Explore well-known and useful English quotes, phrases and sayings. Quotes in English with translations.
“This wallpaper is dreadful, one of us will have to go.”
“Mirrors should think longer before they reflect.”
“Strive for excellence, not perfection, because we don't live in a perfect world.”
“You never fail until you stop trying.”
“If I had another face, do you think I would wear this one?”
Attributed in Jean Dresden Grambs (1959), Abraham Lincoln Through the Eyes of High School Youth
Misattributed
Variant: If I were two-faced, would I be wearing this one?
“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/
“Always laugh when you can, it is cheap medicine.”
“When fate hands us a lemon, let's try to make lemonade.”
Letter to George Bainton, 15 October 1888, solicited for and printed in George Bainton, The Art of Authorship: Literary Reminiscences, Methods of Work, and Advice to Young Beginners (1890), pp. 87–88 http://books.google.com/books?id=XjBjzRN71_IC&pg=PA87.
Twain repeated the lightning bug/lightning comparison in several contexts, and credited Josh Billings for the idea:
Josh Billings defined the difference between humor and wit as that between the lightning bug and the lightning.
Speech at the 145th annual dinner of St. Andrew's Society, New York, 30 November 1901, Mark Twain Speaking (1976), ed. Paul Fatout, p. 424
Billings' original wording was characteristically affected:
Don't mistake vivacity for wit, thare iz about az mutch difference az thare iz between lightning and a lightning bug.
Josh Billings' Old Farmer's Allminax, "January 1871" http://books.google.com/books?id=sUI1AAAAMAAJ&pg=PT30. Also in Everybody's Friend, or; Josh Billing's Encyclopedia and Proverbial Philosophy of Wit and Humor (1874), p. 304 http://books.google.com/books?id=7rA8AAAAYAAJ&pg=PA304
Source: The Wit and Wisdom of Mark Twain
“Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.”
At the hazard of being thought one of the fools of this quotation, I meet that argument — I rush in — I take that bull by the horns. I trust I understand and truly estimate the right of self-government. My faith in the proposition that each man should do precisely as he pleases with all which is exclusively his own lies at the foundation of the sense of justice there is in me. I extend the principle to communities of men as well as to individuals. I so extend it because it is politically wise, as well as naturally just: politically wise in saving us from broils about matters which do not concern us. Here, or at Washington, I would not trouble myself with the oyster laws of Virginia, or the cranberry laws of Indiana. The doctrine of self-government is right, — absolutely and eternally right, — but it has no just application as here attempted. Or perhaps I should rather say that whether it has such application depends upon whether a negro is not or is a man. If he is not a man, in that case he who is a man may as a matter of self-government do just what he pleases with him.
But if the negro is a man, is it not to that extent a total destruction of self-government to say that he too shall not govern himself. When the white man governs himself, that is self-government; but when he governs himself and also governs another man, that is more than self-government — that is despotism. If the negro is a man, why then my ancient faith teaches me that "all men are created equal," and that there can be no moral right in connection with one man's making a slave of another.
1850s, Speech at Peoria, Illinois (1854)
Source: An Essay on Criticism
“Ah, how good it is to be among people who are reading.”
Source: The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge
“Patience is not the ability to wait but the ability to keep a good attitude while waiting.”
Source: Battlefield of the Mind: Winning the Battle in Your Mind
“Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.”
Misattributed
Variant: Efficiency is doing the thing right. Effectiveness is doing the right thing.
Source: The Essential Drucker
Lord Goring, Act I
Variant: The only thing to do with good advice is to pass it on. It is never of any use to oneself.
Source: An Ideal Husband (1895)
“Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power.”
Widely attributed to Lincoln, this appears to be derived from Thomas Carlyle's general comment below, but there are similar quotes about Lincoln in his biographies.
Adversity is sometimes hard upon a man; but for one man who can stand prosperity, there are a hundred that will stand adversity.
Thomas Carlyle (1841) On Heroes and Hero Worship.
Any man can stand adversity — only a great man can stand prosperity.
Horatio Alger (1883), Abraham Lincoln: The Backwoods Boy; or, How a Young Rail-Splitter became President
Most people can bear adversity; but if you wish to know what a man really is give him power. This is the supreme test. It is the glory of Lincoln that, having almost absolute power, he never used it except on the side of mercy.
Robert G. Ingersoll (1883), Unity: Freedom, Fellowship and Character in Religion, Volume 11, Number 3, The Exchange Table, True Greatness Exemplified in Abraham Lincoln, by Robert G. Ingersoll (excerpt), Quote Page 55, Column 1 and 2, Chicago, Illinois. ( Google Books Full View https://books.google.com/books?id=JUIrAAAAYAAJ&q=%22man+really%22#v=snippet&)
If you want to discover just what there is in a man — give him power.
Francis Trevelyan Miller (1910), Portrait Life of Lincoln: Life of Abraham Lincoln, the Greatest American
Any man can handle adversity. If you truly want to test a man's character, give him power.
Attributed in the electronic game Infamous
Misattributed
“Study the past if you would define the future.”
Foreword (January 1960)
You Learn by Living (1960)
Context: One's philosophy is not best expressed in words; it is expressed in the choices one makes. In stopping to think through the meaning of what I have learned, there is much that I believe intensely, much I am unsure of. In the long run, we shape our lives and we shape ourselves. The process never ends until we die. And, the choices we make are ultimately our own responsibility.
“Be patient and tough; someday this pain will be useful to you.”
Perfer et obdura, dolor hic tibi proderit olim.
“Anyone who lives within their means suffers from a lack of imagination.”
Variant: Anyone who lives within their means suffers from a lack of imagination.
“The best teacher is experience and not through someone's distorted point of view.”
Misattributed
Source: Often attributed to Kerouac's On the Road, the quote cannot be found in that book, nor in any of Kerouac's other published works.
“People who see life as anything more than pure entertainment are missing the point.”
Books, When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops? (2004)
Source: When Will Jesus Bring The Pork Chops?
“I was not born to be forced. I will breathe after my own fashion. Let us see who is the strongest.”
Source: On the Duty of Civil Disobedience
“As a writer, you should not judge, you should understand.”
“If you win, you need not have to explain… If you lose, you should not be there to explain!”
Variant: There is a loneliness in this world so great
that you can see it in the slow movement of the hands of a clock
Source: Love Is a Dog from Hell
“Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society.”
More Maxims of Mark (1927) edited by Merle Johnson
Variant: Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society.
“Nothing is permanent in this wicked world, not even our troubles.”
“The truth is rarely pure and never simple.”
Source: The Importance of Being Earnest (1895)
Context: Jack: That, my dear Algy, is the whole truth pure and simple.
Algernon: The truth is rarely pure and never simple. Modern life would be very tedious if it were either, and modern literature a complete impossibility!
Act I
Often quoted as "The pure and simple truth is rarely pure and never simple."
“To fear love is to fear life, and those who fear life are already three parts dead.”
1920s, Marriage and Morals (1929)
“If voting made any difference they wouldn't let us do it.”
Variant: If voting made any difference they wouldn't let us do it.
“The good ended happily, and the bad unhappily. That is what Fiction means.”
Miss Prism, Act II
Source: The Importance of Being Earnest (1895)
“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
“It all depends on how we look at things, and not how they are in themselves.”
“It's a shame that we have to live, but it's a tragedy that we get to live only one life.”
Source: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
“A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it.”
The Portrait of Mr. W. H. http://www.planetmonk.com/wilde/portrait/wh01.html (1889)
“Love is the wisdom of the fool and the folly of the wise.”
“Business, you know, may bring money, but friendship hardly ever does.”
Source: Emma (1815)
“One can have no smaller or greater mastery than mastery of oneself.”
The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci (1883), XIX Philosophical Maxims. Morals. Polemics and Speculations.
Variant: You can have no dominion greater or less than that over yourself.
“The only way of knowing a person is to love them without hope.”
Attributed to Kafka in Ambiguous Spaces (2008) by NaJa & deOstos (Nannette Jackowski and Ricardo de Ostos), p. 7, and a couple other publications since, this is actually from Report to Greco (1965) by Nikos Kazantzakis, p. 434
Misattributed
“Whatever the present moment contains, accept it as if you had chosen it.”
“Without music, life would be a mistake.”
Ohne Musik wäre das Leben ein Irrtum.
Maxims and Arrows, 33
Source: Twilight of the Idols (1888)
“All through life, be sure and put your feet in the right place, and then stand firm.”
As recalled by Rebecca R. Pomroy in Echoes from hospital and White House (1884), by Anna L. Boyden, p. 61 http://books.google.com/books?id=7LZiAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA61&dq=feet
Posthumous attributions
Variant: Be sure you put your feet in the right place, then stand firm.
“I never felt settled or calm. You can't really commit to life when you feel that.”
“My way of joking is to tell the truth. It's the funniest joke in the world.”
Act II
Source: 1900s, John Bull's Other Island (1907)
From a speech given at the White Shrine Club, Fresno, California, quoted in The Event Makers I’ve Known (2012) by Elvin C. Bell, p. 161. She is described as being in her late 70s, so c. 1960–1962
Source: Think and Grow Rich: The Landmark Bestseller - Now Revised and Updated for the 21st Century
“The very essence of romance is uncertainty.”
Variant: The very essence of romance is uncertainty.
Source: The Importance of Being Earnest and Other Plays
“The greatest weakness of all weaknesses is to fear too much to appear weak.”
Politics Drawn from the Very Words of Holy Scripture (1709)
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 London Premiere (July 2011)
2010s
“All will be lost apart from happiness.”
Attributed
Paraphrased variant: We do not need magic to change the world, we carry all the power we need inside ourselves already: we have the power to imagine better.
Harvard address (2008)
“The wisdom of the wise, and the experience of ages, may be preserved by quotation.”
Isaac D'Israeli, Curiosities of Literature, "Quotation".
Misattributed, Isaac D'Israeli
Variant: The wisdom of the wise and the experience of the ages are perpetuated by quotations.
Une jeune fille est comme une fleur qu'on a cueillie; mais la femme coupable est une fleur sur laquelle on a marché.
Honorine http://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/Honorine (1845), translated by Clara Bell
“Wisdom consists of the anticipation of consequences.”
15 April 1978.
Saturday Review
“We are what we think.
All that we are arises with our thoughts.
With our thoughts we make the world.”
As rendered by T. Byrom (1993), Shambhala Publications.
There is no quote from the Pali Canon that matches up with any of these. The closest quote to this is in the Majjhima Nikaya 19:
"Whatever a monk keeps pursuing with his thinking & pondering, that becomes the inclination of his awareness. If a monk keeps pursuing thinking imbued with sensuality, abandoning thinking imbued with renunciation, his mind is bent by that thinking imbued with sensuality. If a monk keeps pursuing thinking imbued with ill will, abandoning thinking imbued with non-ill will, his mind is bent by that thinking imbued with ill will. If a monk keeps pursuing thinking imbued with harmfulness, abandoning thinking imbued with harmlessness, his mind is bent by that thinking imbued with harmfulness." Sources: http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/mn/mn.019.than.html
Misattributed
“The truth of the matter is that you always know the right thing to do. The hard part is doing it.”
Also attributed to Robert H. Schuller
“No snowflake in an avalanche ever feels responsible.”
Stanisław Jerzy Lec, More Unkempt Thoughts [Myśli nieuczesane nowe] (1964)
Misattributed
“We do not quit playing because we grow old, we grow old because we quit playing.”
This is an anonymous modern quip which is a variant of a statement by G. Stanley Hall, in Adolescence: Its Psychology and Its Relations to Physiology, Anthropology, Sociology, Sex, Crime, Religion and Education (1904):
: Men grow old because they stop playing, and not conversely.
Misattributed
“I entered literary life as a meteor, and I shall leave it like a thunderbolt.”
As quoted in "Guy De Maupassant : A Study" by Pol Neveux, in Original Short Stories http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/3090
“The superior man is modest in his speech, but exceeds in his actions.”
Bk. 14, Ch. 29 (p. 208)
Translations, The Confucian Analects
“Take time to deliberate; but when the time for action arrives, stop thinking and go in.”
Quoted as "a maxim of Gen. Jackson's" in Supplement to the Courant Vol. XXII No. 25, Hartford, Saturday, December 12, 1857, p. 200 books.google http://books.google.de/books?id=0uIRAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA200&dq=deliberate
Napoleon : In His Own Words (1916)
“Laugh at death and die of laughter.”
Attributed
'Edward Hopper in Saõ Paulo', as cited by William C. Seitz, Smithsonian Press, Washington D.C., 1967
posthumous
“Religious wars are basically people killing each other over who has the better imaginary friend.”
There is no known basis to attribute this saying to Napoleon. It is found (unattributed) in a Usenet post from July 1999 https://groups.google.com/forum/message/raw?msg=soc.penpals/QIUrpkacWyE/FbCj7pij5WwJ.
Misattributed
“The hours of folly are measur'd by the clock, but of wisdom no clock can measure.”
Source: 1790s, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1790–1793), Proverbs of Hell, Line 12
“Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.”
Has been attributed to Seneca since the 1990s (eg. Gregory K. Ericksen, (1999), Women entrepreneurs only: 12 women entrepreneurs tell the stories of their success, page ix.). Other books ascribe the saying to either Darrell K. Royal (former American football player, born 1924) or Elmer G. Letterman (Insurance salesman and writer, 1897-1982). However, it is unlikely either man originated the saying. A version that reads "He is lucky who realizes that luck is the point where preparation meets opportunity" can be found (unattributed) in the 1912 The Youth's Companion: Volume 86. The quote might be a distortion of the following passage by Seneca (who makes no mention of "luck" and is in fact quoting his friend Demetrius the Cynic):<blockquote>"The best wrestler," he would say, "is not he who has learned thoroughly all the tricks and twists of the art, which are seldom met with in actual wrestling, but he who has well and carefully trained himself in one or two of them, and watches keenly for an opportunity of practising them." — Seneca, On Benefits, vii. 1 http://thriceholy.net/Texts/Benefits4.html</blockquote>
Disputed
“…all of the philosophers put together are not worth a single saint.”
Tears and Saints (1937)
“Only it takes time to be happy. A lot of time. Happiness, too, is a long patience.”
Seulement, il faut du temps pour être heureux. Beaucoup de temps. Le bonheur lui aussi est une longue patience.
A Happy Death (1971)
“A flow of words is a sure sign of duplicity.”
Qui parle trop veut tromper.
Part I, ch. VI.
Letters of Two Brides (1841-1842)
