• "First comes thought; then organization of that thought, into ideas and plans; then transformation of those plans into reality. The beginning, as you will observe, is in your imagination."
       - Napoleon Hill

Why Quotes?


Whether you find them in books, magazines, tracts, or carved in stone in some ancient ruin, quotes can provide just the insight, inspiration, or consolation we need at just the right moment. I've used them to good effect in writing articles, term papers, reporting news stories, and even in composing blog posts.

Albert Einstein

"Teaching should be such that what is offered is perceived as a valuable gift and not as a hard duty."

     - Albert Einstein

Herman Melville

"There are certain queer times and occasions in this strange mixed affair we call life when a man takes the whole universe for a vast practical joke."

      Herman Melville

Gary Oldman

"Any actor who tells you that they have become the people they play, unless they're clearly diagnosed as a schizophrenic, is bullshitting you."

  Gary Oldman (B: March 21, 1958)

Gary Oldman

"I applaud anything that can take a kid away from a PlayStation or a Gameboy. That is a miracle in itself."

    Gary Oldman (B: March 21, 1958)

 

Laurence J. Peter

"A censor is a man who knows more than he thinks you ought to."

"A censor is an expert in cutting remarks."

"A man convinced against his will is not convinced."

"A man doesn't know what he knows until he knows what he doesn't know. "

"A pessimist is a man who looks both ways when he crosses the street."

"Against logic there is no armor like ignorance."

"America is a country that doesn't know where it is going but is determined to set a speed record getting there."

"America is a land of taxation that was founded to avoid taxation."

"An economist is an expert who will know tomorrow why the things he predicted yesterday didn't happen today."

"An intelligence test sometimes shows a man how smart he would have been not to have taken it."

"As a matter of fact is an expression that precedes many an expression that isn't."

"Bureaucracy defends the status quo long past the time when the quo has lost its status."

"Committees have become so important nowadays that subcommittees have to be appointed to do the work."

"Competence, like truth, beauty, and contact lenses, is in the eye of the beholder."

"Democracy is a process by which people are free to choose the man who will get the blame."

"Don't believe in miracles - depend on them."

"Early to bed, early to rise, work like hell, and advertise."

"Education is a method whereby one acquires a higher grade of prejudices."

"Equal opportunity means everyone will have a fair chance at being incompetent."

"Every girl should use what Mother Nature gave her before Father Time takes it away."

"Everyone rises to their level of incompetence."

"Expert: a man who makes three correct guesses consecutively."

"Fortune knocks but once, but misfortune has much more patience."

"Going to church doesn't make you any more a Christian than going to the garage makes you a car."

"Heredity is what sets the parents of a teenager wondering about each other."

"If a cluttered desk is the sign of a cluttered mind, what is the significance of a clean desk?"

"If two wrongs don't make a right, try three."

"If you don't know where you're going, you will probably end up somewhere else."

"It's better to have loved and lost than to have to do forty pounds of laundry a week."

"Lead, follow, or get out of the way."

"Men now monopolize the upper levels... depriving women of their rightful share of opportunities for incompetence."

"Nobody can be perfect unless he admits his faults, but if he has faults how can he be perfect?"

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

"Psychiatry enables us to correct our faults by confessing our parents' shortcomings."

"Slump, and the world slumps with you. Push, and you push alone."

"Some problems are so complex that you have to be highly intelligent and well informed just to be undecided about them."

"Speak when you are angry - and you'll make the best speech you'll ever regret."

"Television has changed the American child from an irresistable force to an immovable object."

"The best intelligence test is what we do with our leisure."

"The great question is not whether you have failed, but whether you are content with failure."

"The man who says he is willing to meet you halfway is usually a poor judge of distance."

"The seaman tells stories of winds, the ploughman of bulls; the soldier details his wounds, the shepherd his sheep."

"There are two kinds of egotists: Those who admit it, and the rest of us."

"There are two kinds of failures: those who thought and never did, andthose who did and never thought."

"When in doubt or danger, run in circles, scream and shout."

"Work is accomplished by those employees who have not yet reached their level of incompetence."

"You can always tell a real friend: when you've made a fool of yourself he doesn't feel you've done a permanent job."

"You can't cross the sea merely by standing and staring at the water. Don't let yourself indulge in vain wishes."

Learn more about Laurence J. Peter

Ogden Nash

"I dreamt that my hair was kempt.
Then I dreamt that my true love unkempt it."

Ogden Nash (1902-1971)
American poet and humorist

Jean Houston

"We all have the extraordinary coded within us, waiting to be released."

Jean Houston

John Wayne

"Courage is being scared to death - but saddling up anyway."

John Wayne
(1907 - 1979)

Thomas A. Edison

"To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk."

Thomas A. Edison
(1847 - 1931)

Margaret Peters

"Time has a wonderful way of showing us what really matters."

Margaret Peters

Evan Esar

"Anger is the feeling that makes your mouth work faster than your mind."

Evan Esar
(1899 - 1995)

Segal's Law

"A man with a watch knows what time it is. A man with two watches is never sure."

Segal's Law

Alice May Brock

"Tomatoes and oregano make it Italian; wine and tarragon make it French. Sour cream makes it Russian; lemon and cinnamon make it Greek. Soy sauce makes it Chinese; garlic makes it good."

Alice May Brock

Mark Twain

"My mother had a great deal of trouble with me, but I think she enjoyed it."

Mark Twain
(1835 - 1910)

Eric Hoffer

"It is when power is wedded to chronic fear that it becomes formidable."

Eric Hoffer (1902 - 1983)
The Passionate State of Mind, 1954

Ronald Reagan

"The best minds are not in government. If any were, business would hire them away."

Ronald Reagan
(1911 - 2004)

Lois McMaster Bujold

"If you make it plain you like people, it's hard for them to resist liking you back."

Lois McMaster Bujold

Henry S. Haskins

"The time to stop talking is when the other person nods his head affirmatively but says nothing."

Henry S. Haskins

Andy Warhol

"They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself."

Andy Warhol
(1928 - 1987)

Mary Hirsch

"Humor is a rubber sword - it allows you to make a point without drawing blood."

Mary Hirsch

George Jean Nathan

"Patriotism is often an arbitrary veneration of real estate above principles."

George Jean Nathan
(1882 - 1958)

Ogden Nash

"Parents were invented to make children happy by giving them something to ignore."

Ogden Nash
(1902 - 1971)

Lady Bird Johnson

"The way you overcome shyness is to become so wrapped up in something that you forget to be afraid."

Lady Bird Johnson
(1912 - )

George Washington

"It's wonderful what we can do if we're always doing."

George Washington
(1732 - 1799)

Bill Watterson

"I think we dream so we don't have to be apart so long. If we're in each other's dreams, we can play together all night."

Bill Watterson

Elbert Hubbard

"The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing you will make one."

Elbert Hubbard
(1856 - 1915)

Thomas H. Huxley

"Try to learn something about everything and everything about something."

Thomas H. Huxley
(1825 - 1895)

Bertrand Russell

"It is a waste of energy to be angry with a man who behaves badly, just as it is to be angry with a car that won't go."

Bertrand Russell
(1872 - 1970)

Alfred Hitchcock

"Drama is life with the dull bits cut out."

Alfred Hitchcock
(1899 - 1980)

George Carlin

"Frisbeetarianism is the belief that when you die, your soul goes up on the roof and gets stuck."

George Carlin
(1937 - )

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