Quotes, Quotations and Sayings

Right actions in the future are the best apologies for bad actions in the past.

Any act often repeated soon forms a habit; and habit allowed, steady gains in strength, At first it may be but as a spider's web, easily broken through, but if not resisted it soon binds us with chains of steel.

High aims form high characters, and great objects bring out great minds.

Lord Bacon told Sir Edward Coke when he was boasting, The less you speak of your greatness, the more shall I think of it.

Honi soit qui mal y pense. [Evil to him who evil thinks.];"Motto of the Order of the Garter (est. Edward III)

To waken interest and kindle enthusiasm is the sure way to teach easily and successfully.

The proper question is not, 'How can people motivate others?' but rather, 'How can people create the conditions within which others will motivate themselves?' Edward Deci

Humor is by far the most significant activity of the human brain. Edward De Bono

He who can suppress a moment's anger may prevent a day of sorrow.

Facts are God's arguments; we should be careful never to misunderstand or pervert them.

Whoever in prayer can say, 'Our Father,' acknowledges and should feel the brotherhood of the whole race of mankind.

We should be as careful of the books we read, as of the company we keep. The dead very often have more power than the living.

Where duty is plain, delay is both foolish and hazardous; where it is not, delay may provide both wisdom and safety.

Accuracy of statement is one of the first elements of truth; inaccuracy is a near kin to falsehood.

Most of our censure of others is only oblique praise of self, uttered to show the wisdom and superiority of the speaker. It has all the invidiousness of self-praise, and all the ill-desert of falsehood.

Anxiety is the poison of human life; the parent of many sins and of more miseries. In a world where everything is doubtful, and where we may be disappointed, and be blessed in disappointment, why this restless stir and commotion of mind? Can it alter the cause, or unravel the mystery of human events?

Between two evils, choose neither; between two goods, choose both.

Age does not depend upon years, but upon temperament and health. Some men are born old, and some never grow up.

Some men are born old, and some men never seem so. If we keep well and cheerful, we are always young and at last die in youth even when in years would count as old.

To rule one's anger is well; to prevent it is better.

Never be so brief as to become obscure.

To rejoice in another's prosperity is to give content to your lot; to mitigate another's grief is to alleviate or dispel your own.

Science has sometimes been said to be opposed to faith, and inconsistent with it. But all science, in fact, rests on a basis of faith, for it assumes the permanence and uniformity of natural laws -- a thing which can never be demonstrated.

Credulity is belief in slight evidence, with no evidence, or against evidence.

Thoughts lead on to purposes; purposes go forth in action; actions form habits; habits decide character; and character fixes our destiny.

Doubt, indulged and cherished, is in danger of becoming denial; but if honest, and bent on thorough investigation, it may soon lead to full establishment of the truth.

What we gave, we have; What we spent, we had; What we left, we lost.

Happiness is like manna; it is to be gathered in grains, and enjoyed every day. It will not keep; it cannot be accumulated; nor have we got to go out of ourselves or into remote places to gather it, since it has rained down from a Heaven, at our very door

He that never changes his opinion never corrects mistakes and will never be wiser on the morrow than he is today.

Sinful and forbidden pleasures are like poisoned bread; they may satisfy appetite for the moment, but there is death in them at the end.

People never improve unless they look to some standard or example higher or better than themselves.

If you would thoroughly know anything, teach it to others.

The secret of a good memory is attention, and attention to a subject depends upon our interest in it. We rarely forget that which has made a deep impression on our minds.

Where duty is plain, delay is both foolish and hazardous where it is not, delay may provide both wisdom and safety.

Between two evils, choose neither between two goods, choose both.

Every parting is a form of death, as every reunion is a type of heaven.

He that never changes his opinions, never corrects his mistakes, will never be wiser on the morrow than he is today.

The great end of education is to discipline rather than to furnish the mind to train it to the use of its own powers, rather than fill it with the accumulation of others.

Compromise is but the sacrifice of one right or good in the hope of retaining another -- too often ending in the loss of both.

Thoughts lead on to purposes purposes go forth in action actions form habits habits decide character and character fixes our destiny.

To be good, we must do good and by doing good we take a sure means of being good, as the use and exercise of the muscles increase their power.

Edwards missed getting Stearns at third base by an eyeball.

The slanderer and the assassin differ only in the weapon they use; with the one it is the dagger, with the other the tongue. The former is worse that the latter, for the last only kills the body, while the other murders the reputation.

Sin with the multitude, and your responsibility and guilt are as great and as truly personal, as if you alone had done the wrong.

Happiness is like manna; it is to be gathered in grains, and enjoyed every day. It will not keep; it cannot be accumulated; nor have we got to go out of ourselves or into remote places to gather it, since it has rained down from a Heaven, at our very door.

Anxiety is the rust of life, destroying its brightness and weakening its power. A childlike and abiding trust in Providence is its best preventive and remedy.

Most of our censure of others is only oblique praise of self, uttered to show the wisdom and superiority of the speaker. It has all the insidiousness of self-praise, and all the ill-desert of falsehood.