Quotes

Abraham Lincoln

16th U.S. president and liberator of the slaves (1809-1865)

"If I were two-faced, would I be wearing this one?"

"If you once forfeit the confidence of your fellow citizens, you can never regain their respect and esteem."

"It is true that you may fool all of the people some of the time; you can even fool some of the people all of the time; but you can't fool all of the people all of the time."

"Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be."

"My great concern is not whether you have failed but whether you are content with your failure."

"The probability that we may fail in the struggle ought not to deter us from the support of a cause we believe to be just."

adapted from Ossie Davis

African American actor, film director, and activist (1917-2005)

"The best advice is a good example."

Aesop

legendary Greek author of fables (6th century B.C.)

"Don’t count your chickens before they are hatched."

African proverb

"Smooth seas do not make skillful sailors."

Albert Schweitzer

Alsatian-German theologian, philosopher, organist and mission doctor (1875-1965)

"One thing I know. The only ones among you who will be really happy are those who will have sought and found how to serve."

"The first step in the evolution of ethics is a sense of solidarity with other human beings."

"Truth has no special time of its own. Its hour is now always."

Aldous Huxley

"Experience is not what happens to a man; it is what a man does with what happened to him."

Alice Duer Miller

American author (1874-1942)

"If it’s painful for you to criticize your friends, you’re safe in doing it; if you take the slightest pleasure in it, that’s the time to hold your tongue."

American proverb

"Actions speak louder than words."

"After all is said and done, more is said than done."

"The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence."

Anais Nin

French-born American author (1903-1977)

"We don’t see things as they are,we see them as we are."

Andre Gide

French writer, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature (1869-1951)

"It is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for something you are not."

Andrew Jackson

"One man with courage makes a majority."

Ann Landers (Esther Pauline Friedman)

American advice columnist (1918-2002)

"The true measure of people is how they treat others who can do them absolutely no good."

Ann Richards

former governor of Texas (b. 1933)

"The here and now is all we have, and if we play it right it’s all we’ll need."

Anne Bradstreet

American poet (c. 1612-1672)

"If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant."

Anne Frank

Jewish girl who kept a diary while hiding from the Nazis during World War II (1929-1945)

"How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world."

"No one has ever become poor by giving."

"Parents can only give good advice or put them on the right paths, but the final forming of a person's character lies in their own hands."

Anonymous

"Bacon and eggs is an excellent metaphor for commitment. The chicken is involved but the pig is committed."

"Genuine freedom demands the most selfcontrol."

"Personal growth is, more than anything, a refining sense of truthfulne"

"We have to act our way into a new way of thinking rather than think our way into a new way of acting"

Archibald Cox

"These two obligations of the civilized man to subdue selfish instincts in the general interest and to comply with the law rest more heavily on those chosen to rule."

Aristotle

Greek philosopher and prescientist (384 B.C.-322 B.C.)

"I count those braver who overcome their desires than those who conquer their enemies; for the hardest victory is over self."

"It is the mark of a true education to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it."

Arthur Ashe

"From what we get, we can make a living; what we give, however, makes a life."

attributed to Albert Einstein

German born physicist, formulator of the theory of relativity (1879-1955)

"Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results."

Augustine

"No man has a right to lead such a life of contemplation as to forget in his own ease the service due to his neighbor."

Aunt Adie

"I tell you one thing, if you learn it by yourself, if you have to get down and dig for it, it never leaves you. It stays there as long as you live because you had to dig it out of the mud before you learned what it was."

Aunt May Parker

"There’s a hero in all of us, that keeps us honest, gives us strength, makes us noble, and finally allows to [live] with pride."

in SpiderMan 2

B.C. Forbes

"Honesty is the cornerstone of character. The honest man or woman seeks not merely to avoid criminal or illegal acts, but to be scrupulously fair, upright, fearless in both action and expression. Honesty pays dividends both in dollars and in peace of mind."

Ben Sweetland

author

"We cannot hold a torch to light another’s path without brightening our own."

Benjamin Disraeli

British prime minister and novelist (1804-1881)

"Life is too short to be little."

Benjamin Franklin

American Founding Father, inventor and statesman (1706-1790)

"Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of."

Bertrand Russell

English mathematician and philosopher (1872-1970)

"The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves — wiser people are full of doubts."

Bible

Mark 8:36

"What shall you profit, if you shall gain the whole world, and lose your own soul?"

Booker T. Washington

African American educator, reformer and founder of the Tuskegee Institute (1856-1915)

"I will not permit people to narrow and degrade my soul by making me hate them.*"

Buddhist proverb

"Pain is inevitable; suffering is optional."

Calvin Coolidge

30th U.S. president (1872-1933)

"No person was ever honored for what he received. Honor has been the reward for what he gave."

Carl Jung

"Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves."

Charles Buxton

British lawyer, editor and statesman (1875-1942)

"You will never find time for anything. You must make it."

Charles Caleb Colton

British clergyman and author (c. 1780-1832)

"We hate some persons because we do not know them, and will not know them because we hate them."

Charles Dederich

American founder of self help community for drug abusers (1913-1997)

"Today is the first day of the rest of your life."

Charles F. Kettering

American inventor (1876-1958)

"My interest is in the future because I am going to spend the rest of my life there."

Charles Swindoll

American evangelical pastor and author (b. 1934)

"Life is 10 percent what happens to me and 90 percent how I react to it."

Chinese proverb

"If you don’t want anyone to know, don’t do it."

"Talk doesn’t cook rice."

"The effects of our actions may be postponed but they are never lost. There is an inetiable erward for good deeds and an inescapable punishment for bad."

Confucius

Chinese philosopher (551 B.C.- 479 B.C.)

"Real knowledge is to know the extent of one’s ignorance."

"To know what is right and not do it is the worst cowardice."

Corrie ten Boom

Dutch humanitarian whose family hid persecuted Jews during World War II (1892-1983)

"Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow; it empties today of its strength."

David Starr Jordan

American scientist, Stanford University president and peace activist (1851-1931)

"Wisdom is knowing what to do next; virtue is doing it."

Dayak proverb (Borneo)

"Where the heart is willing it will find a thousand ways, but where it is unwilling it will find a thousand excuses."

Dean R. Koontz

"Some people think only intellect counts; knowing how to solve problems, knowing how to get by, know how to identify an advantage and seize it. But the many functions of intellect are insufficient without courage, love, friendship, compassion and empathy. We care. It is our curse. It is our blessing"

Dennis DeYoung

American songwriter, member of the rock band Styx (b. 1947)

"Winners are losers who got up and gave it one more try."

DiPiazza

Sam, CEO of Pricewaterhouse Coopers

"It has become dramatically clear that the foundation of corporate integrity is personal integrity."

Dogen Zenji

"To be enlightened by all things is to remove the barrier between self and other."

"To study the Way is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be enlightened by all things."

Don Wilder and Bill Rechin

comic strip creators

"Excuses are the nails used to build a house of failure."

Dory from Finding Nemo

"When life gets you down do you wanna know what you’ve gotta do? Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming swimming, swimming."

Douglas M. Lawson

American fundraising consultant (b. 1936)

"We exist temporarily through what we take, but we live forever through what we give."

Dr. Seuss

pen name of Theodor Seuss Geisel, American author and illustrator of children’s books (1904-1991)

"Don’t cry because it’s over. Smile because it happened."

"I meant what I said, and I said what I meant. An elephant’s faithful, one hundred percent."

from Horton Hatches the Egg

"Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not."

from from The Lorax

"You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself Any direction you choose."

from Oh! The Places You’ll Go!

Dutch proverb

"What is wrong today won’t be right tomorrow."

Dwight David Eisenhower

"A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both"

Earl of Chesterfield (Sir Philip Dormer Stanhope)

English member of Parliament, author of Letters to His Son (1694-1773)

"Whatever is worth doing is worth doing well."

Ecuadorian proverb

"When one helps another, both gain in strength."

Edgar J. Mohn

"A lie has speed, but truth has endurance."

Edith Wharton

American Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist (1862-1937)

"There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it."

Edmund Burke

British statesman and political philosopher (1729-1797)

"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good people do nothing.*"

"No one could make a greater mistake than those who did nothing because they could do only a little.*"

Eduardo Chillida

Spanish sculptor (1924-2002)

"One can never know enough. The unknown and its call lie even in what we know."

Edward Everett Hale

American clergyman and author (1822-1909)

"I am only one, but still I am one. / I cannot do everything, / But still I can do something; / And because I cannot do everything / I will not refuse to do the something that I can do."

Edward Hennessey

"Ethics must begin at the top of an organization. It is a leadership issue and the chief executive must set the example."

Elbert Hubbard

American publisher, lecturer and author (1856-1915)

"The path of least resistance is what makes rivers run crooked."

Eldridge Cleaver

African American civil rights activist and writer (1935-1998)

"If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem."

Eleanor Roosevelt

American diplomat, humanitarian and First Lady (1884-1962)

"You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing which you think you cannot do."

Elizabeth Kenny

Australian nurse, pioneer in polio treatment (1880-1952)

"A person who angers you conquers you.*"

Elvis Presley

American popular singer (1935-1977)

"When things go wrong, don’t go with them."

Emily Post

American etiquette expert (1872-1960)

"Manners are a sensitive awareness of the feelings of others. If you have that awareness, you have good manners, no matter what fork you use."

English proverb

"A smooth sea never made a skilled mariner."

"Don’t judge a book by its cover."

"Two wrongs don’t make a right."

Eric Allenbaugh

American leadership consultant and author

"Every choice moves us closer to or farther away from something. Where are your choices taking your life?"

Ethiopian proverb

"When spider webs unite they can tie up a lion."

Florence Nightingale

English pioneer of nursing and health care reform (1820-1910)

"If you want to be successful, don’t give or take excuses."

Francis Bacon

English statesman, writer and philosopher of science (1561-1626)

"It is not what we eat but what we digest that makes us strong; not what we gain but what we save that makes us rich; not what we read but what we remember that makes us learned; and not what we profess but what we practice that gives us integrity."

Frederick Douglass

African American abolitionist, public speaker and writer (c. 1818-1895)

"I prefer to be true to myself, even at the hazard of incurring the ridicule of others, rather than to be false, and to incur my own abhorrence."

Friedrich Nietzsche

German philosopher (1844-1900)

"Necessity is not a fact; it’s an interpretation."

"What does not destroy me, makes me strong."

G. Santanaya

"The great difficulty in education is to get experience out of ideas."

Gabriel Heatter

American radio commentator (1890-1972)

"Life is never so bad at its worst that it is impossible to live; it is never so good at its best that it is easy to live."

General Omar Bradley

"The world has achieved brilliance without wisdom, power without conscience. Our is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants."

George Bernard Shaw

Irish playwright and critic (1856-1950)

"Some people see things as they are and say “Why?” I dream things that never were and say “Why not?”*"

"The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and if they can't find them, make them."

George Eliot (Mary Anne Evans)

British novelist (1819-1880)

"It’s never too late to be what you might have been."

George Jean Nathan

American drama critic (1882-1958)

"Bad officials are elected by good citizens who do not vote."

George Washington

"what I consider the most enviable of all titles, the character of an Honest Man."

Goethe

"Whatever you do or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic to it."

Greek proverb

"A society grows great when old people plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in.*"

H. Jackson Brown

American writer (b. 1940)

"There is no wrong time to do the right thing."

Hada Bejar

actress

"The fragrance always stays in the hand that gives the rose."

Haida Indian saying

"We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children."

Harriet Hall

actress

"Learn from the mistakes of others. There is not enough time for us to make all the mistakes ourselves."

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

"Harry: The Sorting Hat only put me in Gryffindor because I asked not to go in Slytherin. Professor Dumbledore: Exactly. It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities."

Helen Keller

blind and deaf American author and educator (1880-1968)

"Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, vision cleared, ambition inspired, and success achieved."

Henrik Ibsen

"A community is like a ship; everyone outght to be prepared to take the helm."

Henry David Thoreau

"It is not enough to be busy; so are the ants. The question is: What are we busy about?"

Henry Ford

American businessman, founder of the Ford Motor Company (1863-1947)

"My best friend is the one who brings out the best in me."

"Whether you think you can or not, you are right."

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

American poet (1807-1882)

"It takes less time to do a thing right than to explain why you did it wrong."

"Lives of great people all remind us we can make our lives sublime; and, departing, leave behind us footprints in the sand of time."

Herman Melville

American novelist (1819-1891)

"We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibers connect us with others; and along those fibers, as sympathetic threads, our actions run as causes, and they come back to us as effects.*"

Hillel

Jewish scholar and rabbi (c. 60 B.C. - 10 A.D.)

"Do not judge others until you have stood in their place.*"

Horace Greeley

American newspaper editor and politician (1811-1872)

"Fame is a vapor, popularity an accident, riches take wing, and only character endures."

Howard Howe

"In a society based on the work ethic, work helps to define each one of us. To the extent that we do something useful to the society, we gain a feeling of belonging and contributing that sustains us even when the work we do is difficult or dull. Youth have been progressively denied the opportunity to be engaged in work that is important to others and, therefore, denied the reward such work produces."

Immanual Kant

"In law a man is guilty when he violates the rights of others. In ethics he is guilty if he only thinks of doing so."

Indira Gandhi

Indian prime minister (1917-1984)

"You cannot shake hands with a clenched fist."

J.R. Ewing

"Once integrity goes, the rest is a piece of cake."

Jack London

American author (1876-1916)

"A bone to the dog is not charity. Charity is the bone shared with the dog, when you are just as hungry as the dog."

Jacques Cousteau

"passengers on a big machinery and nobody is driving the machinery. And it's going faster and faster, but we don't know where."

Jaime Escalante

Bolivian born American high school teacher, inspiration for the movie Stand and Deliver (b. 1930)

"The day you quit school, you condemn yourself to a future of poverty."

James F. Bell

founder of General Mills (? 1961)

"category of desirable practices that must govern and control the world's affairs."

Jane Addams

"Action indeed is the sole medium of expression for ethics."

Jean Jacques Rousseau

Swiss-French political philosopher and writer (1712-1778)

"The money you have gives you freedom; the money you pursue enslaves you."

Jeffrey Mayer

American business consultant and author

"If you haven’t got the time to do it right, when will you find the time to do it over?"

Jim Rohn

American motivational speaker, author and business consultant

"We must all suffer from one of two pains: the pain of discipline or the pain of regret. The difference is discipline weighs ounces while regret weighs tons."

Jim Ryun

American Congressman and former world record holder in the mile run (b. 1947)

"Dreams are what get you started. Discipline is what keeps you going."

Joan Baez

American folk singer (b. 1941)

"Action is the antidote to despair."

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

German author, statesman and scientist (1749-1832)

"The way you see people is the way you treat them, and the way you treat them is what they become."

John Dewey

American philosopher, psychologist and educator (1859-1952)

"Education is a social process. Education is growth. Education is not a preparation for life; education is life itself."

John F. Kennedy

35th U.S. president (1917-1963)

"Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country."

"Our privileges can be no greater than our obligations. The protection of our rights can endure no longer than the performance of our responsibilities."

John Lennon

British singer and songwriter, member of the Beatles (1940-1980)

"Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans."

John Pierpont Morgan

American financier (1837-1913)

"You can’t unscramble eggs."

John Wooden

winningest American college basketball coach (b. 1910)

"Failing to plan is planning to fail."

Jonathan Swift

AngloIrish author and satirist (1667-1745)

"May you live all the days of your life."

Julia Alvarez

American author (b. 1950)

"The point is not to pay back kindness but to pass it on."

Ken Keyes

American personal growth leader and peace advocate (1921-1995)

"To be upset about what you don’t have is to waste what you do have."

Kent Nerburn

"are making ourselves every moment by every decision we make."

L. Thomas Holdcroft

writer and theology professor

"Life is a grindstone. Whether it grinds us down or polishes us up depends on us."

Lena Horne

African American singer and actress (b. 1917)

"It’s not the load that breaks you down; it’s the way you carry it."

Les Brown

African American entrepreneur, motivational speaker and author

"Other people’s opinion of you does not have to become your reality."

Lewis Carroll

"Alice: Which way should I go?: Cheshire Cat: It depends where you're going.Alice: I don't know where I'm going… Cheshire Cat: Then I doesn't matter which way you go?"

in Alice in Wonderland

Lily Tomlin

American comedian and actress (b. 1939)

"The problem with the rat race is that even if you win you’re still a rat."

Lucille Ball

American actress (1911-1989)

"One of the things I learned the hard way was that it doesn’t pay to get discouraged. Keeping busy and making optimism a way of life can restore your faith in yourself."

M. Scott Peck

American physician and author (b. 1936)

"The truth is that our finest moments are most likely to occur when we are feeling deeply uncomfortable, unhappy or unfulfilled. For it is only in such moments, propelled by our discomfort, that we are likely to step out of our ruts and start searching for different ways or truer answers."

Mahatma Gandhi

"A nouttered from deepest conviction is better and greater than a yesmerely uttered to please, or what is worse, to avoid trouble."

Malay proverb

"One unable to dance blames the unevenness of the floor."

Margaret Wolfe Hungerford

Irish writer (1855-1897)

"Beauty is in the eye of the beholder."

from Molly Bawn

Marian Wright Edelman

AfricanAmerican lawyer, civil rights activist, and founder of the Children’s Defense Fund (b. 1939)

"You really can change the world if you care enough."

Martin Luther King

Jr., African American Baptist minister and Nobel Prize winning leader of the civil rights movement (1929-1968)

"Everyone has an opportunity to be great because everyone has an opportunity to serve."

"To ignore evil is to become an accomplice to it."

Martin Van Buren

"It is easier to do a job right than to explain why you didn't."

Martina Navratilova

Czech born American tennis champion

"The moment of victory is much too short to live for that and nothing else."

Marva Collins

African American educator (b. 1936)

"Trust yourself. Think for yourself. Act for yourself. Speak for yourself. Be yourself."

Maya Angelou

African American poet and author (b. 1928)

"I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel."

"If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude. Don’t complain."

Melvin J. Evans

"illumined by the blazing sun of hope. They never stop to doubt. They haven't the time."

Mexican proverb

"An ant on the move does more than a dozing ox."

"It’s not enough to know how to ride — one must also know how to fall."

Michael Josephson

American ethicist, author, radio commentator, founder of CHARACTER COUNTS! & the Josephson Institute (b. 1942)

"Character is doing the right thing even when it costs more than you want to pay."

"Don’t ever do anything just so someone will like you for the moment. Soon the moment will be over and you may have done something that will change your life."

"Don’t sacrifice a good life for a good time."

"Everything you do sends a message about who you are and what you value."

"Experimenting with drugs is like target practice where your head is the bull’seye"

"It would be nicer to be popular if being nicer made you popular."

"Neither the intensity of your feelings nor the certainty of your convictions is any assurance that you are right."

"No matter how much you know, there’s always more to learn."

"Not everything that is good for you is fun and not everything that is fun is good for you."

"Others will not value what you have until you do."

"pow mpt your Throughout the ages good people surrendered their honor for the empty promise that wealth or power would bring fulfillment and their dignity, good name and selfesteem for the passing pleasures of sex and drugs."

"The surest way to ruin your life is to spend tomorrow’s happiness for today’s pleasure."

"There are two things you don’t want to be: a user or someone who is used."

"There's a hole in the moral ozone and it's getting bigger."

"Think forward! Concentrate on who you want to be and where you want to go, not on who you were or where you've been."

"Your life is your ship. You are the captain. Don’t let anyone else take the wheel."

Michel de Montaigne

French writer, inventor of the essay (1533-1592)

"Saying is one thing, and doing is another."

Miguel de Cervantes

Spanish author (1547-1616)

"Honesty is the best policy."

from Don Quixote

Mohandas “Mahatma” Gandhi

leader for independence of India, pioneer of nonviolent civil disobedience (1869-1948)

"Be the change you wish to see in the world."

"Noncooperation with evil is as much a duty as is cooperation with good."

Mother Teresa

"If you can't feed a hundred people, then feed just one."

Motto of the Christopher Society

which promotes positive media messages and stories

"It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness."

Muhammad

founder of Islam (c. 570-632)

"A man’s true wealth is the good he does in this world."

Nikki Giovanni

African American poet (b. 1943)

"Mistakes are a fact of life. It is the response to error that counts."

Oliver Wendell Holmes

Jr., American legal philosopher and U.S. Supreme Court justice (1841-1935)

"The right to swing my fist ends where the other person’s nose begins.*"

Oprah Winfrey

African American TV talk show host, actress and entrepreneur (b. 1954)

"Doing the best at this moment puts you in the best place for the next moment."

"What I’ve learned about being angry with people is that it generally hurts you more than it hurts them."

Paul Williams

"The way to build selfconfidence is to start doing things you're not sure you can do."

Persian proverb

"I complained that I had no shoes, until I met someone who had no feet.*"

"I complained that I had no shoes, until I met someone who had no feet.*"

Peter Gabriel

"From the pain comes the dream. From the dream comes the vision. From the vision comes the people. From the people comes the power. From the power comes the change."

Potter Stewart

American Supreme Court justice (1915-1985)

"There’s a big difference between what you have a right to do and what is right to do."

Princess Elizabeth Bibesco

English writer (1897-1945)

"Blessed are those who can give without remembering and take without forgetting."

Professor Dumbledore

"It matters not what someone is born, but what they grow to be!"

in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

"It takes a great deal of courage to stand up to your enemies, but a great deal more to stand up to your friends."

in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone

Quintus Ennius

Roman poet (239-169 B.C.)

"A friend in need is a friend indeed."

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American essayist, philosopher and lecturer (1803-1882)

"Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is not a path and leave a trail."

"Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could; some blunders and absurdities have crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; you shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense."

"What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us."

"What you are thunders so loudly that I cannot hear what you say to the contrary."

"You cannot do a kindness too soon because you never know how soon it will be too late."

Richard L. Evans

American religious leader and broadcaster (1906-1971)

"If you don’t want temptation to follow you, don’t act as if you are interested."

Robert G. Ingersoll

American lecturer, author and politician (1833-1899)

"Anger is a wind which blows out the lamp of the mind."

Robert Noyce

"If ethics are poor at the top, that behavior is copied down through the organization."

Russell Jones

"Cynicism is the dishonest businessman's substitute for conscience."

Samuel Johnson

English author and creator of one of the first dictionaries (1709-1784)

"Great works are performed not by strength, but by perseverance."

"Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful."

Sharon G. Rubin

"If we want students to be capable of commitment to an idea, we also want them to have the courage and ability to act on that commitment."

Sir John Marks Templeton

Americanborn British financier (b. 1912)

"It is nice to be important, but it is more important to be nice."

Sir John Templeton

Americanborn British financier (b. 1912)

"You find what you look for: good or evil, problems or solutions."

Sir Josiah Stamp

British financier (1880-1941)

"It is easy to dodge our responsibilities, but we cannot dodge the consequences of dodging our responsibilities."

Sir Walter Scott

Scottish novelist and poet (1771-1832)

"Oh what a tangled web we weave, When first we practice to deceive!"

Sir Winston Churchill

British prime minister and author (1874-1965)

"The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees opportunity in every difficulty."

Sophocles

Greek playwright (496 B.C.406 B.C)

"Rather fail with honor than succeed by fraud."

"There is no witness so terrible. No accuser so powerful as conscience which dwells within us."

Spanish proverb

"Habits are first cobwebs, then cables."

"Unshared joy is an unlighted candle."

St. Francis of Assisi

founder of the Franciscan order (c. 1181-1226)

"Start by doing what is necessary, then do what is possible, and suddenly you are doing the impossible."

Stephen Covey

American author, speaker and leadership consultant (b. 1932)

"While we are free to choose our actions, we are not free to choose the consequences of our actions."

Stephen Grellet

Quaker clergyman (1773-1855)

"I expect to pass through this world but once. Any good, therefore, that I can do or any kindness I can show to any fellow creature, let me do it now. Let me not defer or neglect it for I shall not pass this way again."

Sydney J. Harris

Britishborn American journalist (1917-1986)

"The three hardest tasks in the world are neither physical feats nor intellectual achievements, but moral acts: to return love for hate, to include the excluded, and to say, I was wrong."

The Dalai Lama

Tibetan religious leader (b. 1935)

"Our prime purpose in this life is to help others. And if you can’t help them, at least don't hurt them."

Theodore Roosevelt

adventurer and 26th U.S. president (1858-1919)

"Do what you can, with what you have, where you are."

"To educate a person in mind and not in morals is to educate a menace to society."

Theodore Roosevelt (New York State Fair

Syracuse, September 7, 1903)

"Let the watchwords of all our people be the old familiar watchwords of honesty, decency, fairdealing, and commonsense.... We must treat each man on his worth and merits as a man. We must see that each is given a square deal, because he is entitled to no more and should receive no less.The welfare of each of us is dependent fundamentally upon the welfare of all of us."

Thomas Edison

American inventor (1847-1931)

"Success is 10 percent inspiration and 90 percent perspiration."

Thomas Fuller

British scholar, preacher and author (1608-1661)

"Those who fling dirt at others dirty themselves most.*"

Thomas Henry Huxley

"The foundation of morality is to have done, once and for all, with lying"

Thomas Jefferson

American Founding Father and 3rd U.S. president (1743-1826)

"In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock."

Thomas Norton

English poet and politician (1532-1584)

"Hope for the best and prepare for the worst."

Thomas Szasz

author and professor of psychiatry (b. 1920)

"Boredom is the feeling that everything is a waste of time; serenity, that nothing is."

Traditional English prayer

"Take time to work, it is the price of success. / Take time to think, it is the source of power. / Take time to play, it is the secret of perpetual youth. / Take time to read, it is the foundation of wisdom. / Take time to be friendly, it is the road to happiness. / Take time to dream, it is hitching your wagon to a star. / Take time to love and be loved, it is the privilege of the gods. / Take time to look around, it is too short a day to be selfish. / Take time to laugh, it is the music of the soul."

Trammell Crow

American real estate magnate (b. 1923)

"There is as much risk in doing nothing as in doing something."

Uncle Ben

"With great power comes great responsibility."

to Peter Parker in SpiderMan

Unknown

"A life without cause is a life without effect."

"Admitting that you were wrong is just another way of saying that you are wiser today than yesterday."

"An important part of who you are is what you want to be."

"Anger is only one letter short of danger."

"Don’t wait for your ship to come in. Swim out to it."

"Friendship is like a bank account. You can’t continue to draw on it without making deposits."

"Gossip needn’t be false to be evil — there’s a lot of truth that shouldn’t be passed around."

"Growing older is mandatory. Growing up is optional."

"If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. If at first you do succeed, try something harder."

"Quitters never win, and winners never quit."

"Temptation usually comes in through a door that has deliberately been left open."

"The early bird catches the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese."

"The smallest good deed is better than the grandest good intention."

"To carry a grudge is like being stung to death by only one bee."

"Too many people are ready to carry the stool when the piano needs to be moved."

"Watch your thoughts; they become words. Watch your words; they become actions. Watch your actions; they become habits. Watch your habits; they become character. Watch your character; it becomes your destiny."

"What is popular is not always right, and what is right is not always popular."

"Where there’s a will, there’s a way."

"Would those of you who say it can’t be done, stop bothering those of us who are doing it?"

"You don’t have to be sick to get better."

"You have not lived a perfect day unless you have done something for someone who will never be able to repay you."

Vaclav Havel in Summer Meditations (1992).

". . . without commonly shared and widely entrenched moral values and obligations, neither the law, nor democratic government, nor even the market economy will function properly."

Vance Havner

American preacher (1901-1986)

"The vision must be followed by the venture. It is not enough to stare up the steps — we must step up the stairs."

Vietnamese proverb

"Those who fight fire with fire burn their houses down twice as fast."

"When eating a fruit, think of the person who planted the tree."

Wayne Gretzky

all-time great Canadian hockey player (b. 1961)

"You miss 100 percent of the shots you don’t take."

Wendell Berry

"I was feeling another kind of relief, too...the relief of moving from talking about problems in to the presence of problems themselves. In the presence of problems intelligence encounters details...And it is hopeful, too, for it is in the presence of the problems that their solutions will be found."

Will Rogers

American entertainer (1879-1935)

"Live so that you wouldn’t be ashamed to sell the family parrot to the town gossip."

William Arthur Ward

American scholar, author, pastor and teacher (1921-1997)

"Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it."

William Blake

English poet, painter and mystic (1757-1827)

"A truth that’s told with bad intent beats all the lies you can invent."

William Feather

American writer (1889-1981)

"Conditions are never just right."

"One right and honest definition of business is mutual helpfulness."

"Plenty of people miss their share of happiness, not because they never found it but because they didn't stop to enjoy it."

William Hazlitt

English essayist and critic (1778-1830)

"Prejudice is the child of ignorance."

William James

American philosopher and psychologist (1842-1910)

"If you change your mind, you can change your life."

William Jennings Bryan

American politician and diplomat, three time presidential candidate (1860-1925)

"Destiny is not a matter of chance, it is a matter of choice; it is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved."

William Shakespeare

"This above all: to thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night of the day, thou canst not then be false to any man."

Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory

"So shines a good deed in a weary world."

Yiddish proverb

"A half truth is a whole lie."

"If each person sweeps in front of his or her own door, the whole street is clean."

Yoda

"Do or do not. There is no try."

in Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back