Motivational Quotes

"Determine that the thing can and shall be done, and then we shall find the way."

"Military glory, — that attractive rainbow that rises in showers of blood."

"Knowledge of the fact differs from knowledge of the reason for the fact."

"Nature does not do anything in vain."

"The good particular men may do separately, in relieving the sick, is small, compared with what they may do collectively."

"I avoid looking forward or backward, and try to keep looking upward."

"What have I to do with millions ? The eighty I know despise me."

"I am not bothered by the fact that I am not understood. I am bothered when I do not know others."

"To live is so startling, it leaves but little room for other occupations."

"Were I a nightingale, I would act the part of a nightingale; were I a swan, the part of a swan."

"An election is coming. Universal peace is declared, and the foxes have a sincere interest in prolonging the lives of the poultry."

"Blessed is the man who, having nothing to say, abstains from giving us wordy evidence of the fact."

"I'm proof against that word failure. I've seen behind it. The only failure a man ought to fear is failure of cleaving to the purpose he sees to be best."

"The difficulty is, to decide how far resolution should set in the direction of activity rather than in the acceptance of a more negative state."

"Let us not underrate the value of a fact; it will one day flower in a truth."

"Here I am once more in this scene of dissipation and vice, and I begin already to find my morals corrupted."

"I do not want people to be very agreeable, as it saves me the trouble of liking them a great deal."

"You will have a great deal of unreserved discourse with Mrs. K., I dare say, upon this subject, as well as upon many other of our family matters. Abuse everybody but me."

"Poetry should be great and unobtrusive, a thing which enters into one's soul, and does not startle it or amaze it with itself, but with its subject."

"They will explain themselves — as all poems should do without any comment."

"A journey of a thousand li starts with a single step."

"A journey of a thousand starts with a single step."

"Governing a large country is like frying a small fish."

"Since before time and space were, the Tao is. It is beyond is and is not. How do I know this is true? I look inside myself and see."

"All violence consists in some people forcing others, under threat of suffering or death, to do what they do not want to do."

"Now about your family. Do you know that since your daughter came out everyone has been enraptured by her? They say she is amazingly beautiful."

"The painter strives and competes with nature...There is nothing in all nature without its reason. If you know the reason, you do not need the experience..."

"He was a man who looked at what ought to be done, not to the reputation which is got by a man's acts."

"You will find rest from vain fancies if you perform every act in life as though it were your last."

"The same energy of character which renders a man a daring villain would have rendered him useful to society, had that society been well organized."

"Men never do good unless necessity drives them to it; but when they are free to choose and can do just as they please, confusion and disorder become rampant."

"No one should be discouraged, Theaetetus, who can make constant progress, even though it be slow."

"Wonder is the feeling of a philosopher, and philosophy begins in wonder."

"Zeno: The many do not know that except by this devious passage through all things the mind cannot attain to the truth."

"My debts are large, my failures great, my shame secret and heavy; yet I come to ask for my good, I quake in fear lest my prayer be granted."

"A sect or party is an elegant incognito devised to save a man from the vexation of thinking."

"Everything intercepts us from ourselves."

"Poetry teaches the enormous force of a few words, and, in proportion to the inspiration, checks loquacity."

"The clergy are as like as peas."

"There is a freemasonry among the dull by which they recognize and are sociable with the dull, as surely as a correspondent tact in men of genius."

"What is a weed? A plant whose virtues have yet to be discovered."

"Do you seek Alcides' equal? None is, except himself."

"I myself know nothing, except just a little, enough to extract an argument from another man who is wise and to receive it fairly."

"One should never do wrong in return, nor mistreat any man, no matter how one has been mistreated by him."

"Active Evil is better than Passive Good."