Great Inspirational Quotes

SUMMARY

Welcome to my list of top quotes, spanning 2 decades and counting! Sourced from all types of media: Films, Google, Novels, Youtube, you name it, and sorted by topic (plus alphabetical order). Enjoy!

Adventure|Anger|Balance|Beauty|Beginning|Business|Capability|Change&Permanence|Confidence|Courage|Death|Despair|Dreams|Education|Endurance|Envy|Evil|Extraordinary|Fear|Feelings&Emotions|Food&Hunger|Finance|Forgiveness|Freedom|Friendship|Government&Politics|Greed&Power|Grief&Sadness|Happiness|Hate|Heros&Villians|History|Home|Hope|Humanity|Humility|Humor|Imagination|Information|Innocence|Insanity|Inspiration&Ideas|Integrity&Morals|Justice&Equality|Journey|Kindness|Legacy|Life|Love|Marriage|Perception|Personality|Philosophy&Poetry|Planning&Preparation|Prejudice|Propoganda|Reason&Wisdom|Regret|Religion|Reputation|Respect|Sacrifice|Science&Technology||Sex&Sexuality|Sin|Silence|Society|Soulmates|Teaching|Teamwork|Thoughts|Time|Truth|War|WarUnitMottos|Wealth&Poverty|Work|Worry|Writing&Storytelling

PS: Some are my personal contributions; I’ve added my name behind those.

Adventure

Adventure is just bad planning. — Roald Amudsen
If you want to go fast, go it alone. If you want to go far, go it together. — African Proverb
The core of mans’ spirit comes from new experiences. — Christopher McCandless, Into the Wild
Tourists don’t know where they’ve been, travelers don’t know where they’re going. — Paul Theroux
Vacation is what you take when you can’t take what you’ve been taking any longer. — Cowardly Lion, Wizard of Oz
Wherever you go, there you are. — Jon Kabat-Zinn
Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover. — Mark Twain

Anger

Depression is anger without enthusiasm. — Steven Wright

Balance

Everything in moderation, including moderation. — Anonymous

Beauty

But without the dark, we’d never see the stars. — Stephenie Meyer
Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful. — William Morris
It’s not the outside that counts, but there’s a limit to that, too. — Paprika, Paprika
People can resist beauty but they cannot resist charm. — Irene, Priceless
The soul that sees beauty will sometimes walk alone. — Goethe
The world isn’t perfect… but that’s why it’s beautiful. — Anonymous
Wrinkles should merely indicate where smiles have been. — Mark Twain

Beginning

The beginning is always today. — Mary Wollstonecraft

Business

Great businesses are built on inefficiency. Businessmen love inefficiency as inefficiency signals opportunity. — Anonymous
Be wary of business partners with no skin in the game. Capital is finite, but ideas cost nothing. — Derek Chng
If you’re not buying the product, you are the product. — Andrew Lewis
Invest in people, not ideas. — Michael Sampson
There are only two industries that refer to their customers as ‘users’: illegal drugs and software. — Edward Tufte

Capability

Men take only their needs into consideration, never their abilities. — Napoleon Bonaparte
There are no two words more harmful in the entire English language than “good job”. — Fletcher, Whiplash

Change & Permanence

Omnia mutantur, nihil interit. [Everything changes, but nothing is truly lost.] — Dream, The Sandman
Change is risky. But isn’t it riskier if you stay? — Anonymous
Don’t be afraid to change. You may lose something good but you may gain something better. — Anonymous
Nothing vast enters the life of mortals without a curse. — Sophocles
The beaten path is the safest, but the traffic’s terrible. — Jeff Taylor
To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often. — Winston Churchill
We are but sandcastles on the beach, only the tides are forever. — Anonymous

Confidence

If you aren’t confident, fake it. It will come. — Anonymous
You can tell the size of a man by the size of things that bother him. — Adlai Stevenson I
You are not a drop in the ocean. You are the entire ocean in a drop. — Rumi

Courage

Carpe Diem. [Seize the Day] — Horace
Cometh the hour, cometh the man. — Anonymous
Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgement that something else is more important than fear. — James Neil Hollingworth
Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear. — Mark Twain
It is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world and moral courage so rare. — Mark Twain
It is sometimes a mistake to climb, it is always a mistake never even to make the attempt. — Dream, The Sandman
The opportunity of a lifetime must be seized during the lifetime of the opportunity. — Leonard Ravenhill
The world makes way for those who know where they are going. — Anonymous

Death

Death is not the worst thing that can happen to Men. — Plato
Death is the road to awe. — The Fountain
Die like you live: all of a sudden. — Clark Gable, Manhattan Mayhem
The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time. — Mark Twain
The last one to die please turn out the light. — Anonymous
The tyrant’s reign ends with his death, the martyr’s reign starts with his death. — Kierkegaard

Despair

Ernest Hemingway once won a bet he can tell a heartbreaking story in six words: “For sale: Baby shoes, never worn.”
I used to care… Now I take pills for that. — Anonymous

Dreams

Are you sleepwalking through your life or wake walking through your dreams? — Waking Life
Don’t part with your illusions. When they are gone, you may still exist, but you have ceased to live. — Mark Twain
Don’t you think Dreams and the Internet are similar? They are both areas where the repressed conscious mind vents. — Paprika, Paprika
Dreams are memories of the past and memories of the future. — Dream, The Sandman
Dreams don’t work unless you do. — John C. Maxwell
Dream no small dreams for they have no power to move the hearts of men. — Goethe
Dreams are the touchstones of our character. — Henry David Thoreau
I don’t know whether I’m alive and dreaming or dead and remembering. — Joe, Johnny Got His Gun
I dream for a living. — Steven Spielberg
I like thinking big. If you’re going to be thinking anything, you might as well think big. — Donald Trump
If you don’t build your own dream, someone will hire you to build theirs. — Dhirubhai Ambani
May your organs fail before your dreams fail you. — The Matches
Nothing happens unless we first dream. — Carl Sandburg
Reality can destroy the dream; why can’t the dream destroy reality? — George Moore
There is nothing like a dream to create the future. — Victor Hugo
Visions are worth fighting for. Why spend your life making someone else’s dreams? — Tim Burton
What power would Hell have if those here imprisoned were not able to dream of Heaven? — Dream, The Sandman
When you dream, sometimes you remember. When you wake, you always forget. — Dream, The Sandman

Education

A person who won’t read has no advantage over one who can’t read. — Mark Twain
Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt. — Solomon’s Proverbs
Education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance. — Will Durant, Books: The Great Gadfly
Education, therefore, is a process of living and not a preparation for future living. — John Dewey
I taught you everything you need to know, but not everything I know. — Orson Scott Card
If you’re the smartest person in the room, you’re in the wrong room. — Confucius
In the end we will conserve only what we love; we will love only what we understand; and we will understand only what we have been taught. — Baba Dioum
Knowledge is the antidote to fear. — Ralph Waldo Emerson
The only way that we can live, is if we grow. The only way that we can grow is if we change. The only way that we can change is if we learn. The only way we can learn is if we are exposed. And the only way that we can become exposed is if we throw ourselves out into the open. Do it. Throw yourself. — C. JoyBell C.
When you stop learning, you learn to stop living. — Albert Einstein

Endurance

All pain is fleeting. — Derek Chng
Doubt kills more dreams than failure ever will. — Suzy Kassem
Enjoy when you can; endure when you must. — Goethe
He who never falls, never stands. — Fedor Emilianenko
How important it is in life not necessarily to be strong… but to feel strong. — Christopher McCandless, Into the Wild
Inside every cynical person, there is a disappointed idealist. — George Carlin
Life’s hard. It’s supposed to be. If we didn’t suffer, we’d never learn anything. — Jesse, Before Sunset
No one can make you feel inferior without your consent. — Eleanor Roosevelt
Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go. — T S Elliot
Pressure makes diamonds. — Gen. George S. Patton
Sometimes when you fall, you fly. — Todd Faber, The Sandman
Success is not final, failure is not fatal; it is the courage to continue that counts. — Winston Churchill
The wound is the place where the light enters you. — Rumi
We’re all broken, that’s how the light gets in. — Ernest Hemingway
When you are at the end of the rope, tie a knot and hang on. — FDR
You drown not by falling in the river but by staying submerged. — Paulo Coelho

Envy

Man will do many things to get himself loved, he will do all things to get himself envied. — Mark Twain

Evil

It is the way of men to make monsters; and it is the nature of monsters to destroy their makers. — Harlan Wade, Fear
The lack of money is the root of all evil. — Mark Twain
We stopped looking for monsters under our beds when we realized they were inside us. — Anonymous

Extraordinary

Great minds discuss ideas. Average minds discuss events. Small minds discuss people. — Eleanor Roosevelt
One machine can do the work of fifty ordinary men. No machine can do the work of one extraordinary man. — Elbert Hubbard
Some of us get dipped in flat, some in satin, some in gloss; but every once in a while, you find someone who’s iridescent, and once you do, nothing will ever compare. — Chet, Flipped

Fear

Fear is the most valuable commodity in the universe. Turn on your TV. What are you seeing? People selling their products? No. People selling the fear of you having to live without their products. Fear is primal. Fear sells. — World War Z (Novel)
Fear is the oldest and strongest emotion of mankind. — H.P. Lovecraft

Feelings & Emotions

All emotion is involuntary when genuine. — Mark Twain
Feelings are feelings because we can’t control them. — Team America: World Police

Food & Hunger

Cooking is like love. It should be entered with wild abandon or not at all. — Harriet van Horne
Food is power. We use it to change behavior. Some may call it bribery. We do not apologize. — Catherine Bertini, Executive Director of UN World Food Program (Globalist UN World Food Summit, November 1996)
If you can’t feed a hundred people, then feed just one. — Mother Teresa

Finance

A recession is when your neighbour loses their job. Depression is when you lose yours. — Ronald Reegan
Banks are glad to lend you money when you prove you don’t need it. — Harry Truman
Bull Markets are born on pessimism, grow on skepticism, mature on optimism & die on euphoria. — Sir John Templeton
Buy land, they’re not making it anymore. — Mark Twain
Give me control of a nation’s money and I care not who makes its laws. — Mayer Amschel Bauer Rothschild
If you don’t find a way to make money while you sleep, you will work until you die. — Warren Buffet
If you owe the bank $100, that’s you problem. If you owe the bank $100 million, that’s the bank’s problem. — John Paul Getty
Sometimes one pays the most for the things one gets for nothing. — Albert Einstein
The curious task of economics is to demonstrate to men how little they really know about what they imagine they can design. — Friedrich Hayek, The Fatal Conceit
The first rule of compounding [interest] is don’t interrupt it. — Charlie Munger
When it is a question of money, everyone is of the same religion. — Voltaire

Forgiveness

Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much. — Oscar Wilde
Every saint has a past. Every sinner has a future. — Oscar Wilde
Forgiveness is giving up my right to hate you for hurting me. — Anonymous
Forgiveness is the release of all hope of a better past. — Alexa Young
It’s easier to ask forgiveness than permission. — Grace Hopper
Remember the crimes, forget the hate. — Anonymous

Freedom

Freedom is not free. — Korean War Memorial, Atlantic City, NJ
Freedom’s just another word for ‘Nothing to Lose’. — Janis Joplin , Me and Bobby McG
I disagree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it. — Voltaire

Friendship

A friend is a single soul dwelling in two bodies. — Aristotle
A true friend stabs you in the front. — Oscar Wilde
Common interests binds people and couples together, not personalities. — Derek Chng
Everybody hates me because I’m so universally liked. — Peter de Vries
Friends come and go, but enemies accumulate. — Anonymous
I like you. You remind me of myself when I was young and stupid. — Anonymous
It is easier to forgive an enemy than to forgive a friend. — William Blake
It is not a lack of love, but a lack of friendship that makes unhappy marriages. — Nietzsche
Real friends are the ones who survive transitions between address books. — Anonymous
You can’t shake hands with a clenched fist. — Indira Gandhi

Government & Politics

A country is not conquered from without, until it has destroyed itself from within. — Will Durant
A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves. — Edward Morrow
As long as there are governments, there will be wars. — Derek Chng
Censorship ends in logical completeness when nobody is allowed to read any books except the books that nobody reads. — George Bernard Shaw
Dictators will disappear with the appearance of the internet. — Rupert Murdoch
Dictatorships were never voted out. They were overthrown. — Anonymous
Everything the State says is a lie, and everything it has it has stolen. — Nietzsche
Freedom is when the people speak; democracy is when the government listens. — Alastair Farrugia
Governments are a body of people who are ungoverned. — Shepherd Book, Firefly
Politics is supposed to be the second oldest profession. I have come to realize it bears a very close resemblance to the first. — Ronald Regan
Propaganda is to a democracy what violence is to a dictatorship. — William Blum
The best government is that which teaches us to govern ourselves. — Goethe
The more blatant a lie, the more people will believe it. — Joseph Goebbels
The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money. — Margaret Thatcher
The sole objective of governments is to stay in power. Making the people happy isn’t the objective; it is merely a means to an end. — Derek Chng
The state is made for the man, not man for the state. — Albert Einstein
There is no greater tyranny than that which is perpetrated under the shield of law and in the name of justice. — Charles de Montesquieu
To be an enemy of the US is dangerous, but to be a friend is fatal. — Henry Kissinger
To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize. — Voltaire
When dictatorship becomes a fact, revolution becomes a right. — Victor Hugo
You can’t tax a country into prosperity. — Benjamin Franklin

Greed & Power

No one who likes power should have it. — Hal Wyler, The Diplomat

Grief & Sadness

And tears don’t flow the same in space. — ISS Astronaut Frank Culbertson, 9–11
Don’t grieve. Anything you lose comes round in another form. — Rumi
Grief is a place a person goes alone. — The Passage (Novel)

Happiness

Don’t change yourself to make someone happy, unless that someone is you. — Anonymous
Even being alone is better than sitting next to your love and feeling lonely. — Celine, Before Sunset
Everything has a happy ending. If it’s not happy, then it’s not the end. — Anonymous
Happiness often sneaks in through a door you didn’t know you left open. — John Barrymore
Happiness is only real when shared. — Christopher McCandless, Into the Wild
People wait all week for Friday, all year for summer, all life for happiness. — Anonymous
The best way to cheer yourself up is to try to cheer somebody else up. — Mark Twain
You can’t wait until life isn’t hard anymore before you decide to be happy. — Jane Marczewski

Hate

The first one to get angry loses. — Anonymous
The only reason to point a gun at someone is if you intend to shoot him. — Anonymous
When embarking on a journey of revenge, dig two graves. — Confucius

Heroes & Villains

When the hero becomes the villain… who becomes the hero? — Anonymous
You either die a hero, or live long enough to see yourself become the villain. — Harvey Dent, The Dark Knight

History

History is a vast early warning system. — Norman Cousins
What we learn from history is that people don’t learn from history. — Friedrich Hegel

Home

Home is not where you are born; home is where all your attempts to escape cease. — Naguib Mahfouz

Hope

Hope always dies last. — Minister Hempf, The Lives of Others
Hope is not a plan. — Anonymous
They say… hope only begins in the dark. — Riddick, Dark Athena (VG)
The only thing stronger than fear is hope. — President Snow, The Hunger Games

Humanity

Can a moral man maintain his moral code in an immoral world? — Mordechai, Uprising
Everybody’s lives have equal value. — Warren Buffet
Everything is personal, if you’re a person. — Gretta Milano, Fallen
He who fights monsters should look to it that he does not himself become a monster. And when you gaze long into any abyss, the abyss gazes back at you. — Nietzsche
It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity. — Albert Einstein
No man for any considerable period can wear one face to himself and another to the multitude, without finally getting bewildered as to which may be the true. — Nathaniel Hawthorne
Only human; the perfect excuse for being inhumane. — Derek Chng
The only real nation is humanity. — Paul Farmer
We do have a lot in common. The same Earth, the same air, the same sky. Maybe if we started looking at what’s the same instead of what’s different… well, who knows. — Meowth
We’re all part monsters in our subconscious, so we have laws and religion. — Cdr. John Adams, The Forbidden Planet

Humility

Ask more than you answer. Everybody likes to talk about themselves. — Anonymous
Humility is the foundation of all virtues. — Confucius
Humility is the only certain defense against humiliation. — Anonymous
Humility isn’t actually humility unless there’s something you’re good enough at to be humble about. — God, Joan of Arcadia
Life is a long lesson in humility. — James Matthew Barry
The deed is everything, the glory nothing. — Goethe
Without humility there can be no humanity. — John Buchan

Humor

Laughter is the shortest distance between people. — Richardson

Information

If you don’t read the news, you are uninformed. If you do read the news, you are misinformed. — Mark Twain

Innocence

Innocence, once lost, can never be regained. — Lucifer, The Sandman

Insanity

A man talking sense to himself is no madder than a man talking nonsense not to himself. — Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead

Inspiration & Ideas

A person with a new idea is a crank until the idea succeeds. — Mark Twain
An idea is the most resilient parasite. — Inception
Always go with the decision that will make for a good story. — Anonymous
No art comes from the conscious mind. — Steve Martin
If you can’t touch somebody you created, how can you create somebody that’ll touch anybody? — In America
If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up people to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea. — Antoine de Saint-Exupery
You should write your obituary and then try to figure out how to live up to it. — Warren Buffet

Imagination

Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world. — Albert Einstein
The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge, but imagination. — Albert Einstein

Integrity & Morals

A person is only as good as their word. — Hans Hubermann, The Book Thief
If you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything. — Gordon A. Eadie
Integrity is always integral. — Derek Chng
You can’t teach integrity. You inspire it. — Derek Chng

Justice & Equality

All of us do not have equal talent, but all of us should have an equal opportunity to develop those talents. — John F. Kennedy
Do what’s right, not what’s illegal. Laws are man-made and flawed, unlike justice. — Derek Chng
It is better to be judged by 12 than carried by 6. — Sherrilyn Kenyon
Justice has a blindfold on. — James Comey
Justice without force is powerless; force without justice is tyrannical. — Pascal
Not being able to fortify justice, they justified force. — Anonymous

Journey

It’s the not the destination, it’s the journey. — Ralph Waldo Emerson
Success is a journey, not a destination. — Arthur Ashe
The journey is the destination. — Dan Eldon
The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. — Confucius

Kindness

Pity is worthless; but the act of kindness is priceless. — Anonymous
The hand that gives is always higher than the hand that receives. — West African proverb
The highest of distinctions is service to others. — World War Z (Novel)
You may think your light is small, but it can make a big difference in other people’s lives. Let your light shine. — Anonymous

Legacy

Life is temporary, legacy is forever. — Anonymous
We all die. The goal isn’t to live forever, the goal is to create something that will. — Chuck Palahniuk

Life

A useless life is an early death. — Goethe
Bloom where you are planted. — Szerlip
Do not take life too seriously. You will never get out of it alive. — Elbert Hubbard
Every being in the universe knows right from wrong. — Prot, K-PAX
Every man dies, but not every man lives — William Wallace
Go into the world and do well. But more importantly, go into the world and do good. — Minor Myers Jr.
I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered. My life is my own. — Number 6, The Prisoner
It is not the length of life; but the depth of life. — Ralph Waldo Emerson
It is possible to commit no mistakes and still lose. That is not a weakness. That is life. — Jean Luc Picard, Star Trek: The Next Generation
Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. — Albert Einstein
Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards. — Soren Kierkegaard
Life does not take you seriously, so you should return the favour. — Anonymous
Life is eternal; it has no beginning and no end. — Anonymous
Life is not always a matter of holding good cards, but sometimes, playing a poor hand well.— Jack London
Life is just a chance to grow a soul. — Powell Davies
Life is like an onion: You peel it off one layer at a time, and sometimes you weep. — Carl Sandburg
Life is too short for ifs and maybes. — Mal, Firefly
Life is what you do while you’re waiting to die. — Zorba
Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself. — George Bernard Shaw
Live each day as if it were your last… Because one day it will be. — Jeremy Schwartz
Live everyday like it’s the best day of your life. — Reign Over Me
No one is on their deathbed wishing they spent more time at work. Enjoy your life. — Charlie Brown
People live like they’re going to live forever, that’s why they waste their time. If people lived like they were going to die tomorrow, they would go and get so much more out of life. — Anonymous
Searching for oneself is a journey of a lifetime. Life is what happens in between. — Mateo, Warrior Nun
Some are born posthumously. — Nietzsche
The final mystery is oneself. — Oscar Wilde
The purpose of life is a life of purpose. — Robert Bryne
The two most important days of your life are the day you were born and the day you find out why. — Mark Twain
Things that matter most must never be at the mercy of things that matter least. — Goethe
What one loves about life are the things that fade. — Heaven’s Gate
What starts in farce ends in tragedy. — Karl Marx
You have never lived until you have almost died. — Guy de Maupassant
You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough. — Mae West
Your story may not have such a happy beginning, but that doesn’t make you who you are. It is the rest of your story, who you choose to be. — Soothsayer, Kung Fu Panda 2
Man surprised me most about humanity. Because he sacrifices his health in order to make money. Then he sacrifices money to recuperate his health. And then he is so anxious about the future that he does not enjoy the present; the result being that he does not live in the present or the future; he lives as if he is never going to die, and then dies having never really lived. — Dalai Lama

Love

A career is a wonderful thing but you can’t curl up with it on a cold night. — Marilyn Monroe
A sexual dynamic is always present between people, unless you are asexual. — Donald Trump
A woman can always tell if a man loves her by how much time he is willing to invest. Money spent is meaningless, but time spent is priceless. — Tony A. Gaskins Jr.
Always go out into the public like you’re about to meet the love of your life. — Anonymous
Any fool can risk his life, but it takes a hero to risk his heart. — Talia, Xena
I wanted to hold the world in the palm of my hand, when I should have been holding yours. — Anonymous
If you want the girl next door, go next door. — Joan Crawford
It is remarkable how similar the pattern of love is to the pattern of insanity. — Merovingian, The Matrix Revolutions
Keep breaking your heart till it opens. — Rumi
Love is just a chemical, no matter the origin. We give it meaning by choice. — Eleanor Lamb, Bioshock 2 (VG)
Love is a despot… who spares no one! — Namibian proverb
Love is like war. Easy to start; Hard to end; Impossible to forget. — Kumar E.S.
Love is not finding someone to live with. It’s finding someone whom you can’t live without. — D. Lipper & E. Sagehorn
Love is the whole thing. We are only pieces. — Rumi
Love lasts. But anger fades. — Bill Gates
Some people feel like they don’t deserve love. They walk away quietly into empty spaces, trying to close the gaps of the past. — Christopher McCandless, Into the Wild
The eyes are a window to the soul; but the heart is the door. — Derek Chng
We are shaped and fashioned by what we love. — Goethe
You are what you love, not what loves you. — Donald Kaufman, Adaptation

Marriage

A great marriage is not when the perfect couple comes together. It’s when an imperfect couple learns to enjoy their differences.

Optimism & Pessimism

I never saw a pessimistic general win a battle. — Dwight Eisenhower
Many an optimist has become rich by simply buying out a pessimist. — Denis Waitley
Pessimistic people are inactive as doing nothing is usually better than doing something for them. Therefore they will never improve and change their whole life. — Anonymous
The optimist proclaims that we live in the best of all possible worlds; and the pessimist fears this is true. — James Branch Cabell

Perception

All that is gold does not glitter; not all those who wander are lost; the old that is strong does not wither; deep roots are not reached by the frost. — J. R. R. Tolkien
Never underestimate a man who overestimates himself. — Franklin D. Roosevelt
Reality is purely the perception of the individual mind. It follows, that since no two minds are alike, no two perceptions of reality are alike. It further follows, that what reality is to one, may seem complete madness to someone else. — Yefim Novikov
The difference between fiction and reality? Fiction has to make sense. — Tom Clancy
The most important decision we make is whether we believe we live in a friendly or hostile universe. — Albert Einstein
When the only tool you have is a hammer, everything else looks like a nail. — Abraham Maslow

Personality

I see it in the people that do the real work, and what’s sad in a way is that the people that are the most giving, hardworking, and capable of making this world better; usually don’t have the ego and ambition to be a leader. — Celine, Before Sunset
Nice guys don’t finish last. Boring guys do. — Anonymous
Some people are more than the sum of their parts. But some are less. — Julie, Flipped
Someone who gossips to you will gossip about you. — Wolfgang Mieder, Stewart A Kingsbury, Kelsie B. Harder
You can never replace anyone because everyone is made up of such beautiful specific details. — Celine, Before Sunset

Philosophy & Poetry

A poem begins as a lump in the throat. — Robert Frost
Philosophy begins with wonder. — Socrates
There is more in heaven and earth than can be dreamt of in your philosophy. Shakespeare Science is the poetry of reality. — Richard Dawkins

Planning & Preparation

Be prepared to be unprepared. — W.B. Govo
Fools learn by experience. Wise men learn from other people’s experience. — Otto von Bismarck

Prejudice

It is harder to crack a prejudice than an atom. — Albert Einstein
Prejudice is an opinion without judgement. — Voltaire
It is far more useful to be aware of a single shortcoming in ourselves than it is to be aware of a thousand in somebody else. — Dalai Lama
The very ink with which history is written is merely fluid prejudice. — Mark Twain
Where they have burned books, they will end in burning human beings. — Heinrich Heine

Propaganda

As you get older, you become increasingly immune to outside influence. On the other side of the spectrum, cults and armed forces recruit heavily at universities because youth are highly vulnerable to it. — Anonymous

Reason & Wisdom

Common sense is not so common. — Voltaire
If we admit that human life can be ruled by reason, then all possibility of life is destroyed. — Christopher McCandless, Into the Wild
If you cannot make them see the light, make them feel the heat. — Ronald Reagan
Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that. ― George Carlin
What the wise man believes in the beginning, the fool believes in the end. — Warren Buffet
You can’t make a whip out of shit, and even if you could, you won’t be able to use it for whipping. — Czech Proverb

Regret

Never lend anything you can’t afford to lose. — Anonymous
Sometimes a little discomfort in the beginning can save a whole lot of pain down the road. — Chet, Flipped

Religion

Belief is truth held in the mind; faith is a fire in the heart. — Joseph Fort Newton
Coincidence is God’s way of remaining anonymous. — Albert Einstein
Everyone is tearing each other apart in the name of their personal God. And the irony is, by definition, they’re probably worshipping the same God. — Ridley Scott
Go to Heaven for the climate, Hell for the company. — Mark Twain
God does not play dice with the universe. — Albert Einstein
Religion is for people who fear Hell; Spirituality is for people who have already been there. — David Bowie
The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is Christians, who acknowledge Jesus with their lips and deny him with their life style. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable. — Brennan Manning
When I do good, I feel good. When I do bad, I feel bad. That’s my religion. — Abraham Lincoln

Reputation

It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. — Warren Buffett

Respect

No matter their job or status in life, everyone deserves your respect. — Anonymous

Sacrifice

All gave some. Some gave all. — Howard Osterkamp
Eschew the monumental. Shun the epic. — Ernest Hemingway
If a man hasn’t found something he’s willing to die for, he isn’t fit to live. — Martin Luther King
Martyrdom covers a multitude of sins. — Mark Twain

Science & Technology

Aliens too must obey the laws of physics — Michio Kaku
In theory, there should be no difference between theory and practice, but in practice, there is. — William T. Harbaugh
Research is what I’m doing when I don’t know what I’m doing. — Wernher Von Braun
Theory is important, at least in theory. — Keith Martin
Arthur C. Clarke’s “Three Laws of Prediction”:

1. When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.

2. The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.

3. Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

Sex & Sexuality

My one and only argument regarding homosexuality is that people against it are essentially saying they believe more in falling in love with genitals rather than people. — Skye Toffee (Youtube)

Sin

Doctors bury their mistakes, architects cover them with ivy. — Frank Lloyd Wright
Sometimes people are unable to discover your secrets because they are too busy protecting theirs. — Derek Chng

Silence

Distance doesn’t separate people. Silence does. — Jeff Hood
Silence speaks its own language. No need to explain it. Understand silence carefully. — Anonymous

Society

About fifty percent of the human population is middlemen and they don’t take kindly to being eliminated. — Shepherd Brooks, Firefly
Before you diagnose yourself with depression or low self-esteem, first make sure you are not, in fact, just surrounded by assholes. — William Gibson
Culture is to make a nice drinking bowl from one’s enemy’s skull. Civilization is to go to prison for that. — Anonymous
It’s ironic that in this age of “tolerance” we are the most afraid of offending people. — Anonymous
Madness is the exception in individuals but the rule in groups. — Nietzsche
Men think in herds, go mad in herds, but recover their senses one by one. — Charles Mackay
One does not judge past societies with present day values. — Anonymous
People are made to be loved and things are made to be used. The sad irony in this world is that people are used and things are loved! — Anonymous
Sometimes I wonder whether the world is being run by smart people that are putting us on, or by imbeciles who really mean it. — Mark Twain
When everyone thinks the same, nobody is thinking. — Walter Lippman
Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect. — Mark Twain
Where you sit is where you stand / You stand where you sit — M.C. Hanes

Soulmates

Soulmates are not found, but made. — Michael, The Good Place
Your final soulmate will never try to put out your fire, they will stoke it. — L. L. Musings

Teaching

The best teacher is one whose students outshine thyself. — Anonymous

Teamwork

Great things in business are never done by one person, they’re done by a team of people. — Steve Jobs
Only two things keep a team together; fear or loyalty. — Ramsey, Furious 7
There are no passengers on Spaceship Earth. We are all crew. — Marshall McLuhan

Thoughts

Our best thoughts come from others. — Ralph Waldo Emerson
The important thing is not to stop questioning; curiosity has its own reason for existing. — Albert Einstein
Thoughts are the shadows of our feelings — Always darker, emptier, simpler. — Nietzsche

Time

As all historians know, the past is a great darkness, and filled with echoes. — Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale
Fear not for the future, weep not for the past. — P. B. Shelley
Many of us crucify ourselves between two thieves — regret for the past and fear of the future. — Fulton Oursler
Never think of the future. It comes soon enough. — Albert Einstein
One faces the future with one’s past. — Pearl S. Buck
The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there. — L.P. Hartley, The Go-Between
The past is never dead, it is not even past. — William Faulkner
The past is the only dead thing that smells sweet. — Edward Thomas, Early One Morning
The years teach much which the days never know. — Ralph Waldo Emerson
There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen. — Vladimir Ilyich Lenin
Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. — George Santayana, The Life of Reason
Time flies, but the good news is that you’re the pilot. — Cashback
Time heals all wounds… and creates fresh ones. — Derek Chng
Time you enjoy wasting is never a waste of time. — Bertrand Russell
Whatever begins, also ends. — Seneca

Truth

A half truth is a whole lie. — Tal, Double Crossing
A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is still putting its shoes on. — Mark Twain
Ask me no questions. I’ll tell you no lies. — Oliver Goldsmith, She Stoops to Conquer
Believe those who are seeking the truth; doubt those who find it. — Andre Gide
Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but not their own facts. — D.P. Moynihan
If you don’t read the newspaper, you are uninformed. If you do read the newspaper, you are misinformed. — Mark Twain
If you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth. — Spock, Star Trek
If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything. — Mark Twain
In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act. — George Orwell
It is easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled. — Mark Twain
Never trust the storyteller. Only trust the story. — The Grandfather, The Sandman
People ask for criticism but they only want praise. — W. Somerset Maugham
Rather than love, than money, than faith, than fame, than fairness… give me truth. — Thoreau
Reality is merely a persistent illusion. — Albert Einstein
Something unpleasant is coming when men are anxious to tell the truth. — Benjamin Disraeli
The closer you get to the light, the larger your shadow becomes. — Kingdom Hearts
The search for truth is more precious than its possession. — Albert Einstein
There are basically two types of people: People who accomplish things, and people who claim to have accomplished things. The first group is less crowded. — Mark Twain
There are two kinds of light — the glow that illuminates, and the glare — that obscures. — James Thurber
Truth is treason in an Empire of lies. — George Orwell
We read the world wrong and say it deceives us. — Rabindranath Tagore, Stray Birds
We cannot hold a torch to light another’s path without brightening our own. — Ben Sweetland

War

A dead enemy always smells good — Alus Vitellus
A talent is formed in peace; a character is formed in war. — Goethe
A true anarchist would not care how people view anarchy. It is what it is. — Anonymous
Americans invented war so they would learn geography. — Mark Twain
An alliance with the powerful is never to be trusted. — Phaedrus
Being unconquerable lies with yourself; being conquerable lies with the enemy. — Sun Tzu, The Art of War
Clever tyrants are never punished. — Voltaire
Either war is obsolete or men are. — R.B. Fuller
Force is the basis for all negotiations. — Anonymous
Guns will make us powerful; butter will only make us fat. — Hermann Goering
I would die for my country, but I could never let my country die for me. — Neil Kinnock
If freedom is short of weapons, we must compensate with willpower. — Hitler
If this phrase of the ‘’balance of power’’ is to be always an argument for war, the pretext for war will never be wanting, and peace can never be secure. — John Bright
If you want peace, prepare for war. — Roman General Vegetius
In peace the young bury the old, but in war the old bury the young. — Croesus
In war there are no innocents. They’re all dead; only the guilty remain. — Anonymous
In war, truth is the first casualty. — Aeschylus
It is not only the living who are killed in war. — Isaac Asimov
Let him who desires peace prepare for war. — Vegetius
‘Let there be light!’ said God, and there was light. ‘Let there be blood!’ says man, and there’s a sea! — Lord Byron, Don Juan
Only the dead fought fair. — Ghost Recon (VG)
Only the dead have seen the end of war. — Plato
Peace cannot be kept by force, only by understanding. — Albert Einstein
Quae caret ora cruore nostro? [What coast knows not our blood?] — Horace
The god of war hates those who hesitate — Cicero
The soldier’s graves are the greatest preachers of peace. — Albert Schweitzer
The Spartans do not ask how many but where they are — Agis II
There are no atheists in foxholes and no libertarians in recessions. — Paul Krugman
There never was a good war or a bad peace. — Benjamin Franklin
To blunder twice is not allowed in war. — Latin Proverb
To hold a pen is to be at war. — Voltaire
War is men going mad and being rewarded with medals. — Catch-22 (Novel)
War never dies. It only sleeps. — Derek Chng
We can secure peace only be preparing for war. — J.F. Kennedy
We make war that we may live in peace. — Aristotle
We’re here to preserve democracy not to practice it. — Crimson Tide
We used to wonder where war lived, what it was that made it so vile. And now we realize that we know where it lives. That it is inside ourselves. — Albert Camus, Notebooks
Weapons are like money; no one knows the meaning of enough. — Martin Amis
You cannot simultaneously prevent and prepare for war. — Albert Einstein
We do not want war but we are not afraid of it. We want peace but we will not beg for it. — Anonymous

War: Military Unit Mottos

US Army: All gave some. Some gave all.
US Navy Seals: The only easy day was yesterday.
USMC: Semper Fi. (Always ready)
US Army Special Forces: De Oppresso Liber. (To liberate the oppressed)
US Delta Forces: Sine Pari. (Without equal)
US 160th SOAR: Death waits in the dark.
SAS: Who dares wins.
Romans: All glory is fleeting.
The Spartans don't ask how many but only where they are.

Wealth & Poverty

If you want to know how rich you are, find out how many things you have that money cannot buy. — Anonymous
My kids never had the advantage I had. I was born poor. — Issur Danielovitch Demsky
The real tragedy of the poor is the poverty of their aspirations. — Adam Smith

Work

Choose a job you love and you will not need to work for the rest of your life. — Confucius
Find your passion and figure out how to get paid for it. — Anonymous
Instead of wondering when your next vacation is, maybe you should set up a life you don’t need to escape from. — Seth Godin
We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give. — Winston Churchill
What do you want to avoid? Such an easy answer: sloth and unreliability. If you’re unreliable it doesn’t matter what your virtues are. You’re going to crater immediately. Doing what you have faithfully engaged to do should be an automatic part of your conduct. — Charlie Munger

Worry

Worry is a misuse of imagination. — Dan Zadra

Writing & Storytelling

Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work. — Stephen King
Those who tell the stories rule the world. — Native American Proverb
When all else fails, write what your heart tells you. You can’t depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus. — Mark Twain

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Great Inspirational Quotes

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