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.
Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities. Truth isn't.
It could probably be shown by facts and figures that there is no distinctly American criminal class except Congress.
Always acknowledge a fault. This will throw those in authority off their guard and give you an opportunity to commit more.
In the first place, God made idiots. That was for practice. Then he made school boards.
It is easier to stay out than get out.
I was gratified to be able to answer promptly. I said I don't know.
The man who doesn't read good books has no advantage over the man who can't read them.
Wagner's music is better than it sounds. Bill Nye (1850 - 1896), quoted in Mark Twain's
Water, taken in moderation, cannot hurt anybody.
The human race has one really effective weapon, and that is laughter.
The human race has one really effective weapon, and that is laughter.
Often it does seem a pity that Noah and his party did not miss the boat.
Never put off until tomorrow what you can do the day after tomorrow.
My mother had a great deal of trouble with me, but I think she enjoyed it.
Just the omission of Jane Austen's books alone would make a fairly good library out of a library that hadn't a book in it.
It usually takes more than three weeks to prepare a good impromptu speech.
It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.
In Paris they simply stared when I spoke to them in French; I never did succeed in making those idiots understand their language.
If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you. This is the principal difference between a dog and a man.
I thoroughly disapprove of duels. If a man should challenge me, I would take him kindly and forgivingly by the hand and lead him to a quiet place and kill him.
I don't give a damn for a man that can only spell a word one way.
Get your facts first, and then you can distort them as much as you please.
Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society.
Be careful about reading health books. You may die of a misprint.
Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest.
All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence; then success is sure. Mark Twain (1835 - 1910), Letter to Mrs
A banker is a fellow who lends you his umbrella when the sun is shining, but wants it back the minute it begins to rain.
Few things are harder to put up with than the annoyance of a good example.
Good breeding consists of concealing how much we think of ourselves and how little we think of the other person.
Familiarity breeds contempt - and children.
The report of my death was an exaggeration.
Man is the Only Animal that Blushes. Or needs to.
Truth is more of a stranger than fiction.
Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.
I would say to the House, as I said to those who have joined this Government: 'I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat."
The British nation is unique in this respect. They are the only people who like to be told how bad things are, who like to be told the worst.
Don't talk to me about naval tradition. It's nothing but rum, sodomy and the lash.
When the eagles are silent, the parrots begin to jabber.
When I am abroad, I always make it a rule never to criticize or attack the government of my own country. I make up for lost time when I come home.
We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give.
There are a terrible lot of lies going around the world, and the worst of it is half of them are true.
Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.
Personally I'm always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught.
The reserve of modern assertions is sometimes pushed to extremes, in which the fear of being contradicted leads the writer to strip himself of almost all sense and meaning.
One ought never to turn one's back on a threatened danger and try to run away from it. If you do that, you will double the danger. But if you meet it promptly and without flinching, you will reduce the danger by half.
Never, never, never believe any war will be smooth and easy, or that anyone who embarks on the strange voyage can measure the tides and hurricanes he will encounter. The statesman who yields to war fever must realize that once the signal is given, he is no longer the master of policy but the slave of unforeseeable and uncontrollable events.
Never, never, never believe any war will be smooth and easy, or that anyone who embarks on the strange voyage can measure the tides and hurricanes he will encounter. The statesman who yields to war fever must realize that once the signal is given, he is no longer the master of policy but the slave of unforeseeable and uncontrollable events.
Never hold discussions with the monkey when the organ grinder is in the room.
Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened.
I like pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals.
I have always felt that a politician is to be judged by the animosities he excites among his opponents.
I cannot pretend to feel impartial about colours. I rejoice with the brilliant ones and am genuinely sorry for the poor browns.
History will be kind to me for I intend to write it.
He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire.
From now on, ending a sentence with a preposition is something up with which I will not put.
Every day you may make progress. Every step may be fruitful. Yet there will stretch out before you an ever-lengthening, ever-ascending, ever-improving path. You know you will never get to the end of the journey. But this, so far from discouraging, only adds to the joy and glory of the climb.
Broadly speaking, the short words are the best, and the old words best of all.
Never give in--never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.
A love of tradition has never weakened a nation, indeed it has strengthened nations in their hour of peril; but the new view must come, the world must roll forward. Sir Winston Churchill, speech in the House of
We shall show mercy, but we shall not ask for it. Sir Winston Churchill, speech in the House of
Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.
From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic an iron curtain has descended across the Continent.
For myself I am an optimist - it does not seem to be much use being anything else. Sir Winston Churchill, speech at the Lord Mayor's
The empires of the future are the empires of the mind. Sir Winston Churchill, Speech at Harvard University,
One day President Roosevelt told me that he was asking publicly for suggestions about what the war should be called. I said at once 'The Unnecessary War'.
It is a good thing for an uneducated man to read books of quotations. Bartlett's Familiar Quotations is an admirable work, and I studied it intently. The quotations when engraved upon the memory give you good thoughts. They also make you anxious to read the authors and look for more. Sir Winston Churchill, Roving Commission:
Here is the answer which I will give to President Roosevelt... We shall not fail or falter; we shall not weaken or tire. Neither the sudden shock of battle nor the long-drawn trials of vigilance and exertion will wear us down. Give us the tools and we will finish the job.
I cannot forecast to you the action of Russia. It is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma: but perhaps there is a key. That key is Russian national interest.
I am reminded of the professor who, in his declining hours, was asked by his devoted pupils for his final counsel. He replied, 'Verify your quotations.'
I am prepared to meet my Maker. Whether my Maker is prepared for the great ordeal of meeting me is another matter. Sir Winston Churchill, on the eve
So they [the Government] go on in strange paradox, decided only to be undecided, resolved to be irresolute, adamant for drift, solid for fluidity, all-powerful to be impotent.
I did never know so full a voice issue from so empty a heart: but the saying is true 'The empty vessel makes the greatest sound'.
I am not bound to please thee with my answers.
How use doth breed a habit in a man.
How poor are they who have not patience! What wound did ever heal but by degrees.
His life was gentle; and the elements So mixed in him, that Nature might stand up, And say to all the world, THIS WAS A MAN!
He who has injured thee was either stronger or weaker than thee. If weaker, spare him; if stronger, spare thyself.
He is winding the watch of his wit; by and by it will strike.
God bless thee; and put meekness in thy mind, love, charity, obedience, and true duty!
Glory is like a circle in the water, Which never ceaseth to enlarge itself, Till by broad spreading it disperses to naught.
Give every man thine ear, but few thy voice; take each man's censure but reserve thy judgement.
Free from gross passion or of mirth or anger constant in spirit, not swerving with the blood, garnish'd and deck'd in modest compliment, not working with the eye without the ear, and but in purged judgement trusting neither? Such and so finely bolted didst thou seem.
For they are yet ear-kissing arguments.
Cowards die many times before their deaths, The valiant never taste of death but once.
Blow, blow, thou winter wind Thou art not so unkind, As man's ingratitude.
Be great in act, as you have been in thought.
Assume a virtue, if you have it not.
And thus I clothe my naked villainy With old odd ends, stol'n forth of holy writ; And seem a saint, when most I play the devil.
And since you know you cannot see yourself, so well as by reflection, I, your glass, will modestly discover to yourself, that of yourself which you yet know not of.
A wretched soul, bruised with adversity, We bid be quiet when we hear it cry; But were we burdened with like weight of pain, As much or more we should ourselves complain.
The beauty of the world has two edges, one of laughter, one of anguish, cutting the heart asunder.
Beauty is a form of genius - is higher, indeed, than genius, as it needs no explanation. It is of the great facts in the world like sunlight, or springtime, or the reflection in dark water of that silver shell we call the moon.
No object is so beautiful that, under certain conditions, it will not look ugly.
Is there anything in the universe more beautiful and protective than the simple complexity of a spider's web?
Truth exists for the wise, beauty for the feeling heart.
Someday there is going to be a book about a middle-aged man with a good job, a beautiful wife and two lovely children who still manages to be happy.
What a strange illusion it is to suppose that beauty is goodness.
It is something to be able to paint a particular picture, or to carve a statue, and so to make a few objects beautiful; but it is far more glorious to carve and paint the very atmosphere and medium through which we look, which morally we can do. To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts.
To give pain is the tyranny; to make happy, the true empire of beauty.
I would warn you that I do not attribute to nature either beauty or deformity, order or confusion. Only in relation to our imagination can things be called beautiful or ugly, well-ordered or confused.
Beauty is a short-lived tyranny.
What a piece of work is man! How noble in reason; how infinite in faculties; in form and moving, how express and admirable! In action, how like an angel; in apprenhension, how like a god; the beauty of the world the paragon of animals! And yet to me what is this quintessence of dust?
Honesty coupled to beauty is to have honey a sauce to sugar.
A bachelor never quite gets over the idea that he is a thing of beauty and a boy forever.
Beauty attracts us men; but if, like an armed magnet it is pointed, beside, with gold and silver, it attracts with tenfold power.
Beauty is power; a smile is its sword.
Remember if you marry for beauty, thou bindest thyself all thy life for that which perchance, will neither last nor please thee one year: and when thou hast it, it will be to thee of no price at all.
For, when with beauty we can virtue join, We paint the semblance of a form divine.
Conceit is to nature what paint is to beauty; it is not only needless, but impairs what it would improve
Age before beauty ... And pearls before swine.
We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm and adventure. There is no end to the adventures that we can have if only we seek then with our eyes open.
Walk on a rainbow trail; walk on a trail of song, and all about you will be beauty. There is a way out of every dark mist, over a rainbow trail.
In every man's heart there is a secret nerve that answers to the vibrations of beauty.
Beauty is nature's brag, and must be shown in courts, at feasts, and high solemnities, where most may wonder at the workmanship.
Beauty is the first present nature gives to woman and the first it takes away.
Time's gradual touch has moulder'd into beauty many a tower which when it frown'd with all its battlements, was only terrible.
There are three great questions which in life we have over and over again to answer: Is it right or wrong? Is it true or false? Is it beautiful or ugly? Our education ought ot help us to answer these questions.
Every man feels instinctively that all the beautiful sentiments in the world weigh less than a single lovely action.
Nothing makes a woman more beautiful than the belief she is beautiful.
Delusions are often functional. A mother's opinions about her children's beauty, intelligence, goodness, et cetera ad nauseam, keep her from drowning them at birth.
My heart that was rapt away by the wild cherry blossoms -- will it return to my body when they scatter?
I'm tired of all this nonsense about beauty being only skin deep. That's deep enough. What do you want, an adorable pancreas?
Beauty is truth, truth beauty, that is all Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.
Rare is the union of beauty and purity.
Beauty is only skin deep, but it's a valuable asset if you're poor or haven't any sense.
Nothing's beautiful from every point of view.
Plain women know more about men than beautiful ones do. But beautiful women don't need to know about men. It's the men who have to know about beautiful women.
The criterion of true beauty is, that it increases in examination; of false, that it lessens. There is something, therefore, in true beauty that corresponds with the right reason, and it is not merely the creature of fancy.
When a girl ceases to blush, she has lost the most powerful charm of her beauty.
Beauty is an outward gift which is seldom despised, except by those to whom it has been refused.
Ten years of rejection slips is nature's way of telling you to stop writing.
The vain beauty cares most for the conquest which employed the whole artillery of her charms.
Beauty and folly are old companions.
There's a difference between beauty and charm. A beautiful woman is one I notice. A charming woman is one who notices me.
Love that has nothing but beauty to keep it in good health is short lived, and apt to have ague fits.
A beautiful form is better than a beautiful face; it gives a higher pleasure than statues or pictures; it is the finest of the fine arts.
Beauty without grace is the hook without the bait.
It seems to me we can never give up longing and wishing while we are thoroughly alive. There are certain things we feel to be beautiful and good, and we must hunger after them.
It is good that the young are beautiful; it is the only advantage they have.
Beauty, like ice, our footing does betray; Who can tread sure on the smooth, slippery way: Pleased with the surface, we glide swiftly on, And see the dangers that we cannot shun.
Love built on beauty, soon as beauty dies.
The average man is more interested in a woman who is interested in him than he is in a woman, any woman, with beautiful legs.
Beauty is not caused. It is.
Champagne is the only wine a woman can drink and still remain beautiful.
Imagination is the one weapon in the war against reality.
There is no cosmetic for beauty like happiness.
Pleasure is to Women what the Sun is to the Flower; if moderately enjoyed, it beautifies, it refreshes, and it improves; if immoderately, it withers, etiolates, and destroys.
Let no man value at a little price a virtuous woman's counsel; her winged spirit is feathered often times with heavenly words, and, like her beauty, ravishing and pure.
Everything beautiful has its moment and then passes away
Beauty is unbearable, drives us to despair, offering us for a minute the glimpse of an eternity that we should like to stretch out over the whole of time.
Beauty's tears are lovelier than her smile.
In life, as in art, the beautiful moves in curves.
The beautiful seems right by force of beauty, and the feeble wrong because of weakness.
Exuberance is beauty.
Beauty, n: the power by which a woman charms a lover and terrifies a husband.
...It's a sort of bloom on a woman. If you have it you don't need to have anything else; and if you don't have it, it doesn't much matter what else you have.
Beauty itself is but the sensible image of the Infinite.
The beautiful are never desolate, but someone always loves them.
The best part of beauty is that which no picture can express.
There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion.
Personal beauty is a greater recommendation than any letter of reference.
Two stones build two houses, three stones build six houses, four build twenty-four houses, five build one hundred and twenty houses, six build seven hundred and twenty houses and seven build five thousand and forty houses. From thence further go and reckon what the mouth cannot express and the ear cannot hear.
Knowledge is not achieved until shared.
Knowledge may give weight, but accomplishments give lustre, and many more people see than weigh
The learning and knowledge that we have, is, at the most, but little compared with that of which we are ignorant.
Insurrection of thought always precedes insurrection of arms.
In expanding the field of knowledge we but increase the horizon of ignorance.
The only good is knowledge, and the only evil is ignorance.
If a little knowledge is dangerous, where is the man who has so much as to be out of danger?
Of all men's miseries the bitterest is this: to know so much and to have control over nothing.
Much learning does not teach understanding.
Learning is its own exceeding great reward.
Seldom ever was any knowledge given to keep, but to impart; the grace of this rich jewel is lost in concealment.
The one self-knowledge worth having is to know oneοΏ½s own mind.
If thou would'st have that stream of hard-earn'd knowledge, of Wisdom heaven-born, remain sweet running waters, thou should'st not leave it to become a stagnant pond.
He that hath knowledge spareth his words. (Proverbs 17:27)
I'm not smart, but I like to observe. Millions saw the apple fall, but Newton was the one who asked why.
If a man will begin with certainties, he will end in doubts; but if he will be content to begin with doubts, he will end in certainties.
If a man will begin with certainties, he will end in doubts; but if he will be content to begin with doubts, he will end in certainties.
Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.
There is a point at which even justice does injury.
Justice without force is powerless; force without justice is tyrannical.
Justice is an unassailable fortress, built on the brow of a mountain which cannot be overthrown by the violence of torrents, nor demolished by the force of armies.
Fidelity is the sister of justice.
If we are to keep our democracy, there must be one commandment: "Thou shalt not ration justice."
Justice delayed, is justice denied.
We win justice quickest by rendering justice to the other party.
There is no such thing as justice - in or out of court.
Justice, sir, is the great interest of man on earth. It is the ligament which holds civilized beings and civilized nations together.
Justice consists in doing no injury to men; decency in giving them no offense.
He who is only just is cruel. Who on earth could live were all judged justly?
Judges must beware of hard constructions and strained inferences, for there is no worse torture than that of laws.
To be perfectly just is an attribute of the divine nature; to be so to the utmost of our abilities, is the glory of man.
A child is a gift from God. He is not an accident or a consequence.
Children are the keys of paradise.
Call not that man wretched, who whatever ills he suffers, has a child to love.
That children link us with the future is hardly news. . . . When we participate in the growth of children, a sense of wonder must take hold of us, providing for us a sense of future.
A torn jacket is soon mended; but hard words bruise the heart of a child.
Children are remarkable for their intelligence and ardor, for their curiosity, their intolerance of shams, the clarity and ruthlessness of their vision.
It is the malady of our age that the young are so busy teaching us that they have no time left to learn.
Many children, many cares; no children, no felicity.
A single death is a tragedy, a million deaths is a statistic.
The stroke of death is as a lover's pinch, Which hurts and is desired.
That which is so universal as death must be a benefit.
He whom the gods love dies young, while he is in health, has his senses and his judgments sound.
Property is unstable, and youth perishes in a moment. Life itself is held in the grinning fangs of Death, Yet men delay to obtain release from the world. Alas, the conduct of mankind is surprising.
Death, they say, acquits us of all obligations.
If you don't know how to die, don't worry; Nature will tell you what to do on the spot, fully and adequately. She will do this job perfectly for you; don't bother your head about it.
It is not death, it is dying that alarms me.
Death is delightful. Death is dawn, The waking from a weary night Of fevers unto truth and light.
Of all escape mechanisms, death is the most efficient.
We begin to die as soon as we are born, and the end is linked to the beginning.
The gods conceal from men the happiness of death, that they may endure life.
We look at death through the cheap-glazed windows of the flesh, and believe him the monster which the flawed and cracked glass represents him.
Dying is like getting out of a car. You leave a shell behind, but you're the same person as ever.
Strange - is it not? - that of the myriads who Before us passed the door of Darkness through, Not one returns to tell us of the road Which to discover we must travel too.
Pale death, with impartial step, knocks at the hut of the poor and the towers of kings.
This man is freed from servile bands, Of hope to rise, or fear to fall; Lord of himself, though not of lands, And leaving nothing, yet hath all.
We sometimes congratulate ourselves at the moment of waking from a troubled dream; it may be so at the moment after death.
And I hear from the outgoing ship in the bay The song of the sailors in glee: So I think of the luminous footprints that bore The comfort o'er dark Galilee, And wait for the signal to go to the shore, To the ship that is waiting for me.
Man has the possibility of existence after death. But possibility is one thing and the realization of the possibility is quite a different thing.
Death is a commingling of eternity with time; in the death of a good man, eternity is seen looking through time.
The goal of all life is death.
We do not know what to do with this short life, yet we yearn for another that will be eternal.
All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter another.
The The path of immortality is hard, and only a few find it. The rest await the Great Day when the wheels of the universe shall be stopped and the immortal sparks shall escape from the sheaths of substance. Woe unto those who wait, for they must return again, unconscious and unknowing, to the seed-ground of stars, and await a new beginning.
The Few cross the river of time and are able to reach non-being. Most of them run up and down only on this side of the river. But those who when they know the law follow the path of the law, they shall reach the other shore and go beyond the realm of death.
The life of the dead is placed in the memory of the living.
That last day does not bring extinction to us, but change of place.
If there is a sin against life, it consists perhaps not so much in despairing of life as in hoping for another life and in eluding the implacable grandeur of this life.
Death, so called, is a thing which makes men weep, And yet a third of life is passed in sleep.
There are five things which no one is able to accomplish in this world: first, to cease growing old when he is growing old; second, to cease being sick; third, to cease dying; fourth, to deny dissolution when there is dissolution; fifth, to deny non-being.
The mark of your ignorance is the depth of your belief in in justice and tragedy. What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly.
Labour not after riches first, and think thou afterwards wilt enjoy them. He who neglecteth the present moment, throweth away all that he hath. As the arrow passeth through the heart, while the warrior knew not that it was coming; so shall his life be taken away before he knoweth that he hath it.
The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it.
I generally avoid temptation unless I can't resist it.
If you haven't all the things you want, be grateful for the things you don't have that you wouldn't want.
Help me to resist temptation, Lord, especially when I know no one is looking.
What is my loftiest ambition? I've always wanted to throw an egg at an electric fan.
I never resist temptation, because I have found that things that are bad for me do not tempt me.
There are two tragedies in life. One is to lose your heart's desire. The other is to gain it.
I'm a simple man. All I want is enough sleep for two normal men, enough whiskey for three, and enough women for four.
Whatever you want too much you can't have, so when you REALLY want something, try to want it a little less.
Those who flee temptation generally leave a forwarding address.
Lord, grant that I may always desire more than I accomplish.
Ambition is a poor excuse for not having sense enough to be lazy.
It's not peace I want, not mere contentment. It's boundless joy and ecstasy for me.
You know, sometimes a man just can't satisfy all of a woman's desires. Which is why God invented dental floss.
Love and desire are the spirit's wings to great deeds.
Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp -- or what's a heaven for?
Better murder an infant in its cradle than nurse an unacted desire.
When one door closes another door opens; but we so often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door, that we do not see the ones which open for us.
what a tangled web we weave when first we practise to deceive!
I believed thee true, And I was blest in thus believing; But now I mourn that ever I knew A girl so fair and so deceiving.
One who deceives will always find those who allow themselves to be deceived.
It is double pleasure to deceive the deceiver.
Distrust all those who love you extremely upon a very slight acquaintance and without any visible reason.
The road goes ever on and on down from the door where it began. Now far ahead the road has gone and I must follow if I can. Pursuing it with weary feet until it joins some larger way, where many paths and errands meet -and whither then, I cannot say.
Fate is not satisfied with inflicting one calamity.
Immortality--a fate worse than death.
There is no armor against fate; Death lays his icy hand on kings.
Men at some time are masters of their fates: The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, But in ourselves, that we are underlings.
Fate leads the willing and drags along the unwilling.
We may become the makers of our fate when we have ceased to pose as its prophets.
But blind to former as to future fate, What mortal knows his pre-existent state?
There's someone out there for everyone-even if you need a pickaxe, a compass, and night goggles to find them. (L.A. Story)
It matters not how straight the gate How charged with punishments the scroll I am the master of my fate I am the captain of my soul.
What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.
Death and life have their determined appointments; riches and honours depend upon heaven.
I do not believe in a fate that falls on men however they act; but I do believe in a fate that falls on them unless they act.
There is no fate that cannot be surmounted by scorn.
Destiny is not a matter of chance, it is a matter of choice; it is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved.
Fate is not an eagle, it creeps like a rat.
Destiny: A tyrant's authority for crime and a fool's excuse for failure.
Ability lies in the mind and the heart. To tell your mind to limit your abilities and to ignore the calls of your heart is only disabling yourself.
No one knows what he can do until he tries.
Ability is the art of getting credit for all the home runs somebody else hits.
Competence, like truth, beauty and contact lenses, is in the eye of the beholder.
Ability hits the mark where presumption overshoots and diffidence falls short.
From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs.
Ability wins us the esteem of the true men; luck that of the people.
There is great ability in knowing how to conveal one's ability.
The extraordinary ability of a woman to forget is not the same as the talent of a lady not to be able to remember.
When people find a man of the most distinguished abilities as a writer their inferior while he is with them, it must be highly gratifying to them.
A man dies still if he has done nothing, as one who has done much.
Skill and confidence are an unconquered army.
The carpenter is not the best who makes more chips than all the rest.
Reason and the ability to use it are two separate skills.
The winds and the waves are always on the side of the ablest navigators.
'Tis skill not strength that governs a ship.
Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence.
If they try to rush me, I always say, I've only got one other speed and it's slower.
Our chief want in life is somebody who shall make us do what we can.
People are always ready to admit a man's ability after he gets there.
The ability to get to the verge without getting into the war is the necessary art.... If you try to run away from it, if you are scared to go to the brink, you are lost.
If you can't learn to do it well, learn to enjoy doing it badly.
Men take only their needs into consideration never their abilities.
Ability is of little account without opportunity.
Ability is commonly found to consist mainly in a high degree of solemnity.
Natural abilities are like natural plants, that need pruning by study; and studies themselves do give forth directions too much at large, except they be bounded in by experience.
Do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Let the day's own trouble be sufficient for the day.
Heaven lent you a soul Earth will lend a grave.
Earth took her shining station as a star, In Heaven's dark hall, high up the crowd of worlds.
Fact of the matter is, there is no hip world, there is no straight world. There's a world, you see, which has people in it who believe in a variety of different things. Everybody believes in something and everybody, by virtue of the fact that they believe in something, use that something to support their own existence.
At the core of all well founded belief, lies belief that is unfounded.
A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it.
To believe is very dull. To doubt is intensely engrossing. To be on the alert is to live, to be lulled into security is to die.
Man can believe the impossible, but can never believe the improbable.
We are never deceived; we deceive ourselves.
Belief is not the beginning but the end of all knowledge.
Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd.
If you resist reading what you disagree with, how will you ever acquire deeper insights into what you believe? The things most worth reading are precisely those that challenge our convictions.
We all live in the protection of certain cowardices which we call our principles.
Most people are bothered by those passages of Scripture they do not understand, but the passages that bother me are those I do understand.
I know that most men, including those at ease with problems of the greatest complexity, can seldom accept even the simplest and most obvious truth if it be such as would oblige them to admit the falsity of conclusions which they have delighted in explaining to colleagues, which they have proudly taught to others, and which they have woven, thread by thread, into the fabric of their lives.
You believe that easily which you hope for earnestly.
The man scarce lives who is not more credulous than he ought to be. The natural disposition is always to believe. It is acquired wisdom and experience only that teach incredulity, and they very seldom teach it enough.
Martyrdom has always been a proof of the intensity, never of the correctness of a belief.
In all affairs it's a healthy thing now and then to hang a question mark on the things you have long taken for granted.
What we think, or what we know, or what we believe is, in the end, of little consequence. The only consequence is what we do.
Those who obstinately oppose the most widely held opinions more often do so because of pride than lack of intelligence. They find the best places in the right set already taken, and they do not want backseats.
So as this only point among the rest remaineth sure and certain, namely, that nothing is certain...
A very popular error: having the courage of one's convictions; rather it is a matter of having the courage for an attack on one's convictions.
One person with a belief is equal to a force of ninety-nine who have only interests.
The public demands certainties; it must be told definitely and a bit raucously that this is true and that is false. But there are no certainties.
You can always pick up your needle and move to another groove.