Most of these quotes are serious, others are humorous. Some I agree with, some I disagree with.
Caution:
"Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits." - Matthew 7:15-16, New King James Bible
"A man ought warily to begin charges which once begun will continue." - Francis Bacon
"If only we try to live sincerely, it will go well with us, even though we are certain to experience real sorrow and great disappointments, and also will probably commit great faults and do wrong things, but it certainly is true that it is better to be high-spirited, even though one makes more mistakes, than to be narrow-minded and all too prudent." - Vincent Van Gogh
Celibacy:
John Cardinal O'Connor, Archbishop of New York, in "Vanity Fair" (August 1990) on the subject of celibacy: "The only way I think a normal human being can do it is by prayer and discipline and trying to absorb yourself in your work. The difficulty lies less in the flesh than in loneliness; every day is a battle with loneliness. I think discouragement is probably the most fierce of all the temptations that priests are confronted with, but second only to the temptation of discouragement is the feeling of loneliness, which I think is the essential challenge of celibacy. Every day you begin all over again. At times it's not difficult at all. At times it's very difficult."
Certainty:
"The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent full of doubt." - Bertrand Russell, "Autobiography"
Positive: Mistaken at the top of one's voice
Chance:
"Might she have loved me? just as well / She might have hated, who can tell?" - Robert Browning
Change:
"But many who are first will be last; and the last, first." - Matthew 19:30
And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said: "Blessed are you poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you that hunger now, for you shall be satisfied. Blessed are you that weep now, for you shall laugh. Blessed are you when men hate you, and when they exclude you and revile you, and cast out your name as evil, on account of the Son of man! Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven; for so their fathers did to the prophets. But woe to you that are rich, for you have received your consolation. Woe to you that are full now, for you shall hunger. Woe to you that laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep. Woe to you, when all men speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets." - Luke 6:20-26, Revised Standard Version
"There was a rich man who dressed in purple garments and fine linen and dined sumptuously each day. And lying at his door was a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who would gladly have eaten his fill of the scraps that fell from the rich man's table. Dogs even used to come and lick his sores. When the poor man died, he was carried away by angels to the bosom of Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried, and from the netherworld, where he was in torment, he raised his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side. And he cried out, 'Father Abraham, have pity on me. Send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am suffering torment in these flames.' Abraham replied, 'My child, remember that you received what was good during your lifetime while Lazarus likewise received what was bad; but now he is comforted here, whereas you are tormented. Moreover, between us and you a great chasm is established to prevent anyone from crossing who might wish to go from our side to yours or from your side to ours.' He said, 'Then I beg you, father, send him to my father's house, for I have five brothers, so that he may warn them, lest they too come to this place of torment.' But Abraham replied, 'They have Moses and the prophets. Let them listen to them.' He said, 'Oh no, father Abraham, but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.' Then Abraham said, 'If they will not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded if someone should rise from the dead.'" - Luke 16:19-31, New American Bible
"Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose." "The more things change, the more they are the same." - Alphonse Karr, "Les Guêpes", January 1849 vi.
"Nothing in progression can rest on its original plan. We may as well think of rocking a grown man in the cradle of an infant." - Edmund Burke
"For men to plunge headlong into an undertaking of vast change, they must be intensely discontented yet not destitute, and they must have the feeling that by the possession of some potent doctrine, infallible leader or some new technique they have access to a source of irresistible power. They must also have an extravagant conception of the prospects and potentialities of the future. Finally, they must be wholly ignorant of the difficulties involved in their vast undertaking. Experience is a handicap." - Eric Hoffer, "The True Believer"
"That all things are changed, and that nothing really perishes, and that the sum of matter remains exactly the same, is sufficiently certain." - Francis Bacon
" 'All is transient'. When one sees this, he is above sorrow. This is the clear path." "Better than a hundred years not considering how all things arise and pass away is one single day of life if one considers how all things arise and pass away." - Dhammapada 277, 113
"If you want truly to understand something, try to change it." - Kurt Lewin
"Change, like sunshine, can be a friend or a foe, a blessing or a curse, a dawn or a dusk." - William Arthur Ward
Character:
"Genius develops in quiet places, / Character out in the full current of human life." - Goethe, "Tasso", i. 2
"The test of real character is what a man does when he is tired." - Winston Churchill
"Talent alone cannot make a writer. There must be a man behind the book." - Emerson, "Representative Men: Goethe"
"Those who listened to Lord Chatham felt that there was something finer in the man, than anything which he said." - Emerson, Essays xv. "Character"
"There's not much practical Christianity in the man who lives on better terms with angels and seraphs than with his wife, children and neighbors." - Henry Ward Beecher
"Too often for complacency the sober man is called a kill-joy, the moral man a prude, the honest man a milquetoast, and the idealist a simpleton." - Eugene Carson Blake
Charm:
Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised. - Proverbs 31:30
In Sir James M. Barrie's domestic drama "What Every Woman Knows", charm is said to be "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 matter much what else you have."
Children:
Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it. - Proverbs 22:6
Be wise, my son, and bring joy to my heart; then I can answer anyone who treats me with contempt. - Proverbs 27:11
A wise son brings joy to his father, but a foolish son grief to his mother. - Proverbs 10:1
My son, if your heart is wise, then my heart will be glad; my inmost being will rejoice when your lips speak what is right. - Proverbs 23:15-16
The Parable of the Prodigal Son:
And He said, "A man had two sons. The younger of them said to his father, 'Father, give me the share of the estate that falls to me.' So he divided his wealth between them. And not many days later, the younger son gathered everything together and went on a journey into a distant country, and there he squandered his estate with loose living. Now when he had spent everything, a severe famine occurred in that country, and he began to be impoverished. So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would have gladly filled his stomach with the pods that the swine were eating, and no one was giving anything to him. But when he came to his senses, he said, 'How many of my father's hired men have more than enough bread, but I am dying here with hunger! I will get up and go to my father, and will say to him, "Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in your sight; I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me as one of your hired men."' So he got up and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion for him, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. And the son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.' But the father said to his slaves, 'Quickly bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet; and bring the fattened calf, kill it, and let us eat and celebrate; for this son of mine was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found.' And they began to celebrate. Now his older son was in the field, and when he came and approached the house, he heard music and dancing. And he summoned one of the servants and began inquiring what these things could be. And he said to him, 'Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has received him back safe and sound.' But he became angry and was not willing to go in; and his father came out and began pleading with him. But he answered and said to his father, 'Look! For so many years I have been serving you and I have never neglected a command of yours; and yet you have never given me a young goat, so that I might celebrate with my friends; but when this son of yours came, who has devoured your wealth with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him.' And he said to him, 'Son, you have always been with me, and all that is mine is yours. But we had to celebrate and rejoice, for this brother of yours was dead and has begun to live, and was lost and has been found.'" - Luke 15:11-32, New American Standard
"The joys of parents are secret, and so are their griefs and fears." "Children sweeten labours, but they make misfortunes more bitter." - Francis Bacon
"The noblest works and foundations have proceeded from childless men, which have sought to express the images of their minds where those of their bodies have failed." - Francis Bacon
"Sir Walter, being strangely surprised and put out of his countenance at so great a table, gives his son a damned blow over the face. His son, as rude as he was, would not strike his father, but strikes over the face the gentleman that sat next to him and said, 'Box about; 'twill come to my father anon.'" - John Aubrey, "Brief Lives: Walter Raleigh"
"How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is / To have a thankless child!" - Shakespeare, "King Lear", act 1, scene 4
"I am glad I never had any children. This house seems to me just perfect. If I had brought children up in this atmosphere and permitted them all the luxuries I enjoy, they might have been worthless. If I had enjoyed this luxury myself but deprived them of it, they would have hated me." - George Eastman
Children seldom misquote you. In fact, they usually repeat word for word what you shouldn't have said.
"You don't raise heroes; you raise sons. And if you treat them like sons, they'll turn out to be heroes, even if it's just in your own eyes." - Walter Schirra, Sr.
"The Preacher, The Politician, The Teacher, / Were each of them once a kiddie. / A child, indeed, is a wonderful creature. / Do I want one? God forbiddie!" - Ogden Nash
"If children live with criticism, they learn to condemn. If children live with hostility, they learn to fight. If children live with fear, they learn to be apprehensive. If children live with encouragement, they learn to be confident. If children live with fairness, they learn justice. If children live with tolerance, they learn to be patient. If children live with security, they learn to have faith in themselves and in those around them." - Dorothy Law Nolte, "Children Learn What They Live"
Mealtime is when the kids sit down to continue eating.
"When you finally go back to your old hometown, you find it wasn't the old home you missed but your childhood." - Sam Ewing
Fairy Tale: a horror story to prepare children for the newspapers
Boy: a noise with dirt on it
A baby is an alimentary canal with a loud voice at one end and no responsibility at the other.
Children are natural mimics who act like their parents despite every effort to teach them good manners.
Give your child mental blocks for Christmas.
"Children aren't happy without something to ignore, / And that's what parents were created for." - Ogden Nash
"Anyone who hates dogs and kids can't be all bad." - attributed to W.C. Fields
Choices:
"It is in life as it is in ways, the shortest way is commonly the foulest, and surely the fairer way is not much about." - Francis Bacon
Civilization:
Reporter: "Mr. Gandhi, what do you think of modern civilization?" Mahatma Gandhi: "I think it would be a good idea."
"I put forward as a general definition of civilization, that a civilized society is exhibiting the five qualities of Truth, Beauty, Adventure, Art, and Peace." - Alfred North Whitehead
"Armaments, universal debt, and planned obsolescence: those are the three pillars of Western prosperity." - Aldous Huxley, "Island"
Clarity:
"Everything that can be thought at all can be thought clearly. Everything that can be said can be said clearly." - Ludwig Wittgenstein, "Tractatus Logico Philosophicus"
"I see but one rule: to be clear. If I am not clear, all my world crumbles to nothing." - Stendhal
"Never say 'In other words'. That will force you to clarify your statement."
23rd Psalm in jargon-speak: "The Lord is my external-internal integrative mechanism. I shall not be deprived of gratification for my viscerogenic hungers or my need-dispositions. He motivates me to orient myself towards a nonsocial object with effective significance. He positions me in a nondecisional situation. He maximizes my adjustment." - from TIME magazine, 12/30/66
Cleverness:
"If ever to his own harm the fool increases in cleverness, this only destroys his own mind and his fate is worse than before." - Dhammapada 72
"You, for example, clever to a fault, / The rough and ready man that write apace, / Read somewhat seldomer, think perhaps even less." - Robert Browning
Clothing:
"Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society." - Mark Twain
Comfort:
One reason a dog can be such a comfort when you're feeling blue is that he doesn't try to find out why.
Commitment:
Bertoldo de Giovanni, pupil of Donatello, teacher of Michelangelo, after finding Michelangelo toying with a sculpture far beneath his abilities: "Michelangelo, talent is cheap; dedication is costly!"
Common Sense:
"Nothing astonishes men so much as common sense and plain dealing." - Emerson, Essays xii. "Art"
"Horse sense is the thing a horse has which keeps it from betting on people." - W.C. Fields
Communication:
"Good communication is as stimulating as black coffee, and just as hard to sleep after." - Anne Morrow Lindbergh
Compassion:
"The Lord is full of compassion and mercy." - James 5:11
In Matthew 7:12, we find the Golden Rule: "So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets."
When He (Jesus) saw the crowds, He had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. - Matthew 9:36, New International Version
The Lord is gracious and righteous; our God is full of compassion. - Psalm 116:5
Even in darkness light dawns for the upright, for the gracious and compassionate and righteous man. (Psalm 112:4)
"Clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience." (Colossians 3:12)
"If a man shuts his ears to the cry of the poor, he too will cry out and not be answered." (Proverbs 21:13)
"When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. And all the nations will be gathered before him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on His right hand, 'Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.' Then the righteous will answer him, saying, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to see You?' And the King will answer and say to them, 'Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you have done it to one of the least of these My brethren, you have done it to Me.' Then He will also say to those on the left hand, 'Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels: for I was hungry and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink; I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.' Then they will also answer Him, saying, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to You?' Then He will answer them, saying, 'Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.' And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life." - Matthew 25:31-46, New King James Bible
And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, "Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" He said to him, "What is written in the law? How do you read?" And he answered, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself." And he said to him, "You have answered right; do this, and you will live." But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?" Jesus replied, "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him, and departed, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road; and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was; and when he saw him, he had compassion, and went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine; then he set him on his own beast and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, `Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.' Which of these three, do you think, proved neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?" He said, "The one who showed mercy on him." And Jesus said to him, "Go and do likewise." - Luke 10:25-37, Revised Standard Version
"One of the best reasons for guarding ourselves against doing harm to anyone is to preserve our capacity for compassion. For we cannot pity those we have wronged." "One would rather see the world run by men who set their hearts on toys but are accessible to pity, than by men animated by lofty ideals whose dedication makes them ruthless. In the chemistry of man's soul, almost all noble attributes - courage, honor, hope, faith, duty, loyalty, etc. - can be transmuted into ruthlessness. Compassion alone stands apart from the continuous traffic between good and evil proceeding within us." "It is compassion rather than the principle of justice which can guard us against being unjust to our fellow men." - Eric Hoffer, "The Passionate State of Mind"
"And often did beguile her of her tears, / When I did speak of some distressful stroke / That my youth suffer'd. My story being done, / She gave me for my pains a world of sighs." - Shakespeare, "Othello", act 1, scene 3
Compensation:
"For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. And when he had agreed with the laborers for a denarius for the day, he sent them into his vineyard. And he went out about the third hour and saw others standing idle in the market place; and to those he said, 'You too go into the vineyard, and whatever is right I will give you.' And so they went. Again he went out about the sixth and the ninth hour, and did the same thing. And about the eleventh hour he went out, and found others standing; and he said to them, 'Why have you been standing here idle all day long?' They said to him, 'Because no one hired us.' He said to them, 'You too go into the vineyard.' And when evening had come, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, 'Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last group to the first.' And when those hired about the eleventh hour came, each one received a denarius. And when those hired first came, they thought that they would receive more; and they also received each one a denarius. And when they received it, they grumbled at the landowner, saying, 'These last men have worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden and the scorching heat of the day.' But he answered and said to one of them, 'Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what is yours and go your way, but I wish to give to this last man the same as to you. Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with what is my own? Or is your eye envious because I am generous?' Thus the last shall be first, and the first last." - Matthew 20:1-16, New American Standard
Conceit:
It is not good to eat too much honey, nor is it honorable to seek one's own honor. - Proverbs 25:27
"We are delighted to find a person who values us as we value ourselves, and distinguishes us from the rest of mankind, with an attention not unlike that with which we distinguish ourselves." - Adam Smith
"Because you are a great lord, you believe yourself to be a great genius! You took the trouble to be born, but no more." - Beaumarchais, "The Marriage of Figaro"
Confidence:
"Why then the world's mine oyster, / Which I with sword will open." - Shakespeare, "The Merry Wives of Windsor", act 2, scene 2
Second Law of Frisbee: Never precede any maneuver by a comment more predictive than "Watch this!"
"Health is the greatest possession. Contentment is the greatest treasure. Confidence is the greatest friend. Nirvana is the greatest joy." - Dhammapada 204
Conscience:
"Conscience takes up more room than all the rest of a person's insides." - Mark Twain
On conscience: "It is from him only that we learn the real littleness of ourselves, and of whatever relates to ourselves, and the natural misrepresentations of self-love can be corrected only by the eye of this impartial spectator. It is he who shows us the propriety of generosity and the deformity of injustice; the propriety of resigning the greatest interests of our own, for the yet greater interests of others, and the deformity of doing the smallest injury to another, in order to obtain the greatest benefit to ourselves. It is not the love of our neighbor, it is not the love of mankind, which upon many occasions prompts us to the practice of these divine virtues. It is a stronger love, a more powerful affection, which generally takes place upon such occasions; the love of what is honourable and noble, of the grandeur, and dignity, and superiority of our own characters." - Adam Smith, "The Theory of Moral Sentiments", III.3.4
"And whoever chooses poverty for himself and loves it possesses a great treasure, and will always clearly hear the voice of his conscience; he who hears and obeys that voice, which is the best gift of God, finds at last a friend in it, and is never alone." - Vincent Van Gogh
"Conscience is that still, small voice that is sometimes too loud for comfort." - Bert Murray
"The play's the thing / Wherein I'll catch the conscience of the King." - Shakespeare, "Hamlet", act 2, scene 2
Conscience spurned will invite remorse to take its place.
"Conscience is the inner voice that warns us somebody is looking." - H.L. Mencken
"The New England conscience... does not stop you from doing what you shouldn't - it just stops you from enjoying it." - Cleveland Amory
Conservatism:
"New opinions are always suspected, and usually opposed, without any other reason but because they are not already common." - John Locke, dedicatory epistle to "Essay on the Human Understanding"
Conservative, n. 1) "A man with two perfectly good legs who has never learned to walk." - Franklin D. Roosevelt 2) "One who admires radicals centuries after they're dead." - Leo C. Rosten 3) "A man who believes that nothing should be done for the first time." - Alfred E. Wiggam
"What is conservatism? Is it not adherence to the old and tried, against the new and untried?" - Abraham Lincoln, 2/27/1960
"Conservatism is sometimes a symptom of sterility. Those who have nothing in them that can grow and develop must cling to what they have in beliefs, ideas and possessions. The sterile radical, too, is basically conservative. He is afraid to let go of the ideas and beliefs he picked up in his youth lest his life be seen as empty and wasted." - Eric Hoffer, "The Passionate State of Mind"
"Men are conservatives when they are least vigorous, or when they are most luxurious. They are conservatives after dinner." - Emerson, "Essays: New England Reformers"
"Progress, far from consisting in change, depends on retentiveness. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." - George Santayana
"A conservative is someone who demands a square deal for the rich." - David Frost
"A young conservative has no heart; an old liberal has no brain."
Consistency:
"A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. Speak what you think to-day in words as hard as cannon-balls, and to-morrow speak what to-morrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict everything you said to-day." - Emerson, "Self-Reliance"
"O heaven, were man / But constant, he were perfect." - Shakespeare, "The Two Gentlemen of Verona", act 5, scene 4
"But I am constant as the northern star, / Of whose true-fix'd and resting quality / There is no fellow in the firmament." - Shakespeare, "Julius Caesar", act 3, scene 1
"Consistency in life is merely honesty in terms of harmony of conduct with profession. The more dogmatic and systematized the profession, the greater the possibility of error in consistency."
Contempt:
He who mocks the poor shows contempt for their Maker; whoever gloats over disaster will not go unpunished. - Proverbs 17:5
Contentment:
A heart at peace gives life to the body, but envy rots the bones. - Proverbs 14:30
"Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, 'Never will I leave you, Never will I forsake you.'" - Hebrews 13:5
"Better a little with the fear of the Lord than great wealth with turmoil." - Proverbs 15:16
"A man can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in his work." - Ecclesiastes 2:24
"I rejoice greatly in the Lord that at last you have renewed your concern for me. Indeed, you have been concerned, but you had no opportunity to show it. I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well-fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength." - Philippians 4:10-13
"He is well paid that is well satisfied." - Shakespeare, "The Merchant Of Venice", act 4
" 'Tis better to be lowly born, / And range with humble livers in content, / Than to be perk'd up in a glist'ring grief / And wear a golden sorrow." - Shakespeare, "King Henry VIII", act 2, scene 3
"The discontented man finds no easy chair." - Ben Franklin
My uncle, James McManus, writes, "Contentedness is basically not wanting something you can't have. It is the opposite of covetousness. It has to do mostly with the physical and material aspects of life." Uncle Jim's files also contained this nugget: "If you don't get everything you want, think of the things you don't get that you don't want."
"It is enough if you don't freeze in the cold, and if thirst and hunger don't claw at your insides. If your back isn't broken, if your feet can walk, if both arms can bend, if both eyes can see, and if both ears can hear, then whom should you envy? And why? Our envy of others devours us most of all. Rub your eyes and purify your heart and prize above all else in the world those who love you and who wish you well." - Solzhenitsyn, "The Gulag Archipelago"
"The inscription upon the tomb-stone of the man who had endeavoured to mend a tolerable constitution by taking physic (medicine); 'I was well; I wished to be better; here I am'; may generally be applied with great justness to the distress of disappointed avarice and ambition." - Adam Smith, "The Theory Of Moral Sentiments"
Vincent van Gogh, in a letter to his brother Theo, wrote, "I am doing very well, and it is a great pleasure for me to study London and the English way of living and the English people themselves; and then I have nature and art and poetry, and if that is not enough, what is enough?" Van Gogh also wrote, "Man is not easily made content: now he finds things to be too easy, and then at other times things are not easy enough."
"If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need." - Cicero
"God's gifts put man's best dreams to shame," said Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Her husband Robert Browning expressed the same feeling: "The year's at the spring, And day's at the morn; Morning's at seven; The hill-side's dew-pearled; The lark's on the wing; The snail's on the thorn: God's in His heaven -- All's right with the world!" Robert Browning also wrote, "God must be glad one loves His world so much!"
"The material is not the only thing that gives joy. Something greater than that, the deep sense of peace in the heart. They are content. That is the greatest difference between the rich and the poor." - Mother Teresa
"He that wants money, means, and content / is without three good friends." - Shakespeare, "As You Like It", act 3, scene 2
"What some people mistake for the high cost of living is really the cost of living high." - Doug Larson
"People who have what they want are very fond of telling people who haven't what they want that they don't want it." - Ogden Nash
"People wish to be settled: only as far as they are unsettled is there any hope for them." - Emerson, Essays x. "Circles"
"A man is rich in proportion to the number of things which he can let alone." - Thoreau, "Walden"
"However little a monk may receive, if he despises not what he receives, even the gods praise that monk, whose life is pure and full of endeavor." "He who in his vision is free from doubts and, having all, longs for nothing, for he has reached the immortal Nirvana - him I call a Brahmin." "Who in this world does not take anything not given to him: be it long or short, large or small, good or bad - him I call a Brahmin." "O let us live in joy, although having nothing! In joy let us live like spirits of light!" "When with a mind in silent peace a monk enters his empty house, then he feels the unearthly joy of beholding the light of truth." Dhammapada 366, 411, 409, 200, 373
"Misery and wretchedness can never enter the breast in which dwells complete self-satisfaction." - Adam Smith, "The Theory of Moral Sentiments", III.3.27
"Health is the greatest possession. Contentment is the greatest treasure. Confidence is the greatest friend. Nirvana is the greatest joy." - Dhammapada 204
"I make the most of all that comes and the least of all that goes." - Sara Teasdale, "The Philosopher"
Contrariness:
And the Lord said, "Whereunto then shall I liken the men of this generation? and to what are they like? They are like unto children sitting in the marketplace, and calling one to another, and saying, 'We have piped unto you, and ye have not danced; we have mourned to you, and ye have not wept.' For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine; and ye say, 'He hath a devil.' The Son of man is come eating and drinking; and ye say, 'Behold a gluttonous man, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners!' But wisdom is justified of all her children." - Luke 7:31-35, King James Version
" 'Contrariwise,' continued Tweedledee, 'if it was so, it might be, and if it were so, it would be; but as it isn't, it ain't That's logic!'" - Lewis Carroll
"Winter is the season in which people try to keep the house as warm as it was in the summer, when they complained about the heat."
Nostalgia isn't what it used to be.
Vote anarchist.
Conviction:
"And I tell you, every one who acknowledges me before men, the Son of man also will acknowledge before the angels of God; but he who denies me before men will be denied before the angels of God." - Luke 12:8-9, Revised Standard Version
"America has developed a broad urbanity, an all-engulfing tolerance which finds it easy to be hospitable to everything except conviction -- and genuine conviction, which must not be confused with intolerance, is one of the crying needs of our age." - Robert M. Hutchins
Dr. Louis Evans wrote, "The most embarrassing question that I can ask a college senior is, 'What are you living for, man? Give me your philosophy of life.' A lot of them don't even know, in a day when others are dying for their convictions." Of course, people have always died (or risked death) for their convictions. Think of Martin Luther standing, sweating, before the Imperial Diet, being told to recant or to risk excommunication and hellfire: "I cannot and I will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. Here I stand. I can do no other. God help me. Amen."
"Let us have faith that right makes might; and in that faith let us to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it." - President Lincoln on February 27, 1860
"With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God give us to see the right." - Abraham Lincoln, second inaugural address, March 4, 1865
A philosopher ought never to try to avoid the duty of making up his mind.
"Where my heart lies, let my brain lie also." - Robert Browning
"To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men; - that is genius." - Emerson, "Essays: Self-Reliance"
Cooperation:
"When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall, one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle." - Edmund Burke
Correction:
"It is one thing to show a man that he is in an error, and another to put him in possession of truth." - John Locke, "Essay on the Human Understanding"
Courage:
"Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be men of courage; be strong." - 1 Corinthians 16:13
"Cowards die many times before their deaths, / The valiant never taste of death but once." - Shakespeare, "Julius Caesar", act 2, scene 2
Mark Twain wrote that "Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear -- not absence of fear. Except a creature be part coward it is not a compliment to say it is brave."
Verse 112 of the Dhammapada reads, "Better than a hundred years lived in idleness and in weakness is a single day of life lived with courage and powerful striving."
"Courage is a quality so necessary for maintaining virtue, that it is always respected, even when associated with vice." - Samuel Johnson
"Courage is not simply one of the virtues but the form of every virtue at the testing point." - C.S. Lewis
"Nothing matters but that strange flame, of inborn nobility that obliges men to be brave, and onward plunging." - D.H. Lawrence
Ernest Hemingway, who famously defined "guts" as "grace under pressure", put these words into the mouth of Robert Jordan, protagonist of "For Whom The Bell Tolls": "He was just a coward and that was the worst luck any man could have."
"Society everywhere is in conspiracy against the manhood of every one of its members." - Emerson, Essays: "Self-Reliance"
"Then, welcome each rebuff / That turns earth's smoothness rough, / Each sting that bids nor sit nor stand but go! / Be our joys three-parts pain! / Strive, and hold cheap the strain; / Learn, nor account the pang; dare, never grudge the throe!" - Robert Browning
Courage is fear that has said its prayers.
Plato: courage is wisdom concerning danger
"O friend, never strike sail to a fear! Come into port greatly, or sail with God the seas." - Emerson, Essays: "Heroism"
"It was a high counsel that I once heard given to a young person, 'Always do what you are afraid to do'." - Emerson
Courtesy:
"When a courteous greeting is offered you, meet it with a greeting still more courteous, or at least of equal courtesy. God takes careful account of all things." -- Qur'an iv. 86.
"If a man be gracious and courteous to strangers, it shows he is a citizen of the world." - Francis Bacon
"In a land in which the tough guy is admired, politeness is widely considered to be effeminate." - Ashley Montagu
Creativity:
"As the births of living creatures at first are ill-shapen, so are all innovations, which are the births of time." - Francis Bacon
"In Italy, for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed; but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love, they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did they produce? The cuckoo clock." - Orson Welles, spoken in "The Third Man"
"Stung by the splendour of a sudden thought." - Robert Browning
Credit and blame:
"Victory finds a hundred fathers, but defeat is an orphan." - Count Galeazzo Ciano
Credulity:
A simple man believes anything, but a prudent man gives thought to his steps. - Proverbs 14:15
"Since a politician never believes what he says, he is always astonished that others do." - Charles de Gaulle
Crime:
"If we are to abolish the death penalty, I should like to see the first step taken by our friends the murderers." - Alphonse Karr
Criticism:
A rebuke impresses a man of discernment more than a hundred lashes a fool. - Proverbs 17:10
"Pain is, in almost all cases, a more pungent sensation than the opposite and correspondent pleasure. The one, almost always, depresses us much more below the ordinary, or what may be called the natural state of our happiness, than the other ever raises us above it. A man of sensibility is apt to be more humiliated by just censure than he is ever elevated by just applause." - Adam Smith, "The Theory of Moral Sentiments", III.2.15
"Solitary shots should be ignored, but when they come from several directions, it's time to pay attention. As someone once said, 'If one calls you a donkey, ignore him. If two call you a donkey, check for hoof prints. If three call you a donkey, get a saddle.'" - Marshall Shelley
"Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain - and most do." - Dale Carnegie
Cruelty:
A righteous man cares for the needs of his animal, but the kindest acts of the wicked are cruel. - Proverbs 12:10
Culture:
"Culture, the acquainting ourselves with the best that has been known and said in the world, and thus with the history of the human spirit." - Matthew Arnold
Cunning:
"Nothing doth more hurt in a state than that cunning men pass for wise." - Francis Bacon
Curiosity:
"What is the ultimate truth about ourselves? Various answers suggest themselves. We are a bit of stellar matter gone wrong. We are physical machinery - puppets that strut and talk and laugh and die as the hand of time pulls the strings beneath. But there is one elementary inescapable answer. We are that which asks the question. Whatever else there may be in our nature, responsibility towards truth is one of its attributes." - Sir Arthur Eddington, quoted in "Other Worlds" by Carl Sagan
"It has been observed that one's nose is never so happy as when it is thrust into the affairs of another, from which some physiologists have drawn the inference that the nose is devoid of the sense of smell." - Ambrose Bierce
"The correct way to punctuate a sentence that starts: 'Of course it is none of my business but -- ' is to place a period after the word 'but'. Don't use excessive force in supplying such a moron with a period. Cutting his throat is only a momentary pleasure and is bound to get you talked about." - Lazarus Long
Custom:
"Custom reconciles us to everything." - Edmund Burke
I would like to give credit to my uncle, James McManus, who first encouraged me to start a filing system which would allow me to keep facts and quotes in good order. Uncle Jim's files gave me my first batch of quotes, and I've used some of them here.