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e8c54eb My concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God's side, for God is always right. philosophical politics religion religious inspirational Abraham Lincoln
4eb5225 The best things in life make you sweaty. philosophical life love inspirational puberty meaning-of-life purpose Edgar Allan Poe
4477c70 With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams philosophical happiness inspirational Max Ehrmann
9134ca2 If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you, If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, But make allowance for their doubting too;! philosophical ataraxy fathers-and-sons coming-of-age Rudyard Kipling
2c5da30 Death twitches my ear death-and-dying philosophical living death philosophy inspirational creepy seize-the-day carpe-diem Virgil
148a2e4 What we like to think of ourselves and what we really are rarely have much in common.... philosophical realistic meaningful Stephen King
5d71d07 Avoid loud and aggressive persons philosophical inspirational Max Ehrmann
2be1e6a We all can be only who we are, no more, no less. kahlan philosophical inspirational Terry Goodkind
de01274 Were knowledge all, what were our nee philosophical poetry love inspirational Christopher Brennan
de450d3 This first glance of a soul which does not yet know itself is like dawn in the heavens; it is the awakening of something radiant and unknown. philosophical romance spiritual inspirational Victor Hugo
9f5f37d He who conquers himself is the mightiest warrior. ancient-china ancient-chinese conquers philosophical philosophy inspirational chinese body training ancient fighting warrior self-realization self-improvement proverb Confucius
f2cf317 Socrates: Have you noticed on our journey how often the citizens of this new land remind each other it is a free country? Plato: I have, and think it odd they do this. Socrates: How so, Plato? Plato: It is like reminding a baker he is a baker, or a sculptor he is a sculptor. Socrates: You mean to say if someone is convinced of their trade, they have no need to be reminded. Plato: That is correct. Socrates: I agree. If these citizens were convinced of their freedom, they would not need reminders. words-of-wisdom philosophical freedom philosophy wisdom catholic-author citizens civil-liberty free-country gadfly philosophers plato socrates liberty christian freedom-of-thought thought-provoking E.A. Bucchianeri
b9aa2ed It is wisdom to recognize necessity when all other courses have been weighed, though as folly it may appear to those who cling to false hope. philosophical J.R.R. Tolkien
443c5c6 For other people, I can't speak - but, personally, I haven't gotten wise on anything. Certainly, I've been through this and that; and when it happens again, I say to myself, Here it is again. But that doesn't seem to help me. In my opinion, I, personally, have gotten steadily sillier and sillier - and that's a fact. philosophical Christopher Isherwood
1d800c1 If you make a deal with a fool, don't be surprised when they act foolishly. philosophical Jeffrey Archer
5352ac9 Learn to recognize omens, and follow them philosophical the-alchemist paulo-coelho Paulo Coelho
c78be84 This isn't lust. Lust wants, does the obvious, and pads back into the forest. Love is greedier. Love wants round-the-clock care; protection; rings, vows, joint accounts; scented candles on birthdays; life insurance. Babies. Love's a dictator. philosophical love philosophy inspirational the-bone-clocks David Mitchell
ef12465 Pride is the recognition of the fact that you are your own highest value and, like all of man's values, it has to be earned. His own happiness is man's only moral purpose, but only his own virtue can achieve it...Life is the reward of virtue- and happiness is the goal and the reward of life. Happiness is a state of non-contradictory joy- a joy without penalty or guilt, a joy that does not clash with any of your values and does not work for your won destruction, not the joy of escaping from your mind, but using your mind's fullest power. Happiness is possible only to a rational man, the man who desires nothing but rational goals, seek nothing but rational values and finds his joy in nothing bu rational actions. The symbol of all relationships among such men, the moral symbol of respect for human beings, is the trade...A trader is a man who earns what he gets and does not give or take the undeserved. philosophical philosophy objectivism Ayn Rand
b13b73b The zipper displaces the button and a man lacks just that much time to think while dressing at dawn, a philosophical hour, and thus a melancholy hour. progress philosophical philosophy dressing innovation melancholy thinking thought introspection Ray Bradbury
ff26529 The individual soul touches upon the world soul like a well reaches for the water table. That which sustains the universe beyond thought and language, and that which is at the core of us and struggles for expression, is the same thing. The finite within the infinite, the infinite within the finite. philosophical Yann Martel
4d71864 Things are not always as bad as they seem. Sometimes, the darkness only makes it easier to see the light. philosophical optimism Jim Butcher
5bbb7a9 You put on a bishop's robe and miter, he pondered, and walk around in that, and people bow and genuflect and like that, and try to kiss your ring, if not your ass, and pretty soon you're a bishop. So to speak. What is identity? he asked himself. Where does the act end? Nobody knows. philosophical identity Philip K. Dick
32ea0b3 This is the story of a man named Eddie and it starts at the end, with Eddie dying in the sun. It may seem strange to start a story with and ending, but all endings are also beginnings. We just don't know it at the time. philosophical inspirational opening-lines Mitch Albom
63613c9 All life is theatre,' he said. 'We are all actors, you and I, in a play which nobody wrote and which nobody will see. We have no audience but ourselves.... theatre philosophical theater Susan Cooper
a1295c3 All roads lead to Trantor, and that is where all stars end. philosophical mystery Isaac Asimov
60fab14 Your moral code begins by damning man as evil, then demands that he practice a good which it defines as impossible for him to practice...It demands that he starts, not with a standard of value, but with a standard of evil, which is himself, by means of which he is then to define the good: the good is that which he is not. A sin without volition is a slap at morality and an isolent contradiction in terms: that which is outside the possibility of choice is outside the province of morality. If man is evil by birth, he has no will, no power to change it; if he has no will, he can be neither good nor evil; a robot is amoral. To hold a man's sin, a fact not open to his choice is a mockery of morality...To punish him for a crime he committed before he was born is a mockery of justice. To hold him guilty in a matter where no innocence exists is a mockery of reason. (The) myth decleares that he ate the fruit of the tree of knowledge-he acquired a mind and became a rational being. It was the knowledge of good and evil-he became a moral being...The evils for which they damn him are reasn, morality, creativeness, joy-all the cardinal values of his existence....the essence of his nature as a man. Whatever he was- that robot in the Garden of Eden, who existed without mind, without values, without labor, without love- he was not a man. philosophical philosophy Ayn Rand
cc8c628 "The 21st chapter gives the novel the quality of genuine fiction, an art founded on the principle that human beings change. ----- "A Clockwork Orange Resucked" intro to first full American version 1986" irony philosophical intro american introduction Anthony Burgess
e4319ec There is a coherence in things, a stability; something... is immune from change and shines out... in the face of the flowing, the fleeting, the spectral, like a ruby. philosophical Virginia Woolf
7900147 Because beyond their practical function, all gestures have a meaning that exceeds the intention of those who make them; when people in bathing suits fling themselves into the water, it is joy itself that shows in the gesture, notwithstanding any sadness the divers may actually feel. When someone jumps into the water fully clothed, it is another thing entirely: the only person who jumps into the water fully clothed is a person trying to drown; and a person trying to drown does not dive headfirst; he lets himself fall: thus speaks the immemorial language of gestures. philosophical life Milan Kundera
2b1a149 They can send death at once, but life is slower... philosophical sci-fi Ursula K. Le Guina K. Le Guin
8b55569 What the hell is instant? Nothing is instant. Instant rice takes five minutes, instant pudding in an hour. philosophical realization John Green
17d5d2f Is Life itself a dream, I wonder? philosophical life question Lewis Carroll
8564f82 ... the lofty mind of man can be imprisoned by the artifices of its own making. mankind man mind philosophical grand-plans imprisionment imprison when-plans-go-wrong when-things-fall-apart christopher-marlowe faustian faustus marlowe sad-but-true plans planning faust E.A. Bucchianeri
7fc2c12 Wandering is never waste, dear boy,' he said. 'While you wander you will find much to wonder about, and wonder is the first step to creation. philosophical the-eternal-wonder pearl-s-buck Pearl S. Buck
b3c01dd There is justice in the world, Peter Lake, but it cannot be had without mystery. philosophical mystery Mark Helprin
b4236f5 Even our parents seemed to agree more and more with the television version of things, listening to the reporters' inanities as though they could tell us the truth about our own lives. philosophical the-virgin-suicides Jeffrey Eugenides
f5c76c2 God bless the lawn mower, he thought. Who was the fool who made January first New Year's Day? No, they should set a man to watch the grasses across a million Illinois, Ohio, and Iowa lawns, and on that morning when it was long enough for cutting, instead of ratchets and horns and yelling, there should be a great swelling symphony of lawn mowers reaping fresh grass upon the prairie lands. Instead of confetti and serpentine, people should throw grass spray at each other on the one day each year that really represents Beginning! philosophical lawnmower new-year-s-day Ray Bradbury
a1dfac6 While the churches, bringing the sweet smell of piety for the soul, came in prancing and farting like brewery horses in bock-beer time, the sister evangelism, with release and joy for the body, crept in. silently and greyly, with its head bowed and its face covered. philosophical humor John Steinbeck
e2b39c1 Over and over again I have said that there is no way out of the present impasse. If we were wide awake we would be instantly struck by the horrors which surround us ... We would drop our tools, quit our jobs, deny our obligations, pay no taxes, observe no laws, and so on. Could the man or woman who is thoroughly awakened possibly do the crazy things which are now expected of him or her every moment of the day? philosophical Henry Miller
dfdad21 Would you ask a man who bags groceries if he fears death not because it is death but because there are still some interesting groceries he would like to bag? philosophical humour Don DeLillo
a433d71 The child-like, gum-chewing naivete , the glamour rooted in despair, the self admiring carelessness, the perfected otherness, the wispiness, the shadowy, voyeuristic, vaguely sinister aura, the pale, soft-spoken magical presence, the skin and bones... philosophical quote warhol description Andy Warhol
54397dd Does character develop over time? In novels, of course it does:otherwise there wouldn't be much of a story. But in life? I sometimes wonder. Our attitudes and opinions change we develop new habits and eccentricities; but that's something different, more like decoration. Perhaps character resembles intelligence, except that the character peaks a little later ;between twenty and thirty, say. And after that we're just stuck with what we've got. We're on our own. If so, that would explain a lot of lives, wouldn't it? And also if this isn't too grand a word--our tragedy. psychological philosophical the-sense-of-an-ending Julian Barnes
8a0e572 Pick a man, any man. That man there. See him. That man hatless. You know his opinion of the world. You can read it in his face, in his stance. Yet his complaint that a man's life is no bargain masks the actual case with him. Which is that men will not do as he wishes them to. Have never done, never will do. That's the way of things with him and his life is so balked about by difficulty and become so altered of its intended architecture that he is little more than a walking hovel hardly fit to house the human spirit at all. Can he say, such a man, that there is no malign thing set against him? That there is no power and no force and no cause? What manner of heretic could doubt agency and claimant alike? Can he believe that the wreckage of his existence is unentailed? No liens, no creditors? That gods of vengeance and of compassion alike lie sleeping in their crypt and whether our cries are for an accounting or for the destruction of the ledgers altogether they must evoke only the same silence and that it is this silence which will prevail? philosophical religious Cormac McCarthy
6147d50 [The Void Which Binds] actual but unaccessible presence in our universe is one of the prime causes for our species elaborating myth and religion, for our stubborn, blind belief in extrasensory powers, in telepathy and precognition, in demons and demigods and resurrection and reincarnation and ghosts and messiahs and so many other categories of almost-but-not-quite satisfying bullshit. philosophical science-fiction satirical Dan Simmons
4b64a22 The same way a compact disk isn't responsible for what's recorded on it, that's how we are. You're about as free to act as a programmed computer. You're about as one-of-a-kind as a dollar bill philosophical individuality freedom free-will individualism Chuck Palahniuk
844fe9e O thanatos einai panta apo monos tou mia apodeixe eilikrineias. philosophical truth Graham Greene
9bd00c4 Sometimes, the best thing you can do is nothing. Catelyn philosophical George R.R. Martin
6f6ac42 Terrible times breed terrible things, my lord. war philosophical greed philosophy environment nurture rulers George R.R. Martin
3bd9b13 "Oh, people get used to so many things," said Vadesh, "if only they give them selves a chance." philosophical thrill robots human-nature Orson Scott Card
99a4b06 What is evil?' asked the Fiend philosophical existential-questions evil Joseph Delaney
de5283a What if he could see this, his own skull, yellow and eroded? Two centuries old. Would he still speak? Would he speak, if he could see it, the grinning, aged skull? What would there be for him to say, to tell the people? What message could he bring? What action would not be futile, when a man could look upon his own aged, yellowed skull? philosophical Philip K. Dick
8b72783 Some people, no matter how easy the path they are given on the walk of life, will find a way to mess it all up. Ray Levine was one of those people. philosophical Harlan Coben
3fd42cf Introspection does not need to be a still life. It can be an active alchemy. psychological philosophical thoughtful introspection psychology Anaïs Nin
a9f9ece The people there were gods and midgets and knew themselves mortal and so the midgets walked tall so as not to embarrass the gods and the gods crouched so as to make the small ones feel at home. philosophical Ray Bradbury
d77a7fe Night sometimes lends such tragic assistance to catastrophe. philosophical sad-truth Victor Hugo
620025e "You're an unusual person," she said. "Bill didn't like you, but he never likes anything different. He's so--so prosaic. Don't you think that when a person gets older he should become--broadened in his outlook?" philosophical Philip K. Dick
2641a74 And everything was made of paper: sentences, pardons, pleas, bad records, demerits, proof of guilt, but never, it seemed, proof of innocence. If there were no paper, Carter felt, the entire judicial system would collapse and disappear. philosophical paper Patricia Highsmith
6fa6134 My thought is me: that's why I can't stop. I exist because I think...and I can't stop myself from thinking. At this very moment, it's frightful, if I exist, it is because I am horrified at existing. I am the one who pulls myself from the nothingness to which I aspire: the hatred, the disgust of existing, there are as many ways to make myself exist, to thrust myself into existence. Thoughts are born at the back of me, like sudden giddiness, I feel them being born behind my head...if I yield, they're going to come round in front of me, between my eyes, and I always yield, the thought grows and grows and there it is, immense, filling me completely and renewing my existence. philosophical narrative Jean-Paul Sartre
da9bfc8 L'amore e una faccenda intima strana e piena di contraddizioni, visto che non di rado amiamo qualcuno solo perche amiamo noi stessi, per egoismo, avidita, desiderio fisico, brama di dominare l'oggetto d'amore e asservirlo; o al contrario, per desiderio di asservirci e essere dominati dal nostro amante, e in fondo l'amore assomiglia all'odio e gli e piu prossimo di quanto non si pensi normalmente. love-quotes philosophical religion love philosophy philosophy-of-life love-and-hate love-hurts jewish Amos Oz
fa10d28 io, mio caro, non credo nell'amore universale. L'amore esiste in dosi modiche. Si possono amare forse cinque fra uomini e donne, dieci magari, talvolta financo quindici. E anche questo solo assai di rado. Ma se uno arriva e mi dice che ama tutto il Terzo mondo, o ama l'America Latina, o ama il sesso femminile, quello non e amore ma retorica. Pura demagogia. Slogan. Non siamo nati per amare piu di una manciata di persone. love-quotes philosophical humanity philosophy society love-hurts jews jewish human-nature Amos Oz
6eca494 "How do you keep your emotions so under control, Nicolas? Even when you're doing things that have to bother you?" She glanced up at him to make certain her question hadn't upset him. "I don't do anything unless I believe it is necessary. If it's necessary then there's no reason for me to be bothered by it. The universe has a natural order. I do my best to flow with it and not try to control things outside of myself. The truth is, control is a myth. You can't control another person or even an event. You can only control yourself. So that's what I do." philosophical meditative Christine Feehan
22df685 Maybe God left it up to people to develop the ability to bring back Christ into their lives. Maybe God wanted us to invent our own savior when we were ready. When we need it most. Denny says maybe it's up to us to create our own messiah. To save ourselves. philosophical religion Chuck Palahniuk
0631766 Oliver, success is usually a feeling of mere relief, where failure is pain. Happiness, you see, lies in neither, but in sticking to a daily ritual and becoming absorbed in something useful. When the war is over, even the greatest warriors do not exult. They go back to their garden or kitchen or library -- or school -- and resume life. (as said by Mrs. Pearson) philosophical Adam Gopnik
6773ce8 Everything engravers do gets printed opposite. The engraver has to be able to see it both ways. philosophical william-blake opposites Tracy Chevalier
175aac2 The problem, of course, was that people did not seem to understand the difference between right and wrong. They needed to be reminded about this, because if you left it to them to work out for themselves, they would never bother. They would just find out what was best for them, and then they would call that the right thing. philosophical right-and-wrong Alexander McCall Smith
a2bd3c6 Then sense. Use your sense. Not all of us are born for greatness, but all of us have sense. Make use of it. Think. Think long and well. philosophical thought-provoking Richard Llewellyn
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