motivational quotes for life

One of the most obvious results of having a baby around the house is to turn two good people into complete idiots who probably wouldn't have been much worse than mere imbeciles without it. ~Georges Courteline, La Philosophie de Georges Courteline



We lay aside letters never to read them again, and at last we destroy them out of discretion, and so disappears the most beautiful, the most immediate breath of life, irrecoverable for ourselves and for others. ~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe



Elder sisters never can do younger ones justice! ~Charlotte M. Yonge



People that don't like cats haven't met the right one yet. ~Deborah A. Edwards



Perseverance is the hard work you do after you get tired of doing the hard work you already did. ~Newt Gingrich



Only that day dawns to which we are awake. ~Henry David Thoreau



One touch of nature makes the whole world kin. ~William Shakespeare



And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity. ~I Corinthians 13:13



When you first name becomes "nigger," your middle name becomes "boy" (however old you are), and your wife and mother are never given the respected title "Mrs."; when you are harried by day and haunted by night by the fact that you are a Negro... when you are forever fighting a degenerating sense of "nobodiness" - then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait. ~Martin Luther King, Jr., "Letter from Birmingham Jail," Why We Can't Wait, 1963



Every act of conscious learning requires the willingness to suffer an injury to one's self-esteem. That is why young children, before they are aware of their own self-importance, learn so easily. ~Thomas Szasz



Truth is no Doctoresse, she takes no degrees at Paris or Oxford... but oftentimes to such an one as myself, an Idiota or common person, no great things, melancholizing in woods where waters are, quiet places by rivers, fountains, whereas the silly man expecting no such matter, thinketh only how best to delectate and refresh his mynde continually with Natura her pleasaunt scenes, woods, water-falls, or Art her statelie gardens, parks, terraces, Belvideres, on a sudden the goddesse herself Truth has appeared, with a shyning lyghte, and a sparklyng countenance, so as yee may not be able lightly to resist her. ~Charles Lamb



Your body is a temple, but only if you treat it as one. ~Astrid Alauda



There is a road from the eye to the heart that does not go through the intellect. ~Gilbert Keith Chesterton



Always read something that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it. ~P.J. O'Rourke



Diplomacy: The art of saying "nice doggie" until you can find a rock. ~Wynn Catlin



The value of moments, when cast up, is immense, if well employed; if thrown away, their loss is irrevocable. ~Lord Chesterfield



If dandelions were hard to grow, they would be most welcome on any lawn. ~Andrew Mason



Even if you've been fishing for three hours and haven't gotten anything except poison ivy and sunburn, you're still better off than the worm. ~Author Unknown



It is not the man who has little, but he who desires more, that is poor. ~Seneca



Baseball, it is said, is only a game. True. And the Grand Canyon is only a hole in Arizona. ~George F. Will