Most of these quotes are serious, others are humorous. Some I agree with, some I disagree with.
Names:
"What's in a name? That which we call a rose / By any other word would smell as sweet." - Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, act 2, scene 2
Narrow-mindedness:
"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
He was so narrow-minded he could see through a keyhole with both eyes.
Necessity:
"'Kitty has no discretion in her coughs,' said her father: 'she times them ill.' 'I do not cough for my own amusement,' replied Kitty fretfully." - Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, ch. 2
"Mahomet made the people believe that he would call a hill to him, and from the top of it offer up his prayers for the observers of the law. The people assembled; Mahomet called the hill to come to him again and again; and when the hill stood still, he was never a whit abashed, but said, 'If the hill will not come to Mahomet, Mahomet will go to the hill." - Francis Bacon
"I'll make him an offer he can't refuse." - Don Corleone (Marlon Brando), "The Godfather"
Nobility:
"There is surely a piece of divinity in us, something that was before the elements, and owes no homage unto the sun." - Sir Thomas Browne
"New nobility is but the act of power, but ancient nobility is the act of time." - Francis Bacon
"They that deny a God destroy man's nobility; for certainly man is of kin to the beasts by his body; and, if he be not of kin to God by his spirit, he is a base and ignoble creature." - Francis Bacon
"Sweet mercy is nobility's true badge." - Shakespeare, Titus Andronicus, act 1, scene 1
Nonconformity:
"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I - / I took the one less traveled by, / and that has made all the difference." - Robert Frost, "The Road Not Taken"
"Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist." - Ralph Waldo Emerson
"The dissenter is every human being at those moments of his life when he resigns momentarily from the herd and thinks for himself." - Archibald MacLeish
"Discoveries are often made by not following instructions, by going off the main road, by trying the untried." - Frank Tyger
Obedience:
Jesus replied, "If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. He who does not love me will not obey my teaching." - John 14:23-24
"Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother." - Mark 3:35
As he was speaking, a woman in the crowd called out, "God bless your mother -- the womb from which you came, and the breasts that nursed you!" He replied, "But even more blessed are all who hear the word of God and put it into practice." As the crowd pressed in on Jesus, he said, "These are evil times, and this evil generation keeps asking me to show them a miraculous sign. But the only sign I will give them is the sign of the prophet Jonah. What happened to him was a sign to the people of Nineveh that God had sent him. What happens to me will be a sign that God has sent me, the Son of Man, to these people. The queen of Sheba will rise up against this generation on judgment day and condemn it, because she came from a distant land to hear the wisdom of Solomon. And now someone greater than Solomon is here -- and you refuse to listen to him. The people of Nineveh, too, will rise up against this generation on judgment day and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah. And now someone greater than Jonah is here -- and you refuse to repent." - Luke 11:27-32, New Living Translation
Objectivity:
"Thus I live in the world rather as a spectator of mankind than as one of the species." - The Spectator #1
Obstinacy:
"A man who remains stiff-necked after many rebukes will suddenly be destroyed - without remedy." - Proverbs 29:1
Open-mindedness:
"No, when the fight begins within himself, / A man's worth something." - Robert Browning
"If there is any one secret to success, it lies in the ability to get the other person's point of view and see things from his angle as well as your own." - Henry Ford
If you can't change your mind, are you sure you've still got one?
Opinion:
"There never was, there never will be, nor is there now, a man whom men always blame, or a man whom they always praise." - Dhammapada 228
Opportunism:
An opportunist pulls himself up by your bootstraps.
Opportunity:
"A wise man will make more opportunity than he finds." "A man must make his opportunity, as oft as find it." - Francis Bacon
If your ship doesn't come in, swim out to it! - Jonathan Winters
Today's opportunities erase yesterday's failures. - Gene Brown
Opposition:
"He that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves, and sharpens our skills. Our antagonist is our helper." - Edmund Burke
Oppression:
"A ruler who oppresses the poor is like a driving rain that leaves no crops." - Proverbs 28:3
"He who oppresses the poor to increase his wealth and he who gives gifts to the rich - both come to poverty." - Proverbs 22:16
"Do not exploit the poor because they are poor and do not crush the needy in court, for the Lord will take up their case and will plunder those who plunder them." - Proverbs 22:22-3
"O, it is excellent / To have a giant's strength, but it is tyrannous / To use it like a giant." - Shakespeare, Measure for Measure, act 2, scene 2
"Oppression makes the wise man mad." - Robert Browning
Optimism:
Optimists are nostalgic about the future.
Lunatic asylum: the place where optimism most flourishes
Order:
"Let all your things have their places; let each part of your business have its time." - Benjamin Franklin
The Apostle Paul wrote to the church at Corinth that "everything should be done in a fitting and orderly way."
"Good order is the foundation of all good things." - Edmund Burke
Originality:
"It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation. He who has never failed somewhere, that man cannot be great. If it be said that continual success is proof that a man wisely knows his powers, it is only to be added that, in that case, he knows them to be small." - Herman Melville
"Next to the originator of a good sentence is the first quoter of it." - Emerson, Quotation & Originality
Outcasts:
"The dying, the crippled, the mentally ill, the unwanted, the unloved - they are Jesus in disguise." - Mother Teresa
Pain:
"It is painful to leave the world; it is painful to be in the world; and it is painful to be alone amongst the many. The long road of transmigration is a road of pain for the traveler: let him rest by the road and be free." - Dhammapada 302
Paradoxes:
"What is mountainously paradoxical to the reason may be clear, flat highway to experienced faith." ""The inadequacy of philosophy is due to the fact that life is paradoxical. We can ultimately span the paradoxes in life only by living through the paradoxes, not trying to explain it." - James McManus
"The rules of the game of reason say the question is meaningless and requires no answer. The question: 'What would happen if an irresistible force met an immovable body?' In a universe where one of the above conditions exists, by definition the other cannot exist." - Isaac Asimov's Book of Facts page 281
"There was only one catch and that was Catch-22, which specified that a concern for one's own safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind. Orr was crazy and could be grounded. All he had to do was ask; and as soon as he did, he would no longer be crazy and would have to fly more missions. Orr would be crazy to fly more missions and sane if he didn't, but if he was sane he had to fly them. If he flew them he was crazy and didn't have to; but if he didn't want to he was sane and had to." - Joseph Heller, Catch-22
God is omnipotent, but He cannot create a rock so heavy that He cannot lift it.
"He that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves, and sharpens our skills. Our antagonist is our helper." - Edmund Burke
"Though this be madness, / yet there is method in't." - Shakespeare, Hamlet, act 2, scene 2
Paranoia:
Don't worry over what other people are thinking about you. They're too busy worrying over what you are thinking about them.
"Paranoids are people too; they have their own problems. Its easy to criticize, but if everybody hated you, you'd be paranoid too." - D.J. Hicks
Parenting:
"Children's children are a crown to the aged, and parents are the pride of their children." - Proverbs 17:6
"If a man curses his father or mother, his lamp will be snuffed out in pitch darkness." - Proverbs 20:20
"Listen to your father, who gave you life, and do not despise your mother when she is old. Buy the truth and do not sell it; get wisdom, discipline and understanding. The father of a righteous man has great joy; he who has a wise son delights in him. May your father and mother be glad; may she who gave you birth rejoice!" - Proverbs 23: 22-25
Then he said to them, "You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition! For Moses said, 'Honor your father and your mother'; and, 'Whoever speaks evil of father or mother must surely die.' But you say that if anyone tells father or mother, 'Whatever support you might have had from me is Corban' (that is, an offering to God) -- then you no longer permit doing anything for a father or mother, thus making void the word of God through your tradition that you have handed on. And you do many things like this." - Mark 7:9-13
"Diogenes struck the father when the son swore." - Robert Burton
"If there is anything we wish to change in the child, we should first examine it and see whether it is not something that could better be changed in ourselves." -- C.G. Jung, in The Development of Personality
"It is a wise father that knows his own child." - Shakespeare, The Merchant Of Venice, act 2, scene 2
"Try to be kind to your parents. Try not to rebel against them, for, in all likelihood, they will die before you do, so you can spare yourselves at least this source of guilt if not of grief." - Joseph Brodsky, commencement address, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 1988
Parenthood remains the greatest single preserve of the amateur. - Alvin Toffler, Future Shock
"My 4-year-old went to his mother at work in the kitchen, looked up at her adoringly and exclaimed, 'Mother, I like you better than any other leading brand'." - Reader's Digest 5/65 (from the files of James McManus)
Passion (Passions):
"There is in most passions a shrinking away from ourselves. The passionate pursuer has all the earmarks of a fugitive. Passions usually have their roots in that which is blemished, crippled, incomplete and insecure within us. The passionate attitude is less a response to stimuli from without than an emanation of an inner dissatisfaction." - Eric Hoffer, The Passionate State of Mind
"So try to stay passionate, leave your cool to constellations. Passion, above all, is a remedy against boredom." - Joseph Brodsky, "In Praise of Boredom"
Patience:
"A patient man has great understanding, but a quick-tempered man displays folly." (Proverbs 14:29)
"Better a patient man than a warrior, a man who controls his temper than one who takes a city." (Proverbs 16:32)
"Do not make friends with a hot-tempered man, do not associate with one easily angered, or you may learn his ways and get yourself ensnared." (Proverbs 22:24-5)
"And we urge you, brothers, warn those who are idle, encourage the timid, help the weak, be patient with everyone." (1 Thessalonians 5:14)
"Perhaps there is only one cardinal sin: impatience. Because of impatience we were driven out of Paradise, because of impatience we cannot return." - W.H. Auden
"Genius is only a great aptitude for patience." - attributed to Georges-Louis LeClerc de Buffon
"A healthy male adult bore consumes each year one-and-a-half times his own weight in other people's patience." - John Updike, Assorted Prose
"Our patience will achieve more than our force." "There is, however, a limit at which forbearance ceases to be a virtue." - Edmund Burke
"If you are patient in one moment of anger, you will escape a hundred days of sorrow." - Chinese proverb, from the files of Jim McManus
"Patience: faith's outstretched hand before the throne of grace. Perseverance: obstinate faith. Patience on the attack." - James McManus
"Patience is one of the few virtues which a Christian can put into practice immediately. In this sense it is the foundation for all the other fruits." - James McManus
James 1:4 : "Let patience have her perfect work", i.e., Be patient with the work of patience. - James McManus
Patriotism:
"Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel." - Samuel Johnson
"In Dr. Johnson's famous dictionary, patriotism is defined as the last resort of a scoundrel. With all due respect to an enlightened but inferior lexicographer, I beg to submit that it is the first." - Ambrose Bierce
"The sardonic remark that patriotism is the last refuge of scoundrels has also a less derogatory meaning. Fervent patriotism as well as religious or revolutionary enthusiasm often serves as a refuge from a guilty conscience. It is a strange thing that both the injurer and the injured, both sinner and he who is sinned against, should find in the mass movement an escape from a blemished life." - Eric Hoffer, The True Believer
Peace:
"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God." - Matthew 5:9
"Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid." - John 14:27
"Better than a thousand useless words is one single word that gives peace. Better than a thousand useless verses is one single verse that gives peace. Better than a hundred useless poems is one single poem that gives peace." - Dhammapada 100-102
"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. And when he sees in a clear vision the coming and going of inner events, then he feels the infinite joy of those who see the immortal Nirvana." - Dhammapada 373-4
Perception:
"The image of myself which I try to create in my own mind in order that I may love myself is very different from the image which I try to create in the minds of others in order that they may love me." - W.H. Auden
Persecution:
"Blessed are you when men cast insults at you, and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely, on account of Me. Rejoice, and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you." - Matthew 5:11-12
"Religious persecution may shield itself under the guise of a mistaken and over-zealous piety." - Edmund Burke
"Persecution is a bad and indirect way to plant religion." - Sir Thomas Browne
Perseverance:
"And you will be hated by all on account of My name, but it is the one who has endured to the end who will be saved." - Matthew 10:22
"When the storm has swept by, the wicked are gone, but the righteous stand firm forever." - Proverbs 10:25
"But that on the good ground are they, which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience." - Luke 8:15
"Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved." - Matthew 24:12-13, New International Version
"Obstinacy in a bad cause, is but constancy in a good." - Sir Thomas Browne
"A man may find pain in doing good as long as his good does not bear fruit, but when the fruit of good comes then that man finds good indeed." - Dhammapada 120
"Hold not a deed of little worth, thinking 'this is little to me'. The falling of drops of water will in time fill a bucket. In the same way, a wise man becomes full of good, although he gathers it little by little." - Dhammapada 122
"Bruce, the Scottish hero who won the freedom of Scotland from England along with Wallace at the Battle of Bannochburn in 1314, was hiding in a cave fleeing from the English and was depressed and ready to give up the fight, when he sighted a spider constantly reweaving a thread broken by the wind. This bolstered Bruce's heart to try again." - from the files of James McManus
"It ain't over till it's over." - Yogi Berra
Pessimism:
"A man that could look no way but downwards, with a muckrake in his hand." - John Bunyan, Pilgrim's Progress
"A lot of people I know believe in positive thinking, and so do I. I believe everything positively stinks." - Lew Col
Pessimists always take the cynic route.
Pets:
"A righteous man cares for the needs of his animal, but the kindest acts of the wicked are cruel." - Proverbs 12:10
The love we feel for our pets is a pure and noble type of love. We love them not for what they can do for us, but simply for being our companions. We don't love them for what they can be; we love them without reservation for what they are. Rest assured that our pets will be with us in heaven. God would not give us such a joyful, uplifting experience here on earth, only to deny it to us in the afterlife. People who don't believe that our pets will be with us in heaven are joyless types who, in effect, are saying, "Life is about suffering and self-denial. Heaven won't be that good." These are people whose concept of worship is distorted into a never-ending ritual of sacrifice and misery. The fact is, heaven will be better than we can imagine. Our sinful nature will be left behind, but the pure and edifying joys of this life (such as the companionship of our pets) will not be denied to us. - James R. Taylor
Pettiness:
"The petty done, the undone vast." - Robert Browning
Plagiarism:
"They lard their lean books with the fat of others' works." - Robert Burton
Pleasure:
"Since a shower of golden coins could not satisfy craving desires, and the end of all pleasure is pain, how could a wise man find satisfaction even in the pleasures of the gods? When desires go, joy comes; the follower of Buddha finds this truth." - Dhammapada 186-7
Point of view:
"One half of the world cannot understand the pleasures of the other." - Jane Austen, Emma ch. 3
"To me, fair friend, you never can be old, / For as you were when first your eye I ey'd, / Such seems your beauty still." - - Shakespeare, Sonnet 104
"How bitter a thing it is to look into happiness through another man's eyes!" - Shakespeare, As You Like It, act 5, scene 2
"If all the year were playing holidays, / To sport would be as tedious as to work." - Shakespeare, King Henry IV, part 1, act 1, scene 2
"If there is any one secret to success, it lies in the ability to get the other person's point of view and see things from his angle as well as your own." - Henry Ford
"A jest's prosperity lies in the ear / Of him that hears it, never in the tongue / Of him that makes it." - Shakespeare, Love's Labor's Lost, act 5, scene 2
"An ant's division of the animal kingdom: 1) kind and gentle animals, such as the lion, the tiger, and the rattlesnake 2) ferocious animals, such as the chicken, the duck and the goose." - Jimmy Powers
Politics:
"A politician was a person with whose politics you did not agree. When you did agree, he was a statesman." - David Lloyd George
Posterity:
"The memory of the righteous will be a blessing, but the name of the wicked will rot." - Proverbs 10:7
"A man may do his work with wisdom, knowledge and skill, and then he must leave all he owns to someone who has not worked for it." - Ecclesiastes 2:21
"It must be a good thing to die conscious of having performed some real good, and to know that by this work one will live, at least in the memory of some, and will have left a good example to those that come after. A work that is good - it may not be eternal, but the thought expressed in it is, and the work itself will certainly remain in existence for a long, long time; and if afterwards others arise, they can do no better than follow in the footsteps of such predecessors and do their work in the same way." - Vincent Van Gogh
"How many ages hence / Shall this our lofty scene be acted over / In states unborn and accents yet unknown!" - Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, act 3, scene 1
"We are always doing something for posterity, but I would fain see posterity do something for us." - The Spectator # 583
"You can keep the things of bronze and stone and give me one man to remember me just once a year." - Damon Runyon
"People will not look forward to posterity, who never look backward to their ancestors." - Edmund Burke
Poverty:
"Blessed be ye poor: for yours is the kingdom of God." - Luke 6:20, King James Version
"I think that before, people were speaking much about the poor, but now more and more people are speaking to the poor. That is the great difference." - Mother Teresa
Q: "What is God's greatest gift to you?" A: "The poor people." Q: "How are they a gift to you?" A: "I have an opportunity to be 24 hours a day with Jesus." - From an interview with Mother Teresa
"You must make them (the poor) feel loved and wanted. They are Jesus for me. I believe in that much more than doing big things for them." - Mother Teresa
"The joy of the poor people is so clean, so clear. The real poor know what is joy." - Mother Teresa
"The expenses of living, wherever it may be, are always at least 100 francs a month; if one has less, it means want, either physically or of the necessary materials and tools. Financial questions have either advanced or handicapped many people in the world. 'Poverty prevents growth'; that is the old proverb of Palissy, which has some truth in it, and which is perfectly true if one understands its real meaning and depth." - Vincent Van Gogh, on his need to buy expensive art supplies
"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
"Poor is a state of mind you never grow out of, but being broke is just a temporary condition." - Dick Gregory
"The poor man is better dead than alive; if he has bread, he has no salt; if he has salt, he has no bread; if he has meat, he has no lamb; if he has a lamb, he has no meat." But, on the other hand: "Who possesses much silver may be happy, who possesses much barley may be happy, but who has nothing at all can sleep." - ancient Sumerian proverbs
"In a consumer society there are inevitably two kinds of slaves: the prisoners of addiction and the prisoners of envy." - Ivan Illich, Tools of Conviviality
Power:
"Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely." - First Baron Acton
"It is by its promise of a sense of power that evil often attracts the weak." - Eric Hoffer, The Passionate State of Mind
"It is a strange desire to seek power and to love liberty." - Francis Bacon
"Those who have been once intoxicated with power, and have derived any kind of emolument from it, even though but for one year, can never willingly abandon it." - Edmund Burke
"The most improper job of any man, even saints, is bossing other men." - J.R.R. Tolkien
Pragmatism:
"The only index by which to judge a government or a way of life is by the quality of the people it acts upon. No matter how noble the objectives of a government, if it blurs decency and kindness, cheapens human life, and breeds ill will and suspicion - it is an evil government." - Eric Hoffer, The Passionate State of Mind
"You may be sure that when a man begins to call himself a realist, he is preparing to do something that he is secretly ashamed of doing." - Sydney J. Harris
Praise:
"How can you believe if you accept praise from one another, yet make no effort to obtain the praise that comes from the only God?" - John 5:44
"Let another praise you, and not your own mouth; someone else, and not your own lips." - Proverbs 27:2
Then, as He was now drawing near the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works they had seen, saying: "Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the LORD! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!" And some of the Pharisees called to Him from the crowd, "Teacher, rebuke Your disciples." But He answered and said to them, "I tell you that if these should keep silent, the stones would immediately cry out." - Luke 19:37-40, New King James Bible
"The most sincere praise can give little pleasure when it cannot be considered as some sort of proof of praise-worthiness." "The man who applauds us either for actions which we did not perform, or for motives which had no sort of influence upon our conduct, applauds not us, but another person." "A woman who paints (i.e., who uses make-up), could derive, one should imagine, but little vanity from the compliments that are paid to her complexion." Unwarranted praise "should be more mortifying than any censure, and should perpetually call to our minds, the most humbling of all reflections, the reflection of what we ought to be, but what we are not." "As ignorant and groundless praise can give no solid joy, no satisfaction that will bear any serious examination, so, on the contrary, it often gives real comfort to reflect, that though no praise should actually be bestowed upon us, our conduct, however, has been such as to deserve it. We are pleased, not only with praise, but with having done what is praise-worthy." - Adam Smith
"The advantage of doing one's praising for oneself is that one can lay it on so thick and exactly in the right places." - Samuel Butler
Prayer:
"And when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. But you, when you pray, go into your room and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly. But when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words. Therefore do not be like them. For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him. In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen." - Matthew 6:5-13, New King James Bible
"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
Unbeliever's Prayer by John Gunther, Jr., May 1946: "Almighty God, forgive me for my agnosticism; For I shall try to keep it gentle, not cynical, nor a bad influence. And O! if Thou art truly in the heavens, accept my gratitude for all thy gifts, and I shall try to fight the good fight. Amen."
Prejudice:
"It is never too late to give up our prejudices." - Henry David Thoreau
"There is something of the irresistibility of a chemical reaction - something that proceeds independently of our consciousness and our will - in the penetration of a generally held opinion and its tinging of our inner life. That which corrodes the souls of the persecuted is the monstrous inner agreement with the prevailing prejudice against them." - Eric Hoffer, The Passionate State of Mind
"I feel not in myself those common antipathies that I can discover in others; those national repugnances do not touch me, nor do I behold with prejudice the French, Italian, Spaniard, or Dutch; but where I find their actions in balance with my countrymen's, I honour, love and embrace them in the same degree." - Sir Thomas Browne
Preparedness:
"The Commonwealth of Venice in their armory have this inscription, 'Happy is that city which in time of peace thinks of war'." - Robert Burton
"There is special providence in the fall of a sparrow. If it be now, 'tis not to come; if it be not to come, it will be now; if it be not now, yet it will come - the readiness is all." - Shakespeare, Hamlet, act 5, sc. 2
Pretensions:
"One man pretends to be rich, yet has nothing; another pretends to be poor, yet has great wealth." - Proverbs 13:7
"Better to be a nobody and yet have a servant than pretend to be somebody and have no food." - Proverbs 12:9
"With the charcoal-burners one must have a charcoal burner's character and temperament and no pretentious pride or mastery, or one would never get on with them or gain their confidence." - Vincent Van Gogh
Pride:
"Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring forth." - Proverbs 27:1
Now He told a parable to those who were invited, [when] He noticed how they were selecting the places of honor, saying to them, "When you are invited by anyone to a marriage feast, do not recline on the chief seat [in the place of honor], lest a more distinguished person than you has been invited by him, and he who invited both of you will come to you and say, 'Let this man have the place [you have taken].' Then, with humiliation and a guilty sense of impropriety, you will begin to take the lowest place. But when you are invited, go and recline in the lowest place, so that when your host comes in, he may say to you, 'Friend, go up higher!' Then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit [at table] with you. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled (ranked below others who are honored or rewarded), and he who humbles himself (keeps a modest opinion of himself and behaves accordingly) will be exalted (elevated in rank)." - Luke 14:7-11, Amplified Bible
"There is perhaps no one of our natural passions so hard to subdue as pride. Beat it down, stifle it, mortify it as much as one pleases, it is still alive. Even if I could conceive that I had completely overcome it, I should probably be proud of my humility." - Benjamin Franklin, Autobiography
"A falcon, tow'ring in her pride of place, / Was by a mousing owl hawk'd at and kill'd." - Shakespeare, Macbeth, act 2, scene 4
"The individual on his own is stable only so long as he is possessed of self-esteem. The maintenance of self-esteem is a continuous task which taxes all of the individual's powers and inner resources. We have to prove our worth and justify our existence anew each day. When, for whatever reason, self-esteem is unattainable, The autonomous individual becomes a highly explosive entity. He turns away from an unpromising self and plunges into the pursuit of pride - the explosive substitute for self-esteem. All social disturbances and upheavals have their roots in crises of individual self-esteem, and the great endeavor in which the masses most readily unite is basically a search for pride." - Eric Hoffer, The Passionate State of Mind
"Our impulse to persuade others is strongest when we have to persuade ourselves. The never wholly successful task of persuading ourselves of our worth manifests itself in a ceaseless effort to persuade others of it." - Eric Hoffer, The Passionate State of Mind
"Pride is a sense of worth derived from something that is not organically part of us, while self-esteem derives from the potentialities and achievements of the self." - Eric Hoffer, The Passionate State of Mind
"Pride is tasteless, colorless and sizeless. Yet it is the hardest thing to swallow." - August Black
Principle:
"It is often easier to fight for principles than to live up to them." - Adlai Stevenson
"The mark of the immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a cause, while the mark of the mature man is that he wants to live humbly for one." - J.D. Salinger, Catcher In The Rye
Problem-solving:
"I don't like to face problems head on. I think the best way to solve problems is to avoid them. This is a distinct philosophy of mine: No problem is so big or so complicated that it can't be run away from!" - Linus Van Pelt, as written by Charles Schulz
Progress:
"The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have little." - Franklin D. Roosevelt
"Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men." - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Strength To Love
Provocation:
"Stone is heavy and sand a burden, but provocation by a fool is heavier than both." - Proverbs 27:3
Prudence:
"Flog a mocker, and the simple will learn prudence; rebuke a discerning man, and he will gain knowledge." - Proverbs 19:25
"Like cutting off one's feet or drinking violence is the sending of a message by the hand of a fool." - Proverbs 26:6
"Demosthenes when he fled from the battle, and that it was reproached to him, said; 'That he that flies might fight again'." - Francis Bacon
"Prudence is a rich, ugly old maid courted by Incapacity." - William Blake, Proverbs of Hell
Purity:
"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." - Matthew 5:8
"As a man who has no wound on his hand cannot be hurt by poison he may carry in his hand, since poison can't hurt where there is no wound, the man who has no evil inside him cannot be hurt by evil." - Dhammapada 124
"Some people are born on this earth; those who do evil are reborn in hell; the righteous go to heaven; but those who are pure reach Nirvana." - Dhammapada 126
Quarrelsomeness:
"A quarrelsome wife is like a constant dripping on a rainy day; restraining her is like restraining the wind or grasping oil with the hand." - Proverbs 27:15-16
"He who loves a quarrel loves sin." - Proverbs 17:19
"Starting a quarrel is like breaching a dam; so drop the matter before a dispute breaks out." - Proverbs 17:14
"Better to live on a corner of the roof than share a house with a quarrelsome wife." - Proverbs 21:9
"Our disputants put me in mind of the skuttle fish, that when he is unable to extricate himself, blackens all the water about him, till he becomes invisible." - Spectator # 476
Quoting:
"By necessity, by proclivity, and by delight, we all quote. In fact, it is as difficult to appropriate the thoughts of others as it is to invent." - Emerson
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.