Quote Library
Accomplishment
When you get to the top of the mountain, your first inclination is not to jump for joy, but to look around. — James Carville
The greatest pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do. — Walter Bagehot
I didn’t bite off more than I could chew — it just grew in my mouth. — Dr. Robert Ballard
Accountability
Everyone needs a bottom line of some sort; everyone needs to be responsible, accountable to whomever it is they are serving. — Bob Buford
Accuracy
A little inaccuracy sometimes saves tons of explanation. — H.H. Munro, 1924
Achievement
The best things and best people rise out of their separateness. I’m against a homogenized society because I want the cream to rise.” — Robert Frost
Action
A thought which does not result in an action is nothing much, and an action which does not proceed from a thought is nothing at all. — Georges Bernanos
I do not believe in fate that falls on men however they act;
but I do believe in fate that falls on them unless they act.
–G K Chesterton, _Generally Speaking_An ounce of action is worth a ton of theory. — Friedrich Engels
The time for action is past! Now is the time for senseless bickering! — Ashleigh Brilliant
The great end of life is not knowledge but action. — Thomas Henry Huxley, “Technical Education,” 1887
Deliberation is the action of the many; action is the function of one. — Charles de Gaulle, War Memoirs, 1960
Determine never to be idle. No person will have occasion to complain of the want of time who never loses any. It is wonderful how much may be done if we are always doing. — Thomas Jefferson to Martha Jefferson, May 5, 1787
Truth divorced from experience will always dwell in the realms of doubt.” — Henry Drause
Don’t do nothing just because you can’t do everything. — Bob Pierce
Do what you can, with what you have, where you are. — Theodore Roosevelt
“Do-so” is more important than “say-so” — Pete Seeger
No man can tame a tiger into a kitten by stroking it. There can be no appeasement with ruthlessness. There can be no reasoning with an incendiary bomb. — Franklin D. Roosevelt, Fireside Chat, December 29, 1940
Adapting
As he grew older my dad’s pants kept creeping up on him. By 65 he was just a pair of pants and a head. — Jeff Altman
A great many people think they are thinking when they are really rearranging their prejudices and superstitions. — Edward R. Murrow
Addictions
I ain’t got to. But I can’t help it. — William Faulkner
Adversity/ Suffering
What does not destroy me, makes me strong. –Friedrich Nietzsche
Integrity is keeping my commitments even if the circumstances when I made those commitments have changed. — David Jeremiah
If I have learned anything, I owe it neither to precepts nor to books, but to a few opportune misfortunes. Perhaps the school of misfortune is the very best. — Louise Honorine de Choiseul (1734-1801)
The dark night of the soul comes just before revelation. When everything is lost, and all seems darkness, then comes the new life and all that is needed. — Joseph Campbell
When I hear somebody sigh, “Life is hard,” I am always tempted to ask, “Compared to what?” — Sydney J. Harris
You don’t have to suffer to be a poet. Adolescence is enough suffering for anyone. — John Ciardi
Those whom God loveth he allows to have the snot kicked out of. — Plaque over the desk of Jamie Buckingham
People build most nobly when limitations are at their greatest. — Frank Lloyd Wright
There is no inherent problem in our desire to escalate our goals, as long as we enjoy the struggle along the way. — Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience
“The breakfast of champions is not cereal, it’s the opposition.” – Nick Seitz
Prosperity is a great teacher; adversity a greater. – William Hazlitt
Adversity is sometimes hard upon a man; but for one man who can stand prosperity, there are a hundred that will stand adversity. – Thomas Carlyle
Adversity has the effect of eliciting talents, which in prosperous circumstances would have lain dormant. – Horace
All the adversity I’ve had in my life, all my troubles and obstacles, have strengthened me… You may not realize it when it happens, but a kick in the teeth may be the best thing in the world for you. – Walt Disney
Adversity is the first path to truth. – Lord Byron
Adversity is the trial of principle. Without it man hardly knows whether he is honest or not. – Henry Fielding (1707-1754)
Prosperity doth best discover vice; but adversity doth best discover virtue. Fancis Bacon (1561-1626)
However, never daunted, I will cope with adversity in my traditional manner… sulking and nausea. – Tom K. Ryan
Advice
Advice what we ask for when we already know the answer, but wish we didn’t. — Unknown
Never give advice… A wise man won’t need it. A fool won’t heed it. –Unknown
Adulthood
Adults are always asking children what they want to be when they grow up — they’re looking for ideas. — Paula Poundstone
Aggression
The firstest gets the mostest. — Nathan Bedford Forrest, Civil War General
The unforgivable crime is soft hitting. Do not hit at all if it can be avoided. – Theodore Roosevelt, 1913
Aging
To me, old age is always fifteen years older than I am. — Bernard Baruch
We don’t stop having fun when we’re old; we’re old when we stop having fun. — unknown
No matter how old you get, if you can keep the desire to be creative, you’re keeping the man-child alive. — John Cassavetes
Hope I die before I get old. — Pete Townsend
“There’s no peer pressure.” — Unknown, Woman’s response to being asked about the benefits of turning 102.
The old believe everything; the middle-aged suspect everything; the young know everything. — Oscar Wilde, “Phrases and Philosophies for the Use of the Young,” 1894
The young man who has not wept is a savage, and the older man who will not laugh is a fool. — George Santayana, Dialogues in Limbo, 1925
AIDS
“I’m still going to go there. I’m going to represent a broad movement. We will be back next year and you’ll be hearing from me. You’ll be hearing from the sleeping giant that is the church. I mean, what is going on with the churches? It is incredible. I tell these evangelicals in the United States there are 2,300 verses of scripture about the poor. It’s the central message outside of personal redemption, the idea of dealing with the poor. And I’m asking them, where are they? Where are they on this? On a recent poll of evangelical churches, only six per cent said they wanted to do something about AIDS. It is unbelievable, the leprosy of our time if you like. But it’s starting to turn; the Church is starting to wake up.” — Bono
Altruism
He who wishes to secure the good of others has already secured his own. — Confucius
Ambition
Ah, but a man’s reach should exceed his grasp, or what’s a heaven for? — Robert Browning, Andrea del Sarto, 1855
Early to rise and early to bed makes a man healthy, wealthy and dead. — James Thurber, Fables for our Times, 1940
One often passes from love to ambition but rarely returns from ambition to love. — La Rochefoucauld, Reflections, 1665
America
America may be unique in being a country which has leapt from barbarism to decadence without touching civilization. — John O’Hara
In America one sees a good deal of Christianity, but it does not address the spiritual needs of the people. Just as salty seawater cannot quench thirst, much of American religion cannot satisfy a spiritually thirsty person because it is saturated with materialism. Although America is a “Christian” nation and there are many sincere Christians in America, the majority of the people there have no faith. There, where it is so easy to have religion, where religion is offered on every side and no one is persecuted for their beliefs, life should be peaceful. Instead, there is a mad rush and hustle and bustle after money and comfort and pleasure. In India, many Christians suffer bitter persecution but continue to find happiness in their new faith. Because it is so easy to have faith in America, people do not appreciate what a comfort there is in faith. — Excerpted from Wisdom of the Sadhu by Sadhu Sundar Singh
Anger
When angry count to ten; when very angry count to one hundred.” — Thomas Jefferson
When angry, count to five; when very angry, swear. — Mark Twain
You can’t shake hands with a clinched fist. — Indira Gandhi
Of the Seven Deadly Sins, anger is possibly the most fun. To lick your wounds, to smack your lips over grievances long past, to roll over your tongue the prospect of bitter confrontations still to come, to savor to the last toothsome morsel both the pain you are given and the pain you are giving back — in many ways it is a feast fit for a king. The chief drawback is that what you are wolfing down is yourself. The skeleton at the feast is you. — Frederick Buechner
Eat a third and drink a third and leave the remaining third of your stomach empty. Then, when you get angry, there will be sufficient room for your rage. Babylonian Talmud, tractate Gittin
Anger makes you smaller, while forgiveness forces you to grow beyond what you were. Cherie Carter-Scott, “If Love Is a Game, These Are the Rules”
When anger rises, think of the consequences. Confucius (551 BC – 479 BC)
Anger makes dull men witty, but it keeps them poor. Elizabeth I (1533 – 1603), in Francis Bacon, Apophthegms, 1625
Anger as soon as fed is dead- ‘Tis starving makes it fat. Emily Dickinson (1830 – 1886), Poems, Second Series, 1891
If you do not wish to be prone to anger, do not feed the habit; give it nothing which may tend to its increase. Epictetus (55 AD – 135 AD)
If you would cure anger, do not feed it. Say to yourself: ‘I used to be angry every day; then every other day; now only every third or fourth day.’ When you reach thirty days offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving to the gods. Epictetus (55 AD – 135 AD)
Anger is a signal, and one worth listening to. Harriet Lerner, The Dance of Anger, 1985
Never forget what a man says to you when he is angry. Henry Ward Beecher (1813 – 1887)
Holding on to anger, resentment and hurt only gives you tense muscles, a headache and a sore jaw from clenching your teeth. Forgiveness gives you back the laughter and the lightness in your life. Joan Lunden, in Healthy Living Magazine
Animals
I care not much for a man’s religion whose dog and cat are not the better for it. — Abraham Lincoln
The greatness of a nation can be judged by the way its animals are treated. — Mahatma Gandhi
It is just like man’s vanity and impertinence to call an animal dumb because it is dumb to his dull perceptions. — Mark Twain
Cats are intended to teach us that not everything in nature has a function. — Garison Keillor
A veterinarian can learn a lot about a dog owner he has never met by just observing the dog. – Stephen Brown
Anxiety
Anxiety is unbelief in disguise. — Don Hawkins
Anxiety is like sand in an oyster; a few grains produce a pearl, too many, kill. — saying
There is not such thing as pure pleasure; some anxiety always goes with it. — Ovid (d. A.D. 1), Metamorphasis
Appreciation
We know the worth of a thing when we have lost it. — French Proverb
Arguments
The aim of argument or discussion should not be victory, but progress. — Joseph Joubert, Pensees, 1842
“Arguments with furniture are rarely productive.” — Kehlog Albran, “The Profit”
The time for action is past! Now is the time for senseless bickering! — Ashleigh Brilliant
Never argue with a fool. Someone watching may not be able to tell the difference. –Anonymous
Army
The Army has carried the American … ideal to its logical conclusion. Not only do they prohibit discrimination on the grounds of race, creed and color, but also on ability. — T. Lehrer
The Army needs leaders the way a foot needs a big toe. — Bill Murray
Art / Artists
Artist: Someone who produces things that people don’t need to have but that he — for some good reason — thinks it would be a good idea to give them. — Andy Warhol
Asking for Help
If there is something to gain and nothing to lose by asking, by all means ask! — W. Clement Stone
Tell everyone what you want to do and someone will want to help you do it. — W. Clement Stone
Whether we like it or not, asking is the rule of the Kingdom. — C. H. Spurgeon
You don’t always get what you ask for, but you never get what you don’t ask for… unless it’s contagious! — Franklyn Broude
Basically most people want to give. They almost encourage you to ask. — Brad Winch
You’ve got to ask! Asking is, in my opinion, the world’s most powerful — and neglected — secret to success and happiness. — Percy Ross
We find what we expect to find, and we receive what we ask for. — Elbert Hubbard
Whether we like it or not, asking is the rule of the Kingdom. — C. H. Spurgeon
Many things are lost for want of asking. — English Proverb
Know how to ask. There is nothing more difficult for some people. Nor for others, easier. — Baltasar Gracian
If you don’t ask, you don’t get. — Ghandi
Attitude
Productivity is a function of attitude, and cost is a function of productivity. So it all comes down to attitude. — John Charvat, Zebco
Develop a healthy disrespect for the impossible. — Gene Hoffman, Super Valu
We’re lost, but we’re making good time! – Yogi Berra
Authenticity
Never apologize for showing feeling. When you do so you apologize for truth. –Benjamin Disraeli
We are what we pretend to be, but we better be very careful what we pretend. –Kurt Vonnegut
Authority
No oppression is so heavy or lasting as that which is inflicted by the perversion and exorbitance of legal authority. – Joseph Addison
To say that authority, whether secular or religious, supplies no ground for morality is not to deny the obvious fact that it supplies a sanction. Sir Alfred Jules Ayer
Does it follow that I reject all authority? Perish the thought. In the matter of boots, I defer to the authority of the boot-maker. Mikhail Bakunin
Anyone who in discussion relies upon authority uses, not his understanding, but rather his memory. –Leonardo Da Vinci
Nothing strengthens authority so much as silence. — Charles De Gaulle
Authority has every reason to fear the skeptic, for authority can rarely survive in the face of doubt. — Robert Lindner
No statement should be believed because it is made by an authority. — Hans Reichenbach
Babies
Infancy conforms to nobody; all conform to it. — Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Self-Reliance,” 1841
Adam and Eve had many advantages, but the principal one was that they escaped teething. — Mark Twain, Pudd’nhead Wilson, 1894
Balance
There is not much risk that an executive will cut back too much. We usually tend to overrate rather than underrate our importance and to conclude that far too many things can be done only by ourselves. Even very effective executive still do a great many unnecessary, unproductive things.
But the best proof that the danger of overpruning is a bugaboo is the extraordinary effectiveness so often attained by severely ill or severely handicapped people.
A good example was Harry Hopkins, President Roosevelt’s confidential adviser in World War II. A dying, indeed almost a dead man for whom every step was a torment, he could only work a few hours every other day or so. This forced him to cut out everything but truly vital matters. He did not lose effectiveness thereby; on the contrary, he became, as Churchill called him once, ‘Lord Heart of the Matter’ and accomplished more than anyone else in wartime Washington.”
(I cannot count the number of times that illustration has come into my mind at critical moments. I determined to ruthlessly cut away whatever was not crucial to the task, asking myself repeatedly, “If I had two hours per day or ten hours per week to this job, what specific things would I do and what would I not do? As Drucker indicates in many , no matter how much wise pruning one does, the information worker will always have much more to do than he can possibly get to. as much as possible must be delegated to others.) Harold Myra, Leaders, Word Books, Waco, TX, p. 21, 1987
A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects. — Robert A. Heinlein, The Notebooks of Lazarus Long
Fear less, hope more;
Whine less, breathe more;
Hate less, love more;
And all good things are yours. — AnonymousWe aren’t what we eat. We are what we don’t shit. — Hugh Romney
I have so much to do that I am going to bed. — Savoyard proverb
Baseball
It could permanently hurt a batter for a long time. – Pete Rose re. Brushback pitch.
Ability is the art of getting credit for all the home runs somebody else hits. – Casey Stengel
There is an old Scottish proverb that says, ‘I am wounded but I am not slain. I shall lay me down and bleed a while, then I shall rise and fight again.’ That should be the feeling of all of the Yankees. – Owner George Steinbrenner (after losing the ALDS in 2002)
All I want out of life, is that when I walk down the street folks will say, “There goes the greatest hitter that ever lived.” – Ted Williams
I’m convinced that every boy, in his heart, would rather steal second base than an automobile. – Tom Clark
A hot dog at the ball park is better than steak at the Ritz.- Humphrey Bogart
The other sports are just sports. Baseball is a love. – Bryant Gumbel
If a woman has to chose between catching a fly ball and saving an infant’s life, she will save the infant’s life without even considering if there are men on base. – Dave Barry
Life is like a baseball game. When you think a fastball is coming, You gotta be ready to hit the curve. – Jaja Q.
Kids are always chasing rainbows, but baseball is a world where you can catch them. – Johnny Vander Meer
Baseball is dull only to dull minds. – Red Smith
It’s a mere moment in a man’s life between the all-star game and an old timer’s game. – Vin Scully
Here is one place where caste is lost. Ragamuffins and velvet-breeched, white-collar boys stand in that equality which augurs well for the future of the stars and stripes. Dainty clothes are no bar to the game if their owner is not afraid to soil them. – Zane Grey
Every player, in his secret heart, wants to manage someday. Every fan, in the privacy of his mind, already does. – Leonard Koppett
They expect an umpire to be perfect on opening day and to improve as the season goes on. – Nestor Chylak
If a man can beat you, walk him. – Leroy Robert (Satchel) Paige
Never let the fear of striking out get in your way.- Babe Ruth
Hitting is 50% above the shoulders. – Ted Williams
Hitting is timing. Pitching is upsetting timing. – Warren Spahn
Fundamentals are the most valuable tools a player can possess. Bunt the ball into the ground. Hit the cutoff man. Take the extra base. Learn the fundamentals. – Dick Williams
A hitter’s impatience is the pitcher’s biggest advantage. – Pete Rose
Mental attitude and concentration are the keys to pitching. – Ferguson Jenkins
Good fielding and pitching, without hitting, or vice versa, is like Ben Franklin’s half pair of scissors – ineffectual. – Moe Berg
The pitcher has to throw a strike sooner or later, so why not hit the pitch you want to hit and not the one he wants you to hit? – Johnny Mize
Players who commit errors need reassurance from the pitcher, who must harbor no grudges. – Roger Craig
Control is what kept me in the big leagues for twenty-two years. – Cy Young
Playing without the fundamentals is like eating without a knife and fork. You make a mess. – Dick Williams
You can’t think and hit at the same time. – Yogi Berra
When you step into the batter’s box, have nothing on your mind except baseball. – Pete Rose
The best possible thing in baseball is winning the World Series. The second best thing is losing the World Series. – Tommy Lasorda
Don’t worry about your individual numbers. Worry about the team. If the team is successful, each of you will be successful, too. – Branch Rickey
Managing is like holding a dove in your hand. Squeeze too hard and you kill it, not hard enough and it flies away. – Tommy Lasorda
Pitch within yourself. – Tom Seaver
If you get fooled by a pitch with less than two strikes, take it. – Ted Williams
Be on time. Bust your butt. Play smart. And have some laughs along the way. – Whitey Herzog
Most one-run games are lost, not won. – Gene Mauch
It takes pitching, hitting and defense. Any two can win. All three make you unbeatable. – Joe Garagiola
The saddest day of the year is the day baseball season ends. – Tommy Lasorda
You owe it to yourself to be the best you can possible be in baseball and in life. – Pete Rose
Nobody ever said, “Work ball!” They say, “Play ball!” To me, that means having fun. – Willie Stargell
I never threw an illegal pitch. The trouble is, once in a while I toss one that ain’t never been seen by this generation. – Leroy Robert (Satchel) Paige
Baseball is a slow, sluggish game, with frequent and trivial interruptions, offering the spectator many opportunities to reflect at leisure upon the situation on the field: This is what a fan loves most about the game.- Edward Abbey
I see great things in baseball. It’s our game–the American game. It will take our people out of doors, fill them with oxygen, give them a larger physical stoicism. Tend to relieve us from being a nervous, dyspeptic set. Repair these losses, and be a blessing to us. – Walt Whitman
It (baseball) is an American institution and more lasting than some marriages, war, Supreme Court decisions and even major depressions.- Art Rust
Next to religion, baseball has furnished a greater impact on American life than any other institution. – Herbert Hoover
Love is the most important thing in the world, but baseball is pretty good too. – Yogi Berra
Baseball is what gets inside you, it lights you up, its supposed to be hard. If it wasn’t hard everyone would do it. The HARD is what makes it great. – A League of Their Own
You can’t sit on a lead and run a few plays into the line and just kill the clock. You’ve got to throw the ball over the goddamn plate and give the other man his chance. That’s why baseball is the greatest game of them all. – Earl Weaver
Since baseball time is measured only in outs, all you have to do is succeed utterly; keep hitting, keep the rally alive, and you have defeated time. You remain forever young.- Roger Angell
When you think about it, a home run is a mistake. The idea is to hit the ball hard, on a line, so the defense can’t react to it. Hit it high in the air, which is how most home runs are hit, and most of the time it will be caught. It’s a mistake. – Matt Williams
One thing anyone can go through is a slump. Unless you’re Greg Maddux, it’s going to happen to everybody. – Mike Piazza
Hello again, everybody. It’s a bee-yooo-tiful day for baseball. – Harry Caray
I think a baseball field must be the most beautiful thing in the world. It’s so honest and precise. And we play on it. Every star gets humbled. Every mediocre player has a great moment. – Lowell Cohn
Ninety feet between the bases is the nearest thing to perfection that man has yet achieved. – Red Smith
Any baseball is beautiful. No other small package comes as close to the ideal in design and utility. It is a perfect object for a man’s hand. Pick it up and it instantly suggests its purpose: it is meant to be thrown a considerable distance-thrown hard and with precision. – Roger Angell
Man may penetrate the outer reaches of the universe, he may solve the very secret of eternity itself but for me, the ultimate human experience is to witness the flawless execution of the hit-and-run. – Branch Rickey
The clock doesn’t matter in baseball. Time stands still or moves backwards. Theoretically, one game could go on forever. Some seem to. – Herb Caen
The great thing about baseball is that there’s a crisis every game. – Gabe Paul
Love America and hate baseball? Hate America and love baseball? Neither is possible, except in the abstract. – John Krich
One of the beautiful things about baseball is that every once in a while you come into a situation where you want to, and where you have to, reach down and prove something. – Nolan Ryan
I’d walk through hell in a gasoline suit to keep playing baseball. – Pete Rose
No one can stop a home run. No one can understand what it really is, unless you have felt it in your own hands and body…. As the ball makes its high, long arc beyond the playing field, the diamond and the stands suddenly belong to one man. In that brief, brief time, you are free of all demands an complications. – Sadaharu Oh
How hard is hitting? You ever walk into a pitch-black room full of furniture that you’ve never been in before and try to walk though it without bumping into anything? Well, it’s harder than that. – Ted Kluszewski
The greatest thrill in the world is to end the game with a home run and watch everybody else walk off the field while you’re running the bases on air. – Al Rosen
You don’t save pitchers for tomorrow. Tomorrow it may rain.- Leo Durocher
It’s no fun throwing fastballs to guys who can’t hit them. The real challenge is getting them out on stuff they can hit. – Sam McDowell
The two most important things in life are good friends and a strong bullpen. – Bob Lemon
Baseball is like a poker game, nobody wants to quit when he’s losing: nobody wants you to quit when you’re ahead. – Jackie Robinson
Baseball is a lot like life. The line drives are caught, the squibbers go for base hits. It’s an unfair game. – Rod Kanehl
Any time you think you have the game conquered the game will turn around and punch you right in the nose. – Mike Schmidt
When we lost I couldn’t sleep at night. When we win I can’t sleep at night. But when you win, you wake up feeling better. – Joe Torre
A ballplayer has two reputations, one with the other players and one with the fans. The first is based on ability. The second the newspapers gives him. – Johnny Evers
Fans don’t boo nobodies. – Reggie Jackson
The guy with the biggest stomach will be the first to take off his shirt at a baseball game. – Glenn Dickey
With those who don’t give a damn about baseball I can only sympathize. I do not resent them. I am even willing to concede that many of them are physically clean, good to their mothers and in favor of world peace. But while the game is on, I can’t think of anything to say to them. – Art Hill
The majority of American males put themselves to sleep by striking out the batting order of the New York Yankees. – James Thurber
You start chasing a ball and your brain immediately commands your body to Run forward! Bend! Scoop up the ball! Peg it to first! Then your body says who me? – Joe DiMaggio
I’m throwing twice as hard as I ever did. It’s just not getting there as fast. – Lefty Gomez
It’s a mere moment in a man’s life between the all-star game and the old-timer’s game. – Vin Scully
I would be lost without baseball. I don’t think I could stand being away from it as long as I was alive. – Roberto Clemente
You spend a good piece of your life gripping a baseball and in the end it turns out that it was the other way around all the time. – Jim Bouton
You look forward to it like a birthday party when you’re a kid. You think something wonderful is going to happen.-Joe DiMaggio, on Opening Day
Slump ? I ain’t in no slump. I just ain’t hittin.-Yogi Berra
You teach me baseball and I’ll teach you relativity…No we must not You will learn about relativity faster than I learn baseball.-Albert Einstein
Baseball serves as a good model for democracy in action: Every player is equally important and each has a chance to be a hero. – Edward Abbey
I had it all, and I blew it. – Mickey Mantle US major league baseball player reported to be said shortly before dying from cancer and other complications of alcoholism
People ask me what I do in winter when there’s no baseball. I’ll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring. – Rogers Hornsby
Baseball is the only field of endeavor where a man can succeed three times out of ten and be considered a good performer.-Ted Williams
Progress always involves risks. You can’t steal second base and keep your foot on first. – Frederick B. Wilcox
The difference between the old ballplayer and the new ballplayer is the jersey. The old ballplayer cared about the name on the front. The new ballplayer cares about the name on the back. – Steve Garvey
When you’re in a slump, it’s almost as if you look out at the field and it’s one big glove. – Vance Law
Back then, my idol was Bugs Bunny, because I saw a cartoon of him playing ball – you know, the one where he plays every position himself with nobody else on the field but him? Now that I think of it, Bugs is still my idol. You have to love a ballplayer like that. – Nomar Garciaparra
Close don’t count in baseball. Close only counts in horseshoes and grenades. – Frank Robinson US baseball player, manager
Baseball is like church. Many attend few understand.- Leo Durocher Baseball player, manager
Baseball is a game of inches.- Branch Rickey US baseball player, manager, executive
I ain’t ever had a job. I just always played baseball. – Leroy Robert “Satchel” Paige
Baseball is 90% mental, the other half is physical. Yogi Berra
Baseball is a skilled game. It’s America’s game — it, and high taxes.- Will Rogers
Little League baseball is a very good thing because it keeps the parents off the streets. – Yogi Berra
When I was a little boy, I wanted to be a baseball player, and join the circus. With the Yankees, I’ve accomplished both. – Anthony Standen
Beauty
What no beautician would ever tell a woman is that the secret to being beautiful is thinking the right thoughts. — Panel discussion on women’s issues, WNBC radio, 1979
Remember that the most beautiful things in the world are the most useless; peacocks and lilies for instance. — John Ruskin, The Stones of Venice, 1851
Rarely to great beauty and great virtue dwell together. — Petrarch (d. 1374), De Remediis utriusque fortunae
Beginnings
The only joy in the world is to begin. — Cesare Pavese Source: Little Zen Companion, Schiller.
Behavior
The virtue of a man ought to be measured not by his extraordinary exertions, but by his everyday conduct. — Blaise Pascal
Belief
If we believe absurdities, we shall commit atrocities. — Voltaire
The abdication of Belief makes the behavior small. – Emily Dickinson
Bible
The Bible –
Know it — in your head;
Stow it — in your heart;
Sow it — in the world;
Show it — in your life.
The Bible is a stream of running water, where alike the elephant may swim, and the lamb walk without losing its feet. — Gregory the Great
Bitterness
Bitterness is the poison we swallow, while hoping the other person dies. — Skip Gray, Navigators missionary
Blame
Don’t find fault. Find a remedy. — Henry Ford
Everyone is responsible and no one is to blame. — Will Schutz
The only person I cannot help is one who blames others. — Carl Jung
Blessing
Bless these walls, so firm and stout, keeping all want and trouble out. — Christian prayer
If this is a blessing, it is certainly very well disguised. – Winston Churchill upon his defeat in the 1945 elections
Boldness
Be bold — and mighty forces will come to your aid. — Basil King
Life is either a daring adventure or nothing. Security does not exist in nature, nor to the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than exposure — Helen Keller
Books
Beware the man of one book. –St. Thomas Aquinas
Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested. Worthy books are like mentors — available as companions and as solitude for refreshment. — Francis Bacon
A good book should leave you… slightly exhausted at the end. You live several lives while reading it. — William Styron, interview, Writers at Work, 1958
When I get a little money, I buy books and if any is left, I buy food and clothes. — Erasmus
The love of learning, the sequestered nooks, all the sweet serenity of books. — Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
These are not books, lumps of lifeless paper, but minds alive on the shelves. –Gilbert Highet
The worst thing about reading new books is that they keep us from reading the old ones. — Joseph Joubert
The best effect of any book is that it excites the reader to self activity. — Thomas Carlyle
Book: A garden carried in a pocket. – Arabian Proverb
The things I want to know are in books; my best friend is the man who’ll get me a book I ain’t read. — Abraham Lincoln
I keep to old books, for they teach me something; from the new I learn very little. – Voltaire
Everyone who know how to read has it in their power to magnify themselves, multiple the ways in which they exist, to make their life full, significant, and interesting. – Aldous Huxley
The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who can’t read them. — Mark Twain
A good book is the precious life-blood of a master spirit, embalmed and treasured up on purpose to a life beyond life. — John Milton
The most technologically efficient machine that man has ever invented is the book. – Northrup Frye
All the glory of the world would be buried in oblivion, unless God had provided mortals with the remedy of books. — Richard De Bury
‘Tis the good reader that makes the good book. – Ralph Waldo Emerson
Beware the man of one book. – Latin Proverb
If minds are truly alive they will seek out books, for books are the human race recounting its memorable experiences, confronting its problems, searching for solutions, drawing the blueprints of it futures. – Harry A. Overstreet
Just the knowledge that a good book is awaiting one at the end of a long day makes that day happier. –Kathleen Norris
Books are fatal: they are the curse of the human race. Nine-tenths of existing books are nonsense, and the clever books are the refutation of that nonsense. The greatest misfortune that ever befell man was the invention of printing. – Benjamin Disraeli
A good novel tells us the truth about its hero; but a bad novel tells us the truth about its author. – G. K. Chesterton
Boredom
People not only lose faith in their talents and their dreams or values; some simply tire of them.” — Edward Hoadland, Heart’s Desire
If you are living a hum-drum life, and you do nothing to change it, ten years from now you will be a product of ten more years of hum-drumidness.” — David Campbell
Disorder and procrastination help avoid boredom; one never has the feeling that there is nothing important to do. — Unknown
Boredom is a sickness the cur for which is work; pleasure is only a palliative. — Luc Duc de Levis (d. 1787), Memoires
A scholar knows no boredom. — Jean Paul Richter, Hesperus, 1795
Boundaries
Learn to say no. — Charles Haddon Spurgeon
Breakfast
“He that but looketh on a plate of ham and eggs to lust after it, hath already committed breakfast with it in his heart.” – C.S. Lewis
Brevity
“I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter.” — Blaise Pascal
Brokenness
Man is born broken. He lives by mending. The grace of God is glue. – Eugene O’Neill
Business
He who shall introduce into public affairs the principles of Christ will change the face of the world.” — Benjamin Franklin
Drive thy business, let not thy business drive thee.” — Benjamin Franklin
Busyness
Our two greatest problems are gravity and paper work. We can lick gravity, but sometimes the paper work is overwhelming. — Dr. Wernher von Braun
“We can talk on the phone as we eat fast food while using the ATM. Not only are we better at multitasking and becoming more productive and efficient, along with the increased pace, more is required of us. And so we hurtle through life faster and faster, becoming busier and busier. The result is that in our busyness we are becoming increasingly efficient at leading meaningless lives.” – Don Whitney, professor, Midwestern Seminary