Literary Quotes Now Alphabetized By Author! A-M ...and the missionaries go forth do christianize the savages - as if the
savages weren't dangerous enough already! Edward Abbey

Faith has to do with things that are not seen, and hope with things that are not in hand.  Saint Thomas Acquinas

Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so. Douglas Adams

Suspicion is not less an enemy to virtue than to happiness; he that is already corrupt is naturally suspicious, and he that becomes suspicious will quickly be corrupt. Joseph Addison ,British essayist

In our sleep, pain which cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart until, in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom through the awful grace of God.  Aeschylus

No act of kindness, no matter how small is ever wasted. Aesop 

Far away there in the sunshine are my highest aspirations. I may not reach them,  but I can look up and see their beauty, believe in them and try to follow where they lead.  Louisa May Alcott

I must go, Lawrence, before I soil myself with a fool's blood. Anda, Lawrence of Arabia

Resolve to be thyself; and know that he who finds himself, loses his misery. Matthew Arnold

She flays with indignation haughty 
The passages she thinks are naughty, 
But reads them *carefully* so that 
She'll know what to be angry at.
Edward Anthony

Quality is not an act.  It is a habit. Aristotle

Without friends, no one would chose to live, though he had all other goods. Aristotle

Anyone can become angry - that is easy, but to be angry with the right person, to the right degree, at the right time, for the right purpose, and in the right way - that is not easy. Aristotle

The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds the most discoveries, is not 'Eureka' (I found it!), but 'That's funny...' Isaac Asimov

And none will hear the postman's knock without a quickening of the heart.  For who can bear to feel himself forgotten? W.H. Auden

Don't go outside: return to thyself: the truth lives in the inner man,  De Vera Religione , from the Latin, chapter 39, n.72St. St. Augustine

Give me chastity and continence, but not yet! Augustine of Hippo 

One should count each day a separate life.  Marcus Aurelius

The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts: therefore, guard accordingly, and take care that you entertain no notions unsuitable to virtue and reasonable nature. Marcus Aurelius

Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested. Sir Francis Bacon

If a man begins with certainties,
he shall end in doubts,
but if he will be content to begin with doubts,
he shall end in certainties. Sir Francis Bacon

Life is a braided cord of humanity stretching up from times long gone, and ... cannot be defined by the space of a single journey from diaper to shroud. Russell Baker

I do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the men of old; I seek the things they sought. Basho

A good deed is never lost; he who sows courtesy reaps friendship, and he who plants kindness gathers love. St. Basil

When it is dark enough, You can see the stars. Charles A. Beard

Impiety, noun. Your irreverence toward my deity. Ambrose Bierce

Silence is one of the hardest arguements to refute.  Josh Billings

Don't mistake pleasures for happiness. They are a different breed of dog. Josh Billings

The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom. William Blake

The opposite of a correct statement is a false statement. But the opposite of a profound truth may well be another profound truth. Neils Bohr

How often the fear of one evil leads into a worse.
Nicolas Bouleau-Despreaux

Honor is like an island, rugged and without a beach; once we have left it, we can never return. Nicolas Bouleau-Despreaux

The true way to be humble is not to stoop until you are smaller than yourself, but to stand at your real height against some higher nature that will show you what the real smallness of your greatness is. Phillips Brooks

Destiny is not a matter of chance,
It is a matter of choice;
It is not a thing to be waited for,
It is a thing to be achieved. Williams Jennings Bryan

Holding on to anger is like holding on to a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned. Buddha

Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared. Buddha

Attachment is the source of all suffering. Buddha

Genius does what it must. Talent does what it can. Edward Bulwer-Lytton

But words are things! And a small drop of ink falling like dew upon a thought produces that which makes thousands, perhaps millions, think. Lord Byron 

Twas brillig, and the slithy toves  
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:  
All mimsy were the borogoves,  
And the mome raths outgrabe. Lewis Carroll, Alice Through The Looking Glass  

"Where shall I begin, please your Majesty?" he asked. "Begin at the beginning," the King said, gravely, "and go on till you come to the end: then stop." Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland  

Be free, all worthy spirits and stretch yourselves for greatness and for height.  Georgia Chapman  

Let your workings remain a mystery - just show people the results. Tao Te Ching

There are no words to express the abyss between isolation and having one ally. It may be conceded to the mathematician that four is twice two. But two is not twice one; two is two thousand times one. G.K. Chesterton
 
We make a living by what we get, but we make a life what we give. Sir Winston Churchill

The problems of victory are more agreeable
than the problems of defeat, but they are no less difficult. Sir Winston Churchill

An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile,  hoping it will eat him last.  Sir Winston Churchill

The shifts of fortune test the reliability of friends. Cicero

Nihil est enim apud istos quod non atomorum turba conficiat." (For such people there isn't anything a mob of atoms can't explain) Cicero, Tusculanae Disputationes I.22.17

Statistics are no substitute for judgement. Henry Clay

Those who cannot forgive others break the bridge over which they themselves must pass. Confucius

Yes, I have learned from my mistakes...I can reproduce them exactly. Peter Cook

No person has ever been honored for what he received. Honor has been the reward for what he gave. Calvin Coolidge

Obstacles cannot crush me, every obstacle yields to stern resolve. Leonardo DaVinci 

It is in the knowledge of the genuine conditions of our lives that we must draw our strength to live and our reasons for living. Simone de Beauvoir.

Absence is to love what wind is to fire; 
It extinguishes the small, 
It enkindles the great. DeBussy-Rabutin 

In science one tries to tell people, in such a way as to be understood by everyone, something that no one ever knew before. But in poetry, it's the exact opposite.  Paul Dirac

Success is a child of audacity. Benjamin Disraeli

If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom and yet avoid confrontation, are people who want crops without plowing up the ground; they want rain without thunder and lightning; they want the ocean without the roar of its waters.  Frederick Douglass

Fast is fine, but accuracy is everything. Wyatt Earp

Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work. Thomas Edison  

There is no extent to which a man will not resort to avoid the true labour of thinking. Quote on the wall of  Thomas Edison's lab  

We can't all, and some of us don't. That's all there is to it. Eeyore

Our deeds determine us, as much as we determine our deeds. George Eliott

It seems to me we can never give up longing and wishing while we are thoroughly alive. There are certain things we feel to be beautiful and good, and we must hunger after them. George Eliot

Don't be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better.  Ralph Waldo Emerson

Every man alone is sincere. At the entrance of a second person,
hypocrisy begins. Ralph Waldo Emerson

Fear defeats more people than any other one thing in the world.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could.
Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely
and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
 

Imitation is suicide. Ralph Waldo Emerson

Life is not so short but that there is always time for courtesy.  Ralph Waldo Emerson

Once you make a decision, the universe conspires to make it happen. Ralph Waldo Emerson

The only way to have a friend is to be one. Ralph Waldo Emerson

Trust men and they will be true to you; treat them greatly and they will show themselves great. Ralph Waldo Emerson

What lies behind you and what lies before you pales insignificant when compared to what lies within you. Ralph Waldo Emerson

An ounce of action is worth a ton of theory.
Friedrich Engels

Ask not that events should happen as you will, but let your will be that events should happen as they do, and you shall have peace. Epictetus

You can be invincible, if you never enter on a contest where victory is not in your power. Epictetus

No great thing is created suddenly,  
any more than a bunch of grapes or a fig.  
If you tell me that you desire a fig,  
I answer you that there must be time.  
Let if first blossom, then bear fruit, then ripen. Epictetus

It is not so much our friend's help that helps us, as the confidence of their help. Epicurus

No pleasure is a bad thing in itself: but the means which produce some pleasures bring with them disturbances many times greater than the pleasures. Epicurus

Ask five economists and you'll get five different explanations (six if one went to Harvard). Edgar R. Fiedler

Sometimes I wish I'd been born an Englishman; American life is so damned dumb and stupid and healthy.  F. Scott Fitzgerald, This Side of Paradise  

In a good-natured way he had almost decided that Princeton was one part deadly Philistines and one part deadly grinds, and to find a person who could mention Keats without stammering, yet evidently washed his hands, was rather a treat.  F. Scott Fitzgerald, This Side of Paradise  

Almost all of our faults are more pardonable than the methods to which we resort to hide them. Francois VI, Duc de la Rouchefoucald

If passion drives you, let reason hold the reins. Benjamin Franklin

I haven't failed, I've found 10,000 ways that don't work. Benjamin Franklin

Many a man thinks he is buying pleasure, when he is really selling himself to it. Benjamin Franklin

Resolve to perform what you ought;  perform without fail what you resolve.   Benjamin Franklin

They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. Benjamin Franklin 

We are all born ignorant, but one must work hard to remain stupid.
Benjamin Franklin

What does a woman want? Sigmund Freud

A wise man may look ridiculous in the  company of fools. Thomas Fuller

It still turns Galileo Galilei

You cannot teach a man anything; you can only help him to find it within himself.  Galileo Galilei

Philosophy is written in this grand book - I mean universe - which stands continuously open to our gaze, but which cannot be understood unless one first learns to comprehend the language in which it is written. It is written in the language of mathematics, and its characters are triangles, circles and other geometric figures, without which it is humanly impossible to understand a single word of it; without these, one is wandering about in a dark labyrinth. Galileo Galilei

If ye hiv ears oan yer heid - then use them tae lissen, Glasgow Gospel

Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power & magic in it. Goethe

The deed is everything.  Goethe 

Love gives us in a moment what we can hardly attain by years of toil. Gothe

He (God) seems to have an inordinate fondness for beetles.  J. B. S. Haldane

Always aim for achievement, and forget about success. Helen Hayes

No man, for any considerable period, can wear one face to himself, and another to the multitude, without finally getting bewildered as to which may be true. Nathaniel Hawthorne

Wise sayings often fall on barren ground,
but a kind word is never thrown away.  Arthur Helps

I know only that what is moral is what you feel  good after and what is immoral is what you feel  bad after. Ernest Hemingway

Now is no time to think of what you do not have.  Think of what you can do with what there is. Ernest Hemingway

Now is no time to think of what you do not have.
think of what you can do with what there is.
Ernest Hemingway

For those cities that were great in earlier times must have now become small, and those that were great in my time were small in the time before... Man's good fortune never abides in the same place. Herodotus 

If I am not for myself, who will be for me? If I am not for others, what am I? And if not now, when? Rabbi Hillel

The moon is always jealous of the heat of the day, just as the sun always longs for something dark and deep. Alice Hoffman

The past is a guide post, not a hitching post.
L. Thomas Holdcroft

The mind of the bigot is like the pupil of the eye; the more light you  pour upon it, the more it will contract. Oliver Wendell Holmes

Change is not made without inconvenience, even from worse to better. Richard Hooker

Qui rides? Mutato nomine de te fabula narratur. (Who are you to laugh? Change the name, and the story is told of you.) Horace  

Caelum non animum mutant qui trans mare current. (They change their sky but not their soul who cross the ocean).  Horace

When a man sends you an impudent letter,
sit right down and give it back to him
with interest ten times compounded --
and then throw both letters in the wastebasket. Elbert Hubbard

If you really want to enslave people, tell them that you're going to give them total freedom.
L. Ron Hubbard, writer & founder of Scientology

Winter is on my head, but eternal spring is in my heart. Victor Hugo

Too much consistency is as bad for the mind
as for the body. Aldous Huxley

Being yourself is killing yourself. Henrik Ibsen 
 
In our every deliberation, we must consider the impact of our decisions on the next seven generations. Iroquois Confederation

The object of war is to survive it. John Irving

"All men are liars," said Roberta Muldoon, who knew this was true because she had once been a man. John Irving, The World According to Garp

Great minds have purposes; others have wishes. Washington Irving

Impulse without reason is not enough, and reason without impulse is a poor makeshift. William James 

Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just.  Thomas Jefferson

It is always the best policy to speak the truth, unless of course you are an exceptionally good liar. Jerome K. Jerome

In essentials, unity, in doubtful matters, liberty; in all things charity. Pope John XXIII, Ad Petri Cathedram

The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances; if there is any reaction, both are transformed. Carl Jung

Everyone can be great because anyone can serve. You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't even have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve...You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love. Martin Luther King, Jr.  

There's no use doing a kindness if you do it a day too late. Charles Kingsley

We have forty million reasons for failure, but not a single excuse.  Rudyard Kipling

Pick battles big enough to matter, small enough to win. Jonathan Kozel

A man can lose sight of everything else when he's bent on revenge, and it ain't worth it. Louis L'Amour

A mind, like a home, is furnished by its owner, so if one's life is cold and bare, he can blame none but himself.  Louis L'Amour, Bendigo Shafter

Honesty is the best policy, but insanity is a better defense. Steve Landesberg

For man as for flower...the supreme triumph is to be most vividly, most perfectly alive. D.H. Lawrence  

They dined on mince,
and slices of quince,
Which they ate with a runcible spoon.
Edward Lear,  The Owl & the Pussy Cat 

How do you know that what you remember is more important than what you don't? Doris Lessing

TAKE MY ADVICE when you meet anything that's going to be Human and isn't yet, or used to be Human and isn't now, or ought to be Human and isn't, you keep your eyes on it and feel for your hatchet. C.S.  Lewis,  Mr. Beaver,  The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

He was haunted by the ancient thought that somewhere must exist the impossible she who would understand him, value him, and make him happy.  Sinclair Lewis, Babbitt

'Have you taken physical chemistry?' 'No, sir, but I did pretty well in organic.' 'Organic chemistry! Puzzle chemistry! Stink chemistry! Drugstore chemistry! Physical chemistry is power, it is exactness, it is life. But organic chemistry - that is a trade for pot-washers.' Doctor Gottlieb, Arrowsmith, by Sinclair Lewis  

Few women can for long periods keep from trying to improve their men, and To Improve means to change a person from what he is, whatever that may be, into something else.  Sinclair Lewis, Arrowsmith  

His head was buried in her lap and he clung to her affection, the one reality in a world of chattering ghosts. Sinclair Lewis, Arrowsmith  

...he demanded of Martin only the belief that a rapid and noisy moving from place to place is the means (and possibly the end) of progress. Sinclair Lewis, Arrowsmith  

No flake in an avalanche ever feels responsible. Stanilus Lezcyzynski

Men have been barbarians much longer than they have been civilized. They are only precariously civilized, and within us there is the propensity, persistent as the force of gravity, to revert under stress and strain, under neglect or temptation, to our first natures. Walter Lippmann, The Public Philosophy

I desire to go to hell and not to heaven. In the former place I shall enjoy the company of popes, kings, and princes, while in the latter are only beggars, monks and apostles.  Niccolo Machiavelli 

There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to  find the ways in which you yourself have altered. Nelson Mandela, A Long Walk to Freedom
 
Lost, yesterday,
somewhere between sunrise and sunset,
two golden hours,
each set with sixty diamond minutes.
No reward is offered,
for they are gone forever. Horace Mann

To the man who only has a hammer, everything he encounters begins to look like a nail. Abraham H. Maslow

Excess on occasion is exhilarating. It prevents moderation from acquiring the deadening effect of a habit. W. Somerset Maugham

We cannot live for ourselves alone. Our lives are connected by a thousand invisible threads, and along these sympathetic fibers, our actions run as causes and return to us as results. Herman Melville

For every complex problem, there is a solution that is simple, neat,  and wrong. H. L. Mencken
 
School days, I believe, are the unhappiest in the whole span of human existence. They are full of dull, unintelligible tasks, new and unpleasant ordinances, brutal violations of common sense and common decency. H.L. Mencken

Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit upon his hands, hoist the black flag and begin slitting throats.  H. L. Mencken

There ain't nothing from the outside
can lick any of us. Margaret Mitchell

I speak truth, not so much as I would, but as much as I dare; and I dare a little the more as I grow older. Michael de Montaigne

Man is certainly stark mad; he cannot make a worm, and yet he will be making gods by dozens. Michael de Montaigne

Show me the man who has enjoyed his schooldays and I will show you a bully and a bore. Robert Morley, Robert Morley: Responsible Gentleman