Quotes about most
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“One day, in retrospect, the years of struggle will strike you as the most beautiful.”

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

“A government is the most dangerous threat to man's rights: it holds a legal monopoly on the use of physical force against legally disarmed victims.”

Ayn Rand (1905–1982) Russian-American novelist and philosopher

“I'm sorry to say that the subject I most disliked was mathematics. I have thought about it. I think the reason was that mathematics leaves no room for argument. If you made a mistake, that was all there was to it.”

Malcolm X book The Autobiography of Malcolm X

Source: The Autobiography of Malcolm X

Mathematics, Thinking

“The tempter or the tempted, who sins most?”

William Shakespeare Measure for Measure

Source: Measure for Measure

“One of the most striking differences between a cat and a lie is that a cat has only nine lives.”

Mark Twain (1835–1910) American author and humorist

Lie, Cats

“Solemnity, I don't know what it's for. I mean, what is the point of it? The two most beautiful memorial services that I've ever attended both had a lot of humor. It somehow freed us all and made the services inspiring and cathartic. But solemnity, it serves pomposity. The self important always know at some level of their consciousness that their egotism is going to be punctured by humor. That's why they see it as a threat! And so, dishonestly, they pretend that their deficiency makes their views more substantial.”

John Cleese (1939) actor from England

Beauty, Memory

“I will simply express my strong belief, that that point of self-education which consists in teaching the mind to resist its desires and inclinations, until they are proved to be right, is the most important of all, not only in things of natural philosophy, but in every department of daily life.”

Michael Faraday (1791–1867) English scientist

Life, Education, Nature, Strong

“When I am most deeply rooted, I feel the wildest desire to uproot myself.”

Anaïs Nin (1903–1977) writer of novels, short stories, and erotica

Feeling

“The most common sort of lie is that by which a man deceives himself: the deception of others is a relatively rare offense.”

Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German philosopher, poet, composer, cultural critic, and classical philologist

Source: The Anti-Christ

Lie

“The most urgent necessity is, not that the State should teach, but that it should allow education. All monopolies are detestable, but the worst of all is the monopoly of education.”

Frédéric Bastiat (1801–1850) French classical liberal theorist, political economist, and member of the French assembly

Le plus pressé, ce n'est pas que l'État enseigne, mais qu'il laisse enseigner. Tous les monopoles sont détestables, mais le pire de tous, c'est le monopole de l'enseignement.
In 'Cursed Money!', final thought.
The Bastiat-Proudhon Debate on Interest (1849–1850)
Source: What Is Money?

Education

“And thus, the actions of life often not allowing any delay, it is a truth very certain that, when it is not in our power to determine the most true opinions we ought to follow the most probable.”

René Descartes (1596–1650) French philosopher, mathematician, and scientist

Source: Discourse on Method

Life, Truth

“Memories, you see, hurt. The good ones most of all.”

Harlan Coben book Tell No One

Source: Tell No One

Memory, Hurt

“I remained standing in the middle of the room, swaying on my feet as though I had received a blow. I thought of my life and saw what it had been. No one could swim against such a current of mud. I had been a man so horrible that he could have no friend. But wasn't that, I asked myself, because I had always been incapable of wearing a disguise? If all men went through life with unmasked faces, as I had done for half a century, one might be surprised to find how little difference there was between them. But, in fact, no one lives with his face uncovered, no one. Most men ape greatness or nobility. Though they do not know it, they conform to certain fixed types, literary or other. This the saints know, and they hate and despise themselves because they see themselves with unclouded eyes. I should not have been so universally condemned had I not been so defenseless, so open, and so naked.”

Francois Mauriac (1885–1970) French author

Source: Viper's Tangle

Life, Men, Hate, Universe

“The brain does not create consciousness, but conciousness created the brain, the most complex physical form on earth, for its expression.”

Eckhart Tolle (1948) German writer

Source: A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose

“I hope I shall always possess firmness and virtue enough to maintain (what I consider the most enviable of all titles) the character of an honest man”

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

Letter to Alexander Hamilton (28 August 1788) http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/04-06-02-0432 <br class="br">1780s <br class="br">Context: I hope I shall always possess firmness and virtue enough to maintain (what I consider the most enviable of all titles) the character of an honest man, as well as prove (what I desire to be considered in reality) that I am, with great sincerity & esteem, Dear Sir Your friend and Most obedient Hble Ser⟨vt⟩

Hope

“Scratch the surface of most cynics and you find a frustrated idealist — someone who made the mistake of converting his ideals into expectations.”

Peter M. Senge (1947) American scientist

“War is a racket. It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives.”

Smedley D. Butler book War Is a Racket

War is a racket (1935)
War is a racket (1935)
Source: War Is a Racket

War, Loss

“I have had prayers answered - most strangely so sometimes - but I think our Heavenly Father's loving-kindness has been even more evident in what He has refused me.”

Lewis Carroll (1832–1898) English writer, logician, Anglican deacon and photographer

Love, Thinking

“It's usually the selfish people who are loved the most. They do what you deny yourself, and you love them for it. You give them your heart.”

Saul Bellow (1915–2005) Canadian-born American writer

Love, People, Heart, Selfishness

“Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions that differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most people are even incapable of forming such opinions.”

Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity

The New Quotable Einstein
1950s, Essay to Leo Baeck (1953)

People

“Nefertiti, the most beautiful calico in the world, chose me as her own six short years ago.”

P. C. Cast (1960) American writer

World, Beauty

“The most important things to remember about back story are that (a) everyone has a history and (b) most of it isn’t very interesting.”

Stephen King (1947) American author

Source: On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

History

“The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don't have any.”

Alice Walker (1944) American author and activist

As quoted in The Best Liberal Quotes Ever : Why the Left is Right (2004) by William P. Martin, p. 173.

Leadership, People, Way, Thinking

“Plain question and plain answer make the shortest road out of most perplexities.”

Mark Twain (1835–1910) American author and humorist

Question

“Of course I want to kill you," said Skulduggery. "I want to kill most people. But then where would I be? In a field of dead people with no one to talk to.”

Derek Landy (1974) Irish children's writer

Source: Kingdom of the Wicked

People, Dead

“If we desire to avoid insult, we must be able to repel it; if we desire to secure peace, one of the most powerful instruments of our rising prosperity, it must be known that we are at all times ready for war”

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

Fifth annual Message http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/washs05.asp (3 December 1793) <br class="br">1790s <br class="br">Source: The Writings of George Washington from the Original Manuscript Sources 1745-1799 Volume 39 (General Index O-Z List of Letters) - Leather Bound

War, Peace, Time

“The Universe, as has been observed before, is an unsettlingly big place, a fact which for the sake of a quiet life most people tend to ignore.”

Douglas Adams (1952–2001) English writer and humorist

Life, People, Universe

“And this is one of the most crucial definitions for the whole of Christianity; that the opposite of sin is not virtue but faith.”

Sören Kierkegaard (1813–1855) Danish philosopher and theologian, founder of Existentialism

Source: The Sickness Unto Death: A Christian Psychological Exposition for Upbuilding and Awakening

Faith

“Hope is both the earliest and the most indispensable virtue inherent in the state of being alive. If life is to be sustained hope must remain, even where confidence is wounded, trust impaired.”

Erik H. Erikson (1902–1994) American German-born psychoanalyst & essayist

Life, Hope, Confidence

“I want you to remember what was good in me, not what was most awful. The people you love should be allowed to keep their worst to themselves.”

Joe Hill (1879–1915) Swedish-American labor activist, songwriter, and member of the Industrial Workers of the World

Source: Horns

Love, People

“They forget that the vampaneze were once our brothers, that by destroying them, we destroy a part of ourselves. Most vampire never realize how pointless and savage war truly is. You were smart enough to see through the truth. Don't ever forget it.”

Darren Shan book The Vampire Prince

Source: The Vampire Prince

War, Truth, Parting, Forgetting

“Really! Between you and Eragon, I seem to spend most of my time among the Varden healing people to silly to realize they need to avoid getting chopped into tiny little pieces”

Christopher Paolini book Brisingr

Source: Brisingr

People, Time

“Most of the time when we think we're looking for death, we're really looking for love.”

David Levithan book Another Day

Source: Another Day

Love, Death, Thinking, Time

“Love is something far more than desire for sexual intercourse; it is the principal means of escape from the loneliness which afflicts most men and women throughout the greater part of their lives.”

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

1920s, Marriage and Morals (1929)

Love, Women, Men, Affliction

“Inside each of us is a monster; inside each of us is a saint. The real question is which one we nurture the most, which one will smite the other.”

Jodi Picoult book The Storyteller

Source: The Storyteller

Question

“Nowadays most people die of a sort of creeping common sense, and discover when it is too late that the only things one never regrets are one's mistakes.”

Oscar Wilde book The Picture of Dorian Gray

Variant: One of the great secrets of life. Most people die of a sort of creeping common sense and discover too late that the only things one never regrets are one's mistakes.
Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray

People, Sense

“Cats can work out mathematically the exact place to sit that will cause most inconvenience.”

Pam Brown (1948) Australian poet

Cats, Mathematics

“Most everything that you want is just outside your comfort zone.”

Jack Canfield (1944) American writer

Variant: Everything you want is on the other side of fear.

“Everything is blooming most recklessly; if it were voices instead of colors, there would be an unbelievable shrieking into the heart of the night.”

Rainer Maria Rilke (1875–1926) Austrian poet and writer

Color, Heart, Night

“People only get married when they've no other option, out of panic or desperation or so as not to lose someone they couldn't bear to lose. It's always the most conventional things that contain the largest measure of madness.”

Javier Marías (1951) Spanish writer

La gente sólo se casa cuando no tiene más remedio, por pánico o porque anda desesperada o para no perder a alguien a quien no soporta perder. Siempre hay mucha chaladura en lo que parece más convencional.
Source: Corazón tan blanco [A Heart So White] (1992), p. 121

People, Madness

“One of the most poisonous of all Satan’s whispers is simply, “Things will never change.” That lie kills expectation, trapping our heart forever in the present. To keep desire alive and flourishing, we must renew our vision for what lies ahead. Things will not always be like this. Jesus has promised to “make all things new.” Eye has not seen, ear has not heard all that God has in store for his lovers, which does not mean “we have no clue so don’t even try to imagine,” but rather, you cannot outdream God. Desire is kept alive by imagination, the antidote to resignation. We will need imagination, which is to say, we will need hope.”

John Eldredge

Source: The Sacred Romance Drawing Closer To The Heart Of God

God, Lie, Hope, Imagination

“I have had a most rare vision. I have had a dream, past the wit of man to say what dream it was.”

William Shakespeare A Midsummer Night's Dream

Source: A Midsummer Night's Dream

Dreams, Past

“I believe that sex is one of the most beautiful, natural, wholesome things that money can buy.”

Steve Martin (1945) American actor, comedian, musician, author, playwright, and producer

Money, Beauty, Sex, Nature

“Though there were moments of beauty, Mariam knew for the most part that life had been unkind to her.”

Khaled Hosseini book A Thousand Splendid Suns

Source: A Thousand Splendid Suns

Life, Beauty, Parting

“I'm a bit retarded, like most Americans.”

Henry Miller book Tropic of Cancer

Source: Tropic of Cancer

“I have spent most of the day putting in a comma and the rest of the day taking it out.”

Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish writer and poet

“I repeat with the most vehement conviction: truth is on the march, and nothing will stop it. Today is only the beginning, for it is only today that the positions have become clear: on one side, those who are guilty, who do not want the light to shine forth, on the other, those who seek justice and who will give their lives to attain it. I said it before and I repeat it now: when truth is buried underground, it grows and it builds up so much force that the day it explodes it blasts everything with it. We shall see whether we have been setting ourselves up for the most resounding of disasters, yet to come.”

Emile Zola J’accuse…!

J'accuse! (1898)
Context: These military tribunals have, decidedly, a most singular idea of justice.
This is the plain truth, Mr. President, and it is terrifying. It will leave an indelible stain on your presidency. I realise that you have no power over this case, that you are limited by the Constitution and your entourage. You have, nonetheless, your duty as a man, which you will recognise and fulfill. As for myself, I have not despaired in the least, of the triumph of right. I repeat with the most vehement conviction: truth is on the march, and nothing will stop it. Today is only the beginning, for it is only today that the positions have become clear: on one side, those who are guilty, who do not want the light to shine forth, on the other, those who seek justice and who will give their lives to attain it. I said it before and I repeat it now: when truth is buried underground, it grows and it builds up so much force that the day it explodes it blasts everything with it. We shall see whether we have been setting ourselves up for the most resounding of disasters, yet to come.

Truth, Justice, Light

“Ach, people are always telling us not to do things" said Rob Anybody, "that's how we ken the most interesting things to do.”

Terry Pratchett book Wintersmith

Source: Wintersmith

People

“When considering marriage one should ask oneself this question; 'will I be able to talk with this person into old age?' Everything else is transitory, the most time is spent in conversation.”

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

Marriage, Age, Question, Time

“Most of us spend too much time on what is urgent and not enough time on what is important.”

Stephen R. Covey (1932–2012) American educator, author, businessman and motivational speaker

Back To Work, Time

“The more you think about it, the more amazing the everyday world of human beings becomes: most of it doesn't actually exist at all.”

Terry Pratchett (1948–2015) English author

World, Thinking

“You are thought here to the most senseless and fit man for the job.”

William Shakespeare book Much Ado About Nothing

Source: Much Ado About Nothing

“Whatever anybody says, the most important thing in life is to be happy.”

Orhan Pamuk book The Museum of Innocence

Source: The Museum of Innocence

Life, Happiness

“Most people are boring and stupid.”

Oscar Wilde book The Picture of Dorian Gray

Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray

People, Stupidity

“The most frightening thing in the world is to discover the abnormal in that which is closest to us.”

Kóbó Abe (1924–1993) Japanese writer, playwright, photographer and inventor

World

“The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents.”

H.P. Lovecraft (1890–1937) American author

Fiction, The Call of Cthulhu (1926)
Context: The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the light into the peace and safety of a new dark age.

World, Thinking