Quotes about encouragement (1053 quotes, page 2)

“We have every opportunity and every encouragement before us, to form the noblest purest constitution on the face of the earth. We have it in our power to begin the world over again.”

Thomas Paine (1737–1809) English and American political activist

1770s, Common Sense (1776)
Context: We have every opportunity and every encouragement before us, to form the noblest purest constitution on the face of the earth. We have it in our power to begin the world over again. A situation, similar to the present, hath not happened since the days of Noah until now. The birthday of a new world is at hand, and a race of men, perhaps as numerous as all Europe contains, are to receive their portion of freedom from the event of a few months.

World

“In the time of your life, live — so that in that good time there shall be no ugliness or death for yourself or for any life your life touches. Seek goodness everywhere, and when it is found, bring it out of its hiding-place and let it be free and unashamed. Place in matter and in flesh the least of the values, for these are things that hold death and must pass away. Discover in all things that which shines and is beyond corruption. Encourage virtue in whatever heart it may have been driven into secrecy and sorrow by the shame and terror of the world.”

William Saroyan The Time of Your Life

The Time of Your Life (1939)
Context: In the time of your life, live — so that in that good time there shall be no ugliness or death for yourself or for any life your life touches. Seek goodness everywhere, and when it is found, bring it out of its hiding-place and let it be free and unashamed. Place in matter and in flesh the least of the values, for these are things that hold death and must pass away. Discover in all things that which shines and is beyond corruption. Encourage virtue in whatever heart it may have been driven into secrecy and sorrow by the shame and terror of the world. Ignore the obvious, for it is unworthy of the clear eye and the kindly heart. Be the inferior of no man, nor of any man be the superior. Remember that every man is a variation of yourself. No man's guilt is not yours, nor is any man's innocence a thing apart. Despise evil and ungodliness, but not men of ungodliness or evil. These, understand. Have no shame in being kindly and gentle, but if the time comes in the time of your life to kill, kill and have no regret. In the time of your life, live — so that in the wondrous time you shall not add to the misery and sorrow of the world, but shall smile to the infinite delight and mystery of it.

Life , Death , World , Time

“The one encourages intercourse, the other creates distinctions. The first is a patron, the last a punisher. Society in every state is a blessing, but government even in its best state is but a necessary evil.”

Thomas Paine (1737–1809) English and American political activist

1770s, Common Sense (1776)
Context: Society is produced by our wants, and government by wickedness; the former promotes our happiness positively by uniting our affections, the latter negatively by restraining our vices. The one encourages intercourse, the other creates distinctions. The first is a patron, the last a punisher. Society in every state is a blessing, but government even in its best state is but a necessary evil.

Evil

“Organised religion allying itself to theology and often more concerned with its vested interests than with the things of the spirit encourages a temper which is the very opposite of science.”

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

Autobiography (1936; 1949; 1958)
Context: Organised religion allying itself to theology and often more concerned with its vested interests than with the things of the spirit encourages a temper which is the very opposite of science. It produces narrowness and intolerance, credulity and superstition, emotionalism and irrationalism. It tends to close and limit the mind of man and to produce a temper of a dependent, unfree person.
Even if God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent Him, so Voltaire, said … perhaps that is true, and indeed the mind of man has always been trying to fashion some such mental image or conception which grew with the mind's growth. But there is something also in the reverse proposition: even if God exist, it may be desirable not to look up to Him or to rely upon Him. Too much dependence on supernatural forces may lead, and has often led, to loss of self-reliance in man, and to a blunting of his capacity and creative ability. And yet some faith seems necessary in things of the spirit which are beyond the scope of our physical world, some reliance on moral, spiritual, and idealistic conceptions, or else we have no anchorage, no objectives or purpose in life. Whether we believe in God or not, it is impossible not to believe in something, whether we call it a creative life-giving force, or vital energy inherent in matter which gives it its capacity for self-movement and change and growth, or by some other name, something that is as real, though elusive, as life is real when contrasted with death. <!-- p. 524 (1946)

Religion , Science

“Take care that thou be not made a fool by flatterers, for even the wisest men are abused by these. Know, therefore, that flatterers are the worst kind of traitors; for they will strengthen thy imperfections, encourage thee in all evils, correct thee in nothing; but so shadow and paint all thy vices and follies, as thou shalt never, by their will, discern evil from good, or vice from virtue.”

Walter Raleigh (1554–1618) English aristocrat, writer, poet, soldier, courtier, spy, and explorer

Source: Instructions to his Son and to Posterity (published 1632), Chapter III
Context: Take care that thou be not made a fool by flatterers, for even the wisest men are abused by these. Know, therefore, that flatterers are the worst kind of traitors; for they will strengthen thy imperfections, encourage thee in all evils, correct thee in nothing; but so shadow and paint all thy vices and follies, as thou shalt never, by their will, discern evil from good, or vice from virtue. And, because all men are apt to flatter themselves, to entertain the additions of other men's praises is most perilous. Do not therefore praise thyself, except thou wilt be counted a vain-glorious fool; neither take delight in the praises of other men, except thou deserve it, and receive it from such as are worthy and honest, and will withal warn thee of thy faults; for flatterers have never any virtue — they are ever base, creeping, cowardly persons. A flatterer is said to be a beast that biteth smiling: it is said by Isaiah in this manner — "My people, they that praise thee, seduce thee, and disorder the paths of thy feet;" and David desired God to cut out the tongue of a flatterer.
But it is hard to know them from friends, they are so obsequious and full of protestations; for as a wolf resembles a dog, so doth a flatterer a friend. A flatterer is compared to an ape, who, because she cannot defend the house like a dog, labour as an ox, or bear burdens as a horse, doth therefore yet play tricks and provoke laughter. Thou mayest be sure, that he that will in private tell thee thy faults is thy friend; for he adventures thy mislike, and doth hazard thy hatred; for there are few men that can endure it, every man for the most part delighting in self-praise, which is one of the most universal follies which bewitcheth mankind.

Men , Fools , Evil , Painting

“Let today be the day … You speak only the good you know of other people and encourage others to do the same.”

Steve Maraboli (1975)

Source: Life, the Truth, and Being Free (2010), p. 109
Context: How would your life be different if … You walked away from gossip and verbal defamation? Let today be the day … You speak only the good you know of other people and encourage others to do the same.

People

“The process of apoptosis by which life and development are governed is profoundly communal. …Cells …need to be "encouraged" to live.”

Theodore Roszak (1933–2011) American social historian, social critic, writer

Source: The Gendered Atom: Reflections on the Sexual Psychology of Science (1999), Ch.9 Deep Community
Context: Without apoptosis, life would not be possible.... when cells lose their ability to die, they run rampant, assuming that life-threatening form we call cancer.... The process of apoptosis by which life and development are governed is profoundly communal.... Cells... need to be "encouraged" to live.

Life , Communication

“In so far as unrestricted individual liberty brings the best results, we should encourage it. But when a point is reached where this complete lack of restriction on individual liberty fails to achieve the best results, then, on behalf of the whole people, we should exercise the collective power of the people”

Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American politician, 26th president of the United States

1910s, The Progressives, Past and Present (1910)
Context: We must set the end in view as the goal; and then, instead of making a fetish of some particular kind of means, we should adopt whatever honorable means will best accomplish the end. In so far as unrestricted individual liberty brings the best results, we should encourage it. But when a point is reached where this complete lack of restriction on individual liberty fails to achieve the best results, then, on behalf of the whole people, we should exercise the collective power of the people, through the State Legislatures in matters of purely local concern, and through the National Legislature when the purpose is so big that only National action can achieve it.

People , Exercises

“The schooling system we have in the Western world is crazy – you’re taken away from your parents at your most impressionable age and fed a load of bullshit and lies manipulated to make you think that the way we live in the West is stable and moral, when really it’s neither. You come out of school with a one-track mind based on financial success; you’re encouraged to become enslaved to the banking system. In school, I always felt, ‘Something’s not right here’ and I’m starting to find out what it is. Being outside of the norm gives you freedom of thought and that’s something being suppressed in school and the media. If you have freedom of thought you get labeled as a crazy person or someone strange.”

Matthew Bellamy (1978) English singer-songwriter

Age , World , School , Way

“A great player is a player who can do everything on the field. He can do assists, encourage his colleagues, give them confidence to go forward. It is someone who, when a team does not do well, becomes one of the leaders.”

Pelé (1940–2022) Brazilian association football player

Self-confidence , Confidence

“Since virtue and equality are the soul of the republic, and that your aim is to found, to consolidate the republic, it follows, that the first rule of your political conduct should be, to let all your measures tend to maintain equality and encourage virtue, for the first care of the legislator should be to strengthen the principles on which the government rests. Hence all that tends to excite a love of country, to purify manners, to exalt the mind, to direct the passions of the human heart towards the public good, you should adopt and establish.”

Maximilien Robespierre (1758–1794) French revolutionary lawyer and politician

Principles to Form the Basis of the Administration of the Republic (February 1794)

Soul , Country , Heart , Passion

“I believe that maturity is not an outgrowing, but a growing up: that an adult is not a dead child, but a child who survived. I believe that all the best faculties of a mature human being exist in the child, and that if these faculties are encouraged in youth they will act well and wisely in the adult, but that if they are repressed and denied in the child they will stunt and cripple the adult personality. And finally, I believe that one of the most deeply human, and humane, of these faculties is the power of imagination: so that it is our pleasant duty … to encourage that faculty of imagination in our children, to encourage it to grow freely, to flourish like the green bay tree, by giving it the best, absolutely the best and purest, nourishment that it can absorb.”

Ursula K. Le Guin book The Language of the Night

And never under any circumstances, to squelch it, or sneer at it, or imply that it is childish, or unmanly, or untrue.
"Why Are Americans Afraid of Dragons?" https://books.google.com/books?id=ksOjjuy3issC&pg=PA44, in The Language of the Night (1979), p. 44

Tree , Imagination , Dead , Personality

“But all this even, is not the full extent of the evil. — By such examples, by instances of the perpetrators of such acts going unpunished, the lawless in spirit, are encouraged to become lawless in practice; and having been used to no restraint, but dread of punishment, they thus become, absolutely unrestrained.”

Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States

Having ever regarded Government as their deadliest bane, they make a jubilee of the suspension of its operations; and pray for nothing so much, as its total annihilation. While, on the other hand, good men, men who love tranquillity, who desire to abide by the laws and enjoy their benefits, who would gladly spill their blood in the defense of their country, seeing their property destroyed, their families insulted, and their lives endangered, their persons injured, and seeing nothing in prospect that forebodes a change for the better, become tired of and disgusted with a government that offers them no protection, and are not much averse to a change in which they imagine they have nothing to lose. Thus, then, by the operation of this mobocratic spirit which all must admit is now abroad in the land, the strongest bulwark of any government, and particularly of those constituted like ours, may effectually be broken down and destroyed — I mean the attachment of the people.
1830s, The Lyceum Address (1838)

Evil

“The scheme, my dear Marqs., which you propose as a precedent to encourage the emancipation of the black people of this Country from that state of Bondage in wch. they are held, is a striking evidence of the benevolence of your Heart. I shall be happy to join you in so laudable a work; but will defer going into a detail of the business, till I have the pleasure of seeing you.”

George Washington (1732–1799) first President of the United States

" TO THE PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS." in a letter to Thomas Mifflin (17 JUNE 1783); published in The Writings of George Washington (1938), edited by John C. Fitzpatrick, Vol. 26, p. 294
1780s

Country , Business , People , Heart

“Mathematics, rightly viewed, possesses not only truth, but supreme beauty – a beauty cold and austere, like that of sculpture, without appeal to any part of our weaker nature, without the gorgeous trappings of painting or music, yet sublimely pure, and capable of a stern perfection such as only the greatest art can show. The true spirit of delight, the exaltation, the sense of being more than Man, which is the touchstone of highest excellence, is to be found in mathematics as surely as in poetry. What is best in mathematics deserves not merely to be learnt as a task, but to be assimilated as a part of daily thought, and brought again and again before the mind with ever-renewed encouragement.”

Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) logician, one of the first analytic philosophers and political activist

1900s, "The Study of Mathematics" (November 1907)

Painting , Beauty , Nature , Music

“It was his support and encouragement that had helped me to go abroad for training. He was great supporter of sports in general and his passing away is a big loss.”

Sunil Dutt (1929–2005) Hindi film actor

Sports person Joshna Chinnappa in page 69

Sport , Loss , Support , Help

“Should the merit of science being fear of the ignorant, and love and honour for the scholars, that alone should encourage striving for it. What then about its other virtues in this world and the other.”

Ibn Hazm (994–1064) Arab theologian

ibid, 19

Making love , World , Science , Fear

“We also need to be encouragers to our friends. Some of them have hopes and dreams, yet although they've prayed and watched and waited, there's been no answer from above.”

William G. Boykin (1948) Recipient of the Purple Heart medal

After seven tries, the rain was finally on its way.
Source: Man to Man: Rediscovering Masculinity in a Challenging World (2020), p. 123

Hope , Dreams , Waiting

“I exhort you with all the ardour of my soul. Learn, instruct, encourage love of study, and you will have fulfilled your mission on earth.”

Marcelo H. del Pilar (1850–1896) Filipino writer, lawyer, and journalist (1850-1896)

Marcelo H. del Pilar to Josefa Gatmaitan (13 March 1889), in Epistolario de Marcelo H. del Pilar, vol. I, p.57

Soul , Study , Learning , Love

“Always make sure to encourage other people.”

Vladimer Botsvadze

People

“Spirituality does not encourage idleness, but you must be more practical than those who are not spiritual.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

“I cannot allow or encourage anyone to become a philosopher. But once you find the inspiration to become one of them, there will be no one to stop you.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

“We must use our brains to overcome our brains. You are the solution to this crazy world we find ourselves in. Do everything you can to reach others. Teach. Elevate. Encourage critical thinking. But do it with kindness and understanding. People who believe crazy things are only guilty of being human. Remember this and show compassion.”

Guy P. Harrison (1963) American skeptic author

People , World , Understanding , Thinking

“I encourage people to remember that "no" is a complete sentence.”

Gavin de Becker (1954) American engineer

Source: The Gift of Fear: Survival Signals That Protect Us from Violence

People

“It is impossible for anyone to be responsible for another person's behavior. The most you or any leader can do is to encourage each one to be responsible for himself.”

Robert A. Heinlein (1907–1988) American science fiction author

Behavior , Personality

“No matter how much you keep encouraging someone who is blindfolded to stare through the cloth, he still won’t see a thing.".”

Franz Kafka (1883–1924) author

Clothes

“When patriarchy dismisses us, it encourages our murderers.”

Audre Lorde book Sister Outsider

Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches

“Even if it were true that evolution, or the teaching of evolution, encouraged immorality that would not imply that the theory of evolution was false.”

Richard Dawkins book The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution

Source: The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution

Falseness

“If a man has his eyes bound, you can encourage him as much as you like to stare through the bandage, but he'll never see anything”

Franz Kafka book The Castle

Source: The Castle (1926)

“We can all begin freely—a slight preference is natural enough; but there are very few of us who have heart enough to be really in love without encouragement.”

Jane Austen book Pride and Prejudice

Source: Pride and Prejudice

Love , Nature , Heart

“Behind every specific call, whether it is to teach or preach or write or encourage or comfort, there is a deeper call that gives shape to the first: the call to give ourselves away - the call to die.”

Michael Card (1957) singer, songwriter, author, composer, Radio Host

Source: The Walk: The Life-changing Journey of Two Friends

“We, more than others, should carry jumper and tow cables not only in our cars, but also in our hearts, by which means we can send the needed boost or charge of encouragement or the added momentum to mortal neighbors.”

Neal A. Maxwell (1926–2004) Mormon leader

Source: All These Things Shall Give Thee Experience

Cars , Heart

“That was the crux. You. Only you could work on you. Nobody could force you, and if you weren't ready, then you weren't ready, and no amount of open-armed encouragement was going to change that.”

Norah Vincent (1968) American journalist

Change

“Money is like manure; it's not worth a thing unless it's spread around encouraging young things to grow.”

Thornton Wilder The Matchmaker

Dolly Levi, in Act 4 http://books.google.com/books?id=MAEJ8VP0rMYC&q=%22Money+is+like+manure+it's+not+worth+a+thing+unless+it's+spread+around+encouraging+young+things+to+grow%22&pg=PA110#v=onepage
Source: The Matchmaker (1954)

Money

“I like maxims that don't encourage behavior modification.
-Calvin”

Bill Watterson (1958) American comic artist

19 Jan 91
Attack of the Deranged Mutant Killer Monster Snow Goons
Source: The Complete Calvin and Hobbes

Behavior

“Will you explain to me why people encourage delusional behaviour in children, and medicate it in adults?”

Barbara Kingsolver book Flight Behavior

Source: Flight Behavior

Children , People

“How hard is it, when everything encourages us to sleep, though we may look about us with conscious, clinging eyes, to wake and yet look about us as in a dream, with eyes that no longer know their function and whose gaze is turned inward.”

Antonin Artaud (1896–1948) French-Occitanian poet, playwright, actor and theatre director

Source: The Theater and Its Double

Dreams , Sleep

“If it would benefit you, I would kill every wolf here. But there are things that you need to do -- and interfering with that is not protecting, not in my book. The best way for me to protect you is to encourage you to be able to protect yourself.”

Patricia Briggs book Hunting Ground

Source: Hunting Ground

Books , Way , Wolf

“Wanna spot me?"
"No thanks. How about I just scream verbal encouragements at you?”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Magic Burns

“I was tanned, happy, and blowing a kiss to Cary, who’d playacted the role of a highfashion
photographer by calling out ridiculous encouragements.”

Sylvia Day book Bared to You

Source: Bared to You

Kiss , Happiness

“I find I am constantly being encouraged to pluck out some one aspect of myself and present this as the meaningful whole, eclipsing or denying the other parts of self.”

Audre Lorde (1934–1992) writer and activist

Source: Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches

Parting

“I think women rule the world, and that no man has ever done anything that a woman either hasn't allowed him to do or encouraged him to do.”

Bob Dylan (1941) American singer-songwriter, musician, author, and artist

Rolling Stone interview (21 June 1984)

Women , World , Thinking

“There are very few who have heart enough to be really in love without encouragement”

Jane Austen book Pride and Prejudice

Source: Pride and Prejudice

Love , Heart

“We tried not to smile, for smiling only encourages men to bore you and waste your time.”

Sheila Heti book How Should a Person Be?

Source: How Should a Person Be?

Men , Smile , Time

“Phineas gave Abigail an encouraging smile. “Chillax, dudette. He didn’t want to bite you.”
She wondered if she’d overreacted. “He didn’t?”
“Naw.” Phineas smirked. “He just wanted to jump your bones.”

Kerrelyn Sparks (1955) American writer

Source: Sexiest Vampire Alive

Smile

“Love pats are soft punches of encouragement that are admistered on the knee, shoulder, and arm.”

Stephen Chbosky (1970) American writer

Love

“We have a name for your disease. We call it a hyper-aesthetic one. You have been encouraged to over-indulge yourself in literature; and have inflamed your organs of fancy.”

Sarah Waters book Fingersmith

Source: Fingersmith

Disease , Literature

“I wanted you to stop.” “I was encouraged by you breathlessly moaning my name.” I spun on my foot. “I wasn’t moaning your name. I was shrieking in alarm.” “That was the sexiest throaty shrieking I’ve ever heard.” “You need to get out more.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Burn for Me

“We try not to encourage demonstrations of his mastery of the gaseous arts.”

James Patterson book Maximum Ride

Source: Max

Art

“Satan has his companions, fellow-devils, to admire and encourage him; but I am solitary and detested.”

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus

Source: Frankenstein

“Failing to fetch me at first, keep encouraged. Missing me one place, search another. I stop somewhere waiting for you.”

Walt Whitman Song of Myself

Source: Song of Myself

Search , Waiting

“It was always the view of my parents… that hot weather encouraged loose morals among young people.”

Ian McEwan (1948) British author

People , Parent , Weather

“Don't you find it odd," she continued, "that when you're a kid, everyone, all the world, encourages you to follow your dreams. But when you're older, somehow they act offended if you even try.”

Ethan Hawke book The Hottest State

Source: The Hottest State

World , Dreams

“The Hermit was known to be pretty sniffy about disciples who returned in failure. There was a wall of the institute layered with their skins- an ingenious display that encouraged vigor in his students, as well as nicely keeping out the drafts.”

Jonathan Stroud book Ptolemy's Gate

Source: Ptolemy's Gate

Failure

“Patience is a fruit of the spirit that grows only under trial. It is useless to pray for patience. Well, actually I encourage you to pray for patience, but I'll tell you what you'll get TRIALS!”

Joyce Meyer (1943) American author and speaker

Patience

“Curious that we spend more time congratulating people who have succeeded than encouraging people who have not.”

Neil deGrasse Tyson (1958) American astrophysicist and science communicator

Inspirational , Success , People , Time

“…but all day long I would be training myself to think, to understand, to criticize, to know myself; I was seeking for the absolute truth: this preoccupation did not exactly encourage polite conversation.”

Simone de Beauvoir (1908–1986) French writer, intellectual, existentialist philosopher, political activist, feminist, and social theorist

Source: Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter

Truth , Understanding , Thinking , Training

“What you applaud you encourage, but beware what you celebrate…”

Ravi Zacharias (1946) Indian philosopher

“You will hardly know who I am or what I mean,
But I shall be good health to you nevertheless,
And filter and fibre your blood.

Failing to fetch me at first keep encouraged,
Missing me one place search another,
I stop somewhere waiting for you.”

Walt Whitman Song of Myself

Source: Song of Myself

Health , Search , Waiting

“There's nothing like a shovel full of dirt to encourage literacy.”

Margaret Atwood book The Blind Assassin

Source: The Blind Assassin

“One of the biggest roles of science fiction is to prepare people to accept the future without pain and to encourage a flexibility of mind. Politicians should read science fiction, not westerns and detective stories.”

Arthur C. Clarke (1917–2008) British science fiction writer, science writer, inventor, undersea explorer, and television series host

As quoted in The Making of Kubrick's 2001 (1970) by Jerome Agel, p. 300
1970s
Context: One of the biggest roles of science fiction is to prepare people to accept the future without pain and to encourage a flexibility of mind. Politicians should read science fiction, not westerns and detective stories. Two-thirds of 2001 is realistic — hardware and technology — to establish background for the metaphysical, philosophical, and religious meanings later.

Pain , People , Science , Reading

“Have you ever wondered why Republicans are so interested in encouraging people to volunteer in their communities? It’s because volunteers work for no pay. Republicans have been trying to get people to work for no pay for a long time.”

George Carlin (1937–2008) American stand-up comedian

People , Communication , Time

“I realised that one might love him secretly with no hope of encouragement, which can be very enjoyable for the young or inexperienced.”

Barbara Pym book Excellent Women

Source: Excellent Women

Love , Hope

“. The language of love is like that, possessive. That should be the first warning that it's not going to encourage anyone's betterment.”

Holly Black book Black Heart

Source: Black Heart

Love

“Maya Angelou observed you cant use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have. Sadly, too often creativity is smothered rather than nurtured. There has to be climate in which new ways of thinking, perceiving, questioning are encouraged.”

John C. Maxwell (1947) American author, speaker and pastor

Source: How Successful People Think: Change Your Thinking, Change Your Life

Angels , Way , Question , Thinking

“Be an encourager. Scatter sunshine. Who knows whose life you might touch with something as simple as a kind word.”

Debbie Macomber (1948) American writer

Life

“I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by conscious endeavor.”

Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) 1817-1862 American poet, essayist, naturalist, and abolitionist

Variant: I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestioned ability of a man to elevate his life by conscious endeavor.

Life

“Champagne, if you are seeking the truth, is better than a lie detector. It encourages a man to be expansive, even reckless, while lie detectors are only a challenge to tell lies successfully.”

Graham Greene book Travels with My Aunt

Travels with My Aunt (1969)

Truth , Lie

“She encouraged herself to see her very small presence in the world as a good thing, a power, something that a hero might possess.”

Helen Oyeyemi (1984) British author

Source: Mr. Fox

World

“An awareness of death encourages us to live more intensely.”

Paulo Coelho (1947) Brazilian lyricist and novelist

Death

“Doubt may be a poor encouragement to do anything, but it is a bad reason for doing nothing.”

George MacDonald book Lilith

Source: Lilith

“One of the most beautiful gifts in the world is the gift of encouragement. When someone encourages you, that person helps you over a threshold you might otherwise never have crossed on your own.”

John O'Donohue (1956–2008) Irish writer, priest and philosopher

Source: Eternal Echoes: Celtic Reflections on Our Yearning to Belong

World , Beauty , Help , Personality

“Our environment encourages us not to be philosophers but partisans.”

William James (1842–1910) American philosopher, psychologist, and pragmatist

“They encouraged you to put some of your weight in their hands and soon as you felt how light and lovely it was, they studied your scars and tribulations…”

Toni Morrison book Beloved

Source: Beloved

Love , Study , Light

“Encourage everyone you meet with a smile or compliment. Make them feel better when you leave their presence and they will always be glad to see you coming.”

Joyce Meyer (1943) American author and speaker

Smile , Feeling

“This, for many people, is what's most offensive about hunting—to some, disgusting: that it encourages, or allows, us not only to kill but to take a certain pleasure in killing”

Michael Pollan (1955) American author, journalist, activist, and professor of journalism

People , Pleasure

“My son, what you are attempting – shadow-travel across the world, carrying the statue of Athena – it may well destroy you.’
‘Thanks for the encouragement.”

Rick Riordan book The Blood of Olympus

Source: The Blood of Olympus

World , Travel

“Broad daylight does not encourage the apprehension of horror.”

Guy De Maupassant (1850–1893) French writer

“Seduction is merely encouraging a man to do something he already wants to do.”

Lisa Kleypas (1964) American writer

Source: Tempt Me at Twilight

“Even in darkness it is possible to create light and encourage compassion. That it is possible to feel free inside a prison. That even in exile, friendship exists and can become an anchor. That one instant before dying, man is still immortal.”

Elie Wiesel (1928–2016) writer, professor, political activist, Nobel Laureate, and Holocaust survivor

Source: Open Heart

Friendship , Feeling , Light

“Nine tenths of education is encouragement.”

Anatole France (1844–1924) French writer

Teachers' Day , For Parents , Education

“I'd spent a night with Ranger a while ago, and I knew what happened when he was encouraged. Ranger knew how to make a woman want him. Ranger was magic.”

Janet Evanovich book Eleven on Top

Source: Eleven on Top

Night

“The doctrine of toleration requires a positive as well as a negative statement. It is not only wrong to burn a man on account of his creed, but it is right to encourage the open avowal and defence of every opinion sincerely maintained. Every man who says frankly and fully what he thinks is so far doing a public service. We should be grateful to him for attacking most unsparingly our most cherished opinions.”

Leslie Stephen (1832–1904) British author, literary critic, and first editor of the Dictionary of National Biography

The Nineteenth Century, vol. 13 (1883) p. 665

Thinking , Sincerity

“I never exert pressure on my children: I encourage the children, Katija and Rahima, to pursue their dreams. Rahima is embarrassed by autograph-seekers and doesn't want me to visit her school. In fact, I have never attended a single PTA meeting or gone to pick up the report cards of my children.”

A. R. Rahman (1966) Indian singer and composer

A R Rahman: In tune with life

Children , School , Dreams

“Our units of temporal measurement, from seconds on up to months, are so complicated, asymmetrical and disjunctive so as to make coherent mental reckoning in time all but impossible. Indeed, had some tyrannical god contrived to enslave our minds to time, to make it all but impossible for us to escape subjection to sodden routines and unpleasant surprises, he could hardly have done better than handing down our present system. It is like a set of trapezoidal building blocks, with no vertical or horizontal surfaces, like a language in which the simplest thought demands ornate constructions, useless particles and lengthy circumlocutions. Unlike the more successful patterns of language and science, which enable us to face experience boldly or at least level-headedly, our system of temporal calculation silently and persistently encourages our terror of time.
…
It is as though architects had to measure length in feet, width in meters and height in ells; as though basic instruction manuals demanded a knowledge of five different languages. It is no wonder then that we often look into our own immediate past or future, last Tuesday or a week from Sunday, with feelings of helpless confusion.”

Robert Grudin (1938) American writer

Time and the Art of Living (1982)

God , Feeling , Knowledge , Science

“For years I have encouraged my patients and students to play musical instruments. I believe that it is essential for their ultimate health to be able to express themselves musically. Inside each of us is the deep desire to open our hearts and sing out with love. I find that when they allow music-making to enter into their lives, there is a beautiful change. There is an opening of the heart.”

John Diamond (doctor) (1934) Australian doctor

Source: The Life Energy in Music, Vol. 1 (1981), p. 105

Love , Health , Beauty , Music

“There’s a passage where [the Buddha] contrasts his way of teaching with what he calls training in bombast. Training in bombast is where you’re taught things that are very poetic, that sound very high, very lovely, very inspiring, but no one is encouraged to ask what, precisely, they mean. After all, in bombast there really is no precise meaning. It’s all just vague, high-sounding words. But, as the Buddha said, he taught cross-questioning. Your training with him was in cross-questioning. When there was a teaching you didn’t understand, he encouraged you to ask, “What’s the meaning of this? What’s the purpose of that? How far should this word be taken?””

Thanissaro Bhikkhu (1949) Theravadin Buddhist Monk and Scholar

That way, wherever there are any doubts or uncertainties, you can clear them up.
Conviction and Confidence (2010)

Love , Way , Understanding , Question

“[Hillary Clinton] was trying to encourage us to become more active in politics and she said, 'If you leave all the decision-making to others, you might not like what they do, and you will have no one but yourself to blame.' It was such a challenge to the women in the room. And it really hit me: She’s talking to me.”

Kirsten Gillibrand (1966) United States Senator from New York

Describing Hillary Clinton's influence on Gillibrand's entering politics

Women , Decision

“The man, who was probably an itinerant traditional circumciser from the blacksmith clan, picked up a pair of scissors. With the other hand, he caught hold of the place between my legs and started tweaking it, like Grandma milking a goat. "There it is, the kintir," one of the women said. Then the scissors went down between my legs and the man cut off my inner labia and clitoris. I heard it, like a butcher snipping the fat off a piece of meat. A piercing pain shot up between my legs, indescribable, and I howled. Then came the sewing: the long, blunt needle clumsily pushed into my bleeding outer labia, my loud and anguished protests, Grandma's words of comfort and encouragement. "It's just this once in your life, Ayaan. Be brave, it's almost finished."”

Ayaan Hirsi Ali book Infidel

When the sewing was finished, he cut the thread off with his teeth.
Source: Infidel (2007), Chapter 2: Under the Talal Tree

Life , Women , Pain , Grandma

“The ultimate guide to decision should be our estimate at the time of the nature and extent of the American interest. There may be good reasons to use our resources to resist a troublemaking power which commits aggression against a weak and friendly state if the subversion of that state would be a significant gain to the troublemaker or a significant loss to us. Even then, we should have a reasonably accurate and encouraging estimate of the chances of success before we act. We cannot afford to stake our world standing on a lost cause or on one with unduly high risks of failure.”

Maxwell D. Taylor (1901–1987) United States general

Source: Responsibility and Response (1967), p. 49

World , Failure , Nature , Decision

“Adam set the bar so high for portraying the role of Batman, He was wonderful, spot on, with a twinkle in his eye. He had it all -- looks, charm, intelligence, I could go on and on. In conversation, he was very animated and once told me that Batman was the father that everyone wanted! I never thought of it that way! He had a great way of playing that 'tongue-in-cheek' nature in so much of the dialogue. I had a long, engaging conversation with him and his wife, Marcelle, about their life in Montana, If I had to describe him in a word or two, they would be 'stellar' and 'exemplar,' qualities that we want to encourage in ourselves and in young people.”

Julie Newmar (1933) American actress

'Batman' Co-Star Julie Newmar Remembers Adam West: 'He Had It All' http://www.etonline.com/news/219389_batman_star_julie_newmar_remembers_adam_west/ (June 10, 2017)

Life , People , Way , Intelligence

“To fight this recession the Fed needs more than a snapback; it needs soaring household spending to offset moribund business investment. And to do that, as Paul McCulley of Pimco put it, Alan Greenspan needs to create a housing bubble to replace the Nasdaq bubble. Judging by Mr. Greenspan's remarkably cheerful recent testimony, he still thinks he can pull that off. But the Fed chairman's crystal ball has been cloudy lately; remember how he urged Congress to cut taxes to head off the risk of excessive budget surpluses? And a sober look at recent data is not encouraging.”

Paul Krugman (1953) American economist

"Dubya's Double Dip?" http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/02/opinion/dubya-s-double-dip.html, The New York Times, 2 August 2002
:It should be noted that Krugman was being sarcastic http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/when-someone-says-paul-krugman-called-for-greenspan-to-create-a-housing-bubble-back-in-2002-they-are-trying-to-say-that-they-are-either-a-fool-or-a-liar; two weeks later, he wrote an article http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/16/opinion/mind-the-gap.html warning about the dangers of a housing bubble.
The New York Times Columns

Business , Thinking , Fight , Housing

“When I was a small child and adults asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I always beamed and said, ‘A vegetarian’. And that’s exactly what I became. Despite growing up with parents who lived on meals of meat and two veg, eating animals never made sense to me. … I grew up surrounded by dogs and cats and couldn’t understand why we protected these animals, played with them, encouraged them to sleep in our beds, and called them ‘pets’ while labelling other equally interesting, cuddly, and sentient animals ‘dinner’.”

Sadie Frost (1965) English actress and producer

“Sadie Frost opens up about how vegetarianism changed her life”, in Marie Claire (19 May 2017) http://www.marieclaire.co.uk/life/food-drink/sadie-frost-vegetarian-507329#RikeLQmB184kEcJP.99.

Dogs , Cats , Understanding , Parent

“This is especially important when addressing less statistically savvy audiences. Such audiences could perhaps be encouraged to think of two normal distributions, one representing males and the other females. Instead of imagining that natural selection creates two distinct psychological types — a male type and a female type, described by the mean values for each group — they could be encouraged to imagine that natural selection pushes the male and female distributions closer together or further apart. This simple expedient may help people to visualize the effects of natural selection on average sex differences without at the same time losing sight of the variation within each sex.”

Steve Stewart-Williams (1971)

Source: The Ape that Kicked the Hornet's Nest (2013), p. 268

People , Sex , Imagination , Nature

“Apologists for the profession contend that lawyers are as honest as other men, but this is not very encouraging.”

Ferdinand Lundberg (1905–1995) American journalist

quoted in Stan D. Ross' The Joke's On... Lawyers https://books.google.com/books?id=uNt90TeLOxgC&pg, p. 43 (Federation Press, 1996)

Men

“Anti-cruelty societies should be encouraged. The progress of science has suffered little by their existence, and humanity has gained much.”

Henry Jacob Bigelow (1818–1890) American surgeon

Source: Surgical Anaesthesia (1894), p. 372

Suffering , Science

“Multiculturalists encourage vagueness about 'contributions' to give the impression of equal participation, as in the 'new age' school sports where every player in the team must handle the ball before a goal can be scored. If one were to compose a more precise ethnic history it would read something like this: The English, Irish and Scots were the founding population; they and their children established the Australian nation.”

John Hirst (1942–2016) Australian historian

Sense and Nonsense in Australian History (2005)

Children , Age , School , History

“Jahangir, when a prince, at one time intended demolishing some of the Hindu temples at Banaras but desisted there from on Man Singh's intervention. In his reign conversions to Islam were encouraged, conversions back from Islam to Hinduism were punished. When he visited Kangra, he celebrated the Muslim occupation of the fort by desecrating its famous temple. At Pushkar he broke the image of Varaha and a bull was sacrificed to signify the victory of Islam over idolatry.”

Jahangir (1569–1627) 4th Mughal Emperor

Lal, K. S. (1999). Theory and practice of Muslim state in India. New Delhi: Aditya Prakashan. Chapter 2

Time , Victory

“The considered professional judgment of the Air Force is that the traditional outfitting of personnel in standardized uniforms encourages the subordination of personal preferences and identities in favor of the overall group mission.”

William H. Rehnquist (1924–2005) Chief Justice of the United States

Goldman v. Weinberger, 475 U.S. 503 (1986) (majority opinion); the ruling upheld the military's prohibition of a Jewish officer from wearing a yarmulke indoors while in uniform.
Judicial opinions

Personality

“Here the men lost all patience, and complained of the length of the voyage, but the Admiral encouraged them in the best manner he could, representing the profits they were about to acquire, and adding that it was to no purpose to complain, having come so far, they had nothing to do but continue on to the Indies, till with the help of our Lord, they should arrive there.”

Cristoforo Colombo (1451–1506) Explorer, navigator, and colonizer

10 October 1492
Variant translation: Here the people could stand it no longer and complained of the long voyage; but the Admiral cheered them as best he could, holding out good hope of the advantages they would have. He added that it was useless to complain, he had come [to go] to the Indies, and so had to continue it until he found them, with the help of Our Lord.
As translated in Journals and Other Documents on the Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus (1963) by Samuel Eliot Morison, p. 62
Journal of the First Voyage

Men , Help , Patience

Quotes about encouragement page 2

Quotes about encouragement
page 2