Gem's Favorite Quotes

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I'd rather be a could-be if I cannot be an are because a could-be is a maybe who is reaching for a star. I'd rather be a has-been than a might-have-been, by far for a might have-been has never been, but a has was once an are. – Milton Berle
If we keep doing what we're doing, we're going to keep getting what we're getting. – Stephen Covey
Truth has not special time of its own. Its hour is now -- always and indeed then most truly when it seems unsuitable to actual circumstances. – Albert Schweitzer
When you come to a roadblock, take a detour. – Mary Kay Ash
I have learnt silence from the talkative, toleration from the intolerant, and kindness from the unkind; yet strange, I am ungrateful to these teachers. – Kahlil Gibran
In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on. – Robert Frost
I'm not confused, I'm just well mixed. – Robert Frost
In everyone's life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit. – Albert Schweitzer
What some people mistake for the high cost of living is really the cost of high living. – Doug Larson
A lot of people mistake a short memory for a clear conscience. – Doug Larson
If the English language made any sense, a catastrophe would be an apostrophe with fur. – Doug Larson
The cat could very well be man's best friend but would never stoop to admitting it. – Doug Larson
Maturity is the ability to do a job whether or not you are supervised, to carry money without spending it and to bear an injustice without wanting to get even. – Ann Landers
Forgive your enemies, but never forget their names. – John Fitzgerald Kennedy
It's only when we truly know and understand that we have a limited time on earth -- and that we have no way of knowing when our time is up -- that we will begin to live each day to the fullest, as if it was the only one we had. – Elizabeth Kubler-Ross
Our lives are like a candle in the wind. – Carl Sandburg
Rumor travels faster, but it don't stay put as long as truth. – Will Rogers
Laughter is the shortest distance between two people. – Victor Borge
When you have nothing to say, say nothing. – Charles Caleb Colton
The only courage that matters is the kind that gets you from one moment to the next. – Mignon McLaughlin
Wrinkles are engraved smiles. – Jules Renard
Three may keep a secret, if two of them are dead. – Benjamin Franklin
After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music. – Aldous Huxley
In a democracy dissent is an act of faith. Like medicine, the test of its value is not in its taste, but in its effects. – J. W. Fulbright
It is true that you may fool all the people some of the time; you can even fool some of the people all of the time; but you can't fool all of the people all the time. – Abraham Lincoln
There is no remedy so easy as books, which if they do not give cheerfulness, at least restore quiet to the most troubled mind. – Mary Wortley Montagu
Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it. – Maya Angelou
It is not the hours we put in on the job, it is what we put into the hours that counts. – Sidney Madwed
Credit buying is much like being drunk. The buzz happens immediately, and it gives you a lift. The hangover comes the day after. – Joyce Brothers
To err is human; to forgive, infrequent. – Franklin P. Adams
The trouble with this country is that there are too many politicians who believe, with a conviction based on experience, that you can fool all of the people all of the time. – Franklin P. Adams
Not that the story need be long, but it will take a long while to make it short. – Henry David Thoreau
Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future. – John Fitzgerald Kennedy
Everyone smiles in the same language. – George Carlin
We only part to meet again. – John Gay
I am imagination. I can see what the eyes cannot see. I can hear what the ears cannot hear. I can feel what the heart cannot feel. – Peter Nivio Zarlenga
What is a lie? It is to say what is real is not real. It is to deny the existence of what exists. – Peter Nivio Zarlenga
Wisdom is knowing what to do next; virtue is doing it. – David Starr Jordan, The Philosophy of Despair
The only time you don't fail is the last time you try anything -- and it works. – William Strong
Think like a man of action, act like a man of thought. – Henri Bergson
Do not let your TODAY be stolen by the ghost of yesterday or the "To-Do" list of tomorrow!" – Steve Maraboli
Cowardice asks the question, is it safe? Expediency asks the question, is it politic? Vanity asks the question, is it popular? But conscience asks the question, is it right? And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but one must take it because it is right. – Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
The purpose of life is a life of purpose. – Robert Byrne
A candle is at its brightest in the dark. – Matshona Dhliwayo
Forget yesterday - it has already forgotten you. Don't sweat tomorrow - you haven't even met. Instead, open your eyes and your heart to a truly precious gift - today." – Steve Maraboli
Worry never robs tomorrow of its sorrow, it only saps today of its joy. – Dr. Felice Leonardo Buscaglia
I like work; it fascinates me. I can sit and look at it for hours. I love to keep it by me; the idea of getting rid of it nearly breaks my heart. – Jerome K. Jerome
If at first you don't succeed, failure may be your style. – Quentin Crisp
Be life long or short, its completeness depends on what it was lived for. – David Starr Jordan
The truth. It is a beautiful and terrible thing, and should therefore be treated with great caution. – J. K. Rowling
What we wish, we readily believe, and what we ourselves think, we imagine others think also. – Gaius Julius Caesar
History teaches us that men and nations behave wisely when they have exhausted all other alternatives. – Abba Eban
If you think you can do a thing or think you can't do a thing, you're right. – Henry Ford
Books, like friends, should be few and well chosen. – Samuel Paterson
All the world's a stage and most of us are desperately unrehearsed. – Sean O'Casey
Hope is a pleasant acquaintance, but an unsafe friend. – Thomas Chandler Haliburton
We are all cells in the same body of humanity. – Peace Pilgrim
A good head and a good heart are always a formidable combination. – Nelson Mandela
Happy is he who has laid up in his youth, and held fast in all fortune, a genuine and passionate love of reading. – Rufus Choate
We must fight against the spirit of unconscious cruelty with which we treat the animals. Animals suffer as much as we do. True humanity does not allow us to impose such sufferings on them. It is our duty to make the whole world recognize it. Until we extend our circle of compassion to all living things, humanity will not find peace.” – Albert Schweitzer
I kep six honest serving-men (They taught me all I knew) Their names are What and Why and When And How and Where and Who. – Rudyard Kipling
I find that a great part of the information I have was acquired by looking up something and finding something else on the way. – Franklin P. Adams
The statistics on sanity are that one out of every four Americans is suffering from some form of mental illness. Think of your three best friends. If they're okay, then it's you. – Rita Mae Brown
Everyone is trying to accomplish something big, not realizing that life is made up of little things. – Frank A. Clark
The ancestor of every action is a thought. – Ralph Waldo Emerson
Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossile to be silent. – Victor Hugo
Expect the best, plan for the worst, and prepare to be surprised. – Denis Watley
The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function. One should, for example, be able to see that things are hopeless and yet be determined to make them otherwise. – F Scott
I quote others only in order the better to express myself. – Michel Eyquem de Montaigne
Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time. – Thomas Merton
Gratitude is the most exquisite form of courtesy. – Jacques Maritain
Wisdom doesn't necessarily come with age. Sometimes age just shows up by itself. – Woodrow Wilson
Value your words. Each one may be the last. – Stanislaw Lec
Let us not look back in anger or forward in fear, but around in awareness. – James Thurber
We must not allow the clock and the calendar to blind us to the fact that each moment of life is a miracle and mystery. – H. G. Wells
Dance is the hidden language of the soul. – Martha Graham
Doing what's right is no guarantee against misfortune. – William McFee
We lost the American colonies because we lacked the statesmanship to know the right time and the manner of yielding what is impossible to keep. – Elizabeth II
The secret of happiness is not in doing what one likes, but in liking what one has to do. – J. M. Barrie
It isn't so much what's on the table that matters, as what's on the chairs. – Sir William Schwenck Gilbert
A day without laughter is a day wasted. – Charlie Chaplin
There are two ways of exerting one's strength; one is pushing down, the other is pulling up. – Booker T. Washington
Never take a solemn oath. People think you mean it. – Norman Douglas
Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced. – James Baldwin
Here is a test to find whether your mission on earth is finished: If you are alive, it isn't. – Richard Bach
Each time a person stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, these ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance. – Robert Francis Kennedy
Here in America we are descended in blood and in spirit from revolutionists and rebels - men and women who dare to dissent from accepted doctrine. As their heirs, may we never confuse honest dissent with disloyal subversion. – Dwight D Eisenhower
What is politics but persuading the public to vote for this and support that and endure these for the promise of those – Gilbert Highet
These are not books, lumps of lifeless paper, but minds alive on the shelves. – Gilbert Highet
We forget all too soon the things we thought we could never forget. – Joan Didion
First we make our habits, then our habits make us. – Charles C. Noble
Laugh, and the world laughs with you; Weep, and you weep alone. For the sad old earth must borrow its mirth, But has trouble enough of its own. – Ella Wheeler Wilcox
I believe Socialism is the grandest theory ever presented, and I am sure it will someday rule the world. Then we will have attained the Millennium... Then men will be content to work for the general welfare and share their riches with their neighbors. – Andrew Carnegie
Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today. Let us begin. – Mother Teresa
Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored – Aldous Huxley
You can't do anything about the length of your life, but you can do something about its width and depth. – Evan Esar
Once we are destined to live out our lives in the prison of our mind, our duty is to furnish it well. – Peter Ustinov
The point of living, and of being an optimist, is to be foolish enough to believe the best is yet to come. – Peter Ustinov
How is it possible to expect mankind to take advice when they will not so much as take warning – Jonathan Swift
Consider the postage stamp: its usefulness consists in the ability to stick to one thing till it gets there. – Josh Billings
Common sense is the knack of seeing things as they are and doing things as they ought to be done. – Josh Billings
Life is divided into three terms - that which was, which is, and which will be. Let us learn from the past to profit by the present, and from the present to live better in the future. – William Wordsworth
It is not enough to have a good mind; the main thing is to use it well. – Rene Descartes
Now there is one outstandingly important fact regarding Spaceship Earth, and that is that no instruction book came with it. – R. Buckminster Fuller, Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth, 1963
Sometimes being a friend means mastering the art of timing. There is a time for silence. A time to let go... And a time to prepare to pick up the pieces when it's all over. – Gloria Naylor
The earth we abuse and the living things we kill, in the end, take their revenge; for in exploiting their presence we are diminishing our future. – Marya Mannes
An optimist is a fellow who believes a housefly is looking for a way to get out. – George Jean Nathan
Bad officials are the ones elected by good citizens who do not vote. – George Jean Nathan
A goal without a plan is just a wish. – Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Life has taught us that love does not consist in gazing at each other, but in looking outward together in the same direction. – Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away. – Antoine De Saint-Exupery
The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. – Martin Luther King, Jr.
Truth is more of a stranger than fiction. – Mark Twain
One of the most adventurous things left us is to go to bed. For no one can lay a hand on our dreams. – E. V. Lucas
A room without books is like a body without a soul. – Marcus Tullius Cicero
It is one of the great secrets of life that those things which are most worth doing, we do for others. – Lewis Carroll
A smile is a curve that sets everything straight. – Phyllis Diller
We first make our habits, and then our habits make us. – John Dryden
Angels can fly because they take themselves lightly. – Gilbert Keith Chesterton
A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort. – Herm Albright
What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals. – Zig Ziglar
Words should be only clothes, carefully custom-made to fit the thought. – Jules Renard
There are moments when everything goes well don't be frightened, it won't last. – Jules Renard
Generosity with strings is not generosity; It is a deal. – Marya Mannes
Democracy means not 'I am as good as you are' but 'You are as good as I am.' – Theodore Parker
Shall we make a new rule of life from tonight always try to be a little kinder than is necessary. – James Barrie
If you don't know where you are going, any road will take you there. – Lewis Carroll
America makes prodigious mistakes, America has colossal faults, but one thing cannot be denied: America is always on the move. She may be going to Hell, of course, but at least she isn't standing still. – E. E. Cummings
Honest criticism is hard to take, particularly from a relative, a friend, an acquaintance, or a stranger. – Franklin P. Jones
Don't be afraid to talk to yourself. It's the only way you can be sure somebody's listening. – Franklin P. Jones
Be not simply good - be good for something. – Henry David Thoreau
Every human being, of whatever origin, of whatever station, deserves respect. We must each respect others even as we respect ourselves. – U Thant
Prejudice is a burden that confuses the past, threatens the future and renders the present inaccessible. – Maya Angelou
History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, however, if faced with courage, need not be lived again. – Maya Angelou
Safeguard the health both of body and soul. – Cleobulus
There are two great rules in life, the one general and the other particular. The first is that every one can in the end get what he wants if he only tries. This is the general rule. The particular rule is that every individual is more or less of an exception to the general rule. – Samuel Butler
The truth is not always the same as the majority decision. – Pope John Paul II
It is not length of life, but depth of life. – Ralph Waldo Emerson
Forgive many things in others; nothing in yourself. – Ausonius
The ignorance of one voter in a democracy impairs the security of all. – John F. Kennedy
For in the final analysis, our most basic common link, is that we all inhabit this small planet, we all breathe the same air, we all cherish our children's futures, and we are all mortal. – John F. Kennedy
Those who welcome death have only tried it from the ears up. – Wilson Mizner
The worst-tempered people I've ever met were the people who knew they were wrong. – Wilson Mizner
It is one thing to wish to have Truth on our side, and another thing to wish sincerely to be on the side of Truth. – Richard Whately
Don't compromise yourself. You are all you've got. – Janis Joplin
Love is a fruit in season at all times, and within the reach of every hand. – Mother Teresa
How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant of the weak and strong. Because someday in your life you will have been all of these. – George Washington Carver
I hold before you my hand with each finger standing erect and alone, and as long as they are held thus, not one of the tasks that the hand may preform can be accomplished. I cannot lift. I cannot grasp. I cannot hold. I cannot even make an intelligible sign until my fingers organize and work together. In this we should also learn a lesson. – George Washington Carver
There is no religion higher than the truth. – H Hahn Blavatsky
Initiative is doing the right thing without being told. – Victor Hugo
It is not what we take up, but what we give up, that makes us rich. – Henry Ward Beecher

I'd rather be a could-be if I cannot be an are because a could-be is a maybe who is reaching for a star. I'd rather be a has-been than a might-have-been, by far for a might have-been has never been, but a has was once an are.

– Milton Berle

If we keep doing what we're doing, we're going to keep getting what we're getting.

– Stephen Covey

Truth has not special time of its own. Its hour is now -- always and indeed then most truly when it seems unsuitable to actual circumstances.

– Albert Schweitzer

When you come to a roadblock, take a detour.

– Mary Kay Ash

I have learnt silence from the talkative, toleration from the intolerant, and kindness from the unkind; yet strange, I am ungrateful to these teachers.

– Kahlil Gibran

In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on.

– Robert Frost