It is wise to keep in mind that neither success nor failure is ever final.
- Roger Babson
you can't let success go to your head, there is always someone there
watching and waiting to take your place when you finally fall down, and some aren't content
just to watch and wait, some will make an effort to knock you down....but you can't let that knowledge
make you weak either, you just have to keep trying, keep working your tuchas off to climb
to the top and stay there
I think your whole life shows in your face and you should be proud of that.
- Lauren Bacall
You're going to have to learn to fake cheerfulness. Believe it or not eventually that effort will pay off: you'll actually start feeling happier.
- Jean Bach
Ask yourself the secret of YOUR success. Listen to your answer, and practice it.
- Richard Bach
The more I want to get something done, the less I call it work.
- Richard Bach
Your friends will know you better in the first minute you meet than your acquaintances will know you in a thousand years.
- Richard Bach
Illusions
Read not to contradict and confute, nor to believe and take for granted, nor to find talk or discourse, but to weigh and consider.
- Francis Bacon (1561-1620)
A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds.
- Francis Bacon
Truth will sooner come out of error than from confusion.
- Francis Bacon
If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts; but if he will be content to begin with doubts, he shall end in certainties.
- Francis Bacon
Hope is a good breakfast, but it is a bad supper.
- Francis Bacon
Things alter for the worse spontaneously, if they be not altered for the better designedly.
- Francis Bacon
Natural abilities are like natural plants, that need pruning by study.
- Francis Bacon
Essays: Of Studies
A newspaper is a circulating library with high blood pressure.
- Bugs Baer (1886-1969)
You don't get to choose how you're going to die. Or when. You can only decide how you're going to live. Now.
- Joan Baez
I've never had a humble opinion in my life. If you're going to have one, why bother to be humble about it.
- Joan Baez
You can lean over backward so far that you fall flat on your face.
- Ben H. Bagdikian
I have received memos so swollen with managerial babble that they struck me as the literary equivalent of assault with a deadly weapon.
- Peter Baida
Respect is what we owe; love, what we give.
- Philip James Bailey (1816-1902)
There's a period of life when we swallow a knowledge of ourselves and it becomes either good or sour inside.
- Pearl Bailey
There are two kinds of talent, man-made talent and God-given talent. With man-made talent you have to work very hard. With God-given talent, you just touch it up once in a while.
- Pearl Bailey
You must change in order to survive.
- Pearl Bailey
I always say shopping is cheaper than a psychiatrist
- Tammy Faye Baker
I take Him shopping with me. I say, 'OK, Jesus, help me find a bargain'.
- Tammy Faye Baker
Television was the most revolutionary event of the century. Its importance was in a class with the discovery of gunpowder and the invention of the printing press, which changed the human condition for centuries afterward.
- Russell Baker
There's a Country in My Cellar
Change is the constant, the signal for rebirth, the egg of the phoenix.
- -Christina Baldwin
"The price one pays for pursuing any profession, or calling, is an intimate knowledge of its ugly side."
- James Baldwin
this is so true, from the outside we only see the sugar candied coating of
any job, we see the money, the prestige, the 401k...what we don't often stop to think about is
what people have to go through just to get that sugar candided coating...the hard work, the
stress, the politicing...we don't think about what efforts that need to be put forth to get the results we see
I imagine one of the reasons people cling to their hates so stubbornly is because they sense, once hate is gone, they will be forced to deal with pain.
- James Baldwin
Anyone who has ever struggled with poverty knows how extremely expensive it is to be poor.
- James Baldwin
I love America more than any other country in this world, and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually.
- James Baldwin
Notes of a Native Son
The price one pays for pursuing any profession, or calling, is an intimate knowledge of its ugly side.
- James Baldwin
What makes humility so desirable is the marvelous thing it does to us; it creates in us a capacity for the closest possible intimacy with God.
- Monica Baldwin
I have always felt that the moment when first you wake up in the morning is the most wonderful of the twenty-four hours.
- Monica Baldwin
So long as we have enough people in this country willing to fight for their rights, we'll be called a democracy.
- Roger Baldwin
War would end if the dead could return.
- Stanley Baldwin
One of the things I learned the hard way was that it doesn't pay to get discouraged. Keeping busy and making optimism a way of life can restore your faith in yourself.
- Lucille Ball (1911-1989)
Love yourself first and everything falls into line.
- Lucille Ball (1911-1989)
The tree in which the sap is stagnant remains fruitless.
- Hosea Ballou
There is no such thing as a great talent without great will-power.
- Balzac
The most effective way to do it, is to DO IT.
- Toni Cade Bambara
The only thing I regret about my past is the length of it. If I had to live my life again I'd make all the same mistakes - only sooner.
- Tallulah Bankhead
The less I behave like Whistler's mother the night before, the more I look like her the morning after.
- Tallulah Bankhead
If I had to live my life again, I'd make the same mistakes, only sooner.
- Tallulah Bankhead
Never practice two vices at once.
- Tallulah Bankhead
I'm the foe of moderation, the champion of excess. If I may lift a line from a die-hard whose identity is lost in the shuffle, 'Id rather be strongly wrong than weakly right.'
- Tallulah Bankhead
Doctors and scientists said that breaking the four-minute mile was impossible, that one would die in the attempt. Thus, when I got up from the track after collapsing at the finish line, I figured I was dead.
- Roger Bannister
After becoming the first person to break the four minute mile, 1952
A man is either free or he is not. There cannot be any apprenticeship for freedom.
- Imamu Amiri Baraka
To look backward for a while is to refresh the eye, to restore it, and to render it the more fit for its prime function of looking forward.
- Margaret Fairless Barber
The closer one gets to the top, the more one finds there is no 'top.'
- Nancy Barcus
It is sad to grow old but nice to ripen.
- Brigitte Bardot
I don't believe professional athletes should be role models. I believe parents should be role models.... It's not like it was when I was growing up. My mom and my grandmother told
me how it was going to be. If I didn't like it, they said, 'Don't let the door hit you in the ass on your way out.' Parents have to take better control.
- Charles Barkley
NBA Player
Television is the first truly democratic culture, the first culture available to everybody and entirely governed by what the people want. the most terrifying thing is what people do want.
- Clive Barnes
Nothing is more certain than uncertainties: / Fortune is full of fresh variety; / Constant in nothing but inconstancy.
- Richard Barnfield
Let me tell thee, time is a very precious gift of God; so precious that it is only given to us moment by moment.
- Amelia Barr
Excuse the mess but we live here.
- Roseanne Barr
The healthy and strong individual is the one who asks for help when he needs it.
- Rona Barrett
God gave us memory so that we might have roses in December.
- James Matthew Barrie (1860-1937)
God gave us memory that we might have roses in December.
- James Matthew Barrie
The life of every man is a diary in which he means to write one story, and writes another.
- James Matthew Barrie
God gave us memory that we might have roses in December.
- James Matthew Barrie
For an actress to be a success, she must have the face of Venus, the brains of a Minerva, the grace of Terpsichore, the memory of a Macaulay, the figure of Juno, and the hide of a rhinoceros.
- Ethel Barrymore (1879-1959)
You grow up the day you have your first real laugh - at yourself.
--Ethel Barrymore
- Ethel Barrymore
One of my chief regrets during my years in the theater is that I couldn't sit in the audience and watch me.
- John Barrymore
Jesus picked up twelve men from the bottom ranks of business and forged them into an organization that conquered the world.
- Bruce Barton (1886-1967)
If you expect perfection from other people, your whole life is a series of disappointments, grumbling and complaints. If, on the contrary, you pitch your expectations low, taking
folks as the inefficient creatures which they are, you are frequently surprised by having them perform better than you had hoped.--Bruce Barton
- Bruce Barton (1886-1967)
Do not blame anybody for your mistakes and failures.
- Bernard M. Baruch
To me, old age is fifteen years older than I am.--Bernard M. Baruch
- Bernard M. Baruch
During my eighty-seven years I have witnessed a whole succession of technological revolutions. But none of them has done away with the need for character in the individual or the ability to think.
- Bernard M. Baruch
The art of living lies less in eliminating our troubles than in growing with them.
- Bernard M. Baruch
Taxation WITH representation ain't so hot either.
- Gerald Barzan
Forty for you, sixty for me And equal partners we will be.
- Gerald Barzan
I feel there are two people inside me - me and my intuition. If I go against her, she'll screw me every time, and if I follow her, we get along quite nicely.
- Kim Basinger
You have reached the pinnacle of success as soon as you become uninterested in money, compliments or publicity.
- Dr. O. A. Battista
The greatest weakness of most humans is their hesitancy
to tell others how much they love them while they're alive.
- Dr. O. A. Battista
Nothing can be done except little by little.
- Charles Baudelaire
You don't get ulcers from what you eat. You get them from what's eating you.
- Vicki Baum (1888-1960)
Marriage always demands the greatest understanding of the art of insincerity possible between two human beings.
- Vicki Baum
Above all, we wish to avoid having a dissatisfied customer. We consider our customers a part of our organization, and we want them to feel free to make any criticism they see fit
in regard to our merchandise or service. Sell practical, tested merchandise at reasonable profit, treat your customers like human beings -- and they will always come back.
- L.L. Bean
The past is finished. There is nothing to be gained by going over it.
- Rebecca Beard
The wages of sin are increased circulation.
- John Beavan
Failure is usually the line of least persistence.
- Wilfred Beaver
All I need to know I learned from my cat.
- Suzy Becker
The difference between perseverance and obstinacy is that one comes from a strong will, and the other from a strong won't.--Henry Ward Beecher
- Suzy Becker
Greatness lies not in being strong, but in the right use of strength.- Henry Ward Beecher (1813-1887)
- Suzy Becker
I'm not a driven businessman, but a driven artist. I never think about money. Beautiful things make money.- Geoffrey Beene
- Suzy Becker
You can teach a student a lesson for a day; but if you can teach him to learn by creating curiosity,
he will continue the learning process as long as he lives.
- Clay P. Bedford
The mother's heart is the child's schoolroom.
- Henry Ward Beecher
Only mediocrity can be trusted to be always at its best.
- Max Beerbohm (1872-1956)
English essayist, caricaturist, parodist from ?Conversations with Max?, by S.N. Behrman
People who insist on telling their dreams are among the terrors of the breakfast table.
- Max Beerbohm
Nobody ever died of laughter.
- Max Beerbohm
To give and not to feel that one has given is the very best of all ways of giving.
- Max Beerbohm
The real essence of work is concentrated energy.
- Walter Begehot
When I came back to Dublin, I was court-martialed in my absence and sentenced to death in my absence, so I said they could shoot me in my absence.
- Brendan Behan (1923-1964)
The Hostage
Critics are like eunuchs in a harem: they know how it's done, they've seen it done every day, but they're unable to do it themselves.
- Brendan Behan
It's not that the Irish are cynical. It's rather that they have a wonderful lack of respect
for everything and everybody.
- Brendan Behan
I have never seen a situation so dismal that a policeman couldn't make it worse.
- Brendan Behan
I have a total irreverence for anything connected with society except that which makes the roads safer, the beer stronger, the food cheaper, and the old men and old women warmer in the winter and happier in the summer.
- Brendan Behan
If you can't write your idea on the back of my calling card, you don't have a clear idea.
- David Belasco
From quiet homes and first beginning,/Out to the undiscovered ends,/There's nothing worth the wear of winning,/But laughter and the love of friends.
- Hilaire Belloc (1870-1953)
English writer and poet
When I am dead, I hope it is said, 'His sins were scarlet, but his books were read'.
- Hillaire Belloc
When one door closes another door opens; but we so often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door, that we do not see the ones which open for us.
- Alexander Graham Bell (1847-1922)
For a nation which has an almost evil reputation for bustle, bustle, bustle, and rush, rush, rush, we spend an enormous amount of time standing around in line in front of windows, just waiting.
- Robert Benchley
There may be said to be two classes of people in the world; those who constantly divide the people of the world into two classes and those who do not.
- Robert Benchley
Anything I've ever done that ultimately was worthwhile... initially scared me to death.
- Betty Bender
When people go to work, they shouldn't have to leave their hearts at home.
- Betty Bender
To a child's ear, 'mother' is magic in any language.
- Arlene Benedict
For Mother with Love
Any change, even a change for the better, is always accompanied by drawbacks and discomforts.
- Arnold Bennett
Journalists say a thing that they know isn't true, in the hope that if they keep on saying it long enough it will be true.
- Arnold Bennett
There's nothing wrong with the younger generation that becoming taxpayers won't cure.
- Dan Bennett
I feel a recipe is only a theme, which an intelligent cook can play each time with a variation.
- Madame Benoit
Readjusting is a painful process, but most of us need it at one time or another.
- Arthur Christopher Benson
Very often a change of self is needed more than a change of scene.
- Arthur Christopher Benson
People seldom refuse help, if one offers it in the right way.
- Arthur Christopher Benson
One's mind has a way of making itself up in the background, and it suddenly becomes clear what one means to do.
- Arthur Christopher Benson
When we set goals, we are in command. Clearly understood goals bring our lives into focus just as a magnifying glass focuses a beam of light into a burning point. Without goals our efforts may be scattered and unproductive.
- Ezra Taft Benson
Resolve to make each day the very best and don't let anyone get in your way. If they do, step on them.
- Ivan Benson
If one truly has lost hope, one would not be around to say so.
- Eric Bentley
Happiness is good health and a bad memory.
- Ingrid Bergman
unfortunately i have an excellent long term memory
Make good use of bad rubbish.
- Elizabeth Beresford
Query: Whether it be not delightful to complain? And whether there not be many who had rather utter their complaints than redress their evils?
- Bishop George Berkeley
Laughter is an instant vacation.
- Milton Berle
Committee--A group of men who keep minutes and waste hours.
- Milton Berle
Life is 10 percent what you make it, and 90 percent how you take it
- Irving Berlin
The toughest thing about success is that you've got to keep on being a success.
- Irving Berlin
...monstrous criminals who have demonstrated a vile and brutal affront against humanity
- Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi
about the Sept 11 NY WTC disaster
Hope is a risk that must be run.
- Georges Bernanos
We only really face up to ourselves when we are afraid.
- Thomas Bernhard
If you want to recapture your youth, just cut off his allowance.
- Al Bernstein
In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is.
- Yogi Berra
Baseball is 90% mental, the other half is physical.- Yogi Berra
- Yogi Berra
Little League baseball is a very good thing because it keeps the parents off the streets.- Yogi Berra
- Yogi Berra
I have often been adrift, but I have always stayed afloat.
- David Berry
There is a place in God's sun for the youth 'farthest down' who has the vision, the determination, and the courage to reach it.
- Mary McLeod Bethune (1875-1955)
'Mad' is a term we use to describe a man who is obsessed with one idea and nothing else.
- Ugo Betti (1892-1953)
Struggle Till Dawn, 1.
I read the newspaper avidly. It is my one form of continuous fiction.
- Aneurin Bevan
Corporation: An ingenious device for obtaining individual profit without individual responsibility.
- Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914)
PRESIDENCY, n. The greased pig in the field game of American politics.
- Ambrose Bierce
The Devil's Dictionary, 1911.
One of the best temporary cures for pride and affectation is seasickness; a man who wants to vomit never puts on airs. --Josh Billings
- Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914)
Genealogy, n. An account of one's descent from a man who did not particularly care to trace his own.
- Ambrose Bierce
Silence is one of the hardest things to refute.
- Josh Billings
If there was no faith there would be no living in this world. We couldn't even eat hash with safety.
- Josh Billings
His Complete Works, 1888
Pity costs nothing and ain't worth nothing.
- Josh Billings
I've never known a person to live to be one hundred and be remarkable for anything else.
- Josh Billings
What is known as success assumes nearly as many aliases as there are those who seek it.
- Stephen Birmingham
Ideally, couples need three lives; one for him, one for her, and one for them together.
- Jacqueline Bisset
I recently read that love is entirely a matter of chemistry.
That must be why my wife treats me like toxic waste.
- David Bissonette
An optimist is the human personification of spring.
- Susan J. Bissonette
Make-believe colors the past with innocent distortion, and it swirls ahead of us in a thousand ways - in science, in politics, in every bold intention. It is part of our collective lives, entwining our past and our future... a particularly rewarding aspect of life itself.
- Shirley Temple Black
I stopped believing in Santa Claus when my mother took me to see him in a department store, and he asked for my autograph.
- Shirley Temple Black
This was not an attack on America alone. This was an attack on the free and democratic world. And it is a responsibility the free and democratic world has to shoulder together.
- British Prime Minister Tony Blair
sept 11
The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom.
- William Blake (1757-1827)
What is now proved was once imagined.
- William Blake
If a fool persists in his folly he shall become wise.
- William Blake
Most companies spend all their time looking for another management concept and very little time following up the one they have just taught their managers. -
- Kenneth Blanchard
Putting the One Minute Manager to Work. 1984.
Our attitudes control our lives. Attitudes are a secret power working twenty-four hours a day, for good or bad. It is of paramount importance that we know how to harness and control this great force.
- Tom Blandi
When the man who knows all about the fruit fly chromosomes finds himself sitting next to an authority on Beowulf, there may be an uneasy silence.
- Brand Blanshard
To be happy, drop the words 'if only,' and substitute instead the words 'next time.'
- Dr. Smiley Blanton