Samuel Butler
All progress is based upon a universal innate desire on the part of every organism to live beyond its income.
A man should have any number of little aims about which he should be conscious and for which he should have names, but he should have neither name for, nor consciousness concerning, the main aim of his life.
We all love best not those who offend us least, nor those who have done most for us, but those who make it most easy for us to forgive them.
To live is like to love, all reason is against it, and all healthy instinct for it.
It is better to have loved and lost than never to have lost at all.
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For it was not into my ear you whispered, but into my heart. It was not my lips you kissed, but my soul.
Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage.
You're my Lassie come home.
We must be bright and cheerful, long faces do not make religion.
I keep my ideals, because in spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart.
Work like you don't need the money, love like you've never been hurt and dance like no one is watching
And for an hour, for an hour, I'm the best actress in the world.
There is no beauty but the beauty of action.
To live happily with other people, ask of them only what they can give.” Tristan Bernard
It is far more impressive when others discover your good qualities without your help.
Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.
People can't live with change if there's not a changeless core inside them. The key to the ability to change is a changeless sense of who you are, what you are about and what you value.
Why is it that the more mistakes people make, the more paranoid they become about other people's mistakes ?
Kindness is more important than wisdom, and the recognition of this is the beginning of wisdom.
Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no help at all.
Love is a ocean of emotions entirely surrounded by expenses.
A friend is one who knows us, but loves us anyway.
Whatever the mind of man creates, should be controlled by man's character.
Make no mistake, my friend, it takes more than money to make men rich.
Difficulties, by bracing the mind to overcome them, assist cheerfulness, as exercise assists digestion.
Ideas without action are worthless.
Sometimes I lie awake at night and ask, Where have I gone wrong ? Then a voice says to me, This is going to take more than one night.
Always mistrust a subordinate who never finds fault with his superior.
Funny like I'm a clown ? I amuse you ?
Develop an attitude of gratitude, and give thanks for everything that happens to you, knowing that every step forward is a step toward achieving something bigger and better than your current situation.
The person we believe ourselves to be will always act in a manner consistent with our self-image.
Things do not change we change.
Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods.
Treasure the love you receive above all. It will survive long after your good health has vanished.
Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.
If you judge people, you have no time to love them.
Do or do not, there is no try.
"I am the thread that runs through all these pearls", and each pearl is a religion or even a sect thereof. Such are the different pearls, and god is the thread that runs through all of them, most people, however, are entirely unconscious of it.
If someone is going down the wrong road, he doesn't need motivation to speed him up. What he needs is education to turn him around.
Misfortunes often sharpen the genius.
The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do.
Knowledge work is all about how we use one another's time and attention. Given just minutes, good leaders can affect how we think, what we decide, and, ultimately, what we create.
Challenges are what make life interesting , overcoming them is what makes life meaningful.
Let's not just transform those in need, we can also find ways to help transform those in power.
In questions of science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual.
The greatest discovery of my generation is that human beings can alter their lives by altering their attitudes of mind.
Why should a man be moral ? Because this strengthens his will.
Every person who wins in any undertaking must be willing to cut all sources of retreat. Only by doing so can one be sure of maintaining that state of mind known as a burning desire to win -- essential to success.
The only way to discover the limits of the possible is to go beyond them into the impossible.
If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men.
I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the tannhauser gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die.
And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.
People come into your life for a reason, a season or a lifetime.
Imagination is more important than knowledge.
I've come to believe that all my past failure and frustration were actually laying the foundation for the understandings that have created the new level of living I now enjoy.
I never think of the future. It comes soon enough.
I'm a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it.
Unless we think of others and do something for them, we miss one of the greatest sources of happiness.
I used to think anyone doing anything weird was weird. Now I know that it is the people that call others weird that are weird.
An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.
The will to win is important, but the will to prepare is vital.
Seeing yourself as you want to be is the key to personal growth.
What hump ?
It had always amazed me how different things looked in a studio compared to how they appeared on TV. In reality the set was a tiny stage in a giant room of cables, cameras, and monitors, all connected trounced a control room full of other monitors and audio equipment. On TV it looked like two people sitting in an office having a conversation.
Work and lovethese are the basics. Without them there is neurosis.
Love is friendship set on fire.
Look at the weaknesses of others with compassion, not accusation. It's not what they're not doing or should be doing that's the issue. The issue is your own chosen response to the situation and what you should be doing. If you start to think the problem is "out there", stop yourself. That thought is the problem.
Only when all contribute their firewood can they build up a strong fire.
Bitterness imprisons life, love releases it. Bitterness paralyzes life, love empowers it. Bitterness sours life, love sweetens it. Bitterness sickens life, love heals it. Bitterness blinds life, love anoints it's eyes.
I think people should mate for life, like pigeons or catholics.
He who seeks rest finds boredom. He who seeks work finds rest.
Smile ! and the world will smile with you !
Everyone admits that love is wonderful and necessary, yet no one agrees on just what it is.
I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.
I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat.
When you become detached mentally from yourself and concentrate on helping other people with their difficulties, you will be able to cope with your own more effectively. Somehow, the act of self-giving is a personal power-releasing factor.
Love is not blind. It sees more and not less, but because it sees more it is willing to see less.
We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.
Feel the fear and do it anyway.
Hi-Yo, Silver !
It is literally true that you can succeed best and quickest by helping others to succeed.
The greatest sign of a success for a teacher... is to be able to say, "The children are now working as if I did not exist."
Tell everyone what you want to do and someone will want to help you do it.
Be bold, and mighty forces will come to your aid.
The word courage comes from the same stem as the French word coeur, meaning ''heart''. Thus just as one's heart, by pumping blood to one's arms, legs, and brain enables all the other physical organs to function, so courage makes possible all the psychological virtues. Without courage other values whither away into mere facsimiles of virtue.
Love is the great miracle cure. Loving ourselves works miracles in our lives.
Never giving up and pushing forward will unlock all the potential we are capable of.
We are all in the gutter but some of us are looking at the stars.
Adversity is the diamond dust that heaven polishes its jewels with.
A small house will hold a hundred friends.
Don't say, "If I could, I would". Say, "If I can, I will".
The future belongs to those who prepare for it today.
Yo, Adrian !
The daily grind of hard work gets a person polished.
If we all did the things we are capable of doing we would literally astound ourselves.
Anyone can hold the helm when the sea is calm.
The best thing about the future is that it comes only one day at a time.
The person who makes a success of living is the one who sees his goal steadily and aims for it unswervingly. That is dedication.
Do we really know anybody ? Who does not wear a face to hide another ?
Love to faults is always blind. Always is to joy inclined, winged, and unconfined. And breaks all chains from every mind.
Don't bunt. Aim out of the ballpark.
Knowing is not enough, we must apply. Willing is not enough, we must do.
Believe, when you are most unhappy, that there is something for you to do in the world. So long as you can sweeten another's pain, life is not in vain.
So long as we are loved by others I should say that we are almost indispensable , and no man is useless while he has a friend.
Love cures people, both the ones who give it and the ones who receive it.