Category Archives: Notable Quotables

  “A bird in the hand is a certainty, but a bird in the bush may sing.” — Bret Harte (1836-1902) American short-story writer & poet

“A thought is often original, though you have uttered it a hundred times.” — Oliver Wendell Holmes (1841 – 1935) American jurist & associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court

    “Be a life long or short, its completeness depends on what it was lived for.” — David Starr Jordan (1851 – 1931) American ichthyologist (study of fish) Founding president of Stanford University

  “Once you choose hope, anything’s possible.” — Christopher Reeve (1952 – 2004) American actor & activist

  “A thing long expected takes the form of the unexpected when at last it comes.” — Mark Twain (1835-1910) (Pen name for Samuel Langhorne Clemens) American author and humorist

  “One of the sanest, surest, and most generous joys of life comes from being happy over the good fortune of others.” — Archibald Rutledge (1883 – 1973) American poet & educator

  “Patience is the best remedy for every trouble.” — Plautus (c254 BC – 184 BC) Roman playwright  

“Share your smile with the world. It’s a symbol of friendship and peace.” — Christie Brinkley (1954) American model & activist

“Our flag does not fly because the wind moves it. It flies with the last breath of each soldier who died protecting it.” – Unknown Eternal gratitude to those who have died so that we can continue to enjoy living … Continue reading →

“My hope for my children must be that they respond to the still, small voice of God in their own hearts.” — Andrew Young (1932 – ) American pastor, politician, diplomat & activist

  “Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves.” — Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) American statesman 16th US President: 1861-65; assassinated following the Civil War

  “It is not our differences that divide us. It is our inability to recognize, accept, and celebrate those differences.” — Audre Lorde (1934 – 1992) American writer, philosopher, & civil rights activist

“The rung of a ladder was never meant to rest upon, but only to hold a man’s foot long enough to enable him to put the other somewhat higher.” — Thomas Henry Huxley (1825 – 1895) English biologist & anthropologist

“There’s no real joy in emptiness, in doing nothing, in risk-free living: True success is always the last of a string of failed attempts to get it right.” — Walter Anderson (1903 – 1965) American painter & writer (in book: … Continue reading →

  “No one can be wrong with man and right with God.” — Harry Emerson Fosdick (1878 – 1969) American Protestant pastor

  “True friends are never apart, maybe in distance but never in heart.” — Unknown (but often attributed to Helen Keller)

    “Try to be a rainbow in someone’s cloud.” — Maya Angelou (1928 – 2014) American poet, memoirist & activist

“Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement.  Nothing can be done without hope and confidence.” — Helen Keller (1880 – 1968) American author, political activist, and disability rights advocate  

    “When the only tool you have is a hammer, all problems begin to resemble nails.” — Abraham Maslow (1908 – 1970) American humanistic psychologist  

  “America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.” — Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) American statesman; 16th U.S. President (1861-65) Assassinated following the Civil War

  “Entre los individuos, como entre las naciones, el respeto al derecho ajeno es la paz.” (Among individuals, as among nations, respect for the rights of others is peace.) —  Benito Juárez (1806 – 1872) 1st indigenous president of Mexico

“Happiness comes of the capacity to feel deeply, to enjoy simply, to think freely, to risk life, to be needed.” — Storm Jameson (pen name for Margaret Ethel Johnson) (1891 – 1986) English author & journalist

  “Action may not always bring happiness, but there is no happiness without action.” — Benjamin Disraeli (1804 – 1881) Conservative British statesman Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (1868; 1874-1880)

  “You have to have confidence in your ability, and then be tough enough to follow through.” — Rosalynn Smith Carter (1927 – 2023) US First Lady (1977 – 1981)

    “Those who wish to sing always find a song.” — Swedish proverb

    “Under democracy one party always devotes its chief energies to trying to prove that the other party is unfit to rule – and both commonly succeed, and are right.” — H.L. Mencken (1880 – 1956) American journalist, satirist, … Continue reading →

  “When the character of a man is not clear to you, look at his friends.” — Japanese proverb

  “Work saves us from three great evils: boredom, vice and need.” — Voltaire (1694 – 1778) French philosopher & writer

  “May we never forget our fallen comrades. Freedom isn’t free.” — Sgt. Major Wilfred “Bill” “Ooorah” Paxton (1938 – 2024) United States Marine Corps 30+ years  

“I shall never stop fighting. I mean this country to survive, to prosper and to be free…I haven’t fought the destructive forces of socialism for more than twenty years in order to stop now, when the critical phase of the … Continue reading →

  “Faithless is he that says farewell when the road darkens.” — J. R. R. (John Ronald Reuel) Tolkien (1892 – 1973) English writer, poet & scholar

  “As long as you have the opportunity to breathe, breathe.” — Johnny Depp (1963 – ) American actor (in Rolling Stone p. 78, Issue 1186/1187, July 4-18, 2013