"Ideas are the roots of creation."
Ernest Dimnet (1866 - 1954) French cleric
"Knowledge is proud that he has learned so much;
Wisdom is humble that he knows no more."
William Cowper (1731-1800); English poet.
"The important thing is not to listen to what other people say,
but find out what they think".
Juan Donoso Cortés (1809-1853); Spanish diplomat, essayist
"Harmony makes small things grow, lack of it makes great things decay."
Caius Sallustius Crispus (86-34 B.C.); Roman historian.
"... if you entertain any doubt, it is safest
to take the unpopular side in the first instance."
Lord Melbourne (1779-1848), English statesman, prime minister.
"In three words I can sum up everything
I've learned about life - It goes on."
Robert Lee Frost (1875-1963); US poet
"Be true to your work, your word, and your friend."
Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862); US essayist, writer.
"Wisdom is not a product of schooling
but of the lifelong attempt to acquire it."
Albert Einstein (1879-1955); German-born U.S. physicist.
"Many things are lost for want of asking".
George Herbert (1593 - 1633) English author, poet
"Learn as though you would never be able to master it;
hold it as though you would be in fear of losing it."
Confucious (551-479 BC); Chinese philosopher.
"It is the province of knowledge to speak,
and it is the privilege of wisdom to listen".
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809-94); U.S. writer, physician.
"Whenever, therefore, people are deceived...
it is clear that the error has slid into their minds
through the medium of certain resemblances to that truth."
Socrates (469-399 B.C.); Greek philosopher.
"Know or listen to those who know."
Baltasar Gracian (1601 - 1658) Spanish philosopher, writer
"Cunning . . . is but the low mimic of wisdom."
Henry St. John Bolingbroke (1678 - 1751) English statesman.
"There are words that rise like smoke, whilst others fall like rain."
Madame de Sevigne,(1626-1696); French writer.
"Knowledge is more than equivalent to force."
Samuel Johnson (1709-84), English author.
"The cautious seldom err."
Confucius (551-479); Chinese philosopher.
"To do well is always rewarded."
Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (1547-1616); Spanish writer
"The past is always present".
Maurice Maeterlinck (1862-1949); Belgian author.
"Nature has planted in our minds an insatiable longing to see the truth".
Cicero (106-43 B.C.), Roman orator, philosopher.
"The true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible."
Oscar Wilde (1856 - 1900); Anglo-Irish playwright, novelist
"We do what we must, and call it by the best names."
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-82); U.S. essayist, poet.
"It is never too late to learn what is always necessary to know".
Lucius Annaeus Seneca (4 BC - 65AD); Roman philosopher and statesman.
"Confidence is the mother of carelessness."
Baltasar Gracian (1601-1658); Spanish Jesuit writer.
"It is the bright day that brings forth the adder,
And that craves wary walking."
William Shakespeare (1564-1616); English dramatist, poet.
"All things are difficult before they are easy."
Thomas Fuller (1608 - 1661) English scholar, preacher.
"Doing easily what others find is difficult is talent;
doing what is impossible for talent is genius."
Henri Frederic Amiel (1821 - 1881) Swiss writer.
"The deepest rivers are always the most silent."
Curtius, Quintus Curtius Rufus (I or II century A.D.); Roman historian.
"The wrong-doing is in the intention".
Pedro Calderón de la Barca (1600-1681); Spanish writer.
"Let me not pray to be sheltered from dangers
but to be fearless in facing them."
Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1914); Bengali writer.
"Idealism increases in direct proportion
to one's distance from the problem."
John Galsworthy (1867-1933); British writer.
"To know, is to know that you know nothing.
That is the meaning of true knowledge."
Confucius (c. 551-479 B.C.) Chinese philosopher
"What is not good for the hive is not good for the bee".
Marcus Aurelius (121-80), Roman emperor, philosopher
"If history repeats itself, and the unexpected always happens,
how incapable must Man be of learning from experience."
George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950), Irish-born British playwright
"Things are not always as they seem;
the first appearance deceives many."
Phaedrus (15BC - 50AD) Roman poet, short-story writer
"I shall th'effect of this good lesson keep. As watchman to my heart."
William Shakespeare (1564-1616); English dramatist.
"Curiosity is one of the most permanent
and certain characteristics of a vigorous intellect."
Samuel Johnson (1709-84); English author.
"You cannot create experience. You must undergo it."
Albert Camus (1913-1960); French writer and philosopher
"If you wish to preserve your secret, wrap it up in frankness."
Alexander Smith (1830-67); Scottish poet.
"One man's remorse is another man's reminiscence."
Ogden Nash (1902-71); U.S. poet.
"A man's real possession is his memory."
Alexander Smith (1830-67); Scottish poet.
"If you want a secret to be kept, keep it yourself."
Seneca (c. 5 B.C.-65 A.D.); Roman writer, philosopher, statesman.
"By attempting the impossible, the possible is achieved."
Henri Barbusse (1873-1935); French writer.
"Man is not weak; knowledge is more than equivalent to force."
Samuel Johnson (1709-84), English author, lexicographer.
"A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step."
Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790); US scientist and politician.
"Time past and time future
What might have been and what has been
Point to one end, which is always present".
T. S. Eliot (1888-1965), Anglo-American poet.
"There is nothing impossible to him who will try".
Alexander the Great (356BC - 323BC), Macedonian ruler
"A golden key opens all doors".
Christoph Wieland (1733-1813); German writer.
"Fraud is the ready minister of injustice."
Edmund Burke (1729-1797); English statesman, orator.
"Knowledge increases in proportion to its use, that is,
the more we teach the more we learn."
Helena Petrova Blavatsky (1831 - 1891), Russian author and translator.
"Thought is the seed of action."
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-82); U.S. essayist and poet.
"Common sense is not so common."
Voltaire (1694-1778); French writer.
"It is those who get lost, who find the new ways."
Nils Kjaer (1870-1924); Norwegian writer.
"There is as much difference between us and ourselves
as between us and others."
Michel Eyquem de Montaigne (1533-1592); French essayist
"Wonder is the foundation of all philosophy,
inquiry the progress, ignorance the end."
Michel de Montaigne (1533 - 1592); French philosopher
"Nothing can be done quickly and prudently at the same time."
Publilius Syrus (1st century B.C.); Roman writer.
"The greater the difficulty, the more the glory in surmounting it".
Epicurus (341-270 B.C.); Greek philosopher
"Just because something doesn't do what you
planned it to do doesn't mean it's useless."
Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931); US inventor.
"I do not believe in a fate that falls on men however they act;
but I do believe in a fate that falls on them unless they act."
G. K. Chesterton (1874-1936); British author.
"If I had my hand full of truth, I would take good care how I opened it."
Bernard Le Bovier de Fontenelle (1657-1757); French author.
"It is never too late to learn what is always necessary to know."
Lucius Annaeus Seneca (4 BC - 65AD) Roman philosopher, statesman.
"A good beginning makes a good end."
English Proverb.
"Beaten paths are for beaten men."
Eric A. Johnston (1842 - 1914) US journalist, short-story writer.
"Music has charms to soothe a savage breast."
William Congreve (1670-1729); English dramatist.
"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."
George Santayana (1863-1952); U.S. philosopher, poet.
"To fear the worst oft cures the worse."
William Shakespeare (1564-1616), English dramatist, poet.
"Everyone complains of his memory, and no one complains of his judgement."
Francois Duc de La Rochefoucauld (1613-80); French writer
"Beware of false knowledge; it is more dangerous than ignorance."
George Bernard Shaw (1856 - 1950) English dramatist, critic
"Time changes everything except something within us
which is always surprised by change."
Thomas Hardy (1840-1928); English novelist.
"Chance fights ever on the side of the prudent."
Euripides (485-406 B.C); Greek tragic dramatist.
"The definition of the individual was:
a multitude of one million divided by one million."
Arthur Koestler (1905-83); Hungarian-born British author.
"When the oak is felled the whole forest echoes with it fall,
but a hundred acorns are sown in silence by an unnoticed breeze."
Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881); Scottish writer and historian.
"It is twice the pleasure to deceive the deceiver."
Jean de La Fontaine (1621-95); French poet.
"Time is a certain part of eternity".
Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC); Latin writer, statesman.
"I grow old learning something new every day".
Solon (640-558 BC); Greek legislator.
"The limits of my language are the limits of my mind.
All I know is what I have words for."
Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951); Austrian-born British philosopher.
"A pleasant illusion is better than a harsh reality."
Christian Nevell Bovee 1820-1904, US author.
"It is wise to disclose what cannot be concealed".
Friedrich von Schiller (1759-1805); German dramatist.
"Divide each difficulty into as many parts
as is feasible and necessary to resolve it."
René Descartes (1596-1650); French philosopher
"An investment in knowledge pays the best interest."
Benjamin Franklin (1706 - 1790), US statesman, diplomat, inventor.
"Some folk want their luck buttered."
Thomas Hardy (1840-1928); English novelist,
"He who learns but does not think, is lost!
He who thinks but does not learn is in great danger."
Confucius (551 BC - 479 BC) Chinese philosopher
"Memory, the warder of the brain."
William Shakespeare (1564-1616); English poet and playwright.
"Chance favors only the prepared mind."
Louis Pasteur (1822-1895); French chemist and biologist.
"Whatever creativity is, it is in part a solution to a problem."
Brian Aldiss (b. 1925); British science fiction writer.
"Accident is the name of the greatest of all inventors."
Mark Twain (1835-1910), U.S. author.
"What is rational is real; and what is real is rational".
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831); German philosopher.
"Time as he grows old teaches many lessons."
Aeschylus. (525-456 B.C.); Greek playwright.
"Time is but the stream I go a-fishin in".
Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862); US essayist, poet.
"How oft the sight of means to do ill deeds.
Makes deeds ill done!
William Shakespeare (1564-1616), English dramatist, poet.
"Tis the good reader that makes the good book;
a good head cannot read amiss".
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-82), U.S. essayist, poet.
"What the lion cannot manage to do, the fox can."
German proverb
"Wisdom is easy to carry but difficult to gather."
Czech Proverb
"Our words have wings, but fly not where we would."
George Eliot (1819-80), English novelist.
"The real world is much smaller than the world of imagination."
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900); German philosopher.
"Truth prevails over lies, like oil floats on water".
Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (1547-1616); Spanish writer.
"For last year's words belong to last year's language".
T. S. Eliot (1888-1965), Anglo-American poet.
"Fresh activity is the only means of overcoming adversity".
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832); German poet and playwright.
"To be ignorant of what occurred before you were born
is to remain always a child."
Cicero (106-43 B.C.); Roman orator, philosopher.
"An expert is a man who has made all the mistakes
which can be made, in a narrow field."
Niels Bohr (1885-1962); Danish physicist
"For man is not the creature and product of mechanism;
but, in a far truer sense, its creator and producer."
Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881); Scottish essayist, historian.
"Events that are not written down, told or recalled,
seem to have never happened."
Anonymous
"Music is an echo of the invisible world".
Giuseppe Mazzini (1805-1872); Italian revolutionist.
"Apparently there is nothing that cannot happen today."
Mark Twain (1835-1910); U.S. author.
"The machine does not isolate man from the great problems of nature
but plunges him more deeply into them."
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (1900-1944); French aviator, author.
"Praise the sea; on shore remain."
John Florio (c.1553-1625); English lexicographer and translator.
"Mixing one's wines may be a mistake, but old and new wisdom mix
admirably".
Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956); German dramatist, poet.
"Never open the door to the lesser evil,
for other and greater ones invariably slink in after it."
Baltasar Gracián(1601 - 1658); Spanish Jesuit and writer.
"It is easier to be wise for others than for ourselves."
François duc de la Rochefoucauld (1613-1680); French writer.
"You cannot run away from weakness; you must some time fight it out or
perish."
Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894); Scottish novelist.
"We will either find a way, or make one".
Hannibal (247-183 B.C.); Carthaginian general.
"If you want a secret to be kept, keep it yourself".
Seneca, Lucius Annaeus (c.5 BC-65 AD); Roman philosopher.
"Two monologues don't make a dialogue."
Source unknown
"Events of importance are the result of trivial causes."
Julius Caesar (100-44 B.C.); Roman emperor.
"If you cry out of joy, do not dry your tears; you are stealing them from
grief."
Paul Jean Toulet (1867-1920); French writer, critic
"Ideas do not last long. You must do something with them".
Santiago Ramón y Cajal (1854-1934); Spanish doctor.
"Work consists of whatever a body is obliged to do.
Play consists of whatever a body is not obliged to do."
Mark Twain (1835-1910); US writer.
"He that will not apply new remedies must expect new evils;
for time is the greatest innovator".
Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626); English philosopher, statesman, essayist.
"If error is corrected whenever it is recognized as such,
the path of error is the path of truth".
Hans Reichenbach (1796 - 1859); US educator, politician.
"Every step of life shows much caution is required".
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832); German poet and playwright.
"There is nothing like a dream to create the future."
Victor Hugo (1802-1885); French writer.
"Bring ideas in and entertain them royally,
for one of them may be the king."
Mark Van Doren (1894 - 1972) US poet, writer
"Contradiction is not a sign of falsity,
nor the lack of contradiction a sign of truth."
Blaise Pascal (1623-1662); French scientist and mathematician.
"Chance happens to all, but to turn chance to account is the gift of few."
Edward G. Bulwer-Lytton (1803 - 1873) English statesman, poet
"If it were done when 'tis done, then 'twere well
It were done quickly."
William Shakespeare (1564-1616), English dramatist, poet.
"The essence of knowledge is, having it, to apply it;
not having it, to confess your ignorance."
Confucius (c. 551BC - 479BC) Chinese philosopher,
"Wisdom is the daughter of experience."
Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519); Italian inventor, artist.
"Give me insight into today
and you may have the antique and future worlds."
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882); US philosopher, poet, essayist.
"Too much light is like too much darkness: it prevents you from seeing."
Octavio Paz (1914); Mexican writer.
"The cautious rarely err."
Confucius (551-479 B.C.); Chinese philosopher.
"Never meet trouble half way".
John Ray (1627-1705); English naturalist.
"The present contains nothing more than the past,
and what is found in the effect was already in the cause."
Henri Bergson (1859 - 1941); French philosopher
"Nothing is a waste of time if you use the experience wisely."
Auguste Rodin (1840 - 1917); French artist.
"Things alter for the worse spontaneously,
if they be not altered for the better designedly."
Francis Bacon (1561 - 1626); English philosopher, statesman, essayist.
"The surest way to be deceived
is to consider oneself cleverer than others."
François, Duc de La Rochefoucauld (1613-80); French writer
"Everything must be taken seriously, nothing dramatically."
Louis Adolphe Thiers (1797-1877); French statesman, historian
"Everything becomes a little different as soon as it is spoken out loud."
Hermann Hesse (1877-1962); German-born Swiss writer.
"Science is built up with facts, as a house is with stones. But a
collection of facts is not more a science than a heap of stones is a home".
Henri Poincare (1854 - 1912) French mathematician
"Choose always the way that seems the best however rough it may be;
custom will soon render it easy and agreeable."
Pythagoras (582BC - 507BC) Greek mathematician and philosopher.
"Daring ideas are like chessmen moved forward.
They may be beaten, but they may start a winning game."
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749 - 1832) German poet, dramatist.
"Advice is what we ask for when
we already know the answer but wish we didn't."
Erica Jong (b. 1942); US author
"To strive with difficulties, and to conquer them,
is the highest human felicity."
Samuel Johnson (1709-1784); English author, lexicographer.
"It does not matter how slowly you go so long as you do not stop."
Confucius (551-479 B.C); Chinese philosopher.
"Change is inevitable. Change is constant."
Benjamin Disraeli (1804-81), English statesman.
"They believe that nothing will happen
because they have closed their doors."
Maurice Maeterlinck (1862-1949); Belgian author.
"When you're dying of thirst it's too late to dig a well."
Japanese Proverb
"Forewarned, forearmed; to be prepared is half the victory."
Miguel de Cervantes (1547 - 1616) Spanish novelist, dramatist, poet.
"There is a great satisfaction in building good tools
for other people to use."
Freeman Dyson (b. 1923); British-born U.S. physicist, author.
"Hindsight is always twenty-twenty."
Billy Wilder (1906-2002); US film director.
"Youth has no age."
Pablo Picasso (1881-1973), Spanish artist.
"Language is the archives of history."
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-82), U.S. essayist, poet.
"The best of prophets of the future is the past."
George Gordon Byron, Lord Byron (1788-1824); English poet.
"Don't find fault, find a remedy."
Henry Ford (1863-1947); US auto manufacturer.
"Deliberate before you begin;
but, having carefully done so, execute with vigour."
Caius Sallustius Crispus (86BC-35BC); Roman historian
"Take nothing on its looks: take everything on evidence.
There's no better rule."
Charles Dickens (1812-1870); English novelist, dramatist
"Everything in excess is opposed to nature."
Hippocrates (460BC - 370BC) Greek physician
"The world was created to be recreated."
Georges Duhamel (1884-1966); French novelist.
"Only inteligence examines itself."
Jaime Balmes (1810-1848); Spanish Priest and Philosopher.
"Self-reflection is the school of wisdom."
Baltasar Gracián (1601 - 1658); Spanish philosopher, writer.
"If a man knows not what harbor he seeks, any wind is the right wind."
Seneca (c. 5 B.C.-A.D. c. 65), Roman writer, philosopher, statesman.
"The truths which science reveals
always surpass the dreams which it destroys."
Joseph Ernest Renan (1823 - 1892); French philosopher and historian.
"We all live under the same sky, but we don't all have the same horizon."
Konrad Adenauer, (1876-1976); German statesman.
"A single stone can cause a building to collapse."
Francisco de Quevedo y Villegas (1580-1645); Spanish writer.
"It is by acts and not by ideas that people live."
Anatole France (1844-1924); French author.
"There is nothing in this world constant but inconstancy."
Jonathan Swift (1667-1745); Irish author.
"You cannot seek for the ideal outside the realm of reality."
Leon Blum (1872-1950); French politician.
"The best way out is always through. "
Robert Frost (1874-1963), U.S. poet.
"He knows not his own strength that hath not met adversity."
Benjamin Jonson (1572-1637); English playwright.
"Patience is more powerful than force."
Plutarch (46-125 A.D.); Greek author
"Ideas control the world."
James A. Garfield (1831-1881) US president.
"It is better to sow a new harvest than
to cry for the one that was lost."
Alejandro Casona (1903-1965); Spanish playwright.
"I shall th'effect of this good lesson keep
as watchman to my heart."
William Shakespeare (1564-1616), English dramatist, poet.
"The true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible."
Oscar Wilde (1854-1900), Anglo-Irish playwright.
"Not to know yet to think that one knows will lead to difficulty."
Lao-Tzu (6th century B.C.); Legendary Chinese philosopher.
"Knowledge of the world is only to be acquired
in the world, and not in a closet."
Lord Chesterfield 1694-1773); English statesman.
"To handle silence is more difficult than to handle words."
Georges Clemenceau (1841-1929); French politician.