George Eliot

"What we call our despair is often only the painful eagerness of unfed hope."

- George Eliot, "Middlemarch"

George Eliot

"The golden moments in the stream of life rush past us and we see nothing but sand; the angels come to visit us, and we only know them when they are gone."

- George Eliot, author

Khalil Gibran

"And in the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter and the sharing of pleasures. For in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed."

- 'The Prophet' by Khalil Gibran

Mark Twain

"Always acknowledge a fault. This will throw those in authority off their guard and give you an opportunity to commit more."

- Mark Twain, author

Jules Renard

"Literature is an occupation in which you have to keep proving your talent to people who have none."

- Jules Renard, author

R. K. Milholland

"There are people I know who won't hurt me. I call them corpses."

- R. K. Milholland, webcomic author

Khalil Gibran

"The optimist sees the rose and not its thorns; the pessimist stares at the thorns, oblivious of the rose."

- Khalil Gibran, artist, poet, writer

Gemma Hayes

"You need the darkness if you want to see stars."


- Gemma Hayes, 'Ruin'

Steve Moakler

"The human heart is a scary part, in fact
Because I could break you, and you could break me back."


- Steve Moakler, 'Hesitate'

Oscar Wilde

“A dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world.”

- Oscar Wilde, poet, novelist, dramatist and critic

Lois McMaster Bujold

"If you can't do what you want, do what you can."

- "Memory" by Lois McMaster Bujold

Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Be not the slave of your own past. Plunge into the sublime seas, dive deep and swim far, so you shall come back with self-respect, with new power, with an advanced experience that shall explain and overlook the old."

- Ralph Waldo Emerson, essayist, philosopher and poet

St. Vincent

"Forgive the kids for they don't know how to live."


- St. Vincent, 'Cruel'

Restless Heart

"For every heart you break you pay the price."


- Restless Heart, 'The Bluest Eyes In Texas'

George Eliot

"What greater thing is there for two human souls than to feel that they are joined... to strengthen each other... to be one with each other in silent unspeakable memories."

- George Eliot, author

Khalil Gibran

"The deeper sorrow carves into your being the more joy you can contain."

- Khalil Gibran, artist, poet, writer

Joy Williams

"Everyone is every one of us."


- Joy Williams, 'We Are'

George Santayana

"To be interested in the changing seasons is a happier state of mind than to be hopelessly in love with spring."

- George Santayana, philosopher, poet, author

Mark Twain

"A man cannot be comfortable without his own approval."

- Mark Twain, author

Edward R. Murrow

"We will not walk in fear, one of another. We will not be driven into an age of unreason if we dig deep into our history and remember we are not descended from fearful men."

- Edward R. Murrow, journalist

The Beatles

"It's getting hard to be someone, but it all works out."

- The Beatles, 'Strawberry Fields Forever'

Chuck Palahniuk

"Which is worse: Hell or nothing?"

- Chuck Palahniuk, journalist, satirist and novelist

Lord Acton

"The danger is not that a particular class is unfit to govern. Every class is unfit to govern."

- Lord Acton, historian, politician and author

Jules Renard

"Look for the ridiculous in everything and you will find it."

- Jules Renard, author

The Simpsons

"You don’t like your job, you don’t strike. You go in every day and do it really half-assed. That’s the American way."

- Homer Simpson, 'The Simpsons,' created by Matt Groening

Brianna Gaither

"Where has it brought you and what has it taught you?
Has it made you feel more beautiful, more beautiful at all?"

- Brianna Gaither, 'Let It Go'

Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.

"A moment's insight is sometimes worth a lifetime's experience."

- Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., jurist

Oscar Wilde

“No man dies for what he knows to be true. Men die for what they want to be true, for what some terror in their hearts tells them is not true.”

- Oscar Wilde, poet, novelist, dramatist and critic

R. K. Milholland

"In the end, we decide if we're remembered for what happened to us or for what we did with it."

- R. K. Milholland, webcomic author

Robert Frost

"Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence."

- Robert Frost, poet

Anatole France

"To know is nothing at all; to imagine is everything."

- Anatole France, poet, journalist, novelist

Carl Jung

"Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves."

- Carl Jung, psychiatrist and psychologist

Sarah McLachlan

"It's funny how we feel so much but we cannot say a word
We are screaming inside, but we can't be heard."

- Sarah McLachlan, 'I Will Remember You'

James Thurber

"Human Dignity has gleamed only now and then and here and there, in lonely splendor, throughout the ages, a hope of the better men, never an achievement of the majority."

- James Thurber, cartoonist, humourist, author

Hunter S. Thompson

"I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence, or insanity to anyone, but they've always worked for me."

- Hunter S. Thompson, journalist and author

Dylan Thomas

"Do not go gentle into that good night, 
Old age should burn and rave at close of day; 
Rage, rage against the dying of the light."

- 'Do not go gentle into that good night' by Dylan Thomas

The Beatles

"Living is easy with eyes closed, misunderstanding all you see."

- The Beatles, 'Strawberry Fields Forever'

Kathryn L. Nelson

"I have made plenty of enemies in my lifetime, but none has ever done me as much injury as I do myself."

- 'Pemberley Manor' by Kathryn L. Nelson

Paul Theroux

"Gain a modest reputation for being unreliable and you will never be asked to do a thing."

- Paul Theroux, author

David Nicholls

"If you have to keep something secret it's because you shouldn't be doing it in the first place!"

- "One Day" by David Nicholls

Rudyard Kipling

"Gardens are not made by sitting in the shade."

- Rudyard Kipling, poet and author

Victoria Holt

"Never regret. If it's good, it's wonderful. If it's bad, it's experience."

- Victoria Holt, pen name of Eleanor Hibbert, author

Hilary Thayer Hamann

"I don't want to live forever. I'm having trouble with the idea of Tuesday."

- "Anthropology of an American Girl" by Hilary Thayer Hamann

Sufjan Stevens

"All things go."

- Sufjan Stevens, 'Chicago'

Khalil Gibran

"Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars."

- Khalil Gibran, artist, poet, writer

Oliver Wendell Holmes

"I find the great thing in this world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving."

- Oliver Wendell Holmes, author, poet, physician

Lily Tomlin

"We're all in this alone."

- Lily Tomlin, comedian and actor

Thomas Jefferson

"I have never believed there was one code of morality for a public and another for a private man."

- Thomas Jefferson, former president of the USA

Ernest Hemingway

"Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know."

- Ernest Hemingway, author and journalist

Carl Sagan

"It is of interest to note that while some dolphins are reported to have learned English - up to fifty words used in correct context - no human being has been reported to have learned dolphinese."

- Carl Sagan, scientist and author

Steve Moakler

"The devil will reside if you let him."

- Steve Moakler, 'All The Faint Lights'

Helen Keller

"One can never consent to creep when one feels an impulse to soar."

- Helen Keller, author and activist

Henry David Thoreau

"It is never too late to give up your prejudices."

- Henry David Thoreau, author, poet and developmental critic

Ralph Waldo Emerson

"All our progress is an unfolding, like a vegetable bud. You have first an instinct, then an opinion, then a knowledge as the plant has root, bud, and fruit. Trust the instinct to the end, though you can render no reason."

- Ralph Waldo Emerson, essayist, philosopher, poet

Lois McMaster Bujold

"But pain... seems to me an insufficient reason not to embrace life. Being dead is quite painless. Pain, like time, is going to come on regardless. Question is, what glorious moments can you win from life in addition to the pain?"

- "Barrayar" by Lois McMaster Bujold

Ann Radcliffe

"Poverty cannot deprive us of many consolations. It cannot rob us of the affection we have for each other, or degrade us in our own opinion, of in that of any person, whose opinion we ought to value."

- "The Mysteries of Udolpho" by Ann Radcliffe

Marie de Rabutin-Chantal

"We cannot destroy kindred: Our chains stretch a little sometimes, but they never break."

- Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, French aristocrat

Becka Pimenta

"Heartache's just a phase, and phases don't last forever."

- Becka Pimenta, 'Favourite Stranger'

Larry Gelbart

"One doesn't have a sense of humor. It has you." 

- Larry Gelbart, author, playwright, screenwriter

Jim Carrey

“Desperation is a necessary ingredient to learning anything, or creating anything. Period. If you ain't desperate at some point, you ain't interesting.”

- Jim Carrey, actor and comedian

J. K. Rowling

"There are some things you can't share without ending up liking each other."

- J. K. Rowling, "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone"

Lillie Langtry

"Anyone who limits her vision to memories of yesterday is already dead."

- Lillie Langtry, singer and actress

Marcel Pagnol

“One has to look out for engineers they begin with sewing machines and end up with the atomic bomb”

- Marcel Pagnol, playwright, author and filmmaker

George Santayana

"Sanity is a madness put to good use."

- George Santayana, philosopher, poet, author

Marie Digby

"It's never the right time to find a new way."

- Marie Digby, 'Beauty In Walking Away'

William Allen White

“Youth should be radical. Youth should demand change in the world. Youth should not accept the old order if the world is to move on. But the old orders should not be moved easily - certainly not at the mere whim or behest of youth. There must be clash and if youth hasn't enough force or fervor to produce the clash the world grows stale and stagnant and sour in decay.”

- William Allen White, author and newspaper editor

H. L. Mencken

"Any man who afflicts the human race with ideas must be prepared to see them misunderstood."

- H. L. Mencken, journalist, editor, satirist, critic

Evan Esar

"Character is what you have left when you've lost everything you can lose."

- Evan Esar, humorist and author

Salvador Dali

"Have no fear of perfection - you'll never reach it."

- Salvador Dali, painter

Chuck Palahniuk

"Nothing of me is original. I am the combined effort of everybody I've ever known."

- "Invisible Monsters" by Chuck Palahniuk

Kurt Vonnegut

"Life happens too fast for you ever to think about it. If you could just persuade people of this, but they insist on amassing information."

- Kurt Vonnegut, author

Rachael Lampa

"It's dark so you can see the light,
It's hard so you can know it's right, 
Rain, nothing ever grows without you.
And hurt is just a chance to heal,
And tears are just a call to feel,
Pain, beauty's just a word without you."

- Rachael Lampa, 'Beauty's Just A Word'

Harry S. Truman

"Whenever you have efficient government, you have a dictatorship."

- Harry S. Truman, former president of the USA

Anne Tyler

"I've never quite believed that one chance is all I get."

Anne Tyler, author

Hilary Thayer Hamann

"Boys will be boys, that's what people say, No one ever mentions how girls have to be something other than themselves altogether."

- "Anthropology of an American Girl" by Hilary Thayer Hamann

Mark Twain

"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, author

Edward R. Murrow

"Anyone who isn't confused really doesn't understand the situation."

- Edward R. Murrow, journalist

Herman Melville

"Life's a voyage that's homeward bound."

- Herman Melville, author

Oasis

"While we're living
The dreams we have as children fade away"

- Oasis, 'Fade Away'

Steve Jobs

"Be a yardstick of quality."

- Steve Jobs, inventor and entrepreneur (co-founder of Apple Inc.)

The Simpsons

"I’ll be back. You can’t keep the Democrats out of the White House forever, and when they get in, I’m back on the streets, with all my criminal buddies."

- Sideshow Bob, "The Simpsons,' created by Matt Groening

Henry James

"Be generous, be delicate, and always pursue the prize."

- Henry James, author

Mary Engelbreit

"If you pray for rain, be prepared to deal with some mud."

- Mary Engelbreit, illustrator

Robert Frost

"The brain is a wonderful organ. It starts working the moment you get up in the morning and does not stop until you get into the office."

- Robert Frost, poet

Black Elk

"Behold this day, for it is yours to make."

- Black Elk, 'Black Elk Speaks'

The Smiths

"If I seem a little strange, that's because I am."

- The Smiths, 'Unloveable'

Paul Gauguin

"Art is either plagiarism or revolution."

- Paul Gauguin, artist

John Kenneth Galbraith

"Under capitalism, man exploits man. Under communism, it's just the opposite."

- John Kenneth Galbraith, economist

Lord Acton

"Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end."

- Lord Acton, historian, politician and author

Frida Kahlo

"I think that little by little I'll be able to solve my problems and survive."

- Frida Kahlo, artist

Anatole France

"All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter another."

- Anatole France, poet, journalist, novelist

George Bernard Shaw

“Life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.”

- George Bernard Shaw, critic and playwright

Jimmy Eat World

"Are you going to live your life standing in the back, looking around?
Are you going to waste your time?
You've got to make a move or you'll miss out."

- Jimmy Eat World, 'A Praise Chorus'

Mother Teresa

"Let us make one point, that we meet each other with a smile, when it is difficult to smile. Smile at each other, make time for each other in your family."

- Mother Teresa, humanitarian and missionary

Oscar Wilde

“No object is so beautiful that, under certain conditions, it will not look ugly.”

- Oscar Wilde, poet, novelist, dramatist and critic

Havelock Ellis

"Thinking in its lower grades, is comparable to paper money, and in its higher forms it is a kind of poetry."

- Havelock Ellis, psychologist

Alan Watts

"Trying to define yourself is like trying to bite your own teeth."

- Alan Watts, philosopher, author, orator

Jules Renard

"Failure is not the only punishment for laziness; there is also the success of others."

- Jules Renard, author

The Beatles

"All the lonely people,
Where do they all come from?
All the lonely people,
Where do they all belong?"

- The Beatles, 'Eleanor Rigby'

Carl Sagan

"Science is not only compatible with spirituality; it is a profound source of spirituality."

- Carl Sagan, scientist and author

Friedrich Engels

"An ounce of action is worth a ton of theory."

- Friedrich Engels, philosopher, author, economist

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“The really unhappy person is the one who leaves undone what they can do, and starts doing what they don't understand; no wonder they come to grief.”

- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, writer, philosopher and intellectual

George Eliot

"It's never too late to be who you might have been."

- George Eliot, author

Deborah Tannen

"Each person's life is lived as a series of conversations."

- Deborah Tannen, professor of linguistics

Edwin Teale

"Any fine morning, a power saw can fell a tree that took a thousand years to grow."

- Edwin Teale, author and photographer

Sarah McLachlan

"I've got to live my life the way I feel is right for me. Might not be right for you, but it's right for me."

- Sarah McLachlan, 'Elsewhere'

George Carlin

"The very existence of flamethrowers proves that some time, somewhere, someone said to themselves, 'You know, I want to set those people over there on fire, but I'm just not close enough to get the job done.'"

- George Carlin, comedian, actor, author

Shimon Peres

"If a problem has no solution, it may not be a problem, but a fact - not to be solved, but to be coped with over time."

- Shimon Peres, politician

James Anthony Froude

"You cannot dream yourself into a character; you must hammer and forge yourself one."

- James Anthony Froude, author, historian and magazine editor

Henry David Thoreau

"In wildness is the preservation of the world."

- Henry David Thoreau, author, poet and development critic

Martin Luther King Jr.

"Ten thousand fools proclaim themselves into obscurity, while one wise man forgets himself into immortality."

- Martin Luther King Jr., social activist and reformer

Ellen DeGeneres

"Follow your passion. Stay true to yourself. Never follow someone else's path unless you're in the woods and you're lost and you see a path. By all means, you should follow that."

- Ellen DeGeneres, comedian

Belle and Sebastian

"Life is good and it's always worth living, at least for a while."

- Belle and Sebastian, 'If She Wants Me'

Helen Keller

"Self-pity is our worst enemy and if we yield to it, we can never do anything good in the world."

- Helen Keller, author and activist

Norman Vincent Peale

"Do not be awe struck by other people and try to copy them. Nobody can be you as efficiently as you can."

- Norman Vincent Peale, clergyman and author

Periander

"Freedom is a clear conscience."

- Periander, 7th century ruler of Corinth, Greece

Erich Fromm

"Man's main task in life is to give birth to himself, to become what he potentially is."

- Erich Fromm, psychologist, philsopher and author

Ian Fleming

"I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them."

- Ian Fleming, author and journalist

Black Elk

"Sometimes dreams are wiser than waking."

- Black Elk, 'Black Elk Speaks'

Carina Round

"And so they say Lord, for everything a reason
For every ending a new beginning."

- Carina Round, 'For Everything A Reason'

R. K. Milholland

"Our heroes are people and people are flawed. Don't let that taint the thing you love."

- R. K. Milholland, webcomic author

J. K. Rowling

"To the well-organised mind, death is but the next great adventure."

- J. K. Rowling, "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone"

Demosthenes

"Small opportunities are often the beginning of great enterprises."

- Demosthenes, Greek statesman and orator in ancient Athens

Carl Jung

"Every form of addiction is bad, no matter whether the narcotic be alcohol, morphine or idealism."

- Carl Jung, psychiatrist and psychologist

Marcel Pagnol

“The reason people find it so hard to be happy is that they always see the past better than it was, the present worse than it is, and the future less resolved than it will be”

- Marcel Pagnol, author, playwright and filmmaker

Lawrence Clark Powell

“Write to be understood, speak to be heard, read to grow...”

- Lawrence Clark Powell, librarian, critic, author

Daniel Johnston

"True love will find you in the end.
This is a promise with a catch
Only if you're looking can it find you
Because true love is searching too
But how can it recognise you
Unless you step out into the light?"

- Daniel Johnston, 'True Love Will Find You In The End'

Babe Ruth

"The way a team plays as a whole determines its success. You may have the greatest bunch of individual stars in the world, but if they don't play together, the club won't be worth a dime."

- Babe Ruth, American Major League baseball player

Anatole France

"It is by acts and not by ideas that people live."

- Anatole France, poet, journalist, novelist

Ben Jonson

"He knows not his own strength that hath not met adversity."

- Ben Jonson, Renaissance playwright, poet and actor

Ralph Waldo Emerson

"A hero is no braver than an ordinary man, but he is braver five minutes longer."

- Ralph Waldo Emerson, essayist, philosopher, poet

Victor Hugo

"Have courage for the great sorrows of life and patience for the small ones; and when you have laboriously accomplished your daily task, go to sleep in peace. God is awake."

- Victor Hugo, poet, playwright, novelist, statesman, human rights activist

Alan Watts

"Faith is, above all, openness; an act of trust in the unknown."

- Alan Watts, philosopher, author, orator

Brianna Gaither

"Making sense of misery is not so easy when you're tired."

- Brianna Gaither, 'Stepping Stones'

William Allen White

“Peace without justice is tyranny.”

- William Allen White, author and newspaper editor

Will Rogers

"We are all here for a spell; get all the good laughs you can."

- Will Rogers, comedian, actor, social commentator

Benjamin Disraeli

"The greatest good you can do for another is not just share your riches, but to reveal to him his own."

- Benjamin Disraeli, British politician

The Simpsons

"No children have ever meddled with the Republican Party and lived to tell about it."

- Sideshow Bob, 'The Simpsons,' created by Matt Groening

Jim Carrey

“I wake up some mornings and sit and have my coffee and look out at my beautiful garden, and I go, 'Remember how good this is. Because you can lose it.'”

- Jim Carrey, actor and comedian

Buddha

“To understand everything is to forgive everything”

 - Buddha

Steve Moakler

"How many times do you set love free before you know it's supposed to be?"

- Steve Moakler, 'Run'

Katherine Anne Porter

"There seems to be a kind of order in the universe, in the movement of the stars and the turning of the earth and the changing of the seasons, and even in the cycle of human life. But human life itself is almost pure chaos. Everyone takes his stance, asserts his own rights and feelings, mistaking the motives of others, and his own."

- Katherine Anne Porter, journalist, author, activist

Bertrand Russell

"Men fear thought as they fear nothing else on earth - more than ruin - more even than death.... Thought is subversive and revolutionary, destructive and terrible, thought is merciless to privilege, established institutions, and comfortable habit. Thought looks into the pit of hell and is not afraid. Thought is great and swift and free, the light of the world, and the chief glory of man."

- Bertrand Russell, philosopher, mathematician, historian

George Bernard Shaw

“I want to be all used up when I die.”

- George Bernard Shaw, critic and playwright

Bob Hope

“A bank is a place that will lend you money if you can prove that you don't need it.”

- Bob Hope, comedian and actor

Francis Bacon

"There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion."

- Francis Bacon, philosopher, statesman, scientist, author, lawyer

Laurence J. Peter

"Originality is the fine art of remembering what you hear but forgetting where you heard it."

- Laurence J. Peter, teacher and writer

Frank Turner

"You're not designed to be alone."

- Frank Turner, 'Reasons Not To Be An Idiot'

Albert Camus

"Charm is a way of getting the answer yes without asking a clear question."

- Albert Camus, author, philosopher and journalist

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“Everybody wants to be somebody; nobody wants to grow.”

- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, writer, philosopher and intellectual

Mahatma Gandhi

“Nobody can hurt me without my permission.”

- Mahatma Gandhi, activist, political and spiritual leader

Norman Vincent Peale

"Change your thoughts and you change your world."

- Norman Vincent Peale, clergyman and author

Sara Teasdale

“It is strange how often a heart must be broken before the years can make it wise”

- Sara Teasdale, poet

Voltaire

“If there were no God, it would have been necessary to invent him.”

- Voltaire, writer and philosopher

Carolina Liar

"So soon you will learn to forget
Bad times, the rules and regrets
One day they won't reach out for you."

- Carolina Liar, 'Drown'

Steve Jobs

"Here's to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes... the ones who see things differently - they're not fond of rules... You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can't do is ignore them because they change things... they push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do."

- Steve Jobs, inventor and entrepreneur (co-founder of Apple Inc.)

Ronald Reagan

"Don't be afraid to see what you see."

- Ronald Reagan, former US president

Black Elk

"It is in the darkness of their eyes, that men get lost."

- Black Elk, 'Black Elk Speaks'

Charlotte Bronte

"It is not violence that best overcomes hate — nor vengeance that most certainly heals injury."

- Charlotte Bronte, "Jane Eyre"

Robert Frost

"The best way out is always through."

- Robert Frost, poet

Albert Einstein

"The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources."

- Albert Einstein, physicist

Sarah McLachlan

"You pick me up and brush me off and tell me I'm okay, sometimes that's just what we need to get us through the day."

- Sarah McLachlan, 'Push'

Oscar Wilde

“Ordinary riches can be stolen, real riches cannot. In your soul are infinitely precious things that cannot be taken from you.”

- Oscar Wilde, poet, novelist, dramatist and critic

Kurt Vonnegut

"Laughter and tears are both responses to frustration and exhaustion. I myself prefer to laugh, since there is less cleaning up to do afterward."

- Kurt Vonnegut, author

Pearl S. Buck

"There is an alchemy in sorrow. It can be transmuted into wisdom, which, if it does not bring joy, can yet bring happiness."

- Pearl S. Buck, author and missionary

Horace

"If you wish me to weep, you must mourn first yourself."

- Horace, lyric poet and satirist

Aristotle

"Happiness depends on ourselves."

- Aristotle, philosopher

Dr. Seuss

"Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened."

- Dr. Seuss, author and cartoonist