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Before we set our hearts too much upon anything, let us examine how happy those are who already possess it. - Francois de La Rochefoucauld, 1613-1680
It is pretty hard to tell what does bring happiness; poverty and wealth have both failed. - Kin Hubbard, 1868-1930
Be fit for more than the thing you are now doing. Let everyone know that you have a reserve in yourself; that you have more power than you are now using. If you are not too large for the place you occupy, you are too small for it. - James A. Garfield, 1831-1881
Only passions, great passions, can elevate the soul to great things. - Denis Diderot, 1713-1784
Patience has its limits. Take it too far, and it's cowardice. - George Jackson, 1941-1971
Peace is not an absence of war, it is a virtue, a state of mind, a disposition for benevolence, confidence, justice. - Baruch Spinoza, 1632-1677
The truth is that there is nothing noble in being superior to somebody else. The only real nobility is in being superior to your former self. - Whitney Young, 1921-1971
Don't judge a man by his opinions, but what his opinions have made of him. - Georg Christoph Lichtenberg, 1742-1799
The optimist proclaims that we live in the best of all possible worlds; and the pessimist fears this is true. - James Branch Cabell, 1879-1958
We must not say every mistake is a foolish one. - Cicero, 106 BC-43 BC
Riches may enable us to confer favors, but to confer them with propriety and grace requires a something that riches cannot give. - Charles Caleb Colton, 1780-1832
Do not be too moral. You may cheat yourself out of much life. Aim above morality. Be not simply good; be good for something. - Henry David Thoreau, 1817-1862
There are people who, instead of listening to what is being said to them, are already listening to what they are going to say themselves. - Albert Guinon, 1863-1923
Inside myself is a place where I live all alone and that's where you renew your springs that never dry up. - Pearl Buck, 1892-1973
Clarity of mind means clarity of passion, too; this is why a great and clear mind loves ardently and sees distinctly what it loves. - Blaise Pascal, 1623-1662
Never be entirely idle; but either be reading, or writing, or praying or meditating or endeavoring something for the public good. - Thomas a Kempis, 1380-1471
Learning is not compulsory... neither is survival. - W. Edwards Deming, 1900-1993
We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give. - Sir Winston Churchill, 1874-1965
Justice consists not in being neutral between right and wrong, but in finding out the right and upholding it, wherever found, against the wrong. - Theodore Roosevelt, 1858-1919
Compassion is the basis of all morality. - Arthur Schopenhauer, 1788-1860
You can know the name of a bird in all the languages of the world, but when you're finished, you'll know absolutely nothing whatever about the bird... So let's look at the bird and see what it's doing -- that's what counts. I learned very early the difference between knowing the name of something and knowing something. - Richard Feynman, 1918-1988
The vitality of thought is in adventure. Ideas won't keep. Something must be done about them. - Alfred North Whitehead, 1861-1947
Ignorance of certain subjects is a great part of wisdom. - Hugo De Groot, 1583-1645
There is only one admirable form of the imagination: the imagination that is so intense that it creates a new reality, that it makes things happen. - Sean O'Faolain, 1900-1991
The past is a source of knowledge, and the future is a source of hope. Love of the past implies faith in the future. - Stephen Ambrose, 1936-2002
The firm, the enduring, the simple, and the modest are near to virtue. - Confucius, 551 BC-479 BC
The world is a tragedy to those who feel, but a comedy to those who think. - Horace Walpole, 1717-1797
A hero is no braver than an ordinary man, but he is braver five minutes longer. - Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1803-1882
The most important work you and I will ever do will be within the walls of our own homes. - Harold B. Lee, 1899-1973
The difference between a moral man and a man of honor is that the latter regrets a discreditable act, even when it has worked and he has not been caught. - H. L. Mencken, 1880-1956
The pursuit of happiness is a most ridiculous phrase; if you pursue happiness you'll never find it. - C. P. Snow, 1905-1980
If you hate a person, you hate something in him that is part of yourself. What isn't part of ourselves doesn't disturb us. - Hermann Hesse, 1877-1962
Look to your health; and if you have it, praise God and value it next to conscience; for health is the second blessing that we mortals are capable of, a blessing money can't buy. - Izaak Walton 1593-1683
It's a sign of mediocrity when you demonstrate gratitude with moderation. - Roberto Benigni, 1952-present
Grief is the agony of an instant, the indulgence of grief the blunder of a life. - Benjamin Disraeli, 1804-1881
Habit is habit and not to be flung out of the window by any man, but coaxed downstairs a step at a time. - Mark Twain, 1835-1910
The friendship that can cease has never been real. - Saint Jerome, 374 AD-419 AD
Happiness is nothing more than good health and a bad memory. - Albert Schweitzer, 1875-1965
The big secret in life is that there is no big secret. Whatever your goal, you can get there if you're willing to work. - Oprah Winfrey, 1954-present
Misfortune shows those who are not really friends. - Aristotle, 384 BC-322 BC
You must give some time to your fellow men. Even if it's a little thing, do something for others - something for which you get no pay but the privilege of doing it. - Albert Schweitzer, 1875-1965
In the absence of clearly-defined goals, we become strangely loyal to performing daily trivia until ultimately we become enslaved by it. - Robert Heinlein, 1907-1988
Failure is, in a sense, the highway to success, inasmuch as every discovery of what is false leads us to seek earnestly after what is true, and every fresh experience points out some form of error which we shall afterwards carefully avoid. - John Keats, 1795-1821
To err is human; to forgive, infrequent. - Franklin P. Adams, 1881-1960
Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it. - George Bernard Shaw, 1856-1950
To have respect for ourselves guides our morals; and to have a deference for others governs our manners. - Lawrence Sterne, 1713-1768
Every sweet has its sour; every evil its good. - Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1803-1882
Experience teaches slowly and at the cost of mistakes. - James A. Froude, 1818-1894
Rudeness is the weak man's imitation of strength. - Eric Hoffer, 1902-1983
Evil deeds do not prosper; the slow man catches up with the swift. - Homer, 800 BC-700 BC
I am careful not to confuse excellence with perfection. Excellence, I can reach for; perfection is God's business. - Michael J. Fox, 1961-present
Next in importance to freedom and justice is popular education, without which neither freedom nor justice can be permanently maintained. - James A. Garfield, 1831-1881
Reveal not every secret you have to a friend, for how can you tell but that friend may hereafter become an enemy. And bring not all mischief you are able to upon an enemy, for he may one day become your friend. - Saadi, 1184-1291
Unless man is committed to the belief that all mankind are his brothers, then he labors in vain and hypocritically in the vineyards of equality. - Adam Clayton Powell Jr., 1908-1972
What is the first business of one who practices philosophy? To get rid of self-conceit. For it is impossible for anyone to begin to learn that which he thinks he already knows. - Epictetus, 55 AD-135 AD
There are admirable potentialities in every human being. Believe in your strength and your youth. Learn to repeat endlessly to yourself, 'It all depends on me.' - Andre Gide, 1869-1951
Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage. - Anais Nin, 1903-1977
People with courage and character always seem sinister to the rest. - Hermann Hesse, 1877-1962
Civilization is a method of living, an attitude of equal respect for all men. - Jane Addams, 1860-1935
The freethinking of one age is the common sense of the next. - Matthew Arnold, 1822-1888
The secret of being a bore is to tell everything. - Voltaire, 1694-1778
Work and acquire, and thou hast chained the wheel of Chance. - Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1803-1882
Only I can change my life. No one can do it for me. - Carol Burnett, 1936-present
The thing always happens that you really believe in; and the belief in a thing makes it happen. - Frank Lloyd Wright, 1869-1959
Choose rather to be strong of soul than strong of body. - Pythagoras, 582 BC-507 BC
Never read a book through merely because you have begun it. - John Witherspoon, 1723-1794
Anger makes dull men witty, but it keeps them poor. - Elizabeth I, 1533-1603
A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort. - Herm Albright, 1876-1944
Think of all the beauty still left around you and be happy. - Anne Frank, 1929-1945
Perhaps the most valuable result of all education is the ability to make yourself do the thing you have to do, when it ought to be done, whether you like it or not; it is the first lesson that ought to be learned; and however early a man's training begins, it is probably the last lesson that he learns thoroughly. - Thomas H. Huxley, 1825-1895
I have always thought the actions of men the best interpreters of their thoughts. - John Locke, 1632-1704
I'm very pleased with each advancing year. It stems back to when I was forty. I was a bit upset about reaching that milestone, but an older friend consoled me. 'Don't complain about growing old - many, many people do not have that privilege.' - Earl Warren, 1891-1974