long quotes | stories

"The artist finds a greater pleasure in painting than in having a completed picture" --Seneca

"The universe is full of magical things patiently waiting for our wits"--Eden Phillpots

"The thoughts of Youth are long, long thoughts"-Henry Wadsworth longfellow

"If moral behavior were simply following rules, we could program a computer to be moral." --Samuel P. Ginder

"We don't know yet about life, how can we know about death"--confucious

Vision without action is only a dream. Action without vision is wasting time. Vision and Action can change the world!

"Mishaps are like knives, that either serve us or cut us, as we grasp them by the blade or the handle." -James Russel Lowell

"I am always doing that which I can not do, in order that I may learn how to do it." --Pablo Picasso

"We don't stop playing because we grow old,  we grow old because we stop playing."       - Satchel Paige

A pessimist is one who makes difficulties of his opportunities and an optimist is one who makes opportunities of his difficulties. - Harry Truman, American President (b. 1884)

"Creativity is ... seeing something that doesn't exist already. You need to find out how you can bring it into being and that way be a playmate with God."  -- Michele Shea (From _The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron)

"People ask you for criticism, but they only want praise." - Somerset Maughan

"Pain is inevitable, Suffering is optional" - unknown

Only a mediocre person is always at his best. - Somerset Maughan

Let the beauty of what you love be what you do. - Rumi

"People know what they do; and sometimes they know why they do it. But what they don't know is what what they do does." -- M. Foucault

"The Farmer may only be planting a seed, but if he opens his eyes he is feeding the whole world."      -- Omaha Bee

"choose to be optimistic, it feels better." - Dali Lama

"Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts." -- Rachel Carson

The future is not something we enter. The future is something we create.  Leonard I. Sweet

This is my simple religion. There is no need for temples; no need for
complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is kindness.  Dalai Lama

In any moment of decision the best thing you can do is the right
thing. The worst thing you can do is nothing. - Theodore Roosevelt

"Creativity is the ground of any well-lived life. We all create our lives by the choices that are available to us about the ways we live them, no matter how circumscribed those choices might be." -- Carol S. Pearson, _Awakening the Heroes Within_

Try not to become a man of success but rather try to become a man of value. - Albert Einstein

"Life is what we make of it.  Whether we conceive of an inner god force or an other, outer God, doesn't matter. Relying on that force does." - Julia Cameron

The best use of life is to invest it in something which will out last life. - William James

Everybody need beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where Nature may heal and cheer and give strength to body and soul alike." John Muir

Courage is almost a contradiction in terms. It means a strong desire to live, taking the form of readiness to die. - G.K. Chesterton

"Nobody can be in good health if he does not have all the time fresh air, sunshine, and good water." - Chief Flying Hawk

The capacity to care is the thing which gives life its deepest meaning and significance. - Pablo Casals

An object in possession seldom retains the same charm that it had in pursuit. - Unknown

The basic difference between an ordinary man and a warrior is that the warrior takes everything as a challenge while an ordinary man takes everything as a blessing or a curse. - Don Juan "Tales of Power"

Just don't give up trying to do what you really want to do. Where there is love and inspiration, I don't think you can go wrong. - Ella Fitzgerald, American singer (b. 1918)

A man can be destroyed but not defeated. - Ernest Hemingway, American writer (b. 1899

"Everyone has a purpose in life ... a unique gift or special talent to give to others. And when we blend this unique talent with service to others, we experience the ecstasy and exultation of our own spirit, which is the ultimate goal of all goals." - pg. 93, "The Law of Dharma"

You will do foolish things, but do them with enthusiasm. - Colette

Like water, the sage should wait for the moment to ripen and be right: water, you know, never fights -- it flows around without harm." (The Illustrated Tao Te Ching)

Education's purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one. - Malcom S. Forbes in Forbes

Work banishes those three great evils: boredom, vice and poverty.
- Voltaire, French author (b. 1694)

To believe a thing is impossible is to make it so. - French proverb

Remember, a dead fish can float downstream, but it takes a live one to swim upstream. - W. C. Fields, American comic actor (b. 1880)

No one knows what he can do till he tries . - Publilius Syrus, Roman writer (b. c100 BC)

Failure is not always a mistake, it may simply be the best one can do under the circumstances. The real mistake is to stop trying. - B F. Skinner, American psychologist (b. 1904)

Nothing great has ever been accomplished without enthusiasm. - Ralph Waldo Emerson, American writer (b. 1803)

Two basic rules of life are these: (1) change is inevitable and (2) everybody resists change. The only person who likes change is a wet baby. -Roy Blitzer educator

Tell me what company thou keepst, and I'll tell thee what thou art. - Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616) Spanish novelist.

Success doesn't come to you ... you go to it. - Marva Collins, African American educator

If you could kick the person responsible for most of your troubles, you would not be able to sit down for six months. - Unknown

It takes great courage to faithfully follow what we know to be true. - Sara E. Anderson

Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art... It has no survival value; rather is one of those things that give value to survival.  - C.S.Lewis

We become what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is NOT an act but a habit!   - Aristotle

I would rather be vaguely right than precisely wrong. - Keynes

Fiction reveals truths that reality obscures. - Jasamyn West

Fate chooses your relations, you choose your friends. - Jacques Delille (1738-1813) French Poet

Compassion is the chief law of human existence. - Fyodor Dostoyevsky

One must judge men not by their opinions, but by what their opinions have made them. - Georg Christoph Lichtenber

It is easier to be wise on behalf of others than to be so for ourselves. - La Rochefoucauld

I can't imagine a person becoming a success who doesn't give this game of life everything he's got. - Walter Cronkite, American broadcast journalist (b. 1916)

It's fine telling people to change. But the real measure of change is: Can you change yourself? - an Executive

The better part of one's life consists of his friendships. --Abraham Lincoln

Let him who would move the world first move himself. - Socrates

Character is made by what you stand for; reputation, by what you fall for. - Robert Quillen

GOD LIVES BEHIND A HUGE MOUNTAIN CALLED ' I '

Do a little more each day than you think you possibly can. - Lowell Thomas, American politician, author (b. 1923)

No man can climb out beyond the limitations of his own character. -Robespierre

As a man thinketh so is he, and as a man chooseth so is he. - Emerson

A Persons Aspirations--A man's worth is no greater than the worth of his ambitions. - Marcus Aurelius

A man must be big enough to admit his mistakes, smart enough to profit by them, and strong enough to correct them. - McKenzie

To treat your facts with imagination is one thing, but to imagine your facts is another. - John Burroughs

When we quit thinking primarily about ourselves and our own self-preservation, we undergo a truly heroic transformation of consciousness. - Joseph Campbell

No one can deal with the hearts of men unless he has the sympathy which is given by love. - Henry Ward Beecher

Do unto others as you would have others do unto you. - Jesus of Nazareth

Many people live alone and like it, but most of them live alone and look at it. - Burgess

There is nothing in a caterpillar that tells you it's going to be a butterfly.  -Buckminster Fuller

If the human body recognized agony and frustration, people would never run marathons, have babies or play baseball. - Carlton Fisk (Chicago White Sox catcher)

It is a good and safe rule to sojourn in every place as   if you meant to spend you're life there, never omitting   an opportunity of doing a kindness, or speaking a true word, or making a friend. - Ruskin

Your work is to discover your work, and then with all your heart to give yourself to it. - Buddha

There is no one giant step that does it. It's a lot of little steps. - Peter A. Cohen, Investment banker (b. 1954)

There are painters who transform the sun into a yellow spot, but there are others who with the help of their art and intelligence, transform a yellow spot into sun -Pablo Picasso

Compassion is the chief law of human existence. - Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Those who hate you win unless you hate them -richard nixon

I have been a stranger in a strange land -Bible

A fool always finds a bigger fool to admire him -Nicolas Boileau

Anger is brief madness -Horace

Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited, imagination encircles the world. Albert Einstein

The cruelest lies are often told in silence Robert Louis Stevenson

In America sex is an obsession; in other parts of the world it is a fact. Marlene Dietrich

The secret of being a bore is to tell everything Voltaire

The curse of ignorance is that man without being good or evil is nevertheless satisfied with himself Sophocles

Once a decision is decided, all experience is selectively interpreted to support it

Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former Albert Einstein

Half of the people in the world are below average

the tree is known by his fruit Bible

Any kiddy in school can love like a fool, but hating, my boy, is an art Ogden Nash

It is a great ability to be able to conceal ones ability La Rochefoucauld

Assassination is the extreme form of censorship George Bernard Shaw

Art is a lie that makes us realize the truth Pablo Picasso

Is it progress if a cannibal uses a knife and fork? Stanislaw Lec

A little government and a little luck are necessary in life, but only a fool trusts either of them P.J. O'Rourke

A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices William James

Love art, of all lies it is the least untrue Gustave Flaubert

I am an optimist, but I'm an optimist that carries a raincoat Sir Harold Wilson

Don't worry, be happy

There are no atheists in fox holes William Thomas Cummings

Every man desires to live long, but no man would be old Jonathan Swift

Appearances often are deceiving Aesop

The thing is to become a master and in your old age to acquire the courage to do what children did when knew nothing Henry Miller

When we are born we cry that we are come to this great stage of fools Shakespeare

The dumber people think you are, the more surprised they are going to be when you kill them... William Clayton

Life is too important to take seriously

When all think alike, then no one is thinking Walter Lippmann

The idea is to die young as late as possible Ashley Montaque

It's always in season for the old to learn Aeschylus

Great spirits have often encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds Albert Einstein

Think of the worst, wish for the best

Waiting to die is not living Akira Kurasawa

We have seen the enemy, and he is in us Walt Kelly (Pogo)

An Atheist is a man who has no invisible means of support Harry Emerson Fosdick

The actions of men are the best interpretations of their thoughts John Locke

If you cannot get rid of the family skeleton, you might as well make it dance George Bernard Shaw

When the authorities warn you about the sinfulness of sex, there is one lesson to be learned: do not sleep with the authorities

We judge our selves by what we feel capable of doing, while other judge us by what we have already done. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Everybody believes very easily whatever he fears or desires Jean de la Fontaine

God made everything out of nothing. But the nothingness shows through. Paul Valery

In the middle of any difficulty lies an opportunity Albert Einstein

A fool must now and then be right, by chance William Cowper

There is so much comedy in television, does that cause comedy in the streets?

Only a life lived for others is a life worth while Albert Einstein

It's become appallingly clear that our technology has surpasses our humanity Albert Einstein

I'd like to know what this show is all about before it's out Piet Hein (poet)

Genius is one tenth inspiration and nine tenths perspiration Thomas Edison

We are what we love Erick Erickson

How a minority,
reaching a majority
seizing authority
hates a minority Leonard H. Robbins

Not failure, but low aim is crime James Russel Lowell

Colors, like features, follow the changes of the emotions. --Pablo Picasso (1881–1973), Spanish artist. Conversation avec Picasso, in Cahiers d’Art, vol. 10, no. 10 (Paris, 1935; tr. in Alfred H. Barr, Jr., Picasso: Fifty Years of His Art, 1946).

Empty pockets never held a man back. Only empty heads ana empty hearts can do that. --Norman Vincent Peale

The invariable mark of wisdom is to see the miraculous in the common. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

You should not confuse your career with your life. - Dave Barry

I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody. - Bill Cosby

Maturity of mind is the capacity to endure uncertainty. - John Finley

In the end we can never be given knowledge by others; we can only be stimulated. We must develop our own knowledge. - Charles T. Tart

What makes greatness is starting something that lives after you. - Ralph W. Sockman

The spirit is the master; imagination the tool, and the body the plastic material ...The power of the imagination is a great factor in medicine. It may produce diseases in man and in animals, and it may cure them ..Ills of the body may be cured by physical remedies or by the power of the spirit acting through the soul. - Paracelsus, Father of Modern Medicine.

Doubt is often the beginning of wisdom. - M. Scott Peck

Freedom does not come automatically; it is achieved. And it is not gained in a single bound; it must be achieved each day. - Rollo May (Man's Search for Himself)

"The difference between insanity and genius is success." - Jonathan Price, Tomorrow Never Dies

A man is a success if he gets up in the morning and gets to bed at night, and in between he does what he wants to do. - Bob Dylan

Rules make the learner's path long, examples make it short and successful. - Seneca

It is not who is right, but what is right, that is of importance. - Thomas Huxley

" quienes se sienten atraidos por la no violencia deberían según sus capacidades y posibilidades unirse al experimento" Gandhi

Life is never boring, but some people choose to be bored.... Boredom is a choice. - Wayne W. Dyer

Did you ever notice how difficult it is to argue with someone who is not obsessed with being right? - Wayne W. Dyer

True friendship is a plant of slow growth, and must undergo and withstand the shocks of adversity before it is entitled to the appellation. - George Washington

Love cures people--both the ones who give it and the ones who receive it. - Dr. Karl Menninger

We often fear being rejected so very much that we reject ourselves first before anyone else has the chance. - Anon

You don't have to control your thoughts, you just have to stop letting them control you. - Dan Millman

Friendship with oneself is all-important because without it one cannot be friends with anyone else in the world. - Eleanor Roosevelt

"To live a creative life we must lose our fear of being wrong." - Joseph Chilton Pearce

"One must have chaos in ones self in order to give birth to a dancing star." - Fredrick Nietzsche

we are all people of color, we just come in different shades

Youth is quality that if you haue it, you never loose it. --Frank Lloyd Wright.

Creation is only the projectiom into a form that alreapy exists --Shrimad Bhagavatan

A man who works with his hands is a laborer, a man who works with his hands and his brain is a craftman, a man who works with his hands, his brain and his heart is an artist, --Louis Nizer

-sourness and bitterness come from the interfering and unappreciative mind- Benjamin Hoff- the tao of pooh

George Santayana's famous statement: "Those who cannot remember the pastare condemned to repeat it."

Find your passion and make it your profession ... and you'll never work again. - Janice Rockett

People do their best work when they are passionately engaged in what they are doing. - Erie S. Raymond in FastCompany

The man who never avoids what he actually is will soon change and elevate whatever he is. - Vernon Howard quoted in SuperWisdom E-zine.

Enlightenment means taking full responsibility for your life. - William Blake

In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing. The worst thing you can do is nothing. - Theodore Roosevelt

Change is not a process for the impatient. - Barbara Reinhold, Director Career Development Office, Smith
College, Northhampton, Mass

Freedom is actually a bigger game than power. Power is about what you can control. Freedom is about what you can unleash.
- Harriet Rubin

Discipline without freedom is tyranny; freedom without discipline is chaos.
- Cullen Hightower

From peaceful minds do great ideas flow. - Neal Donald Walsch, Conversations with God

It takes years to develop into the kind of human being you want to be.
- Ziggy Marley

Can I do something about it? If the answer is 'Yes,' you work out a plan - there is no crisis. If the answer is 'No,' there is no crisis.
- Unknown

Life skills are so much better than rules, because they help you figure out what's right and what's wrong.
- Amanda Lewis, student, quoted in FAST COMPANY magazine, June 2000

We often let time pass by without making any real use of it. Instead, look at your day, and ask yourself, 'What would I really enjoy? What would I like to do? Whom would I like to be with?' - Garrett Oliver, Brooklyn Brewery

Greatness comes with recognizing that your potential is limited only by how you choose, how you use your freedom, how resolute you are, how persistent you are -- in short, by your attitude. - Peter Koestenbaum, Philosopher, quoted in FAST COMPANY magazine

If you want to be creative, don't try to do something new. Doing something new means NOT doing what's been done before, and that's a negative impulse. Negative impulses are frustrating. They're the opposite of creativity, and they never yield good ideas... - Eva Zeisel, Ceramic Designer

Creativity comes from accepting that you're not safe, from being absolutely aware, and from letting go of control. It's a matter of seeing everything -- even when you want to shut your eyes. - Madeleine L'Engle, Author

Creativity helps us realize that we don't have to understand everything. We can enjoy something --feel it and use it-- without ever fully comprehending it. -- Faith Ringgold, Artist & Author

The formulation of a problem is far more essential than its solution.
- Albert Einstein

Questions are the creative acts of intelligence.
- Frank Kingdon