Some Favorite Quotes About Life 

Activism

"All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing." Edmund Burke

"He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it." Martin Luther King Jr.

"Power never concedes anything without a demand. It never has and it never will." Frederick Douglass

"Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty." Wendell Phillips

Attitude

"If we think happy thoughts, we will be happy. If we think miserable thoughts, we will be miserable." Dale Carnegie

"Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be." Abraham Lincoln

"Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of human freedoms – to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way." Viktor Frankl

"The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past . . . we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude. . . . I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it." Charles Swindoll

"This, in my judgment, is the highest philosophy: First, do not regret having lost yesterday; second, do not fear that you will lose tomorrow; third, enjoy today." Robert Ingersoll

Authority

"All things and all people in life have to sink or swim on their own merits, not their reputation; that just as a wise man can say a foolish thing, a fool can say something wise." Vincent Bugliosi

"Disciplined adherence to authority, when viewed as an end in itself, has led to the most horrible atrocities. History is replete with examples of how otherwise decent people, when conditioned to follow orders regardless of their personal reservations, can be led to massacre men, women and children." Joseph Daleiden

"Blind obedience is a sure sign of trouble. The likelihood of religion becoming evil is greatly diminished when there is freedom for individual thinking and when honest inquiry is encouraged." Charles Kimball

"He [John Locke] came to understand that the only reliable thing that can be said about human knowledge is that it is, and can be, only partial. This simple truth has enormous consequences, because it means that any form of authoritarianism, whether intellectual or political, is based on the false premise that one person or system has all the answers." Susan Ford Wiltshire

"Is it not the glory of the people of America, that whilst they have paid a decent regard to the opinions of former times and other nations, they have not suffered a blind veneration for antiquity, for custom, or for names, to overrule the suggestions of their own good sense, the knowledge of their own situation, and the lessons of their own experience? To this manly spirit, posterity will be indebted for the possession, and the world for the example of the numerous innovations displayed on the American theater, in favor of private rights and public happiness." James Madison

Bragging

"Bragging actually dilutes the positive feelings you receive from an accomplishment or something you are proud of. To make matters worse, the more you try to prove yourself, the more others will avoid you, talk behind your back about your insecure need to brag, and perhaps even resent you." Richard Carlson

"Who knows himself a braggart, 
Let him fear this; for it will come to pass
That every braggart will be found an ass." Shakespeare

Certainty

"In the name of certainty, the greatest crimes have been committed against humanity." Carlos Fuentes

"Madness is the result not of uncertainty but certainty." Friedrich Nietzsche

"Most of the greatest evils that man has inflicted upon man have come through people feeling quite certain about something which, in fact, was false. To know the truth is more difficult than most men suppose, and to act with ruthless determination in the belief that truth is the monopoly of their party is to invite disaster." Bertrand Russell

"Intolerance is the natural concomitant of strong faith; tolerance grows only when faith loses certainty; certainty is murderous." Will Durant

"The persecuting spirit has its origin . . . in the assumption that one's own opinions are infallibly correct." John Fiske

"We have been cocksure of many things that were not so." Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.

"Absolute certainty will always elude us. We will always be mired in error. The most each generation can hope for is to reduce the error. . . ." Carl Sagan

"The spirit of liberty is jeopardized by too much certitude, by too much righteousness, and by an unwillingness or incapacity to stand in another's shoes." Geoffrey Amstoy

"The spirit of liberty is the spirit which is not too sure that it is right. . . ." Judge Learned Hand

"'I beseech ye . . . , think that ye may be mistaken.' I should like to have that written over the portals of every church, every school, and every courthouse, and, may I say, of every legislative body in the United States. I should like to have every court begin, 'I beseech ye . . . , think that we may be mistaken.'" Judge Learned Hand

Change

"The soft-minded man always fears change. He feels security in the status quo, and he has an almost morbid fear of the new. For him, the greatest pain is the pain of a new idea." Martin Luther King Jr.

"Contented acquiescence in the ordering that has come down to us from the past is selfish and anti-social, because amid the ceaseless change that is inevitable . . . , the institutions of the past demand progressive re-adaptations." John Morley

"If we don't change, we don't grow. If we don't grow, we aren't really living." Gail Sheehy

"The foolish and the dead alone never change their opinions." James Russell Lowell

"Having lived long, I have experienced many instances of being obliged, by better information or fuller consideration, to change opinions . . . which I once thought right but found to be otherwise. It is therefore that the older I grow the more apt I am to doubt my own judgment and to pay more respect to the judgment of others." Benjamin Franklin

Character

"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.

"Character consists of what you do on the third and fourth tries." James Michener

"Nothing discloses character like the use of power." Robert Ingersoll

"The measure of a man's real character is what he would do if he knew he would never be found out." Thomas B. Macaulay

"It is our choice of good or evil that determines our character, not our opinion about good or evil." Aristotle

Civil Liberties

"He that would make his own liberty secure must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty, he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself." Thomas Paine

"If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion, or force citizens to confess by word or act their faith therein." Justice Robert H. Jackson

"The very purpose of a Bill of Rights was to withdraw certain subjects from the vicissitudes of political controversy . . . and to establish them as legal principles to be applied by the courts. One's right to life, liberty, and property, to free speech, a free press, freedom of worship and assembly, and other fundamental rights may not be submitted to vote; they depend on the outcome of no elections." Justice Robert H. Jackson

"The kind of economic organization that provides economic freedom directly, namely, competitive capitalism, also promotes political freedom because it separates economic power from political power and in this way enables the one to offset the other. . . . I know of no example in time or place of a society that has been marked by a large measure of political freedom, and that has not also used something comparable to a free market to organize the bulk of economic activity." Milton Friedman

"I believe there are more instances of abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations." James Madison

"No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare." James Madison

"The loss of liberty at home is to be charged to the provisions against danger, real or imagined, from abroad." James Madison

"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." Benjamin Franklin

"It is easy to make light of insistence on scrupulous regard for the safeguards of civil liberties when invoked on behalf of the unworthy. . . . History bears testimony that by such disregard are the rights of liberty extinguished, heedlessly, at first, then stealthily, and brazenly in the end." Justice Felix Frankfurter

Civility

"If the reason I give is a good one, you will act upon it. If it is a bad one I cannot make it better by piling epithet upon epithet. There is no logic in abuse; there is no argument in an epithet." Robert Ingersoll

"Arguments cannot be answered with insults. . . .  Kindness is strength. . . . Anger blows out the lamp of the mind. In the examination of a great and important question, every one should be serene, slow-pulsed, and calm." Robert Ingersoll

"If you and I want to stir up a resentment tomorrow that may rankle across the decades and endure until death, just let us indulge in a little stinging criticism - no matter how certain we are that it is justified." Dale Carnegie

"Bitter criticism caused the sensitive Thomas Hardy, one of the finest novelists ever to enrich English literature, to give up forever the writing of fiction. Criticism drove Thomas Chatterton, the English poet, to suicide. . . . Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain - and most fools do. But it takes character and self-control to be understanding and forgiving." Dale Carnegie

"In the course of my observation, these disputing, contradicting and confuting people are generally unfortunate in their affairs. They get victory sometimes, but they never get good will, which would be of more use to them." Benjamin Franklin

"Being aloof, gruff, or stern never got anyone anywhere. Who wants to be treated like that? Certainly not you. And surely not the people you meet." Wayne Dosick

"Good manners are made up of petty sacrifices." Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Cruelty hardens and degrades, kindness reforms and ennobles." Robert Ingersoll

"None can be called deformed but the unkind." Shakespeare

Common Sense

"One thing I have seen over and over again in life is that there is virtually no correlation between intelligence and common sense. IQ doesn't seem to translate that way." Vincent Bugliosi

"I'm sure it's very obvious . . . how upset I am with incompetence and the lack of common sense in life. If I can sum up the reason . . . it's that these characteristics are not benign. They are responsible for much, if not most, of the great problems, misery, and injustice in the world." Vincent Bugliosi

"Common sense is not so common." Voltaire

"We need education in the obvious more than investigation of the obscure." Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.

Competence

"Quality is never an accident; it is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, intelligent direction and skillful execution. . . ." Willa A. Foster

"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." Thomas Edison

"A professional is a person who can do his best at a time when he doesn't particularly feel like it." Alistair Cooke

"The secret of joy in work is contained in one word - excellence. To know how to do something well is to enjoy it." Pearl S. Buck

"I have given before . . . the definition of happiness of the Greeks, and I will define it again: It is full use of your powers along lines of excellence." John F. Kennedy

Courage

"Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear - not absence of fear." Mark Twain

"We become brave by doing brave acts." Aristotle

"The greatest test of courage on the earth is to bear defeat without losing heart. That army is the bravest that can be whipped the greatest number of times and fight again." Robert Ingersoll

"But courage in fighting is by no means the only form, nor perhaps even the most important. There is courage in facing poverty, courage in facing derision, courage in facing the hostility of one's own herd. In these, the bravest soldiers are often lamentably deficient. And above all there is the courage to think calmly and rationally in the face of danger, and to control the impulse of panic fear or panic rage." Bertrand Russell

"Courageous men never lose the zest for living even though their life situation is zestless; cowardly men, overwhelmed by the uncertainties of life, lose the will to live. We must constantly build dykes of courage to hold back the flood of fear." Martin Luther King Jr.

"Moral courage is a rarer commodity than bravery in battle or great intelligence. Yet it is the one essential, vital quality for those who seek to change a world that yields most painfully to change." Robert F. Kennedy

Death

"He [The Improved Man] will enjoy not only the sunshine of life, but will bear with fortitude the darkest days. He will have no fear of death. About the grave, there will be no terrors, and his life will end as serenely as the sun rises." Robert Ingersoll

"Upon the great questions of origin, of destiny, of immortality, of . . . other worlds, every honest man must say, 'I do not know.' Upon these questions, this is the creed of intelligence." Robert Ingersoll

"The truth is that we simply do not know what happens after death." Sam Harris

"The minister asks, 'What right have you to hope? It is sacrilegious to you.' But, whether the clergy like it or not, I shall always express my real opinion, and shall always be glad to say to those who mourn: 'There is in death, as I believe, nothing worse than sleep. Hope for as much better as you can.'" Robert Ingersoll

"I cherish the fantasy, even the hope, of adventures in other realms to come. But how can we choke out that most precious of all gifts, life, with the rope of religion around our necks? It chokes out freedom with dogma. It pinions us to the stake of superstition." Gerry Spence

Drugs and Alcohol

"Now the struggle for life is so sharp, competition is so severe, that few men can succeed who carry a useless burden. The businessmen of our country are compelled to lead temperate lives, otherwise their credit is gone." Robert Ingersoll

"In the search for truth - that everything in nature seems to hide - man needs the assistance of all his faculties. All the senses should be awake." Robert Ingersoll

"'Tis easier to prevent bad habits than to break them." Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard's Maxims

"What maintains one vice, would bring up two children." Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard's Maxims

Economics

"Truth is not to be found either in traditional capitalism or in Marxism. Each represents a partial truth. Historically, capitalism failed to discern the truth in collective enterprise and Marxism failed to see the truth in individual enterprise." Martin Luther King Jr.

"When economic power became concentrated in a few hands, then political power flowed to those possessors and away from the citizens, ultimately resulting in an oligarchy or tyranny." John Adams

"We can have democracy in this country or we can have great concentrated wealth in the hands of a few, but we cannot have both." Justice Louis Brandeis

"Of course I believe in free enterprise but in my system of free enterprise, the democratic principle is that there never was, never has been, never will be, room for the ruthless exploitation of the many for the benefit of the few." Harry S. Truman

"Is this improvement in the circumstances of the lower ranks of the people to be regarded as an advantage or as an inconveniency to the society? . . . It is but equity . . . that they who feed, cloath and lodge the whole body of the people, should have such a share of the produce of their own labour as to be themselves tolerably well fed, cloathed and lodged." Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations

"An underpaid man is a customer reduced in purchasing power. He cannot buy. Business depression is caused by weakened purchasing power. Purchasing power is weakened by uncertainty or insufficiency of income. The cure of business depression is through purchasing power, and the source of purchasing power is wages." Henry Ford 

"Market forces have no intrinsically moral direction, which is why, before he wrote The Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith wrote The Theory of Moral Sentiments. Ethics should precede economics. But it doesn't have to. . . . We know this because we've seen the results of capitalism without conscience: the pollution of the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the food we eat; the endangerment of workers; and the sale of dangerous products - from cars to toys to drugs. All in pursuit of ever-greater profits." Arianna Huffington

"Business is correct to defend its right to act in order to produce a vigorous and engaging prosperity. But it is wrong if it forgets that this freedom can only be experienced within the discipline of social responsibility." Paul Hawken

"The problem isn't that conservatives are wrong about the efficiency of markets or the creativity of enterprise. It's that they have made false idols of both, usually without acknowledging that markets work best when well regulated, that private enterprise cannot meet every human need, that government has always played a critical role in our economy, and that the profit motive can be socially and environmentally destructive as well as dynamic." Joe Conason

"We have always known that heedless self-interest was bad morals; we know now that it is bad economics. Out of the collapse of a prosperity whose builders boasted their practicality has come the conviction that in the long run economic morality pays." Franklin D. Roosevelt

Education

"To educate a person in mind but not in morals is to educate a menace to society." Theodore Roosevelt

"The object of all education should be to increase the usefulness of man - usefulness to himself and others." Robert Ingersoll

"As long as a man lives he should study. Death alone has the right to dismiss the school." Robert Ingersoll

"Republics, one after another . . . have perished from a want of intelligence and virtue in the masses of the people. . . ." Horace Mann

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be." Thomas Jefferson

"Enlighten the people generally, and tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will vanish. . . ." Thomas Jefferson

"This institution will be based on the illimitable freedom of the human mind. For here we are not afraid to follow truth wherever it may lead, nor to tolerate error so long as reason is free to combat it." Thomas Jefferson, to prospective teachers, University of Virginia

"The devotion of democracy to education is a familiar fact. . . . [A] government resting upon popular suffrage cannot be successful unless those who elect . . . their governors are educated." John Dewey

Emotions

"When passions and appetites are stronger than the intellect, men are savages; when the intellect governs the passions, when the passions are servants, men are civilized. The people need education - facts - philosophy." Robert Ingersoll

"Is not the history of real civilization the slow and gradual emancipation of the intellect, of the judgment, from the mastery of passion? Is not that man civilized whose reason sits the crowned monarch of his brain - whose passions are his servants?" Robert Ingersoll

"Remember that feelings or emotions emanate from the more ancient, less evolved, lower part of the human brain, while thoughts are a product of our highly evolved, uniquely human, outer part of the brain." Laura Schlessinger

"We need to be in control of ourselves - our appetites, our passions - to do right by others. It takes will to keep emotion under the control of reason." Thomas Lickona

"Why should we desire the destruction of human passions? Take passions from human beings and what is left? The great object should be not to destroy passions, but to make them obedient to the intellect. To indulge passion to the utmost is one form of intemperance - to destroy passion is another. The reasonable gratification of passion under the domination of the intellect is true wisdom and perfect virtue." Robert Ingersoll

"Though we [Humanists] take a strict position on what constitutes knowledge, we are not critical of the source of ideas. Often intuitive feelings, hunches, speculation, and flashes of inspiration prove to be excellent sources of novel approaches, new ways of looking at things, new discoveries, and new information. We do not disparage those ideas derived from religious experience, altered states of consciousness, or the emotions; we merely declare that testing these ideas against reality is the only way to determine their validity as knowledge." Fred Edwords

Enemies

"Love your enemies, for they tell you your faults." Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard's Maxims

"I do not believe in loving enemies; I have pretty hard work to love my friends. Neither do I believe in revenge. No man can afford to keep the viper of revenge in his heart. But I believe in justice, in self-defense." Robert Ingersoll

"Love your friends and be just to your enemies." Robert Ingersoll

"That four great nations, flushed with victory and stung with injury, stay the hand of vengeance and voluntarily submit their captive enemies to the judgment of the law is one of the most significant tributes that Power has ever paid to Reason." Justice Robert H. Jackson, from his opening statement as Chief U.S. Prosecutor at the Nuremberg Trials

Enthusiasm

"Enthusiasm is one of the most powerful engines of success. When you do a thing, do it with all your might. Put your whole soul into it. Stamp it with your own personality. Be active, be energetic, be enthusiastic and faithful. . . . Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm." Ralph Waldo Emerson 

Evolution

"Modern Darwinism makes it abundantly clear that many less ruthless traits, some not always admired by robber barons and Fuhrers - altruism, general intelligence, compassion - may be the key to survival." Carl Sagan

"During the last hundred years . . . scientists have made clear how cooperation is, in a very real sense, important to survival on many levels of life. Kropotkin pointed out how crucial to human and animal survival is the exercise of mutual aid. At least one paleontologist found in cooperation the grand strategy of evolution." Lloyd and Mary Morain

Exercise

"To keep the body in good health is a duty . . . otherwise we shall not be able to keep our minds strong and clear." Buddha

"The benefits of exercise extend to all parts of the body, yielding boons from stronger muscles to a healthier heart to enhanced brain function. Conversely, lack of exercise carries serious health risks. . . ." Marc Bain

"Regular exercise improves your mood, decreases anxiety, improves sleep, improves resilience in the face of stress, and raises self-esteem." Michael Craig Miller, M.D.

"[Exercise] stimulates your circulation, massages your internal organs, stretches and strengthens your muscles, and energizes you. Exercise is also a great way to discharge tension, work through emotional blocks, release anger, and gain self-esteem." Ellen Bass and Laura Davis

"Exercise is not only good at keeping you fit, it reduces anxiety and depression, too." Claudia Kalb

"If you could put exercise in a pill, you'd be able to treat so many chronic conditions and diseases." Roger Fielding, Ph.D.

Family

"The selection process has been powerful enough to produce one indisputable outcome: the family is a universal human institution. . . . In virtually every society into which historians or anthropologists have inquired, one finds people living together on the basis of kinship ties and having responsibility for raising children. . . . Even in societies where men and women have relatively unrestricted sexual access to one another beginning at an early age, marriage is still the basis for family formation. It is desired by the partners and expected by society." James Q. Wilson

"The family, for most of us, is a Haven in a Heartless World, a place where we can retire for rest and succor in the face of the relentless demands and challenges the outside world throws at us. . . ." Jeff Riggenbach

"[A child] needs home to be a haven where she can recharge her batteries, and where people in that home can help her understand, untangle, and accept (not necessarily agree with) the existence of the many strange behaviors of our world outside." James Webb, Elizabeth Meckstroth and Stephanie Tolan

"Feelings of right and wrong that at first have their locus within the family gradually develop into a pattern for the tribe or city, then spread to the much larger unit of the nation, and finally from the nation to mankind as a whole." Corliss Lamont

"Good company and good discourse are the very sinews of virtue." Izaak Walton

"Nothing is so much needed as a secure family life for a people seeking to rise out of poverty and backwardness." Martin Luther King Jr.

"The rights of men and women should be equal and sacred – marriage should be a perfect partnership – children should be governed by kindness. . . ." Robert Ingersoll

"Boys are more likely to develop a masculine personality and acquire strong moral standards when they have a loving and nurturant rather than a threatening or fear-inspiring father." James Q. Wilson

Fear

"No passion so effectually robs the mind of all its powers of acting and reasoning as fear." Edmund Burke

"Where fear is present, wisdom cannot be." Lactantius

"When fear displaces reason, the result is often irrational hatred and division." Al Gore

"Fear is the parent of cruelty. . . ." Bertrand Russell

"We have nothing to fear but fear itself. . . ." Franklin D. Roosevelt

Forgiveness

"Let us not listen to those who think we ought to be angry with our enemies, and who believe this to be great and manly. Nothing is so praiseworthy, nothing so clearly shows a great and noble soul, as clemency and readiness to forgive." Cicero

"The wise man will not pardon any crime that ought to be punished, but he will accomplish, in a nobler way, all that is sought in pardoning. He will spare some and watch over some, because of their youth, and others on account of their ignorance. His clemency will not fall short of justice, but will fulfill it perfectly." Seneca

"A more peaceful way to live is to decide consciously which battles are worth fighting and which are better left alone. . . . Is it really important . . . that you confront someone simply because . . . he or she has made a minor mistake? . . . Does a small scratch on your car really warrant a suit in small claims court? . . . These and thousands of other small things are what many people spend their lives fighting about. . . . If you don't want to 'sweat the small stuff,' it's critical that you choose your battles wisely." Richard Carlson

"Wink at small faults; remember thou hast great ones." Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard's Maxims

"Of all the manifestations of power, restraint impresses men the most." Thucydides

"The quality of mercy is not strained;
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath. It is twice blest;
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes.
'Tis mightiest in the mightiest; it becomes
The throned monarch better than his crown." Shakespeare

Gossip

"Gossip and slander are not victimless crimes. Words do not just dissipate into midair. . . . Words can injure and damage, maim and destroy - forcefully, painfully, lastingly. . . . Plans have been disrupted, deals have been lost, companies have fallen, because of idle gossip or malicious slander.  Reputations have been sullied, careers have been ruined, lives have been devastated, because of cruel lies or vicious rumors. . . . Your words have such power to do good or evil that they must be chosen carefully, wisely, and well." Wayne Dosick

"Minding your own business . . . includes [avoiding] eavesdropping, gossiping, talking behind other people's backs, and analyzing or trying to figure out other people." Richard Carlson

"Civilization depends on, and civility often requires, the willingness to say, 'What you are doing is none of my business' and 'What I am doing is none of your business.'" George Will

"Great people talk about ideas. Small people talk about others." Unknown

"If you can't say something nice, shut up." Unknown

Heart

"I will follow my logic, no matter where it goes, after it has consulted with my heart. If you ever come to a conclusion without calling the heart in, you will come to a bad conclusion." Robert Ingersoll

"We should have a bond of sympathy for all sentient beings, knowing that only the depraved and base take pleasure in the sight of blood and suffering." Seneca

History

"To the wise man, to the wise nation, the mistakes of the past are the torches of the present." Robert Ingersoll

"History by apprising them [the people] of the past will enable them to judge of the future. . . . It will qualify them as judges of the actions and designs of men: it will enable them to know ambition under every disguise it may assume; and knowing it, to defeat its views." Thomas Jefferson

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

Homosexuality

"It is a great injustice to persecute homosexuality as a crime, and cruelty too." Sigmund Freud 

"The most recent studies, . . . both behavioral and biological, indicate one’s sexual orientation is genetic, something one is born with." Peter McWilliams 

"All mainstream medical, psychological, educational, sociological and legal organizations support the position that homophobia is the problem, not homosexuality." Chuck Rhoades 

Honesty

"Honesty is the mother of confidence; it unites, combines and solidifies society. Dishonesty is disintegration; it destroys confidence; it brings social chaos. . . ." Robert Ingersoll

"There can be no friendship without confidence, and no confidence without integrity." Samuel Johnson

"If you cheat, if your weights and measures are inaccurate, if your financial dealings are shoddy, if you take things that do not belong to you, you won’t be able to hide it forever. People will find out. Then your reputation and your business will suffer, because people don’t want to deal with someone who can’t be trusted." Wayne Dosick

"Honesty . . . is the foundation upon which relationships and many societies are built. Without it . . . there can be no trust. Widespread lying destroys the fabric of democratic societies, in which the necessary assumption is that people mostly tell the truth." Janny Scott

"The whole of government consists in the art of being honest." Thomas Jefferson

"Even in the business of corporations honesty is the best policy, and the companies that have acted in accordance with the highest standard, other things being equal, have reaped the richest harvest." Robert Ingersoll

"I grew convinced that truth, sincerity and integrity in dealings between man and man were of the utmost importance to the felicity of life, and I formed written resolutions . . . to practice them ever while I lived." Benjamin Franklin

Human Evil

"The chief source of man's inhumanity to man seems to be the tribal limits of his sense of obligation to other men." Reinhold Niebuhr

"Once we see another group of people as ‘the other’ and subhuman, not at all like ourselves, we reactivate humankind’s long history of tribal, state, and religious war. . . . Those who die in any holocaust die because of an idea: the belief that certain people are different and not fully human and therefore it is all right to kill them." Michael Werner

"Evolutionary psychology tells us that we have instinctual prejudices against people different from us. One of the tasks of a civilizing culture, then, is to educate and work against this inherent tribalism – to look beyond the differences in order to identify the similarities; to recognize, share, and rejoice in those things that unite us rather than divide us." Michael Werner

"The human psyche has two great sicknesses: the urge to carry vendetta across generations, and the tendency to fasten group labels on people rather than see them as individuals." Richard Dawkins

"Civilization itself - which I suspect most of us assume is set firmly in place - is in fact a fragile veneer that can easily be swept aside when mob passions are aroused." Steve Allen

"Rage and frenzy will pull down more in half an hour than prudence, deliberation, and foresight can build up in a hundred years." Edmund Burke

"Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." Lord Acton

"The belief that there is only one truth and that oneself is in possession of it seems to me the deepest root of all evil that is in the world." Max Born

"Children will, in my dream, be taught that laziness and narcissism are at the very root of human evil, and why this is so. . . . They will come to know that the natural tendency of the individual in a group is to forfeit his or her ethical judgment to the leader, and that this tendency should be resisted. And they will finally see it as each individual's responsibility to continually examine himself or herself for laziness and narcissism and then to purify themselves accordingly." M. Scott Peck, M.D.

"The major threats to our survival no longer stem from nature without but from our own human nature within. It is our carelessness, our hostilities, our selfishness and pride and willful ignorance that endanger the world." M. Scott Peck

"I have learned nothing in twenty years that would suggest that evil people can be rapidly influenced by any means other than raw power. They do not respond, at least in the short run, to either gentle kindness or any form of spiritual persuasion with which I am familiar." M. Scott Peck

"Weakness invites aggression." Benjamin B. Wolman

"One may smile, and smile, and be a villain." Shakespeare

Human Nature

"One of the great aims of Humanism is the transformation and socialization of human motives. This is a sector where human nature can be drastically reconditioned and reshaped. What the scientific study of human motives shows is that human nature is neither essentially bad nor essentially good. . . . But human nature is essentially flexible and educable. And the molding or remolding of human motives is something that takes place not only in childhood and youth, but also throughout adult life and under the impact of fundamental economic institutions and cultural media that weightily influence mind and character." Corliss Lamont

"Sometime, it will be found that people can be changed only by changing their surroundings. It is alleged that, at least ninety-five percent of the criminals transported from England to Australia and other penal colonies, became good and useful citizens in a new world." Robert Ingersoll

"Scientists now recognize that it is primarily the culture we have developed rather than inborn aggressive instincts that determines whether we help, ignore, or harm each other." Allan Luks

"How selfish soever man may be supposed, there are evidently some principles in his nature which interest him in the fortune of others, and render their happiness necessary to him, though he derives nothing from it except the pleasure of seeing it." Adam Smith, The Theory of Moral Sentiments

"The theory that everyone acts from self-interest, direct or indirect, is psychologically unsound. . . . Throughout history . . . there have been millions of men and women with some sort of Humanist philosophy who have consciously given up their lives for a social ideal." Corliss Lamont

Humility

"Every man I meet is my superior in some way. In that, I learn of him." Ralph Waldo Emerson

"The person who is truly effective has the humility and reverence to recognize his own perceptual limitations and to appreciate the rich resources available through interaction with the hearts and minds of other human beings. . . . When we're left to our own experiences, we constantly suffer from a shortage of data." Stephen R. Covey

"Suppose you had inherited the same body and temperament and mind that Al Capone had. Suppose you had had his environment and experiences. You would then be precisely what he was. . . . For it is those things - and only those things - that made him what he was. The only reason, for example, that you are not a rattlesnake is that your mother and father weren't rattlesnakes. . . . You deserve very little credit for being what you are - and remember, the people who come to you irritated, bigoted, unreasoning, deserve very little discredit for being what they are." Dale Carnegie

"Humility and inner peace go hand in hand. The less compelled you are to try to prove yourself to others, the easier it is to feel peaceful inside." Richard Carlson

"I do think it imperative that you recover from fear of rejection. Forgive me, but that is the sin of pride, and you must avoid that particular manifestation of the sin if you are to reach the goal . . . you hope for." John Farrar

"Pride makes us artificial and humility makes us real." Thomas Merton

"Life is a long lesson in humility." James M. Barrie

Idealism

"Nothing happens unless first a dream." Carl Sandburg

"Idealists are people who believe in the potential of human nature for transformation. . . . The most essential attribute of human nature is its mutability and freedom from instinct . . . it is always within our power to change our nature. So it is actually the idealists who are on the mark and the realists who are off base." M. Scott Peck

"One is apt to think of moral failure as due to weakness of character: more often it is due to an inadequate ideal." Richard Livingstone

"I'm quite amused by the attempt to excuse not trying harder, by claiming that perfect is not possible; it may not be, but striving toward it as an ideal is! It is in the act of 'striving' that we demonstrate character, courage, and conscience." Laura Schlessinger

"Though I never arrived at the perfection I had been so ambitious of obtaining, but fell far short of it, yet I was by the endeavor made a better and a happier man than I otherwise should have been if I had not attempted it. . . ." Benjamin Franklin

"Visualizing how you want to be is [an] effective way to move toward your goal." Ellen Bass and Laura Davis

"My belief is that no human being or society composed of human beings ever did or ever will come to much unless their conduct was governed and guided by the love of some ethical ideal." Thomas H. Huxley

Imagination

"Civility is a work of the imagination, for it is through the imagination that we render others sufficiently like ourselves for them to become subjects of tolerance and respect, if not always affection." Benjamin Barber

"And what is the great thing that the stage does? It cultivates the imagination. And . . . the imagination constitutes the great difference between human beings. . . . The imagination is the mother of pity, the mother of generosity, the mother of every possible virtue. It is by the imagination that you are enabled to put yourself in the place of another." Robert Ingersoll

Individuality

"Know thyself." Socrates

"When I discover who I am, I'll be free." Ralph Ellison

"Follow your bliss." Joseph Campbell

"To give up your individuality is to annihilate yourself." Robert Ingersoll

"There is a time in every man's education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better for worse as his portion. . . ." Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Nothing is so tiresome to one's self, as well as so odious to others, as disguise and affectation." Benjamin Franklin

"In proportion to the development of his individuality, each person becomes more valuable to himself, and is therefore capable of being more valuable to others. . . ." John Stuart Mill

"Why should we be in such a desperate haste to succeed and in such desperate enterprises? If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer." Henry David Thoreau

"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I -
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference." Robert Frost

"This above all, to thine own self be true, 
And it must follow, as the night the day, 
Thou canst not then be false to any man." Shakespeare

Jealousy

"There is, so far as I know, no way of dealing with envy except to make the lives of the envious happier and fuller, and to encourage in youth the idea of collective enterprises rather than competition. . . . Still, it must be admitted that a residuum of envy is likely to remain. There are many instances in history of generals so jealous of each other that they preferred defeat to enhancement of the other's reputation. Two politicians of the same party, or two artists of the same school, are almost sure to be jealous of each other. In such cases, there seems nothing to be done except to arrange, so far as possible, that each competitor shall be unable to injure the other and shall only be able to win by superior merit. . . . Where envy is unavoidable it must be used as a stimulus to one's own efforts, not to the thwarting of the efforts of rivals." Bertrand Russell

"There is no limit to what can be accomplished when no one cares who gets the credit." John Wooden

Justice

"Justice will not come . . . until those who are not injured are as indignant as those who are." Thucydides

"Pardoning the Bad, is injuring the Good." Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard's Maxims

"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." Martin Luther King Jr.

"Equal justice under law is not just a caption on the facade of the Supreme Court building. . . . It is fundamental that justice should be the same, in substance and availability, without regard to economic status." Justice Lewis Powell Jr.

"No man is above the law and no man is below it. . . ." Theodore Roosevelt

"It is not by great acts but by small failures that freedom dies. . . . Justice and liberty die quietly, because men first learn to ignore injustice and then no longer recognize it." Charles Morgan Jr. 

Leadership

"Setting an example is not the main means of influencing others, it is the only means." Albert Einstein

"Treat a man as he is and he will remain as he is. Treat a man as he can and should be and he will become as he can and should be." Johann Goethe

"I decide on the basis of conscience. A genuine leader doesn't reflect consensus, he molds consensus." Martin Luther King Jr.

"In periods where there is no leadership, society stands still." Harry S. Truman

"A politician thinks of the next election and a statesman thinks of the next generation." James Freeman Clarke

"Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do, and they will surprise you with their ingenuity." Gen. George Patton

"Those renowned generals [Alexander and Caesar] received more faithful service, and performed greater actions by means of the love their soldiers bore them, than they could possibly have done, if instead of being beloved and respected they had been hated and feared by those they commanded." Benjamin Franklin

"Ancient wisdom offers . . . a simple yet profound formula to guide everyone who leads, anyone who aspires to leadership: 'Do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly.'" Wayne Dosick

"As we become civilized we are governed less by persons and more by principles. . . . The best of all leaders is the man who teaches people to lead themselves." Robert Ingersoll

"A leader is best
When people barely know he exists.
Not so good when people obey and acclaim him.
Worse when they despise him.
. . . 
But of a good leader, who talks little,
When his work is done, his aim fulfilled,
They will say, 'We did this ourselves.'" Lao-Tse

Liberty

"A wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement." Thomas Jefferson

"I am for . . . each individual doing just as he chooses in all matters which concern nobody else." Abraham Lincoln

"So long as we do not harm others we should be free to think, speak, act, and live as we see fit, without molestation from individuals, law, or government. . . ." John Stuart Mill

"Over himself, over his own body and mind, the individual is sovereign." John Stuart Mill

"I love liberty. . . . By physical liberty I mean the right to do anything which does not interfere with the happiness of another. By intellectual liberty I mean the right to think right and the right to think wrong." Robert Ingersoll

"Despotism has so often been established in the name of liberty that experience should warn us to judge parties by their practices rather than their preachings." Raymond Aron

"Those who won our independence . . . valued liberty both as an end and as a means. They believed liberty to be the secret of happiness and courage to be the secret of liberty." Justice Louis Brandeis

"The makers of our Constitution . . . conferred, as against the government, the right to be let alone - the most comprehensive of rights and the right most valued by civilized men." Justice Louis Brandeis

"Don't put no constrictions on da people. Leave 'em ta hell alone." Jimmy Durante

"Live and let live, be and let be,
Hear and let hear, see and let see
. . .
Live and let live and remember this line:
'Your bus'ness is your bus'ness and my bus'ness is mine.'" Cole Porter

Loyalty

"I believe that there is something far nobler than loyalty to any particular man. Loyalty to the truth as we perceive it - loyalty to our duty as we know it - loyalty to the ideals of our brain and heart - is, to my mind, far greater and far nobler than loyalty to the life of any particular man or God. . . ." Robert Ingersoll

Luck

"Not a man alive has so much luck that he can play with it." William Butler Yeats

"A man would be a fool to take his luck for granted." Gary Hart

"Circumspection and caution are part of wisdom." Edmund Burke

"Luck does indeed favor the well prepared." James Alan Fox and Jack Levin

"Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity." Seneca

"I will study and prepare and perhaps my chance will come." Abraham Lincoln

Management

"Here's what management is about: Pick good people and set the right priorities." Lee Iacocca

"You basically get what you reward. If you want to achieve the goals and reflect the values in your mission statement, then you need to align the reward system with these goals and values." Stephen R. Covey

"The deepest principle in human nature is the craving to be appreciated." William James

"The way to develop the best that is in a person is by appreciation and encouragement." Charles Schwab

"There is nothing else that so kills the ambitions of a person as criticisms from superiors. I never criticize anyone. I believe in giving a person incentive to work. So I am anxious to praise but loath to find fault. . . . I have yet to find a person, however great or exalted his station, who did not do better work and put forth greater effort under a spirit of approval than he would ever do under a spirit of criticism." Charles Schwab

"When top executives get huge pay hikes at the same time as middle-level and hourly workers lose their jobs and retirement savings, or have to accept negligible pay raises and cuts in health and pension benefits, company morale plummets. I hear it all the time from employees: This company, they say, is being run only for the benefit of the people at the top. So why should we put in extra effort, commit extra hours, take on extra responsibilities? We'll do the minimum, even cut corners. This is often the death knell of a company." Robert Reich

"Nothing is more deadly to achievement than the belief that effort will not be rewarded, that the world is a bleak and discriminatory place in which only the predatory and the specially preferred can get ahead." George Gilder

"Good wages are pro business, since they reduce turnover, increase morale, produce better-skilled employees, and improve productivity." Jim Hightower

"It’s the same in the office, the lab, the factory. Employees and coworkers are more productive, more loyal – satisfied and happy – when they are treated fairly, decently, and with dignity than when they are used and taken for granted, when they feel like no more than a tiny cog in a giant corporate wheel." Wayne Dosick

Means and Ends

"You can't get to a pleasant place to be at unless you use pleasant methods to get there. When you are dealing with a human society the means is fully as important as the end." Clarence Darrow

"We will never have peace in the world until men everywhere recognize that ends are not cut off from means, because the means represent the ideal in the making, and the end in process, and ultimately you can't reach good ends through evil means, because the means represent the seed and the end represents the tree." Martin Luther King Jr.

"Act as if the maxim on which you act were to become, through your will, a universal law." Immanuel Kant

"Be the change you want to see in the world." Mohandas Gandhi

Memory

"Memory is the miser of the mind; forgetfulness the spendthrift." Robert Ingersoll

"I am anxious to give away information, for it is only by giving it away that you can keep it. When you have told it, you remember it. It is with information as it is with liberty, the only way to be dead sure of it is to give it to other people." Robert Ingersoll

"I’ve always subscribed to an old Chinese proverb that the palest ink is better than the best memory." Vincent Bugliosi 

Mistakes

"When Theodore Roosevelt was in the White House, he confessed that if he could be right 75 percent of the time, he would reach the highest measure of his expectation. . . . If that was the highest rating that one of the most distinguished men of the twentieth century could hope to obtain, what about you and me?" Dale Carnegie

"Even Johannes Kepler, Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, Gregor Mendel, and Albert Einstein made serious mistakes. But the scientific enterprise arranges things so that teamwork prevails: What one of us, even the most brilliant among us, misses, another of us, even someone much less celebrated and capable, may detect and rectify." Carl Sagan

"We are all full of weakness and errors, let us mutually pardon each other our follies - it is the first law of nature." Voltaire

"We all take leave of our senses, from time to time. . . . ." Bryan A. Garner

"The proactive approach to a mistake is to acknowledge it instantly, correct and learn from it. This literally turns a failure into a success." Stephen R. Covey

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

"Mistakes are a necessary artistic experience in the process of creating a great work." Alexei Tolstoy

"It is common sense to take a method and try it; if it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something." Franklin D. Roosevelt

"A perfect character might be attended with the inconvenience of being envied and hated; and . . . a benevolent man should allow a few faults in himself, to keep his friends in countenance." Benjamin Franklin

Moderation

"Let him know how to choose the mean and avoid the extremes on either side, as far as possible. . . . For this is the way of happiness." Plato

"The golden rule is moderation in all things." Terence

"Keep the golden mean between saying too much and too little." Publilius Syrus

Money

"Money, like any other force such as electricity, is amoral and can be used for either good or evil." Martin Luther King Jr.

"The first duty of man is to support himself - to see to it that he does not become a burden. His next duty is to help others if he has a surplus, and if he really believes they deserve to be helped." Robert Ingersoll

"All should be taught that the highest ambition is to be happy, and to add to the well-being of others; that place and power are not necessary to success; that the desire to acquire great wealth is a kind of insanity. They should be taught that it is a waste of energy, a waste of thought, a waste of life, to acquire what you do not need and what you do not really use for the benefit of yourself or others." Robert Ingersoll

"The worst enslaving trait of all is greed. I rail against the substitution of money for worth. The idea that the endless accumulation of dead money can furnish a meaningful life to sold-out souls is the supreme lie offered by the system of free enterprise." Gerry Spence

"Millions of men give all their energies, as well as their very souls, for the acquisition of gold. And this will continue as long as society is ignorant enough and hypocritical enough to hold in high esteem the man of wealth without the slightest regard to the character of the man. . . . In judging of the rich, two things should be considered: How did they get it, and what are they doing with it? Was it honestly acquired? Is it being used for the benefit of mankind?" Robert Ingersoll

"We all know that men in moderate circumstances can have just as comfortable houses as the richest, just as comfortable clothing, just as good food. They can see just as fine paintings, just as marvelous statues, and they can hear just as good music. They can attend the same theaters and the same operas. They can enjoy the same sunshine, and above all, can love and be loved just as well as kings and millionaires." Robert Ingersoll

"It is preoccupation with possession, more than anything else, that prevents men from living freely and nobly." Bertrand Russell

"I have not sought during my life to amass wealth and to adorn my body, but I have sought to adorn my soul with the jewels of wisdom, patience, and above all with a love of liberty." Socrates 

Morality

"To treat others ethically is to act out of concern for their happiness and suffering." Sam Harris

"Surely it is the maxim of loving-kindness: Do not unto others that you would not have them do unto you." Confucius

"Give every other human being every right you claim for yourself." Robert Ingersoll

"A man is not moral because he is obedient through fear or ignorance. Morality lives in the realm of perceived obligation. . . ." Robert Ingersoll

"It cannot be said too often that actions are good or bad in the light of consequences, and that a clear perception of consequences would control actions. That which increases the sum of human happiness is moral; and that which diminishes the sum of human happiness is immoral. . . . Blind, unreasoning obedience is the enemy of morality." Robert Ingersoll

"The ideas of right and wrong change with the experience of the race, and this change is wrought by the gradual ascertaining of consequences - of results." Robert Ingersoll 

"The highest ethical duty is often to discard the outmoded ethics of the past." Corliss Lamont

"Overemphasis on the sex aspect of morality has led to a neglect of its other aspects and a narrowing of its range." Corliss Lamont

"Modern technology has conveniently provided a measuring stick by which you can determine whether or not you are conducting your business in an acceptable, ethical way. . . . You can ask yourself: How will I feel if my business dealings today are secretly recorded on a hidden video camera, and appear on this evening's television newscast for all to see?" Wayne Dosick

"When you choose wrong because it suits you right now, the message you give others is that when it suits you, you may likely do wrong again. You become a threat and liability to others. That's a pragmatic reason, outside of pride in morality, not to do wrong." Laura Schlessinger

"Integrity, honesty, and honor may not give immediate rewards or gratification, and they can be life-threatening (for example, being a whistle-blower or turning state’s evidence). The absence of integrity, honesty, and honor do not always bring punishment or scorn, and can be life-aggrandizing (connivers and cheats often gain power and wealth). Therefore, morality must be its own reward." Laura Schlessinger

"The reward for doing right is mostly an internal phenomenon: self-respect, dignity, integrity, and self-esteem. . . . Not doing right may have momentary payoffs but will wreak havoc with your self-esteem, respect from others, and quality of life." Laura Schlessinger

"Suspicion always haunts the guilty mind;
The thief doth fear each bush an officer." Shakespeare

"The most important human endeavor is the striving for morality in our actions. Our inner balance, and even our very existence depends on it. Only morality in our actions can give beauty and dignity to our lives." Albert Einstein

Music and Art

"Music was born of love. Had there never been any human affection, there never could have been uttered a strain of music." Robert Ingersoll

"Language is not subtle enough, tender enough, to express all that we feel; and when language fails, the highest and deepest longings are translated into music. Music is the sunshine – the climate – of the soul, and it floods the heart with a perfect June." Robert Ingersoll

"There is more real devotional feeling summoned from the temple of the mind by great music than by any sermon ever delivered." Robert Ingersoll

"Being surrounded by artistic and musical beauty soothes the soul, bringing both quiet calm and creative inspiration. . . ." Wayne Dosick

"Artists are prophets. They define the meaning of our lives and point the way." Anthony V. Bouza

"It is as we respond to the understandings and feelings inherent in . . . art that we acquire much of our truth, much of our nobility and grace, and much of our pleasure." Ursula Goodenough

"Art that teaches us, moves us, challenges us to think about the human condition in new ways, is often shocking and disturbing. It is intended to be." Philip D. Harvey

"I consider art to be the language of the human spirit and, without art, we are all handicapped." Mimi Brodsky Chenfeld

"There is in all artists a little of the vagabond." Robert Ingersoll

"The truth is . . . that the great artists of the world are never puritans, and seldom ever ordinarily respectable. No virtuous man - that is, virtuous in the YMCA sense - has ever painted a picture worth looking at, or written a symphony worth hearing, or a book worth reading, and it is highly improbable that the thing has ever been done by a virtuous woman." H. L. Mencken

"A world turned into a stereotype, a society converted into a regiment, a life translated into a routine, make it difficult for either art or artists to survive. Crush individuality in society and you crush art as well. Nourish the conditions of a free life and you nourish the arts, too." Franklin D. Roosevelt

Old Age

"To be happy in old age, it is necessary that we accustom ourselves to objects that can accompany the mind all the way through life, and that we take the rest as good in their day. The mere man of pleasure is miserable in old age, and the mere drudge in business is but little better; whereas natural philosophy, mathematical and mechanical science are a continual source of tranquil pleasure. . . ." Thomas Paine

"Those who knew Benjamin Franklin will recollect that his mind was forever young, his temper ever serene; science, that never grows gray, was always his mistress. He was never without an object, for when we cease to have an object, we become like an invalid in a hospital waiting for death." Thomas Paine

"Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at 20 or 80. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young." Henry Ford

Patriotism

"You make men love their government and their country by giving them the kind of government and the kind of country that inspire respect and love. . . ." Zechariah Chafee Jr.

"To believe that patriotism will not flourish if patriotic ceremonies are voluntary and spontaneous instead of a compulsory routine is to make an unflattering estimate of the appeal of our institutions to free minds." Justice Robert H. Jackson

"Words uttered under coercion are proof of loyalty to nothing but self-interest. Love of country must spring from willing hearts and free minds." Justice Hugo Black

"We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. . . . We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason, if we dig deep in our history and our doctrine and remember that we are not descended from fearful men - not from men who feared to write, to speak, to associate and to defend causes that were, for the moment, unpopular. . . . [W]e cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home." Edward R. Murrow

"Being critical of the nation is a far cry from being unpatriotic or anti-American. In fact, most social criticism . . . is based on a love of America's ideals and a concern we're not living up to them." Robert Reich

"Patriotism is not short, frenzied outbursts of emotion, but the tranquil and steady dedication of a lifetime." Adlai E. Stevenson

"He loves his country best who strives to make it best." Robert Ingersoll

Peace

"True peace is not merely the absence of tension, but it is the presence of justice." Martin Luther King Jr.

Perseverance

"The ground of liberty is to be gained by inches. We must be contented to secure what we can get from time to time, and eternally press forward for what is yet to get." Thomas Jefferson

"The most successful people in the world aren't usually the brightest. They are the ones who persevere." Ross Perot

"Winning is often simply getting up off the ground one more time than your opponent." Vincent Bugliosi

"Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up." Thomas Edison

"'Tis true there is much to be done, . . . but stick to it steadily, and you will see great effects, for constant dropping wears away stones . . . and little strokes fell great oaks, as Poor Richard says. . . ." Benjamin Franklin

Problems

"Obstacles and problems are a part of life. True happiness comes not when we get rid of all of our problems, but when we change our relationship to them, when we see our problems as a potential source of awakening, opportunities to practice patience, and to learn." Richard Carlson

"When parents see their children's problems as opportunities to build the relationship instead of as negative, burdensome irritations, it totally changes the nature of parent-child interaction. Parents become more willing, even excited, about deeply understanding and helping their children. . . . This paradigm is powerful in business as well." Stephen R. Covey

"What disturbs people's minds are not events but their judgments on events." Epictetus

"There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so." Shakespeare

"Sweet are the uses of adversity." Shakespeare

"There is no education like adversity." Benjamin Disraeli

"What doesn't destroy me makes me stronger." Friedrich Nietzsche

"The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong in the broken places." Ernest Hemingway

"Even if I am not responsible for my situation, I am responsible for my reaction to it." Unknown

Racism

"The idea of a superior or inferior race is a myth that has been completely refuted by anthropological evidence." Martin Luther King Jr.

"Despite research, there is no credible evidence that the races show any differences in the science of their brain function." Martin L. Gross

"Some racists still reject the plain testimony written in the DNA that all the races are not only human but nearly indistinguishable. . . ." Carl Sagan

Resignation

"A good supply of resignation is of the first importance in providing for the journey of life." Arthur Schopenhaur 

"There is only one way to happiness, and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power of our will." Epictetus 

"When we have done our best, we should wait the result in peace." J. Lubbock

"Do the best that can be done and then . . . be resigned." Robert Ingersoll 

"Care is no cure, but rather corrosive, 
For things that are not to be remedied." Shakespeare

"Things without all remedy
Should be without regard: what's done is done." Shakespeare

"Though nothing can bring back the hour
Of splendor in the grass,
of glory in the flower,
We will grieve not, rather find
Strength in what remains behind." William Wordsworth

Savings

"Thrift is not some obsolete Victorian notion. . . . It will be the difference between those who prosper and achieve respect and those who become a burden to their children and society." Peter G. Peterson

"Wealth can only be accumulated by the earnings of industry and the savings of frugality." John Tyler

"Industry and frugality, as the means of procuring wealth . . . thereby [secures] virtue, it being more difficult for a man in want to act always honestly. . . ." Benjamin Franklin

"[G]aining money by my industry and frugality, I lived very agreeably. . . ." Benjamin Franklin

Science

"Science is the great antidote to the poison of . . . superstition." Adam Smith

"Science is a systematic method of investigation based on continuous experimentation, observation, and measurement leading to evolving explanations of natural phenomena, explanations which are continuously open to further testing." Ohio Academy of Science

"Scientific conclusions are always tentative, because the development of better tools, new approaches and new findings may make necessary refinements, changes or even discarding previously held theories and concepts. . . . The result is excitement and exhilaration in open inquiry." Gerald Larue

"The discovery of how things work is intrinsically rewarding, and developing the practical applications of discoveries is no less so." Thomas W. Clark

"Has there ever been a religion with the prophetic accuracy and reliability of science? . . . No other human institution comes close." Carl Sagan

Sports

"Sports is a moral undertaking because it requires of participants, and it schools spectators in the appreciation of, noble things - courage, grace under pressure, sportsmanship." George Will

"The most important thing 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." The Olympic Creed

"Coaches need training in how to teach fitness as an enjoyable activity. This would be a far cry from torture sessions that athletes endure . . . as a personal test of the athletes' willingness to endure pain, or as a form of punishment. . . . This approach can make athletes hate fitness training and avoid physical fitness activities after their playing career is over." Andrew W. Miracle Jr. and C. Roger Rees

"Compulsory sports for those who by temperament or physique do not qualify may be a disaster. . . . The repercussions may be extreme . . . and they may be very long-lasting, even throughout adulthood." John Money, Ph.D.

Suicide

"No man has a right to leave his wife to fight the battle alone if he is able to help. No man has a right to desert his children if he can possibly be of use. As long as he can add to the comfort of those he loves, as long as he can . . . be of any use, it is his duty to remain." Robert Ingersoll

"Human life consists in mutual service. No grief, pain, misfortune or 'broken heart' is excuse for cutting off one's life while any power of service remains. But when all usefulness is over, when one is assured of an unavoidable and imminent death, it is the simplest of human rights to choose a quick and easy death in place of a slow and horrible one." Charlotte Perkins Gilman

"No man should kill himself as long as he can be of the least use to anybody, and if you cannot find some person that you are willing to do something for, find a good dog and take care of him. You have no idea how much better you will feel." Robert Ingersoll

Turning the Other Cheek

"To turn the other cheek is to teach would-be cheats that cheating pays." Peter Singer

"When struck on one cheek to turn the other, is really joining a conspiracy to secure the triumph of brutality. To agree not to resist evil is to become an accomplice of all injustice." Robert Ingersoll

"I don't want to hurt people's feelings if I can help it. I don't want anyone unnecessarily humiliated, but I say whatever stands between you and justice must give way. . . . You must do exactly what is right, and let those who have done wrong bear the consequences." Robert Ingersoll

"For benefits return benefits; for injuries return justice without any admixture of revenge." Confucius

Unconditional Love

"Love is not love that alters
When it alteration finds.
. . .
O, no, it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken." Shakespeare

"None of us, no, not one, is perfect; and were we to love none who had imperfections, this world would be a desert for our love." Thomas Jefferson

Unhappiness

"Pointing to another world will never stop vice among us; shedding light over this world can alone help us." Walt Whitman

"To avoid pain we must know the conditions of health. For the accomplishment of this end we must rely upon investigation instead of faith, upon labor in place of prayer. Most misery is produced by ignorance. Passions sow the seeds of pain." Robert Ingersoll

"It's impossible to feel good about yourself if you are doing things that you aren't proud of. . . . It's essential that you . . . [do] things you can respect and admire." Ellen Bass and Laura Davis

"If you want to feel proud of yourself, then do good. Take action that will make you proud. . . . And if you really want to feel proud, then do something to help someone else." Oseola McCarty

"Work and love - these are the basics. Without them there is neurosis." Theodor Reik

"All I have to say is, Love one another - that is the height of all philosophy. It is beyond all religions. It is the secret of joy - the fountain of Perpetual Youth - the only rainbow on life's dark cloud." Robert Ingersoll

"Human felicity is produced not so much by great pieces of good fortune that seldom happen, as by little advantages that occur every day." Benjamin Franklin

"If one could only learn to appreciate the little things . . .
A song that takes you away, for there are those who cannot hear.
The beauty of a sunset, for there are those who cannot see.
The warmth and safety of your home, for there are those who are homeless.
Time spent with good friends for there are those who are lonely.
A walk along the beach for there are those who cannot walk.
The little things are what life is all about.
Search your soul and learn to appreciate." Shadi Souferian

Work

"All the beautiful things, all the useful things, come from labor, and it is labor that has made the world a fit habitation for the human race." Robert Ingersoll

"Every human being should be taught that his first duty is to take care of himself, and that to be self-respecting he must be self-supporting. To live on the labor of others, either by force which enslaves, or by cunning which robs, or by borrowing or begging, is wholly dishonorable. Every man should be taught some useful art." Robert Ingersoll

"I believe that labor is a blessing. It never was and never will be a curse. It is a blessed thing to labor for . . . the ones you love. It is a blessed thing to have an object in life – something to do - something to call into play your best thoughts, to develop your faculties and to make you a man." Robert Ingersoll

"Any activity becomes creative when the doer cares about doing it right, or doing it better." John Updike

"In every single job, in every single business, in every single profession - in whatever you do - there can be the satisfaction and the happiness that comes from knowing that what you do is important, that what you do makes a difference in the lives of the people you serve." Wayne Dosick

"To business that we love we rise betime
And go to it with delight." Shakespeare

"When men are employed they are best contented." Benjamin Franklin

"The labor we delight in physics [cures] pain." Shakespeare

"The greatest analgesic, soporific, stimulant, tranquilizer, narcotic, and to some extent even antibiotic - in short, the closest thing to a genuine panacea - known to medical science is work." Thomas Szasz, M.D.

"The United States is probably the most [socially] mobile society in the history of the world. The virtues that are most valuable in it are diligence, discipline, ambition, and a willingness to take risks. Education and credentials are most important in government; elsewhere most skills are learned on the job." George Gilder

"Diligence is the mother of good luck." Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard's Maxims

"Genius is one per cent inspiration and ninety-nine per cent perspiration." Thomas Edison

"What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly. . . ." Thomas Paine

"Everyone should be taught the nobility of labor, the heroism and splendor of honest effort. As long as it is considered disgraceful to labor, or aristocratic
not to labor, the world will be filled with idleness and crime, and with every possible moral deformity." Robert Ingersoll