“There is always some madness in love. But there is also always some reason in madness.”
“To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance.”
Lord Goring, Act III
Source: An Ideal Husband (1895)
“The only joy in the world is to begin.”
“With freedom, books, flowers, and the moon, who could not be happy?”
“I love you straightforwardly, without complexities or pride;”
Source: 100 Love Sonnets
“We love the things we love for what they are.”
"Hyla Brook" (1920)
1920s
“Happiness is having a loving, close knit family in another city.”
As quoted in The Mammoth Book of Zingers, Quips, and One-Liners (2004) by Geoff Tibballs, p. 251
“The purpose of life is a life of purpose.”
Variant: People see the past better than it was, the present worse than it is and the future less resolved than it’ll be.
Source: My Sister's Keeper (2004)
As quoted in Out of the Blue: Delight Comes Into Our Lives (1996) by Mark Victor Hansen, Barbara Nichols, and Patty Hansen, p. 85
“The giving of love is an education in itself.”
“Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go.”
A version of this quote was published anonymously in an insurance magazine in 1908 https://books.google.com/books?id=S2JJAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA375&dq=%22others+whenever+they+go%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwja94i3iaXLAhUY7mMKHW5fAGIQ6AEIJjAC#v=onepage&q=%22others%20whenever%20they%20go%22&f=false. The earliest attribution to Wilde was in 1955 https://www.google.com/search?tbm=bks&hl=en&q=%22others+whenever+they+go%22+wilde#hl=en&tbs=cdr:1%2Ccd_min:1900%2Ccd_max:1999&tbm=bks&q=%22others+whenever+they+go+oscar+wilde+jive%22; no source in Wilde's writings has been found.
Disputed
“Love is a choice you make from moment to moment.”
As quoted in Sheroes: Bold, Brash, and Absolutely Unabashed Superwomen from Susan B. Anthony to Xena (1998) by Varla Ventura, p. 150
“You never lose by loving, you lose by holding back.”
Variant: You never lose by loving. You always lose by holding back.
Source: Chicken Soup for the Couple's Soul
“Be Yourself. Everyone Else Is Already Taken.”
Anonymous advertising copywriter for Menards chain of hardware stores (2000), according to Quote Investigator http://quoteinvestigator.com/2014/01/20/be-yourself
Misattributed
“Pleasure of love lasts but a moment, Pain of love lasts a lifetime.”
“Love is never lost. If not reciprocated, it will flow back and soften and purify the heart.”
Attributed to Irving as early as 1883. [Hit and miss : a story of real life, Angie Stewart, Manly, Chicago, J.L. Regan, 1883, i, http://hdl.handle.net/2027/osu.32435018229575?urlappend=%3Bseq=7] However, it does not seem to appear in Irving's known works. Other citations from the same year leave the quotation unattributed. [Henry S. (ed.), Clubb, The Peacemaker and Court of Arbitration, Volume 1, Universal Peace Union, 1883, 125, Philadelphia, https://books.google.com/books?id=Uu84AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA125] [The Australian Women's Magazine and Domestic Journal, Vol. 2 No. 2 (May 1883), 1883, Melbourne, 435, https://books.google.com/books?id=mq0sAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA435]. A similar passage is found in a pseudonymous novel published two years earlier in 1881: "Julia knew that sacrifices to patience are not in vain. Although they often do not produce the happiness for which they are made, they will, always, flow back and soften and purify the heart of the one who makes them". [Illma, Or, Which was Wife?, Miss, M.L.A., Cornwell & Johnson, 1881, 239, New York, http://hdl.handle.net/2027/osu.32435017658592?urlappend=%3Bseq=245]
Disputed
“To accomplish great things we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe.”
Variant: To accomplish great things, we must dream as well as act.
Source: Discours de réception, Séance De L'académie Française (introductory speech at a session of the French Academy), 24th December 1896, on Ferdinand de Lesseps' work on the Suez Canal.
Context: To accomplish great things we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe.
“The universe is change; our life is what our thoughts make it.”
The universe is flux, life is opinion.
The universe is transformation: life is opinion. (Long translation)
ὁ κόσμος ἀλλοίωσις, ὁ βίος ὑπόληψις.
IV, 3
Variant: Our life is what our thoughts make it.
Source: Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book IV
“One day you will do things for me that you hate. That is what it means to be family.”
Source: Everything Is Illuminated
“There is only one success … to be able to spend your life in your own way.”
Where the Blue Begins (1922)
As quoted in The Power of Respect : Benefit from the Most Forgotten Element of Success (2009) by Deborah Norville, p. 65
“My wish is that you may be loved to the point of madness.”
Source: What is Surrealism?: Selected Writings
“Ultimately the bond of all companionship, whether in marriage or in friendship, is conversation.”
“A smile is the chosen vehicle of all ambiguities.”
Bk. IV, ch. 5
Pierre: or, The Ambiguities (1852)
Source: Pierre: or, the Ambiguities
“No! Try not. Do, or do not. There is no try.”
Source: The Star Wars Trilogy
Variant: Then she kissed him. Her kiss was a question he wanted to spend his whole life answering.
Source: The History of Love (2005), P. 11
“Tis the privilege of friendship to talk nonsense, and to have her nonsense respected.”
Source: The Life, Letters and Writings of Charles Lamb
“I like to listen. I have learned a great deal from listening carefully. Most people never listen.”
“Do I love you? My God, if your love were a grain of sand, mine would be a universe of beaches.”
Source: The Princess Bride
“The love we give away is the only love we keep.”
Source: Message in a Bottle
“If you smile when you are alone, then you really mean it.”
“Of all forms of caution, caution in love is perhaps the most fatal to true happiness.”
Source: 1930s, The Conquest of Happiness (1930)
“The only rule is don't be boring and dress cute wherever you go. Life is too short to blend in.”
Source: Confessions of an Heiress (2004), p. 53 (included in the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1212303/Paris-Hilton-feature-Oxford-Dictionary-Quotes-alongside-Confucius-Oscar-Wilde-yes-really.html)
“Love is an irresistible desire to be irresistibly desired.”
As quoted in a review of A Swinger of Birches (1957) by Sydney Cox in Vermont History, Vol. 25 (1957), p. 355
1950s
“We must live together as brothers or perish together as fools.”
1960s, A Christmas Sermon (1967)
Variant: We must either learn to live together as brothers or we are all going to perish together as fools.
“The art of love… is largely the art of persistence.”
Variant: Sometimes our light goes out but is blown again into flame by an encounter with another human being. Each of us owes the deepest thanks to those who have rekindled this inner light.
“As you were, I was. As I am, you will be.”
Source: Hell's Angels: A Strange and Terrible Saga
On his writing style
Interview in Writers at Work (1988)
Variant: Writing is like driving at night in the fog. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.
Source: Writers At Work: The Paris Review Interviews
“Let us live so that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry.”
Variant: Let us endeavor so to live that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry.
Source: Pudd'nhead Wilson
“The good life is one inspired by love and guided by knowledge.”
1920s, What I Believe (1925)
Source: Human Knowledge: Its Scope and Value
“Love is like a virus. It can happen to anybody at any time.”
Variant: Love is like a virus. It can happen to anybody at any time.
“True love cannot be found where it does not exist, nor can it be denied where it does”
“Love is an emotion experienced by the many and enjoyed by the few.”
“Let us learn to show our friendship for a man when he is alive and not after he is dead.”
Source: The Great Gatsby (1925), ch. 9
“If you obey all of the rules, you miss all of the fun.”
Variant: If you obey all the rules, you miss all the fun
“Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius”
Variant: Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.
“Because of your smile, you make life more beautiful.”
“Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.”
"Helen and Teacher: The Story of Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan Macy", Joseph P. Lash (1980) http://quoteinvestigator.com/2014/04/21/together/
“You are stronger than you seem,
Braver than you believe,
and smarter than you think you are.”
Variant: You are braver than you believe,
Stronger than you seem,
And smarter than you think(:
Source: Winnie-the-Pooh
“I have decided to stick to love… Hate is too great a burden to bear.”
Source: A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches
“Life is a whim of several billion cells to be you for a while”
“Without music, life would be a mistake.”
Ohne Musik wäre das Leben ein Irrtum.
Maxims and Arrows, 33
Source: Twilight of the Idols (1888)
“That's not my love; that's just your life.”
Ibid.
The Book of Disquiet
Original: Isso não é o meu amor; é apenas a sua vida.
“Whoever wants to reach a distant goal must take small steps.”
Attributed in Fun Fitness for Families (2005) by James Steffen, p. 24 and later publications; also attributed to Helmut Schmidt, in The 7 Ultimate Secrets to Weight Loss (2011) by Natasa Denman, p. 31 and later publications.
Disputed
“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.”
No published occurrence of such an attribution has yet been located prior to one in Wisdom Through the Ages : Book Two (2003) by Helen Granat, p. 225; this was used as an early slogan at Apple Computer in 1984, but the earliest occurence yet located is in The Recognitions (1955) by William Gaddis, p. 457:
Stop being so God Damn humble … You know God damn well that … that humility is defiance … simplicity today is sophisticated … simplicity is the ultimate sophistication today.
Disputed
The quote is usually regarded as anonymous, but is often attributed to her on several websites, as well as in several books, including My Life Is an Open Book http://books.google.es/books?id=qCOa1k--dt4C&printsec=frontcover&hl=es#v=onepage&q=eleanor%20roosevelt&f=false (2008), The Spirituality of Mary Magdalene http://books.google.es/books?hl=es&id=BLRuINwzVZcC&dq=eleanor+roosevelt++%22past+is+history%22&q=eleanor+roosevelt#v=snippet&q=eleanor%20roosevelt&f=false (2008), Mis cuatro estaciones http://books.google.es/books?hl=es&id=QCgANqKq8EIC&dq=ayer+es+historia%2C+ma%C3%B1ana++misterio.+Hoy+regalo+de+Dios+presente&q=%22eleanor+roosevelt%22#v=snippet&q=%22eleanor%20roosevelt%22&f=false (2008), and Gilles Lamontagne http://books.google.es/books?ei=MdG9UqGQK-fL2wX5zYC4Dw&hl=es&id=WyFKAQAAIAAJ&dq=Hier+est+de+l%27histoire%2C+demain+est+un+myst%C3%A8re+et+aujourd%27hui+est+un+cadeau.+C%27+est+pourquoi+nous+l%27appelons+%C2%AB+le+pr%C3%A9sent+roosevelt&focus=searchwithinvolume&q=eleanor+roosevelt (2010). None of these works cite any original reference.
Disputed
“The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.”
From Marthe Troly-Curtin's Phrynette Married (1912). Misattributed to Bertrand Russell due to an ambiguous entry in Laurence J. Peter's Peter’s Quotations: Ideas for Our Time (1977) http://quoteinvestigator.com/2010/06/11/time-you-enjoy/
Misattributed
“Know what to Do. And do it Yourself.”
Quotations from Gurudev’s teachings, Chinmya Mission Chicago
“Granted we known each other for some time
but it don't take a whole day to recognize sunshine”
"The Light" (Track 7)
Albums, Like Water for Chocolate (2000)
“Would you believe in what you believe in if you were the only one who believed it?”
Source: p.19 Thank You and You're Welcome (2009)
“The important thing is to be nothing.”
1960's, Conversations with Samuel Beckett and Bram van Velde' (1965 - 1969)
“If you find someone you love in your life, then hang on to that love.”
"Princess Diana: 10 most inspiring quotes from the 'people's princess'", Hello Magazine, Daily News (1 July 2015)
“One word
Frees us of all the weight and pain of life:
That word is love.”
Source: Oedipus at Colonus, Line 1616–18
“To live is to not know that one is living”
Diary (20 April, 1930), quoted in Afinado desconcerto (2002), p. 262
Context: Sometimes I start looking at the mirror and examining myself, feature by feature: eyes, mouth, shape of the forehead, eyelids curve, the face line... And this vulgar and hideous-looking, grotesque and miserable amalgam, would it know how to do verses? Oh, no! There is something else … but what? After all, why think? To live is to not know that one is living... Why don't I forget that I am living... to live?
“I am not, I will not be.
I have not, I will not have.”
That frightens all the childish
And extinguishes fear in the wise.
§ 26
Major attributed works, Ratnāvalī (Precious Garland)
“Love does not consist of gazing at each other, but in looking together in the same direction.”
“The only way to have a friend is to be one.”
“We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit.”
“Love is the triumph of imagination over intelligence.”
