"All animals, except man, know that the principal business of life is to enjoy it."

Samuel Butler "The Way of All Flesh"

Life and Death

Nature and Animals

"Nationality is respectable only when it is on the defence, when it is waging wars of liberation it is sacred; when those of domination it is accursed."

Rabindranath Tagore

History and Nations

Patriotism

"One should never trust a person who, while assuring you of something, puts his hands on his heart."

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

Trust

"Religion, like poetry, is not a mere idea, it is expression. The self-expression of God is in the endless variety of creation [...]."

Rabindranath Tagore

God and Religion

"Power is given only to those who dare to lower themselves and pick it up. Only one thing matters, one thing; to be able to dare!"

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky "Crime and Punishment"

Courage and Fear

Power and Weakness

"He preaches well that lives well."

Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra "Don Quixote"

God and Religion

Manners and Ethics

"An elephant. A mouse built to government specifications."

Robert A. Heinlein "Time Enough for Love"

Authority, Government

Nature and Animals

"Marriage certificate is just another word for a work permit."

Click if you know the author

Marriage

Work and Laziness

"Love is perhaps the only glimpse we are permitted of eternity."

Helen Hayes

Love

"He who angers you conquers you."

Elizabeth Kenny

Anger

Defeates and Mistakes

"Frustrate a Frenchman, he will drink himself to death; an Irishman, he will die of angry hypertension; a Dane, he will shoot himself; an American, he will get drunk, shoot you, then establish a million dollar aid program for your relatives. Then he will die of an ulcer."

Stanley Rudin

History and Nations

Normality and Madness

"Life begins at forty."

Walter B. Pitkin "Life begins at forty"

Life and Death

Youth and Age

"Cowards die many times before their deaths; the valiant never taste of death but once."

William Shakespeare Julius Caesar

Courage and Fear

"International business may conduct its operations with scraps of paper, but the ink it uses is human blood."

Eric Ambler "A Coffin for Dimitrios"

Pain and Tears

Richness and Money

"Conscience and cowardice are really the same things. Conscience is the trade name of the firm, that is all."

Oscar Wilde

Courage and Fear

Sin and Conscience

"A man is not old until regrets take the place of dreams."

John Barrymore

Dreams and Desires

Sorrow and Nostalgia

Youth and Age

"A handful of soldiers is always better than a mouthful of arguments."

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

Power and Weakness

"Takers may sometimes eat better, but givers always sleep better."

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Human

"I'm not smart enough to lie."

Ronald Reagan

Truth and Falsity

"Boys will be boys, and so will a lot of middle-aged men."

Kin Hubbard

Youth and Age

"In politics you must always keep running with the pack. The moment that you falter and they sense that you are injured, the rest will turn on you like wolves."

R. A. Butler

Politics and Diplomacy

"An unjust law is itself a species of violence."

Mahatma Gandhi "Non-Violence in Peace and War"

Justice

Law and Crime

"The pessimist complains about the direction of the wind, the optimist expects the direction to change, but the leader simply adjusts the sails!"

John C. Maxwell

Optimism and Hope

"Morality comes with the sad wisdom of age, when the sense of curiosity has withered."

Graham Greene "A Sort of Life"

Manners and Ethics

Youth and Age

"I always like to know everything about my new friends, and nothing about my old ones."

Oscar Wilde "The Picture of Dorian Gray"

Friendship and Hostility

"A mule will labor ten years willingly and patiently for you, for the privilege of kicking you once."

William Faulkner

Nature and Animals

Work and Laziness

"Sin is like a mountain with two aspects according to whether it is viewed before or after it has been reached: yet both aspects are real."

Samuel Butler

Sin and Conscience

"Panic: A highly underrated capacity thanks to which individuals are able to indicate clearly that something is wrong... Given their head, most humans panic with great dignity and imagination. This can be called democratic expression or practical common sense."

John Ralston Saul "The Doubter's Companion"

Courage and Fear

Various

"Be at peace with yourself first and then you will be able to bring peace to others."

Thomas a Kempis

Peace and War

"Always do the things you fear the most. Courage is an acquired taste, like caviar."

Erica Jong

Courage and Fear

"What we have done for ourselves alone dies with us; what we have done for others and the world remains and is immortal."

Albert Pike

Egoism

Life and Death

Memory

"If you reveal your secrets to the wind you should not blame the wind for revealing them to the trees."

Khalil Gibran

Loyalty and Betrayal

Various

"Canada is a country built against any common, geographic, historic or cultural sense."

Pierre Trudeau

History and Nations

"History shows that there are no invincible armies and that there never have been."

Joseph Stalin

Peace and War

"A leader is a person you will follow to a place you wouldn't go by yourself."

Joel Barker

Politics and Diplomacy

Various

"The first requirement of a statesman is that he be dull. This is not always easy to achieve."

Dean Gooderham Acheson

Politics and Diplomacy

"Today, the degradation of the inner life is symbolized by the fact that the only place sacred from interruption is the private toilet."

Lewis Mumford "The Culture of Cities"

Manners and Ethics

Normality and Madness

"Prayer opens the heart to God, and it is the means by which the soul, though empty, is filled by God."

John Buchan

God and Religion

"Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty."

Henry Ford

Education

Youth and Age

"You can't depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus."

Mark Twain

Reality and Imagination

"War will exist as long as there's a food chain."

P.J. O`Rourke

Peace and War

"A man must eat a peck of salt with his friend, before he knows him."

Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra "Don Quixote"

Friendship and Hostility

"God provides the wind, but man must raise the sails."

St. Augustine of Hippo

Work and Laziness

"Education costs money, but then so does ignorance."

Claus Moser

Education

Knowledge, Ignorance

"The opposite of talking isn't listening. The opposite of talking is waiting."

Fran Lebowitz "Social Studies"

Oration and Silence

"Enthusiasm spells the difference between mediocrity and accomplishment."

Norman Vincent Peale

Various

"Peace begins with a smile."

Mother Teresa of Calcutta

Peace and War

"And in the end it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years."

Abraham Lincoln

Life and Death

Success and Fame