A collection of quotes on the topic of anniversary, graduation, motivational, success.
“Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.”
“You must do the thing you think you cannot do.”
Source: You Learn by Living (1960), p. 29–30
Context: You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, "I have lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along." … You must do the thing you think you cannot do.
“The roots of education … are bitter, but the fruit is sweet.”
The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers
“Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it.”
“Live in the sunshine, swim the sea, drink the wild air.”
“You get in life what you have the courage to ask for.”
“Do not wait; the time will never be "just right."”
Start where you stand, and work with whatever tools you may have at your command, and better tools will be found as you go along.
Source: Think and Grow Rich (1938), p. 127
“Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.”
Worstward Ho (1983)
Variant: Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.
Context: All of old. Nothing else ever. Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.
“Love the life you live.
Live the life you love.”
Variant: Love the life you live. Live the life you love.
“Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all.”
“Try to become not a man of success, but try rather to become a man of value.”
As quoted by LIFE magazine (2 May 1955)
1950s
Variant: Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value.
“Sometimes you will never know the value of a moment until it becomes a memory.”
Georges Duhamel in THE HEART'S DOMAIN (1919). As it was composed in French, the wording in English may vary in translation. Theodore Geisel / Dr. Seuss was born in 1904, and would have been about 15 years old at the time that it was published. The full text can be found at the link below: We do not know the true value of our moments until they have undergone the test of memory. Like the images the photographer plunges into a golden bath, our sentiments take on color; and only then, after that recoil and that trans-figuration, do we understand their real meaning and enjoy them in all their tranquil splendor.
Misattributed
“It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.”
Attributed to Aristotle in Lowell L. Bennion, Religion and the Pursuit of Truth http://books.google.gr/books?id=2HPUAAAAMAAJ&q=, Deseret Book Company, 1959, p. 52, and in American Opinion, Volume 24 http://books.google.gr/books?id=irofAQAAMAAJ&q=, Robert Welch, Inc., 1981, p. 23. Possibly a discombobulation http://publicnoises.blogspot.fi/2009/02/aristotle-and-accuracy.html of the Nicomachean Ethics Book I, 1094b.24 quote above.
Disputed
Source: Metaphysics
“Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself.”
This is a paraphrase of an idea that Dewey expressed using other words in My Pedagogic Creed (1897) and Democracy and Education (1916); it is widely misattributed to Dewey as a quotation.
Cf. James William Norman, A Comparison of Tendencies in Secondary Education in England and the United States (New York: Teachers College, Columbia University, 1922), [//books.google.com/books?id=qrmgAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA140 p. 140] (emphasis added): "...there has for years been a strong and growing tendency in the United States under the leadership of Dewey, and more recently of Kilpatrick, to find an educational method correlative of democracy in society with the belief that education is life itself rather than a mere preparation for life, and that practice in democratic living is the best preparation for democracy."
Misattributed
Variant: Education is a social process; education is growth; education is not preparation for life but is life itself.
Speech at Founding Rally of the Organization of Afro-American Unity (28 June 1964), as quoted in By Any Means Necessary (1970)
By any means necessary: speeches, interviews, and a letter (1970)
Variant: The future belongs to those who prepare for it today.
Source: Malcolm X, Black Liberation, and the Road to Workers' Power
Context: Education is an important element in the struggle for human rights. It is the means to help our children and our people rediscover their identity and thereby increase their self respect. Education is our passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs only to the people who prepare for it today.
“Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of somebody else.”
As quoted in Business Etiquette for the Nineties : Your Ticket to Career Success (1992) by Lou Kennedy, p. 8
Variant: Always be a first rate version of yourself and not a second rate version of someone else.
“We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.”
Lord Darlington, Act III
Source: Lady Windermere's Fan (1892)
“There are no regrets in life, just lessons.”
“It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves.”
“Either you run the day, or the day runs you.”
Variant: Do not wait: the time will never be 'just right'. Start where you stand, and work whatever tools you may have at your command and better tools will be found as you go along.
Source: Think and Grow Rich (1938), p. 127
Context: Do not wait; the time will never be "just right." Start where you stand, and work with whatever tools you may have at your command, and better tools will be found as you go along.
“Today is your day! Your mountain is waiting!”
Variant: Today is your day, your mountain is waiting. So get on your way.
“Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do.”
“Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.”
Ch. IX : Outdoors and Indoors, p. 336; the final statement "quoted by Squire Bill Widener" as well as variants of it, are often misattributed to Roosevelt himself.
Variant: Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.
Attributed to Roosevelt in Conquering an Enemy Called Average (1996) by John L. Mason, Nugget # 8 : The Only Place to Start is Where You Are. <!-- The Military Quotation Book, Revised and Expanded: More than 1,200 of the Best Quotations About War, Leadership, Courage, Victory, and Defeat (2002) by James Charlton -->
Variant: Do what you can, with what you've got, where you are.
Context: There are many kinds of success in life worth having. It is exceedingly interesting and attractive to be a successful business man, or railroad man, or farmer, or a successful lawyer or doctor; or a writer, or a President, or a ranchman, or the colonel of a fighting regiment, or to kill grizzly bears and lions. But for unflagging interest and enjoyment, a household of children, if things go reasonably well, certainly makes all other forms of success and achievement lose their importance by comparison. It may be true that he travels farthest who travels alone; but the goal thus reached is not worth reaching. And as for a life deliberately devoted to pleasure as an end — why, the greatest happiness is the happiness that comes as a by-product of striving to do what must be done, even though sorrow is met in the doing. There is a bit of homely philosophy, quoted by Squire Bill Widener, of Widener's Valley, Virginia, which sums up one's duty in life: "Do what you can, with what you've got, where you are."
“He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life”
“The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”
Laozi in the Tao Te Ching, Chapter 64
Misattributed, Chinese
“All I have seen teaches me to trust the Creator for all I have not seen.”
“Intelligence plus character-that is the goal of true education.”
Variant: Intelligence plus character — that is the goal of true education.
“Why fit in when you were born to stand out?”
“Creativity is intelligence having fun.”
“It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.”
“I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.”
Variant: Never let your schooling interfere with your education.
“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”
Attributed to Winston Churchill in The Prodigal Project : Book I : Genesis (2003) by Ken Abraham and Daniel Hart, p. 224 and other places, though no source attribution is given. It actually derives from an advertising campaign for Budweiser beer in the late 1930s.
Misattributed
Variant: Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.
Source: http://quoteinvestigator.com/2013/09/03/success-final/
“The final forming of a person's character lies in their own hands.”
“You are what you believe yourself to be.”
Source: The Witch of Portobello (2007), p. 152.
Context: You are what you believe yourself to be.
Don't be like those people who believe in "positive thinking" and tell themselves that they're loved and strong and capable. You don't need to do that because you know it already. And when you doubt it — which happens, I think, quite often at this stage of evolution — do as I suggested. Instead of trying to prove that you're better than you think, just laugh. Laugh at your worries and insecurities. View your anxieties with humor. It will be difficult at first, but you'll gradually get used to it. Now go back and meet all those people who think you know everything. Convince yourself that they're right, because we all know everything, it's merely a question of believing.
Believe.
“There are no have-to's, just choices”
“How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.”
Source: Anne Frank's Tales from the Secret Annex
“The best way to predict your future is to create it.”
“Too many of us are not living our dreams because we are living our fears.”
Variant: Too many of us are not living our dreams because we are living out fears.
“Keep your face always toward the sunshine – and shadows will fall behind you.”
This has become attributed to both Walt Whitman and Helen Keller, but has not been found in either of their published works, and variations of the quote are listed as a proverb commonly used in both the US and Canada in A Dictionary of American Proverbs (1992), edited by Wolfgang Mieder, Kelsie B. Harder and Stewart A. Kingsbury.
Misattributed
“Life is what you make it. Always has been, always will be.”
“We must embrace pain and burn it as fuel for our journey”
“Knowing is not enough, we must apply. Willing is not enough, we must do.”
“The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away.”
As quoted in Art of Communicating Ideas (1952) by William Joseph Grace, p. 389
Disputed
“Learning is the only thing the mind never exhausts, never fears, and never regrets.”
“It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.”
“Never give up, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn.”
“Only put off until tomorrow what you are willing to die having left undone.”
“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.”
Often attributed to Eleanor Roosevelt without an original source in her writings, for example in the introduction to It Seems to Me : Selected Letters of Eleanor Roosevelt (2001) by Leonard C. Schlup and Donald W. Whisenhunt, p. 2 http://books.google.com/books?id=UeFWjTMcLZYC&lpg=PP1&pg=PA2#v=onepage&q&f=false. But archivists have not been able to find the quote in any of her writings, see the comment from Ralph Keyes in The Quote Verifier above.
Disputed
“To do nothing is the way to be nothing.”
“Education is the key to unlocking the world, a passport to freedom.”
“A ship is safe in harbor, but that's not what ships are for.”
Attributed without citation in Gary Ninneman, C.I.A.: Church in Atrophy (Xulon Press, 2006), p. 167. This is possibly a confusion with John Augustus Shedd.
“The question is—what is the question?”
Leonard Susskind, The Black Hole War (2008), chapter 13
Attributed to Watson in: William G. Dickerson (1995) In search of the ultimate practice. p. 19.
“Worry is like a rocking chair: it gives you something to do but never gets you anywhere”
“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.
“When you know better… You do better.”
“We can do no great things; only small things with great love.(mother Teresa)”
Source: All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten
“To know and not to do is really not to know.”
“The best protection any woman can have… is courage.”
“The brave may not live forever – But the cautious do not live at all”
Source: Like a Virgin: Secrets They Won't Teach You at Business School
“There is only one success … to be able to spend your life in your own way.”
Where the Blue Begins (1922)
“You see persons and things not as they are but as you are.”
“As we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others.”
“If they can make penicillin out of moldy bread, then they can sure make something out of you.”
Variant: Go to College,
Stay in school,
If they can make penicillin out of mouldy bread,
they can sure make something out of you.
“You have to learn the rules of the game. And then you have to play better than anyone else.”
An abbreviated version of a quote by California politician Dianne Feinstein, from an interview with Cosmopolitan magazine in October 1985 https://books.google.com/books?id=zmxNAQAAIAAJ&dq=You+have+to+learn+the+rules+of+the+game+and+then+you+have+to+play+better+than+anyone+else&focus=searchwithinvolume&q=%22rules+of+the+game%22, on the topic of women running for public office. The original was: "... I really do have staying power. That's important for women who run for office. When you get in there and push for a lot of new things all at once and don't get them, you don't just leave. You have to commit, be a team player, learn the rules of the game. And then you have to play it better than anyone else."
Misattributed
“That some achieve great success, is proof to all that others can achieve it as well.”
“If you can find a path with no obstacles, it probably doesn’t lead anywhere.”
Source: Mud, Sweat, and Tears: The Autobiography
“The important thing is not to stop questioning.”
Old Man's Advice to Youth: "Never Lose a Holy Curiosity," http://books.google.com/books?id=dlYEAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PP1&dq=Life%2C%202%20May%201955&pg=PA61#v=onepage&q=Life,%202%20May%201955&f=false LIFE magazine (2 May 1955) statement to William Miller, p. 64.
1950s
Context: The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existence. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery each day. Never lose a holy curiosity. … Don't stop to marvel.
“How lucky am I to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard.”
Source: The Complete Tales of Winnie-the-Pooh
“Great things are done by a series of small things brought together.”
In his letter to Theo, from The Hague, 22 October 1882, http://www.webexhibits.org/vangogh/letter/11/237.htm
1880s, 1882
As quoted in Secrets of Superstar Speakers: Wisdom from the Greatest Motivators of Our Time (2000) by Lilly Walters, p. 96
Variant: What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals.
“A wise man will make more opportunities, than he finds.”
Of Ceremonies and Respect
Essays (1625)
Variant: Wise men make more opportunities than they find.
Source: The Essays
No published occurrence of such an attribution has yet been located prior to one in Wilhelm Meisters Wanderjahre — Band 3 http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/2411/pg2411.html by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Disputed
Variant: Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Being willing is not enough; we must do.
“The secret of success in life is for a man to be ready for his opportunity when it comes.”
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.
“Well-behaved women seldom make history.”
Source: Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History
“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
“Become such as you are, having learned what that is”
Pythian 2, line 72.
Variant translations:
Be what you know you are
Be true to thyself now that thou hast learnt what manner of man thou art
Having learned, become who you are
“The world is more malleable than you think and it's waiting for you to hammer it into shape.”
PENN Address (2004)
“To avoid criticism, say nothing, do nothing, be nothing.”
Glenn
Liebman
Hockey Shorts: 1,001 of the games funniest one liners
1996
70, 113 & 229
Contemporary Books
0-8092-3351-7
Commencement address to University of Texas at Austin in 2003 http://www.graduationwisdom.com/speeches/0048-dell.htm.
“The important thing is to be nothing.”
1960's, Conversations with Samuel Beckett and Bram van Velde' (1965 - 1969)
“The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away.”
Not by Shakespeare, but from Finding Your Strength in Difficult Times: A Book of Meditations, a 1993 self-help book by David S. Viscott.
Misattributed
Source: http://quoteinvestigator.com/2014/06/16/purpose-gift/
Speech to the House of Commons (January 29, 1828).
“There is only one way to avoid criticism: do nothing, say nothing and be nothing.”
Misattributed
Source: Elbert Hubbard, Little Journeys to the Homes of American Statesmen (1898), p. 370 http://hdl.handle.net/2027/osu.32435065322687?urlappend=%3Bseq=458: "If you would escape moral and physical assassination, do nothing, say nothing, be nothing—court obscurity, for only in oblivion does safety lie." Other versions of the saying were repeated in several of Hubbard's later writings.
“These are images of what love is about.”
"How Happiness Happpens", p. 61
Awareness (1992)
Context: Is it possible for the rose to say, "I will give my fragrance to the good people who smell me, but I will withhold it from the bad?" Or is it possible for the lamp to say, "I will give my light to the good people in this room, but I will withhold it from the evil people"? Or can a tree say, "I'll give my shade to the good people who rest under me, but I will withhold it from the bad"? These are images of what love is about.
“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams. ”
