Wisdom Quotes

This section contains a mix of wisdom from all sources about life and the human condition.

Success is simple. Do what’s right, the right way, at the right time. — Arnold H. Glasow

Good judgement comes from experience; experience comes from bad judgement. — Rita Mae Brown

It is human nature to think wisely and act in an absurd fashion. — Anatole France

Important principles may, and must, be inflexible. — President Abraham Lincoln (R)

We sleep safely in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence upon those who would do us harm. — George Orwell

This is the precept by which I have lived: Prepare for the worst; expect the best; and take what comes. — Hannah Arendt

So, let us not be blind to our differences—but let us also direct attention to our common interests and to the means by which those differences can be resolved. — President John F. Kennedy (D)

The darkest places in hell are reserved for those who maintain their neutrality in times of moral crisis. — Dante Alighieri

To be a poet is a condition, not a profession. — Robert Frost

Asking an artist to talk about his work is like asking a plant to discuss horticulture. — Jean Cocteau

Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes. — Oscar Wilde

History will be kind to me for I intend to write it. — Sir Winston Churchill

Creative thinkers make many false starts, and continually waver between unmanageable fantasies and systematic attack. — Harry Hepner

Your love is your own private possession, but marriage is more than something personal—it is a status, an office. Just as it is the crown, and not merely the will to rule, that makes the king, so it is marriage, and not merely your love for each other, that joins you together in the sight of God and man. . . . It is not your love that sustains the marriage, but from now on, the marriage that sustains your love. — Reverend Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Love is not everything, it is merely one piece among many pieces that go into a functional relationship. Trust, respect, an ability to compromise, and compatibility with respect to goals, family, and finances are all equally important. Love, without those other factors, is nothing worth hanging on to. — Scott Bradford

Hell is other people. — Jean-Paul Sartre

There is more stupidity than hydrogen in the universe, and it has a longer shelf life. — Frank Zappa

I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work. — Thomas Edison

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

When you sit with a nice girl for two hours, it seems like two minutes. When you sit on a hot stove for two minutes, it seems like two hours. That’s relativity. — Albert Einstein

A successful person is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks that others throw at him. — David Brink

You will find as you look back upon your life that the moments when you have truly lived are the moments when you have done things in the spirit of love. — Henry Drummond

Self-reliance is the only road to true freedom, and being one’s own person is its ultimate reward. — Patricia Sampson

All the great things are simple, and many can be expressed in a single word: freedom; justice; honor; duty; mercy; hope. — Sir Winston Churchill

The world is divided into people who do things and people who get the credit. Try, if you can, to belong to the first class. There’s far less competition. — Dwight Morrow

The best way to predict the future is to create it. — Peter Drucker

Don’t bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself. — William Faulkner

Nobody succeeds beyond his or her wildest expectations unless he or she begins with some wild expectations. — Ralph Charell

Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere. — Albert Einstein

To cultivate kindness is a valuable part of the business of life. — Samuel Johnson

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win. — Unknown (misattributed to Mahatma Gandhi)

A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze new problems, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects. — Robert A. Heinlein, Time Enough for Love

Society often forgives the criminal; it never forgives the dreamer. — Oscar Wilde

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

To love and win is the best thing. To love and lose, the next best. — William M. Thackeray

Destiny is no 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 Jennings Bryan

Even a fool who keeps silent is considered wise; when he closes his lips, he is deemed intelligent. — King Solomon, Proverbs 17:28 (RSV-CE)

Absence is to love what wind is to fire; it extinguishes the small, it enkindles the great. — Comte DeBussy-Rabutin

Great opportunities to help others seldom come, but small ones surround us every day. — Sally Koch

The difference between fiction and reality? Fiction has to make sense. — Tom Clancy

I have never let my schooling interfere with my education. — Mark Twain

The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good. — Samuel Johnson

All are lunatics, but he who can analyze his delusion is called a philosopher. — Ambrose Pierce

The power of accurate observation is frequently called cynicism by those who don’t have it. — George Bernard Shaw

The artist is nothing without the gift, but the gift is nothing without work. — Emile Zola

He is no fool that gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose. — Jim Elliot

Imagination is more important than knowledge. — Albert Einstein

Do not take life too seriously, you will never get out of it alive. — Elbert Hubbard

Let us never negotiate out of fear, but let us never fear to negotiate. — President John F. Kennedy (D)

A liberal is a conservative who hasn’t been mugged yet. — Frank Rizzo

The most successful politician is he who says what everybody is thinking most often and in the loudest voice. — President Theodore Roosevelt (R)

Unlike presidential administrations, problems rarely have terminal dates. — President Dwight D. Eisenhower (R)

A statesman is a politician who’s been dead for ten or fifteen years. — President Harry S Truman (D)

If you think too much about being reelected, it is very difficult to be worth reelecting. — President Woodrow Wilson (D)

The sound of tireless voices is the price we pay for the right to hear the music of our own opinions. — Governor Adlai Stevenson (D-IL)

The wisest thing to do with a fool is encourage him to hire a hall and discourse to his fellow citizens. Nothing chills nonsense like exposure to air. — President Woodrow Wilson (D)

University politics are vicious precisely because the stakes are so small. — Sec. of State Henrey Kissinger (R)

People demand freedom of speech to make up for the freedom of thought which they avoid. — Soren Aabye Kierkegaard

Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable. — President John F. Kennedy (D)

People who live their lives selfishly and at the detriment of others are often the ones who complain loudest about how badly they think they’ve been mistreated. — Scott Bradford

The United States has lasted well more than 200 years, but it is still young in the grand scheme of things. The apathy of the people can still be its downfall. — Scott Bradford

When I say ‘follow your heart,’ it’s actually shorthand for ‘follow your heart unless your brain makes a reasonable objection.’ — Scott Bradford

Never expect the worst, but always be ready for it anyway. — Scott Bradford

It’s always good to break ice that you’re not standing on. — Scott Bradford

The laws that forbid the carrying of arms are laws . . . [that] disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes. — Cesare Beccaria, “On Crimes and Punishments”, 1764

If you want to build a ship, then don’t drum up men to gather wood, give orders, and divide the work. Rather, teach them to yearn for the far and the endless sea. — Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Some seem to believe that we should negotiate with the terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along…. We have an obligation to call this what it is: the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history. — President George W. Bush (R)

I do believe that where there is a choice only between cowardice and violence, I would advise violence. — Mahatma Ghandhi

Always do right; this will gratify some people and astonish the rest. — Mark Twain

When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against him. — Jonathan Swift, Thoughts on Various Subjects, Moral and Diverting

It’s really hard to design products by focus groups. A lot of times, people don’t know what they want until you show it to them. — Steve Jobs

Si vis pacem, para bellum. — (If you seek peace, prepare for war.)

In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock. — President Thomas Jefferson (Democratic-Republican)

The death of democracy is not likely to be an assassination from ambush. It will be a slow extinction from apathy, indifference, and undernourishment. — Robert Hutchins

Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so. — Douglas Adams

We must reject the idea that every time a law’s broken, society is guilty rather than the lawbreaker. It is time to restore the American precept that each individual is accountable for his actions. — President Ronald Reagan (R)

Fallacies do not cease to be fallacies because they become fashions. — G. K. Chesterton

The real conflict is the inner conflict…. [T]here are two irreconcilable enemies in the depth of every soul: good and evil, sin and love. And what use are the victories on the battlefield if we ourselves are defeated in our innermost personal selves? — Saint Maximilian Kolbe

Today’s various forms of dissolution of marriage, free unions, trial marriages[, and] the pseudo-matrimonies between people of the same sex are . . . anarchic freedom which falsely tries to pass itself off as the true liberation of man. — Pope Benedict XVI

The freedom to kill is not true freedom, but a tyranny that reduces the human being to slavery. — Pope Benedict XVI

Having a computer doesn’t make you a hacker. Having a lighter doesn’t make you an arsonist. And having a gun doesn’t make you a killer. — Anonymous, The Chattanoogan, 7/7/2009

The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries. — Sir Winston Churchill

The most dangerous man, to any government, is the man who is able to think things out for himself, without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. Almost invariably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane[,] and intolerable, and so, if he is romantic, he tries to change it. And if he is not romantic personally, he is apt to spread discontent among those who are. — Henry Louis Mencken

I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it. — Evelyn Beatrice Hall, The Friends of Voltaire

It is better to deserve honors and not have them than to have them and not deserve them. — Mark Twain

The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is comprehensible. — Albert Einstein

Never do anything against conscience even if the state demands it. — Albert Einstein

Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler. — Albert Einstein

For those who believe, no explanation is necessary; for those who do not believe, no explanation will suffice. — Joseph Dunninger

One of the traditional methods of imposing statism or socialism on a people has been by way of medicine. It’s very easy to disguise a medical program as a humanitarian project. Most people are a little reluctant to oppose anything that suggests medical care for people who possibly can’t afford it. — President Ronald Reagan (R)

Can the liberties of a nation be thought secure, when we’ve removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of people that these liberties are the gifts of God? — President Thomas Jefferson (Democratic-Republican)

Quemadmoeum gladis nemeinum occidit, occidentis telum est. — Lucius Annaeus Seneca, (A sword is never a killer, it is a tool in the killer’s hands.)

It is a poverty to decide that a child must die so that you may live as you wish. — Blessed Teresa of Calcutta

As the family goes, so goes the nation and so goes the whole world in which we live. — Blessed Pope John Paul II

Freedom consists not in doing what we like, but in having the right to do what we ought. — Blessed Pope John Paul II

If you are what you should be, you will set the whole world ablaze! — Saint Catherine of Sienna

We always find that those who walked closest to Christ were those who had to bear the greatest trials. — Saint Teresa of Avila

Give something, however small, to the one in need. For it is not small to one who has nothing. Neither is it small to God, if we have given what we could. — Saint Gregory Nazianzen

Pray, hope, and don’t worry. — Saint Pio of Pietrelcino

Conscience has rights because it has duties. — Blessed John Henry Newman

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets. — Jesus Christ, Matthew 22:37-40 (RSV-CE)

Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it. — Mark Twain

You can’t get good Chinese takeout in China and Cuban cigars are rationed in Cuba. That’s all you need to know about communism. — P. J. O’Rourke

Your money does not cause my poverty. Refusal to believe this is at the bottom of most bad economic thinking. — P. J. O’Rourke

They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety. — Benjamin Franklin

Sell not virtue to purchase wealth, nor Liberty to purchase power. — Benjamin Franklin

I’ve lived, Sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing Proofs I see of this Truth: That God governs in the Affairs of Men. — Benjamin Franklin

…in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes. — Benjamin Franklin

If Men are so wicked as we now see them with Religion what would they be if without it? — Benjamin Franklin

Fight all error, but do it with good humor, patience, kindness, and love. Harshness will damage your own soul and spoil the best cause. — Saint John of Kanty

You may tear apart the baby’s rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. — “Yes, Virginia…” Editorial, The New York Sun, 1897

The universe is not the result of chance, as some would want to make us believe. Contemplating it, we are invited to read something profound into it: the wisdom of the creator, the inexhaustible creativity of God. — Pope Benedict XVI

Accustom yourself continually to make many acts of love, for they enkindle and melt the soul. — Saint Teresa of Avila

You learn to speak by speaking, to study by studying, to run by running, to work by working; and just so you learn to love God and man by loving. All those who think to learn in any other way deceive themselves. — Saint Francis de Sales

Just as it is better to illuminate than merely to shine, so to pass on what one has contemplated is better than merely to contemplate. — Saint Thomas Aquinas

Love the sinner and hate the sin. — Saint Augustine of Hippo

Therefore do not seek to understand in order to believe, but believe that thou mayest understand. — Saint Augustine of Hippo

So material a difference does it make, not what ills are suffered, but what kind of man suffers them. For, stirred up with the same movement, mud exhales a horrible stench, and ointment emits a fragrant odor. — Saint Augustine of Hippo

No one in the world can change truth. What we can do and should do is to seek truth and to serve it when we have found it. — Saint Maximilian Kolbe

Truly, matters in the world are in a bad state; but if you and I begin in earnest to reform ourselves, a really good beginning will have been made. — Saint Peter of Alcantara

It is infinitely better to have a few good men than many indifferent ones. — President George Washington

He who permits himself to tell a lie once, finds it much easier to do it a second and third time, till at length it becomes habitual; he tells lies without attending to it, and truths without the world’s believing him. This falsehood of tongue leads to that of the heart, and in time depraves all its good dispositions. — President Thomas Jefferson (Democratic-Republican)

Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost. — President Thomas Jefferson (Democratic-Republican)

The basis of our government being the opinion of the people, the very first object should be to keep that right; and were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter. — President Thomas Jefferson (Democratic-Republican)

The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only legitimate object of good government. — President Thomas Jefferson (Democratic-Republican)

If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be. — President Thomas Jefferson (Democratic-Republican)

It is not by the consolidation or concentration, of powers, but by their distribution that good government is effected. — President Thomas Jefferson (Democratic-Republican)

Virtue is not always amiable. — President John Adams (Federalist)

A popular Government without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a Prologue to a Farce or a Tragedy, or perhaps both. Knowledge will forever govern ignorance: And a people who mean to be their own Governors, must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives. — President James Madison (Democratic-Republican)

It has been observed that a pure democracy if it were practicable would be the most perfect government. Experience has proved that no position is more false than this. — Sec. of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton (Federalist)

Civil liberty is only natural liberty, modified and secured by the sanctions of civil society. It is not a thing, in its own nature, precarious and dependent on human will and caprice; but it is conformable to the constitution of man, as well as necessary to the well-being of society. — Sec. of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton (Federalist)

In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; you are dust, and to dust you shall return. — God, Genesis 3:19 (RSV-CE)

But I feel that the greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion, because it is a war against the child, a direct killing of the innocent child, murder by the mother herself. And if we accept that a mother can kill even her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill one another? — Blessed Teresa of Calcutta

Whenever a separation is made between liberty and justice, neither, in my opinion, is safe. — Edmund Burke

Freedom and not servitude is the cure of anarchy; as religion, and not atheism, is the true remedy for superstition. — Edmund Burke

Religious persecution may shield itself under the guise of a mistaken and over-zealous piety. — Edmund Burke

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. — Jesus Christ, Matthew 5:3 (RSV-CE)

Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. — Jesus Christ, Matthew 5:4 (RSV-CE)

Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. — Jesus Christ, Matthew 5:5 (RSV-CE)

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. — Jesus Christ, Matthew 5:6 (RSV-CE)

Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. — Jesus Christ, Matthew 5:7 (RSV-CE)

Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so men persecuted the prophets who were before you. — Jesus Christ, Matthew 5:11-12 (RSV-CE)

A nation which kills its own children is a nation without a future. — Blessed Pope John Paul II

I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse; therefore choose life, that you and your descendants may live, loving the LORD your God, obeying his voice, and cleaving to him… — Deuteronomy 30:19-20 (RSV-CE)

Ever since the days of Adam, man has been hiding from God and saying, ‘God is hard to find.’ — Venerable Fulton Sheen

Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results. — Rita Mae Brown

Normal is the average of deviance. — Rita Mae Brown

Men despise religion; they hate it and fear it is true. To remedy this, we must begin by showing that religion is not contrary to reason; that it is venerable, to inspire respect for it; then we must make it lovable, to make good men hope it is true; finally, we must prove it is true. — Blaise Pascal

Let us see life as it really is…. It is a moment between two eternities. — Saint Therese of Lisieux

God has created me to do him some definite service…. I have a part in this great work; I am a link in a chain, a bond of connection between persons. He has not created me for naught. — Blessed John Henry Newman

There is more value in a little study of humility and in a single act of it than in all the knowledge in the world. — Saint Teresa of Jesus

The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God, and keep his commandments; for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil. — King Solomon, Ecclesiastes 12:13-14 (RSV-CE)

I know that there is nothing better for [men] than to be happy and enjoy themselves as long as they live; also that it is God’s gift to man that every one should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil. — King Solomon, Ecclesiastes 3:12-13 (RSV-CE)

Too many of us believe that the local police or our military…will always be there to protect us, and will always be on our side. Too many of us believe we will never need to act individually—violently, if necessary—to protect ourselves, our families, our liberty, our communities, or our country. — Scott Bradford

You cannot please both God and the world at the same time, they are utterly opposed to each other in their thoughts, their desires, and their actions. — Saint John Vianney

Oh, how precious time is! Blessed are those who know how to make good use of it. Oh, if only all could understand how precious time is, undoubtedly everyone would do his best to spend it in a praiseworthy manner! — Saint Pio of Pietrelcina

Do not reprove a scoffer, or he will hate you; reprove a wise man, and he will love you. — King Solomon, Proverbs 9:8 (RSV-CE)

We should bear in mind that, in general, it is the object of our newspapers rather to create a sensation—to make a point—than to further the cause of truth. The latter end is only pursued when it seems coincident with the former. — Edgar Allan Poe, The Mystery of Marie Roget

Now, the psychological discovery is merely this, that whereas it had been supposed that the fullest possible enjoyment is to be found by extending our ego to infinity, the truth is that the fullest possible enjoyment is to be found by reducing our ego to zero. — G. K. Chesterton, Heretics

Carlyle said that men were mostly fools. Christianity, with a surer and more reverent realism, says that they are all fools. This doctrine is sometimes called the doctrine of original sin. It may also be described as the doctrine of the equality of men. — G. K. Chesterton, Heretics

But if there really be anything of the nature of progress, it must mean, above all things, the careful study and assumption of the whole of the past. — G. K. Chesterton, Heretics

But if we do revive and pursue the pagan ideal of a simple and rational self-completion we shall end where Paganism ended. I do not mean that we shall end in destruction. I mean that we shall end in Christianity. — G. K. Chesterton, Heretics

Being full of that kindliness which should come at the end of everything, even of a book, I apologize to the rationalists even for calling them rationalists. There are no rationalists. We all believe fairy-tales, and live in them. — G. K. Chesterton, Heretics

Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. — Saint Paul, Romans 12:21 (RSV-CE)

For you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love be servants of one another. — Saint Paul, Galatians 5:13 (RSV-CE)

You ask me for a method of obtaining perfection. I know of Love and Love only! Our hearts are made for this alone. — Saint Therese of Lisieux, The Story of a Soul

If God exists, then He must be outside the natural world, and therefore the tools of science are not the right ones to learn about Him. Instead…the evidence of God’s existence would have to come from other directions, and the ultimate decision would be based on faith, not proof. — Francis S. Collins, The Language of God

But do we not sometimes hear the thief contend that he is not guilty of sin, because he steals from the rich and the wealthy, who, in his mind, not only suffer no injury, but do not even feel the loss? Such an excuse is as wretched as it is baneful. — The Catholic Church, The Catechism of the Council of Trent

You have heard that it was said, `You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. — Jesus Christ, Matthew 5:43-45 (RSV-CE)

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. — George Santayana

Each person matters; no human life is redundant. — Basil Hume

Christianity doesn’t begin by telling people what they must do, but what God has done for them. Gift comes before duty. — Father Raneiro Cantalamessa

There’s no device known to mankind that will prevent people from being idiots. — Mark Rasch

The Church does not derive from human will, from reflection, from man’s ability and organizational capacity…if that were so it would have become extinct a long time ago, like all human things. — Pope Benedict XVI

America seeks no earthly empire built on blood and force…. The higher state to which she seeks the allegiance of all mankind is not of human, but of divine origin. She cherishes no purpose save to merit the favor of Almighty God. — President Calvin Coolidge (R), 1925 Inaugural Address

Do not think that love in order to be genuine has to be extraordinary. What we need is to love without getting tired. Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies. — Blessed Teresa of Calcutta

For the law holds, that it is better that ten guilty persons escape, than that one innocent suffer. — William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England

The more project management you do the less likely your project is to succeed. — Douglas Merrill, Google

Reason itself is a matter of faith. It is an act of faith to assert that our thoughts have any relation to reality at all. — G. K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy

In truth, the idea that there is a fundamental right to life is a liberal idea…. It is an idea that compassionately sees humanity in people who might seem un-human. It is an idea that won’t let you forget or ignore somebody just because they are hidden from view, or imperfect. — Scott Bradford

Spread love everywhere you go. Let no one ever come to you without leaving happier. — Blessed Teresa of Calcutta

Those who don’t love you will tell you what you want to hear; those who love you will lead you to the truth. — Blessed Teresa of Calcutta

Any country that accepts abortion is not teaching the people to love, but to use any violence to get what they want. — Blessed Teresa of Calcutta

If God can work through me, He can work through anyone. — Saint Francis of Assisi

History teaches us that men and nations behave wisely once they have exhausted all other alternatives. — Abba Eban

There can never be a contradiction between faith and science because both originate in God. It is God who gives us both the light of reason and of faith. — Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church

Success requires a persistent misreading of the odds. — Tom Peters

By a continuing process of inflation, government can confiscate, secretly and unobserved, an important part of the wealth of their citizens. — John Maynard Keynes

Art is not freedom from discipline, but a disciplined freedom. — Father Edward Catich

Do not lose your inner peace for anything whatsoever, not even if your whole world seems upset. If you find that you have wandered away from the shelter of God, lead your heart back to Him quietly and simply. — Saint Francis de Sales

When circumstances change, I change my opinion. — John Maynard Keynes

My philosophy, in essence, is the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute. — Ayn Rand

If a man has a very decided character, has a strongly accentuated career, it is normally the case of course that he makes ardent friends and bitter enemies. — President Theodore Roosevelt (R)

[My father] gave me a piece of advice that I have always remembered, namely, that, if I was not going to earn money, I must even things up by not spending it. As he expressed it, I had to keep the fraction constant, and if I was not able to increase the numerator, then I must reduce the denominator. — President Theodore Roosevelt (R)

Pay no heed, then, to anyone who tries to frighten you or depicts to you the perils of the way. What a strange idea that one could ever expect to travel on a road infested by thieves, for the purpose of gaining some great treasure, without running into danger! — Saint Teresa of Avila

…perfect souls are in no way repelled by trials, but rather desire them and pray for them and love them. — Saint Teresa of Avila

Better a thousand times err on the side of over-readiness to fight, than to err on the side of tame submission to injury, or cold-blooded indifference to the misery of the oppressed. — President Theodore Roosevelt (R)

It is through strife, or the readiness for strife, that a nation must win greatness. — President Theodore Roosevelt (R)

We are not making a revolution, we are merely recognizing and giving shape to an evolution. — President Theodore Roosevelt (R)

If he asks for money, he is a false prophet. — Early Church Fathers, The Didache (ca. AD 100)

And every prophet who teaches the truth, but does not do what he teaches, is a false prophet. — Early Church Fathers, The Didache (ca. AD 100)

If he who comes is a wayfarer, assist him as far as you are able…. But if he has no trade, according to your understanding, see to it that, as a Christian, he shall not live with you idle. But if he wills not to do, he is a Christ-monger. Watch that you keep away from such. — Early Church Fathers, The Didache (ca. AD 100)

Intuition is a very powerful thing, more powerful than intellect, in my opinion. That’s had a big impact on my work. — Steve Jobs

Deciding what not to do is as important as deciding what to do. That’s true for companies, and it’s true for products. — Steve Jobs

The friendliness and charity of our countrymen can always be relied upon to relieve their fellow-citizens in misfortune…. Federal aid in such cases encourages the expectation of paternal care on the part of the government and weakens the sturdiness of our national character, while it prevents the indulgence among our people of that kindly sentiment and conduct which strengthens the bonds of a common brotherhood. — President Grover Cleveland (D)

The most neglected fact in business is that we’re all human. — Chip Conley

The feminists hate me, don’t they? And I don’t blame them. For I hate feminism. It is poison. — Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher (United Kingdom)

Too many people get credit for being good, when they are only being passive. They are too often praised for being broadminded when they are so broadminded they can never make up their minds about anything. — Venerable Fulton Sheen

I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it. And so it is with you. We are in charge of our attitudes. — Chuck Swindoll

The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn. — Alvin Toffle

I can’t help but laugh when I am condemned for believing in Heaven, Hell, and an invisible God by people who believe in invisible matter and hidden dimensions. We’re saying almost the same thing…. If we could stop getting distracted by our different phraseology, we’d find that we’re basically on the same page. — Scott Bradford

If you’re not catching flak, you’re not over the target. — Unknown

…whenever the legislators endeavor to take away and destroy the property of the people, or to reduce them to slavery under arbitrary power, they put themselves into a state of war with the people, who are thereupon absolved from any farther obedience and are left to the common refuge, which God hath provided for all men, against force and violence. — John Locke, Second Treatise on Government

It is perfectly evident to my mind that there exists a necessary, eternal, supreme, and intelligent being. This is no matter of faith, but of reason. — Voltaire

An atheist has to know a lot more than I know. An atheist is someone who knows there is no god. By some definitions atheism is very stupid. — Carl Sagan

Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. — Carl Sagan

Some pundits said our programs would result in catastrophe. Our views on foreign affairs would cause war. Our plans for the economy would cause inflation to soar and bring about economic collapse…. Well, [they] were wrong. The fact is, what they called ‘radical’ was really ‘right.’ What they called ‘dangerous’ was just ‘desperately needed.’ — President Ronald Reagan (R)

I wasn’t a great communicator, but I communicated great things, and they didn’t spring full bloom from my brow, they came from the heart of a great nation—from our experience, our wisdom, and our belief in the principles that have guided us for two centuries. — President Ronald Reagan (R)

The lesson of all this was, of course, that because we’re a great nation, our challenges seem complex. It will always be this way. But as long as we remember our first principles and believe in ourselves, the future will always be ours. — President Ronald Reagan (R)

The fact that some geniuses were laughed at does not imply that all who are laughed at are geniuses. They laughed at Columbus, they laughed at Fulton, they laughed at the Wright brothers. But they also laughed at Bozo the Clown. — Carl Sagan, Broca’s Brain

It is all a matter of time scale. An event that would be unthinkable in a hundred years may be inevitable in a hundred million. — Carl Sagan, Cosmos

With insufficient data it is easy to go wrong. — Carl Sagan, Cosmos

We began as wanderers, and we are wanderers still. We have lingered long enough on the shores of the cosmic ocean. We are ready at last to set sail for the stars. — Carl Sagan, Cosmos

If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe. — Carl Sagan, Cosmos

Other things being equal, it is better to be smart than to be stupid. — Carl Sagan, Cosmos

We wish to pursue the truth no matter where it leads. But to find the truth, we need imagination and skepticism both. We will not be afraid to speculate, but we will be careful to distinguish speculation from fact. The cosmos is full beyond measure of elegant truths; of exquisite interrelationships; of the awesome machinery of nature. — Carl Sagan, Cosmos

There are many hypotheses in science that are wrong. That’s perfectly alright; it’s the aperture to finding out what’s right. Science is a self-correcting process. To be accepted, new ideas must survive the most rigorous standards of evidence and scrutiny. — Carl Sagan, Cosmos

Exactly the same technology can be used for good and for evil. It is as if there were a God who said to us, ‘I set before you two ways: You can use your technology to destroy yourselves or to carry you to the planets and the stars. It’s up to you.’ — Carl Sagan, Cosmos

The vast distances that separate the stars are providential. Beings and worlds are quarantined from one another. The quarantine is lifted only for those with sufficient self-knowledge and judgement to have safely traveled from star to star. — Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot

Widespread intellectual and moral docility may be convenient for leaders in the short term, but it is suicidal for nations in the long term. One of the criteria for national leadership should therefore be a talent for understanding, encouraging, and making constructive use of vigorous criticism. — Carl Sagan, Billions and Billions

Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. — Martin Rees

Be kind to everyone you meet, for every person is fighting a great battle. — St. Ephraim

If you constantly accuse those you disagree with of bigotry, chances are that you, not them, are the bigot. — Scott Bradford

Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me; but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened round his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea. Woe to the world for temptations to sin! For it is necessary that temptations come, but woe to the man by whom the temptation comes! — Jesus Christ, Matthew 18:5-7 (RSV-CE)

The family is the cornerstone of our society. More than any other force it shapes the attitude, the hopes, the ambitions, and the values of the child. And when the family collapses it is the children that are usually damaged. When it happens on a massive scale the community itself is crippled. — President Lyndon B. Johnson (D)

I cannot see how to refute the arguments for the subjectivity of ethical values, but I find myself incapable of believing that all that is wrong with wanton cruelty is that I don’t like it. — Bertrand Russell

I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice! And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue! — Senator Barry Goldwater (R-AZ)

Those who seek absolute power, even though they seek it to do what they regard as good, are simply demanding the right to enforce their own version of heaven on earth. And let me remind you, they are the very ones who always create the most hellish tyrannies. — Senator Barry Goldwater (R-AZ)

Equality, rightly understood, as our founding fathers understood it, leads to liberty and to the emancipation of creative differences. Wrongly understood, as it has been so tragically in our time, it leads first to conformity and then to despotism. — Senator Barry Goldwater (R-AZ)

My faith in the future rests squarely on the belief that man, if he doesn’t first destroy himself, will find new answers in the universe, new technologies, new disciplines, which will contribute to a vastly different and better world in the twenty-first century. — Senator Barry Goldwater (R-AZ)

Some people are so politically oriented, when they see cornflakes in a bowl, they get some complex interpretation out of it. — Clint Eastwood

He who thus considers things in their first growth and origin, whether a state or anything else, will obtain the clearest view of them. — Aristotle, Politics

It is absurd to hold that a man ought to be ashamed of being unable to defend himself with his limbs but not of being unable to defend himself with speech and reason, when the use of reason is more distinctive of a human being than the use of his limbs. — Aristotle, Rhetoric

How many a dispute could have been deflated into a single paragraph if the disputants had dared to define their terms. — Aristotle, Rhetoric

He who is unable to live in society, or who has no need because he is sufficient for himself, must be either a beast or a god. — Aristotle, Politics

Man, when perfected, is the best of animals, but when separated from law and justice, he is the worst of all. — Aristotle, Politics

Even when laws have been written down, they ought not always to remain unaltered. — Aristotle, Politics

If liberty and equality, as is thought by some, are chiefly to be found in democracy, they will be best attained when all persons alike share in the government to the utmost. — Aristotle, Politics

Law is order, and good law is good order. — Aristotle, Politics

Piety requires us to honor truth above our friends. — Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics

For the things we have to learn before we can do, we learn by doing. — Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics

In cases of this sort, let us say adultery, rightness and wrongness do not depend on committing it with the right woman at the right time and in the right manner, but the mere fact of committing such action at all is to do wrong. — Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics

Therefore only an utterly senseless person can fail to know that our characters are the result of our conduct. — Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics

The worst form of inequality is to try to make unequal things equal. — Laurence J. Peter

Those who understand freedom as the radically arbitrary license to do just what they want and to have their own way are living in a lie, for by his very nature man is part of a shared existence and his freedom is shared freedom. — Pope Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth

Don’t be afraid of the truth, even though the truth may mean your death. — Saint Josemaria Escriva, The Way

Holy steadfastness is not intolerance. — Saint Josemaria Escriva, The Way

Don’t worry too much about what the world calls victories or defeats. How often the ‘victor’ ends up defeated! — Saint Josemaria Escriva, The Way

Don’t judge without having heard both sides. Even persons who think themselves virtuous very easily forget this elementary rule of prudence. — Saint Josemaria Escriva, The Way

Every man of power by the very fact of that power, is capable of doing damage to his neighbors; but we cannot afford to discourage the development of such men merely because it is possible they may use their power for wrong ends. — President Theodore Roosevelt (R)

Probably the greatest harm done by vast wealth is the harm that we of moderate means do ourselves when we let the vices of envy and hatred enter deep into our own hearts. — President Theodore Roosevelt (R)

Normally the man of great productive capacity who becomes rich by guiding the labor of many other men does so by enabling them to produce more than they could produce without his guidance; and both he and they share in the benefit, which comes also to the public at large. — President Theodore Roosevelt (R)

To be neutral between right and wrong is to serve wrong. — President Theodore Roosevelt (R)

There are three kinds of people in the world; those who have sought God and found Him and now serve Him, those who are seeking Him but have not yet found Him, and those who neither seek Him nor find Him. The first are reasonable and happy, the second reasonable and unhappy, and the third unreasonable and unhappy. — Blaise Pascal

Indiscriminate inclusion or indiscriminate exclusion are equally unthinking. — Peter Kreeft and Ronald K. Tacelli, Handbook of Christian Apologetics

Of all the symptoms of decay in our decadent civilization, subjectivism is the most disastrous of all. A mistake can possibly be discovered and amended if and only if truth exists and can be known and is loved and searched for. — Peter Kreeft and Ronald K. Tacelli, Handbook of Christian Apologetics

Just as pragmatism is unpragmatic and empiricism is not empirical, rationalism is irrational. You can’t prove that truth is only what can be proved. — Peter Kreeft and Ronald K. Tacelli, Handbook of Christian Apologetics

If the burden of proof is always on the one who believes any idea, then that principle should also apply to the belief in the idea of skepticism. — Peter Kreeft and Ronald K. Tacelli, Handbook of Christian Apologetics

If all values are only subjective, so is the value of tolerance. — Peter Kreeft and Ronald K. Tacelli, Handbook of Christian Apologetics

All want progress. But progress means getting nearer to the place where you want to be. And if you have taken a wrong turning, then to go forward does not get you any nearer. If you are on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; and in that case the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive man. — C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

There is nothing progressive about being pig headed and refusing to admit a mistake. And I think if you look at the present state of the world, it is pretty plain that humanity has been making some big mistake. — C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

If the whole universe has no meaning, we should never have found out that it has no meaning. Just as, if there were no light in the universe and therefore no creatures with eyes, we should never know it was dark. Dark would be a word without meaning. — C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

Besides being complicated, reality, in my experience, is usually odd. It is not neat, not obvious, not what you expect. — C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

You can do a kind action when you are not feeling kind and when it gives you no pleasure, simply because kindness is right; but no one ever did a cruel action simply because cruelty is wrong–only because cruelty was pleasant or useful to him. — C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

When a man is getting better he understands more and more clearly the evil that is still left in him. When a man is getting worse he understands his own badness less and less. A moderately bad man knows he is not very good; a thoroughly bad man thinks he is all right. — C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

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, Mere Christianity

The more you obey your conscience, the more your conscience will demand of you. — C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

If you call a horse’s tail a leg, how many legs does a horse have? The answer is four, because calling a horse’s tail a leg doesn’t make it one. — Unknown

An atheist is someone who is certain that God does not exist, someone who has compelling evidence against the existence of God. I know of no such compelling evidence. — Carl Sagan

Because God can be relegated to remote times and places and to ultimate causes, we would have to know a great deal more about the universe than we do now to be sure that no such God exists. — Carl Sagan

We know that love doesn’t mean unquestioning acceptance, constant affirmation, or bottomless approval. People who expect these things are narcissists; people who indulge them are sycophants. Neither are giving, or receiving, anything resembling love. — Scott Bradford, Love Isn’t Sycophancy

The simple fact is that God certainly intended to create a human being and that this nascent human being has been deliberately deprived of his life. And that is nothing but murder. — Reverend Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Ethics

In my youth I traveled much, and I observed in different countries, that the more public provisions were made for the poor, the less they provided for themselves, and of course became poorer. And, on the contrary, the less was done for them, the more they did for themselves, and became richer. — Benjamin Franklin

The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character–that is the goal of true education. — Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., The Purpose of Education

Science investigates; religion interprets. Science gives man knowledge which is power; religion gives man wisdom which is control. Science deals mainly with facts; religion deals mainly with values. The two are not rivals. They are complementary. — Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., Strength to Love

The trailblazers in human, academic, scientific, and religious freedom have always been nonconformists. — Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., Strength to Love

Beware you be not swallowed up in books! An ounce of love is worth a pound of knowledge. — Reverend John Wesley

When I was young I was sure of everything. In a few years, having been mistaken a thousand times, I was not half so sure of most things as I was before. At present, I am hardly sure of anything but what God has revealed to man. — Reverend John Wesley

Though we cannot think alike, may we not love alike? May we not be of one heart, though we are not of one opinion? Without all doubt, we may. Herein all the children of God may unite, notwithstanding these smaller differences. — Reverend John Wesley, Catholic Spirit

Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act. — Reverend Dietrich Bonhoeffer

How wrong it is to use God as a stop-gap for the incompleteness of our knowledge…. We are to find God in what we know, not in what we don’t know. — Reverend Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Jesus bluntly calls the evil person evil. If I am assailed, I am not to condone or justify aggression. Patient endurance of evil does not mean a recognition of its rights. That is sheer sentimentality, and Jesus will have nothing to do with it. — Reverend Dietrich Bonhoeffer

The great masquerade of evil has played havoc with all our ethical concepts. For evil to appear disguised as light, charity, historical necessity or social justice is quite bewildering to anyone brought up on out traditional ethical concepts, while for the Christian who bases his life on the Bible, it merely confirms the fundamental wickedness of evil. — Reverend Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Who stands fast? Only the man whose final standard is not his reason, his principles, his conscience, his freedom, or his virtue, but who is ready to sacrifice all this when he is called to obedient and responsible action in faith and in exclusive allegiance to God. — Reverend Dietrich Bonhoeffer

There remains an experience of incomparable value. We have for once learned to see the great events of world history from below, from the perspective of the outcasts, the suspects, the maltreated—in short, from the perspective of those who suffer. Mere waiting and looking on is not Christian behavior. Christians are called to compassion and to action. — Reverend Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Identity politics is corrosive to the great American melting pot and we reject it. We must reject the notion that demography is destiny, the pathetic and simplistic notion that skin pigmentation dictates voter behavior. We must treat all people as individuals rather than as members of special interest groups. — Governor Bobby Jindal (R-LA)

The man of science is a poor philosopher. — Albert Einstein

Every one who is seriously engaged in the pursuit of science becomes convinced that the laws of nature manifest the existence of a spirit vastly superior to that of men, and one in the face of which we with our modest powers must feel humble. — Albert Einstein

The excesses and atrocities of organized religion have no bearing whatsoever on the existence of God, just as the threat of nuclear proliferation has no bearing on the question of whether E = mc^2. — Roy Abraham Varghese, There Is a God (Preface)

The one certain way to invite disaster is to be opulent, offensive, and unarmed. — President Theodore Roosevelt (R)

Bill Gates has always told me if I had been born, you know, many thousands of years ago, I’d have been some animal’s lunch because I can’t run very fast, I can’t climb trees, and some animal would be chasing me and I would say, Well, I allocate capital. The animal would say, Those are the kind that taste the best. — Warren Buffett

American young people have got to understand from an early age that the world pays off on results, not on effort. Not everyone should win a prize no matter where he or she finishes. — Thomas Friedman and Michael Mandelbaum, That Used to Be Us

Arithmetic is not an opinion. — Unknown

It cannot be said often enough: Well-paying jobs don’t come from bailouts. They come from start-ups, which come from smart, creative, inspired risk takers. — Thomas Friedman and Michael Mandelbaum, That Used to Be Us

If no set of moral ideas were truer or better than any other, there would be no sense in preferring civilized morality to savage morality, or Christian morality to Nazi morality. In fact, of course, we all do believe that some moralities are better than others. — C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

You make a thing voluntary and then half the people do not do it. That is not what you willed, but your will has made it possible. — C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

Every historical statement in the world is believed on authority. None of us has seen the Norman Conquest or the defeat of the Armada. None of us could prove them by pure logic as you prove a thing in mathematics. — C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

They tell you sex has become a mess because it was hushed up. But for the last twenty years it has not been. It has been chattered about all day long. Yet it is still in a mess. — C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

Poster after poster, film after film, novel after novel, associate the idea of sexual indulgence with the ideas of health, normality, youth, frankness, and good humor…. This association is a lie. — C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

Knowledge can last, principles can last, habits can last; but feelings come and go. — C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

But love, in the Christian sense, does not mean an emotion. It is a state not of the feelings but of the will; that state of the will which we have naturally about ourselves, and must learn to have about other people. — C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

Our bodies are essentially the same kind of thing as ape bodies. If we have no souls or if our souls are also essentially the same as ape souls, then there is no reason to expect anyone to act essentially different from apes. (This may explain much current social history!) What makes a difference is not where the body came from, but whether there is a soul, and where it came from. — Peter Kreeft and Ronald K. Tacelli, Handbook of Christian Apologetics

If you can’t translate it into words a fisherman would understand, you don’t understand it yourself. — Peter Kreeft and Ronald K. Tacelli, Handbook of Christian Apologetics

Objective does not mean “known by all” or “believed by all.” Even if everyone believes a lie, a lie is still a lie. — Peter Kreeft and Ronald K. Tacelli, Handbook of Christian Apologetics

But if we successfully reduce gun murders without reducing the overall murder rate, that’s not really success. The murder victim doesn’t care whether he was killed with a gun, knife, hammer, car, poison, anvil, or blow-dart. Neither should we. — Scott Bradford, On the Obama Gun-Control Proposals

The Constitution does not prohibit legislatures from enacting stupid laws. — Justice Thurgood Marshall

The problem is not that we are sinners. The problem is that we are not ashamed for what we have done. — Pope Francis