Deep quotes
page 4

Nagarjuna photo

“I am not, I will not be.
I have not, I will not have.”

Nagarjuna (150–250) Indian philosopher

That frightens all the childish
And extinguishes fear in the wise.

§ 26
Major attributed works, Ratnāvalī (Precious Garland)

Laozi photo

“When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.”

Laozi (-604) semi-legendary Chinese figure, attributed to the 6th century, regarded as the author of the Tao Te Ching and fou…
Mark Twain photo
Prevale photo

“The opportunity of your life, it's you.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: ​(it) L'occasione della tua vita, sei tu.
Source: prevale.net

Victor Hugo photo

“Curiosity is gluttony. To see is to devour.”

Source: Les Misérables

Jim Henson photo

“Dreams have only one owner at a time. That's why dreamers are lonely.”

Erma Bombeck (1927–1996) When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent le…
Ralph Waldo Emerson photo

“What lies behind you and what lies in front of you, pales in comparison to what lies inside of you.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet

As reported by Quoteinvestigator on January 11, 2011 http://quoteinvestigator.com/2011/01/11/what-lies-within/ the quote appeared in “Meditations in Wall Street” (1940) by Wall Street trader Henry Stanley Haskins, "a Wall Street trader with a checkered background. The phrase was misattributed because the true author's name was initially withheld. In addition, the assignment of the maxim to a more prestigious individual, e.g., Emerson or Thoreau, made it more attractive and more believable as a nugget of wisdom." Emerson made a number of similar statements — in "The American Scholar," for example, he says "Give me insight into to-day, and you may have the antique and future worlds" — which probably increased the likelihood of misattribution.
Misattributed
Variant: What lies behind us and what lies ahead of us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.
Variant: What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.

Muhammad Ali photo

“If my mind can conceive it; and my heart can believe it — then I can achieve it.”

Similar to a quote by Jesse Jackson, which is in turn a modification of a quote by Napoleon Hill: "Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve."
Misattributed
Source: The Soul of a Butterfly: Reflections on Life's Journey

Henry Van Dyke photo

“Time Is…
Too slow for those who wait,
Too swift for those who fear,
Too long for those who grieve,
Too short for those who rejoice,
But for those who love,
Time is Eternity.”

Henry Van Dyke (1852–1933) American diplomat

Time Is
Undated
Source: Time Is...
Too slow for those who wait,
Too swift for those who fear,
Too long for those who grieve,
Too short for those who rejoice,
But for those who love,
Time is Eternity. (Music and Other Poems, 1904)

George Gordon Byron photo

“Love will find a way through paths where wolves fear to prey.”

George Gordon Byron (1788–1824) English poet and a leading figure in the Romantic movement
Oprah Winfrey photo
Martin Luther King, Jr. photo

“The time is always right to do what’s right.”

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement

Speech delivered in Finney Chapel at Oberlin College (22 October 1964), as reported in "When MLK came to Oberlin" by Cindy Leise, The Chronicle-Telegram (21 January 2008) http://chronicle.northcoastnow.com/2008/01/21/when-mlk-came-to-oberlin/
1960s
Variant: The time is always right to do what’s right.

Warren Buffett photo

“Someone's sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.”

Warren Buffett (1930) American business magnate, investor, and philanthropist

Statement of January 1991, as quoted in Of Permanent Value: The Story of Warren Buffett (2007) by Andrew Kilpatrick

Maya Angelou photo
Anthony Robbins photo
Victor Hugo photo

“Being good is easy, what is difficult is being just.”

Victor Hugo (1802–1885) French poet, novelist, and dramatist

“The temptation of the age is to look good without being good.”

Brennan Manning (1934–2013) writer, American Roman Catholic priest and United States Marine

Source: The Ragamuffin Gospel: Good News for the Bedraggled, Beat-Up, and Burnt Out

Victor Hugo photo

“Are you afraid of the good you might do?”

Source: Les Misérables

Helen Keller photo
Maya Angelou photo
Gustave Flaubert photo

“There is no truth. There is only perception.”

Gustave Flaubert (1821–1880) French writer (1821–1880)

Quoted in The Letters of Gustave Flaubert, 1857-1880, ed. and trans. Francis Steegmuller (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1982), xii.
Correspondence
Variant: There is no 'true'. There are merely ways of perceiving truth.

Sholem Aleichem photo
Markus Zusak photo
Ayn Rand photo
Francis Bacon photo
Ashley Montagu photo
Oprah Winfrey photo
Peace Pilgrim photo
Anaïs Nin photo
Sören Kierkegaard photo
Erich Fromm photo
Jack Kerouac photo

“Maybe that's what life is… a wink of the eye and winking stars.”

Jack Kerouac (1922–1969) American writer

Letter to Alan Harrington (23 April 1949) published in Kerouac: Selected Letters: Volume 1 1940-1956 (1996)
Source: Selected Letters, 1940-1956

Thich Nhat Hanh photo
Rick Riordan photo
Lucille Ball photo

“Love yourself first and everything else falls into line. You really have to love yourself to get anything done in this world.”

Lucille Ball (1911–1989) American actress and businesswoman

Variant: Love yourself first and everything else falls into line. Your really have to love yourself to get anything done in this world.

Chris Rock photo

“Wealth is not about having a lot of money; it's about having a lot of options.”

Chris Rock (1965) American comedian, actor, screenwriter, television producer, film producer, and director
Gustave Flaubert photo
Ella Wheeler Wilcox photo

“We flatter those we scarcely know,
We please the fleeting guest,
And deal full many a thoughtless blow
To those who love us best.”

Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1850–1919) American author and poet

Variant: We flatter those we scarcely know,
We please the fleeting guest;
And deal full many a thoughtless blow,
To those who love us best.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow photo

“Every man has his secret sorrows which the world knows not; and often times we call a man cold when he is only sad.”

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882) American poet

Hyperion http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/5436, Bk. III, Ch. IV (1839).
Variant: Believe me, every heart has its secret sorrows, which the world knows not, and oftentimes we call a man cold, when he is only sad.
Context: "Ah! this beautiful world!" said Flemming, with a smile. "Indeed, I know not what to think of it. Sometimes it is all gladness and sunshine, and Heaven itself lies not far off. And then it changes suddenly; and is dark and sorrowful, and clouds shut out the sky. In the lives of the saddest of us, there are bright days like this, when we feel as if we could take the great world in our arms and kiss it. Then come the gloomy hours, when the fire will neither burn on our hearths nor in our hearts; and all without and within is dismal, cold, and dark. Believe me, every heart has its secret sorrows, which the world knows not, and oftentimes we call a man cold, when he is only sad."

Eudora Welty photo
Ralph Waldo Emerson photo
Ann Brashares photo

“Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not.”

Source: Forever in Blue: The Fourth Summer of the Sisterhood

John Stuart Mill photo

“I have learned to seek my happiness by limiting my desires, rather than in attempting to satisfy them.”

John Stuart Mill (1806–1873) British philosopher and political economist

Attributed to John Stuart Mill in The Phrenological Journal and Science of Health, Vol. LXXXV (September 1887), p. 170
Disputed

Napoleon Hill photo

“A quitter never wins-and-a winner never quits.”

Napoleon Hill (1883–1970) American author

Variant: A quitter never wins and a winner never quits.
Source: Think and Grow Rich: The Landmark Bestseller - Now Revised and Updated for the 21st Century

James Baldwin photo
Albert Einstein photo
George Bernard Shaw photo

“Those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.”

George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish playwright

Everybody's Political What's What? (ebook, must be borrowed) https://openlibrary.org/books/OL24979564M/Everybody's_political_what's_what (1944), Chapter XXXVII: Creed and Conduct, p. 330
1940s and later
Variant: Progress is impossible without change; and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.
Context: Progress is impossible without change; and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything. Creeds, articles, and institutes of religious faith ossify our brains and make change impossible. As such they are nuisances, and in practice have to be mostly ignored.

Maya Angelou photo
Confucius photo

“And remember, no matter where you go, there you are.”

Confucius (-551–-479 BC) Chinese teacher, editor, politician, and philosopher
Victor Hugo photo

“People do not lack strength, they lack will.”

Victor Hugo (1802–1885) French poet, novelist, and dramatist

“Better a cruel truth than a comfortable delusion.”

Edward Abbey (1927–1989) American author and essayist

A Voice Crying in the Wilderness (Vox Clamantis in Deserto) (1990)

Victor Hugo photo

“As with stomachs, we should pity minds that do not eat.”

Source: Les Misérables

John Steinbeck photo
John F. Kennedy photo

“Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or the present are certain to miss the future.”

John F. Kennedy (1917–1963) 35th president of the United States of America

Variant: Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.

Matt Haig photo
James Thurber photo

“Love is what you've been through with somebody”

James Thurber (1894–1961) American cartoonist, author, journalist, playwright
Jane Austen photo
Gustave Flaubert photo
Francis Bacon photo
Henry David Thoreau photo

“What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals.”

Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) 1817-1862 American poet, essayist, naturalist, and abolitionist

Original from Zig Ziglar https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Zig_Ziglar
Misattributed

Anaïs Nin photo

“Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born.”

Anaïs Nin (1903–1977) writer of novels, short stories, and erotica

March 1937
Diary entries (1914 - 1974)
Source: The Diary of Anaïs Nin, Vol. 1: 1931-1934

Harvey Fierstein photo

“The most important thing in life is to learn how to give out love, and let it come in”

Morrie Schwartz (1916–1995) American sociologist

Source: Morrie: In His Own Words

Mitch Albom photo
Stephen King photo

“Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work.”

Stephen King (1947) American author

Source: On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

Elbert Hubbard photo

“Every man is a damn fool for at least five minutes a day. Wisdom consists of not exceeding the limit.”

Elbert Hubbard (1856–1915) American writer, publisher, artist, and philosopher fue el escritor del jarron azul

The Roycraft Dictionary and Book of Epigrams (1923)
Source: The Roycroft Dictionary Concocted by Ali Baba and the Bunch on Rainy Days

Sören Kierkegaard photo

“I stick my finger into existence and it smells of nothing.”

Sören Kierkegaard (1813–1855) Danish philosopher and theologian, founder of Existentialism
Edith Wharton photo

“There are two ways of spreading light: to be
The candle or the mirror that reflects it.”

Edith Wharton (1862–1937) American novelist, short story writer, designer

"Vesalius in Zante (1564)", in North American Review (November 1902), p. 631
Variant: There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that receives it.

Drew Barrymore photo

“Life is very interesting… in the end, some of your greatest pains, become your greatest strengths.”

Drew Barrymore (1975) American actress, director and producer

Variant: In the end, some of your greatest pains become your greatest strengths.

Paulo Coelho photo

“It's the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting”

Variant: It's the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting.
Source: The Alchemist

Martin Luther King, Jr. photo

“If I cannot do great things, I can do small things in a great way”

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement
Arthur C. Clarke photo

“Two possibilities exist: Either we are alone in the Universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying.”

Arthur C. Clarke (1917–2008) British science fiction writer, science writer, inventor, undersea explorer, and television series host

As quoted in Visions : How Science Will Revolutionize the Twenty-First Century (1999) by Michio Kaku, p. 295
2000s and attributed from posthumous publications

Lena Horne photo

“It's not the load that breaks you down, it's the way you carry it.”

Lena Horne (1917–2010) American singer, actress, civil rights activist and dancer

Variant: It's not the load that breaks you down, it's the way you carry it.

Wayne W. Dyer photo
Groucho Marx photo
Stephen R. Covey photo