Quote Library

Death

The enemy is anybody who's going to get you killed, no matter which side he's on. --Joseph Heller, Catch-22

The question is not whether we will die, but how we will live." -- Joan Borysenko

Death is life's way of telling you you've been fired. -- R. Geis

A great man’s greatest good luck is to die at the right time. – Eric Hoffer, 1954

Steve McQueen looks good in this movie. He must have made it before he died. – Yogi Berra

Death is nature's way of telling you to slow down.

The summons of death comes to us all, and no one can die for another. Everyone must fight his own battle with death by himself alone. -- Martin Luther

Pale death with impartial tread beats at the poor man’s cottage door and at the palaces of kings. -- Horace

As a well-spent day brings happy sleep, so life well used brings happy death. -- Leonardo Da Vinci

What in the Middle Ages was known as the ars morendi, the ‘art of dying,’ is something for which our society has not developed any sort of cultural background. -- Hans Kung

When it comes time to die, make sure all you have to do is die. -- Jim Elliot

Even in the best of health we should have death always before our eyes so that we will not expect to remain on this earth forever, but will have one foot in the air, so to speak. -- Martin Luther

What would you tell a close friend who is about to die?
The only thing you can say that will offer the greatest comfort is to tell him that in his death a part of your dies and goes with him. Wherever he goes, you go also. He will not be alone. -- Jiddu Krishnamurti

The fear of death is natural and is present in everyone, (and) it is the basic fear that influences all others, a fear from which no one is immune, no matter how disguised it may be. William James spoke very early for this school, and with his usual colorful realism he called death "the worm at the core" of many pretensions to happiness. -- Ernest Becker

A lot of people my age are dead at the present time. – Casey Stengel

You will either die on the gallows or of a loathsome disease. -- John Montague (to John Wilkes) 

That depends on whether I embrace your principles or your mistress. -- John Wilkes, in reply

I am ready to meet my Maker. Whether my Maker is prepared for the great ordeal of meeting me is another matter. -Sir Winston Churchill

Debate

The right to be heard does not automatically include the right to be taken seriously. - Hubert Humphrey

If you can not answer a man's argument, all it not lost; you can still call him vile names. -- Elbert Hubbard

If you can't convince them, confuse them. --Harry S Truman 

Decision Making

It’s not hard to make decisions when you know what your values are. -- Roy Disney

Quality is not an act, it is a habit. -- Aristotle

We shape our houses, then our houses shape us. -- Winston Churchill

This is as true in everyday life as it is in battle: we are given one life and the decision is ours whether to wait for circumstances to make up our mind, or whether to act, and in acting, to live. --General Omar Bradley

Dedication

Men give me some credit for genius. All the genius I have lies in this: When I have a subject at hand I study it profoundly. Day and night it is before me. I explore it in all its bearings. My mind becomes pervaded with it. Then the effort which I have made is what people are pleased to call the fruit of genius. It is instead the fruit of labor and thought. -- Alexander Hamilton

One person with a belief is equal to a force of ninety-nine who only have an interest." -- John Stuart Mill

Take away any people but leave my factories and soon grass will grow on the factory floor. Take away my factories but leave my people and soon we will have a new and better factory. -- Andrew Carnegie

O Lord, grant that I may do thy will as if it were my will; so that thou mayest do my will as if it were thy will. -- Augustine

Delegation

The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint enough to keep from meddling with them while they do it. -- Theodore Roosevelt

Denial

I tell you Wellington is a bad general, the English are bad soldiers; we will settle this matter by lunch time. -- Napoleon Bonaparte, at breakfast with his generals on the morning of the Battle of Waterloo

I didn’t say that I didn’t say it. I said that I didn’t say that I said it. I want to make that very clear. -- George Romney, National Review, 1967

Depression

In the depth of winter I finally learned there was in me invincible summer. -- Albert Camus

Most men live lives of quiet desperation. -- Henry David Thoreau

--Today most live lives of endless distraction.

The wages of sin are death, but by the time taxes are taken out, it’s just sort of a tired feeling. -- Paula Poundstone

I am not a fatalist. And even if I were, what could I do about it? -- Emo Philips

Noble deeds and hot baths are the best cures for depression. -- Dodie Smith

Nostalgia is like an anesthetic: you experience no pain, only a beautiful haze. When you grow older, what matters is not the way it was, but the way you remember it. -- Roger & Natalie Wittaker, So Far, So Good.

And here in dust and dirt, O here
The lilies of His love appear. -- George Herbert

Desires

Give a man everything he desires and yet at this very moment he will feel that everything is not everything. -- Immanuel Kant

Too much of a good thing -- can be wonderful. -- Mae West

Destiny

Some day my boat will come in, and with my luck I'll be at the airport. --Graffiti

When great causes are on the move in the world... we learn that we are spirits, not animals. -- Winston Churchill

Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it. --Mahatma Gandhi 

Destruction

Only a small crack&ldots; but cracks make caves collapse. – Alexander Solzhenitsyn

Details

"The essence of coaching is the attention to details and the monitoring of results -- these are what help leaders realize visions and accomplish goals." -- Ken Blanchard

My dear Watson, it has been an axiom of mine that little things are infinitely the most important. -- Shelock Holmes

Difficulty

When people ask me to compare the twentieth century to older civilizations, I always say the same thing: ‘The situation is normal.’" -- Will Durant

Difficulty is the excuse history never accepts. – Edward R. Murow, 1959

In this life we will encounter hurts and trials that we will not be able to change; we are just going to have to allow them to change us." -- Ron Lee Davis

The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. -- Martin Luther King, Jr.

Bad situations provide the opportunity for great deeds. -- Dee H. Groberg

To venture causes anxiety, but not to venture is to lose one’s self... And to venture in the highest sense is precisely to become conscious of one’s self. -- Kierkegaard

Diligence

Virtually nothing comes out right the first time. Failures, repeated failures, are finger posts on the road to achievement. The only time you don’t fail is the last time you try something, and it works. One fails forward toward success. -- Charles Kettering

You must first be on the path before you can turn and walk into the wild. -- Gary Snyder

Persistence is the hard work that you do after you are tired of doing the hard work you already did. -- Newt Gingrich

Diplomacy

Diplomacy is the art of saying ‘Nice Doggy’ until you can find a rock. -- Unknown

Diplomacy is letting someone else have your way. – Lester Pearson

Disappointment

In this world there are only two tragedies. One is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it. -- Oscar Wilde

Life being what it is, one seeks revenge. -- Paul Gauguin

Discipline

The road to success is a toll road.

Don’t blame, complain, or explain.

A winner is someone who talks himself out of his excuses. -- Gin Miller

The only discipline that lasts is self-discipline. -- J. B. Phillips

You build a successful life a day at a time. -- Lou Holtz

Life is tons of discipline. -- Robert Frost

Discovery

We must not cease from exploration. And the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we began and to know the place for the first time. -- T.S. Elliot

Loyalty to a petrified opinion never yet broke a chain or freed a human soul. -- Mark Twain

Commonplace minds usually condemn what is beyond the reach of their understanding." -- Francois de la Rochefoucauld

Dishonesty

Nothing doth more hurt in a state than that cunning men pass for wise. – Sir Francis Bancon, 1625

Distraction

Most people live lives of quiet desperation." -- Thoreau

...In our age the truth more accurately "most people live lives of endless distraction!..."

Divorce

"So-called ‘incompatibility’ is a myth invented by jurists in order to plead for divorce. It is likewise just a common excuse people use to hide their own failings. Misunderstandings and mistakes can be corrected where there is a willingness to do so. The problem is a lack of complete frankness." -- Paul Tournier

"I don’t believe incompatibility exists. Almost any two people are compatible if they try to be." -- Paul Popaneu: Director of Family Relations:

"The cost of excellence is the giving up of family vacations, and little league games, and birthday dinners, and evenings and weekends and lunch hours, and gardening and reading the movies and most other pastimes. I have a number of friends whose marriages and friendships crumble under the weight of their devotion to a dream. I am frequently asked, ‘Is it possible to have it all?’ A satisfying personal life and a fully satisfied, hard working one. My answer is ‘No. You cannot.’" -- Tom Peters

I don’t think I’ll get married again. I’ll just find a woman I don’t like and giver her a house." -- Lewis Grizzard

Dogs

A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of. -- Ogden Nash

Outside of a dog, a book is your best friend, and inside of a dog, it's too dark to read. - Groucho Marx

Doubt

Without somehow destroying me in the process, how could God reveal himself in a way that would leave no room for doubt? If there were no room for doubt, there would be no room for me. -- Frederick Buechner

Our doubts are traitors and make us lose the good we oft might gain by fearing to attempt. -- William Shakespeare

""There may be signs of (God’s) existence, but they point both ways and are therefore ambiguous and so prove nothing... The wonders of the universe do not convince those most conversant with the wonders, the scientists themselves." -- Walker Percy

There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. They themselves are equally pleased by both errors and hail a materialist or a magician with the same delight. -- C. S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters, West Chicago: Lord & King, 1976, p. 17

Drivenness

A driven person is usually caught in the uncontrolled pursuit of expansion. Driven people like to be a part of something that is getting bigger and more successful... They rarely have any time to appreciate the achievements to date...

Driven people are usually abnormally busy. They are usually too busy for the pursuit of ordinary relationships in marriage, family, or friendship... not to speak of one with God. -- Gordon MacDonald

Dreams

The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams. -- Eleanor Roosevelt

Man is what he believes. -- Anton Chekhov

You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one. -- John Lennon

If one advances confidently in the direction of their dreams, and endeavors to lead a life which they have imagined, they will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. -- Henry David Thoreau

When you cease to dream you cease to live. -- Malcolm S. Forbes

Dream lofty dreams, and as you dream, so shall you become. Your vision is the promise of what shall one day be; your ideal is the prophecy of what you shall at last unveil. -- James Allen

In the long run, we shape our lives, and we shape ourselves. The process never ends until we die. And the choices we make are ultimately our own responsibility. -- Eleanor Roosevelt

Cherish your visions and your dreams, as they are the children of your soul; the blueprints of your ultimate achievements. -- Napoleon Hill

If you can dream it, you can do it. -- Walt Disney

They can because they think they can. -- Virgil

There are those who look at things the way they are, and ask why... I dream of things that never were, and ask why not?  --Robert Francis Kennedy, 1968 presidential campaign

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