Category Archives: Notable Quotables

  “When angry, count ten before you speak. If very angry, a hundred.” — Thomas Jefferson 1743 – 1826) 3rd president of the United States; diplomat, architect, and philosopher (in a letter to T.J. Smith on February 21, 1825)

  “Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.” — Albert Camus (1913 – 1960) French philosopher and writer    

“It is inaccurate to say I hate everything. I am strongly in favor of common sense, common honesty, and common decency. This makes me forever ineligible for public office.” — H.L. Mencken (1880 – 1956) American journalist and cultural critic

“When will our consciences grow so tender that we will act to prevent human misery rather than avenge it?” — Eleanor Roosevelt (1884 – 1962) American First Lady (1934 – 45)

“The words that enlighten the soul are more precious than jewels.” — Hazrat Inayat Khan (1882 – 1927) Indian professor of musicology

    “Listen now to the gentle whispers of hope.” — Charles D. Brodhead (1827 – 1913) Grocery clerk & postmaster; served in PA House of Representatives

  “I have chosen to be happy because it is good for my health.”  — Voltaire (Francois-Marie Arouet) (1694 – 1778) French writer & philosopher

  “Glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever.” — Napoleon Bonaparte (1769 – 1821) French military commander & emperor

“Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none.” — William Shakespeare (1564 – 1616) English playwright, poet & actor (from “All’s Well That Ends Well”)

“Some editors are failed writers, but so are most writers.” — T.S. Eliot (1888-1965) Nobel Prize-winning American poet, playwright, & editor

  “Television has done much for psychiatry by spreading information about it, as well as contributing to the need for it.” — Alfred Hitchcock (1899 – 1980) English-American film director & producer

We humans have so much to learn. “It is not enough to win a war; it is more important to organize the peace.” — Aristotle (384 – 322 BC) Greek philosopher

I can think of no better person to toast a remembrance rum punch to than the King of Island Escapism… Jimmy Buffett. “If we couldn’t laugh, we would all go insane.” — Jimmy Buffett (1946 – 2023) American musician, singer, … Continue reading →

“When two elephants fight it is the grass that gets trampled.”  — African proverb

“Patriotism is supporting your country all the time and the government when it deserves it.” — Mark Twain (1835-1910) (pen name for Samuel Langhorne Clemens) 19th Century American author and humorist

  “I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.” — Confucius (551 – 479 BC) Chinese philosopher

  “Patience is also a form of action.”  — Auguste Rodin (1840-1917) French sculptor

“A thought is often original, though you have uttered it a hundred times.” — Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809 – 1894) American physician, poet & polymath “The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table” (1858)

“Courage without conscience is a wild beast.” — Robert Green Ingersoll, (1833 – 1899) American lawyer, Civil War veteran, orator, and abolitionist

“Sometimes I wonder whether the world is being run by smart people who are putting us on or by imbeciles who really mean it.” — Mark Twain (1835-1910) American author and humorist; pen name for Samuel Langhorne Clemens

  “Wise men don’t need advice. Fools won’t take it.” — Benjamin Franklin (1706 – 1790) Founding Father of the United States, inventor, publisher, political philosopher

  “It is easier to perceive error than to find truth, for the former lies on the surface and is easily seen, while the latter lies in the depth, where few are willing to search for it.” — Johann Wolfgang … Continue reading →

  “The trouble with most people is that they think with their hopes or fears or wishes rather than with their minds.” — Will Durant (1885 – 1981) American historian & philosopher

  “The more you venture to live greatly, the more you will find within you what it takes to get on top of things and stay there.” — Norman Vincent Peal (1898 – 1993) American clergyman & author (in his … Continue reading →

” If your morals make you dreary, depend on it, they are wrong.” — Robert Louis Stevenson (1850 – 1894) Scottish novelist

  “You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.”  — Mae West (1893 – 1980) American actress

  “Sanity and happiness are an impossible combination.” Mark Twain (1835-1910) 19th Century American author and humorist; pen name for Samuel Langhorne Clemens

Sometimes we can make ourselves happy. Sometimes we share happiness with others. Most times, happiness is a decision. “The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain!” — Dolly Parton (1946 – … Continue reading →

“Be slow to fall into friendship; but when thou art in, continue firm & constant.”  — Socrates (? – 399 BC) Greek philosopher

    “Cookies are made of butter and love.” — Norwegian proverb

    “Courage is grace under pressure.” — Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961) American author

  “Confidence, like art, never comes from having all the answers; it comes from being open to all the questions.” — Diogenes Laërtius (180-240 AD) Biographer of the Greek philosophers

  “People are not disturbed by things, but by the view they take of them.” — Epictetus  (? – 135AD) Greek Stoic Philosopher