"The great thing about human language is that it prevents us from sticking to the matter at hand."

Lewis Thomas

Manners and Ethics

Various

"In time of war, the devil makes more room in hell."

German Proverbs

Good and Evil

Peace and War

"Fall down seven times. Stand up eight."

Japanese Proverbs

Defeates and Mistakes

Sin and Conscience

"To make a man perfectly happy tell him he works too hard, that he spends too much money, that he is "misunderstood" or that he is "different"; none of this is necessarily complimentary, but it will flatter him infinitely more that merely telling him that he is brilliant, or noble, or wise, or good."

Helen Rowland "A Guide to Men"

Happiness

Woman and Man

"I know too much to be a sceptic and too little to be a dogmatist."

Pierre Bayle "Historical and Critical Dictionary"

Knowledge, Ignorance

"Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies."

Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

Truth and Falsity

"Diplomacy is more than saying or doing the right things at the right time, it is avoiding saying or doing the wrong things at any time."

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Politics and Diplomacy

"Socialism is the religion people get when they lose their religion."

Richard John Neuhaus

God and Religion

"Find purpose, the means will follow."

Mahatma Gandhi

Dreams and Desires

"A classic is a book that doesn't have to be written again."

Carl Van Doren

Art and Culture

"The future is much like the present, only longer."

Dan Quisenberry

Time and Passing

"We don't bother much about dress and manners in England, because as a nation we don't dress well and we've no manners."

George Bernard Shaw

Manners and Ethics

"I know nothing except the fact of my ignorance."

Socrates

Knowledge, Ignorance

"The lessons taught in great books are misleading. The commerce in life is rarely so simple and never so just."

Anita Brookner

Justice

Life and Death

Wisdom and Stupidity

"As I grow older, I pay less attention to what men say. I just watch what they do."

Andrew Carnegie

Manners and Ethics

Youth and Age

"Variety is the mother of Enjoyment."

Benjamin Disraeli "Vivian Grey"

Joy and Sadness

"Gravity always wins."

Dolly Parton

Various

"Never wrestle with a pig. You both get all dirty, and the pig likes it."

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Various

"Conscience -- the only incorruptible thing about us."

Henry Fielding

Sin and Conscience

"Artists are the monks of the bourgeois state."

Cesare Pavese "The Burning Brand: Diaries 1935-1950"

Art and Culture

Richness and Money

"Fear is the main source of superstition, and one of the main sources of cruelty. To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom."

Bertrand Russell "Unpopular Essays"

Courage and Fear

"The increase in wisdom can be measured precisely by the decrease in bile."

Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

Wisdom and Stupidity

"America is a young country with an old mentality."

George Santayana "Winds of Doctrine"

History and Nations

"Error is the price we pay for progress."

Alfred North Whitehead

Defeates and Mistakes

Knowledge, Ignorance

"Miss, n.: A title with which we brand unmarried women to indicate that they are in the market."

Ambrose Bierce

Woman and Man

"One enemy is too much."

George Herbert

Friendship and Hostility

"Even before the music begins there is that bored look on people's faces. A polite form of self-imposed torture, the concert."

Henry Miller "Tropic of Cancer"

Art and Culture

"We must laugh before we are happy, for fear we die before we laugh at all."

Jean de La Bruyere

Life and Death

Wit and Humor

"The law of love could be best understood and learned through little children."

Mahatma Gandhi

Love

Youth and Age

"Fish begins to stink at the head."

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Authority, Government

Politics and Diplomacy

"Nationalism is power hunger tempered by self-deception."

George Orwell "Collected Essays"

Patriotism

Politics and Diplomacy

"Cause and effect, the chancellors of God."

Ralph Waldo Emerson "Essays"

Destiny and Fate

"Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple and learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen."

John Steinbeck

Intellect, Judgement

Question and Problem

Various

"Beggars cant be choosers."

English Proverbs

Richness and Money

"The most unpardonable sin in society is independence of thought."

Emma Goldman

Manners and Ethics

Sin and Conscience

"Space is to place as eternity is to time."

Joseph Joubert

Time and Passing

Various

"We don't receive wisdom; we must discover it for ourselves after a journey that no one can take for us or spare us."

Marcel Proust

Wisdom and Stupidity

"Biography should be written by an acute enemy."

Arthur Balfour

Friendship and Hostility

Various

"It is an aspect of all happiness to suppose that we deserve it."

Joseph Joubert

Happiness

"True love is like ghosts, which everyone talks about but few have seen."

François de La Rochefoucauld

Love

"I don't paint things. I only paint the difference between things."

Henri Matisse

Art and Culture

"Happiness consists of three things: someone to love, work to do, and a clear conscience."

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Happiness

Sin and Conscience

Work and Laziness

"A mathematical formula should never be "owned" by anybody! Mathematics belong to God."

Donald Knuth

Science and Technology

"Conscience is a man's compass."

Vincent Van Gogh

Sin and Conscience

"If you cannot do great things, do small things in a great way."

Napoleon Hill

Success and Fame

Various

"Great minds have purposes, others have wishes."

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Dreams and Desires

"Excellence is not a destination; it is a continuous journey that never ends."

Brian Tracy

Power and Weakness

Talent and Genius

"The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it."

George Bernard Shaw

Various