Misc Quotes

One's only rival is one's own potentialities. One's only failure is failing to live up to one's own possibilities. In this sense, every man can be a king, and must therefore be treated like a king.
What is necessary to change a person is to change his awareness of himself.
Character is like a tree and reputation like a shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.
Common looking people are the best in the world: that is the reason the Lord makes so many of them.
The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew.
I do not argue with obstinate men. I act in spite of them.
How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard.
One of the advantages of being disorderly is that one is constantly making exciting discoveries.
If one is to be called a liar, one may as well make an effort to deserve the name.
A myth is an image in terms of which we try to make sense of the world.
Trying to define yourself is like trying to bite your own teeth.
At the heart of all beauty lies something inhuman.
The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.
Confusion of goals and perfection of means seems, in my opinion, to characterize our age.
I don't try to imagine a personal god; it suffices to stand in awe at the structure of the world, insofar as it allows our inadequate senses to appreciate it.
Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.
Every man's memory is his private literature.
Remember upon the conduct of each depends the fate of all.
I am dying from the treatment of too many physicians.
In feature films the director is God; in documentary films God is the director
There is no terror in the bang, only in the anticipation of it.
Give them pleasure. The same pleasure they have when they wake up from a nightmare.
My specialty is detached malevolence.
I have a simple philosophy. Fill what's empty. Empty what's full. And scratch where it itches.
There is not such a cradle of democracy upon the earth as the Free Public Library, this republic of letters, where neither rank, office, nor wealth receives the slightest consideration.
All honor's wounds are self-inflicted.
As I grow older, I pay less attention to what men say. I just watch what they do.
Radical simply means 'grasping things at the root'.
The idea of freedom is inspiring. But what does it mean? If you are free in a political sense but have no food, what's that? The freedom to starve?
Racism is a much more clandestine, much more hidden kind of phenomenon, but at the same time it's perhaps far more terrible than it's ever been.
Parents can only give good advice or put them on the right paths, but the final forming of a person's character lies in their own hands
I must uphold my ideals, for perhaps the time will come when I shall be able to carry them out.
We all live with the objective of being happy; our lives are all different and yet the same.
You cant have a plan for your day, til you have a plan for your life.
Don't tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass.
All human actions have one or more of these seven causes: chance, nature, compulsion, habit, reason, passion, and desire.
There is more to sex appeal than just measurements. I don't need a bedroom to prove my womanliness. I can convey just as much sex appeal, picking apples off a tree or standing in the rain.
The hardest thing to explain is the glaringly evident which everybody has decided not to see.
A man of honour should never forget what he is because he sees what others are.
Don't take the wrong side of an argument just because your opponent has taken the right side.
Many have had their greatness made for them by their enemies.
No matter how thin you slice it, there will always be two sides.
Will and intellect are one and the same thing.
My idea of an agreeable person is a person who agrees with me.
Three may keep a secret, if two of them are dead.
Certainty? In this world nothing is certain but death and taxes.
Everything is vague to a degree you do not realize till you have tried to make it precise.
As we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others.
Airplane travel is nature's way of making you look like your passport photo.
The Internet is becoming the town square for the global village of tomorrow.
Until we're educating every kid in a fantastic way, until every inner city is cleaned up, there is no shortage of things to do.
Who are you to judge the life I live? I know I'm not perfect-and I don't live to be-but before you start pointing fingers... make sure your hands are clean!
The greatness of a man is not in how much wealth he acquires, but in his integrity and his ability to affect those around him positively.
The good times of today are the sad thoughts of tomorrow.
When one door is closed, don't you know that many more are open
Don't send me flowers when I'm dead. If you like me, send them while I'm alive.
When you get to a certain age, there is no coming back.
Who the hell wants fourteen pairs of shoes when they go on holiday? I haven't had fourteen pairs in my life.
A photograph can be an instant of life captured for eternity that will never cease looking back at you.
To hell with circumstances; I create opportunities.
Time means a lot to me because you see I am also a learner and am often lost in the joy of forever developing.
Boards don't hit back.
A jug fills drop by drop.
Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense.
When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.
Not simply one of the virtues but the form of every virtue at the testing point, which means at the point of highest reality.
The future is something which every one reaches at the rate of sixty minutes an hour, whatever he does, whoever he is.
Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point.
I have noticed that nothing I have never said ever did me any harm.
Science is not only compatible with spirituality; it is a profound source of spirituality.
Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.
A scientific man ought to have no wishes, no affections, - a mere heart of stone.
Animals, whom we have made our slaves, we do not like to consider our equal.
The mystery of the beginning of all things is insoluble by us; and I for one must be content to remain an agnostic
If the misery of the poor be caused not by the laws of nature, but by our institutions, great is our sin.
A moral being is one who is capable of reflecting on his past actions and their motives - of approving of some and disapproving of others
There are books of which the backs and covers are by far the best parts.
No one is useless in this world who lightens the burdens of another.
Do it again on the next verse, and people think you meant it.
I'll always be poor in my mind.
Charity ... is the opium of the privileged.
It is the story that owns and directs us. It is the thing that makes us different from cattle; it is the mark on the face that sets one people apart from their neighbors.
People create stories create people; or rather stories create people create stories.
That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.
Human decency is not derived from religion. It precedes it.
Terrorism is the tactic of demanding the impossible, and demanding it at gunpoint.
A good liar must have a good memory.
I am not ashamed to confess that I am ignorant of what I do not know.
A girl should be two things: classy and fabulous.
Dress shabbily and they remember the dress; dress impeccably and they remember the woman.
Fashion changes, but style endures.
Only those with no memory insist on their originality.
In order to be irreplaceable, one must always be different.
Passion goes, Boredom remains.
A woman can be over dressed but never over elegant.
Any fool can criticize, condemn, and complain but it takes character and self control to be understanding and forgiving.
There is only one way... to get anybody to do anything. And that is by making the other person want to do it.
Every time you are tempted to react in the same old way, ask if you want to be a prisoner of the past or a pioneer of the future.
By desiring little, a poor man makes himself rich.
Religion is like a knife: you can either use it to cut bread, or stick in someone's back.
Children are a wonderful gift. They have an extraordinary capacity to see into the heart of things and to expose sham and humbug for what they are.
I am not interested in picking up crumbs of compassion thrown from the table of someone who considers himself my master. I want the full menu of rights.
The cure for boredom is curiosity.There is no cure for curiosity.
For a moment, nothing happened. Then, after a second or so, nothing continued to happen.
I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.
It is a mistake to think you can solve any major problems just with potatoes.
Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so.
Beauty of whatever kind, in its supreme development, invariably excites the sensitive soul to tears.
I have great faith in fools; self-confidence my friends call it.
I would define, in brief, the poetry of words as the rhythmical creation of Beauty.
It is by no means an irrational fancy that, in a future existence, we shall look upon what we think our present existence, as a dream.
Of puns it has been said that those who most dislike them are those who are least able to utter them.
The death of a beautiful woman, is unquestionably the most poetical topic in the world.
There is an eloquence in true enthusiasm.
With me poetry has not been a purpose, but a passion.
Words have no power to impress the mind without the exquisite horror of their reality.
You always admire what you really don't understand.
No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.
It is not fair to ask of others what you are not willing to do yourself.
The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.
We princes are set as it were upon stages in the sight and view of the world.
Young heads take example of the ancient.
You are like my little dog; when people see you, they know I am nearby.
Anger makes dull men witty, but it keeps them poor.
Ah just act the way ah feel.
Keep things at arm's length... If you let anything come too near you want to hold on to it. And there is nothing a man can hold on to.
Any non-commissioned officer is more of an enemy to a recruit, any schoolmaster to a pupil, then they are if they were free.
Modesty and conscientiousness receive their reward only in novels. In life they are exploited and then shoved aside.
You hear a lot of dialogue on the death of the American family. Families aren't dying. They're merging into big conglomerates.
But some emotions don't make a lot of noise. It's hard to hear pride. Caring is real faint - like a heartbeat. And pure love why, some days it's so quiet, you don't even know it's there.
Never lend your car to someone you've given birth to.
What's with you men? Would hair stop growing on your chest if you asked directions somewhere?
A friend doesn't go on a diet because you are fat.
All of us have moments in our lives that test our courage. Taking children into a house with a white carpet is one of them.
Anybody who watches three games of football in a row should be declared brain dead.
Like religion, politics, and family planning, cereal is not a topic to be brought up in public. It's too controversial.
Never accept a drink from a urologist.
Never go to a doctor whose office plants have died.
There is nothing more miserable in the world than to arrive in paradise and look like your passport photo.
There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.
Courage is grace under pressure.
There is no real ending. It's just the place where you stop the story.
Deep in the human unconscious is a pervasive need for a logical universe that makes sense. But the real universe is always one step beyond logic.
A process cannot be understood by stopping it. Understanding must move with the flow of the process, must join it and flow with it.
The gift of words is the gift of deception and illusion.
What do you despise? By this are you truly known.
The people I distrust most are those who want to improve our lives but have only one course of action.
An idea is salvation by imagination
Freedom is from within.
Television is chewing gum for the eyes.
The advantage of a bad memory is that one enjoys several times the same good thing for the first time.
There are no facts, only interpretations.
The word 'good' has many meanings. For example, if a man were to shoot his grandmother at a range of five hundred yards, I should call him a good shot, but not necessarily a good man.
A great city is the place to escape the true drama of provincial life, and find solace in fantasy.
The mind that finds its way to wild places is the poet's; but the mind that never finds its way back is the lunatic's.
A book is a mirror: if an ape looks into it an apostle is hardly likely to look out.
One must judge men not by their opinions, but by what their opinions have made of them.
God creates, I do not create. I assemble and I steal everywhere to do it - from what I see, from what the dancers can do, from what others do.
In ballet a complicated story is impossible to tell... we can't dance synonyms.
In my ballets, woman is first. Men are consorts. God made men to sing the praises of women. They are not equal to men: They are better.
Most ballet teachers in the United States are terrible. If they were in medicine, everyone would be poisoned.
All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.
Patriotism is usually stronger than class hatred, and always stronger than internationalism.
Sanity is a madness put to good uses.
Memory... is an internal rumour.
I hope I shall possess firmness and virtue enough to maintain what I consider the most enviable of all titles, the character of an honest man.
Few men have virtue to withstand the highest bidder.
Worry is the interest paid by those who borrow trouble.
I can see in your eyes, I can see in your faces, I can see you cry. But what I want to say, there's no reason to cry. Do not, in the name of peace, go in the streets and riot.
I will go on my knees and ask the Liberian people to participate in bringing peace and stability to our country.
My government will be open. Anyone found guilty of corruption will be dealt with in accordance with the law. If you are corrupt you will have to hang your boots.
They say I do not have the qualifications to be president, that I do not have education. Well, I would never divide the Liberian people.
There are two things children should get from their parents: roots and wings.
We do not have to visit a madhouse to find disordered minds; our planet is the mental institution of the universe.
I've had a perfectly wonderful evening, but this wasn't it.
Blessed are the cracked, for they shall let in the light.
Quote me as saying I was mis-quoted.
Before I speak, I have something important to say.
I've been looking for a girl like you - not you, but a girl like you.
Hollywood brides keep the bouquets and throw away the grooms.
I want to go ahead of Father Time with a scythe of my own.
The world is moving so fast these days that the man who says it can't be done is generally interrupted by someone doing it.
The only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision.
I am only one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something; and because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do something that I can do.
Self-pity is our worst enemy and if we yield to it, we can never do anything wise in this world.
How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live.
Maybe, just once, someone will call me 'Sir' without adding, 'You're making a scene.'
All that you accomplish or fail to accomplish with your life is the direct result of your thoughts.
Circumstances do not make the man, they reveal him.
Dream lofty dreams, and as you dream, so you shall become. Your vision is the promise of what you shall one day be; your ideal is the prophecy of what you shall at last unveil.
He who would accomplish little must sacrifice little; he who would achieve much must sacrifice much; he who would attain highly must sacrifice greatly.
It is a process of diverting one's scattered forces into one powerful channel.
No temptation can gravitate to a man unless there is that in his heart which is capable of responding to it.
The more intense the nature of a man, the more readily will he find meditation, and the more successfully will he practice it.
Being an intellectual creates a lot of questions and no answers.
I may not be better than other people, but at least I'm different.
Tradition becomes our security, and when the mind is secure it is in decay.
Abuse of words has been the great instrument of sophistry and chicanery, of party, faction, and division of society.
All the perplexities, confusion and distress in America arise, not from defects in their Constitution or Confederation, not from want of honor or virtue, so much as from the downright ignorance of the nature of coin, credit and circulation.
Genius is sorrow's child.
I must not write a word to you about politics, because you are a woman.
Liberty, according to my metaphysics is a self-determining power in an intellectual agent. It implies thought and choice and power.
The Declaration of Independence I always considered as a theatrical show. Jefferson ran away with all the stage effect of that... and all the glory of it.
The right of a nation to kill a tyrant in case of necessity can no more be doubted than to hang a robber, or kill a flea.
When people talk of the freedom of writing, speaking or thinking I cannot choose but laugh. No such thing ever existed. No such thing now exists; but I hope it will exist. But it must be hundreds of years after you and I shall write and speak no more.
In the increasingly convincing darkness the words become palpable, like a fruit that is too beautiful to eat.
There is the view that poetry should improve your life. I think people confuse it with the Salvation Army.
I used to desire many, many things, but now I have just one desire, and thats to get rid of all my other desires.
I find it rather easy to portray a businessman. Being bland, rather cruel and incompetent comes naturally to me.
You don't have to be the Dalai Lama to tell people that life's about change.
Wine is wonderful stuff. But so many people are put off by the snobbery of it.
The English contribution to world cuisine - the chip.
Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought.
We must find time to stop and thank the people who make a difference in our lives
New opinions are always suspected, and usually opposed, without any other reason but because they are not common.
But there is only one thing which gathers people into seditious commotion, and that is oppression
All men are liable to error; and most men are, in many points, by passion or interest, under temptation to it.
Parents wonder why the streams are bitter, when they themselves have poisoned the fountain.
If you never stop when you wave goodbye you just might find, if you give it time, you will wave hello again...
Anyone who attempts to generate random numbers by deterministic means is, of course, living in a state of sin.