All Quotes

I wish there was a way to know you're in the good old days before you've actually left them.

There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.'

There is no saint without a past, no sinner without a future.

It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live.

Your mind will be like its habitual thoughts; for the soul becomes dyed with the colour of its thoughts.

If something is difficult for you to accomplish, do not then think it impossible for any human being; rather, if it is humanly possible and corresponds to human nature, know that it is attainable by you as well.

The universe is change. Life is opinion.

No amount of regretting can change the past, and no amount of worrying can change the future.

Do not save what is left after spending, but spend what is left after saving.

Any fool can criticize, complain, and condemn—and most fools do. But it takes character and self-control to be understanding and forgiving.

It is so easy to overestimate the importance of one defining moment and underestimate the value of making small improvements on a daily basis.

Remember that sometimes not getting what you want is a wonderful stroke of luck.

Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in. Forget them as soon as you can.

Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind.

The fool, among all his other faults, also has this: He is always getting ready to live.

Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants.

Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.

You can do so much in ten minutes' time. Ten minutes, once gone, are gone for good. Divide your life into 10-minute units and sacrifice as few of them as possible in meaningless activity.

What we have once enjoyed we can never lose. All that we love deeply becomes a part of us.

Sic transit gloria mundi.

Absorb what is useful, discard what is useless and add what is specifically your own.

There is either a warning or an encouragement here for every one of us. If you are a nice person—if virtue comes easily to you—beware! Much is expected from those to whom much is given. If you mistake for your own merits what are really God's gifts to you through nature, and if you are contented with simply being nice, you are still a rebel: and all those gifts will only make your fall more terrible, your corruption more complicated, your bad example more disastrous.

Much is required from those to whom much is given.

Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one.

The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.

Better to die fighting for freedom than be a prisoner all the days of your life.

The mind is its own place and in itself, can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven.

The opposite of courage in our society is not cowardice... it is conformity.

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.

I can think of nothing less pleasurable than a life devoted to pleasure.

Often when you think you're at the end of something, you're at the beginning of something else.

Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat.

Man can do what he wills, but he cannot will what he wills.

We suffer more in imagination than in reality.

I judge you unfortunate because you have never lived through misfortune. You have passed through life without an opponent—no one can ever know what you are capable of, not even you.

A multitude of books only gets in one's way. So if you are unable to read all the books in your possession, you have enough when you have all the books you are able to read.

People are frugal in guarding their personal property; but as soon as it comes to squandering time they are most wasteful of the one thing in which it is right to be stingy.

God, grant me the Serenity To accept the things I cannot change... Courage to change the things I can, And Wisdom to know the difference. Living one day at a time, Enjoying one moment at a time, Accepting hardship as the pathway to peace. Taking, as He did, this sinful world as it is, Not as I would have it. Trusting that He will make all things right if I surrender to His will. That I may be reasonably happy in this life, And supremely happy with Him forever in the next. Amen

No man has the right to be an amateur in the matter of physical training. It is a shame for a man to grow old without seeing the beauty and strength of which his body is capable.

And now that you don't have to be perfect, you can be good.

Don't do what you know on a gut level to be the wrong thing to do. Don't stay when you know you should go or go when you know you should stay. Don't fight when you should hold steady or hold steady when you should fight. Don't focus on the short-term fun instead of the long-term fall out. Don't surrender all your joy for an idea you used to have about yourself that isn't true anymore. Don't seek joy at all costs. I know it's hard to know what to do when you have a conflicting set of emotions and desires, but it's not as hard as we pretend it is. Saying it's hard is ultimately a justification to do whatever seems like the easiest thing to do—have the affair, stay at that horrible job, end a friendship over a slight, keep loving someone who treats you terribly. I don't think there's a single dumbass thing I've done in my adult life that I didn't know was a dumbass thing to do while I was doing it. Even when I justified it to myself—as I did every damn time—the truest part of me knew I was doing the wrong thing. Always. As the years pass, I'm learning how to better trust my gut and not do the wrong thing, but every so often I get a harsh reminder that I've still got work to do.

I cannot make my days longer so I strive to make them better.

For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline.

The only thing new in the world is the history you do not know.

Maybe it won't work out. But maybe seeing if it does will be the best adventure ever.

Marriage is hard. Divorce is hard. Choose your hard. Obesity is hard. Staying fit is hard. Choose your hard. Being in debt is hard. Being financially independent is hard. Choose your hard. Starting a business is hard. Working at a 9-5 job is hard. Choose your hard. Speaking for yourself is hard. Being taken for granted is hard. Choose your hard. Saving money is hard. Being broke is hard. Choose your hard. Learning new skills is hard. Staying stuck is hard. Choose your hard. Following your dreams is hard. Living with regrets is hard. Choose your hard. Letting go of toxic people is hard. Living with toxic people is hard. Choose your hard.

Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.

Comparison is the thief of joy.

The darkest hour has only sixty minutes.

The pain of discipline never weighs as much as the pain of regret.

People are addicted to euphoric feelings of thinking about doing something better for themselves. Then they go and tell people they're gonna do it, and feel massive elation about it again. By that time, all the dopamine that could've been put towards actually doing it, is gone. Talking and thinking about it is fun, because you're thinking about the rewards it'll bring you, but the work required to get there will make you procrastinate. Then the cycle repeats. Moral of the story: don't tell everyone you're gonna do something until you've already been doing it. Don't waste your dopamine on the fantasy, save it for the hard work it's going to take to actually do it, because you'll need it. Your brain feels like it's already been done when you're already celebrating the idea of it, and then having others celebrate it with you as you tell them how excited you are to embark on whatever journey you're wanting to do. And then even worse, people stop caring about these things you say you're gonna do, because you're all talk, no walk. Even yourself will start to believe that, and then you'll be 10 years down the road still watching videos wishing you started a long time ago.

Everything in life has a solution, except death.

Only a fool learns from his own mistakes.

God help us to change. To change ourselves and to change our world. To know the need for it. To deal with the pain of it. To feel the joy of it. To undertake the journey without understanding the destination. The art of gentle revolution. Amen

Keep calm and carry on.

This isn't a rehearsal for some future life. This is the show.

Your fences need to be horse-high, pig-tight and bull-strong. Keep skunks and bankers at a distance. Life is simpler when you plow around the stump. A bumble bee is considerably faster than a John Deere tractor. Words that soak into your ears are whispered… not yelled. Meanness don't jes' happen overnight. Forgive your enemies; it messes up their heads. Do not corner something that you know is meaner than you. It don't take a very big person to carry a grudge. You cannot unsay a cruel word. Every path has a few puddles. When you wallow with pigs, expect to get dirty. The best sermons are lived, not preached. Most of the stuff people worry about ain't never gonna happen anyway. Don't judge folks by their relatives. Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer. Live a good, honorable life… Then when you get older and think back, you'll enjoy it a second time. Don't interfere with somethin' that ain't bothering you none. Timing has a lot to do with the outcome of a Rain dance. If you find yourself in a hole, the first thing to do is stop diggin'. Sometimes you get, and sometimes you get got. The biggest troublemaker you'll probably ever have to deal with, watches you from the mirror every mornin'. Always drink upstream from the herd. Good judgment comes from experience, and a lotta that comes from bad judgment. Lettin' the cat outta the bag is a whole lot easier than puttin' it back in. If you get to thinkin' you're a person of some influence, try orderin' somebody else's dog around. Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply. Speak kindly. Leave the rest to God. Don't pick a fight with an old man. If he is too old to fight, he'll just kill you. Most times, it just gets down to common sense.

When you point one finger, there are three fingers pointing back at you.

Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response.

Regard yourself as a cloud, in the flesh, because you see, clouds never make mistakes. Did you ever see a cloud that was misshapen? Did you ever see a badly designed wave? No, they always do the right thing. But, if you will, treat yourself for a while as a cloud or a wave and realize that you can't make a mistake whatever you do. Because even if you do something that appears totally disastrous, it will all come out in the wash somehow or another. Then through this capacity you will develop a kind of confidence. And through confidence you will be able to trust your own intuition.

Life is a spark between two identical voids, the darkness before birth and the one after death.