Fun and Favorite Quotes
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"Study without desire spoils the memory, and it retains nothing that it takes in." — Leonardo da Vinci
"I am still learning." — Michelangelo
"I never learned from a man who agreed with me." — Robert A. Heinlein
"Tomorrow may be hell, but today was a good writing day, and on the good writing days, nothing else matters." — Neil Gaiman
"He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. And when you gaze long into the Abyss the Abyss also gazes into you." — Friedrich Nietzsche
"If I had an hour to solve a problem I'd spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and five minutes thinking about solutions." — Albert Einstein
"How marvelous books are, crossing worlds and centuries, defeating ignorance and, finally, cruel time itself." — Gore Vidal
"He who learns but does not think, is lost! He who thinks but does not learn is in great danger." — Confucius
“The great aim of education is not knowledge but action.” — Herbert Spencer
"Excellence is new forever." — Ralph Waldo Emerson
"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit." — Aristotle
"In like manner as the tree sheds its seed into the neighbouring fields and produces other trees, so the great vegetable, the world, or this planetary system, produces within itself certain seeds which, being scattered into surrounding chaos, vegetate into new worlds." — David Hume
"Rhythm and harmony find their way into the inward places of the soul." — Plato
"I used to measure the heavens, now I measure the shadows of Earth. Although my mind was heaven-bound, the shadow of my body lies here." — Johannes Kepler
"You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all of the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time." — Abraham Lincoln
"Man must be arched and buttressed from within, else the temple wavers to the dust." — Marcus Aurelius Antonius
"When you are required to exhibit strength, it comes." — Joseph Campbell
"None of us can hope to get anywhere without character, moral courage and the spiritual strength to accept responsibility." — Thomas J. Watson, Founder of IBM
"Fear is only as deep as the mind allows." — Japanese proverb
"So high as a tree aspires to grow, so high will it find an atmosphere suited to it." — Henry David Thoreau
"Growth is the only evidence of life." — John Henry Cardinal Newman
"Champions know that success is inevitable; that there is no such thing as failure, only feedback. They know that the best way to forecast the future is to create it." — Michael J. Gelb
"Hard pressed on my right. My center is yielding. Impossible to maneuver. Situation excellent. I am attacking." ― Ferdinand Foch at the Battle of the Marne
"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." — Edmund Burke
"I was born for the storm, and a calm does not suit me." ― Andrew Jackson
"I am not afraid of an army of lions led by a sheep, I am afraid of an army of sheep led by a lion." ― Alexander the Great
"Where all think alike, no one thinks very much." ― Walter Lippmann
"It's what you learn after you know it all that counts." — Harry S. Truman
"Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young." — Henry Ford
"Education without application is just entertainment." — Tim Sanders
"Don’t just teach your children to read. Teach them to question what they read. Teach them to question everything." — George Carlin
"When government is unjustly exercised by one man who seeks personal profit from his position instead of the good of the community subject to him, such a ruler is called tyrant." ― Thomas Aquinas
"If you come to reign, do that which befits a kind, that it be so just as to deviate in nothing from justice, whatever may befall you." ― Louis IX, King of France
"A leader leads by example, not by force." ― Sun Tzu
"All tyrannies rule through fraud and force, but once the fraud is exposed they must rely exclusively on force." ― George Orwell
"Be not afraid of greatness. Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and others have greatness thrust upon them." ― William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night
"Now is no time to think of what you do not have. Think of what you can do with what there is." — Ernest Hemingway
"Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence." ― Robert Frost
"Books are a uniquely portable magic." — Stephen King
"I do believe in an everyday sort of magic — the inexplicable connectedness we sometimes experience with places, people, works of art and the like; the eerie appropriateness of moments of synchronicity; the whispered voice, the hidden presence, when we think we're alone." ― Charles de Lint
"Where there is shouting, there is no true knowledge." — Leonardo da Vinci
"It is what we know already that often prevents us from learning."" — Claude Bernard
"The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short; but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our mark." — Michelangelo
"We can't solve the significant problems of our time by using the same thinking we had when these problems were created." — Albert Einstein
"The breakfast of champions is not cereal, it's the opposition." — Nick Seitz
"You don’t understand anything until you learn it more than one way." — Marvin Minsky
"Be curious, not judgmental." — Walt Whitman
"Some books should be tasted, some devoured, but only a few should be chewed and digested thoroughly." ― Francis Bacon
"If any thing goes bad, I did it. If anything goes semi-good, we did it. If anything goes really good, then you did it." — Paul "Bear" Bryant
"Writing is thinking. To write well is to think clearly. That's why it's so hard." ― David McCullough
"There is no relief at it being over. There is the joy of winning it." — Steffi Graf
"Without knowing the force of words, it is impossible to know men." ― Confucious
"We now accept the fact that learning is a lifelong process of keeping abreast of change. And the most pressing task is to teach people how to learn." — Peter Drucker
"Winning isn't everything, but the will to win is everything." — Vince Lombardi
"The illiterate of the 21st Century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn." — Alvin Toffler
"To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment." ― Ralph Waldo Emerson
"When you win, nothing hurts." — Joe Namath
"Man's mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions." ― Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
"The man who does not read has no advantage over the man who cannot read." ― Mark Twain
"A man who asks is a fool for five minutes. A man who never asks is a fool for life." — Chinese Proverb
"We are not interested in the possibilities of defeat." — Queen Victoria
"Intelligence plus character — that is the goal of true education." ― Martin Luther King Jr.
"If you can't write it, you don't understand it." — Anonymous
"The creative adult is the child who survived." — Ursula K. Le Guin
"His resolve is not to seem, but to be, the best." — Aeschylus
"Give me a place to stand, and a lever long enough, and I will move the world. " ― Archimedes
"A single dream is more powerful than a thousand realities." ― J.R.R. Tolkien
"Writing can only be as good as the thinking that precedes it. Thinking is only as good as the writing that explains it." — Joyce Wycoff, Mindmapping
"The secret of freedom lies in educating people, whereas the secret of tyranny is in keeping them ignorant." — Maximilien Robespierre
"Books are the treasured wealth of the world and the fit inheritance of generations and nations." ― Henry David Thoreau
"Magic is really only the utilization of the entire spectrum of the senses. Humans have cut themselves off from their senses. Now they see only a tiny portion of the visible spectrum, hear only the loudest of sounds, their sense of smell is shockingly poor and they can only distinguish the sweetest and sourest of tastes." ― Michael Scott
"Research shows that you begin learning in the womb and go right on learning until the moment you pass on. Your brain has a capacity for learning that is virtually limitless, which makes every human a potential genius." — Michael J. Gelb
"The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who, in times of great moral crisis, maintain their neutrality." ― John F. Kennedy
"In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer. And that makes me happy. For it says that no matter how hard the world pushes against me, within me, there’s something stronger – something better, pushing right back." ― Albert Camus
“Recipes tell you nothing. Learning techniques is the key.” — Tom Colicchio
"Invention is the mother of necessity." ― Thorstein Veblen
"If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude." ― Maya Angelou
"One, remember to look up at the stars and not down at your feet. Two, never give up work. Work gives you meaning and purpose and life is empty without it. Three, if you are lucky enough to find love, remember it is there and don't throw it away." ― Stephen Hawking
"Spoon feeding in the long run teaches us nothing but the shape of the spoon." — E.M. Forster
"Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly." ― Robert F. Kennedy
"If my doctor told me I had only six minutes to live, I wouldn't brood. I'd type a little faster." ― Isaac Asimov
"Folks are usually about as happy as they make their minds up to be." ― Abraham Lincoln
"It is better to offer no excuse than a bad one." ― George Washington
"Forget conventionalisms; forget what the world thinks of you stepping out of your place; think your best thoughts, speak your best words, work your best works, looking to your own conscience for approval." ― Susan B. Anthony
"Let us dare to read, think, speak and write." ― John Adams
"Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world." ― Nelson Mandela
"There is only one good, knowledge, and one evil, ignorance." ― Socrates
"Reason and free inquiry are the only effectual agents against error." ― Thomas Jefferson
"A good speech should be like a woman's skirt: long enough to cover the subject and short enough to create interest."― Winston Churchill
"A war of ideas can no more be won without books than a naval war can be won without ships. Books, like ships, have the toughest armor, the longest cruising range, and mount the most powerful guns." ― Franklin D. Roosevelt
"No one can make you feel inferior without your consent." ― Eleanor Roosevelt
"Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing." ― Benjamin Franklin
"Let us read, and let us dance; these two amusements will never do any harm to the world." ― Voltaire
"The problem with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt." — Bertrand Russell
"It is absurd to hold that a man should be ashamed of an inability to defend himself with his limbs, but not ashamed of an inability to defend himself with speech and reason; for the use of rational speech is more distinctive of a human being than the use of his limbs." ― Aristotle, Rhetoric
"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat." ― Theodore Roosevelt
"Wise men speak because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something." ― Plato
"Nothing is miserable unless you think it so; and on the other hand, nothing brings happiness unless you are content with it." ― Boethius, The Consolation of Philosophy
"We are not rich by what we possess but rather by what we can do without." ― Immanual Kant
"Learning never exhausts the mind." — Leonardo da Vinci
"Genius is eternal patience." — Michelangelo
"What then is truth? A movable host of metaphors, metonymies, and anthropomorphisms: in short, a sum of human relations which have been poetically and rhetorically intensified, transferred, and embellished, and which, after long usage, seem to a people to be fixed, canonical, and binding. Truths are illusions which we have forgotten are illusions — they are metaphors that have become worn out and have been drained of sensuous force." ― Friedrich Nietzsche
"What we obtain too cheaply, we esteem too lightly; it's dearness only that gives everthing its value." ― Thomas Paine
"We all have our time machines, don't we. Those that take us back are memories...And those that carry us forward, are dreams." ― H.G. Wells
"Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it." ― Dwight D. Eisenhower
"Your beliefs become your thoughts,
Your thoughts become your words,
Your words become your actions,
Your actions become your habits,
Your habits become your values,
Your values become your destiny." ― Gandhi
"When you talk, you are only repeating what you already know. But if you listen, you may learn something new." — Dalai Lama
"A room without books is like a body without a soul." — Marcus Tullius Cicero
"All cruelty springs from weakness." ― Seneca
"Start writing, no matter what. The water does not flow until the faucet is turned on." — Louis L'Amour
"One man with courage makes a majority." ― Andrew Jackson
"I am indebted to my father for living, but to my teacher for living well." ― Alexander the Great
"There can be no liberty for a community which lacks the means by which to detect lies." ― Walter Lippmann
"Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty." ― Henry Ford
"Your attitude, not your aptitude, will determine your altitude." ― Zig Ziglar
"If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle." ― Sun Tzu, The Art of War
"This above all: to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man."
― William Shakespeare, Hamlet
"Never be bullied into silence. Never allow yourself to be made a victim. Accept no one's definition of your life; define yourself." ― Robert Frost
"Above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don't believe in magic will never find it." — Roald Dahl
"That's the thing about magic; you've got to know it's still here, all around us, or it just stays invisible for you." ― Charles de Lint
"Knowledge of the past and of the places of the earth is the ornament and food of the mind of man." — Leonardo da Vinci
"If people knew how hard I worked to get my mastery, it wouldn't seem so wonderful at all." — Michelangelo
"There are only two ways to live your life: one is as though nothing is a miracle; the other is as though everything is a miracle." ― Albert Einstein
"Excellence is rarely found, more rarely valued." — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
"Knowledge is power." ― Francis Bacon
"It has always been my belief that a man should do his best, regardless of how much he receives for his services, or the number of people he may be serving or the class of people served." — Napoleon Hill
"He who learns but does not think, is lost! He who thinks but does not learn is in great danger.” — Confucius
"Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail." ― Ralph Waldo Emerson
"Don't be afraid to be amazing." — Andy Offutt Irwin
"A moment's insight is sometimes worth a life's experience." — Oliver Wendell Holmes
"Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect." ― Mark Twain
"The quality of a person's life is in direct proportion to their commitment to excellence, regardless of their chosen field of endeavor." — Vince Lombardi
"But you must not change one thing, one pebble, one grain of sand, until you know what good and evil will follow on that act. The world is in balance, in Equilibrium. A wizard's power of Changing and Summoning can shake the balance of the world. It is dangerous, that power … It must follow knowledge, and serve need." ― Ursula K. Le Guin
"Persistence is the twin sister of excellence. One is a matter of quality; the other, a matter of time." — Marbel Morgan
"Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that." ― Martin Luther King Jr.
"Excellence is to do a common thing in an uncommon way." — Booker T. Washington
"I learned this, at least, by my experiment: that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours." ― Henry David Thoreau
"Today's mighty oak is yesterday's little nut that held its ground." — David Icke
"A man's magic demonstrates what sort of person he is, what is held most deeply inside of him. There is no truer gauge of a man's character than the way in which he employs his strength, his power. I was not a murderer. I was not like Victor Sells. I was Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden. I was a wizard. Wizards control their power. They don't let it control them. And wizards don't use magic to kill people. They use it to discover, to protect, to mend, to help. Not to destroy." ― Jim Butcher
"Growth is a spiral process, doubling back on itself, reassessing and regrouping." — Julia Margaret Cameron
"The rights of every man are diminished when the rights of one man are threatened." ― John F. Kennedy
"Live to the point of tears." ― Albert Camus
“There is divine beauty in learning. To learn means to accept the postulate that life did not begin at my birth. Others have been here before me, and I walk in their footsteps.” ― Elie Wiesel
"Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change. " ― Stephen Hawking
"You cannot help but learn more as you take the world into your hands. Take it up reverently, for it is an old piece of clay, with millions of thumbprints on it." ― John Updike
"True teachers are those who use themselves as bridges over which they invite their students to cross; then, having facilitated their crossing, joyfully collapse, encouraging them to create their own." — Nikos Kazantzakis
"Study hard what interests you the most in the most undisciplined, irreverent, and original manner possible." — Richard Feynman
"There are those that look at things the way they are, and ask why? I dream of things that never were, and ask why not?" ― Robert F. Kennedy
"The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom." ― Isaac Asimov
"Whatever you are, be a good one." ― Abraham Lincoln
"Let each man become all that he was created capable of being." — Thomas Carlyle
"It is better to be alone than in bad company." ― George Washington
"All growth depends upon activity. There is no development physically or intellectually without effort, and effort means work." — John Calvin Coolidge
"I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do because I notice it always coincides with their own desires." ― Susan B. Anthony
"I must study Politicks and War that my sons may have liberty to study Mathematicks and Philosophy. My sons ought to study Mathematicks and Philosophy, Geography, natural History, Naval Architecture, navigation, Commerce and Agriculture, in order to give their Children a right to study Painting, Poetry, Musick, Architecture, Statuary, Tapestry and Porcelaine." ― John Adams
"A good head and a good heart are always a formidable combination." ― Nelson Mandella
"To find yourself, think for yourself." ― Socrates
"I cannot live without books." ― Thomas Jefferson
"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty." ― Winston Churchill
"Presidents are selected, not elected." ― Franklin D. Roosevelt
"Do what you feel in your heart to be right – for you'll be criticized anyway." ― Eleanor Roosevelt
"They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." ― Benjamin Franklin
"Life is a shipwreck, but we must not forget to sing in the lifeboats." ― Voltaire
"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it." ― Aristotle, Metaphysics
"Believe you can and you're halfway there." ― Theodore Roosevelt
"Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything." ― Plato
"Man is so constituted that he then only excels other things when he knows himself." ― Boethius, The Consolation of Philosophy
"Science is organized knowledge. Wisdom is organized life." ― Immanual Kant
"I have been impressed with the urgency of doing. Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Being willing is not enough; we must do." — Leonardo da Vinci
"There is no greater harm than that of time wasted." — Michelangelo
"Every attainment, every step forward in knowledge, follows from courage, from hardness against oneself, from cleanliness in relation to oneself." ― Friedrich Nietzsche
"Give me liberty, or give me death." ― Thomas Paine, Common Sense
"If you are in difficulties with a book, try the element of surprise: attack it at an hour when it isn't expecting it." ― H.G. Wells
"This world of ours... must avoid becoming a community of dreadful fear and hate, and be, instead, a proud confederation of mutual trust and respect." ― Dwight D. Eisenhower
"Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever." — Mahatma Gandhi
"There is no arguing with the pretenders to a divine knowledge and to a divine mission. They are possessed with the sin of pride. They have yielded to the perennial temptation." ― Walter Lippmann
"If you are not willing to learn, no one can help you. If you are determined to learn, no one can stop you." — Zig Ziglar
"Supreme excellence consists of breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting." ― Sun Tzu, The Art of War
"No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader. No surprise in the writer, no surprise in the reader." ― Robert Frost
"Everyone you will ever meet knows something you don't." ― Bill Nye the Science Guy
"The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for your senses to grow sharper." ― W.B. Yeats
"It's all a matter of paying attention, being awake in the present moment, and not expecting a huge payoff. The magic in this world seems to work in whispers and small kindnesses." – Charles de Lint
"Nature never breaks her own laws." — Leonardo da Vinci
"Faith in oneself is the best and safest course." — Michelangelo
"I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world." ― Albert Einstein
"That which thy fathers have bequeathed to thee, earn it anew if thou wouldst possess it." - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
"If we are to achieve results never before accomplished, we must expect to employ methods never before attempted." ― Francis Bacon
"Strength and growth come only through continuous effort and struggle." — Napoleon Hill
"The most useful piece of learning for the uses of life is to unlearn what is untrue." — Antisthenes
"What you do speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what you say." ― Ralph Waldo Emerson
"There is no royal road to anything. One thing at a time, all things in succession. That which grows fast, withers as rapidly. That which grows slowly, endures." — Josiah Gilbert Holland
"The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time." ― Mark Twain
"An ounce of loyalty is worth a pound of cleverness." — Elbert Green Hubbard
"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter." ― Martin Luther King Jr.
"How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live." ― Henry David Thoreau
"Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country." ― John F. Kennedy
"But in the end one needs more courage to live than to kill himself." ― Albert Camus
"The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go." — Dr. Seuss
"It surprises me how disinterested we are today about things like physics, space, the universe and philosophy of our existence, our purpose, our final destination. Its a crazy world out there. Be curious." ― Stephen Hawking
"Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today." ― Malcolm X
"You don't understand anything until you learn it more than one way." — Marvin Minsky
"That is what learning is. You suddenly understand something you've understood all your life, but in a new way." — Doris Lessing
"Few men are willing to brave the disapproval of their peers, the censure of their colleagues, the wrath of their society. Moral courage is a rarer commodity than bravery in battle or great intelligence. Yet it is the one essential, vital quality for those who seek to change a world that yields most painfully to change." ― Robert F. Kennedy
"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.'" ― Isaac Asimov
"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves." ― Abraham Lincoln
"If freedom of speech is taken away, then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter." ― George Washington
"Cautious, careful people, always casting about to preserve their reputation and social standing, never can bring about a reform. Those who are really in earnest must be willing to be anything or nothing in the world's estimation, and publicly and privately, in season and out, avow their sympathy with despised and persecuted ideas and their advocates, and bear the consequences." ― Susan B. Anthony
"Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence." ― John Adams
"The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing." ― Socrates
"Do you want to know who you are? Don't ask. Act! Action will delineate and define you." ― Thomas Jefferson
"You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life." ― Winston Churchill
"You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, 'I have lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.' You must do the thing you think you cannot do." ― Eleanor Roosevelt, You Learn by Living
"Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn." ― Benjamin Franklin
"Judge a man by his questions rather than by his answers." ― Voltaire
"Hope is a waking dream." ― Aristotle
"It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed." ― Theodore Roosevelt
"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." ― Plato
"One's virtue is all that one truly has, because it is not imperiled by the vicissitudes of fortune." ― Boethius
"He who would learn to fly one day must first learn to stand and walk and run and climb and dance; one cannot fly into flying." ― Friedrich Nietzsche
"What on earth would a man do with himself, if something did not stand in his way?" ― H.G. Wells
"A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both." ― Dwight D. Eisenhower
"But what is propaganda, if not the effort to alter the picture to which men respond, to substitute one social pattern for another?" ― Walter Lippmann
"Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer." ― Sun Tzu
"It is in fact a part of the function of education to help us escape, not from our own time – for we are bound by that — but from the intellectual and emotional limitations of our time." – T.S. Eliot
"Freedom lies in being bold." ― Robert Frost
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." ― Arthur C. Clarke
"Necessity is the mistress and guide of nature. Necessity is the theme and inventress of nature, her curb and her eternal law." — Leonardo da Vinci
"Lord, grant that I may always desire more than I can accomplish." — Michelangelo
"If you can't explain it to a 6 year old, you don't understand it yourself." ― Albert Einstein
"In the end we retain from our studies only that which we practically apply." — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
"Imagination was given to man to compensate him for what he is not; a sense of humor to console him for what he is." ― Francis Bacon
“Every act of conscious learning requires the willingness to suffer an injury to one's self-esteem. That is why young children, before they are aware of their own self-importance, learn so easily.” — Thomas Szasz
"Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising up every time we fail." ― Ralph Waldo Emerson
"Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great." ― Mark Twain
"In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends." ― Martin Luther King Jr.
"Words and magic were in the beginning one and the same thing, and even today words retain much of their magical power." ― Sigmund Freud
"It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see." ― Henry David Thoreau
"Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought." ― John F. Kennedy
"The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion." ― Albert Camus
"Those people who develop the ability to continuously acquire new and better forms of knowledge that they can apply to their work and to their lives will be the movers and shakers in our society for the indefinite future." — Brian Tracy
"We have this one life to appreciate the grand design of the universe and for that, I am extremely grateful." ― Stephen Hawking
"Change is the end result of all true learning." ― Leo Buscaglia
"The purpose of life is to contribute in some way to making things better." ― Robert F. Kennedy
"I write for the same reason I breathe ... because if I didn't, I would die." ― Isaac Asimov
"Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends?" ― Abraham Lincoln
"A primary object should be the education of our youth in the science of government. In a republic, what species of knowledge can be equally important? And what duty more pressing than communicating it to those who are to be the future guardians of the liberties of the country?" ― George Washington
"There are two types of education... One should teach us how to make a living, And the other how to live." ― John Adams
"The unexamined life is not worth living." ― Socrates
"I predict future happiness for Americans, if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them." ― Thomas Jefferson
"Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen." ― Winston Churchill
"You wouldn't worry so much about what others think of you if you realized how seldom they do." ― Eleanor Roosevelt
"In wine there is wisdom, in beer there is Freedom, in water there is bacteria." ― Benjamin Franklin
"Common sense is not so common." ― Voltaire
"Happiness depends upon ourselves." ― Aristotle
"The only man who never makes mistakes is the man who never does anything." ― Theodore Roosevelt
"The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men." ― Plato
"As far as possible, join faith to reason." ― Boethius
"Here in America we are descended in blood and in spirit from revolutionists and rebels - men and women who dare to dissent from accepted doctrine. As their heirs, may we never confuse honest dissent with disloyal subversion." ― Dwight D. Eisenhower
"Opportunities multiply as they are seized." ― Sun Tzu
"A poem begins as a lump in the throat, a sense of wrong, a homesickness, a lovesickness." ― Robert Frost
"The magic is only in what books say, how they stiched the patches of the universe together into one garment for us." ― Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451
"You do ill if you praise, but worse if you censure, what you do not understand." — Leonardo da Vinci
"Trifles make perfection, and perfection is no trifle." — Michelangelo
"If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales." ― Albert Einstein
"A Man must make his opportunity,as oft as find it " ― Francis Bacon
"The whole purpose of education is to turn mirrors into windows." ― Sydney J. Harris
"It is not the length of life, but the depth." ― Ralph Waldo Emerson
"Reader, suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself." ― Mark Twain
"There comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must take it because conscience tells him it is right." ― Martin Luther King Jr.
"Never look back unless you are planning to go that way." ― Henry David Thoreau
"Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth." ― John F. Kennedy
"Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower." ― Albert Camus
"It is what we know already that often prevents us from learning." — Claude Bernard
"A magician is strong because he feels pain. He feels the difference between what the world is and what he would make of it. Or what did you think that stuff in your chest was? A magician is strong because he hurts more than others. His wound is his strength. " ― Lev Grossman
"Learning is not attained by chance. It must be sought for with ardour and attended with diligence." — Abigail Adams
"Fear not the path of Truth for the lack of People walking on it." ― Robert F. Kennedy
"Those people who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do." ― Isaac Asimov
"And in the end it is not the years in your life that count, it's the life in your years." ― Abraham Lincoln
"99% of failures come from people who make excuses." ― George Washington
"But a Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored. Liberty, once lost, is lost forever." ― John Adams
"I cannot teach anybody anything. I can only make them think" ― Socrates
"When the people fear the government there is tyranny, when the government fears the people there is liberty." ― Thomas Jefferson
"If you are going through hell, keep going." ― Winston Churchill
"The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams." ― Eleanor Roosevelt
"You may delay, but time will not." ― Benjamin Franklin
"Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities." ― Voltaire
"Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence." ― Aristotle
"Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far." ― Theodore Roosevelt
"Only the dead have seen the end of war." ― Plato
"Know yourself and you will win all battles." ― Sun Tzu
"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I -
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference."
― Robert Frost
"Magic exists. Who can doubt it, when there are rainbows and wildflowers, the music of the wind and the silence of the stars? Anyone who has loved has been touched by magic. It is such a simple and such an extraordinary part of the lives we live." ― Nora Roberts
"I love those who can smile in trouble, who can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. 'Tis the business of little minds to shrink, but they whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves their conduct, will pursue their principles unto death." — Leonardo da Vinci
"There is no greater harm than that of time wasted." — Michelangelo
"Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new." ― Albert Einstein
"Read not to contradict and confute, nor to find talk and discourse, but to weigh and consider." ― Francis Bacon
"Don't go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first." ― Mark Twain
"Never, never be afraid to do what's right, especially if the well-being of a person or animal is at stake. Society's punishments are small compared to the wounds we inflict on our soul when we look the other way." ― Martin Luther King Jr.
"Love isn't a decision. It's a feeling. If we could decide who we loved, it would be much simpler, but much less magical." ― Trey Parker
"Be yourself- not your idea of what you think somebody else's idea of yourself should be." ― Henry David Thoreau
"Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other." ― John F. Kennedy
"Fiction is the lie through which we tell the truth." ― Albert Camus
"If you think education is expensive, try estimating the cost of ignorance." — Howard Gardner
"Learning is synthesizing seemingly divergent ideas and data." — Terry Heick
"There is no end to education. It is not that you read a book, pass an examination, and finish with education. The whole of life, from the moment you are born to the moment you die, is a process of learning." — Jiddu Krishnamurti
"Every time we turn our heads the other way when we see the law flouted, when we tolerate what we know to be wrong, when we close our eyes and ears to the corrupt because we are too busy or too frightened, when we fail to speak up and speak out, we strike a blow against freedom and decency and justice." ― Robert F. Kennedy
"While he lives, he must think; while he thinks, he must dream." ― Isaac Asimov
"My Best Friend is a person who will give me a book I have not read." ― Abraham Lincoln
"There is nothing which can better deserve our patronage than the promotion of science and literature. Knowledge is in every country the surest basis of public happiness." ― George Washington
"Posterity! You will never know how much it cost the present Generation to preserve your Freedom! I hope you will make good use of it. If you do not, I shall repent in Heaven, that I ever took half the Pains to preserve it." ― John Adams
"Wonder is the beginning of wisdom." ― Socrates
"The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg." ― Thomas Jefferson
"History will be kind to me for I intend to write it." ― Winston Churchill
"The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience." ― Eleanor Roosevelt
"Never ruin an apology with an excuse." ― Benjamin Franklin
"I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: Oh Lord, make my enemies ridiculous. And God granted it." ― Voltaire, Letter to Étienne Noël Damilaville, May 16, 1767
"Excellence is never an accident. It is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, and intelligent execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives - choice, not chance, determines your destiny." ― Aristotle
"If you could kick the person in the pants responsible for most of your trouble, you wouldn't sit for a month." ― Theodore Roosevelt
"Do not train a child to learn by force or harshness; but direct them to it by what amuses their minds, so that you may be better able to discover with accuracy the peculiar bent of the genius of each." ― Plato
"Appear weak when you are strong, and strong when you are weak" - Sun Tzu, The Art of War
"Books serve to show a man that those original thoughts of his aren't very new after all." ― Abraham Lincoln
"Perseverance and spirit have done wonders in all ages." ― George Washington
"The government of the United States is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion." ― John Adams
"Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle." ― Socrates
"The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do." ― Thomas Jefferson
"Tact is the ability to tell someone to go to hell in such a way that they look forward to the trip." ― Winston Churchill
"Learn from the mistakes of others. You can't live long enough to make them all yourself." ― Eleanor Roosevelt
"We are all born ignorant, but one must work hard to remain stupid." ― Benjamin Franklin
"Despite the enormous quantity of books, how few people read! And if one reads profitably, one would realize how much stupid stuff the vulgar herd is content to swallow every day." ― Voltaire
"The educated differ from the uneducated as much as the living differ from the dead." ― Aristotle
"Knowing what's right doesn't mean much unless you do what's right." ― Theodore Roosevelt
"You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation." ― Plato
"I am not a teacher, but an awakener." ― Robert Frost
"When two people meet and fall in love, there's a sudden rush of magic. Magic is just naturally present then. We tend to feed on that gratuitous magic without striving to make any more. What we have to do is work like hell at making additional magic right from the start." ― Tom Robbins
"There are three classes of people: those who see, those who see when they are shown, those who do not see." — Leonardo da Vinci
"Try not to become a person of success, but rather try to become a person of value." ― Albert Einstein
"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy." ― Martin Luther King Jr.
"What lies behind us and what lies ahead of us are tiny matters compared to what lives within us." ― Henry David Thoreau
"A man may die, nations may rise and fall, but an idea lives on. Ideas have endurance without death." ― John F. Kennedy
"Real generosity towards the future lies in giving all to the present." ― Albert Camus
"The ability to speak exactly is intimately related to the ability to know exactly." — Wendell Berry
"You don't learn to walk by following rules. You learn by doing, and by falling over." — Richard Branson
"One learns from books and example only that certain things can be done. Actual learning requires that you do those things." — Frank Herbert
"Let no one be discouraged by the belief there is nothing one person can do against the enormous array of the world's ills, misery, ignorance, and violence. Few will have the greatness to bend history, but each of us can work to change a small portion of events. And in the total of all those acts will be written the history of a generation." ― Robert F. Kennedy
"If knowledge can create problems, it is not through ignorance that we can solve them." ― Isaac Asimov
"Iron rusts from disuse; water loses its purity from stagnation... even so does inaction sap the vigor of the mind." — Leonardo da Vinci
"Wisdom is not a product of schooling but of the lifelong attempt to acquire it." — Albert Einstein
"I'm a success today because I had a friend who believed in me and I didn't have the heart to let him down." ― Abraham Lincoln
"Always stand on principle....even if you stand alone." ― John Adams
"By all means marry; if you get a good wife, you'll become happy; if you get a bad one, you'll become a philosopher." ― Socrates
"We in America do not have government by the majority. We have government by the majority who participate." ― Thomas Jefferson
"Never, never, never give in!" ― Winston Churchill
"Many people die at twenty five and aren't buried until they are seventy five." ― Benjamin Franklin
"Dare to think for yourself." ― Voltaire
"To avoid criticism say nothing, do nothing, be nothing." ― Aristotle
"I am a part of everything that I have read." ― Theodore Roosevelt
"I know not how I may seem to others, but to myself I am but a small child wandering upon the vast shores of knowledge, every now and then finding a small bright pebble to content myself with." ― Plato
"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." ― Martin Luther King Jr.
"I want to be magic. I want to touch the heart of the world and make it smile. I want to be a friend of elves and live in a tree. Or under a hill. I want to marry a moonbeam and hear the stars sing. I don't want to pretend at magic anymore. I want to be magic." ― Charles de Lint
"If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music he hears, however measured or far away." ― Henry David Thoreau
"Libraries should be open to all ― except the censor." ― John F. Kennedy
"The purpose of a writer is to keep civilization from destroying itself." ― Albert Camus
"Just as food eaten without appetite is a tedious nourishment, so does study without zeal damage the memory by not assimilating what it absorbs." — Leonardo da Vinci
"Develop a passion for learning. If you do, you will never cease to grow." — Anthony J. D'Angelo
"He who laughs most, learns best." — John Cleese
"The beautiful thing about learning is nobody can take it away from you." — B.B. King
"I am not one of those who think that coming in second or third is winning." — Robert F. Kennedy
"When I do good, I feel good. When I do bad, I feel bad. That's my religion." ― Abraham Lincoln
"Daughter! Get you an honest man for a husband, and keep him honest. No matter whether he is rich, provided he be independent. Regard the honor and moral character of the man more than all other circumstances. Think of no other greatness but that of the soul, no other riches but those of the heart. An honest, sensible, humane man, above all the littleness of vanity and extravagances of imagination, laboring to do good rather than be rich, to be useful rather than make a show, living in modest simplicity clearly within his means and free from debts and obligations, is really the most respectable man in society, makes himself and all about him most happy." ― John Adams
"Strong minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, weak minds discuss people." ― Socrates
"I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it." ― Thomas Jefferson
"You can often change your circumstances by changing your attitude" ― Eleanor Roosevelt
"It is not enough that we do our best; sometimes we must do what is required." ― Winston Churchill
"Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy." ― Benjamin Franklin
"Every man is guilty of all the good he did not do." ― Voltaire
"Those who educate children well are more to be honored than they who produce them; for these only gave them life, those the art of living well." ― Aristotle
"The things that will destroy America are prosperity at any price, peace at any price, safety first instead of duty first and love of soft living and the get-rich-quick theory of life." ― Theodore Roosevelt
"Ignorance, the root and stem of every evil." ― Plato
"When you're touched by magic, nothing's ever quite the same again. What really makes me sad is all those people who never have the chance to know that touch. They're too busy, or they just don't hold with make-believe, so they shut the door without really knowing it was there to be opened in the first place." ― Charles de Lint
"Do not be too moral. You may cheat yourself out of much life so. Aim above morality. Be not simply good, be good for something." ― Henry David Thoreau
"Science is always discovering odd scraps of magical wisdom and making a tremendous fuss about its cleverness." ― Aleister Crowley
"We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things. Not because they are easy, but because they are hard." ― John F. Kennedy
"Always go too far, because that's where you'll find the truth." ― Albert Camus
"The greatest deception men suffer is from their own opinions." — Leonardo da Vinci
"We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses." ― Abraham Lincoln
"Democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts and murders itself. There was never a democracy that did not commit suicide." ― John Adams
"Education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel." ― Socrates
"On matters of style, swim with the current, on matters of principle, stand like a rock." ― Thomas Jefferson
"A lady came up to me one day and said 'Sir! You are drunk', to which I replied 'I am drunk today madam, and tomorrow I shall be sober but you will still be ugly." ― Winston Churchill
"Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are." ― Benjamin Franklin
"The more I read, the more I acquire, the more certain I am that I know nothing."― Voltaire
"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act, but a habit."― Aristotle
"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 the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat." ― Theodore Roosevelt, Strenuous Life
"If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them." ― Henry David Thoreau
"The noblest pleasure is the joy of understanding." — Leonardo da Vinci
"What an utter disgrace it would be to find something truly magic and spend any time at all pretending and trying to convince yourself it is all just an unbelievably orchestrated and beautifully choreographed illusion." ― Tyler Knott Gregson
"One person can make a difference, and everyone should try." ― John F. Kennedy
"When the soul suffers too much, it develops a taste for misfortune." ― Albert Camus
"Art is never finished, only abandoned." — Leonardo da Vinci
"When you reach the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on." ― Abraham Lincoln
"Do justly. Love mercy. Walk humbly. This is enough." ― John Adams
"Our youth now love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for their elders and love chatter in place of exercise; they no longer rise when elders enter the room; they contradict their parents, chatter before company; gobble up their food and tyrannize their teachers." ― Socrates
"I'm a greater believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it" ― Thomas Jefferson
"For myself I am an optimist - it does not seem to be much use to be anything else." ― Winston Churchill
"Well done is better than well said." ― Benjamin Franklin
"Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom."― Aristotle
"To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public." ― Theodore Roosevelt
"All good things are wild and free." ― Henry David Thoreau
"Anyone who conducts an argument by appealing to authority is not using his intelligence; he is just using his memory." — Leonardo da Vinci
"In a way fighting was just like using magic. You said the words, and they altered the universe. By merely speaking you could create damage and pain, cause tears to fall, drive people away, make yourself feel better, make your life worse." ― Lev Grossman
"Definition of happiness: The full use of your powers along lines of excellence." — John F. Kennedy
"People hasten to judge in order not to be judged themselves." ― Albert Camus
"Thanks to God that he gave me stubborness when I know I am right." ― John Adams
"Sometimes you put walls up not to keep people out, but to see who cares enough to break them down." ― Socrates
"The Democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not." ― Thomas Jefferson
"A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject." ― Winston Churchill
"By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail." ― Benjamin Franklin
"There is an ideal of excellence for any particular craft or occupation; similarly there must be an excellent that we can achieve as human beings. That is, we can live our lives as a whole in such a way that they can be judged not just as excellent in this respect or in that occupation, but as excellent, period. Only when we develop our truly human capacities sufficiently to achieve this human excellent will we have lives blessed with happiness." ― Aristotle
"Nothing in the world is worth having or worth doing unless it means effort, pain, difficulty… I have never in my life envied a human being who led an easy life. I have envied a great many people who led difficult lives and led them well." ― Theodore Roosevelt
"Only the dead have seen the end of war." — Plato
"Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other." — John F. Kennedy
"Power must never be trusted without a check." ― John Adams
"Know thyself." ― Socrates
"Question with boldness even the existence of God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason than that of blindfolded fear." ― Thomas Jefferson
"Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts." ― Winston Churchill
"To follow by faith alone is to follow blindly." ― Benjamin Franklin
"Children should be educated and instructed in the principles of freedom." ― John Adams
"All things in moderation, including moderation." — Socrates
"Everyone is in favor of free speech. Hardly a day passes without its being extolled, but some people's idea of it is that they are free to say what they like, but if anyone else says anything back, that is an outrage." ― Winston Churchill
"Without Freedom of thought there can be no such thing as wisdom;and no such thing as public liberty, without freedom of speech." ― Benjamin Franklin
"I must judge for myself, but how can I judge, how can any man judge, unless his mind has been opened and enlarged by reading." ― John Adams
"If you have an important point to make, don't try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time ― a tremendous whack." ― Winston Churchill
"Fear is the foundation of most governments." ― John Adams
"So long as I am acting from duty and conviction, I am indifferent to taunts and jeers. I think they will probably do me more good than harm." ― Winston Churchill
"Let the human mind loose. It must be loose. It will be loose. Superstition and dogmatism cannot confine it." ― John Adams
"There is in the act of preparing the moment when you start caring." ― Winston Churchill
"This would be the best of all possible worlds, if there were no religion in it." ― John Adams
"Of all the talents bestowed upon men, none is so precious as the gift of oratory. He who enjoys it wields a power more durable than that of a great king. He is an independent force in the world." ― Winston Churchill
"Being ignorant is not so much a shame, as being unwilling to learn." ― Benjamin Franklin
"I am always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught." — Winston Churchill