Potent Quotables

The Heart Knows

“The heart knows things that the mind can't comprehend.”
--Unknown

Optimism isEssential

“Optimism is essential to achievement and it is also the foundation of courage and true progress.”
--Nicholas Murray Butler

Learning Advances Us

"Learning is like rowing upstream: not to advance is to drop back."
--Chinese Proverb

Good Cures

“A good laugh and a long sleep are the two best cures for anything.”
--Irish Proverb

Startiling Life

“To live is so startling it leaves little time for anything else.”
--Emily Dickinson

Hot Water

“I believe in getting into hot water; it keeps you clean.”
--G.K. Chesterton

Brutal Honesty

“People who are brutally honest get more satisfaction out of the brutality than out of the honesty.”
-- Richard Needham

A Better Friend

“One who knows how to show and to accept kindness will be a friend better than any possession.”
--Sophocles

Walk in Integrity

“Better is a poor man who walks in his integrity than a rich man who is crooked in his ways.”
--Proverbs 28:6

Step on Blocks

"One of the secrets of life is to make stepping stones out of stumbling blocks."
--Jack Penn

Prudence's Problem

“Prudence keeps life safe, but does not often make it happy.”
-- Samuel Johnson

The Greatest Virtue

“Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others.”
--Marcus Tullius Cicero

When In Doubt

“When in doubt, make a fool of yourself. There is a microscopically thin line between being brilliantly creative and acting like the most gigantic idiot on earth.”
--Cynthia Heimel

Focus Yourself

“Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work at hand. The sun's rays do not burn until brought to a focus.”
--Alexander Graham Bell

Why Worry

“Worry is interest paid on trouble before it comes due.”
--William Ralph Inge

Help of Others

“No one who achieves success does so without acknowledging the help of others. The wise and confident acknowledge this help with gratitude.”
--Alfred North Whitehead

Resolution for Success

"Always bear in mind that your own resolution to success is more important than any one thing."
-- Abraham Lincoln

Who We Become

“Our background and circumstances may have influenced who we are, but we are responsible for who we become.”
--Unknown

A Barren Life

“Beware the barrenness of a busy life.”
--Socrates

Saints & Sinners

“Every saint has a past and every sinner has a future.”
--Oscar Wilde

Error v. Crimes

“The vices of the rich and great are mistaken for error; and those of the poor and lowly, for crimes.”
--Lady Marguerite Blessington

Tyranny's Advantage

“Tyranny is always better organized than freedom.”
--Charles Péguy

Unbeatable

“It’s hard to beat a person that never gives up.”
―Babe Ruth

Share Knowledge

"If you have knowledge, let others light their candles in it."
-- Margaret Fuller

Rate of Growth

“That which grows fast, withers as rapidly. That which grows slowly, endures.”
--Josiah Gilbert Holland

No Vision

“The most pathetic person in the world is someone who has sight, but has no vision.”
--Helen Keller

True Genius

“When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against him.”
--Jonathan Swift

Mighty Big

“A thing is mighty big when time and distance cannot shrink it.”
--Zora Neale Hurston

“Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend.”
--Melody Beattie

Success' Hubris

“Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can't lose.”
--Bill Gates

Adandon One's Self

“The torment of precautions often exceeds the dangers to be avoided. It is sometimes better to abandon one's self to destiny.”
--Napoleon Bonaparte

Express Gratitude

“Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.”
--William Arthur Ward

What We Should Remember

“Often in life we forget the things we should remember and remember the things we should forget.”
--Unknown

Accountability

“If not now, when? If not me, who?”
--Rabbi Hillel

The Wise Win

“Those who are skilled in combat do not become angry. Those who are skilled at winning do not become afraid. Thus the wise win before the fight and the ignorant fight to win.”
–Morihei Ueshiba

Unequal Injury

“The injury we do and the one we suffer are not weighed in the same scales.”
--Aesop

Worthwhile

“Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.”
—Benjamin Franklin

Life's Mettle

"As a blacksmith uses heat to temper steel, so should a trial by fire strengthen one’s mettle."
-- Jeffrey Fry

Fight Twice

“You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it.”
--Margaret Thatcher

Branch Out

“Continuity gives us roots; change gives us branches, letting us stretch and grow and reach new heights."
--Pauline Kezer

Action Restores

“Action is a great restorer and builder of confidence. Inaction is not only the result, but the cause, of fear."
--Norman Vincent Peale

True Merit

“True merit, like a river, the deeper it is, the less noise it makes.”
--Edward Frederick Lindley Wood

Win Tomorrow

“Yesterday is not ours to recover, but tomorrow is ours to win or lose.”
--Lyndon B. Johnson

People We Leave

“Sometimes, you have to give up on people, not because you don't care but because they don't."
--Unknown

Einstein's Value Formula

"Try not to become a man of success but rather try to become a man of value."
--Albert Einstein

Look Far

“The farther backward you can look, the farther forward you are likely to see.”
--Winston Churchill

Withstand Insecurity

“Greatness comes not in possessing security, but in withstanding insecurity.”
--Jeffrey Fry

Afraid of Light

“We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.”
--Unknown (misattributed to Plato)

Hold Back Help

“Never help a child with a task at which he feels he can succeed."
~Maria Montessori

A New Remedy

“He that will not apply new remedies must expect new evils; for time is the greatest innovator."
--Francis Bacon

Your Own Path

“You will recognize your own path when you come upon it because you will suddenly have all the energy and imagination you will ever need.”
--Jerry Gillies

No Good Contract

“There is no such thing as a good contract when dealing with a bad man.”
-- Mark Murdock

Mediocrity's Precedent

“The mark of mediocrity is to look for precedent.”
--Norman Mailer

A Different World

“A different world cannot be built by indifferent people.”
―Peter Marshall

Unhappy People

“It's the most unhappy people who most fear change.”
--Mignon McLaughlin

Abandon Hope

“Hope never abandons you, you abandon it.”
--George Weinberg

Act of Kindness

“Kindness is loving people more than they deserve.”
--Joseph Joubert

Human Interaction

“I fear the day that technology will bypass our human interaction, and leave the world with a generation of idiots.”
--Unknown (misattributed to Albert Einstein)

Leaders Make Leaders

“Leaders don't create followers, they create more leaders."
--Tom Peters

A Poor Life

“What I poor life I have had if I am only remembered for the amount of money I made.”
--Jeffrey Fry

Know Thyself

“Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself, but talent instantly recognizes genius.”
--Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Unlearned Power

"Learning too soon our limitations, we never learn our powers."
--Mignon McLaughlin

Genius Everywhere

"Genius is not a possession of the limited few, but exists in some degree in everyone. Where there is natural growth, a full and free play of faculties, genius will manifest itself."
~ Robert Henri

Hope's Remedy

“Hope is the physician of each misery.”
--Irish Proverb

Make Enemies

“If you want to make enemies, try to change something."
--Woodrow Wilson

Wisdom Conquers Fear

“To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom."
--Bertrand Russell

Knowledge versus Wisdom

"Knowledge is learning something every day. Wisdom is letting go of something every day."
--Zen Saying

What is Due

“Mistakes are part of the dues that one pays for a full life."
--Sophia Loren

Teach Your Children Well

“Do not teach your children never to be angry; teach them how to be angry.”
--Lyman Abbott

Love is Eternal

"The reason why love is eternal is that it does not exist for itself, but gives life to those it transforms."
--Jeffrey Fry

Take Your Joy

“Paradise is here or nowhere: you must take your joy with you or you will never find it.”
--Orison Swett Marden

Music Hits

“One good thing about music, when it hits you, you feel no pain.”
―Bob Marley

Heaven Help Us!

“Heaven helps those who help themselves.”
-Greek Proverb

Love & Work

"Find a job you love and you'll never work a day in your life!"
---Confucius

Humility

“It is so difficult not to become vain about one's own good luck."
--Simone de Beauvoir

Less Words

“The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do.”
--Thomas Jefferson

Final Defeat

“Never confuse a single defeat with a final defeat."
--F. Scott Fitzgerald

Business of Life

“Our business in life is not to succeed, but to continue to fail in good spirits."
--Robert Louis Stevenson

Size Me

“You will become as small as your controlling desire; as great as your dominant aspiration.”
--James Allen

No Feet

“He who has imagination without learning has wings but no feet."
--Joseph Joubert

Attitude's Altitude

"The greatest discovery of any generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitude."
--William James

Get 'er Done

"Just do what must be done. This may not be happiness, but it is greatness."
--George Bernard Shaw

Unwilling to See

“Those who are unwilling to see fault in their beliefs, are those willing to commit atrocities to uphold them.”
--Aaron Manley Smith

Pile of Problems

“If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else's, we'd grab ours back.”
--Regina Brett

Will of Freedom

“No arsenal, or no weapon in the arsenals of the world, is as formidable as the will and moral courage of free men and women.”
--Ronald Reagan

Too Far

“Success involves going to where others believe is too far.”
--Jeffrey Fry

Doubts and Confidence

"The problem with the world is that the intelligent people are full of doubts, while the stupid ones are full of confidence."
--Charles Bukowski

Honesty

"Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom."
-- Thomas Jefferson

No Ducking Fate

“There's much to be said for challenging fate instead of ducking behind it."
--Diana Trilling

Only Money

“Some people are so poor all they have is money.”
--Unknown

More Curious

“Be less curious about people and more curious about ideas.”
--Marie Curie

New Thinking

"You must learn a new way to think before you can master a new way to be."
--Marianne Williamson

Be Immortal

"What we have done for ourselves alone dies with us; what we have done for others and the world remains and is immortal."
—Albert Pike

Time's Relevance

“Boredom is the feeling that everything is a waste of time; serenity, that nothing is."
--Thomas Szasz

Wisdom's Companion

"Patience is the companion of wisdom."
--Saint Augustine

Self Love

“To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance.”
--Oscar Wilde

Success' Aim

“Don't aim for success if you want it; just do what you love and believe in, and it will come naturally."
--David Frost

Fame's Stupidity

"With fame I become more and more stupid, which of course is a very common phenomenon."
--Albert Einstein

Condemned to Repeat

“Those who cannot remember the past, are condemned to repeat it."
--Edmund Burke

The State of Defeat

“Defeat is a state of mind. No one is ever defeated until defeat has been accepted as reality.”
--Bruce Lee

Angel Speech

"Music is well said to be the speech of angels. In fact, nothing among the utterances allowed to man is felt to be so divine."
--Thomas Carlyle

Determined Success

“Some succeed because they are destined to, but most succeed because they are determined to.”
--Henry Van Dyke

Reluctently Taught

"I am always ready to learn although I do not always like being taught."
--Winston Churchill

Blame Game

“A man can fail many times, but he isn't a failure until he begins to blame somebody else."
--John Burroughs

Give Yourself

“Lend yourself to others, but give yourself to yourself."
--Michel de Montaigne

No Excuse

“I attribute my success to this: I never gave or took any excuse."
--Florence Nightingale

Fight Fate

“If fate means you to lose, give him a good fight anyhow."
--William McFee

To Be Divine

“To copy is human, to create divine.”
--Jeffrey Fry

Resentment's Poison

“Resentment is like taking poison and waiting for the other person to die."
--Malachy McCourt

Motivation

"It's so hard when I have to, and so easy when I want to."
--Annie Gottlier

Not Important to Others

“Shyness has a strange element of narcissism, a belief that how we look, how we perform, is truly important to other people."
--Andre Dubus

Cannot Sleep

“If you can't sleep, then get up and do something instead of lying there worrying. It's the worry that gets you, not the lack of sleep."
--Dale Carnegie

When It's Important

“You know something is important when you are willing to let someone else take the credit in order to get it done.”
--Seth Godin

Passion's Purpose

“Passion, though a bad regulator, is a powerful spring."
--Ralph Waldo Emerson

Attitude of Success

“A great attitude is not the result of success; success is the result of a great attitude.”
–Earl Nightingale

Answer To

“It ain't what they call you, it's what you answer to."
--W.C. Fields

What Can't Be Done

"I am looking for a lot of men who have an infinite capacity to not know what can't be done."
--Henry Ford

Love Company

“Man loves company even if it is only that of a small burning candle.”
--Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

Not Final

“It is wise to keep in mind that neither success nor failure is ever final."
--Roger Babson

Difficult Moments

“Above all, don’t fear difficult moments. The best comes from them.”
--Rita Levi-Montalcini

Face The Truth

“I have come face to face with many truths from the past that had to be revised with present knowledge.”
--Jeffrey Fry

Fire in the Soul

“Man is so made that when anything fires his soul, impossibilities vanish."
--Jean de la Fontaine

Love is the Answer

“Looking back over a lifetime, you see that love was the answer to everything.”
―Ray Bradbury

The Greater Teacher

"Prosperity is a great teacher; adversity a greater."
--William Hazlitt

Memory Test

“If you want to test your memory, try to recall what you were worrying about one year ago today.”
--E. Joseph Cossman

The Same Mistakes

“It is amazing how much wisdom has been handed down through the ages, yet we still make the same mistakes.”
--Jeffrey Fry

Most and Least

“Things which matter most must never be at the mercy of things which matter least.”
--Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Luck's Contingency

“Luck enters into every contingency. You are a fool if you forget it, and a greater fool if you count upon it."
--Phyllis Bottome

The Right Moment

“A blunder at the right moment is better than cleverness at the wrong time.”
--Carolyn Wells

Manners

“Manners are of more importance than laws.”
--Edmund Burke

Happiness is Life

"Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence."
--Aristotle

Problems Fall

“No problem can withstand the assault of sustained thinking.”
--Voltaire

Money Thy Servant

“If money be not thy servant, it will be thy master. The covetous man cannot so properly be said to possess wealth, as that may be said to possess him."
--Francis Bacon

Delight in the Remains

“Birds sing after a storm; why shouldn't people feel as free to delight in whatever remains to them."
--Rose Kennedy

Future Past

“Just because you believe something was true in the past does not mean it will be true in the future.”
--Jeffrey Fry

Timing

“In seed time learn, in harvest teach, in winter enjoy."
--William Blake

No Self Pity

“No one has the right to be sorry for himself for a misfortune that strikes everyone."
-- Marcus Tullius Cicero

Determination

"The difference between the impossible and the possible lies in determination."
--Tommy Lasorda

Take What is Yours

“If all misfortunes were laid in one common heap whence everyone must take an equal portion, most people would be contented to take their own and depart."
--Socrates

Your Brains

“The human brain starts working the moment you are born and never stops until you stand up to speak in public.”
--George Jessel

Hope Past Despair

"There is hope after despair and many suns after darkness."
--Rumi

Steal from the Thief

“The robbed that smiles, steals something from the thief."
--William Shakespeare

Extraordinary Life

“When a person, for whatever reason, has the opportunity to lead an extraordinary life, they have no right to keep it to themselves."
--Jacques Cousteau

Life Worth Doing

“Better to have a short life that is full of what you like doing, than a long life spent in a miserable way.”
--Alan Watts

Value of Money

"If you would know the value of money, go and try to borrow some."
-- Benjamin Franklin

Made Stupid

“Too much fame, money or alcohol can make you stupid.”
--Jeffrey Fry

No Clear Path

“Every path hath a puddle."
--George Herbert

Shape Our Destiny

“We shape our destiny if we believe in the beauty of our dreams.”
--Unknown

Be Bold

“Freedom lies in being bold."
--Robert Frost

The World is Enough

“I do not want to live in paradise; this world is enough, so broken and so full of promise."
--Pam Durban

You Do It Alone

“Thinking is like loving and dying. Each of us must do it for himself."
--Josiah Royce

Unseen Potential

"We don't know who we are until we see what we can do."
--Martha Grimes

Get Lucky

“Without persistence, you never get a chance to get lucky.”
--Seth Godin

So Many Days

“There are only as many days in the year as you make use of."
--Charles Dow Richards

Brilliant Speak

“If you can talk brilliantly about a problem, it can create the consoling illusion that it has been mastered."
--Stanley Kubrick

Enemy to Ally

“There is no greater success as when you turn your enemy into your ally.”
--Jeffrey Fry

Make Time

“You will never find time for anything. If you want time you must make it."
--Charles Buxton

Keep Your Minds Clean

“It is well for people who think to change their minds occasionally in order to keep them clean."
--Luther Burbank

Change Your Life

“To change one's life: Start immediately. Do it flamboyantly. No exceptions."
--William James

Start Over

Maybe it's not always about trying to fix something broken. Maybe it's about starting over and creating something better.
--Unknown

Stop Trying, Go Have

“If only we'd stop trying to be happy we could have a pretty good time."
--Edith Wharton

Poor Gifts

“Rings and jewels are not gifts, but apologies for gifts. The only true gift is a portion of thyself.”
―Ralph Waldo Emerson

Difficult Not Impossible

“Difficult does not mean impossible. It simply means that you have to work harder.”
--Unknown

Be Someone

“How many cares one loses when one decides not to be something but to be someone.”
--Coco Chanel

Opinion and Thought

"Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought."
--John F. Kennedy

Shine Brightly

“Shine brightly, so you can help those who have not found their path a way through the darkness.”
--Jeffrey Fry

A Frank Fault

“Always acknowledge a fault frankly. This will throw those in authority off their guard and give you opportunity to commit more.”
—Mark Twain

A Fragile Thing

“It takes a lifetime to build a reputation and only a few seconds to destroy one.”
—Unknown

Go Outside

“I do not think of all the misery, but of the glory that remains. Go outside into the fields, nature and the sun, go out and seek happiness in yourself and in God. Think of the beauty that again and again discharges itself within and without you and be happy.”
--Anne Frank

Truest Wisdom

"The truest wisdom is a resolute determination."
--Napoleon Bonaparte

Be Independent

“Nature never said to me: Do not be poor. Still less did she say: Be rich. Her cry to me was always: Be independent."
--Nicolas Chamfort

Lead with Dreams

"A true leader follows the dreams of those he leads."
--Douglas Whatley

Enjoy Life

“You cannot enjoy life unless you are happy.”
--Jeffrey Fry

Relative Size

“Nothing is too small to know, and nothing is too big to attempt."
--William Cornelius Van Horne

Leave Lie

“Leave other people's mistakes where they lie."
--Marcus Aurelius

Just Sing

"Perhaps today would be a good day to stop looking for the answers and just sing the song you came here to sing."
--Veronica Hay

The Happiest Life

“For the happiest life, rigorously plan your days, leave your nights open to chance."
--Mignon McLaughlin

Just Trust

“The best way to find out if you can trust somebody is to trust them."
--Ernest Hemingway

Kings and Pawns

“After the game, the king and the pawn go into the same box.”
—Italian proverb

One Prayer

“If the only prayer you said in your whole life was 'thank you,' that would suffice."
--Meister Eckhart

Silence Strengthens

“Nothing strengthens authority as much as silence.”
--Leonardo da Vinci

Unfair Nature

“Nature does not equally distribute energy. Some people are born old and tired while others are going strong at 70."
--Dorothy Thompson

Great Expectations

“To those whom much is given, much is expected.”
--John F. Kennedy

Not Wasted Time

“The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time."
--Bertrand Russell

No Excuses

“Excuses change nothing, but make everyone feel better."
--Mason Cooley

Despair's Antidote

“Action is the antidote to despair."
--Joan Baez

Tissue Thin

“Many of our fears are tissue-paper-thin, and a single courageous step would carry us clear through them."
--Brendan Francis Behan

Deviate to Progress

“Without deviation from the norm, progress is not possible."
--Frank Zappa

Invincible Appearance

“Whoever is winning at the moment will always seem to be invincible."
--George Orwell

Be Daring

“Be daring, be different, be impractical, be anything that will assert integrity of purpose and imaginative vision against the play-it-safers, the creatures of the commonplace, the slaves of the ordinary."
--Cecil Beaton

A New Mind

“You cannot solve a problem with the same mind that created it.”
--Albert Einstein

Learn to Give

“I learned to give not because I have much, but because I know exactly how it feels to have nothing.”
--Unknown

Life Planning

“We must be willing to get rid of the life we've planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us."
--Joseph Campbell

Your Own Fault

“When you are offended at any man's fault, turn to yourself and study your own failings. Then you will forget your anger.”
--Epictetus

Small Friends

“Sometimes small friends make great friends.”
--Jeffrey Fry

The Wash of Music

“Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.”
--Berthold Auerbach

Just Be Happy

“Now and then it's good to pause in our pursuit of happiness and just be happy."
--Guillaume Apollinaire

Imitate Your Elders

“Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them."
--James Baldwin

A Big Difference

“There's an important difference between giving up and letting go.”
--Jessica Hatchigan

False Value

"Too many people overvalue what they are not and undervalue what they are."
--Malcolm S. Forbes

Rough Truth

“There is nothing so agonizing to the fine skin of vanity as the application of a rough truth."
--Edward Bulwer-Lytton

While Away

“Too often man handles life as he does the bad weather. He whiles away the time as he waits for it to stop."
--Alfred Polgar

Brave Bad Weather

“It is only in sorrow bad weather masters us; in joy we face the storm and defy it."
--Amelia Barr

Heart and Mind

“An open mind and heart usually lead you to those who have the same.”
--Jeffrey Fry

Specialize in Impossible

“What we need is more people who specialize in the impossible."
--Theodore Roethke

Poor Desire

“The greatest wealth is a poverty of desires.”
--Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Create Your Future

"The best way to predict your future is to create it."
--Peter Drucker

Be What You Want

“Be the love you want to have in your life.”
--David Mora

Wanderers

“Not all those who wander are lost."
--J.R.R. Tolkien

Louder than Words

“Your actions speak so loudly that I cannot hear what you say.”
--Ralph Waldo Emerson

Inspired Work

“Inspiration exists, but it has to find us working."
--Pablo Picasso

What do you Know

“He who knows not and knows not he knows not: he is a fool - shun him. He who knows not and knows he knows not: he is simple - teach him. He who knows and knows not he knows: he is asleep - wake him. He who knows and knows he knows: he is wise - follow him.”
--Chinese Proverb