Quotable Quotes (3 page)

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Authors: Editors of Reader's Digest

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—
O
LIVER
W
ENDELL
H
OLMES
S
R.

 

To have more, desire less.

—
Table Talk

 

When we have provided against cold, hunger and thirst, all the rest is but vanity and excess.

—
S
ENECA

 

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.

—
C
.
S
.
L
EWIS

 

The last thing one knows is what to put first.

—
B
LAISE
P
ASCAL

 

We need to learn to set our course by the stars, not by the lights of every passing ship.

—
G
EN.
O
MAR
N
.
B
RADLEY

 

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.

—
N
ORMAN
C
OUSINS

 

The hardest thing to learn in life is which bridge to cross and which to burn.

—
L
AURENCE
J
.
P
ETER

 

Take your work seriously but yourself lightly.

—
C
.
W
.
M
ETCALF

 

If you treat every situation as a life-and-death matter, you'll die a lot of times.

—
D
EAN
S
MITH

 

Do not take life too seriously. You will never get out of it alive.

—
E
LBERT
H
UBBARD

 

It's a funny thing about life; if you refuse to accept anything but the best, you very often get it.

—
W
.
S
OMERSET
M
AUGHAM

 

It is not the man who has too little who is poor, but the one who craves more.

—
S
ENECA

 

Think big thoughts but relish small pleasures.

—
H
.
J
ACKSON
B
ROWN
J
R.

Life's Little Instruction Book

 

To be upset over what you don't have is to waste what you do have.

—
K
EN
S
.
K
EYES
J
R.

Handbook to Higher Consciousness

 

The pursuit of perfection often impedes improvement.

—
G
EORGE
W
ILL

in
Newsweek

 

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.

—
A
NNE
M
ORROW
L
INDBERGH

Gift from the Sea

 

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.

—
B
ETTY
S
MITH

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

 

Climb up on some hill at sunrise. Everybody needs perspective once in a while, and you'll find it there.

—
R
OBB
S
AGENDORPH

 

The man who can't dance thinks the band is no good.

—
P
OLISH PROVERB

 

Nothing is so good as it seems beforehand.

—
G
EORGE
E
LIOT

Silas Marner

 

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.

—
Peterborough Examiner

 

C
ONSCIENCE IS THAT STILL, SMALL VOICE . . .

 

Conscience is that still, small voice that is sometimes too loud for comfort.

—
B
ERT
M
URRAY

in
The Wall Street Journal

 

Conscience is a small inner voice that doesn't speak your language.

—Merit Crossword Puzzles Plus

 

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.

—
G
AYLORD
N
ELSON

in
The New York Times

 

Conscience is God's presence in man.

—
E
MANUEL
S
WEDENBORG

 

Reason deceives us; conscience, never.

—
J
EAN
J
ACQUES
R
OUSSEAU

 

Conscience is a mother-in-law whose visit never ends.

—
H
.
L
.
M
ENCKEN

 

A conscience, like a buzzing bee, can make a fellow uneasy without ever stinging him.

—American Farm & Home Almanac

 

The one thing that doesn't abide by majority rule is a person's conscience.

—
H
ARPER
L
EE

To Kill a Mockingbird

 

The truth of the matter is that you always know the right thing to do. The hard part is doing it.

—
G
EN.
H
.
N
ORMAN
S
CHWARZKOPF

 

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

—
C
ONFUCIUS

 

Self-discipline is when your conscience tells you to do something and you don't talk back.

—
W
.
K
.
H
OPE

 

In matters of conscience, the law of majority has no place.

—
M
OHANDAS
K
.
G
ANDHI

 

People who wrestle with their consciences usually go for two falls out of three.

—
Los Angeles Times Syndicate

 

There is no pillow so soft as a clear conscience.

—
F
RENCH PROVERB

 

A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it a superficial appearance of being right.

—
T
HOMAS
P
AINE

 

A lot of people mistake a short memory for a clear conscience.

—
D
OUG
L
ARSON

 

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.

—
S
YDNEY
J
.
H
ARRIS

 

A good conscience is a continual Christmas.

—
B
ENJAMIN
F
RANKLIN

 

A man cannot be comfortable without his own approval.

—
M
ARK
T
WAIN

 

W
ISDOM IS THE REWARD . . .

 

Wisdom is the reward you get for a lifetime of listening when you'd have preferred to talk.

—
D
OUG
L
ARSON

 

No man was ever wise by chance.

—
S
ENECA

 

It requires wisdom to understand wisdom; the music is nothing if the audience is deaf.

—
W
ALTER
L
IPPMANN

A Preface to Morals

 

What we do not understand we do not possess.

—
J
OHANN
W
OLFGANG VON
G
OETHE

 

One of the functions of intelligence is to take account of the dangers that come from trusting solely to the intelligence.

—
L
EWIS
M
UMFORD

 

What the heart knows today, the head will understand tomorrow.

—
J
AMES
S
TEPHENS

 

Science at best is not wisdom; it is knowledge. Wisdom is knowledge tempered with judgment.

—
L
ORD
R
ITCHIE-
C
ALDER

 

Never mistake knowledge for wisdom. One helps you make a living; the other helps you make a life.

—
S
ANDRA
C
AREY

 

“Next time I will . . .” “From now on I will . . .” What makes me think I am wiser today than I will be tomorrow?

—
H
UGH
P
RATHER

 

There is a great difference between knowing a thing and understanding it.

—
C
HARLES
K
ETTERING WITH
T
.
A
.
B
OYD

Prophet of Progress

 

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.

—
A
LDEN
N
OWLAN

Between Tears and Laughter

 

Everyone is a damn fool for at least five minutes every day. Wisdom consists in not exceeding the limit.

—
E
LBERT
H
UBBARD

 

Wisdom too often never comes, and so one ought not to reject it merely because it comes late.

—
F
ELIX
F
RANKFURTER

 

The wise person questions himself, the fool others.

—
H
ENRI
A
RNOLD

 

The most manifest sign of wisdom is continued cheerfulness.

—
M
ONTAIGNE

 

The art of living consists in knowing which impulses to obey and which must be made to obey.

—
S
YDNEY
J
.
H
ARRIS

 

Wisdom consists of the anticipation of consequences.

—
N
ORMAN
C
OUSINS

in
Saturday Review

 

Wisdom is the quality that keeps you from getting into situations where you need it.

—
D
OUG
L
ARSON

 

It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.

—
A
NTOINE DE
S
AINT-
E
XUPÉRY

The Little Prince

 

The more a man knows, the more he forgives.

—
C
ATHERINE THE
G
REAT

 

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.

—
K
AHLIL
G
IBRAN

 

The best-educated human being is the one who understands most about the life in which he is placed.

—
H
ELEN
K
ELLER

 

It is easier to be wise for others than for ourselves.

—
A
LEKSANDR
I
.
S
OLZHENITSYN

The First Circle

 

People far prefer happiness to wisdom, but that is like wanting to be immortal without getting older.

—
S
YDNEY
J
.
H
ARRIS

 

Learning sleeps and snores in libraries, but wisdom is everywhere, wide awake, on tiptoe.

—
J
OSH
B
ILLINGS

 

Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood.

—
M
ARIE
C
URIE

 

Discretion is knowing how to hide that which we cannot remedy.

—
S
PANISH PROVERB

 

T
HE FIRST SIGN OF MATURITY . . .

 

The first sign of maturity is the discovery that the volume knob also turns to the left.

—“
S
MILE”
Z
INGERS

in Chicago
Tribune

 

Life begins as a quest of the child for the man and ends as a journey by the man to rediscover the child.

—
L
AURENS VAN DER
P
OST

The Lost World of the Kalahari

 

A child becomes an adult when he realizes he has a right not only to be right but also to be wrong.

—
T
HOMAS
S
ZASZ

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