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Quotable Quotes

Page 9

by Editors of Reader's Digest


  —MARY TYLER MOORE

  Success is never final and failure never total. It’s courage that counts.

  —Success Unlimited

  Courage is the ladder on which all the other virtues mount.

  —CLARE BOOTHE LUCE

  It’s when you run away that you’re most liable to stumble.

  —CASEY ROBINSON

  Curiosity will conquer fear even more than bravery will.

  —JAMES STEPHENS

  Courage is often lack of insight, whereas cowardice in many cases is based on good information.

  —PETER USTINOV

  Bravery never goes out of fashion.

  —WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY

  There is a time to take counsel of your fears, and there is a time to never listen to any fear.

  —GEN. GEORGE S. PATTON

  Keep your fears to yourself, but share your courage.

  —ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON

  You can’t test courage cautiously.

  —ANNIE DILLARD

  An American Childhood

  Courage is not the towering oak that sees storms come and go; it is the fragile blossom that opens in the snow.

  —ALICE MACKENZIE SWAIM

  Courage is contagious. When a brave man takes a stand, the spines of others are stiffened.

  —REV. BILLY GRAHAM

  The way you overcome shyness is to become so wrapped up in something that you forget to be afraid.

  —LADY BIRD JOHNSON

  A LITTLE KINDNESS . . .

  A little kindness from person to person is better than a vast love for all humankind.

  —RICHARD DEHMEL

  The everyday kindness of the back roads more than makes up for the acts of greed in the headlines.

  —CHARLES KURALT

  On the Road With Charles Kuralt

  A profusion of pink roses bending ragged in the rain speaks to me of all gentleness and its enduring.

  —The Collected Later Poems of William

  Carlos Williams

  Resolve to be tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving, and tolerant with the weak and the wrong. Sometime in life you will have been all of these.

  —BOB GODDARD

  The heart is the toughest part of the body. Tenderness is in the hands.

  —CAROLYN FORCHÉ

  The Country Between Us

  You cannot do a kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late.

  —RALPH WALDO EMERSON

  Life is short and we never have enough time for gladdening the hearts of those who travel the way with us. Oh, be swift to love! Make haste to be kind.

  —HENRI FRÉDÉRIC AMIEL

  There is nothing stronger in the world than gentleness.

  —HAN SUYIN

  A Many-Splendored Thing

  How sweet it is when the strong are also gentle!

  —LIBBIE FUDIM

  Kindness consists in loving people more than they deserve.

  —JOSEPH JOUBERT

  Kindness is never wasted. If it has no effect on the recipient, at least it benefits the bestower.

  —S. H. SIMMONS

  Write injuries in sand, kindnesses in marble.

  —FRENCH PROVERB

  Ask any decent person what he thinks matters most in human conduct: five to one his answer will be “kindness.”

  —KENNETH CLARK

  Two important things are to have a genuine interest in people and to be kind to them. Kindness, I’ve discovered, is everything in life.

  —ISAAC BASHEVIS SINGER

  Always try to be a little kinder than is necessary.

  —JAMES M. BARRIE

  Kindness is more important than wisdom, and the recognition of this is the beginning of wisdom.

  —THEODORE ISAAC RUBIN, MD

  One to One

  When I was young, I admired clever people. Now that I am old, I admire kind people.

  —ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHEL

  Praise can give criticism a lead around the first turn and still win the race.

  —BERN WILLIAMS

  in National Enquirer

  How beautiful a day can be when kindness touches it.

  —GEORGE ELLISTON

  One kind word can warm three winter months.

  —JAPANESE PROVERB

  Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless.

  —MOTHER TERESA OF CALCUTTA

  Tenderness is passion in repose.

  —JOSEPH JOUBERT

  Kindness is a language which the deaf can hear and the blind can read.

  —MARK TWAIN

  Kindness can become its own motive. We are made kind by being kind.

  —ERIC HOFFER

  The Passionate State of Mind

  A pat on the back, though only a few vertebrae removed from a kick in the pants, is miles ahead in results.

  —BENNETT CERF

  A warm smile is the universal language of kindness.

  —WILLIAM ARTHUR WARD

  “Reward Yourself”

  When we put ourselves in the other person’s place, we’re less likely to want to put him in his place.

  —Farmer’s Digest

  He best can pity who has felt the woe.

  —JOHN GAY

  Could a greater miracle take place than for us to look through each other’s eyes for an instant?

  —HENRY DAVID THOREAU

  You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view.

  —HARPER LEE

  To Kill a Mockingbird

  Feelings are everywhere—be gentle.

  —J. MASAI

  Never does the human soul appear so strong and noble as when it forgoes revenge and dares to forgive an injury.

  —E. H. CHAPIN

  One of the most lasting pleasures you can experience is the feeling that comes over you when you genuinely forgive an enemy—whether he knows it or not.

  —O. A. BATTISTA

  in Quote Magazine

  A forgiveness ought to be like a canceled note, torn in two and burned up, so that it can never be shown against the man.

  —HENRY WARD BEECHER

  Forgiving and being forgiven are two names for the same thing. The important thing is that a discord has been resolved.

  —C. S. LEWIS

  He who cannot forgive others destroys the bridge over which he himself must pass.

  —GEORGE HERBERT

  When a deep injury is done us, we never recover until we forgive.

  —ALAN PATON

  Forgiveness is a gift of high value. Yet its cost is nothing.

  —BETTY SMITH

  A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

  One of the secrets of a long and fruitful life is to forgive everybody everything every night before you go to bed.

  —ANN LANDERS

  Forgiveness is a funny thing. It warms the heart and cools the sting.

  —WILLIAM ARTHUR WARD

  Forgive your enemies—if you can’t get back at them any other way.

  —FRANKLIN P. JONES

  GOODNESS IS THE ONLY INVESTMENT . . .

  Goodness is the only investment that never fails.

  —HENRY DAVID THOREAU

  On the whole, human beings want to be good, but not too good, and not quite all the time.

  —GEORGE ORWELL

  All that is worth cherishing in this world begins in the heart, not the head.

  —Quoted by SUZANNE CHAZIN in The New York Times />
  Ten thousand bad traits cannot make a single good one any the less good.

  —ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON

  The line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between political parties either—but right through every human heart.

  —ALEKSANDR I. SOLZHENITSYN

  The Gulag Archipelago

  Some people strengthen the society just by being the kind of people they are.

  —JOHN W. GARDNER

  Those who bring sunshine to the lives of others cannot keep it from themselves.

  —JAMES MATTHEW BARRIE

  It’s not true that nice guys finish last. Nice guys are winners before the game even starts.

  —ADDISON WALKER

  Sincerity resembles a spice. Too much repels you and too little leaves you wanting.

  —BILL COPELAND

  If you haven’t any charity in your heart, you have the worst kind of heart trouble.

  —BOB HOPE

  The work of an unknown good man is like a vein of water flowing hidden underground, secretly making the ground greener.

  —THOMAS CARLYLE

  Generosity always wins favor, particularly when accompanied by modesty.

  —JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE

  People want to know how much you care before they care how much you know.

  —JAMES F. HIND

  in The Wall Street Journal

  Goodwill is earned by many acts; it can be lost by one.

  —DUNCAN STUART

  GRATITUDE IS A SOMETIME THING . . .

  Gratitude is a sometime thing in this world. Just because you’ve been feeding them all winter, don’t expect the birds to take it easy on your grass seed.

  —BILL VAUGHAN

  in Kansas City Star

  Gratitude is the memory of the heart.

  —J. B. MASSIEU

  Swift gratitude is the sweetest.

  —GREEK PROVERB

  The hardest arithmetic to master is that which enables us to count our blessings.

  —ERIC HOFFER

  Reflections On The Human Condition

  Silent gratitude isn’t very much use to anyone.

  —G. B. STERN

  Robert Louis Stevenson

  Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.

  —WILLIAM ARTHUR WARD

  One must be poor to know the luxury of giving.

  —GEORGE ELIOT

  To know the value of generosity, it is necessary to have suffered from the cold indifference of others.

  —EUGENE CLOUTIER

  Sometimes we need to remind ourselves that thankfulness is indeed a virtue.

  —WILLIAM J. BENNETT

  The Moral Compass

  Appreciation is like an insurance policy. It has to be renewed every now and then.

  —DAVE MCINTYRE

  PERSEVERANCE IS NOT A LONG RACE . . .

  Perseverance is not a long race; it is many short races one after another.

  —WALTER ELLIOTT

  The Spiritual Life

  Fall seven times, stand up eight.

  —JAPANESE PROVERB

  Let me tell you the secret that has led me to my goal. My strength lies solely in my tenacity.

  —LOUIS PASTEUR

  Great works are performed, not by strength, but by perseverance.

  —SAMUEL JOHNSON

  Vitality shows not only in the ability to persist but in the ability to start over.

  —F. SCOTT FITZGERALD

  By perseverance the snail reached the ark.

  —CHARLES HADDON SPURGEON

  In the confrontation between the stream and the rock, the stream always wins—not through strength but by perseverance.

  —H. JACKSON BROWN

  A Father’s Book of Wisdom

  What counts is not necessarily the size of the dog in the fight—it’s the size of the fight in the dog.

  —DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER

  A professional is someone who can do his best work when he doesn’t feel like it.

  —ALISTAIR COOKE

  The man who removes a mountain begins by carrying away small stones.

  —CHINESE PROVERB

  If you can find a path with no obstacles, it probably doesn’t lead anywhere.

  —FRANK A. CLARK

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

  —NEWT GINGRICH

  Go the extra mile. It’s never crowded.

  —Executive Speechwriter Newsletter

  Lord, give me the determination and tenacity of a weed.

  —MRS. LEON R. WALTERS

  WE ALL KNOW A FOOL . . .

  We all know a fool when we see one—but not when we are one.

  —ARNOLD H. GLASOW

  It is wise to remember that you are one of those who can be fooled some of the time.

  —LAURENCE J. PETER

  Peter’s Almanac

  There is a foolish corner in the brain of the wisest man.

  —ARISTOTLE

  You will do foolish things, but do them with enthusiasm.

  —COLETTE

  April 1 is the day upon which we are reminded what we are on the other 364.

  —MARK TWAIN

  Only a fool tests the depth of the water with both feet.

  —AFRICAN PROVERB

  Anyone can make a mistake. A fool insists on repeating it.

  —ROBERTINE MAYNARD

  A fool judges people by the presents they give him.

  —CHINESE SAYING

  Astrology proves one scientific fact, and one only; there’s one born every minute.

  —PATRICK MOORE

  Only a fool argues with a skunk, a mule or the cook.

  —HARRY OLIVER

  Desert Rat Scrap Book

  The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools.

  —HERBERT SPENCER

  Essays

  The surprising thing about young fools is how many survive to become old fools.

  —DOUG LARSON

  Self-delusion is pulling in your stomach when you step on the scales.

  —PAUL SWEENEY

  Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain—and most do.

  —DALE CARNEGIE

  How to Win Friends and Influence People

  Anybody with money to burn will easily find someone to tend the fire.

  —Pocket Crossword Puzzles

  Follies change their type but foolishness remains.

  —ERICH KASTNER

  I’m not denyin’ the women are foolish: God Almighty made ’em to match the men.

  —GEORGE ELIOT

  Let us be thankful for the fools. But for them the rest of us could not succeed.

  —MARK TWAIN

  Everybody has the right to express what he thinks. That, of course, lets the crackpots in. But if you cannot tell a crackpot when you see one, then you ought to be taken in.

  —HARRY S. TRUMAN

  Some people get lost in thought because it’s such unfamiliar territory.

  —G. BEHN

  A fanatic is someone who can’t change his mind and won’t change the subject.

  —WINSTON CHURCHILL

  While intelligent people can often simplify the complex, a fool is more likely to complicate the simple.

  —GERALD W. GRUMET, MD

  in Readings

  There are 40 kinds of lunacy, but only one kind of common sense.

 
—AFRICAN PROVERB

  A bore is someone who persists in holding his own views after we have enlightened him with ours.

  —MALCOLM S. FORBES

  Bores bore each other, too, but it never seems to teach them anything.

  —DON MARQUIS

  Some people can stay longer in an hour than others can in a week.

  —WILLIAM DEAN HOWELLS

  A healthy male adult bore consumes each year one-and-a-half times his own weight in other people’s patience.

  —JOHN UPDIKE

  Assorted Prose

  Everyone is a bore to someone. That is unimportant. The thing to avoid is being a bore to oneself.

  —GERALD BRENAN

  A bore is a fellow talker who can change the subject to his topic of conversation faster than you can change it back to yours.

 

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