Most of these quotes are serious, others are humorous. Some I agree with, some I disagree with.
Laughter:
"I make myself laugh at everything, for fear of having to weep." - Beaumarchais, The Barber of Seville
Law:
"Good men must not obey the laws too well." - Emerson, Essays xix. Politics
"The prestige of government has undoubtedly been lowered considerably by the Prohibition law. For nothing is more destructive of respect for the government and the law of the land than passing laws which cannot be enforced. It is an open secret that the dangerous increase of crime in this country is closely connected with this." - Albert Einstein, "My First Impression of the U.S.A.", 1921
"Judges ought to remember, that their office is Ius dicere, and not Jus dare; to interpret law, and not to make law, or give Law." - Sir Francis Bacon
Laziness:
"Weariness / Can snore upon the flint, when resty sloth / Finds the down pillow hard." - Shakespeare, Cymbeline, act 3, scene 6
Leadership:
Due to a shortage of devoted followers, the production of great leaders has been discontinued.
Learning:
"For all knowledge and wonder (which is the seed of knowledge) is an impression of pleasure in itself." - Francis Bacon, "Advancement of Learning"
"If a man doesn't try to learn, he grows old just like an ox. His body indeed grows old, but his wisdom does not grow." - Dhammapada 152
Liberty:
"The only liberty I mean, is a liberty connected with order; that not only exists along with order and virtue, but which cannot exist at all without them." "Abstract liberty, like other mere abstractions, is not to be found." "Liberty, too, must be limited in order to be possessed." "Among a people generally corrupt, liberty cannot long exist." "I flatter myself that I love a manly, moral, regulated liberty as well as any gentleman." - Edmund Burke
"Liberty, when it begins to take root, is a plant of rapid growth." - George Washington
Lies:
"A lying tongue hates those it hurts, and a flattering mouth works ruin." - Proverbs 26:28
"Arrogant lips are unsuited to a fool - how much worse lying lips to a ruler!" - Proverbs 17:7
"As long as I have life within me, the breath of God in my nostrils, my lips will not speak wickedness, and my tongue will utter no deceit." - Job 27:3-4
"It is not the lie that passeth through the mind, but the lie that sinketh in, and settleth in it, that doth the hurt." - Francis Bacon
"I do not mind lying, but I hate inaccuracy." - Samuel Butler
Lie: a very poor substitute for the truth, but the only one discovered to date
Life:
"There are six things the Lord hates, seven that are detestable to Him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, a false witness who pours out lies, and a man who stirs up dissension among brothers." - Proverbs 6:16-19
"Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player, / That struts and frets his hour upon the stage, / And then is heard no more. It is a tale / Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, / Signifying nothing." - Shakespeare, Macbeth, act 5, scene 5
"To live is like love, all reason is against it, and all healthy instinct for it." "Life is the art of drawing sufficient conclusions from insufficient premises." "Life is one long process of getting tired." - Samuel Butler
"It is a miserable state of mind to have few things to desire and many things to fear." - Francis Bacon, Of Empire
"All the world's a stage, / And all the men and women merely players; / They have their exits and their entrances, / And one man in his time plays many parts, / His acts being seven ages." - Shakespeare, As You Like It, act 2, scene 7
"How strange is the lot of us mortals! Each of us is here for a brief sojourn; for what purpose he knows not, though he sometimes thinks he senses it. But without deeper reflection one knows from daily life that one exists for other people - first of all for those upon whose smiles and well-being our own happiness is wholly dependent, and then for the many, unknown to us, to whose destinies we are bound by the ties of sympathy. A hundred times every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life are based on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received and am still receiving. I am strongly drawn to a frugal life and am often oppressively aware that I am engrossing an undue amount of the labor of my fellow men. I regard class distinctions as unjustified and, in the last resort, based on force. I also believe that a simple and unassuming life is good for everybody, physically and mentally." - Albert Einstein, from "Living Philosophies", 1931
"We live in deeds, not years; in thoughts, not breaths; in feelings, not in figures on a dial. We should count time by heart-throbs. He most lives who thinks most - feels the noblest - acts the best." - Philip James Bailey, Festus
"Yea, this in him was the peculiar grace: that before living he'd learn how to live." "This world's no blot for us, / Nor blank; it means intensely, and means good: / To find its meaning is my meat and drink." "I count life just a stuff / To try the soul's strength on." "White shall not neutralize the black, nor good / Compensate bad in man, absolve him so: / Life's business being just the terrible choice." "The only fault's with time; / All men become good creatures: but so slow!" "How good is man's life, The mere living! How fit to employ / All the heart and the soul and the senses, for ever in joy!" - Robert Browning
"Certainly there is no happiness within this circle of flesh, nor is it in the optics of these eyes to behold felicity; the first day of our Jubilee is death." ""For the world, I count it not an inn, but an hospital, and a place, not to live, but to die in." - Sir Thomas Browne
Loss:
"She, she is dead; she's dead; when thou know'st this, / Thou know'st how dry a cinder this world is." - John Donne
Love:
Yes, God loved the world so much
that he gave his only Son,
so that everyone who believes in him may not be lost
but may have eternal life.
- John 3:16, The Jerusalem Bible
"On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. 'Teacher,' he asked, 'what must I do to inherit eternal life?' 'What is written in the Law?' He replied. 'How do you read it?' He answered: '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, Love your neighbor as yourself.' 'You have answered correctly,' Jesus replied. 'Do this and you will live.'" (Luke 10:25-28)
Matthew 22:37-40: "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."
"If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love." (1 Corinthians 13:1-8, 13)
God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. (1 John 4:16)
"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved." - John 3:16-17
Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. (1 Peter 4:8)
"A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another." - John 13:34-35
"Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father's commandments, and abide in His love. These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full. This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends. You are My friends, if you do what I command you." - John 15:9-14. New American Standard
"Better a meal of vegetables where there is love than a fattened calf with hatred." (Proverbs 15:17)
"Like a lily among thorns is my darling among the maidens." - Song of Songs 2:2
"Love and faithfulness keep a king safe; through love his throne is made secure." - Proverbs 20:28
"Hatred stirs up dissension, but love covers over all wrongs." - Proverbs 10:12
"Better is open rebuke than hidden love." - Proverbs 27:5
"A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity." - Proverbs 17:17
"Daughters of Jerusalem, I charge you by the gazelles and by the does of the field: Do not arouse or awaken love until it so desires." - Song of Songs 3:5
"Good night, good night! Parting is such sweet sorrow, / That I shall say good night till it be morrow." - Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, act 2, scene 2
"For aught that I could ever read, / Could ever hear by tale or history, / The course of true love never did run smooth." - Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream, act 1, scene 1
"This bud of love, by summer's ripening breath, / May prove a beauteous flower when next we meet." - Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, act 2, scene 2
"She is mine own, / And I as rich in having such a jewel / As twenty seas, if all their sand were pearl, / The water nectar, and the rocks pure gold." - - Shakespeare, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, act 2, scene 4
"Friendship is constant in all other things / Save in the office and affairs of love; / Therefore all hearts in love use their own tongues. / Let every eye negotiate for itself, / And trust no agent." - Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing, act 2, scene 1
"Love feels no burden, regards not labors, strives toward more than it attains, argues not of impossibility, since it believes that it may and can do all things. Therefore it avails for all things, and fulfils and accomplishes much where one not a lover falls and lies helpless." - Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation Of Christ
"I try to give to the poor people for love what the rich could get for money. No, I wouldnt touch a leper for a thousand pounds; yet I willingly cure him for the love of God." - Mother Teresa
"Ama et fac quod vis" - "Love and do what you will." - St. Augustine
Francis Bacon echoed 1 Corinthians 13:1 when he wrote: "A crowd is not company, and faces are but a gallery of pictures, and talk but a tinkling cymbal, where there is no love."
"For life, with all it yields of joy and woe, and hope and fear, - believe the aged friend - is just a chance o' the prize of learning love." "True life is only love, love only bliss." - Robert Browning
"The face of all the world is changed, I think, / Since first I heard the footsteps of thy soul / Move still, oh, still, beside me, as they stole / Betwixt me and the dreadful outer brink / Of obvious death, where I, who thought to sink, / Was caught up into love, and taught the whole / Of a new rhythm." - Elizabeth Barrett Browning
"True love makes the thought of death frequent, easy, without terrors; it merely becomes the standard of comparison, the price one would pay for many things." - Stendhal
"Love is life. All, everything that I understand, I understand only because I love. Everything is, everything exists, only because I love. Everything is united by it alone. Love is God, and to die means that I, a particle of love, shall return to the general and eternal source." - Tolstoy, War And Peace
"All the privilege I claim for my own sex is that of loving longest, when existence or when hope is gone." - Jane Austen, Persuasion, ch. 23
Vincent Van Gogh wrote his brother, "I always think that the best way to know God is to love many things. Love a friend, a wife, something, whatever you like, but one must love with a lofty and serious intimate sympathy, with strength, with intelligence, and one must always try to know deeper, better and more. That leads to God; that leads to unwavering faith." Also by van Gogh: "It is good to love many things, for therein lies the true strength, and whosoever loves much performs much, and can accomplish much, and what is done in love is well done!" And: "No woman is old. That does not mean that there are no old women, but that a woman is not old as long as she loves and is loved... There is more in love than people generally suppose." "Do you know what frees one from this captivity? It is every deep serious affection. Being friends, being brothers, love, these open the prison by supreme power, by some magic force."
Adam Smith wrote in "The Theory of Moral Sentiments" that "the chief part of human happiness arises from the consciousness of being beloved."
The speaking in a perpetual hyperbole is comely in nothing but in love. - Francis Bacon
"O, how this spring of love resembleth / The uncertain glory of an April day." - Shakespeare, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, act 1, scene 3
"As sweet and musical / As bright Apollo's lute, strung with his hair. / And when Love speaks, the voice of all the gods / Makes heaven drowsy with the harmony." - Shakespeare, Love's Labor's Lost, act 4, scene 3
"O lover of my life, O soldier-saint" - Robert Browning
"All mankind love a lover." - Emerson, Essays v. Love
The world has little to bestow / Where two fond hearts in equal love are joined. - Anna Barbauld, Delia
"Youth means love, / Vows can't change nature, priests are only men." - Robert Browning
"Give all to love: / Obey thy heart; / Friends, kindred, days, / Estate, good fame, / Plans, credit, and the Muse, - / Nothing refuse." - Ralph Waldo Emerson, Give All To Love
"The great tragedy of life is not that men perish, but that they cease to love." - W. Somerset Maugham
"Love looks not with the eyes but with the mind; / And therefore is wing'd Cupid painted blind." - Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream, act 1, scene 1
Paracelsus: "I am he that aspired to know: and thou?" Aprile: "I would love infinitely, and be loved!" - Robert Browning
I said - Then, dearest, since 'tis so, / Since now at length my fate I know, / Since nothing all my love avails, / Since all, my life seemed meant for, fails, / Since this was written and needs must be - / My whole heart rises up to bless / Your name in pride and thankfulness! / Take back the hope you gave, - I claim / Only a memory of the same. - Robert Browning, "The Last Ride Together"
"Such ever was love's way: to rise, it stoops." "The glory dropped from their youth and love, And both perceived they had dreamed a dream." - Robert Browning
"Absence is to love what wind is to fire; it extinguishes the small, it enkindles the great." - Comte de Bussy-Rabutin
"I love humanity but I hate people." - Pierrot, in Edna St. Vincent Millay's Aria da Capa
Nondum amabam, et amare amabam quaerobam quid amarem, amans amare. "I loved not yet, yet I loved to love I sought what I might love, in love with loving." - St. Augustine, Confessions, book III ch. 1
"O let us live in joy, in love amongst those who hate! Among men who hate, let us live in love." "The followers of Buddha Gautama are awake and forever watch; and ever by night and by day they find joy in love for all beings." "Let him live in love. Let his work be well done. Then in a fullness of joy he will see the end of sorrow." Dhammapada 197, 300, 376
"Doubt thou the stars are fire, / Doubt that the sun doth move, / Doubt truth to be a liar, / But never doubt I love." - Shakespeare, Hamlet, act 2, scene 2
"The Chinese sage Mo-Tzu who advocated brotherly love was rightly condemned by the Confucianists who cherished the family above all. They argued that the principle of universal love would dissolve the family and destroy society." - Eric Hoffer, The True Believer
"Oh when I was in love with you, / How well did I behave. / And miles around the wonder grew / How well did I behave. / And now the fancy passes by, / And nothing will remain, / And miles around they'll say that I / Am quite myself again." - A.E. Housman
Arthur's Laws of Love --
1) People to whom you are attracted invariably think you remind them of someone else. 2) The love letter you finally got the courage to send will be delayed in the mail long enough for you to make a fool of yourself in person.
"Love Poem" by Richard Brautigan: "It's so nice / To wake up in the morning / All alone / And not have to tell somebody / You love them / When you don't love them / Any more."
Loyalty:
"If you falter in times of trouble, how small is your strength!" (Proverbs 24:10)
Proverbs 28:20 assures us that "A faithful man will be richly blessed", but 20:6 laments, "Many a man claims to have unfailing love, but a faithful man who can find?"
"Histories are more full of examples of the fidelity of dogs than of friends." - Alexander Pope
"Constancy . . . that small change of love, which people exact so rigidly, receive in such counterfeit coin, and repay in baser metal." - Lord Byron
Luck:
"Luck never gives; it only lends." - Swedish saying
"Luck is a matter of preparation meeting opportunity." - Oprah Winfrey
Luxury:
"And that which fell among thorns are they, which, when they have heard, go forth, and are choked with cares and riches and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to perfection." - Luke 8:14
Malice:
"A man who lacks judgment derides his neighbor, but a man of understanding holds his tongue." - Proverbs 11:12
"He who hurts not with his thoughts, or words or deeds, who keeps these three under control - him I call a Brahmnin." - Dhammapada 391
"Heat not a furnace for your foe so hot / That it do singe yourself." - Shakespeare, King Henry VIII, act 1, scene 1
"It is remarkable by how much a pinch of malice enhances the penetrating power of an idea or an opinion. Our ears, it seems, are wonderfully attuned to sneers and evil reports about our fellow men." - Eric Hoffer, The Passionate State of Mind
"It is never wise to seek or wish for another's misfortune. If malice or envy were tangible and had a shape, it would be the shape of a boomerang." - Charley Reese
Marriage:
"He who finds a wife finds what is good and receives favor from the Lord." - Proverbs 18:22
" 'An unloved woman who is married' - one of the things the earth cannot bear." - Proverbs 30:23
"Men are April when they woo, / December when they wed; / maids are May when they are maids, / but the sky changes when they are wives." - Shakespeare, As You Like It, act 4, scene 1
"Wives are young men's mistresses, companions for middle age, and old men's nurses." "A single life doth well with churchmen, for charity will hardly water the ground where it must first fill a pool." "He that hath wife and children hath given hostages to fortune; for they are impediments to great enterprises, either of virtue or mischief." "He was reputed one of the wise men that made answer to the question when a man should marry? 'A young man not yet, an elder man not at all'." - Francis Bacon
"Is not marriage an open question, when it is alleged, from the beginning of the world, that such as are in the institution wish to get out, and such as are out wish to get in." - Ralph Waldo Emerson
"When two people are under the influence of the most violent, most insane, most delusive, and most transient of passions, they are required to swear that they will remain in that excited, abnormal, and exhausting condition continuously until death do them part." - George Bernard Shaw
"Until death do us part, or thereabouts." - James Bond in Live and Let Die
"When I was young enough, and poor enough, to attract a woman on my own merit, I was too busy to give a wife and family the attention they deserve." - George Eastman
"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife." - Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, chapter 1
"There's only one way to have a happy marriage and as soon as I learn what it is I'll get married again." - Clint Eastwood
"There's no way to win against your spouse. You both win or you both lose." - Frank Pittman
"It takes two people to have a marriage, but only one is necessary to change it. We end up feeling helpless in our marriages because we can't control our partners. The truth is that we need only learn to control ourselves. As we abandon our attempts to change our mate and instead focus on ourselves, changes surprisingly and predictably occur in the marriage." - Melvyn Kinder and Connell Cowan, Husbands and Wives
"If you want to be sure that you never forget your wife's birthday, just try forgetting it once." - Aldo Cammarota
"When you marry, you get a readily available scapegoat." - Norman Paul
Materialism:
"Take our congregation: we have very little, so we have nothing to be preoccupied with. The more you have, the more you are occupied, the less you give. But the less you have, the more free you are. Poverty for us is a freedom. It is not a mortification, a penance. It is joyful freedom." - Mother Teresa
Meaning of life:
"The ideals which have lighted my way, and time after time have given me new courage to face life cheerfully, have been Kindness, Beauty, and Truth. Without the sense of kinship with men of like mind, without the occupation with the objective world, the eternally unattainable in the field of art and scientific endeavors, life would have seemed to me empty. The trite objects of human efforts - possessions, outward success, luxury - have always seemed to me contemptible." - Albert Einstein, from "Living Philosophies", 1931
"The man who regards his own life and that of his fellow creatures as meaningless is not merely unhappy but hardly fit for life." "The true value of a human being is determined primarily by the measure and the sense in which he has attained liberation from the self." - Albert Einstein, "Mein Weltbild", 1934
"It is right in principle that those should be the best loved who have contributed most to the elevation of the human race and human life. But if one goes on to ask who they are, one finds oneself in no inconsiderable difficulties. In the case of political, and even of religious, leaders it is often very doubtful whether they have done more good or harm. Hence I most seriously believe that one does people the best service by giving them some elevating work to do and thus indirectly elevating them." - Albert Einstein, "Mein Weltbild", 1934
Mediocrity:
"I shall do what I can, but mediocrity in its simple signification I do not despise at all. And one certainly does not rise above that mark by despising what is mediocre. In my opinion one must begin at least by having some respect for the mediocre and know that it means something, and that it is only reached with great difficulty." - Vincent Van Gogh
Melancholy:
"Instead of yielding to despair, I chose the part of active melancholy. I preferred the melancholy that hopes and aspires and seeks to that which despairs in stagnation and woe." - Vincent Van Gogh
"All my joys to this are folly, / Naught so sweet as Melancholy." - Robert Burton
Men:
"That man that hath a tongue, I say is no man, / If with his tongue he cannot win a woman." - Shakespeare, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, act 3, scene 1
"Sigh no more, ladies, sigh no more, / Men were deceivers ever, / One foot in sea, and one on shore, / To one thing constant never." - Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing, act 2, scene 3
"I don't hate men because they're men, as nuns do. I dislike them because they're not men enough: babies, and playboys, and poor things showing off all the time, even to themselves. Either my taking a man shall have a meaning and a mystery that penetrates my very soul, or I will keep to myself." - from St. Mawr by D.H. Lawrence
"It has occurred to me that a man need know but two sentences to survive. The first to ask for food, the second to tell a woman he loves her. If he must dispense with one or the other, by all means let it be the first - for surely, if you tell a woman you love her, she will feed you." - Louis L'Amour
Ass -- the masculine of "lass"
Mercy:
"Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy." - Matthew 5:7
"Sweet mercy is nobility's true badge." - Shakespeare, Titus Andronicus, act 1, scene 1
"No ceremony that to great ones 'longs, / Not the king's crown, nor the deputed sword, / The marshal's truncheon, nor the judge's robe, / Become them with one half so good a grace / As mercy does." - Shakespeare, Measure for Measure, act 2, scene 2
"The quality of mercy is not strain'd, / It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven / Upon the place beneath. It is twice blest; / It blesseth him that gives and him that takes." - Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice, act 4, scene 1
Militarism:
"The political defeat of Greece was the greatest failure of culture: for it has brought with it the revolting theory that one can foster culture only when one is armed to the teeth and wears boxing gloves." - Nietzsche, The Viking Portable, p. 49
"The soldier - that is, the great soldier - of to-day is not a romantic animal, dashing at forlorn hopes, animated by frantic sentiment, full of fancies as to a love-lady or a sovereign; but a quiet, grave man, buried in charts, exact in sums, master of the art of tactics, occupied in trivial detail, thinking, as the Duke of Wellington was said to do, most of the shoes of his soldiers; despising all manner of éclat and eloquence; perhaps, like Count Moltke, 'silent in seven languages'." - Walter Bagehot
"All the elusive seduction of martial music" - Fanny Burney (Mme. D'Arblay), diary entry, 1802
Old soldiers never die. Young ones do.
In case of nuclear attack, the Federal ruling against prayer in schools will be temporarily repealed.
Ban the bomb. Save the world for conventional warfare.
Drive defensively. Buy a tank.
Miracles:
And the third day there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee; and the mother of Jesus was there. And both Jesus was called, and His disciples, to the marriage. And when they wanted wine, the mother of Jesus saith unto Him, "They have no wine." Jesus saith unto her, "Woman, what have I to do with thee? Mine hour is not yet come." His mother saith unto the servants, "Whatsoever He saith unto you, do it." And there were set there six waterpots of stone, after the manner of the purifying of the Jews, containing two or three firkins apiece. Jesus saith unto them, "Fill the waterpots with water." And they filled them up to the brim. And He saith unto them, "Draw some out now, and bear it unto the governor of the feast." And they bore it. When the ruler of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine, and knew not whence it was (but the servants which drew the water knew), the governor of the feast called the bridegroom, and saith unto him, "Every man at the beginning doth set forth good wine; and when men have well drunk, then that which is worse: but thou hast kept the good wine until now." This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and manifested forth His glory; and His disciples believed in Him. - John 2:1-11, King James Bible
And behold, they were bringing to Him a paralytic, lying on a bed; and Jesus seeing their faith said to the paralytic, "Take courage, My son, your sins are forgiven." And behold, some of the scribes said to themselves, "This fellow blasphemes." And Jesus knowing their thoughts said, "Why are you thinking evil in your hearts? For which is easier, to say, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Rise, and walk'? But in order that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins" - then He said to the paralytic - "Rise, take up your bed, and go home." And he rose and went home. - Matthew 9:2-7, New American Standard
Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. "Take away the stone," he said. "But Lord," said Martha, the sister of the dead man, "by now there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days." Then Jesus said, "Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?" So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, "Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me." When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out!" The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face. Jesus said to them, "Take off the grave clothes and let him go." - John 11:38-44, New International Version
A second time they summoned the man who had been blind. "Give glory to God," they said. "We know this man is a sinner." He replied, "Whether he is a sinner or not, I don't know. One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!" - John 9:24-25
Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. - John 20:30-31
When he returned to Capernaum after some days, it was reported that he was at home. So many gathered around that there was no longer room for them, not even in front of the door; and he was speaking the word to them. Then some people came, bringing to him a paralyzed man, carried by four of them. And when they could not bring him to Jesus because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him; and after having dug through it, they let down the mat on which the paralytic lay. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, "Son, your sins are forgiven." Now some of the scribes were sitting there, questioning in their hearts, "Why does this fellow speak in this way? It is blasphemy! Who can forgive sins but God alone?" At once Jesus perceived in his spirit that they were discussing these questions among themselves; and he said to them, "Why do you raise such questions in your hearts? Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Stand up and take your mat and walk'? But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins" -- he said to the paralytic -- "I say to you, stand up, take your mat and go to your home." And he stood up, and immediately took the mat and went out before all of them; so that they were all amazed and glorified God, saying, "We have never seen anything like this!" - Mark 2:1-12, New Revised Standard
Again he entered the synagogue, and a man was there who had a withered hand. They watched him to see whether he would cure him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse him. And he said to the man who had the withered hand, "Come forward." Then he said to them, "Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the Sabbath, to save life or to kill?" But they were silent. He looked around at them with anger; he was grieved at their hardness of heart and said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." He stretched it out, and his hand was restored. - Mark 3:1-5, New Revised Standard
When Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side, a great crowd gathered around him; and he was by the sea. Then one of the leaders of the synagogue named Jairus came and, when he saw him, fell at his feet and begged him repeatedly, "My little daughter is at the point of death. Come and lay your hands on her, so that she may be made well, and live." So he went with him.
And a large crowd followed him and pressed in on him. Now there was a woman who had been suffering from hemorrhages for twelve years. She had endured much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had; and she was no better, but rather grew worse. She had heard about Jesus, and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, for she said, "If I but touch his clothes, I will be made well." Immediately her hemorrhage stopped; and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. Immediately aware that power had gone forth from him, Jesus turned about in the crowd and said, "Who touched my clothes?" And his disciples said to him, "You see the crowd pressing in on you; how can you say, 'Who touched me?'" He looked all around to see who had done it. But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling, fell down before him, and told him the whole truth. He said to her, "Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease."
While he was still speaking, some people came from the leader's house to say, "Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the teacher any further?" But overhearing what they said, Jesus said to the leader of the synagogue, "Do not fear, only believe." He allowed no one to follow him except Peter, James, and John, the brother of James. When they came to the house of the leader of the synagogue, he saw a commotion, people weeping and wailing loudly. When he had entered, he said to them, "Why do you make a commotion and weep? The child is not dead but sleeping." And they laughed at him. Then he put them all outside, and took the child's father and mother and those who were with him, and went in where the child was. He took her by the hand and said to her, "Talitha cum," which means, "Little girl, get up!" And immediately the girl got up and began to walk about (she was twelve years of age). At this they were overcome with amazement. He strictly ordered them that no one should know this, and told them to give her something to eat. - Mark 5:21-43, New Revised Standard
Now when the sun was setting, all they that had any sick with diverse diseases brought them unto him; and he laid his hands on every one of them, and healed them. And devils also came out of many, crying out, and saying, "Thou art Christ the Son of God." And he rebuking them suffered them not to speak: for they knew that he was Christ. - Luke 4:40-41, King James Version
And when he had ceased speaking, he said to Simon, "Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch." And Simon answered, "Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets." And when they had done this, they enclosed a great shoal of fish; and as their nets were breaking, they beckoned to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink. But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord." For he was astonished, and all that were with him, at the catch of fish which they had taken; and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, "Do not be afraid; henceforth you will be catching men." And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him. - Luke 5:4-11, Revised Standard Version
And when the men had come to him, they said, "John the Baptist has sent us to you, saying, `Are you he who is to come, or shall we look for another?'" In that hour he cured many of diseases and plagues and evil spirits, and on many that were blind he bestowed sight. And he answered them, "Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have good news preached to them. And blessed is he who takes no offense at me." - Luke 7:20-23, Revised Standard Version
Jesus was teaching in one of the Jewish places of worship on the Day of Rest. A woman was there who had suffered for eighteen years because of a demon. She was not able to stand up straight. Jesus saw her and said, 'Woman, you are now free from your trouble!' Then He put His hand on her. At once she stood up straight and gave thanks to God. The leader of the Jewish place of worship was angry because Jesus healed on the Day of Rest. The leader said to the people, 'There are six days in which work should be done. Come on those days and get healed. Do not come to be healed on the Day of Rest.' The Lord said to him, 'You pretend to be someone you are not! Do not each of you let his cow or his donkey out and lead them to water on the Day of Rest? Should not this Jewish woman be made free from this trouble on the Day of Rest? She has been chained by Satan for eighteen years.' When He said this, all those who were against Him were ashamed. All the many people were glad for the great things being done by Him. - Luke 13:10-17, New Life Version
Misconceptions:
To protect woolens from moths, people for generations have stored them in cedar chests or have built closets lined with cedar. There is no evidence that a cedar chest or closet repels moths. - from Isaac Asimov's Book of Facts, page 278
Mistakes:
"An error doesn't become a mistake until you refuse to correct it." - O.A. Battista
"We're all proud of making little mistakes. It gives us the feeling we don't make any big ones." - Andy Rooney
Misunderstanding:
"No corrupt mind ever understands words healthily." - Boccaccio, The Decameron, Conclusion
"Is it so bad, then, to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood." - Emerson, Self-Reliance
Moderation:
On the temple of Apollo at Delphi was engraved the motto "meden agan" -- "Nothing in excess".
"That moderation which nature prescribes, which limits our desires by resources restricted to our needs, has abandoned the field; it has now come to this -- that to want only what is enough is a sign both of boorishness and of utter destitution." - Seneca
"I cannot love anyone if I hate myself. That is the reason why we feel so extremely uncomfortable in the presence of people who are noted for their special virtuousness, for they radiate an atmosphere of the torture they inflict on themselves. That is not a virtue but a vice." - Carl Jung
"When the righteous man turneth away from his righteousness that he hath committed and doeth that which is neither quite lawful nor quite right, he will generally be found to have gained in amiability what he has lost in holiness." - Samuel Butler
"The fact is that a man who wants to act virtuously in every way necessarily comes to grief among so many who are not virtuous." - Machiavelli
"To many, total abstinence is easier than perfect moderation." - St. Augustine
"No terms of moderation takes place with the vulgar." - Francis Bacon
Modesty:
If God had wanted you to go around naked, He would have given you bigger hands.
Money:
"No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money." - Matthew 6:24, New International Version
"Whoever trusts in his riches will fall, but the righteous will thrive like a green leaf." - Proverbs 11:28
"Of what use is money in the hand of a fool, since he has no desire to get wisdom?" - Proverbs 17:16
"Dishonest money dwindles away, but he who gathers money little by little makes it grow." - Proverbs 13:11
"A kindhearted woman gains respect, but ruthless men gain only wealth." - Proverbs 11:16
"The wealth of the rich is their fortified city; they imagine it an unscalable wall." - Proverbs 18:11
"Two things I ask of you, O Lord; do not refuse me before I die: Keep falsehood and lies from me; give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, 'Who is the Lord?' Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God." - Proverbs 30:7-9
"Money is like muck, not good except it be spread." - Francis Bacon
"Riches are a good handmaid, but the worst mistress." - Francis Bacon
"Though wisdom cannot be gotten for gold, still less can it be gotten without it." - Samuel Butler
"If a man has wealth he has to make a choice. He can keep it together in a bunch and then leave it for others to administer after he is dead, or he can get into action and have fun while he is still alive." - George Eastman. How did George Eastman arrive at the name "Kodak" for his camera? He considered "k" a strong letter, and tried various combinations of letters, beginning and ending with k, until he found a suitable name. Later, after he became one of the world's richest men, he still had nightmares of being poor again. - From an article in "Smithsonian"
What this country needs is a good five-cent nickel.
Money is the root of all evil, and man needs roots.
Monogamy:
"Like a lily among thorns is my darling among the maidens." - Song of Songs 2:2
Morality:
"Two things fill the mind with ever-increasing wonder and awe, the more often and the more intensely the mind of thought is drawn to them: the starry heavens above me and the moral law within me." - Immanuel Kant, Critique Of Practical Reason
"There is but one categorical imperative: 'Act as if the maxim from which you act were to become through your will a universal law.'" - Immanuel Kant
Mortality:
"Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve, / And like this insubstantial pageant faded / Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff / As dreams are made on; and our little life / Is rounded with a sleep." - Shakespeare, The Tempest, act 4, scene 1
"Full fathom five thy father lies, / Of his bones are coral made: / Those are pearls that were his eyes: / Nothing of him that doth fade, But doth suffer a sea-change / Into something rich and strange." - Shakespeare, The Tempest, act 1, scene 2
"Old families last not three oaks." - Sir Thomas Browne
"Man is a noble animal, splendid in ashes, and pompous in the grave." - Sir Thomas Browne
"Remember all along that there is no embrace in this world that won't finally unclasp." - Joseph Brodsky, "In Praise of Boredom"
Motivation:
"You can push a good player to become better, but you can't push a great player to do anything. I'm responsible for myself." - Steffi Graf in TIME magazine
Music:
"The man that hath no music in himself, / Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds, / Is fit for treasons, stratagems and spoils; / The motions of his spirit are dull as night, / And his affections dark as Erebus: / Let no such man be trusted." - Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice, act 5, scene 1
Mystery:
"The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and true science. Whoever does not know it and can no longer wonder, no longer marvel, is as good as dead, and his eyes are dimmed." - Albert Einstein, from "Living Philosophies", 1931
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.