Quotes

“How to value my own self-esteem more than the praise of others.”

Frank Crane (1861–1928) American Presbyterian minister

Four Minute Essays Vol. 7 (1919), A School for Living

Kazuo Ishiguro photo

“My donors have always tended to do much better than expected.”

Source: Never Let Me Go (2005), Chapter 1, p. 3

Jack Kevorkian photo

“My religion centers in different areas than what's considered conventional religion.”

Jack Kevorkian (1928–2011) American pathologist, euthanasia activist

Quoted in "Years of Minutes"‎ - Page 331 - by Andy Rooney - 2004
2000s, 2004

Clive Staples Lewis photo
Fridtjof Nansen photo

“It is better to go skiing and think of God, than to go to church and think of sport.”

Fridtjof Nansen (1861–1930) Norwegian polar explorer and Nobel Peace Prize laureate

Quoted in [The New Yorker, 86, 15 March 2010, 56]

Frederick Lewis Allen photo

“It is easier to tear down a code than to put a new one in its place.”

Frederick Lewis Allen (1890–1954) American historian and editor of Harper's Magazine

Only Yesterday http://books.google.com/books?id=cdmXVzZ5xOsC&q=%22It+is+easier+to+tear+down+a+code+than+to+put+a+new+one+in+its+place%22&pg=PA102#v=onepage, ch. 5, (1931)

Kurt Cobain photo

“I'm a much happier guy than a lot of people think I am.”

Kurt Cobain (1967–1994) American musician and artist

As quoted in Rolling Stone (1993-01-27).
Interviews (1989-1994), Print

Khalil Gibran photo

“The tears that you spill, the sorrowful, are sweeter than the laughter of snobs and the guffaws of scoffers.”

Khalil Gibran (1883–1931) Lebanese artist, poet, and writer

A Handful of Sand on the Shore

Julian Huxley photo

“Some day no one will have to work more than two days a week”

Julian Huxley (1887–1975) English biologist, philosopher, author

"Prof. Huxley Predicts 2-Day Working Week" The New York Times (17 November 1930) p. 42
Context: Some day no one will have to work more than two days a week... The human being can consume so much and no more. When we reach the point when the world produces all the goods that it needs in two days, as it inevitably will, we must curtail our production of goods and turn our attention to the great problem of what to do with our new leisure.

Menander photo

“To say more than what's necessary
I don't think is appropriate for a man.”

Knemon.
Variant translation: I don't hold with people saying more than they need; but there is one thing more, my child, that I'd like you to know. I just want to say a few things to you about life, and the way people behave. You know, if we were all kind to one another, there'd be no need for law courts, there'd be no arresting people and putting them into prison, and there would be no more war. Everyone would have his little bit, and be content. But maybe you like modern ways better? Well, live that way, then! This difficult and bad-tempered old man will soon be out of the way.
As translated by William Geoffrey Arnott http://www.rhapsodes.fll.vt.edu/menander.htm.
Dyskolos
Context: To say more than what's necessary
I don't think is appropriate for a man. Except know this, child —
for I wish to tell you a little about me and my character —
if everyone were like me there wouldn't be law courts,
and they wouldn't take them away to prisons,
and there wouldn't be wars, but having goods in measure each man would be happy.
But perhaps those things are more pleasing. Act that way.
This difficult and grouchy old man will be out of your way.

Abu Hamid al-Ghazali photo

“The reward of patience in the face of misfortune is more than what has been lost.”

Abu Hamid al-Ghazali (1058–1111) Persian Muslim theologian, jurist, philosopher, and mystic
Donald Tusk photo

“It will make it more complicated and costly than today for all of us. This is the essence of Brexit.”

Donald Tusk (1957) Polish politician, current President of the European Council

Brexit means drifting apart but we don't want to build a wall - Tusk https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-43314976 BBC News (7 March 2018)
2011, 2018

K. L. Saigal photo

“I have no knowledge with me to make you a better singer than you are.”

K. L. Saigal (1904–1947) Indian actor

By Fayyaz khan in [Ranganathan Magadi, The Literary Works of Ranganathan Magadi, http://books.google.com/books?id=zU-xAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA645, 1 February 2007, Ranganathan Magadi, 978-1-4116-7004-4, 645–]

Chetan Bhagat photo

“Life is tough when you are always talking to people smarter than you.”

Source: The 3 Mistakes of My Life (2008), P. 5

Douglas Engelbart photo
Joan Miró photo

“Have you ever heard of anything more stupid than 'abstraction-abstraction?'”

Joan Miró (1893–1983) Catalan painter, sculptor, and ceramicist

and they ask me into their deserted house [probably Miro meant the group 'Abstraction-Création', founded by a. o. Jean Arp and André Breton; both coined Miro's art in 1931 as 'mobile' and 'stabile'] as if the marks I put on a canvas did not correspond to a concrete representation of my mind, did not possess a profound reality, were not a part of the real itself.
1930s
Source: 'Où allez-vous Miró?', art critic Georges Duthuit in Cahiers d'Art 261, nos. 8-10, 1936

Lois McMaster Bujold photo

“Maybe only love gave you more than what you’d dealt for.”

Source: Vorkosigan Saga, Captain Vorpatril's Alliance (2012), Chapter 22 (p. 492)

Thucydides photo

“I am more afraid of our own blunders than of the enemy's devices.”

Book I, Chapter V
History of the Peloponnesian War, Book I