Your voice dries up if you don't use it. 
- Patti Page, singer (8 Nov 1927-2013)

We have probed the earth, excavated it, burned it, ripped things from it, buried things in it, chopped down its forests, leveled its hills, muddied its waters, and dirtied its air. That does not fit my definition of a good tenant. If we were here on a month-to-month basis, we would have been evicted long ago. 

- Rose Bird, Chief Justice of California Supreme Court (2 Nov 1936-1999)

In the midst of chaos, I found that there was an invincible peace within me. I realized, through it all, that in the midst of winter there was an invincible summer in me. 

- Albert Camus, French author (1913-1960)

Who is content with nothing possesses all things. 
- Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux, poet (1 Nov 1636-1711)

The only way human beings can win a war is to prevent it. 

- George Marshall, US Army Chief, Secretary of State, Secretary of Defense, Nobel laureate (31 Dec 1880-1959)

The same people who can deny others everything are famous for refusing themselves nothing. 

- Leigh Hunt, poet and essayist (19 Oct 1784-1859)

I am not one of those who believe that a great army is the means of maintaining peace, because if you build up a great profession those who form parts of it want to exercise their profession. 

- Woodrow Wilson, 28th US president, Nobel laureate (28 Nov 1856-1924)

The only place success comes before work is in the dictionary.

- Vince Lombardi ( June 11, 1913 - September 3, 1970 )

The past is to be respected and acknowledged, but not to be worshipped. It is our future in which we will find our greatness. 

- Pierre Trudeau, 15th Prime Minister of Canada (18 Oct 1919-2000)

In the mountains of truth you will never climb in vain: either you will get up higher today or you will exercise your strength so as to be able to get up higher tomorrow. 

- Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, philosopher (15 Oct 1844-1900)

Life is just a short walk from the cradle to the grave and it sure behooves us to be kind to one another along the way. 

- Alice Childress, playwright, author, and actor (12 Oct 1916-1994)

Even a purely moral act that has no hope of any immediate and visible political effect can gradually and indirectly, over time, gain in political significance. 

- Vaclav Havel, writer, Czech Republic president (5 Oct 1936-2011)

The heart of man is like the sea; it has its storms, it has its tides, and in its depths it has its pearls too. 

- Vincent van Gogh, Dutch painter (1853-1890)

The unrestricted competition so commonly advocated does not leave us the survival of the fittest. The unscrupulous succeed best in accumulating wealth. 

- Rutherford B. Hayes, 19th US president (4 Oct 1822-1893)

Once a country is habituated to liars, it takes generations to bring the truth back. 

- Gore Vidal, writer (3 Oct 1925-2012)

Where it is a duty to worship the sun, it is pretty sure to be a crime to examine the laws of heat. 

- John Morley, statesman and writer (24 Dec 1838-1923)

The past is a stepping stone not a milestone.

- Robert Plant

Seven blunders of the world that lead to violence: wealth without work, pleasure without conscience, knowledge without character, commerce without morality, science without humanity, worship without sacrifice, politics without principle. 

- Mahatma Gandhi (2 Oct 1869-1948)

It is by character and not by intellect the world is won. 

- Evelyn Beatrice Hall, biographer (28 Sep 1868-1956)

There is a crack in everything. That's how the light gets in. 

- Leonard Cohen, musician and writer (21 Sep 1934-2016)

It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it. 

- Upton Sinclair, novelist and reformer (20 Sep 1878-1968)

There are days, months, years without end where hardly anything happens. There are minutes and seconds that contain a whole world. 

- Jean d'Ormesson, French novelist (1925-2017)

If we would have new knowledge, we must get us a whole world of new questions. 

- Susanne Langer, philosopher (20 Dec 1895-1985)

To cultivate kindness is a valuable part of the business of life. 

- Samuel Johnson, lexicographer (18 Sep 1709-1784)

To have and not to give is often worse than to steal. 

- Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach, writer (13 Sep 1830-1916)

The man who can make others laugh secures more votes for a measure than the man who forces them to think. 

- Malcolm De Chazal, writer and painter (12 Sep 1902-1981)

In hatred as in love, we grow like the thing we brood upon. What we loathe, we graft into our very soul. 

- Mary Renault, novelist (4 Sep 1905-1983)

The mind of a bigot to the pupil of the eye; the more light you pour on it, the more it contracts.

- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., poet, novelist, essayist, and physician (29 Aug 1809-1894)

There is nothing more frightful than ignorance in action. 

- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, poet, dramatist, novelist, and philosopher (28 Aug 1749-1832)

To stay is to exist but to travel is to live. 
- Gustave Nadaud, French songwriter (1820-1893)

Art should be like a holiday: something to give a man the opportunity to see things differently and to change his point of view. 

- Paul Klee, painter (18 Dec 1879-1940)

I would encourage people to look around them in their community and find an organization that is doing something that they believe in, even if that organization has only five people, or ten people, or twenty people, or a hundred people. And to look at history and understand that when change takes place it takes place as a result of large, large numbers of people doing little things unbeknownst to one another. And that history is very important for people to not get discouraged. ... History is instructive. And what it suggests to people is that even if they do little things, if they walk on the picket line, if they join a vigil, if they write a letter to their local newspaper. Anything they do, however small, becomes part of a much, much larger sort of flow of energy. And when enough people do enough things, however small they are, then change takes place. 

- Howard Zinn, historian, playwright, and social activist (24 Aug 1922-2010)

Love is like quicksilver in the hand. Leave the fingers open and it stays in the palm; clutch it, and it darts away. 

- Dorothy Parker, author (22 Aug 1893-1967)

Those who believe without reason cannot be convinced by reason. 

- James Randi, magician and skeptic (b. 7 Aug 1928)

We've all got both light and dark inside us. What matters is the part we choose to act on. That's who we really are. 

- J.K. Rowling, author (b. 31 Jul 1965)

Throughout history, it has been the inaction of those who could have acted, the indifference of those who should have known better, the silence of the voice of justice when it mattered most, that has made it possible for evil to triumph. 

- Haile Selassie, regent of Ethiopia (23 Jul 1892-1975)

Writing is like driving a car at night. You can only see as far as the headlights, but you make the whole trip that way. 

- Cory Doctorow, author and journalist (b. 17 Jul 1971)

That man is richest whose pleasures are cheapest. 

- Henry David Thoreau, naturalist and author (12 Jul 1817-1862)

I have one share in corporate Earth, and I am nervous about the management. 

- E.B. White, writer (11 Jul 1899-1985)

What wisdom can you find that is greater than kindness? 

- Jean Jacques Rousseau, philosopher and author (28 Jun 1712-1778)

I believe the greatest gift I can conceive of having from anyone is to be seen, heard, understood, and touched by them. The greatest gift I can give is to see, hear, understand, and touch another person.

- Virginia Satir, psychotherapist and author (26 Jun 1916-1988)

The most exhausting thing in life is being insincere. 

- Anne Morrow Lindbergh, writer (22 Jun 1906-2001)

If all men knew what others say of them, there would not be four friends in the world. 

- Blaise Pascal, philosopher and mathematician (19 Jun 1623-1662)

A great book should leave you with many experiences, and slightly exhausted at the end. You live several lives while reading it. 

- William Styron, novelist (11 Jun 1925-2006)

There is always something to do. There are hungry people to feed, naked people to clothe, sick people to comfort and make well. And while I don't expect you to save the world, I do think it's not asking too much for you to love those with whom you sleep, share the happiness of those whom you call friend, engage those among you who are visionary, and remove from your life those who offer you depression, despair, and disrespect. 

- Nikki Giovanni, poet and professor (b. 7 Jun 1943)

The hardest-learned lesson: that people have only their kind of love to give, not our kind. 

- Mignon McLaughlin, journalist and author (6 Jun 1913-1983)

As I have not worried to be born, I do not worry to die. 

- Federico García Lorca, poet, playwright, and painter (5 Jun 1898-1936)

There are silences that mean so much as there are words that mean nothing. ( En )

Il y a des silences qui en disent long comme il y a des paroles qui ne signifient rien. ( Fr )

- Édith Piaf, French singer and songwriter (1915-1963)

If you break your neck, if you have nothing to eat, if your house is on fire, then you've got a problem. Everything else is an inconvenience. Life is inconvenient. Life is lumpy. A lump in the oatmeal, a lump in the throat, and a lump in the breast are not the same kind of lump. One needs to learn the difference. 

- Robert Fulghum, author (b. 4 Jun 1937)

Speculation is perfectly all right, but if you stay there you've only founded a superstition. If you test it, you've started a science. 

- Hal Clement, science fiction author (30 May 1922-2003)

If you have knowledge, let others light their candles in it. 

- Margaret Fuller, author (23 May 1810-1850)

The life of every man is a diary in which he means to write one story, and writes another, and his humblest hour is when he compares the volume as it is with what he vowed to make it.

- J.M. Barrie, novelist and playwright (9 May 1860-1937)

Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity. 

- Horace Mann, educational reformer (4 May 1796-1859)

A man must be excessively stupid, as well as uncharitable, who believes there is no virtue but on his own side. 

- Joseph Addison, essayist and poet (1 May 1672-1719)

I hold that gentleman to be the best-dressed whose dress no one observes. 

- Anthony Trollope, novelist (24 Apr 1815-1882)

If only I could so live and so serve the world that after me there should never again be birds in cages.

- Isak Dinesen (pen name of Karen Blixen), author (17 Apr 1885-1962)

Bad weather always looks worse through a window. 

- Tom Lehrer, singer-songwriter and mathematician (b. 9 Apr 1928)

Then there are those we come across, whom we barely know, who offer you a word, a sentence, give you minute, a half hour, and change the course of your life.

- Victor Hugo, French poet and novelist (1802-1885)

Conscience is a dog that does not stop us from passing but that we cannot prevent from barking. 

- Nicolas de Chamfort, writer (6 Apr 1741-1794)

I shall allow no man to belittle my soul by making me hate him. 

- Booker T. Washington, reformer, educator, and author (5 Apr 1856-1915)

Ne perds jamais espoir, lorsque le soleil se couche, les étoiles apparaissent. ( Fr )

Never lose hope, when the sun sets, stars come into sight. ( En )

- Anonymous

History is a novel whose author is the people. 

- Alfred de Vigny, poet, playwright, and novelist (27 Mar 1797-1863)

Evidence is the only good reason to believe anything. 

-Richard Dawkins, biologist and author (b. 26 Mar 1941)

The more sand that has escaped from the hourglass of our life, the clearer we should see through it. 

- Jean Paul Richter, writer (21 Mar 1763-1825)

We live in a world in which we need to share responsibility. It's easy to say "It's not my child, not my community, not my world, not my problem." Then there are those who see the need and respond. I consider those people my heroes. 

- Fred Rogers, television host, songwriter, and author (20 Mar 1928-2003)

You can find magic wherever you look. Sit back. Relax. All you need is a book.

- Dr. Seuss

It's best to give while your hand is still warm. 

- Philip Roth, novelist (b. 19 Mar 1933) 

If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy. 

- James Madison, fourth US president (16 Mar 1751-1836)

Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth. 

- Albert Einstein, physicist, Nobel laureate (14 Mar 1879-1955) 

Don't ask me who's influenced me. A lion is made up of the lambs he's digested, and I've been reading all my life. 

- Giorgos Seferis, writer, diplomat, Nobel laureate (13 Mar 1900-1971) 

Knowing others is wisdom; knowing the self is enlightenment.

- Tao Te Ching

Men of genius are often dull and inert in society, as a blazing meteor when it descends to earth, is only a stone. 
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, poet (27 Feb 1807-1882) 

It is horrifying that we have to fight our own government to save the environment. 

- Ansel Adams, photographer (20 Feb 1902-1984) 

It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change. 

Charles Darwin, naturalist, and author (12 Feb 1809-1882)

When love and skill work together, expect a masterpiece. 

- John Ruskin, author, art critic, and social reformer (8 Feb 1819-1900) 

True religion is the life we lead, not the creed we profess.

- Louis Nizer, lawyer (6 Feb 1902-1994) 

Only the madman is absolutely sure. 

- Robert Anton Wilson, novelist (18 Jan 1932-2007) 

If you or your parents are immigrants, know that you are part of a proud American tradition, the infusion of new cultures, talents, and ideas, generation after generation, that has made us the greatest country on earth. 

- Michelle Obama, lawyer, First Lady of the US (b. 17 Jan 1964) 

I tore myself away from the safe comfort of certainties through my love for truth and truth rewarded me. 

- Simone de Beauvoir, author, and philosopher (9 Jan 1908-1986) 

Our lives are like islands in the sea, or like trees in the forest. The maple and the pine may whisper to each other with their leaves. But the trees also commingle their roots in the darkness underground, and the islands also hang together through the ocean's bottom. 

- William James, psychologist, and philosopher (11 Jan 1842-1910)

Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness

- Mark Twain 

People who demand neutrality in any situation are usually not neutral but in favor of the status quo.

- Max Eastman, journalist, and poet (4 Jan 1883-1969) 

Not all those who wander are lost.

- J.R.R. Tolkien, novelist, and philologist (3 Jan 1892-1973) 

I not only use all the brains I have, but all I can borrow, and I have borrowed a lot. 

- Woodrow Wilson, 28th US president, Nobel laureate (28 Dec 1856-1924) 

The force which makes for war does not derive its strength from the interested motives of evil men; it derives its strength from the disinterested motives of good men. 

- Norman Angell, lecturer, author, MP, and Nobel laureate (26 Dec 1872-1967)

When all's said and done, all roads lead to the same end. So it's not so much which road you take, as how you take it. 

- Charles de Lint, writer (b. 22 Dec 1951) 

Whenever books are burned men also, in the end are burned. 

- Heinrich Heine, poet, journalist, and essayist (13 Dec 1797-1856) 

It's better to cross the line and suffer the consequences than to just stare at the line for the rest of your life.
- Paulo Coelho

Some people around us will not understand our journey. They don't need to; It's not for them.
- Paulo Coelho

You can tell whether a man is clever by his answers. You can tell whether a man is wise by his questions. 

- Naguib Mahfouz, writer, Nobel laureate (11 Dec 1911-2006)

All human beings should try to learn before they die what they are running from, and to, and why.

- James Thurber, writer and cartoonist (8 Dec 1894-1961) 

La connerie, c'est la déconcentration de l'intelligence.  ( Fr )

Stupidity, it's the loss of concentration of intelligence. ( En )

- Serge Gainsbourg

Although the connections are not always obvious, personal change is inseparable from social and political change. 

- Harriet Lerner, psychologist (b. 30 Nov 1944) 

If you have a dream, don’t waste your energies explaining the reason.

- Paulo Coelho

The most difficult battles that you will fight in your life is that between your mind who knows the truth and your heart that refuse to accept it.

- Paulo Coelho

Our power is in what we do and what we do not do.

- Paulo Coelho

When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace. 

- Jimi Hendrix, musician, singer, and songwriter (27 Nov 1942-1970)

One of the truest tests of integrity is its blunt refusal to be compromised. 

- Chinua Achebe, writer, and professor (16 Nov 1930-2013) 

Everyone discusses my art and pretends to understand as if it were necessary to understand when it is simply necessary to love. 
- Claude Monet, painter (14 Nov 1840-1926) 

Use the talents you possess, for the woods would be a very silent place if no birds sang except the best. 

- Henry van Dyke, poet (10 Nov 1852-1933)

Your voice dries up if you don't use it. 

- Patti Page, singer (8 Nov 1927-2013) 

We have probed the earth, excavated it, burned it, ripped things from it, buried things in it, chopped down its forests, leveled its hills, muddied its waters, and dirtied its air. That does not fit my definition of a good tenant. If we were here on a month-to-month basis, we would have been evicted long ago. 

- Rose Bird, Chief Justice of California Supreme Court (2 Nov 1936-1999) 

Time engraves our faces with all the tears we have not shed. 
- Natalie Clifford Barney, poet, playwright, and novelist (31 Oct 1876-1972) 

Inspiration does not come like a bolt, nor is it kinetic, energetic striving, but it comes into us slowly and quietly and all the time, though we must regularly and every day give it a little chance to start flowing, prime it with a little solitude and idleness. 

- Brenda Ueland, journalist, editor, and writer (24 Oct 1891-1985) 

Don't be seduced into thinking that that which does not make a profit is without value. 

- Arthur Miller, playwright, and essayist (17 Oct 1915-2005) 

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

- Neil deGrasse Tyson, astrophysicist and author (b. 5 Oct 1958) 

There is always more goodness in the world than there appears to be because goodness is of its very nature modest and retiring. 

- Evelyn Beatrice Hall, biographer (28 Sep 1868-1956) 

It's good to have money and the things that money can buy, but it's good, too, to check up once in a while and make sure that you haven't lost the things that money can't buy. 
- George H. Lorimer, editor (6 Oct 1867-1937) 

When I despair, I remember that all through history, the way of truth and love has always won. There have been murderers and tyrants, and for a time they can seem invincible. But in the end, they always fall. Think of it, always. 

- Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (2 Oct 1869-1948) 

Truth is not only violated by falsehood; it may be equally outraged by silence. 
- Henri Frederic Amiel, philosopher, and writer (27 Sep 1821-1881) 

One definition of success might be: refining our appetites while deepening our hunger. 

- Yahia Lababidi, aphorist (b. 25 Sep 1973) 

Learning is acquired by reading books; but the much more necessary learning, the knowledge of the world, is only to be acquired by reading man, and studying all the various editions of them. 

- Lord Chesterfield, statesman, and writer (22 Sep 1694-1773) 

There is a fountain of youth: it is your mind, your talents, the creativity you bring to your life and the lives of the people you love. When you learn to tap this source, you will have truly defeated age.

- Sophia Loren, actor and singer (b. 20 Sep 1934) 

Your mind will answer most questions if you learn to relax and wait for the answer.

- William S. Burroughs ( 1914 – 1997 )

It is very rare or almost impossible that an event can be negative from all points of view.
- Dalai Lama

People forget years and remember moments. 
- Ann Beattie, novelist (b. 8 Sep 1947) 

In a consumer society, there are inevitably two kinds of slaves: the prisoners of addiction and the prisoners of envy. 

- Ivan Illich, philosopher, and priest (4 Sep 1926-2002) 

The heart of a mother is a deep abyss, at the bottom of which you will always find forgiveness. 

- Honore de Balzac, novelist (1799-1850) 

During your life, you can't do what you want but you are responsible for who you are. ( En )

Dans la vie on ne fait pas ce que l'on veut mais on est responsable de ce que l'on est. ( Fr )

- Jean-Paul Sartre

The actions of men are the best interpreters of their thoughts. 

- John Locke, philosopher (29 Aug 1632-1704) 

Bullets cannot be recalled. They cannot be uninvented. But they can be taken out of the gun. 

- Martin Amis, novelist (b. 25 Aug 1949) 

This is my path. This is my race. Yes, I’m competitive, but I’m competitive with myself.

- Jennifer Lopez, Actress and Musician

Any path you choose will likely be long and full of ups and downs, so choose the one that brings you the most joy and makes you feel most alive. 

- Hilary Swank, Actress

C'est une folie de haïr toutes les roses parce que une épine vous a piqué. ( Fr )

It is madness to hate all roses because you got scratched with one thorn. ( En )

- Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

One's life has value so long as one attributes value to the life of others, by means of love, friendship, indignation, and compassion. 

- Simone de Beauvoir, author, and philosopher (9 Jan 1908-1986) 

Being able to respond to forces we cannot plan starts with being prepared. 

- Tammy Romo, CFO of Southwest Airlines

The spirit looks and it's the heart that finds. ( En )
L'esprit cherche et c'est le coeur qui trove. ( Fr )
- George Sand, French novelist (1804-1876)

My mom taught me that...what we think about comes about. 

- Kate Northrup, Author, and Entrepreneur