Quotes
Listed below are some of my favorite quotes from famous, not-so-famous, and infamous people. The list is not yet complete, as I am porting over the content from my former Web design a little at a time.
There are obviously two educations. One should teach us how to make a living and the other how to live.
The man who insists upon seeing with perfect clearness before he decides, never decides.
Anonymous
Most of us miss out on life’s big prizes. The Pulitzer. The Nobel. Oscars. Tonys. Emmys. But we’re all eligible for life’s small pleasures. A pat on the back. A kiss behind the ear. A four-pound bass. A full moon. An empty parking space. A crackling fire. A great meal. A glorious sunset. Hot soup. Cold beer.
All who have meditated on the art of governing mankind have been convinced that the fate of empires depends on the education of youth.
The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet.
We are here on Earth to do good to others. What the others are here for, I don’t know.
Without question, the greatest invention in the history of mankind is beer. Oh, I grant you that the wheel was also a fine invention, but the wheel does not go nearly as well with pizza.
Rely on the ordinary virtues that intelligent, balanced human beings have relied on for centuries: common sense, thrift, realistic expectations, patience, and perseverance.
It is possible to store the mind with a million facts and still be entirely uneducated.
Character may be manifested in the great moments, but it is made in the small ones.
Should you find yourself in a chronically leaking boat, energy devoted to changing vessels is likely to be more productive than energy devoted to patching leaks.
Ability is what you’re capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it.
Explaining the ‘Buffalo Theory’ to Norm…”Well ya see, Norm, it’s like this. A herd of buffalo can only move as fast as the slowest buffalo. And when the herd is hunted, it is the slowest and weakest ones at the back that are killed first. This natural selection is good for the herd as a whole, because the general speed and health of the whole group keeps improving by the regular killing of the weakest members.”
“In much the same way, the human brain can only operate as fast as the slowest brain cells. Excessive intake of alcohol, as we know, kills brain cells. But naturally, it attacks the slowest and weakest brain cells first. In this way, regular consumption of beer eliminates the weaker brain cells, making the brain a faster and more efficient machine!”
“That’s why you always feel smarter after a few beers!!”
Steven H. Coogler
Seek respect mainly from thyself, for it comes first from within.
The inherent virtue of Capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings. The inherent vice of Socialism is the equal sharing of misery.
Confidence is directness and courage in meeting the facts of life.
Character – the willingness to accept responsibility for one’s own life – is the source from which self-respect springs.
So much of what we call management consists in making it difficult for people to work.
Being busy does not always mean real work. The object of all work is production or accomplishment, and to either of these ends there must be forethought, system, planning, intelligence and honest purpose, as well as perspiration. Seeming to do is not doing.
Failure is the opportunity to begin again more intelligently.
Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote.
When the people find that they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic.
They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither safety nor liberty.
Be civil to all; sociable to many; familiar with few; friend to one; enemy to none.
Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote.
Where liberty dwells, there is my country.
God grant that not only the love of liberty but a thorough knowledge of the rights of man may pervade all the nations of the earth, so that a philosopher may set his foot anywhere on its surface and say: This is my country.
Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.
He that lieth down with dogs shall rise up with fleas.
If you would not be forgotten
As soon as you are dead and rotten,
Either write things worthy reading,
Or do things worth the writing.
Never confuse motion with action.
This will be the best security for maintaining our liberties. A nation of well-informed men who have been taught to know and prize the rights which God has given them cannot be enslaved. It is in the religion of ignorance that tyranny begins.
Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain and most fools do.
Whatever is begun in anger ends in shame.
To find out a girl’s faults, praise her to her girl friends.
Freedom is not a gift bestowed upon us by other men, but a right that belongs to us by the laws of God and nature.
Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become more corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters.
Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God.
The Constitution only gives people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself.
He’s a fool who cannot conceal his wisdom.
What is the use of a new-born child? (When asked the use of a new invention)
Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.
Inflation is the one form of taxation that can be imposed without legislation.
We have a system that increasingly taxes work and subsidizes nonwork.
The Great Depression, like most other periods of severe unemployment, was produced by government mismanagement rather than by any inherent instability of the private economy.
If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in 5 years there’d be a shortage of sand.
Governments never learn. Only people learn.
Thomas Jefferson (here’s another great site for Jefferson quotes and writings)
A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have.
I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.
With respect to future debt; would it not be wise and just for that nation to declare in the constitution they are forming that neither the legislature, nor the nation itself can validly contract more debt, than they may pay within their own age…
“You cannot legislate the poor into freedom by legislating the wealthy out of freedom. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for,that my dear friend, is about the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it.”
What can be added to the happiness of a man who is in health, out of debt, and has a clear conscience?