Quotes about other
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“We have a nice home and we love each other and that's enough.”
Source: Hope for the Flowers
Source: The Grass is Singing
“My will and my desire were turned by love, the love that moves the sun and the other stars.”
Source: City of Fallen Angels
Multiple variations of this quote can be found, but the earliest one on Google Books which uses the phrase "friendly or hostile" and attributes it to Einstein is The Complete Idiot's Guide to Spiritual Healing by Susan Gregg (2000), p. 5 http://books.google.com/books?id=XLQ8X67PozAC&lpg=PP1&pg=PA5#v=onepage&q&f=false, and this book gives no source for the quote.
A variant is found in Irving Oyle's The New American Medicine Show (1979) on p. 163, where Oyle writes: 'There is a story about Albert Einstein's view of human existence. Asked to pose the most vital question facing humanity, he replied, "Is the universe friendly?"' This variant is repeated in a number of books from the 1980s and 90s, so it probably pre-dates the "friendly or hostile" version. And the idea that the most important question we can ask is "Is the universe friendly?" dates back much earlier than the attribution to Einstein, for example in Emil Carl Wilm's 1912 book The Problem of Religion he includes the following footnote on p. 114 http://books.google.com/books?id=nWYiAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA114#v=onepage&q&f=false: 'A friend proposed to the late F. W. H. Myers the following question: "What is the thing which above all others you would like to know? If you could ask the Sphinx one question, and only one, what would the question be?" After a moment's silence Myers replied: "I think it would be this: Is the universe friendly?"'
Misattributed
Source: A Confederacy of Dunces (1980, posthumous), Ch. 9, p. 226
Virginia Resolution of 1798 (24 December 1798) http://www.constitution.org/cons/virg1798.htm
Federalist No. 46 (29 January 1788) Full text at Wikisource
1790s
Variant: [The Constitution preserves] the advantage of being armed which Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation (where) the governments are afraid to trust the people with arms.
Context: That the General Assembly doth particularly protest against the palpable and alarming infractions of the Constitution, in the two late cases of the "Alien and Sedition Acts" passed at the last session of Congress; the first of which exercises a power no where delegated to the federal government, and which by uniting legislative and judicial powers to those of executive, subverts the general principles of free government; as well as the particular organization, and positive provisions of the federal constitution; and the other of which acts, exercises in like manner, a power not delegated by the constitution, but on the contrary, expressly and positively forbidden by one of the amendments thereto; a power, which more than any other, ought to produce universal alarm, because it is levelled against that right of freely examining public characters and measures, and of free communication among the people thereon, which has ever been justly deemed, the only effectual guardian of every other right.
Context: Besides the advantage of being armed, which the Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation, the existence of subordinate governments, to which the people are attached, and by which the militia officers are appointed, forms a barrier against the enterprises of ambition, more insurmountable than any which a simple government of any form can admit of. Notwithstanding the military establishments in the several kingdoms of Europe, which are carried as far as the public resources will bear, the governments are afraid to trust the people with arms.
Source: The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
“Live to please the others, and everyone will love you, except yourself.”
“Some people think I'm a mythical genius, others think I'm a junkie madman.”
Source: When Women Were Birds: Fifty-four Variations on Voice
Source: Dance with the Devil
Variant: The final aim and reason of all music is nothing other than the glorification of God and the refreshment of the spirit.
“Where there is no joy there can be no courage; and without courage all other virtues are useless.”
"Water", p. 113; this is often quoted as simply: Without courage, all other virtues are useless. <!-- Confessions of a Barbarian: Selections from the Journals of Edward Abbey, 1951-1989 (1994) p. 207 -->
Source: Desert Solitaire (1968)
Context: Has joy any survival value in the operations of evolution? I suspect that it does; I suspect that the morose and fearful are doomed to quick extinction. Where there is no joy there can be no courage; and without courage all other virtues are useless.
“The power you have over someone who loves you is greater than any other power you'll ever have.”
Source: The Summer Garden
Medium Raw (2010)
Source: Medium Raw: A Bloody Valentine to the World of Food and the People Who Cook
“You're my flame in the dark. We chase away the shadows around each other.”
Variant: We chase away the shadows around each other.
Source: The Indigo Spell
“Other crack teams get bat boomerangs and wall-climbing powers; we get Aquatruck.”
Source: City of Ashes
“If you don't want to do something, don't impose on others”
“There is no bad whiskey. There are only some whiskeys that aren't as good as others.”
“If we knew each other's secrets, what comfort we would find.”
Variant: If we knew each other's secrets, what comforts we should find.
Source: Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith
Talk is Cheap Volume 1 (1998)
Source: Talk is Cheap: Volume 1
Source: How to Kill a Rock Star
“One gets so used to one's own horrors, one forgets how they must seem to other people.”
Source: The Thirteenth Tale
“Before you look for validation in others, try and find it in yourself”
Source: If You Want to Write: A Book about Art, Independence and Spirit
Quoted in Ludwig Prautzsch Bibel und Symbol in den Werken Bachs, p. 7 http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=xaG9peANY9kC&pg=PA7&dq=teuflisches+%22Finis+und+Endursache+anders+nicht,+als+nur+zu+Gottes+Ehre+%22;translation from Albert Schweitzer (trans. Ernest Newman) J. S. Bach (New York: Dover, 1966), vol. 1, p. 167
Variant: Like all music, the figured bass should have no other end and aim than the glory of God and the recreation of the soul; where this is not kept in mind there is no true music, but only an infernal clamour and ranting.
Source: Vorkosigan Saga, A Civil Campaign (1999)
“Never build your emotional life on the weaknesses of others.”
Source: The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work (2009), p. 284.
Context: It appeared that the one area in which Sir Bob excelled was anxiety. He was marked out by his relentless ability to find fault with others’ mediocrity—suggesting that a certain kind of intelligence may at heart be nothing more or less than a superior capacity for dissatisfaction.
Source: Why Men Love Bitches: From Doormat to Dreamgirl—A Woman's Guide to Holding Her Own in a Relationship
Source: Married By Morning
“Surviving - that is the other name of a mourning whose possibility is never to be awaited.”
Source: The Politics of Friendship
“One whisper, added to a thousand others, becomes a roar of discontent”
“Come on sempai, would you please stop growing mushrooms in other people's closets?
-Haruhi”
Source: The Celestine Prophecy
Source: The Mark of Athena
2010s
Context: The problem, often not discovered until late in life, is that when you look for things like love, meaning, motivation, it implies they are sitting behind a tree or under a rock. The most successful people recognize, that in life they create their own love, they manufacture their own meaning, they generate their own motivation. For me, I am driven by two main philosophies, know more today about the world than I knew yesterday. And along the way, lessen the suffering of others. You'd be surprised how far that gets you.
“An intelligent person fights for lost causes, realizing that others are merely effects”
Source: It's Kind of a Funny Story
Source: Wishful Drinking
Source: Froi of the Exiles
Source: Winter Moon
“Art arises from sources other than logic." (p.32)”
Source: Life is Elsewhere
Source: Boogers Are My Beat: More Lies, But Some Actual Journalism!
Source: Marley and Me: Life and Love With the World's Worst Dog
Source: Think Big: Unleashing Your Potential for Excellence
Source: Why Men Love Bitches: From Doormat to Dreamgirl—A Woman's Guide to Holding Her Own in a Relationship