“The challenge is not to be perfect…it’s to be whole”
“How lucky am I to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard.”
Source: The Complete Tales of Winnie-the-Pooh
“Stop wearing your wishbone where your backbone ought to be.”
This derives from a folk proverb sometimes attributed to Clementine Paddleford, but in use as an "old proverb" as early as 1908, when Paddeford was only 10 years old.
Misattributed
Source: Eat, Pray, Love
“Women cannot complain about men anymore until they start getting better taste in them.”
“Ah, women. They make the highs higher and the lows more frequent.”
“As you were, I was. As I am, you will be.”
Source: Hell's Angels: A Strange and Terrible Saga
“If you ever find yourself in the wrong story, leave.”
Source: Goldilocks and the Three Dinosaurs
“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
“Find ecstasy in life; the mere sense of living is joy enough.”
“Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius”
Very often misquoted as "For most of history, Anonymous was a woman."
Variant: Anon, who wrote so many poems without signing them, was often a woman.
Source: A Room of One's Own (1929), Ch. 3, p. 51
“Well-behaved women seldom make history.”
Source: Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History
Excerpt from the foreword in Girl Boss: Running the Show Like the Big Chicks http://www.gilliananderson.ws/transcripts/99_00/99girlboss.shtml, by Stacy Kravetz (1999)
1990s
“Women get more unhappy the more they try to liberate themselves.”
Unsourced
“Great minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, small minds discuss people.”
Some evidence for Henry Buckle (1821-1862) as the source: see p.33 quotation https://books.google.com/books?id=2moaAAAAYAAJ&q=buckle#v=snippet&q=buckle&f=false
There are many published incidents of this as an anonymous proverb since at least 1948, and as a statement of Eleanor Roosevelt since at least 1992, but without any citation of an original source. It is also often attributed to Admiral Hyman G. Rickover but, though Rickover quoted this, he did not claim to be the author of it; in "The World of the Uneducated" in The Saturday Evening Post (28 November 1959), he prefaces it with "As the unknown sage puts it..."
Great minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, and little minds discuss people.
In this form it was quoted as an anonymous epigram in A Guide to Effective Public Speaking (1953) by Lawrence Henry Mouat
New York times Saturday review of books and art, 1931: ...Wanted, the correct quotation and origin of this expression: Great minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, small minds discuss people...
Several other variants or derivatives of the expression exist, but none provide a definite author:
Great minds discuss ideas, mediocre minds discuss events, small minds discuss personalities.
Great minds discuss ideas
Average minds discuss events
Small minds discuss people
Small minds discuss things
Average minds discuss people
Great minds discuss ideas
...Be less curious about people and more curious about ideas. (Marie Curie, undated (died 1934), as quoted in Living Adventures in Science by Henry and Dana Lee Thomas, 1972)
...Some professor of psychology who has been eavesdropping for years makes the statement that "The best minds discuss ideas; the second in ranking talk about things; while the third group, or the least in mentality, gossip about people"… (Hardware age, Volume 123, 1929)
...He now reports that, "the best minds discuss ideas; the second ranking talks about things; while the third and lowest mentality – starved for ideas – gossips about people." (Printers' Ink, Volume 139, Issue 2, 1927, p. 87)
...It has been said long ago that there were three classes of people in the world, and while they are subject to variation, for elemental consideration they are useful. The first is that large class of people who talk about people; the next class are those who talk about things; and the third class are those who discuss ideas... (H. J. Derbyshire, "Origin of mental species", 1919)
...Mrs. Conklin points out certain bad conversational habits and suggests good ones, quoting Buckle's classic classification of talkers into three orders of intelligence — those who talk about nothing but persons, those who talk about things and those who discuss ideas... (review of Mary Greer Conklin's book Conversation: What to say and how to say it in The Continent, Jan. 23, 1913, p. 118)
...[ Henry Thomas Buckle's ] thoughts and conversations were always on a high level, and I recollect a saying of his which not only greatly impressed me at the time, but which I have ever since cherished as a test of the mental calibre of friends and acquaintances. Buckle said, in his dogmatic way: "Men and women range themselves into three classes or orders of intelligence; you can tell the lowest class by their habit of always talking about persons, the next by the fact that their habit is always to converse about things; the highest by their preference for the discussion of ideas"… (Charles Stewart, "Haud immemor. Reminescences of legal and social life in Edinburgh and London. 1850-1900", 1901, p. 33 http://www.mocavo.com/Haud-Immemor-by-Charles-Stewart-Reminiscences-of-Life-in-Edinburgh-and-London-1850-1900/608008/13?browse=true#63).
Disputed
“Like art, revolutions come from combining what exists into what has never existed before.”
Part 4 : The Masculinization of Wealth, p. 196
Moving Beyond Words (1994)
“…if it is art, it is not for all, and if it is for all, it is not art.”
from New Music, Outmoded Music, Style and Idea (1946); as quoted in Style and Idea (1985), p. 124
1940s
“A woman knows by intuition, or instinct, what is best for herself.”
Attributed to Monroe in self-help books and on social media, this quotation is of unknown origin and date.
Misattributed
“Learn all the rules… then break them.”
Lea's Book of Rules for the World (May 2000) Rule # 10
“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)
“We see the world not as it is, but as we are.”
Dag Redwing hickory Bluefield
Passage (Vol. III in Tetralogy) (2008), p. 163
The Sharing Knife, Passage (Vol. III in Tetralogy) (2008)
Ain't I a Woman? Speech (1851)
Context: That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over mud-puddles, or gives me any best place! And ain't I a woman? Look at me! Look at my arm! I have ploughed and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me! And ain't I a woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a man — when I could get it — and bear the lash as well! And ain't I a woman? I have borne thirteen children, and seen most all sold off to slavery, and when I cried out with my mother's grief, none but Jesus heard me! And ain't I a woman?
“None of it is important or all of it is.”
Introduction
The Log from the Sea of Cortez (1951)
Context: "... Let us go," we said, "into the Sea of Cortez, realizing that we become forever a part of it; that our rubber boots slogging through a flat of eel-grass, that the rocks we turn over in a tide pool, make us truly and permanently a factor in the ecology of the region. We shall take something away from it, but we shall leave something too." And if we seem a small factor in a huge pattern, nevertheless it is of relative importance. We take a tiny colony of soft corals from a rock in a little water world. And that isn't terribly important to the tide pool. Fifty miles away the Japanese shrimp boats are dredging with overlapping scoops, bringing up tons of shrimps, rapidly destroying the species so that it may never come back, and with the species destroying the ecological balance of the whole region. That isn't very important in the world. And thousands of miles away the great bombs are falling and the stars are not moved thereby. None of it is important or all of it is.
“A woman is like a tea bag; you never know how strong she is until she gets into hot water. ”
“When a man gives his opinion, he's a man. When a woman gives her opinion, she's a bitch.”
William Martin, The Best Liberal Quotes Ever: Why the Left is Right, Sourcebooks, Inc., 2004, ISBN 1402203098, p. 204
Attributed
“Develop enough courage so that you can stand up for yourself and then stand up for somebody else.”
in Rainbow in the Cloud: The Wisdom and Spirit of Maya Angelou (2014), p. 68
“When a woman rises up in glory, her energy is magnetic and her sense of possibility contagious.”
Source: A Woman's Worth
“To be or not to be. That's not really a question.”
Variant: But I hate to hear you talking so like a fine gentleman, and as if women were all fine ladies, instead of rational creatures. We none of us expect to be in smooth water all our days.
Source: Persuasion
“Think like a queen. A queen if not afraid to fail. Failure is another stepping stone to greatness.”
“Do for yourself, for no one else will.”
Source: A Heart So Wild
“No woman really wants a man to carry her off; she only wants him to want to do it.”
“The most beautiful makeup of a woman is passion. But cosmetics are easier to buy.”
Variant: The most beautiful make-up of a woman is passion. But cosmetics are easier to buy.
“Man does not control his own fate. The women in his life do that for him.”
“Freeing yourself was one thing; claiming ownership of that freed self was another.”
Source: Beloved (1987), Ch. 9
Context: Bit by bit, at 124 and in the Clearing, along with others, she had claimed herself. Freeing yourself was one thing; claiming ownership of that freed self was another.
“I don't know who invented high heels, but all women owe him a lot.”
As quoted in Her Inspiration : Secrets to Help You Work Smart, Be Successful, and Have Fun (2008) by Mina Parker
Variant: I don't know who invented high heels, but all women owe him a lot.
“Courage starts with showing up and letting ourselves be seen.”
Variant: There’s nothing more daring than showing up, putting ourselves out there and letting ourselves be seen.
Source: Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead
Earlier use in Frank and Ernest (c. 1982), by Bob Thaves, as the characters observe a billboard for a "Fred Astaire Film Festival: "Sure he was great, but don't forget that Ginger Rogers did everything that he did… backwards and in high heels."
Quoted in
Misattributed
Context: If you give us the chance, we can perform. After all, Ginger Rogers did everything that Fred Astaire did. She just did it backwards and in high heels** Keynote address, 1988 Democratic National Convention
“Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement; nothing can be done without hope.”
Optimism (1903)
Variant: Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement
“Good girls go to heaven, bad girls go everywhere.”
Source: Me: Stories of My Life
“A witty woman is a treasure; a witty beauty is a power.”
Ch. 1 http://books.google.com/books?id=pDlxjZ-z-woC&q=%22A+witty+woman+is+a+treasure+a+witty+beauty+is+a+power%22&pg=PA2#v=onepage.
Source: Diana of the Crossways http://www.gutenberg.org/files/4470/4470.txt (1885)
“Life is very interesting… in the end, some of your greatest pains, become your greatest strengths.”
Variant: In the end, some of your greatest pains become your greatest strengths.
“A revolutionary woman can't have no reactionary man.”
Source: Letter to My Daughter
“When men are oppressed, it's a tragedy. When women are oppressed, it's tradition.”
Source: Deborah, Golda, and Me: Being Female and Jewish in America
“It is better for the heart to break, than not to break.”
“Wish it, believe it, and it will be so.”
Source: Alice at Heart
“Success is getting what you want.
Happiness is wanting what you get.”
Source: Marilyn: Her Life In Own Words
“Success is getting what you want. Happiness is liking what you get.”
“I am always busy, which is perhaps the chief reason why I am always well.”
“I do not try to dance better than anyone else. I only try to to dance better than myself.”
BBC (1979); reported in John Blundell, Margaret Thatcher: A Portrait of the Iron Lady (2008), page 193.
First term as Prime Minister
“I measure the progress of a community by the degree of progress which women have achieved.”
As quoted in The Ultimate Book of Quotations by Joseph Demakis, p. 415 https://books.google.co.in/books?id=kOnjAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA415&lpg=PA415&dq=%22I+measure+the+progress+of+a+community+by+the+degree+of+progress+which+women+have+achieved.%22&source=bl&ots=6Sioo741pq&sig=noA7WLMLys1qWi5_CHIYKkWg9j0&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CDQQ6AEwBGoVChMIzc7x1feSyAIVRhmOCh24BAME#v=onepage&q=%22I%20measure%20the%20progress%20of%20a%20community%20by%20the%20degree%20of%20progress%20which%20women%20have%20achieved.%22&f=false
“Most women set out to try to change a man, and when they have changed him they do not like him.”
citation needed
Source: Women and Economics (1898), Ch. 1.
“Men are by nature merely indifferent to one another; but women are by nature enemies.”
Vol. 2 "On Women" as translated in Essays and Aphorisms (1970), as translated by R. J. Hollingdale
Parerga and Paralipomena (1851), Counsels and Maxims
“Great minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, small minds discuss people.”
Though Rickover quoted this, he did not claim to be the author of the statement. Using it in "The World of the Uneducated" in The Saturday Evening Post (28 November 1959), he prefaces it with "As the unknown sage puts it..." — It has sometimes been attributed to Eleanor Roosevelt, but without definite citation.
Some evidence for Henry Buckle (1821-1862) as the source: see p.33 quotation https://books.google.com/books?id=2moaAAAAYAAJ&q=buckle#v=snippet&q=buckle&f=false
Misattributed
“Wives are young men's mistresses, companions for middle age, and old men's nurses.”
Of Marriage and Single Life
Essays (1625)
“Family is the most important thing in the world.”
Princess Diana: 10 most inspiring quotes from the 'people's princess', Hello Magazine Daily News, (1 July 2015) http://us.hellomagazine.com/royalty/1201411051084/princess-diana-s-10-most-inspiring-quotes/
“Women are the real architects of society.”
Source: Kabir, Hajara Muhammad (2010). Northern women development. [Nigeria]. ISBN 978-978-906-469-4. OCLC 890820657.
“Life is not living, but living in health.”
Vita non est vivere, sed valera vita est.
VI, 70.
Variant translations:
It is not life to live, but to be well.
Life's not just being alive, but being well.
Epigrams (c. 80 – 104 AD)
“Women, if the soul of the nation is to be saved, I believe that you must become its soul.”
As quoted in Daughters of the Promised Land, Women in American History (1970) by Page Smith, p. 273
[Speech given by The Princess of Wales on women and mental health (1 June 1993)]
“That is what I want to be remembered for.”
Yours, Isaac Asimov (20 September 1973) <!-- page 329 -->
General sources
Context: What I will be remembered for are the Foundation Trilogy and the Three Laws of Robotics. What I want to be remembered for is no one book, or no dozen books. Any single thing I have written can be paralleled or even surpassed by something someone else has done. However, my total corpus for quantity, quality and variety can be duplicated by no one else. That is what I want to be remembered for.
“So these are changes that are important.”
Donovan: "We are all one shining Being" (1998)
Context: Today I can’t comment on what the problem is in China, Russia, or Africa without realizing again and again the Diamond Sutra, which says that we look at the world and see it as separate but in fact, this is an illusion, but the reality is that we are one shining being. Until this can be understood, I can’t see any change. But I see some change now. There is a world consciousness. In the "old" New Age, they talked about the Age of Aquarius being an age of enlightenment. And now when a man goes to the moon he sees the earth. Before when someone did meditation he or she could meditate on the earth and the moon but now a man and a woman can see that we are on one planet and that the water is polluted and that the air is dirty. So these are changes that are important. But when we spoke about these things in the 60s people said we were dreamers.
“You educate a man; you educate a Man. You educate a woman; you educate a Generation. ”
“Perfection is not attainable. But if we chase perfection, we can catch excellence.”
Source: Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don't
“To be and not to be, that is the answer.”
This witticism derived from William Shakespeare's line "To be or not to be; that is the question" in Hamlet, has sometimes been attributed to Hein, but also to many others. The earliest occurrence so far located in research for Wikiquote was published in A Calendar of Doubts and Faiths (1930) by William Marias Malisoff.
Misattributed
“It always seems impossible until it's done.”
