Earl Nightingale
(1921–1989) American motivational speaker
Deep quotes
page 5
“If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else.”
Booker T. Washington
(1856–1915) African-American educator, author, orator, and advisor
“Very little is needed to make a happy life.”
ἐν ὀλιγίστοις κεῖται τὸ εὐδαιμόνως βιῶσαι
VII, 67
Source: Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book VII
“You must gain control over your money or the lack of it will forever control you.”
Dave Ramsey
(1960) American financial advisor
“The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference.”
Elie Wiesel
(1928–2016) writer, professor, political activist, Nobel Laureate, and Holocaust survivor
“You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.”
Maya Angelou
(1928–2014) American author and poet
As quoted in Conversations with Maya Angelou (1989) by Jeffrey M. Elliot
“Live for each second without hesitation”
Elton John
(1947) English rock singer-songwriter, composer and pianist
“The whole secret of a successful life is to find out what is one's destiny to do, and then do it.”
Henry Ford
(1863–1947) American industrialist
“The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep”
General sources
Source: "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" (1923) http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/171621
Context: The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
“Dreams have only one owner at a time. That's why dreamers are lonely.”
William Faulkner
(1897–1962) American writer
“Life is never made unbearable by circumstances, but only by lack of meaning and purpose.”
Viktor E. Frankl
(1905–1997) Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist, and Holocaust survivor
“Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.”
Oliver Goldsmith
(1728–1774) Irish physician and writer
Variant: Our greatest glory consists not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.
Source: The Citizen of the World, Or, Letters from a Chinese Philosopher, Residing in London, to His Friends in the Country, by Dr. Goldsmith
“Ignoring isn’t the same as ignorance, you have to work at it.”
Variant: We lived, as usual by ignoring. Ignoring isn't the same as ignorance, you have to work at it.
Source: The Handmaid’s Tale (1985), Chapter 10 (p. 56)
Source: The Handmaid's Tale
Alex Shakar
(1968) American writer
Source: Luminarium
Variant: Immature love says: 'I love you because I need you.' Mature love say: 'i need you because I love you.
Source: The Art of Loving (1956), Ch. 2
“The opposite of love is not hate. It is indifference.”
Christopher Pike
(1954) American author Kevin Christopher McFadden
Source: Black Blood
The Second World War, Volume II : Their Finest Hour (1949) Chapter 8 (September Tensions).
Post-war years (1945–1955)
Dr. Seuss
(1904–1991) American children's writer and illustrator, co-founder of Beginner Books
Oh, the Places You'll Go! (1990)
Source: Oh, The Places You'll Go!
“You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it.”
Margaret Thatcher
(1925–2013) British stateswoman and politician
This quote is widely attributed to Margaret Thatcher on various websites, and also appears in a number of books, including The Concise Columbia Dictionary of Quotations, Columbia University Press (1989), ed. Robert Andrews, p. 320 : ISBN 0231069901. 9780231069908 , but without any further source information such as date, location or any other context.
One valid Thatcher quote which may be the basis for the version above appears in the Second Carlton Lecture http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/105799 (‘Why Democracy Will Last’), delivered at the Carlton Club, London (November 26, 1984) : Mr. Chairman, each generation has to stand up for democracy. It can’t take anything for granted and may have to fight fundamental battles anew. You know that marvellous quotation from Goethe : ‘That which thy fathers bequeathed thee / Earn it anew if thou would possess it.’
Thatcher also expressed this thought in a Speech to Atlantic Bridge (May 14, 2003) http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/111266, delivered at the St. Regis Hotel, New York City : My friends, every generation has to fight anew the battle for liberty.
Disputed
“Deep in their roots all flowers keep the light.”
Theodore Roethke
(1908–1963) American poet
“Do the thing and you will have the power.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
(1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet
“This is the world as it is. This is where you start.”
Saul D. Alinsky
(1909–1972) American community organizer and writer
“Your problem is you are too busy holding on to your unworthiness.”
Ram Dass
(1931–2019) American contemporary spiritual teacher and the author of the 1971 book Be Here Now
“Consciousness is only possible through change; change is only possible through movement.”
Source: The Art of Seeing
“What if everything in the world were a misunderstanding, what if laughter were really tears?”
Sören Kierkegaard
(1813–1855) Danish philosopher and theologian, founder of Existentialism
“A 'no' does not hide anything, but a 'yes' very easily becomes a deception.”
Sören Kierkegaard
(1813–1855) Danish philosopher and theologian, founder of Existentialism
“Life is a succession of lessons which must be lived to be understood.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
(1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet
“To put everything in balance is good, to put everything in harmony is better.”
Victor Hugo
(1802–1885) French poet, novelist, and dramatist
Mettre tout en équilibre, c'est bien; mettre tout en harmonie, c'est mieux.
Quatre-vingt-treize (Ninety-Three) (1874), Book VII, Chapter V http://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/Quatre-vingt-treize_-_III%2C_7#V_LE_CACHOT
Ninety-Three (1874)
“Arm yourself, my heart: the thing that you must do is fearful, yet inevitable.”
Euripidés
(-480–-406 BC) ancient Athenian playwright
Source: Medea and Other Plays: Medea / Alcestis / The Children of Heracles / Hippolytus
Dale Carnegie
(1888–1955) American writer and lecturer
“The world is changed by your example, not by your opinion.”
Paulo Coelho
(1947) Brazilian lyricist and novelist
“The best way to predict your future is to create it”
Peter F. Drucker
(1909–2005) American business consultant
“We learn from experience that men never learn anything from experience.”
George Bernard Shaw
(1856–1950) Irish playwright
“Good things happen to those who hustle.”
Anaïs Nin
(1903–1977) writer of novels, short stories, and erotica
“Write it. Shoot it. Publish it. Crochet it, sauté it, whatever. MAKE.”
Joss Whedon
(1964) American director, writer, and producer for television and film
“Worry never robs tomorrow of its sorrow, it only saps today of its joy.”
Leo Buscaglia
(1924–1998) Motivational speaker, writer
“No person is your friend who demands your silence, or denies your right to grow.”
Alice Walker
(1944) American author and activist
“Those who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night.”
Vincent Van Gogh
(1853–1890) Dutch post-Impressionist painter (1853-1890)
Garrison Keillor
(1942) American radio host and writer
Lake Wobegon Days (1985), p. 337
Source: Lake Wobegon U.S.A.
“You can never cross the ocean until you have the courage to lose sight of the shore”
André Gide
(1869–1951) French novelist and essayist
“It is a sad fate for a man to die too well known to everybody else, and still unknown to himself.”
Francis Bacon
(1561–1626) English philosopher, statesman, scientist, jurist, and author
Elie Wiesel
(1928–2016) writer, professor, political activist, Nobel Laureate, and Holocaust survivor
“Eighty percent of success is showing up.”
Woody Allen
(1935) American screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, author, playwright, and musician
Hillary Clinton
(1947) American politician, senator, Secretary of State, First Lady
It Takes A Village, January 1996
White House years (1993–2000)
“One way to keep momentum going is to have constantly greater goals.”
Michael Korda
(1933) British writer
Source: Success! (1977), p. 36
“The more you know, the less you are.”
Bram van Velde
(1895–1981) Dutch painter
1960's, Conversations with Samuel Beckett and Bram van Velde' (1965 - 1969)
“Integrity is doing the right thing, even when no one is watching.”
Clive Staples Lewis
(1898–1963) Christian apologist, novelist, and Medievalist
Not found in Lewis's works.
"Integrity means doing the right thing at all times, without hesitation" is found in a 1943 syndicated newspaper column. Elsie Robinson, "Listen, World!" https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/58360960/, Evening News (Harrisburg, PA), 1943-02-24, p. 10.
"Integrity means doing the right thing even when no one is there to judge" is found (unattributed) in the 1965 Journal of Clinical Psychology https://books.google.com/books?id=9rm1AAAAIAAJ&dq=%22integrity%22+%22doing+the+right+thing%22&focus=searchwithinvolume&q=%22doing+the+right+thing%22.
The quote became attributed to C.S. Lewis by 2012 https://books.google.com/books?id=XH-1TURLaf4C&pg=PT154&dq=integrity+%22even+when%22+%22c+s+lewis%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi6x9XznoTKAhUKymMKHdoKCKoQ6AEIHTAA#v=onepage&q=integrity%20%22even%20when%22%20%22c%20s%20lewis%22&f=false.
Misattributed
“You are never too old to set another goal, or to dream a new dream.”
Clive Staples Lewis
(1898–1963) Christian apologist, novelist, and Medievalist
Unknown, but also attributed to Les Brown, a motivational speaker. Commonly attributed to C.S. Lewis, but never with a primary source listed.
Misattributed
“Education costs money, but then so does ignorance.”
Claus Moser, Baron Moser
(1922–2015) British statistician and Civil Servant
The Daily Telegraph, 21 August 1990 http://www2.gsu.edu/~dscthw/8350/bayes/perfinfo.pdf
“The business of business is business.”
Alfred P. Sloan
(1875–1966) American businessman
Widely attributed to Milton Friedman, and sometimes cited as being in his work Capitalism and Freedom (1962) this is also attributed to Alfred P. Sloan, sometimes with citation of a statement of 1964, but sometimes with attestations to his use of it as a motto as early as 1923.
Disputed
“Nothing has more strength than dire necessity.”
Helen (412 BC), as translated by Richmond Lattimore
“To do two things at once is to do neither.”
Publilio Siro
Latin writer
Misattributed as Maxim 7, p. 13 https://books.google.com/books?id=GKFGAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA13&dq=%22To+do+two+things+at+once+is+to+do+neither.%22
Variant of:
Duos qui sequitur lepores neutrum capit
Who chases two rabbits catches neither.
A Dictionary of Quotations in most frequent Use, David Evans Macdonnel, 1797, quoted in The Monthly Review, 1798, p. 467 https://books.google.com/books?id=KYhPAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA467&dq=%22duos+qui+sequitur+lepores+neutrum+capit%22
Apparently of medieval or modern origin, not found in antiquity.
Misattributed
“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.”
Mahatma Gandhi
(1869–1948) pre-eminent leader of Indian nationalism during British-ruled India
Variant on aphorism "Study as if you were to live forever. Live as if you were to die tomorrow" pre-dating Gandhi, variously attributed to Isidore of Seville (c. 560 – 636), in FPA Book of Quotations (1952) by Franklin Pierce Adams, to Edmund Rich (1175–1240) in American Journal of Education (1877), or to Alain de Lille in Samuel Smiles's Duty https://books.google.com/books?id=33UzAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA363&dq=live+die+tomorrow+learn+forever&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjd3s_2m57MAhWFMGMKHe-sAl8Q6AEIHDAA#v=onepage&q=live%20die%20tomorrow%20learn%20forever&f=false (1881).
The 1995 book "The good boatman: a portrait of Gandhi," states that Gandhi subscribed "to the view that a man should live thinking he might die tomorrow but learn as if he would live forever."
In his 2010 Boyer lecture Glyn Davis (Professor of Political Science and Vice-Chancellor of Melbourne University) attributes the quote to Desiderius Erasmus. "He [Erasmus] reworked Pliny to urge 'live as if you are to die tomorrow, study as if you were to live forever'. Many students obey the first clause - the best heed both."
There is a similar quote by Johann Gottfried Herder: "Mensch, genieße dein Leben, als müssest morgen du weggehn; Schone dein Leben, als ob ewig du weiletest hier." ["Man, enjoy your life as if you were to depart tomorrow; spare your life as if you were to linger here forever."] (Zerstreute Blätter, 1785).
Disputed
“Either you will be you or you will not be at all.”
Dejan Stojanovic
(1959) poet, writer, and businessman
“The Knight,” p. 81
The Sun Watches the Sun (1999), Sequence: “What After”
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
(1749–1832) German writer, artist, and politician
Attributed to Zig Ziglar
Misattributed
“Life is everything and nothing all at once.”
Billy Corgan
(1967) American musician, songwriter, producer, and author
From the Pisces Iscariot liner notes.
Neil Gaiman
book
Coraline
Often misattributed to but inspired by GK Chesterton:
Fairy tales do not give the child his first idea of bogey. What fairy tales give the child is his first clear idea of the possible defeat of bogey. The baby has known the dragon intimately ever since he had an imagination. What the fairy tale provides for him is a St. George to kill the dragon.
Coraline (2002)
Henry David Thoreau
(1817–1862) 1817-1862 American poet, essayist, naturalist, and abolitionist
According to The Quote Investigator http://quoteinvestigator.com/2014/04/17/butterfly/, "the earliest instance of this saying was crafted by the enigmatic “L” for “The Daily Crescent” newspaper in New Orleans [in June 1848]. ... The linkage to Henry David Thoreau is unsupported."
Misattributed
Rumi
(1207–1273) Iranian poet
Helen Schucman in A Course in Miracles (1976) by Helen Schucman and William Thetford, Ch. 16 The Forgiveness of Illusions, p. 338,#6.
Misattributed
“All our dreams can come true — if we have the courage to pursue them.”
Walt Disney
(1901–1966) American film producer and businessman
Source: How to Be Like Walt : Capturing the Magic Every Day of Your Life (2004), Ch. 3 : Imagination Unlimited, p. 63; Unsourced variant: All your dreams can come true if you have the courage to pursue them.
“There was content, but no container.”
Simon Blackburn
(1944) British academic philosopher
Source: Think (1999), Chapter Four, The Self, p. 135
“What lies behind us and what lies before us are but tiny matters compared to what lies within us.”
Henry S. Haskins
(1875–1957)
Source: Meditations in Wall Street (1940), p. 131
“To see is to think, and to think is to see.”
Richard Serra
(1939) American sculptor
Charlie Rose interview (2001)
“The business of business is business.”
Milton Friedman
(1912–2006) American economist, statistician, and writer
Widely attributed to Friedman, and sometimes cited as being in his work Capitalism and Freedom (1962) this is also attributed to Alfred P. Sloan, sometimes with citation of a statement of 1964, but sometimes with attestations to his use of it as a motto as early as 1923.
Disputed
“The world is not the way they tell you it is.”
George Goodman
(1930–2014) American author and economics commentator
Source: The Money Game (1968), Chapter 1, Why Did The master Say "Game"?, p. 3
Mahatma Gandhi
(1869–1948) pre-eminent leader of Indian nationalism during British-ruled India
Gandhi: His Life and Message for the World (1954), by Louis Fischer, p. 177
Mahatma Gandhi to Rajkumari Amrit Kaur, August 29, 1947 https://www.gandhiheritageportal.org/ghp_booksection_detail/Ny0yMzUtMg==#page/258/mode/2up. In Letters to Rajkumari Amrit Kaur. 1st edition (April, 1961), p. 246
Posthumous publications (1950s and later)
“There is a wisdom of the Head, and … there is a wisdom of the Heart.”
Bk. III, Ch. 1
Hard Times (1854)
Booker T. Washington
(1856–1915) African-American educator, author, orator, and advisor
Source: 1900s, Up From Slavery (1901), Chapter XI: Making Their Beds Before They Could Lie On Them
“A man is not finished when he's defeated. He's finished when he quits.”
Richard Nixon
(1913–1994) 37th President of the United States of America
1969 note to self, as quoted in Nixon (1987) by Stephen E. Ambrose, p. 284
1960s
Variant: A man is not finished when he is defeated. He is finished when he quits.
John F. Kennedy
(1917–1963) 35th president of the United States of America
1963, Address at the Free University of Berlin
William Hazlitt
(1778–1830) English writer
"The Indian Jugglers"
Table Talk: Essays On Men And Manners http://www.blupete.com/Literature/Essays/TableHazIV.htm (1821-1822)
“Action is the foundational key to all success.”
Anthony Robbins
(1960) Author, actor, professional speaker
As quoted in Stack the Logs! : Building a Success Framework to Reach Your Dreams (2003) by Frank F. Lunn, p. 45
“A bird doesn't sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song”
Maya Angelou
(1928–2014) American author and poet
Although it appears on U.S. postage featuring Angelou, this is actually a variant quote from the work of poet Joan Walsh Anglund.
Misattributed
Source: Postal Service releases Maya Angelou stamp with quote from another author, Josh Hicks, 7 April 2015, Washington Post, 9 April 2015 http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/federal-eye/wp/2015/04/07/postal-serves-releases-maya-angelou-stamp-with-quote-from-another-author/,
“When life gives you Monday, dip it in glitter and sparkle all day.”
Ella Woodward
(1991) British blogger
"Mills and boon story of Ella Mill's recipe for success" https://www.independent.ie/entertainment/mills-and-boon-story-of-ella-mills-recipe-for-success-35422146.html, Independent.ie (6 February 2017).
Thomas Edison
(1847–1931) American inventor and businessman
This is presented as a statement of 1877, as quoted in From Telegraph to Light Bulb with Thomas Edison (2007) by Deborah Headstrom-Page, p. 22.
1800s
“Learn as if you were to live forever; live as if you were to die tomorrow.”
John Wooden
(1910–2010) American basketball coach
They Call Me Coach (1972)
“A ship in a harbor is safe, but that is not what a ship is built for.”
Sarah Palin
(1964) American politician
Taken from a quote of Grace Hopper. [Tropp, Henry S., Fall 1984, Grace Hopper: The Youthful Teacher of Us All, Abacus, 2, 1, p. 18, 0724-6722]
Invoked by Palin at her introduction by Senator John McCain as his choice for the Republican Vice Presidential nomination on .
2014
“The big lesson in life, baby, is never be scared of anyone or anything.”
Frank Sinatra
(1915–1998) American singer and film actor
The Way You Wear Your Hat (1997)
“The more man meditates upon good thoughts, the better will be his world and the world at large.”
Confucius
(-551–-479 BC) Chinese teacher, editor, politician, and philosopher
Attributed to Confucius in Out of the Blue: Delight Comes Into Our Lives (1996) by Mark Victor Hansen, Barbara Nichols, and Patty Hansen, p. 93
Attributed
Winston S. Churchill
(1874–1965) Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
This quote is commonly attributed to Churchill, but appears in the "Red Herrings: False Attributions" appendix of Churchill by Himself : The Definitive Collection of Quotations (2008) by Richard Langworth, without citation as to where it originates.
In American Character, a 1905 address by Brander Matthews, a similar quotation is attributed to L. P. Jacks ( link http://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015059451156?urlappend=%3Bseq=238).
""Our civilization is a perilous adventure for an uncertain prize... Human society is not a constructed thing but a human organization... We are adopting a false method of reform when we begin by operations that weaken society, either morally or materially, by lower its vitality, by plunging it into gloom and despair about itself, by inducing the atmosphere of the sick-room, and then when its courage and resources are at a low ebb, expecting it to perform some mighty feat of self-reformation... Social despair or bitterness does not get us anywhere... Low spirits are an intellectual luxury. An optimist is one who sees an opportunity in every difficulty. A pessimist is one who sees a difficulty in every opportunity... The conquest of great difficulties is the glory of human nature." L. P. Jacks, quoted in American character, by Brander Matthews, 1906
Misattributed
Variant: A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.