Literary Quotes Now Alphabetized By Author! N-Z  

Life is like a game of cards. The hand that is dealt you represents determinism; the way you play it is free will. Jawaharial Nehru

T h e   F i v e   W a t c h e s

 1.  Watch your thoughts; they become words.
 2.  Watch your words; they become actions.
 3.  Watch your actions; they become habits.
 4.  Watch your habits; they become character.
 5.  Watch your character; it becomes your destiny. Frank Outlaw

One must still have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star. Friedrich Neitzsche

Memory says, "I did that." Pride replies, "I could not have done that." Eventually, memory yields. Friedrich Nietzsche

The snake that cannot shed its skin perishes. So do the spirits who are prevented from changing their opinions; they cease to be spirit. Friedrich Nietzsche

These people abstain, it is true: but the bitch Sensuality glares enviously out of all they do.
Friedrich Nietzsche

Madness is rare in individuals-but in groups, parties, nations, and ages it is the rule. Friedrich Nietzche  

A man may imagine things that are false, But he can only understand things that are true. Isaac Newton

We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are. Anais Nin

Nobody sees a flower - really - it is so small it takes time - we haven't time and to see takes time, like having a friend takes time. Georgia O'Keeffe

Fortune and love favor the brave. Ovid

Nothing worthwhile in life is sudden...To wait for another is to be willing to be alone for that person. To wait for another is to say that the present does not begin until that person arrives. Anthony Padovano

I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress,  and grow brave by reflection.  'Tis the business of little minds to shrink,  but he whose heart is firm,  and whose conscience approves his conduct,
will pursue his principles unto death. Thomas Paine

This is not a book to be tossed aside lightly, it should be thrown with great force. Dorothy Parker

We sail within a vast sphere, ever drifting in uncertianty, driven from end to end. When we think to attach oursevles to any point and to fasten to it, it wavers and leaves us; and if we follow it, it eludes our grasp, slips past us, and vanishes for ever. Nothing stays for us. Blaise Pascal.

Men never do evil so fully and cheerfully as when we do it out of conscience.  Blasé Pascal

Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do, and they will surprise you with their ingenuity. George S.  Patton

Daddy put his hand on my shoulder and said, 'Louis.' 'Yes sir,' I said back. 'I want you to take a good hard look at that man there,' he told me. 'That's what we call an assh*le.'  T.R. Pearson, A Short History of a Small Place  

Daddy says it was a somewhat sobering revelation to him. Here he was enjoying a bounteous meal at Mr. Zeno's house while Mr. Zeno himself was off at the mortuary being siphoned. But Daddy says he simply decided that is the way things are on God's earth--the dead get embalmed and the living get seconds.  T.R. Pearson, A Short History of a Small Place  

I believe that school makes complete fools of our young men, because they see and hear nothing of ordinary life there.  Petronius, Satyricon 

You may have a fresh start any moment you choose, for this thing we call failure is not the falling down,  but the staying down. Mary Pickford

Courage in danger is half the battle Plautus

Hope is the pillar that holds up the world. Pliny the Elder

To doubt everything or to believe everything are two equally convenient solutions; both dispense with the necessity of reflection. Henri Poincaré

Let him who loves prosper. Let him who loves not, perish. And let him who forbids others to love, perish twice over. Graffiti found on the walls of Pompeii

Let him who chastises lovers try to fetter the winds and block the endless flow of water from a spring. Graffiti found on the walls of Pompeii

To err is human, to forgive divine.  Alexander Pope

Histories are more full of examples of the fidelity of dogs than of friends. Alexander Pope

Manners are a sensitive awareness of the feelings of others. If you have that, you have good manners, no matter what fork you use.  Emily Post

It is always during a passing state of mind that we make lasting resolutions. Marcel Proust

Character is made by what you stand for;
reputation, by what you fall for. Robert Quillen

Do not make the mistake of the ignorant who think that an individualist is a man who says: "I'll do as I please at everybody else's expense." An individualist is a man who recognizes the inalienable individual rights of man - his own and those of others. Ayn Rand

There is no expedient to which a man will not resort to avoid the real labor of thinking.
Sir Joshua Reynolds 

Since 95% of the people are imitators and only 5 % initiators, people are persuaded more by the actions of others than by any proof we can offer. Cavett Robert

Until we meet again, may the good Lord take a liking to you. Roy Rogers

Men are not prisoners of fate, but only prisoners of their own minds. Franklin D Roosevelt

T H E   O N E   W H O   C O U N T S

It is not the critic who counts;
not the one who points out how
the strong stumbled,
or where the doer of deeds
could have done better.
The credit belongs to the one
who is actually in the arena;
whose face is marred by
dust and sweat and blood;
who strives valiantly;
who errs and comes up short again and again;
who knows great enthusiasm
and great devotion;
who spends him/herself in a worthy cause;
who at the best
knows in the end the triumph
of high achievement
and who, at worst,
if he fails, at least fails while
DARING GREATLY
So that his place
shall never be
with those timid souls
who know neither victory nor defeat.

Theodore Roosevelt

I have found that if you love life, life will love you back. Arthur Rubinstein

Work .... is of two kinds; first, altering the position of matter at or near the earth's surface relative to other such matter; second, telling other people to do so. The first kind is unpleasant and ill-paid; the  second is pleasant and highly paid. The second kind is capable of indefinite extension: there are not only those who give orders, but chose who give advice as to what orders should be given. Bertrand Russell - 'In praise of idleness'

Never mistake a clear view for a short distance Paul Saffo

Failures are divided into two classes: those who thought and never did, and those who did and never thought. John Charles Salak

I'm  an idealist: I don't know where I'm going, but I'm on my way. Carl Sandburg

Imagination is only intelligence having fun.  George Scialabbe

Every man takes the limits of his own field of vision for the limit of the world. Arthur Schopenhauer

To wish to be well is a part of becoming well. Marcus Annaeus Seneca

Where fear is,  happiness is not. Marcus Annaeus
Seneca

We are more often frightened than hurt; and we suffer more from imagination than from reality.
Marcus Annaeus Seneca

Curae leves loquuntur ingentes stupent (Light griefs are loquacious, but the great are dumb Marcus Annaeus Seneca

A quarrel is quickly settled when deserted by one party: there is no battle unless there be two. Marcus Annaeus Seneca

Success is not greedy, as some people think, but insignificant. That's why it satisfies nobody. Marcus Annaeus Seneca

For greed, all nature is too little. Marcus Annaeus Seneca 

Life is nothing but a series of follies. George Bernard Shaw

If you leave the smallest corner of your head vacant for a moment, other people's opinions will rush in from all quarters. George Bernard Shaw

My schooling not only failed to teach me what it professed to be teaching, but prevented me from being educated to an extent which infuriates me when I think of all I might have learned at home by myself. George Bernard Shaw

The liar's punishment is not in the least that he is not believed, but that he cannot believe anyone else. George Bernard Shaw

The power of accurate observation is often called cynicism by those who do not have it. George Bernard Shaw

Ozymandias 

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said "Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.   Percy Bysshe Shelley 

I sang of the dancing stars,
I sang of the daedal earth,
And of heaven, and the giant wars,
And love, and death, and birth.
Percy Bysshe Shelley, Hymn Of Pan

The Castle

It's the fabulous castle of NOW.
You can walk in and wander about,
But it's so very thin,
Once you are in, then you've been -
And soon as you're in, you're out.
Shel Silverstein

Failure is not always a mistake, it may simply be the best one can do under the circumstances.
The real mistake is to stop trying. B. F. Skinner

Nature has given us two ears, two eyes, and but one tongue-to the end that we should hear and see more than we speak. Socrates

Once made equal to man, woman becomes his superior. Socrates 

The ancients placed love and war in the hands of closely related gods. That was no accident. That, sir, was a profound knowledge of man. John Steinbeck, Travels with Charley

You cannot run away from a weakness; you must sometime fight it out or perish. And if that be so, why not now, and where you stand? Robert Louis Stevenson  

Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap,  but by the seeds you plant.  Robert Louis Stevenson

Keep your fears to yourself, but share your courage with others. Robert Louis Stevenson

Frustra laborant quotquot se calculationibus fatigant pro inventione quadraturae circuli. (Futile is the labor of those who fatigue themselves with calculations to square the circle). Michael Stifel

To every disadvantage there is a corresponding advantage. W. Clement Stone

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

Whom Fortune wishes to destroy she first makes mad. Publius Syrus

To do two things at once is to do neither. Publilius Syrus

One would think that no sane being would ever stand on the folding paint tray of a stepladder; but yes, they do. This is evolution at work. We should not interfere with these people and their destiny. Jeff Taylor, Tools of the Trade: The Art and Craft of Carpentry

We are Ancients of the earth,
And in the morning of the times.
Alfred,  Lord Tennyson,  The Day Dream

We are not now that strength which in old days moved the Earth and Heaven, that which we are, we are: One equal temper of heroic hearts, made weak by time and fate, but strong in will To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
Alfred, Lord Tennyson

To love and win is the best thing. To love and lose, the next best. William Makepeace Thackeray

When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro. Hunter S. Thompson 

The light which puts out our eyes is darkness to us. Only that day dawns to which we are awake. There is more day to dawn. The sun is but a morning star. Henry David Thoreau

Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after. Henry David Thoreau

Life is a journey it can have only one end, so whay not make it as far ranging and as free as possible? Henry David Thoreau

Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you've imagined. As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler. Henry David Thoreau

There is no rule more invariable than that we are paid for our suspicions by finding what we suspect. Henry David Thoreau

The cost of a thing is the amount of what I call life which is required to be exchanged for it, immediately or in the long run. Henry David Thoreau

Our language has wisely sensed the two sides of being alone.
It has created the word "loneliness" to express the pain of being alone. And it has created the word "solitude" to express the glory of being alone! Paul Tillich

Pure and complete sorrow is as impossible as pure and complete joy. Leo Tolstoy

Everybody thinks of changing humanity and nobody thinks of changing himself. Leo Tolstoy

Nobody holds a good opinion of a man who has a low opinion of himself. Anthony Trollope

'I hope,' the Golux said, 'that this is true. I make things up, you know.' - James Thurber, The Thirteen Clocks

Learn to drink the cup of life as it comes. Agnes Turnbull

Learn to lead in a nourishing manner. Learn to lead without being possessive. Learn to be helpful without taking the credit. Learn to lead without coercion. Lao Tzu

Be glad of life because it gives you the chance to love and to work and to play and to look at the stars Henry Van Dyke

There let him reign, the jailer of the wind,
With hoarse commands his breathing subjects call,  And boast and bluster in his empty hall.  Virgil, Aeneid: Part I

If God made us in His image we have certainly returned the compliment. Voltaire

It is not love that should be depicted as blind, but self-love. Voltaire

By the time a man realizes that maybe his father was right, he usually has a son who thinks he's wrong.  Charles Wadsworth

Out of the night that covers me
Black as the pit from pole to pole
I thank whatever God may be
For my unconquerable soul

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloodied but unbowed

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the horror of the shade
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid

It matters not how straight the gate
How charged with punishment the scroll
I am the master of my fate
I am the captain of my soul  Sidney Wallace

I have often said, and oftener think, that this world is a comedy for those who think, and a tragedy for those who feel. Horace Walpole

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

Why waste time learning, when ignorance is instantaneous? Bill Waterson's Calvin, of Calvin & Hobbes

I think we dream so we don't have to be apart so long. If we're in each other's dreams, we can play together all night. Bill Waterson's Calvin,  of Calvin & Hobbes
 
Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us. Bill Waterson's Calvin,  of Calvin & Hobbes

It is easier for a man to be loyal to his club than to his planet; the bylaws are shorter, and he is personally acquainted with the other members. E.B. White

With dirges through the night, with the thousand voices rising strong and solemn,
With all the mournful voices of the dirges pour'd around the coffin..." Walt  Whitman, When Lilacs Last In The Dooryard Bloom'd

The true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible. Oscar Wilde

We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars. Oscar  Wilde.

When liberty comes with hands dabbled in blood it is hard to shake hands with her. Oscar Wilde

Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months. Oscar Wilde

This wallpaper is killing me, one of us has got to go! Last words of Oscar Wilde  

Ockham's Razor:
Entities shall not be multiplied beyond necessity William of Ockham

We learn from experience.  A man never wakes up his second baby just to see it smile. Grace Williams

I know the price of success: dedication, hard work, and an unremitting devotion to the things you want to see happen.  Frank Lloyd Wright

Peace of mind is that mental condition
in which you have accepted the worst. Lin Yutang
 

Finally, here is a series of quotes, written by a variety of people, all of which say the same essential  thing:

The sun, though it passes through dirty places, yet remains as pure as before. Advancement of Learning, 

The sun, too, shines into cesspools and is not polluted. Diogenes Laertius: Lib. vi. sect. 63.

Spiritalis enim virtus sacramenti ita est ut lux: etsi per immundos transeat, non inquinatur (The spiritual virtue of a sacrament is like light: although it passes among the impure, it is not
polluted). Saint Augustine: Works, vol. iii., In Johannis Evang. cap. i. tr. v. sect. 15.

The sun shineth upon the dunghill, and is not corrupted. John Lyly:
Euphues, The Anatomy of Wit

The sun reflecting upon the mud of strands and shores is unpolluted in his
beam.  Taylor: Holy Living, chap. i. p. 3.

Truth is as impossible to be soiled by any outward touch as the

Sunbeam.  John Milton: The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce.