Authors: Editors of Reader's Digest
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LIVER
W
ENDELL
H
OLMES
S
R.
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To have more, desire less.
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Table Talk
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When we have provided against cold, hunger and thirst, all the rest is but vanity and excess.
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S
ENECA
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A glimpse is not a vision. But to a man on a mountain road by night, a glimpse of the next three feet of road may matter more than a vision of the horizon.
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C
.
S
.
L
EWIS
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The last thing one knows is what to put first.
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B
LAISE
P
ASCAL
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We need to learn to set our course by the stars, not by the lights of every passing ship.
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G
EN.
O
MAR
N
.
B
RADLEY
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What was most significant about the lunar voyage was not that men set foot on the moon but that they set eye on the earth.
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N
ORMAN
C
OUSINS
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The hardest thing to learn in life is which bridge to cross and which to burn.
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L
AURENCE
J
.
P
ETER
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Take your work seriously but yourself lightly.
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C
.
W
.
M
ETCALF
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If you treat every situation as a life-and-death matter, you'll die a lot of times.
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D
EAN
S
MITH
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Do not take life too seriously. You will never get out of it alive.
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E
LBERT
H
UBBARD
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It's a funny thing about life; if you refuse to accept anything but the best, you very often get it.
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W
.
S
OMERSET
M
AUGHAM
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It is not the man who has too little who is poor, but the one who craves more.
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S
ENECA
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Think big thoughts but relish small pleasures.
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H
.
J
ACKSON
B
ROWN
J
R.
Life's Little Instruction Book
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To be upset over what you don't have is to waste what you do have.
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K
EN
S
.
K
EYES
J
R.
Handbook to Higher Consciousness
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The pursuit of perfection often impedes improvement.
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G
EORGE
W
ILL
in
Newsweek
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One cannot collect all the beautiful shells on the beach. One can collect only a few, and they are more beautiful if they are few.
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A
NNE
M
ORROW
L
INDBERGH
Gift from the Sea
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Look at everything as though you were seeing it either for the first or last time. Then your time on earth will be filled with glory.
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B
ETTY
S
MITH
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
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Climb up on some hill at sunrise. Everybody needs perspective once in a while, and you'll find it there.
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R
OBB
S
AGENDORPH
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The man who can't dance thinks the band is no good.
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P
OLISH PROVERB
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Nothing is so good as it seems beforehand.
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G
EORGE
E
LIOT
Silas Marner
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In order to maintain a well-balanced perspective, the person who has a dog to worship him should also have a cat to ignore him.
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Peterborough Examiner
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C
ONSCIENCE IS THAT STILL, SMALL VOICE . . .
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Conscience is that still, small voice that is sometimes too loud for comfort.
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B
ERT
M
URRAY
in
The Wall Street Journal
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Conscience is a small inner voice that doesn't speak your language.
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The ultimate test of man's conscience may be his willingness to sacrifice something today for future generations whose words of thanks will not be heard.
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G
AYLORD
N
ELSON
in
The New York Times
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Conscience is God's presence in man.
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E
MANUEL
S
WEDENBORG
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Reason deceives us; conscience, never.
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J
EAN
J
ACQUES
R
OUSSEAU
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Conscience is a mother-in-law whose visit never ends.
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H
.
L
.
M
ENCKEN
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A conscience, like a buzzing bee, can make a fellow uneasy without ever stinging him.
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The one thing that doesn't abide by majority rule is a person's conscience.
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H
ARPER
L
EE
To Kill a Mockingbird
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The truth of the matter is that you always know the right thing to do. The hard part is doing it.
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G
EN.
H
.
N
ORMAN
S
CHWARZKOPF
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To know what is right and not to do it is the worst cowardice.
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C
ONFUCIUS
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Self-discipline is when your conscience tells you to do something and you don't talk back.
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W
.
K
.
H
OPE
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In matters of conscience, the law of majority has no place.
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M
OHANDAS
K
.
G
ANDHI
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People who wrestle with their consciences usually go for two falls out of three.
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Los Angeles Times Syndicate
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There is no pillow so soft as a clear conscience.
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F
RENCH PROVERB
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A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it a superficial appearance of being right.
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T
HOMAS
P
AINE
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A lot of people mistake a short memory for a clear conscience.
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D
OUG
L
ARSON
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Many people feel “guilty” about things they shouldn't feel guilty about, in order to shut out feelings of guilt about things they should feel guilty about.
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S
YDNEY
J
.
H
ARRIS
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A good conscience is a continual Christmas.
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B
ENJAMIN
F
RANKLIN
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A man cannot be comfortable without his own approval.
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M
ARK
T
WAIN
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W
ISDOM IS THE REWARD . . .
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Wisdom is the reward you get for a lifetime of listening when you'd have preferred to talk.
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D
OUG
L
ARSON
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No man was ever wise by chance.
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S
ENECA
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It requires wisdom to understand wisdom; the music is nothing if the audience is deaf.
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W
ALTER
L
IPPMANN
A Preface to Morals
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What we do not understand we do not possess.
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J
OHANN
W
OLFGANG VON
G
OETHE
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One of the functions of intelligence is to take account of the dangers that come from trusting solely to the intelligence.
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L
EWIS
M
UMFORD
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What the heart knows today, the head will understand tomorrow.
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J
AMES
S
TEPHENS
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Science at best is not wisdom; it is knowledge. Wisdom is knowledge tempered with judgment.
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L
ORD
R
ITCHIE-
C
ALDER
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Never mistake knowledge for wisdom. One helps you make a living; the other helps you make a life.
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S
ANDRA
C
AREY
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“Next time I will . . .” “From now on I will . . .” What makes me think I am wiser today than I will be tomorrow?
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H
UGH
P
RATHER
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There is a great difference between knowing a thing and understanding it.
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HARLES
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ETTERING WITH
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.
A
.
B
OYD
Prophet of Progress
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The day the child realizes that all adults are imperfect he becomes an adolescent; the day he forgives them, he becomes an adult; the day he forgives himself he becomes wise.
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A
LDEN
N
OWLAN
Between Tears and Laughter
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Everyone is a damn fool for at least five minutes every day. Wisdom consists in not exceeding the limit.
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E
LBERT
H
UBBARD
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Wisdom too often never comes, and so one ought not to reject it merely because it comes late.
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F
ELIX
F
RANKFURTER
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The wise person questions himself, the fool others.
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H
ENRI
A
RNOLD
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The most manifest sign of wisdom is continued cheerfulness.
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M
ONTAIGNE
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The art of living consists in knowing which impulses to obey and which must be made to obey.
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S
YDNEY
J
.
H
ARRIS
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Wisdom consists of the anticipation of consequences.
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N
ORMAN
C
OUSINS
in
Saturday Review
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Wisdom is the quality that keeps you from getting into situations where you need it.
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D
OUG
L
ARSON
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It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.
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A
NTOINE DE
S
AINT-
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XUPÃRY
The Little Prince
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The more a man knows, the more he forgives.
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C
ATHERINE THE
G
REAT
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Keep me away from the wisdom which does not cry, the philosophy which does not laugh and the greatness which does not bow before children.
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K
AHLIL
G
IBRAN
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The best-educated human being is the one who understands most about the life in which he is placed.
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H
ELEN
K
ELLER
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It is easier to be wise for others than for ourselves.
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A
LEKSANDR
I
.
S
OLZHENITSYN
The First Circle
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People far prefer happiness to wisdom, but that is like wanting to be immortal without getting older.
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S
YDNEY
J
.
H
ARRIS
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Learning sleeps and snores in libraries, but wisdom is everywhere, wide awake, on tiptoe.
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J
OSH
B
ILLINGS
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Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood.
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M
ARIE
C
URIE
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Discretion is knowing how to hide that which we cannot remedy.
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S
PANISH PROVERB
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HE FIRST SIGN OF MATURITY . . .
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The first sign of maturity is the discovery that the volume knob also turns to the left.
â“
S
MILE”
Z
INGERS
in Chicago
Tribune
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Life begins as a quest of the child for the man and ends as a journey by the man to rediscover the child.
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L
AURENS VAN DER
P
OST
The Lost World of the Kalahari
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A child becomes an adult when he realizes he has a right not only to be right but also to be wrong.
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T
HOMAS
S
ZASZ