Most of these quotes are serious, others are humorous. Some I agree with, some I disagree with.
Racism:
"When we're unemployed, we're called lazy. When the whites are unemployed, it's called a depression." - Jesse Jackson
"No Viet Cong ever called me 'nigger'." - Muhammad Ali
"Whites tend to regard Africans as a separate breed. They do not look upon them as people with families of their own; they do not realize that they have emotions - that they fall in love like white people do; that they want to be with their wives and children like white people want to be with theirs; that they want to earn enough money to support their families properly, to feed and clothe them and send them to school. And what 'house-boy' or 'garden-boy' or laborer can ever hope to do this?" - Nelson Mandela, 1964
"The laws which force segregation do not presume the inferiority of a people; they presume an inherent equality. It is the logic of the lawmakers that if a society does not erect artificial barriers between people at every point of contact, the people might fraternize and give their attention to the genuine, shared problems of the community." - Lorraine Hansberry, A Matter Of Color
Reading:
"Read not to contradict and confute, nor to believe and take for granted, nor to find talk and discourse, but to weigh and consider." - Francis Bacon
"I wish all people had what I begin to acquire gradually; the power to read a book without difficulty in a short time, and to keep a strong impression of it. It is with the reading of books the same as with looking at pictures; one must, without doubt, without hesitation, with assurance, admire what is beautiful." - Vincent Van Gogh
"Books will speak plain when counselors blanch." "Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man and writing an exact man." - Francis Bacon
"Histories make men wise; poets, witty; the mathematics, subtile; natural philosophy, deep; moral, grave; logic and rhetoric, able to contend." - Francis Bacon
"Books (such as are worthy the name of books) ought to have no patrons but truth and reason." - Sir Francis Bacon
"When I was your age, television was called 'books'." - Peter Falk in "The Princess Bride"
"Books support us in our solitude and keep us from being a burden to ourselves." - Jeremy Collier
"Books are more than books. They are the life, the very heart and core of ages past, the reason why men lived and worked and died, the essence and quintessence of their lives." - Amy Lowell
Reality:
"It is not heroin or cocaine that makes one an addict, it is the need to escape from a harsh reality. There are more television addicts, more baseball and football addicts, more movies addicts, and certainly more alcohol addicts in this country than there are narcotics addicts." - Shirley Chisholm
Reason:
"Between craft and credulity, the voice of reason is stifled." - Edmund Burke
"Man is a rational animal who always loses his temper when he is called upon to act in accordance with the dictates of reason." - Oscar Wilde
"Most of our so-called reasoning consists in finding arguments for going on believing as we already do." - James H. Robinson, The Mind in the Making
Rebellion:
"Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God." - John Bradshaw
Regulations:
"Woe unto you also, ye lawyers! for ye lade men with burdens grievous to be borne, and ye yourselves touch not the burdens with one of your fingers." (Luke 11:46) "Woe unto you, lawyers! for ye have taken away the key of knowledge: ye entered not in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered." (Luke 11:52, King James Version)
Relief:
"My soul / Smoothed itself out, a long-cramped scroll / Freshening and fluttering in the wind." - Robert Browning
Remorse:
"Those who in their youth did not live in self-harmony, and who did not gain the true treasures of life, are later like broken bows, ever deploring old things past and gone." - Dhammapada 156
Repentance:
"Produce fruit in keeping with repentance... The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire." - words of John the Baptist, Matthew 3:8
"Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." - words of Christ, Matthew 4:17
And so it was, as Jesus sat at the table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat down with Him and His disciples. And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to His disciples, "Why does your Teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?" But when Jesus heard that, He said to them, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. But go and learn what this means: 'I desire mercy and not sacrifice.' For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance." - Matthew 9:10-13, New King James Bible
"He who conceals his sins does not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them finds mercy." - Proverbs 28:13
"But unless you repent, you too will all perish." - Luke 13:5
Tax collectors and other notorious sinners often came to listen to Jesus teach. This made the Pharisees and teachers of religious law complain that he was associating with such despicable people--even eating with them! So Jesus used this illustration: "If you had one hundred sheep, and one of them strayed away and was lost in the wilderness, wouldn't you leave the ninety-nine others to go and search for the lost one until you found it? And then you would joyfully carry it home on your shoulders. When you arrived, you would call together your friends and neighbors to rejoice with you because your lost sheep was found. In the same way, heaven will be happier over one lost sinner who returns to God than over ninety-nine others who are righteous and haven't strayed away! Or suppose a woman has ten valuable silver coins and loses one. Won't she light a lamp and look in every corner of the house and sweep every nook and cranny until she finds it? And when she finds it, she will call in her friends and neighbors to rejoice with her because she has found her lost coin. In the same way, there is joy in the presence of God's angels when even one sinner repents." To illustrate the point further, Jesus told them this story: "A man had two sons. The younger son told his father, 'I want my share of your estate now, instead of waiting until you die.' So his father agreed to divide his wealth between his sons. A few days later this younger son packed all his belongings and took a trip to a distant land, and there he wasted all his money on wild living. About the time his money ran out, a great famine swept over the land, and he began to starve. He persuaded a local farmer to hire him to feed his pigs. The boy became so hungry that even the pods he was feeding the pigs looked good to him. But no one gave him anything. When he finally came to his senses, he said to himself, 'At home even the hired men have food enough to spare, and here I am, dying of hunger! I will go home to my father and say, "Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, and I am no longer worthy of being called your son. Please take me on as a hired man." ' So he returned home to his father. And while he was still a long distance away, his father saw him coming. Filled with love and compassion, he ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him. His son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, and I am no longer worthy of being called your son.' But his father said to the servants, 'Quick! Bring the finest robe in the house and put it on him. Get a ring for his finger, and sandals for his feet. And kill the calf we have been fattening in the pen. We must celebrate with a feast, for this son of mine was dead and has now returned to life. He was lost, but now he is found.' So the party began. Meanwhile, the older son was in the fields working. When he returned home, he heard music and dancing in the house, and he asked one of the servants what was going on. 'Your brother is back,' he was told, 'and your father has killed the calf we were fattening and has prepared a great feast. We are celebrating because of his safe return.' The older brother was angry and wouldn't go in. His father came out and begged him, but he replied, 'All these years I've worked hard for you and never once refused to do a single thing you told me to. And in all that time you never gave me even one young goat for a feast with my friends. Yet when this son of yours comes back after squandering your money on prostitutes, you celebrate by killing the finest calf we have.' His father said to him, 'Look, dear son, you and I are very close, and everything I have is yours. We had to celebrate this happy day. For your brother was dead and has come back to life! He was lost, but now he is found!' " - Luke 15, New Living Translation
He then addressed this parable to those who were convinced of their own righteousness and despised everyone else. "Two people went up to the temple area to pray; one was a Pharisee and the other was a tax collector. The Pharisee took up his position and spoke this prayer to himself, 'O God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of humanity -- greedy, dishonest, adulterous -- or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week, and I pay tithes on my whole income.' But the tax collector stood off at a distance and would not even raise his eyes to heaven but beat his breast and prayed, 'O God, be merciful to me a sinner.' I tell you, the latter went home justified, not the former; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted." - Luke 18:9-14, New American Bible
One of the criminals who was suspended kept up a railing at Him, saying, "Are You not the Christ (the Messiah)? Rescue Yourself and us [from death]!" But the other one reproved him, saying, "Do you not even fear God, seeing you yourself are under the same sentence of condemnation and suffering the same penalty? And we indeed suffer it justly, receiving the due reward of our actions; but this Man has done nothing out of the way [nothing strange or eccentric or perverse or unreasonable]." Then he said to Jesus, "Lord, remember me when You come in Your kingly glory!" And He answered him, "Truly I tell you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise." - Luke 23:39-43, The Amplified Bible
Reputation:
"Men's evil manners live in brass, their virtues / We write in water." - Shakespeare, King Henry VIII, act 4, scene 2
"Be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as snow, / thou shalt not escape calumny. / Get thee to a nunn'ry, farewell." - Shakespeare, Hamlet, act 3, scene 1
Resentment:
"Resentment springs more from a sense of weakness than from a sense of injustice. We resent a wholly false accusation less than one which is partly justified." - Eric Hoffer, The Passionate State of Mind
Resolution:
"No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God." (Luke 9:62)
"Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you resolve." - Benjamin Franklin
"When a man has something to do, let him do it with all his might. A thoughtless pilgrim only raises dust on the road - the dust of dangerous desires." - Dhammapada 313
"It is you who must make the effort. The great of the past only show the way." - Dhammapada 276
In the Hindu Upanishads we read, "A man comes with his actions to the end of his determination."
"Know that there is nothing more easy to handle than the human soul. It needs but to will, and the thing is done: the soul is on the right path. On the contrary, it needs but to nod and all is lost. For ruin or recovery are from within." - Epictetus
"Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any one thing." "Having thus chosen our course, without guile and with pure purpose, let us renew our trust in God, and go forward without fear and with manly hearts." - Abraham Lincoln
Dag Hammarskjöld reminds us that we should not undertake resolutions lightly: "The myths have always condemned those who 'looked back.' Condemned them, whatever the paradise may have been which they were leaving. Hence this shadow over each departure from your decision." And Francis Bacon advised that "A man ought warily to begin charges which once begun will continue."
"Know that there is nothing more easy to handle than the human soul. It needs but to will, and the thing is done: the soul is on the right path. On the contrary, it needs but to nod and all is lost. For ruin or recovery are from within." - Epictetus
"And the man whose mind, filled with determination, is longing for the infinite Nirvana, and who is free from sensuous pleasures, is called 'uddham-soto', 'he who goes upstream', for against the current of passions and worldly life he is bound for the joy of the Infinite." "It is easy to do what is wrong, to do what is bad for oneself; but very difficult to do what is right, to do what is good for oneself." "Let no man endanger his duty, the good of his soul, for the good of another, however great. When he has seen the good of his soul, let him follow it with earnestness." - Dhammapada 218, 163, 166
"And many strokes, though with a little axe, / Hews down and fells the hardest-timber'd oak." - Shakespeare, King Henry VI, part III, act 2, scene 1
"All our final resolutions are made in a state of mind which is not going to last." - Marcel Proust
"As long as she swims I will cook!" (Words spoken by a ship's cook during a near-shipwreck) - Joseph Conrad
In the race for quality, there is no finish line. - David Kearns
There are no shortcuts to any place worth going. - Beverly Sills
"The difference between the impossible and the possible lies in a person's determination." - Tommy Lasorda
Respect:
"A kindhearted woman gains respect, but ruthless men gain only wealth." - Proverbs 11:16
"He who scorns instruction will pay for it, but he who respects a command is rewarded." - Proverbs 13:13
"Since when was genius found respectable?" - Elizabeth Barrett Browning
"The devil's most devilish when respectable." - Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Responsibility:
"It is you who must make the effort. The Great of the past only show the way." - Dhammapada 276
"By oneself the evil is done, and it is oneself who suffers: by oneself the evil is not done, and by one's self one becomes pure. The pure and the impure come from oneself: no man can purify another." - Dhammapada 165
"Modern man is weighed down more by the burden of responsibility than by the burden of sin. We think him more a savior who shoulders our responsibilities than him who shoulders our sins. If instead of making decisions we have but to obey and do our duty, we feel it as a sort of salvation." "There is a powerful craving in most of us to see ourselves as instruments in the hands of others and thus free ourselves from the responsibility for acts which are prompted by our own questionable inclinations and impulses." - Eric Hoffer, The Passionate State of Mind
"The buck stops here." - The sign on Harry S Truman's desk in the Oval Office
Why were we given so much quickness of movement unless it was to avoid responsibility with?
Resurrection:
Some Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him and put this question to him, saying, "Teacher, Moses wrote for us, 'If someone's brother dies, leaving a wife but no child, his brother must take the wife and raise up descendants for his brother.' Now there were seven brothers. The first married a woman and died, leaving no descendants. So the second married her and died, leaving no descendants, and the third likewise. And the seven left no descendants. Last of all the woman also died. At the resurrection (when they arise) whose wife will she be? For all seven had been married to her." Jesus said to them, "Are you not misled because you do not know the scriptures or the power of God? When they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but they are like the angels in heaven. As for the dead being raised, have you not read in the Book of Moses, in the passage about the bush, how God told him, 'I am the God of Abraham, (the) God of Isaac, and (the) God of Jacob'? He is not God of the dead but of the living. You are greatly misled." - Mark 12:18-27, New American Bible
Revenge:
"Do not say, 'I'll do to him as he has done to me; I'll pay that man back for what he did'." - Proverbs 24:29
"Revenge is ever the pleasure of a paltry spirit, a weak and abject mind!" - Juvenal, Satires, xiii. 189
"A man that studieth revenge keeps his own wounds green." "Why should I be angry with a man for loving himself better than me?" - Francis Bacon
Reverence:
"Let all the earth fear the Lord; let all the people of the world revere him." (Psalm 33:8)
"If month after month with a thousand offerings for a hundred years one should sacrifice; and another only for a moment paid reverence to a self-conquering man, this moment would have greater value than a hundred years of offerings." (Dhammapada verse 106) "And whosoever honors in reverence those who are old in virtue and holiness, he indeed conquers four treasures: long life, and health, and power and joy." (Verse 109) "He who learns the law of righteousness from one who teaches what Buddha taught, let him revere his teacher, as a Brahmin reveres the fire of sacrifice." (392) "Whatever a man for a year may offer in worship or in gifts to earn merit is not worth a fraction of the merit earned by one's reverence to a righteous man." (108) "If you find a man who is constant, awake to the inner light, learned, long-suffering, endowed with devotion, a noble man - follow this good and great man even as the moon follows the path of the stars." (208) "Who could measure the excellence of the man who pays reverence to those worthy of reverence, a Buddha or his disciples, who have left evil behind and have crossed the river of sorrow, who, free from all fear, are in the glory of Nirvana?" (195-6) "A man is not old and venerable because gray hairs are on his head. If a man is old only in years then he is indeed old in vain. But a man is a venerable 'elder' if he is in truth free from sin, and if in him there is truth and righteousness, non-violence, moderation and self-control." (Dhammapada 260-1)
Ridicule:
"For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbors, and laugh at them in our turn?" - Mr. Bennet in Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, ch. 57
Righteousness:
"Remove the dross from the silver, and out comes material for the silversmith; remove the wicked from the king's presence, and his throne will be established through righteousness." - Proverbs 25:4-5
"I will maintain my righteousness and never let go of it; my conscience will not reproach me as long as I live." - Job 27:6
"I put on righteousness as my clothing; justice was my robe and my turban." - Job 28:14
"Though a righteous man falls seven times, he rises again, but the wicked are brought down by calamity." - Proverbs 24:16
"Ill-gotten treasures are of no value, but righteousness delivers from death." - Proverbs 10:2
"The desire of the righteous ends only in good, but the hope of the wicked only in wrath." - Proverbs 11:23
"The wicked man earns deceptive wages, but he who sows righteousness reaps a sure reward." - Proverbs 11:18
"The memory of the righteous will be a blessing, but the name of the wicked will rot." - Proverbs 10:7
"A man is not a follower of righteousness because he talks much learned talk; but although a man be not learned, if he forgets not the right path, if his work is rightly done, then he is a follower of righteousness." - Dhammapada 259
"He who for himself or others craves not for sons or power or wealth, who puts not his own success before the success of righteousness, he is virtuous, and righteous, and wise." - Dhammapada 84
Role models:
"The example of great and pure individuals is the only thing that can lead us to noble thoughts and deeds." - Albert Einstein, "Mein Weltbild", 1934
Role-playing:
"With men he can be rational and unaffected, but when he has ladies to please, every feature works." - Jane Austen, Emma, chapter 13
Rudeness:
"Rudeness is the weak man's imitation of strength." - Eric Hoffer, The Passionate State of Mind
"It's not a slam at you when people are rude; it's a slam at the people they've met before." - F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Last Tycoon
Ruin:
"All men that are ruined are ruined on the side of their natural propensities." - 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.