C. S. Lewis

As long as this deliberate refusal to understand things from above, even where such understanding is possible, continues, it is idle to talk of any final victory over materialism.
- C. S. Lewis

Harriet Beecher Stowe

Most mothers are instinctive philosophers.
- Harriet Beecher Stowe

Richard Bach

Within each of us lies the power of our consent to health and sickness, to riches and poverty, to freedom and to slavery. It is we who control these, and not another.
- Richard Bach

Henry David Thoreau

“The man who goes out alone can start today; but he who travels with another must wait till that other is ready.”
- Henry David Thoreau

Mitch Hedberg

The depressing thing about tennis is that no matter how good I get, I'll never be as good as a wall.
- Mitch Hedberg

John Cage

I can't understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I'm frightened of the old ones.
- John Cage

Pat Riley

Don't let other people tell you what you want.
- Pat Riley

John Sladek

"The future, according to some scientists, will be exactly like the past, only far more expensive."
- John Sladek

Leslie Nielsen

"'Who are you and how did you get in here?' 'I'm a locksmith. And, I'm a locksmith.'"
- Leslie Nielsen

Abraham Lincoln

Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any one thing.
- Abraham Lincoln

Ronnie Shakes

"My doctor gave me two weeks to live. I hope they're in August."
- Ronnie Shakes

David Lloyd George

Liberty is not merely a privilege to be conferred; it is a habit to be acquired.
- David Lloyd George

Thorstein Veblen

"The outcome of any serious research can only be to make two questions grow where only one grew before."
- Thorstein Veblen

Lee Iacocca

The trick is to make sure you don't die waiting for prosperity to come.
- Lee Iacocca

Marcus Aurelius

The art of living is more like wrestling than dancing.
- Marcus Aurelius

Hesiod

It is best to do things systematically, since we are only humans, and disorder is our worst enemy.
- Hesiod

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Certain flaws are necessary for the whole. It would seem strange if old friends lacked certain quirks.
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

William Cowper

"The only true happiness comes from squandering ourselves for a purpose."
- William Cowper

Sherwood Eddy

Faith is reason grown courageous.
- Sherwood Eddy

Mahatma Gandhi

Not to have control over the senses is like sailing in a rudderless ship, bound to break to pieces on coming in contact with the very first rock.
- Mahatma Gandhi

Agatha Christie

I don't think necessity is the mother of invention. Invention, in my opinion, arises directly from idleness, possibly also from laziness - to save oneself trouble.
- Agatha Christie

James Anthony Froude

To deny the freedom of the will is to make morality impossible.
- James Anthony Froude

Meister Eckhart

"Treat all things as if they were loaned to you without any ownership -- whether body or soul, sense or strength, external goods or honors, house or hall...everything."
- Meister Eckhart

Fugazi

You are not what you own.
Fugazi, American rock band

Swedish Proverb

“Fear less, hope more; Whine less, breathe more; Talk less, say more; Hate less, love more; And all good things are yours.”
- Swedish Proverb

E. B. White

"The time not to become a father is eighteen years before a war."
- E. B. White

John Ciardi

You don't have to suffer to be a poet; adolescence is enough suffering for anyone.
- John Ciardi

H. L. Mencken

It is now quite lawful for a Catholic woman to avoid pregnancy by a resort to mathematics, though she is still forbidden to resort to physics and chemistry.
- H. L. Mencken

Hannah Arendt

"The most radical revolutionary will become a conservative the day after the revolution."
- Hannah Arendt

Ambrose Bierce

The lottery is a tax on people who are bad at math.
- Ambrose Bierce

Mark Twain

“In Paris they simply stared when I spoke to them in French; I never did succeed in making those idiots understand their own language.”
- Mark Twain