Popular quotes
page 69
“Pain has become your motto in life and heaven your final goal.”
“If they're on fire and you have water, then you can sell it to them.”
Personality Lectures
On the congratulations given by German athlete Lutz Long, a competitor in the long jump, who in some accounts he credited with giving him some friendly advice that helped him to win against him; as quoted in "Owens pierced a myth" by Larry Schwartz http://espn.go.com/sportscentury/features/00016393.html in ESPN SportsCentury (2005)
Context: It took a lot of courage for him to befriend me in front of Hitler... You can melt down all the medals and cups I have and they wouldn't be a plating on the 24-karat friendship I felt for Lutz Long at that moment. Hitler must have gone crazy watching us embrace. The sad part of the story is I never saw Long again. He was killed in World War II.
“The future's too bright to dwell on the past. Life moves fast, run faster.”
“You have power over your mind - not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.”
Source: Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book VII
Pt. III, ch. 2, pg 216
The Quiet American (1955)
Thiis was published without credit in The Best Loved Poems of the American People (1936) with the title "Friendship", and since that time has sometimes been misattributed http://www.geonius.com/eliot/quotes.html to Eliot; it is actually an adaptation of lines by Dinah Craik, in A Life for a Life (1859):
Misattributed
Context: Oh, the comfort —
the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person —
having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words,
but pouring them all right out,
just as they are,
chaff and grain together;
certain that a faithful hand will take and sift them,
keep what is worth keeping,
and then with the breath of kindness blow the rest away.
“The roots of education … are bitter, but the fruit is sweet.”
The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers
The Third Notebook: Part Two
No Longer Human
“Don't gain the world and lose your soul
Wisdom is better than silver and gold.”
Zion Train
Uprising (1979)
“There are two means of refuge from the misery of life — music and cats.”
Variant: There are two means of refuge from the miseries of life: music and cats.
“Our greatest stupidities may be very wise.”
Source: Culture and Value (1980), p. 39e
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.
True genius without heart is a thing of nought - for not great understanding alone, not intelligence alone, nor both together, make genius. Love! Love! Love! that is the soul of genius. - Nikolaus Joseph von Jacquin, entry in Mozart's souvenir album (1787-04-11) from Mozart: A Life by Maynard Solomon [Harper-Collins, 1966, ISBN 0-060-92692-9], p. 312.
Misattributed
