Quotes about

A Good Life,
Wisdom,
and Discipline

Section 1

Quotes of 1-2 lines

in length
It is not doing the thing we like to do, but liking
the thing we have to do, that makes life blessed.
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Reputation is what men and women think of us;
character is what God and angels know of us.
- Thomas Paine
We make a living by what we get, we make a life
by what we give.
- Sir Winston Churchill
It is greed to do all the talking but not to want
to listen at all.
- Democritus of Abdera,
Nature has given men one tongue and two ears,
that we may hear twice as much as we speak.
- Epicetus,
He who is to be a good ruler must have first
been ruled.
- Aristotle
This will remain the land of the free only so long
as it is the home of the brave.
- Elmer Davis
A wise man makes his own decisions, an ignorant
man follows the public opinion.
- Chinese Proverb
“Any concern too small to be turned into a
prayer is too small to be made into a burden.”
- Corrie Ten Boom
Be the task great or small,
Do it well or not at all.
The man who does not read good books has no
advantage over the man who can't read them.
- Mark Twain
All men who have turned out worth anything have
had the chief hand in their own education.
- Sir Walter Scott
I find television very educational. When it's on I
go into the other room and read a book.
- Groucho Marx
I do the very best I know how, the very best I
can.
--Abraham Lincoln
The pig promised himself that he would never
think badly of any creature again.
- from the movie, Babe
There may be times when you cannot find help,
but there is no time when you cannot give help.
- George Merriam
Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot
see the shadows.
- Helen Keller
Joy is a net of love by which you can catch souls.
- Mother Teresa
Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the
body.
- Joseph Addison, essayist/poet(1672-1719)
He that loves reading has everything within his
reach.
- William Godwin,
political philosopher/writer (1756-1836)
Man's mind stretched by a new idea never goes
back to its original dimensions.
- Oliver Wendell Holmes
A ship is safe in
the harbor, but
that's not what
ships are built to
do.
- John A.Shedd
Opportunity is missed by most people because it
is dressed in overalls and looks like work.
- Thomas A. Edison
We are all gifted, we just open our gifts at
different times!
- Eben E. Rexford, Peterson's Magazine 1881.
A thankful heart is not only the greatest virtue,
but the parent of all other virtues. – Cicero
"Great things are done by a series of small
things brought together."
- Vincent Van Gogh
The reward of a thing
well done is to have
done it.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
All great and
honorable actions
are accompanied
with great
difficulties.
- William Bradford
The only thing
necessary for the
triumph of evil is
for good men to
do nothing.

- Edmund Burke
The best time to
do something is
when it can be
done.
- William Pickens
Do not wait for leaders; Do it alone, person to
person.
- Mother Teresa
A man of words
and not of deeds
is like a garden full
of weeds.
- Mother Goose
The only good
advice is a good
example.
- Ossie Davis
It is better to keep
your mouth shut
and appear stupid
than to open it
and remove all
doubt.
- Mark Twain
Never leave to
tomorrow that
which you can do
today
- Benjamin
Franklin
Speak when you
are angry, and you
will make the best
speech you will
ever regret.
- Ambrose Bierce
Anger is never without reason, but seldom a good
one.
- Benjamin Franklin
The best thing about animals is that they do not
talk much.
- Thornton Wilder
The trouble with a kitten is that eventually, it
becomes a cat.
- Ogden Nash
When the ape
cannot reach the
bananas he says
they are sour.
- Bambara proverb
The bad workman
always blames his
tools.
- Chinese proverb
He that is good at
making excuses is
seldom good at
anything else.
- Benjamin
Franklin
It takes less time to do a thing right than to
explain why you did it wrong.
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
You miss 100 percent of the shots you never
take.
- Wayne Gretzky
We attract hearts
by the qualities we
display; we retain
them by the
qualities we
possess.
- Jean Baptiste
Antoine Suard
- A day hemmed in
prayer is less
likely to unravel.
Saint Mama
While there's life,
there's hope.
- Marcus Tullius
Cicero
We are not retreating, we are advancing in
another direction.
- General Douglas MacArthur
If a man hasn't discovered something that he
will die for, he isn't fit to live.
- Martin Luther King Jr.
There never was a bad man that had ability for
good service.
- Edmund Burke
Ill habits gather by unseen degrees,
As brooks make rivers, rivers run to seas.
- John Dryden
It is a rough road that leads to the heights of
greatness.
- Seneca
Not by age but by capacity is wisdom acquired.
- Titus Maccius Plautus
Let us reform our schools, and we shall find
little reform needed in our prisons.
- John Ruskin
You can't hold a man down without staying down
with him.
- Booker T. Washington
Life grants nothing to us mortals without hard
work.
- Horace
My business is not to remake myself, but to
make the absolute best of what God made.
- Robert Browning
If you bungle raising your children, I don’t think
whatever else you do well matters very much.
- Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
As the family goes, so goes the nation and so
goes the whole world in which we live.
- Pope John Paul II
Successful parents do what unsuccessful parents
are unwilling to do.
- The Garcia-Prats (parents of 10 boys and
authors of Good Families Don’t Just Happen)
The feet find the road easy when the heart
walks with them.
- Anonymous
Our children will rise to the level of
expectations we have of them.
- From the movie Stand and Deliver
Be what you want your children to be, and watch
them grow.
- Leo Buscaglia
When you play, play hard; When you work, don’t
play at all.
- Theodore Roosevelt
By the work one knows the workman.
- Jean De La Fontaine
Let your guest be a guest for two days, on the
third day give him a hoe!
- Swahili proverb
Many hands make light work
- English proverb
Labor disgraces no man. Unfortunately, you
occasionally find men who disgrace labor.
- Ulysses S. Grant
Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine
percent perspiration.
- Thomas Edison
It is far easier to start something than to finish
it.
- Amelia Earhart
Well begun is half done.
- Horace
The value of any action lies in seeing through to
the end.
- Genghis Khan
If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.
- Anonymous
Fall seven times, stand up eight.
- Japanese proverb
Little strokes
Fell great oaks.
- Benjamin Franklin
Diligence is the mother of good luck.
- Benjamin Franklin
Great works are performed not by strength but
by perseverance.
- Samuel Johnson
Tomorrow, tomorrow, not today,
Lazy people always say.
- German proverb
Teaching kids to count is fine, but teaching them
what counts is best.
- Bob Talbert
A quitter never wins; a winner never quits.
The things we know best are the things we
haven't been taught.
- Vauvenargues
When a thought is too weak to be expressed
simply, it should be rejected.
- Vauvenargues
Men despise great projects when they do not
feel themselves capable of great successes.
- Vauvenargues
You may get skinned knees and elbows, but it’s
worth it if you score a spectacular goal.
- Mia Hamm
Truth is a hard master, and costly to serve, but
it simplifies all problems.
- Ellis Peters
When a man is wrapped up in himself he makes a
pretty small package.
- John Ruskin
What great cause would have been fought and
won under the banner I stand for consensus”?
- Margaret Thatcher
A sharp tongue sometimes cuts its own throat.
- Jim Scancarelli
Don’t worry that children never listen to you;
worry that they are always watching you.
- Robert Fulghum
It is better to sleep on things beforehand than
lie awake about them afterward.
- Batasar Gracian
As I’ve grown older, I’ve learned to listen to
people rather than accuse them of things.
- Po Bronson
The most important work you and I will ever do
will be within the walls of our own homes.
- Harold B. Lee
You can’t help someone get up a hill without
getting closer to the top yourself.
- Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf
What a child doesn’t receive he can seldom later
give.
- P.D. James
The ability to focus attention on important
things is a defining character of intelligence.
- Robert J. Shiller
All I have seen teaches me to trust the Creator
for all I have not seen.
- Emerson
Let no one ever come to you without leaving
better and happier.
- Mother Teresa
A good home must be made, not bought.
- Joyce Maynard
Anyone can observe the Sabbath, but making
holy surely takes the rest of the week.
- Alice Walker
An unhurried sense of time is in itself a form of
wealth.
- Bonnie Friedman
Anger makes you smaller, while forgiveness
forces you to grow beyond what you were.
- Cherie Carter-Scott
Wisdom is knowing what to do next; virtue is
doing it.
- David Starr Jordon
Competition is a painful thing, but it produces
great results.
- Jerry Flint
One kind word can warm three winter months.
- Japanese proverb
Freedom to be your best means nothing unless
you’re willing to do your best.
- Colin Powell
To be humble to superiors is duty, to equals
courtesy, to inferiors nobleness.
- Ben Franklin
Knowledge is proud that he has learned so much;
Wisdom is humble that he knows no more.
- William Cowper
Self interest is the enemy of all true affection.
- Tacitus
Those who make the worst use of their time
most complain of its shortness.
- La Bruyere
Wickedness is always easier than virtue; for it
takes the short cut to everything.
- Samuel Johnson
To escape criticism – do nothing, say nothing, be
nothing.
- Elbert Hubbard
Patience is the best remedy for every trouble.
- Titus Maccius Plautus
Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers.
- Alfred, Lord Tennyson
No one is truly successful in life until he learns
how to serve.
- Anonymous
Genius is nothing but a greater aptitude for
patience.
- Georges Louis Leclerc de Buffon
Few things are harder to put up with than the
annoyance of a good example.
- Mark Twain
Many receive advice, few profit by it.
- Publilius Syrus
Saying is one thing and doing is another.
- Montaigne
Truth is great and its effectiveness endures.
- Ptahhotpe
Virtue is like precious odors, most fragrant when
they are incensed or crushed.
- Francis Bacon
A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell
where his influence stops.
- Henry Brooks Adams
They are never alone that are accompanied with
noble thoughts.
- Sir Philip Sidney
I've learned that being kind is more important
than being right.
- Andy Rooney
I don't know what the future holds,
but I know Who holds the future.
Faith. You can do very little with it, but you can
do nothing without it.
- Samuel Butler
Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in
rising every time we fall.
- Confucius
Our main business is not to see what lies dimly at
a distance, but to do what lies clearly at hand.
- Thomas Carlyle
Hating people is like burning down your own home
to get rid of a rat.
- Harry Emerson Fosdick.
What wings are to a bird and sails to a ship, is
prayer to the soul.
- Corrie Ten Boom
Wrong is wrong even if everyone else is doing it.
Right is right even if no one else is doing it.
- St. Augustine
The world is full of so many things
I think that we should be as happy as kings.
After the game the king and the pawn go into
the same box.
Do not do an immoral thing for moral reasons.
- Thomas Hardy
Opinion is ultimately determined by the feelings,
and not by the intellect.
- Herbert Spencer
Young man, the secret of my success is that at
an early age I discovered I was not God.
- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
A faithful friend is the medicine of life.
- The Apocrypha
How much easier it is to be critical than to be
correct.
- Benjamin Disraeli
It is in the character of very few men to honor
without envy a friend who has prospered.
- Aeschylus
Do the right thing. It will gratify some people
and astonish the rest.
- Mark Twain
It is easier to resist at the beginning than at
the end.
- Leonardo da Vinci
Men will lie on their backs, talking about the fall
of man, and never make an effort to get up.
- Henry David Thoreau
We judge ourselves by our motives and others
by their actions.
- Dwight Morrow
I see and approve better things, but follow
worse.
- Ovid
There are occasions when it is undoubtedly
better to incur loss than to make gain.
- Titus Maccius Plautus
Thunder is good, thunder is impressive; but it is
the lightning that does the work.
- Mark Twain
Virtue, even attempted virtue, brings light;
indulgence brings fog.
- C.S. Lewis
In life, as in a football game, the principle to
follow is: Hit the line hard.
- Theodore Roosevelt
Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom.
- Benjamin Franklin
A hard beginning maketh a good ending.
- John Heywood
We attract hearts by the qualities we display;
we retain them by the qualities we possess.
- Jean Baptiste Antoine Suard, French journalist
(1734-1817)
There never was a bad man that had ability for
good service.
- Edmund Burke
Adore God. Be just. Be true. Murmur not at the
ways of Providence
- Thomas Jefferson, 1825
Advice is seldom welcome; and those who want it
the most always like it the least.
- Philip Dormer Stanhope, Earl of Chesterfield
If a man hasn't discovered something that he
will die for, he isn't fit to live.
- Martin Luther King Jr.
Defer not till tomorrow to be wise,
Tomorrow's sun to thee may never rise.
- William Congreve
Truth is the cry of all, but the game of the few.
- George Berkeley
It is a rough road that leads to the heights of
greatness.
- Seneca
Second thoughts are ever wiser.
- Euripides
The only reward of virtue is virtue; the only way
to have a friend is to be one.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Benevolence is the tranquil habitation of man,
and righteousness is his straight path.
- Mencius
Moderation, the noblest gift of Heaven.
- Euripides
Seize the day, put no trust in the morrow!
- Horace
No written law has ever been more binding than
unwritten custom supported by popular opinion.
- Carrie Chapman Catt
The greatest griefs are those we cause
ourselves.
- Sophocles
Without friends no one would choose to live,
though he had all other goods.
- Aristotle
Every man is like the company he is wont to keep.
- Euripides
May you live all the days of your life.
- Jonathan Swift
There is one thing alone that stands the brunt
of life throughout its course: a quiet conscience.
- Euripides
Toil, says the proverb, is the sire of fame.
- Euripides
Every day should be passed as if it were to be
our last.
- Publilius Syrus
No snowflake in an avalanche ever feels
responsible.
- Stanislaw Jerzy Lec
Be not careless in deeds, nor confused in words,
nor rambling in thought.
- Marcus Aurelius Antoninus
Idleness and lack of occupation tend, nay are
dragged, towards evil.
- Hippocrates
An object in possession seldom retains the same
charm that it had in pursuit.
- Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus
In charity there is no excess.
- Francis Bacon
Misfortune tests the sincerity of friends.
- Robert E. Lee
Truth is a torch that gleams through the fog
without dispelling it.
- Claude Adrien Helvetius
Love truth, but pardon error.
- Voltaire
First keep the peace within yourself, then you
can also bring peace to others.
- Thomas Kempis
There is not greatness where there is not
simplicity, goodness and truth.
- Leo Tolstoy
When in doubt tell the truth.
- Mark Twain
Do not hold as gold all that shines as gold.
- Alain de Lille
Nothing is easier than self-deceit. For what each
man wishes, that he also believes to be true.
- Demosthenes
A man is never so on trial as in the moment of
excessive good fortune.
- Lew Wallace
Vision is the art of seeing things invisible.
- Jonathan Swift
The true way to be deceived is to think oneself
more clever than others.
- FranÁois Duc de La Rochefoucauld
The Son of God became a man to enable men to
become sons of God.
- C.S. Lewis
It is not our task to secure the triumph of
truth, but merely to fight on its behalf.
- Pascal
Bright is the ring of words when the right man
rings them.
- Robert Louis Stevenson
The mind is always the dupe of the heart.
- FranÁois Duc de La Rochefoucauld
Simplicity of character is no hindrance to
subtlety of intellect.
- John, Viscount Morley of Blackburn
Observe due measure, for right timing is in all
things the most important factor. – Hesiod
Much learning does not teach understanding.
- Heraclitus
The life which is unexamined is not worth living.
- Plato
There is no more mistaken path to happiness
than worldliness, revelry, high life.
- Arthur Schopenhauer
When you ask God to send you trials, you may be
sure your prayer will be granted.
- Leon Bloy
There is no legitimate religion apart from truth.
- John Calvin
If you don’t want the fruits of sin, stay out of
the devil’s orchard.
Smooth seas do not make a skilled sailor.
Everyone must row with the oars he has.
- English proverb
Be not afraid of life. Believe that life is worth
living, and your belief will help create the fact.
- William James
To be right with God has often meant to be in
trouble with men.
- A. W. Tozer
A nation's strength is found not in the number
of its laws but in the character of its people.
- James Montgomery Boice
No man can climb out beyond the limitations of
his own character.
- John, Viscount Morley of Blackburn
Only he who believes is obedient, and only he
who is obedient, believes.
- Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Give us the luxuries of life, and we will dispense
with its necessaries.
- John Lothrop Motley
Man's way of saying things encourages pride;
God's way of saying things encourages humility.
- Frank Sells
It matters not how a man dies, but how he lives.
- Samuel Johnson
The ultimate result of shielding men from the
effects of folly is to fill the world with fools.
- Herbert Spencer
Too many people overvalue what they are not and
undervalue what they are.
- Malcolm Forbes
To know that which before us lies in daily life is
the prime wisdom.
- John Milton
Nothing is more responsible for the good old
days than a bad memory.
- Franklin Pierce Adams
Good words are worth much, and cost little.
- George Herbert
There are two tragedies in life. One is to lose
your heart's desire. The other is to gain it.
- George Bernard Shaw
This is the bitterest pain among men, to have
much knowledge but no power.
- Herodotus
Divine punishments are also mercies, and
particular good is worked out of particular evil.
- C.S. Lewis
The unbelieving mind would not be convinced by
any proof, and the worshiping heart needs none.
- A. W. Tozer
Humility is the root, mother, nurse, foundation,
and bond of all virtue.
- St. John Chrysostom
By a tranquil mind I mean nothing else than a
mind well ordered.
- Marcus Aurelius Antoninus
The Gospels do not explain the resurrection, the
resurrection explains the Gospels.
- John S. Whale
Do you know, my son, with what little
understanding the world is ruled?
- Pope Julius III
That which we are, we are all the while teaching,
not voluntarily, but involuntarily.
- Emerson
Facts do not cease to exist because they are
ignored.
- Aldous Huxley
Reason in man is rather like God in the world.
- St. Thomas Aquinas
A great flame follows a little spark.
- Dante
If the imagination were obedient, the appetites
would give us very little trouble.
- C.S. Lewis
If a million people believe a foolish thing, it is
still a foolish thing.
- Anatole France
Tell me what company thou keepest, and I'll tell
thee what thou art.
- Miguel de Cervantes
To read without reflecting is like eating without
digesting.
- Edmund Burke
It's bad when you fail morally. It's worse when
you don't repent.
- Luis Palau
The power of evil men exists and lives on the
cowardice of the timid and the good.
- St. John Bosco
Silence in the presence of an attack is consent.
- Charley Reese
It is not enough to have a good mind. The main
thing is to use it well.
- RenÈ Descartes
Authority without wisdom is like a heavy axe
without an edge, fitter to bruise than polish.
- Anne Bradstreet
Some people pay a compliment as if they expect
a receipt.
- Anonymous
Put no faith in salvation through the political
order.
- St. Augustine
The greatest menace to freedom is an inert
people.
- Louis Brandeis
You cannot teach a man anything; you can only
help him find it within himself.
- Galileo
Thank goodness I was never sent to school; it
would have rubbed off some of the originality.
- Beatrix Potter
Spoon feeding in the long run teaches us nothing
but the shape of the spoon.
- E. M. Forster
Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is
probably the reason why so few engage in it.
- Henry Ford
The beginning of health is sleep.
- (Proverb)
It is easier to build strong children than repair
broken men.
- Frederick Douglass (1817-1895)
My grandmother wanted me to have an
education, so she kept me out of school.
- Margaret Mead
A good listener is not only popular everywhere,
but after a while he gets to know something.
- Wilson Mizner
A man may die, nations may rise and fall, but an
idea lives on.
- John F. Kennedy (1917-1963)
It is amazing how complete is the delusion that
beauty is goodness.
- Leo Tolstoy
Art is not a handicraft, it is the transmission of
feeling the artist has experienced.
- Leo Tolstoy
In war, resolution; in defeat, defiance; in
victory, magnanimity; in peace, goodwill.
- Winston Churchill
Perfection is the child of Time.
- Bishop Joseph Hall
Anger is never without an argument, but seldom
with a good one.
- George Savile, Marquis of Halifax
Most men make little use of their speech than to
give evidence against their own understanding.
- George Savile, Marquis of Halifax
Success is nothing more than going from failure
to failure with undiminished enthusiasm.
- Winston Churchill
Like that of leaves is a generation of men.
- Homer
This is the one best omen, to fight in defense of
one's own country.
- Homer
From all the offspring of the earth and heaven
love is the most precious.
- Sappho
For a city consists in its men, and not in its walls
nor ships empty of men.
- Nicias
You can't step twice into the same river.
- Heraclitus
Let no one enter who does not know geometry.
- inscription above the door at the Academy of
Athens
The man who does not read good books has no
advantage over the man who can't read them.
- Mark Twain
All men who have turned out worth anything have
had the chief hand in their own education.
- Sir Walter Scott
Education is not the filling of a bucket, but the
lighting of a fire.
- Yates
If you are seeking creative ideas, go out walking.
Angels whisper to a man when he goes for a walk.
- Raymond Inmon
I do the very best I know how, the very best I
can.
- Abraham Lincoln
As our face does not come by chance; it is made
by sour thoughts.
- James Allen
By lifting the burdens of others we lose our own.
- D. L. Moody
There may be times when you cannot find help,
but there is no time when you cannot give help.
- George Merriam
Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot
see the shadows.
- Helen Keller
Joy is a net of love by which you can catch souls.
- Mother Teresa
Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the
body.
- Joseph Addison, essayist/poet (1672-1719)
He that loves reading has everything within his
reach.
- William Godwin, political philosopher/writer
(1756-1836)
Man's mind stretched by a new idea never goes
back to its original dimensions.
- Oliver Wendell Holmes
It is easy to draw back a stone thrown from the
hand as to recall a word once spoken.
- Menander
If we judge people, we don't have time to love
them.
- Mother Teresa
A ship is safe in the harbor, but that's not what
ships are built to do.
- John A.Shedd
A thankful heart is not only the greatest virtue,
but the parent of all other virtues.
- Cicero
Great things are done by a series of small things
brought together.
- Vincent Van Gogh
To handle yourself, use your head. To handle
others, use your heart.
- Donald Laird
A truly spiritual man's creed is not live and let
live, but live and help live.
- Roger Babson
It is noble to teach oneself, but still nobler to
teach others - and less trouble.
- Doctor Van Dyke
Wisdom outweighs any wealth.
- Sophocles
A dictionary is the only place where you will find
success before work!
 Section 2

Quotes of 3-4 lines

in length
Three things are necessary for the salvation of
man: to know what he ought to believe; to know
what he ought to desire; and to know what he
ought to do.
- St. Thomas Aquinas
Most of the important things in the world have
been accomplished by people who have kept on
trying when there seemed to be no help at all.
- Dale Carnegie
I'm not smart, but I like to observe. Millions saw
the apple fall, but Newton was the one who
asked why.
- Bernard Mannes Baruch
Be upright in thy whole life; be content in all its
changes; so shalt thou make thy profit out of all
occurrences; so shall everything that happeneth
unto thee be the source of praise.
- Akhenaton
No evil propensity of the human heart is so
powerful that it may not be subdued by
discipline.
- Seneca
When you know a thing, to hold that you know it,
and when you do not know a thing, to allow that
you do not know it: this is knowledge.
- Confucius
An education isn't how much you have committed
to memory, or even how much you know. It's
being able to differentiate between what you do
know and what you don't.
- Anatole France
Life is thickly sown with thorns, and I know no
other remedy than to pass quickly through them.
The longer we dwell on our misfortunes, the
greater is their power to harm us.
- Voltaire
One friend in a lifetime is much, two are many,
three are hardly possible. Friendship needs a
certain parallelism of life, a community of
thought, a rivalry of aim.
- Henry Brooks Adams,
There is a great man who makes every man feel
small. But the real great man is the man who
makes every man feel great.
- G. K. Chesterton
Every day that is born into the world comes like
a burst of music and rings the whole day
through, and you make of it a dance, a dirge, or a
life march, as you will.
- Thomas Carlyle
The greatest pleasure I know is to do a good
action by stealth, and to have it found out by
accident.
- Charles Lamb
The way to develop self-confidence is to do the
thing you fear and get a record of successful
experiences behind you.
- William Jennings Bryan
Though we travel the world over to find the
beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it
not.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson, Essays, `Art'
The secret of happiness is not in doing what one
likes, but in liking what one has to do.
- James M. Barrie
Imagination is more important than knowledge,
for knowledge is limited while imagination
embraces the entire world.
- Albert Einstein
The Difficult is that which can be done
immediately; the Impossible that which takes a
little longer.
- George Santayana
I am only one, but I am still 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 Everett Hale
“Every Christian is to become a little Christ.
The whole purpose of becoming a Christian is
nothing else.”
- C.S. Lewis
The three great essentials to achieve anything
worthwhile are first, hard work; second, stick-
to-itiveness; and third, common sense.
--Thomas Edison (1847-1931), Inventor
He who will not settle for second best but waits
for the best will find it waiting for him! Love
must be all or it is nothing.
- Elizabeth Yates' book, With Pipe, Paddle, and
Song p. 167
Farmer Hoggett knew little ideas that tickled
and nagged and refused to go away, should
never be ignored; for in them lie the seeds of
destiny.
- from the movie, Babe
A good deed is never lost. He who sows courtesy,
reaps friendship; and he who plants kindness
gathers love.
- Basil
First we form habits, then they form us. Conquer
your bad habits, or they'll eventually conquer
you.
- Rob Gilbert
If I have made any valuable discoveries, it has
been owing more to patient attention than to any
other talent.
- Isaac Newton
In any moment of decision the best thing you can
do is the right thing, the next best thing is the
wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is
nothing.
- Theodore Roosevelt
Consider the postage stamp: its usefulness
consists in the ability to stick to one thing till it
gets there.
- Josh Billings
Iron rusts from disuse; stagnant water loses its
purity and in cold weather becomes frozen; even
so does inaction sap the vigor of the mind.
- Leonardo da Vinci
The great man does not think beforehand of his
words that they may be sincere, nor of his
actions that they may be resolute, he simply
speaks and does what is right.
- Mencius
A little philosophy inclineth man's mind to
atheism, but depth in philosophy bringeth men's
minds about to religion.
- Francis Bacon
People are successful at the things to which they
devote most of their time and effort. It’s a
question of deciding what’s important in your life
and working hard to achieve it.
- The Garcia-Prats (parents of 10 boys and
authors of Good Families Don’t Just Happen)
I am not asking you tonight, Lord, for the time
to do this and then that, but your grace to do
conscientiously, in the time that you give me,
what you want me to do.
- Michel Quoist
You give but little when you give of your
possessions. It is when you give of yourself that
you truly give.
- Kahlil Gibran
When you are asked if you can do a job, tell ‘em,
“Certainly I can.” Then get busy and find out how
to do it.
- Theodore Roosevelt
The heights by great men reached and kept
Were not attained by sudden flight,
But they, while their companions slept,
Were toiling upward in the night.
- Longfellow
If a task is once begun
Never leave it till it’s done
Be the labor great or small
Do it well or not at all.
- Anonymous
To find fault with a speech is not difficult - nay,
it is very easy; but to put anything better in its
place is a work of great labour.
- Plutarchus
Cleaning your house while your kids are still
growing is like shoveling the walk before it stops
snowing.
- Phyllis Diller
A great marriage is not when the perfect couple
comes together. It is when an imperfect couple
learns to enjoy their differences.
- Dave Meurer
The tree on the mountain takes whatever the
weather brings. If it has any choice at all, it is in
putting down roots as deeply as possible.
- Corrie Ten Boom
Faith is not knowledge of what the mystery of
the universe is, but the conviction that there is
a mystery, and that it is greater than us.
- Rabbi David Wolpe
To be a Christian means to forgive the
inexcusable, because God has forgiven the
inexcusable in you.
- C.S. Lewis
One must not always think so much about what
one should do, but rather what one should be.
Our works do not ennoble us; but we must
ennoble our works.
- Meister Eckhart
Blessed is the man who, having nothing to say,
abstains from giving in words evidence of the
fact.
- George Eliot
The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher
explains. The superior teacher demonstrates.
The great teacher inspires.
- William Arthur Ward
Reflect on your present blessings, of which
every man has many, not on your past
misfortunes of which all men have some.
- Charles Dickens
When one door closes another door opens; but
we so often look so long and so regretfully upon
the closed door, that we do not see the ones
which open for us.
- Alexander Graham Bell
The truth of the matter is that you always know
the right thing to do. The hard part is doing it.
- Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkoff
When you differ with a man, show him, by your
looks, by your bearing and by everything that you
do or say, that you love him.
- Senator Paul Douglas
I still find each day too short for all the
thoughts I want to think, all the walks I want to
take, all the books I want to read, and all the
friends I want to see.
- John Burroughs, 1837-1921
Mankind is never truly thankful for the benefits
of life until they have experienced the want of
them.
- an Army surgeon near Valley Forge, on the first
official national Thanksgiving Day, 1789
But the bravest are surely those who have the
clearest vision of what is before them, glory and
danger alike, and yet notwithstanding go out to
meet it.
- Thucydides
What is right is not derived from the rule, but
the rule arises from our knowledge of what is
right.
- Julius Paulus
Christians must learn again what Christians have
always known: how to live without immediate
hopes in the world.
- T. R. Milford
Where there is much desire to learn, there of
necessity will be much arguing, much writing,
many opinions; for opinion in good men is but
knowledge in the making.
- John Milton
Steadfastness in believing doth not exclude all
temptations from without. When we say a tree is
firmly rooted, we do not say the wind never
blows upon it.
- John Owen
To identify one's self with the truth is to place
one's self in the heart of a storm from which
there is no escape for life.
- D. M. Patton
The great man does not think beforehand of his
words that they may be sincere, nor of his
actions that they may be resolute he simply
speaks and does what is right.
- Mencius
It ain't those parts of the Bible that I can't
understand that bother me, it is the parts that I
do understand.
- Mark Twain
So long as we love we serve; so long as we are
loved by others, I would almost say that we are
indispensable; and no man is useless while he has
a friend.
- Robert Louis Stevenson
While the people are virtuous, they cannot be
subdued; but when they lose their virtue they
will be ready to surrender their liberties to the
first external or internal invader.
- Samuel Adamshtml
We can't form our children on our own concepts;
we must take them and love them as God gives
them to us.
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
The ultimate measure of a man is not where he
stands in moments of comfort and convenience,
but where he stands at times of challenge and
controversy.
- Martin Luther King, Jr. Strength to Love, Ch.
3.
Talking and eloquence are not the same: to
speak, and to speak well, are two things. A fool
may talk, but a wise man speaks.
- Ben Jonson
Do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger
men! Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers.
Pray for powers equal to your tasks.
- Phillips Brooks
The shortest distance between a problem and a
solution is the distance between your knees and
the floor. The one who kneels to the Lord can
stand up to anything.
- Unknown
A man can no more diminish God's glory by
refusing to worship him than a lunatic can put
out the sun by scribbling the word darkness on
the walls of his cell.
- C. S. Lewis
I believe in Christianity as I believe that the
Sun has risen, not only because I see it, but
because by it I see everything else.
- C.S. Lewis
There is no such thing as absolute certainty, but
there is assurance sufficient for the purposes
of human life.
- John Stuart Mill
The superior man . . . does not set his mind
either for anything, or against anything; what is
right he will follow.
- Confucius
We have no more right to consume happiness
without producing it than to consume wealth
without producing it.
- George Bernard Shaw
It would be a sad thing if the religious and moral
convictions upon which the American experiment
was founded could now somehow be considered a
danger to free society.
- Pope John Paul II
Peace is more important than all justice; and
peace was not made for the sake of justice, but
justice for the sake of peace.
- Martin Luther
I don't measure a man's success by how high he
climbs but how high he bounces when he hits
bottom.
- George S. Patton
Generosity during life is a very different thing
from generosity in the hour of death; one
proceeds from genuine liberality and
benevolence, the other from pride and fear.
- Horace Mann
There is not in the world a kind of life more
sweet and delightful than that of a continual
walk with God.
- Brother Lawrence
But what is liberty without wisdom, and without
virtue? It is the greatest of all possible evils;
for it is folly, vice, and madness, without tuition
or restraint.
- Edmund Burke
As a general principle you should not force young
men to do their duty, but let them do it
voluntarily and thereby develop their characters.
- Robert E. Lee
The devil loves nothing better than the
intolerance of reformers, and dreads nothing so
much as their charity and patience.
- James Russell Lowell
Men must have the right of choice, even to
choose wrong, if he shall ever learn to choose
right.
- Josiah C. Wedgwood
To achieve happiness by a succession of
pleasures is like trying to keep up a light all night
by striking successive matches.
- Sir William Beach Thomas
Good and evil both increase at compound
interest. That is why the little decisions you and
I make every day are of such infinite
importance.
- C.S. Lewis
You will find rest from vain fancies if you
perform every act in life as though it were your
last.
- Marcus Aurelius Antoninus
Perseverance is more prevailing than violence;
and many things which cannot be overcome when
they are together, yield themselves up when
taken little by little.
- Plutarch
One who is not acquainted with the designs of
his neighbors should not enter into alliances with
them.
- Sun Tzu
A thing moderately good is not so good as it
ought to be. Moderation in temper is always a
virtue; but moderation in principle is always a
vice.
- Thomas Paine
If decade after decade the truth cannot be
told, each person's mind begins to roam
irretrievably.
- Alexander Solzhenitsyn
Adam was but human; this explains it all. He did
not want the apple for the apple's sake, he
wanted it only because it was forbidden.
- Mark Twain
We must love them both those whose opinions
we share and those whose opinions we reject.
For both have labored in the search for truth,
and helped us in the finding of it.
- St. Thomas Aquinas
The hottest places in Hell are reserved for
those who, in time of moral crisis, maintain their
neutrality.
- Dante
In the beginning of a change, the patriot is a
scarce man and brave, hated and scorned. When
his cause succeeds however, the timid join him,
for then it costs nothing to be a patriot.
- Mark Twain
There is nothing wrong with men possessing
riches. The wrong comes when riches possess
men.
- Unknown
The greatest proof of Christianity for others is
not how far a man can logically analyze his
reasons for believing, but how far in practice he
will stake his life on his belief.
- T. S. Eliot
Next to life itself, self-responsibility is the
most precious possession one can lose, and it
matters not how he loses it.
- Leonard E. Read
The humblest citizen of all the land, when clad in
the armour of a righteous cause is stronger than
all the hosts of error.
- William Jennings Bryan
The higher the mountains, the more
understandable is the glory of Him who made
them and who holds them in His hand.
- Francis Schaeffer
Cease to ask what the morrow will bring forth,
and set down as gain each day that Fortune
grants.
- Horace
We have to keep in mind we are a nation under
God, and if we ever forget that, we'll be just a
nation under.
- Ronald Reagan
Never esteem anything as of advantage to you
that will make you break your word or lose your
self-respect.
- Marcus Aurelius Antoninus
Discontent as a driving force for a society might
make that society rich, but it will bankrupt it in
the end. As the coffer fills, the soul empties.
- Richard A. Swenson, M.D.,
Only he is free who cultivates his own thoughts...
and strives without fear of man to do justice to
them.
- B. Auerbach
There is no more dangerous experiment than
that of undertaking to be one thing before a
man's face and another behind his back.
- Robert E. Lee
See in the meantime that your faith bringeth
forth obedience, and God in due time will cause
it to bring forth peace.
- John Owen
Peace is more important than all justice; and
peace was not made for the sake of justice, but
justice for the sake of peace.
- Martin Luther
It is easy to dodge our responsibilities, but we
cannot dodge the consequences of dodging our
responsibilities.
- Unknown
Go outside, to the fields, enjoy nature and the
sunshine, go out and try to recapture happiness
in yourself and in God. Think of all the beauty
that's still left in and around you and be happy!
- Anne Frank
The three great essentials to achieve anything
worthwhile are first, hard work; second, stick-
to-itiveness; and third, common sense.
- Thomas Edison (1847-1931)
The real danger is not that computers will begin
to think like men, but that men will begin to
think like computers.
- Sydney J. Harris (1917-1986), Syndicated
columnist
I shall pass through this world but once. Any
good, therefore, that I can show to any human
being, let me do it now. Let me not defer nor
neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.
- Stephen Grellet
Many people will walk in and out of your life, But
only true friends will leave footprints in your
heart.
Each word must be distinct. It is a courtesy to
speak so one can be understood; it is an art so to
sing.
- From Elizabeth Yates' book, With Pipe, Paddle,
and Song. P. 99-100
He who will not settle for second best but waits
for the best will find it waiting for him! Love
must be all or it is nothing.
- From Elizabeth Yates' book, With Pipe, Paddle,
and Song p. 167
Advice is like snow; the softer it falls, the longer
it dwells upon, and the deeper it sinks into the
mind.
- Samuel Coleridge
A line will take us hours maybe; Yet if is does
not seem a moment's thought, Our stitching and
unstitching has been naught.
- William Butler Yeats
I would rather be tied to the soil as another
man's serf... than be King of all these the dead
and destroyed.
- Homer
And here, Queen Aphrodite, pour heavenly
nectar into gold cups and fill them gracefully
with sudden joy.
- Sappho
Our love of what is beautiful does not lead to
extravagance; our love of the things of the mind
does not make us soft.
- Pericles
If any man wish to write a clear style, let him be
first clear in his thoughts; and if any would write
in a noble style, let him first possess a noble
soul.
- Goethe
Nothing can supply the place of books. They are
cheering or soothing companions in solitude,
illness, affliction. The wealth of both continents
would not compensate for the good they impart.
- William E. Channing
Small kindness, small courtesies, small
considerations, habitually practiced, give a
greater charm to the character than the display
of greater talents and accomplishments.
- Kelly
Live for something. Write your name in kindness,
love, and mercy on the hearts of thousands you
come in contact with year by year, and you will
never be forgotten.
- Chalmers
So here hath been dawning another blue day!
Think! Wilt thou let it slip useless away? Out of
eternity this new day was born, Into eternity at
night will return.
- Thomas Carlyle
Lost yesterday, somewhere between sunrise and
sunset, two golden hours each set with sixty
diamond minutes. No regard is offered, because
they are gone forever.
- Horace Mann
One by one thy duties wait thee, Let thy whole
strength go to each. Let no future dreams elate
thee, Learn thou first what these can teach.
- A. A. Procter
A good deed is never lost. He who sows courtesy,
reaps friendship; and he who plants kindness
gathers love.
- Basil
Security is mostly a superstition. It does not
exist in nature... life is either a daring adventure
or nothing.
- Helen Keller
First we form habits, then they form us. Conquer
your bad habits, or they'll eventually conquer
you.
- Rob Gilbert
May we ask guidance in more surely learning the
ancient truth that greed and selfishness and
striving for undue riches can never bring lasting
happiness or good
- President Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1933
Let us come before his presence with
thanksgiving; and show ourselves glad in him with
psalms.
- The Book of Common Prayer
May it's doors be open to those in need, and it's
rooms be filled with kindness. May joy shine
from it's windows. And HIS presence never
leave it.
- Jewish home blessing
There are obviously two educations. One should
teach us how to make a living and the other how
to live.
- James T.Adams
We act as though comfort and luxury were the
chief requirements of life, when all we need to
make us really happy is something to be
enthusiastic about.
- Kingsley
Education that consists in learning things and not
the meaning of them is feeding upon the husks
and not the corn. Education consists mainly in
what we have unlearned.
- Mark Twain's Notebook, 1898
Every true work of art praises God apart from
the composer’s intentions, because it could not
have been written without the gifts which God
gave His creation.
- A.W.Tozer
 Section 3

Quotes of greater
than 4 lines in
length
Excellence is an art won by training and
habituation. We do not act rightly because we
have virtue or excellence, but we rather have
those because we have acted rightly. We are
what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not
an act but a habit. – Aristotle
Don't say you don't have enough time. You have
exactly the same number of hours per day that
were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur,
Michaelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo da
Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein.
- H. Jackson Brown
Have patience with all things, but chiefly have
patience with yourself. Do not lose courage in
considering your own imperfections, but
instantly set about remedying them - every day
begin the task anew.
- Francis de Sales
None of us is perfect. It is better to have
crooked legs than a crooked spirit. We can only
do the best we can with what we have. That,
after all, is the measure of success: what we do
with what we have.
- Marquerite de Angeli, The Door in the Wall
My most cherished possession I wish I could
leave you is my faith in Jesus Christ, for with
him and nothing else you can be happy, but
without him and with all else you'll never be
happy.
- Patrick Henry
The most important thing in the Olympic games
is not to win, but to take part, just as the most
important thing in life is not the triumph but the
struggle. The essential thing is not to have
conquered but to have fought well.
- de Coubertin
Undress, as George Herbert says, your soul at
night, not by self-examination, but by shedding,
as you do your garments, the daily sins whether
of omission or commission, and you will wake a
free man, with a new life.
- Sir William Osler
I believe God is managing affairs and that He
doesn't need any advice from me. With God in
charge, I believe everything will work out for
the best in the end. So what is there to worry
about?
- Henry Ford
The superior man cannot be known in little
matters, but he may be entrusted with great
concerns. The small man may not be entrusted
with great concerns, but he may be known in
little matters.
- Confucius
Anyone can become angry, that is easy, but to be
angry with the right person at the right time,
and for the right purpose and in the right way
that is not within everyone's power and that is
not easy.
- Aristotle
If everyone were clothed with integrity, if every
heart were just, frank, kindly, the other virtues
would be well-nigh useless, since their chief
purpose is to make us bear with patience the
injustice of our fellows.
- Moliere
...Real mental health starts with knowing who we
are and where we stand in relation to ultimate
truth which is God himself. At the core of our
being is a coherent self that God addresses, a
self that God calls to respond to him.
- Charles Colson
The struggle ... between doing what you ought
and what you desire is common to all. You have
only always to do what is right. It will become
easier by practice, and you will enjoy in the
midst of your trials the pleasure of an approving
conscience. That will be worth everything else.
- Robert E. Lee
I say: Know your enemy and know yourself; in a
hundred battles, you will never be defeated.
When you are ignorant of the enemy but know
yourself, your chances of winning or losing are
equal. If ignorant both of your enemy and of
yourself, you are sure to be defeated in every
battle.
- Sun Tzu
Wealth and peace have dimmed our spiritual
vision and many of us can no longer even
remember, or have never known, the sweet taste
of a life lived in the pursuit of self-ordered
liberty for its own sake.
- Alan Keyes
No one has the right to thrust himself into the
affairs of others in order to further their
interest, and no one ought, when he has his own
interests in view, to pretend that he is acting
selflessly only in the interests of others.
- Ludwig von Mises
Do not think of knocking out another person's
brains because he differs in opinion from you. It
would be quite as intelligent to knock yourself on
the head because you differ from yourself ten
years ago.
- Horace Mann
Observe with Care

If your lips would keep from slips,

Five things observe with care;
Of who you speak, to whom you speak,
And how and when and where.
The "I Wills" of Responsibility

I will keep my promises

I will not make excuses
I will do all my work to the best of my ability
I will make things right when I do wrong
I will know my duty and do my duty
It's not what we do that matters, but what a
sovereign God chooses to do through us. God
doesn't want our success; He wants us. He
doesn't demand our achievements, He demands
our obedience. Victory comes through defeat;
healing through brokenness; finding self through
losing self.
- Chuck Colson
The supreme end of education is expert
discernment in all things - the power to tell the
good from the bad, the genuine from the
counterfeit, and to prefer the good and genuine
to the bad and the counterfeit.
- Samuel Johnson