Popular quotes
page 79

“(In my sleep I dreamed this poem)

Someone I loved once gave me
a box full of darkness.

It took me years to understand
that this, too, was a gift.”

Mary Oliver (1935–2019) American writer

Variant: Someone I loved once gave me a box full of darkness. It took me years to understand that this too, was a gift.
Source: Thirst

“To play without passion is inexcusable!”

Ludwig Van Beethoven (1770–1827) German Romantic composer

Not found in Beethoven's known works. It may be a summary of the following description of Beethoven from his piano pupil Ferdinand Ries: "When I left out something in a passage, a note or a skip, which in many cases he wished to have specially emphasized, or struck a wrong key, he seldom said anything; yet when I was at fault with regard to the expression, the crescendo or matters of that kind, or in the character of the piece, he would grow angry. Mistakes of the other kind, he said were due to chance; but these last resulted from want of knowledge, feeling or attention. He himself often made mistakes of the first kind, even playing in public."
Disputed
Variant: To play a wrong note is insignificant; to play without passion is inexcusable

“What a terrible era in which idiots govern the blind.”

William Shakespeare Julius Caesar

Source: Julius Caesar

“I no longer have patience for certain things, not because I’ve become arrogant, but simply because I reached a point in my life where I do not want to waste more time with what displeases me or hurts me. I have no patience for cynicism, excessive criticism and demands of any nature. I lost the will to please those who do not like me, to love those who do not love me and to smile at those who do not want to smile at me. I no longer spend a single minute on those who lie or want to manipulate. I decided not to coexist anymore with pretense, hypocrisy, dishonesty and cheap praise. I do not tolerate selective erudition nor academic arrogance. I do not adjust either to popular gossiping. I hate conflict and comparisons. I believe in a world of opposites and that’s why I avoid people with rigid and inflexible personalities. In friendship I dislike the lack of loyalty and betrayal. I do not get along with those who do not know how to give a compliment or a word of encouragement. Exaggerations bore me and I have difficulty accepting those who do not like animals. And on top of everything I have no patience for anyone who does not deserve my patience.”

Meryl Streep (1949) American actress

Misattributed to Meryl Streep (and widely disseminated on the Internet as of August/September 2014), this quote is allegedly a translation of a text by the author José Micard Teixeira, the original of which begins (in Portuguese): "Já não tenho paciência para algumas coisas, não porque me tenha tornado arrogante..."
Misattributed

“I want to do with you what spring does with cherry trees.”

Pablo Neruda book Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair

Quiero hacer contigo lo que la primavera hace con los cerezos.
"Every Day You Play" (Juegas Todos las Días), XIV, p. 35.
Variant: I want
To do with you what spring does with the cherry trees.
Source: Veinte Poemas de Amor y una Canción Desesperada (Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair) (1924)

“We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm and adventure. There is no end to the adventures that we can have if only we seek them with our eyes open.”

Jawaharlal Nehru (1889–1964) Indian lawyer, statesman, and writer, first Prime Minister of India

As quoted in Building A Life Of Value : Timeless Wisdom to Inspire and Empower Us (2005) by Jason A. Merchey, p. 74

“A failure is not always a mistake, it may simply be the best one can do under the circumstances. The real mistake is to stop trying.”

B.F. Skinner (1904–1990) American behaviorist

“I just don't feel the need to swallow all the time, I only do it because I have to, because, like, saliva's gross or something, but I don't see it that way. It's just spit, what's the big deal? I really don't care.”

Alyson Hannigan (1974) American actress

When asked why she doesn't swallow her saliva very often after being asked if she was sick and she said she wasn't.

“Democracy is a con game. It’s a word invented to placate people to make them accept a given institution. All institutions sing, ‘We are free.’ The minute you hear ‘freedom’ and ‘democracy’, watch out… because in a truly free nation, no one has to tell you you’re free.”

Jacque Fresco (1916–2017) American futurist and self-described social engineer

“Whatever situation you are facing, don’t let it overwhelm you. Stay focused because there is something far more important than that situation – your dream and your goals in life.”

T. B. Joshua (1963) Nigerian Christian leader

“When you speak in His presence about your past sins, He does not even understand your language. Only the present and the future have any interest for Him... I have committed crimes and have blood on my conscience. I told Jesus about it again and again. But because He had long ago washed all this away, there was no possibility of communication between us. He did not understand what I was talking about.”

Richard Wurmbrand (1909–2001) Romanian Christian minister of Jewish descent

If Prison Walls Could Speak (1972)

“Joy, with peace, is the sister of charity. Serve the Lord with laughter.”

Padre Pio (1887–1968) Italian saint, priest, stigmatist and mystic

“It all ends in tears anyway.”

Jack Kerouac book The Dharma Bums

Source: The Dharma Bums

“The feelings that hurt most, the emotions that sting most, are those that are absurd: the longing for impossible things, precisely because they are impossible; nostalgia for what never was; the desire for what could have been; regret over not being someone else; dissatisfaction with the world's existence. All these half-tones of the soul's consciousness create a raw landscape within us, a sun eternally setting on what we are.”

Fernando Pessoa (1888–1935) Portuguese poet, writer, literary critic, translator, publisher and philosopher

Os sentimentos que mais doem, as emoções que mais pungem, são os que são absurdos – a ânsia de coisas impossíveis, precisamente porque são impossíveis, a saudade do que nunca houve, o desejo do que poderia ter sido, a mágoa de não ser outro, a insatisfação da existência do mundo. Todos estes meios tons da consciencia da alma criam em nós uma paisagem dolorida, um eterno sol-pôr do que somos.
The Book of Disquietude, trans. Richard Zenith, text 196

“Actors are agents of change. A film, a piece of theater, a piece of music, or a book can make a difference. It can change the world.”

Alan Rickman (1946–2016) English film, television and stage actor

Interview: Alan Rickman on "Nobel Son" http://www.ifc.com/2008/12/alan-rickman-on-nobel-son by Aaron Hillis, IFC.com (4 December 2008)

“I despise those prick actors who say, "I was in character," and "I became the character," and all that stuff. It's hideous. It's just masturbation at the highest level.”

Johnny Depp (1963) American actor, film producer, and musician

Quoted in Chris Heath, "Johnny Depp's Savage Journey," http://www.johnnydeppfan.com/interviews/rs98.htm Rolling Stone (1998-06-11)

“I hate the word homophobia. It's not a phobia. Why would I be scared of a faggot?”

Morgan Freeman (1937) American actor, film director, and narrator

@MorgonFreeman on Twitter, a now-defunct account also known as "Tweets from God". This Twitter account was never written or controlled by Freeman, and was a parody of his character in the films Bruce Almighty and Evan Almighty. snopes.com: Morgan Freeman on Homophobia http://www.snopes.com/politics/sexuality/freeman.asp <br class="br">Misattributed

“I only came here to give.
If you come to doubt, I'll give you every reason to doubt. If you come suspicious, I'll give you every reason to be suspicious. But if you come seeking Love, I'll show you more love than you've ever known.”

Mahavatar Babaji Hindu Yogi

Haidakhan Babaji, as quoted in "The legend of Herakhan Baba", by Dio Urmilla Neff in Yoga Journal, No. 32 (May-June 1980), p. 53; Haidakhan Babaji's claims to be Mahavatar Babaji/Hariakhan Baba are disputed by the Self-Realization Fellowship founded by Paramahansa Yogananda.
Disputed

“Being entirely honest with oneself is a good exercise.”

Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) Austrian neurologist known as the founding father of psychoanalysis

Letter to Wilhelm Fliess (15 October 1897), as quoted in Origins of Psychoanalysis
1890s

“This man is the master of us all.”

George Frideric Handel (1685–1759) German, later British Baroque composer

Er ist der Meister von uns allen!
Haydn, at a performance of Messiah. Quoted in John Galt George the Third, His Court and Family (1824) p. 34, and in Leopold Schmidt Joseph Haydn (1898) p. 86.
Criticism

Popular quotes page 79

Popular quotes
page 79