“Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.”
Shaykh Hamza Yusuf https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/158902.Hamza_Yusuf
“A loving heart is the beginning of all knowledge.”
Article on Biography.
1820s, Critical and Miscellaneous Essays (1827–1855)
Variant: For love is ever the beginning of Knowledge, as fire is of light.
Source: Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West
“People generally see what they look for, and hear what they listen for.”
Source: To Kill a Mockingbird
Variant: Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.
“This is your life, and it's ending one minute at a time.”
Variant: This is your life and its ending one moment at a time.
Source: Fight Club
“In order for the light to shine so brightly, the darkness must be present.”
“A clever person solves a problem. A wise person avoids it.”
Original from Zig Ziglar https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Zig_Ziglar
Misattributed
“The only impossible journey is the one you never begin.”
Source: The Wise Man's Fear (2011), Chapter 43, “The Flickering Way” (p. 318)
“Your life only gets better when you get better.”
“[…] where ignorance is bliss,
'Tis folly to be wise.”
“Little minds have little worries, big minds have no time for worries.”
“If I cannot do great things, I can do small things in a great way”
“The biggest adventure you can ever take is to live the life of your dreams.”
Chapter 117 http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Count_of_Monte_Cristo/Chapter_117
The Count of Monte Cristo (1845–1846)
“Failure will never overtake me if my determination to succeed is strong enough.”
“Have enough courage to trust love one more time and always one more time.”
“Trust your heart if the seas catch fire and live by love though the stars walk backwards.”
Source: The Death and Life of Charlie St. Cloud
“Don't be pushed by your problems. Be led by your dreams.”
“Do not say a little in many words, but a great deal in few!”
“Very little is needed to make a happy life.”
ἐν ὀλιγίστοις κεῖται τὸ εὐδαιμόνως βιῶσαι
VII, 67
Source: Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book VII
“Age does not protect you from love. But love, to some extent, protects you from age.”
“The wisest mind has something yet to learn.”
“The man who asks a question is a fool for a minute, the man who does not ask is a fool for life.”
“You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.”
As quoted in Conversations with Maya Angelou (1989) by Jeffrey M. Elliot
“Perpetual Optimism is a Force Multiplier.”
Attributed to Emerson in Life’s Instructions for Wisdom, Success, and Happiness (2000) by H. Jackson Brown Jr., as well as numerous on-line sources since, the article "The Purpose of Life Is Not To Be Happy But To Matter" at the Quote Investigator https://quoteinvestigator.com/2014/11/29/purpose/ indicates that this quote is probably derived from various statements first made by Leo Rosten, including the following words delivered at the National Book Awards held in New York in 1962: "The purpose of life is not to be happy — but to matter, to be productive, to be useful, to have it make some difference that you lived at all."
Misattributed
“Know how to listen, and you will profit even from those who talk badly.”
Oh, the Places You'll Go! (1990)
Source: Oh, The Places You'll Go!
“We are made wise not by the recollection of our past, but by the responsibility for our future.”
Source: Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
“For small creatures such as we the vastness is bearable only through love.”
Source: Contact (1985), Chapter 24 (p. 430)
Quoted by Edith Wharton, A Backward Glance (1934), ch. 10.
“A prudent question is one-half of wisdom.”
“Sorrow looks back, Worry looks around, Faith looks up”
“This is the world as it is. This is where you start.”
“Liberty without Learning is always in peril and Learning without Liberty is always in vain.”
1963, Address at Vanderbilt University
Context: The essence of Vanderbilt is still learning, the essence of its outlook is still liberty, and liberty and learning will be and must be the touchstones of Vanderbilt University and of any free university in this country or the world. I say two touchstones, yet they are almost inseparable, inseparable if not indistinguishable, for liberty without learning is always in peril, and learning without liberty is always in vain.
“Life is short and truth works far and lives long: let us speak the truth.”
Source: The World as Will and Representation, Vol 1
“Respect was invented to cover the empty place where love should be.”
(voice of Anna) C. Garnett, trans. (New York: 2003), Part 7, Chapter 24 p. 685
Source: Anna Karenina (1875–1877; 1878)
“Life is a succession of lessons which must be lived to be understood.”
“Be still my heart; thou hast known worse than this.”
Variant: Be strong, saith my heart; I am a soldier;
I have seen worse sights than this.
Source: The Odyssey
“You are built not to shrink down to less but to blossom into more.”
Source: The Truth About Forever
“The truth is more important than the facts.”
“Never let your sense of morals prevent you from doing what is right.”
Part IV, The Traders, section 1; originally published as “The Wedge” in Astounding (October 1944)
Source: The Foundation series (1951–1993), Foundation (1951)
“Happiness is the meaning and purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence.”
Source: The Happiness Project: Or Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun
“To love and to be loved is the greatest happiness.”
Quotations from Gurudev’s teachings, Chinmya Mission Chicago
“Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results.”
Brown did include this quote in her book Sudden Death (Bantam Books, New York, 1983), p. 68, but it appears she was just paraphrasing a quote that had already been written elsewhere. The earliest known appearance of a similar quote is the "approval version" of the Narcotics Anonymous "Basic Text" released in November 1981, which included the quote "Insanity is repeating the same mistakes and expecting different results." A PDF scan of the 1981 approval version can be found here http://www.nauca.us/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/1981-11-Basic-Text-Approval-Form-White.pdf, with the quote appearing on p. 11 (p. 25 of the PDF), at the end of the fourth paragraph (which begins "We have a disease; progressive, incurable and fatal"). More in this article https://quoteinvestigator.com/2017/03/23/same/ on Quote Investigator website.
Misattributed
The Official Website of Amelia Earhart - Quotes http://www.ameliaearhart.com/about/quotes.html
“You are never too old to set another goal, or to dream a new dream.”
Unknown, but also attributed to Les Brown, a motivational speaker. Commonly attributed to C.S. Lewis, but never with a primary source listed.
Misattributed
“A man is but the product of his thoughts. What he thinks, he becomes.”
In Ethical Religion, (Madras: S. Ganesan, 1922), p. 62 http://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015002732066?urlappend=%3Bseq=66
1920s
Variant: A man is but the product of his thoughts. What he thinks, he becomes.
“A man doesn't begin to attain wisdom until he recognizes that he is no longer indispensable.”
Source: Alone (1938), Ch. 12, last lines of the book.
“The future was not what it used to be.”
Source: Time Machines Repaired While-U-Wait (2008), Chapter 13 (p. 156)
“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.”
Variant on aphorism "Study as if you were to live forever. Live as if you were to die tomorrow" pre-dating Gandhi, variously attributed to Isidore of Seville (c. 560 – 636), in FPA Book of Quotations (1952) by Franklin Pierce Adams, to Edmund Rich (1175–1240) in American Journal of Education (1877), or to Alain de Lille in Samuel Smiles's Duty https://books.google.com/books?id=33UzAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA363&dq=live+die+tomorrow+learn+forever&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjd3s_2m57MAhWFMGMKHe-sAl8Q6AEIHDAA#v=onepage&q=live%20die%20tomorrow%20learn%20forever&f=false (1881).
The 1995 book "The good boatman: a portrait of Gandhi," states that Gandhi subscribed "to the view that a man should live thinking he might die tomorrow but learn as if he would live forever."
In his 2010 Boyer lecture Glyn Davis (Professor of Political Science and Vice-Chancellor of Melbourne University) attributes the quote to Desiderius Erasmus. "He [Erasmus] reworked Pliny to urge 'live as if you are to die tomorrow, study as if you were to live forever'. Many students obey the first clause - the best heed both."
There is a similar quote by Johann Gottfried Herder: "Mensch, genieße dein Leben, als müssest morgen du weggehn; Schone dein Leben, als ob ewig du weiletest hier." ["Man, enjoy your life as if you were to depart tomorrow; spare your life as if you were to linger here forever."] (Zerstreute Blätter, 1785).
Disputed
“Either you will be you or you will not be at all.”
“The Knight,” p. 81
The Sun Watches the Sun (1999), Sequence: “What After”
Attributed to Zig Ziglar
Misattributed
“Be wiser than other people if you can; but do not tell them so.”
19 November 1745
Letters to His Son on the Art of Becoming a Man of the World and a Gentleman (1774)
Concurring, Dennis v. United States, 339 U.S. 162, 184 (1950).
Judicial opinions
“Nothing is a waste of time if you use the experience wisely.”
As quoted in Heads and Tales (1936) by Malvina Hoffman, p. 47
1900s-1940s
“Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by rulers as useful.”
As quoted in What Great Men Think About Religion (1945) by Ira D. Cardiff, p. 342. No original source for this has been found in the works of Seneca, or published translations. It is likely that the quote originates with Edward Gibbon who wrote:<blockquote>The various modes of worship which prevailed in the Roman world were all considered by the people as equally true; by the philosopher as equally false; and by the magistrate as equally useful. — Edward Gibbon, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Vol. I http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/890, Ch. II</blockquote> Elbert Hubbard would claim in 1904 ( Little Journeys: To the homes of great philosophers: Seneca http://www.online-literature.com/elbert-hubbard/journeys-vol-eight/2/) that Gibbon was "making a free translation from Seneca".
Disputed
“All our dreams can come true — if we have the courage to pursue them.”
Source: How to Be Like Walt : Capturing the Magic Every Day of Your Life (2004), Ch. 3 : Imagination Unlimited, p. 63; Unsourced variant: All your dreams can come true if you have the courage to pursue them.
“There was content, but no container.”
Source: Think (1999), Chapter Four, The Self, p. 135
“We need not think alike to love alike.”
This attribution seems to have begun in the 1960s, and has been debunked at "Who really said that?" by Peter Hughes at UU World (15 August 2012) http://www.uuworld.org/ideas/articles/229844.shtml; previously misattributed in A Chosen Faith (1991) by John A. Buehrens; also in Unitarian Universalist Origins: Our Historic Faith by Mark W. Harris https://web.archive.org/web/20060101061859/www.uua.org/info/origins.html
Misattributed
“The world is not the way they tell you it is.”
Source: The Money Game (1968), Chapter 1, Why Did The master Say "Game"?, p. 3
22 February 1748
Letters to His Son on the Art of Becoming a Man of the World and a Gentleman (1774)
“There is no knowledge that is not power.”
Old Age
1870s, Society and Solitude (1870)
“We can be knowledgeable with other men's knowledge, but we cannot be wise with other men's wisdom.”
Book I, Ch. 25
Attributed
“Think like a man of action, and act like a man of thought.”
Henri Bergson, as quoted in The Forbes Scrapbook of Thoughts on the Business of Life (1950), p. 442; this only seems to have become attributed to Sallust in the early 21st century.
Misattributed
“You can never plan the future by the past.”
Letter to a Member of the National Assembly (1791)
A Letter to a Member of the National Assembly (1791)
This is presented as a statement of 1877, as quoted in From Telegraph to Light Bulb with Thomas Edison (2007) by Deborah Headstrom-Page, p. 22.
1800s
“Learn as if you were to live forever; live as if you were to die tomorrow.”
They Call Me Coach (1972)
This quote is commonly attributed to Churchill, but appears in the "Red Herrings: False Attributions" appendix of Churchill by Himself : The Definitive Collection of Quotations (2008) by Richard Langworth, without citation as to where it originates.
In American Character, a 1905 address by Brander Matthews, a similar quotation is attributed to L. P. Jacks ( link http://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015059451156?urlappend=%3Bseq=238).
""Our civilization is a perilous adventure for an uncertain prize... Human society is not a constructed thing but a human organization... We are adopting a false method of reform when we begin by operations that weaken society, either morally or materially, by lower its vitality, by plunging it into gloom and despair about itself, by inducing the atmosphere of the sick-room, and then when its courage and resources are at a low ebb, expecting it to perform some mighty feat of self-reformation... Social despair or bitterness does not get us anywhere... Low spirits are an intellectual luxury. An optimist is one who sees an opportunity in every difficulty. A pessimist is one who sees a difficulty in every opportunity... The conquest of great difficulties is the glory of human nature." L. P. Jacks, quoted in American character, by Brander Matthews, 1906
Misattributed
Variant: A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.
“I have always observed that to succeed in the world one should appear like a fool but be wise.”
J'ai toujours vu que, pour réussir dans le monde, il fallait avoir l'air fou et être sage.
Pensées Diverses
“You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe deserve your love and affection”
Sharon Salzberg in an article in a magazine called “Woman of Power” in 1989
Misattributed
“Truth will sooner come out from error than from confusion.”
Aphorism 20
Novum Organum (1620), Book II
“Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor.”
From "Self-Portrait" (1972)
Truman Capote: Conversations (1987)
“It is the province of knowledge to speak and it is the privilege of wisdom to listen.”
Ch. 10 http://books.google.com/books?id=omwRAAAAYAAJ&q=%22It+is+the+province+of+knowledge+to+speak+and+it+is+the+privilege+of+wisdom+to+listen%22&pg=PA264#v=onepage and The Atlantic Monthly October 1872 http://books.google.com/books?id=psqcIq5UxYkC&q=%22It+is+the+province+of+knowledge+to+speak+and+it+is+the+privilege+of+wisdom+to+listen%22&pg=PA427#v=onepage
The Poet at the Breakfast Table (1872)
“A Friend to all, is a Friend to none.”
Introductio ad prudentiam: Part II (1727), Gnomologia (1732)
“My philosophy is of the heart and not of the mind,”
Source: The Life of Pasteur (1902), p. 163
Context: I confess frankly, however, that I am not competent on the question of our philosophical schools. Of M. Comte I have only read a few absurd passages; of M. Littré I only know the beautiful pages you were inspired to write by his rare knowledge and some of his domestic virtues. My philosophy is of the heart and not of the mind, and I give myself up, for instance, to those feelings about eternity which come naturally at the bedside of a cherished child drawing its last breath. At those supreme moments, there is something in the depths of our souls which tells us that the world may be more than a mere combination of phenomena proper to a mechanical equilibrium brought out of the chaos of the elements simply through the gradual action of the forces of matter.
