William Shakespeare

“Men at some time are masters of their fates: The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings.”
- William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar (1564-1616)

Viktor E. Frankl

"In the concentration camps, we witnessed some of our comrades behave like swine while others behaved like saints. Man has both potentialities within himself; which one is actualized depends on decisions but not on conditions. The way in which a man accepts his fate and all the suffering it entails, the way in which he takes up his cross, gives him ample opportunity--even under the most difficult circumstances--to add a deeper meaning to his life. His unique opportunity lies in the way he bears his burden."
- Viktor E. Frankl

St. Augustine

Resentment is like taking poison and hoping the other person dies.
- St. Augustine

W. C. Fields

Once, during Prohibition, I was forced to live for days on nothing but food and water.
- W. C. Fields

Jose Ortega y Gasset

"Life is a petty thing unless it is moved by an indomitable urge to extend its boundaries."
- Jose Ortega y Gasset

Elias Canetti

Every decision is liberating, even if it leads to disaster. Otherwise, why do so many people walk upright and with open eyes into their misfortune?
- Elias Canetti

Virgil Publius Vergilius Maro

May the countryside and the gliding valley streams content me. Lost to fame, let me love river and woodland.
- Virgil Publius Vergilius Maro

Douglas Macarthur

I see that old flagpole still stands. Have your troops hoist the colors to its peak, and let no enemy ever haul them down.
- Douglas Macarthur

Tom Stoppard

Eternity is a terrible thought. I mean, where's it going to end?
- Tom Stoppard

Agatha Christie

Good advice is always certain to be ignored, but that's no reason not to give it.
- Agatha Christie

Miguel de Unamuno

Love is the child of illusion and the parent of disillusion.
- Miguel de Unamuno

Katherine Mansfield

Make it a rule of life never to regret and never to look back. Regret is an appalling waste of energy; you can't build on it; it's only good for wallowing in.
- Katherine Mansfield

Arnold Bennett

Any change, even a change for the better, is always accompanied by drawbacks and discomforts.
- Arnold Bennett

Clare Booth Luce

“Lying increases the creative faculties, expands the ego, and lessens the frictions of social contacts. ”
- Clare Booth Luce (1903 - 1987)

Publilius Syrus

God looks at the clean hands, not the full ones.
- Publilius Syrus

Aleister Crowley

I slept with faith and found a corpse in my arms on awakening; I drank and danced all night with doubt and found her a virgin in the morning.
- Aleister Crowley

Jeph Jacques

"That's what college is for - getting as many bad decisions as possible out of the way before you're forced into the real world. I keep a checklist of 'em on the wall in my room."
- Jeph Jacques

Robert Jackson

"The price of freedom of religion, or of speech, or of the press, is that we must put up with a good deal of rubbish."
- Robert Jackson

Robertson Davies

The eyes see only what the mind is prepared to comprehend.
- Robertson Davies

Seneca

See how many are better off than you are, but consider how many are worse.
- Seneca

George Bernard Shaw

My way of joking is to tell the truth. It is the funniest joke in the world.
- George Bernard Shaw

Edward Young

"Some for renown, on scraps of learning dote, /And think they grow immortal as they quote."
- Edward Young

Jerry Flanagan

Success; to be able to do your very best in everything you do.
- Jerry Flanagan

James Thurber

"Early to rise and early to bed makes a male healthy and wealthy and dead."
- James Thurber

Hans Margolius

Only in quiet waters things mirror themselves undistorted. Only in a quiet mind is adequate perception of the world.
- Hans Margolius

Confucius

He who will not economize will have to agonize.
- Confucius

John Steinbeck

A journey is like marriage. The certain way to be wrong is to think you control it.
- John Steinbeck

Albert Einstein

The pursuit of truth and beauty is a sphere of activity in which we are permitted to remain children all our lives.
- Albert Einstein

C. S. Lewis

Mortal lovers must not try to remain at the first step; for lasting passion is the dream of a harlot and from it we wake in despair.
- C. S. Lewis

Plato

Laws are partly formed for the sake of good men, in order to instruct them how they may live on friendly terms with one another, and partly for the sake of those who refuse to be instructed, whose spirit cannot be subdued, or softened, or hindered from plunging into evil.
- Plato

Mark Twain

It is a mistake that there is no bath that will cure people's manners. But drowning would help.
- Mark Twain