Quotable Quotes

by Editors of Reader's Digest

  —LAURENCE J. PETER

  Peter’s Quotations

  People who insist on telling their dreams are among the terrors of the breakfast table.

  —MAX BEERBOHM

  Don’t approach a goat from the front, a horse from the back or a fool from any side.

  —YIDDISH PROVERB

  Human reason is like a drunken man on horseback; set it up on one side, and it tumbles over on the other.

  —MARTIN LUTHER

  LOST BY INDIFFERENCE . . .

  More good things in life are lost by indifference than ever were lost by active hostility.

  —ROBERT GORDON MENZIES

  Apathy is the glove into which evil slips its hand.

  —BODIE THOENE

  Love me or hate me, but spare me your indifference.

  —LIBBIE FUDIM

  I have a very strong feeling that the opposite of love is not hate—it’s apathy.

  —LEO BUSCAGLIA

  Love

  It is a perplexing and unpleasant truth that when men have something worth fighting for, they do not feel like fighting.

  —ERIC HOFFER

  The True Believer

  There is nothing harder than the softness of indifference.

  —JUAN MONTALVO

  The tragedy of modern man is not that he knows less and less about the meaning of his own life but that it bothers him less and less.

  —VACLAV HAVEL

  Crime expands according to our willingness to put up with it.

  —BARRY FARBER

  GROW ANGRY SLOWLY . . .

  Grow angry slowly—there’s plenty of time.

  —RALPH WALDO EMERSON

  Anger is a wind which blows out the lamp of the mind.

  —ROBERT G. INGERSOLL

  Anger is not only inevitable, it is necessary. Its absence means indifference, the most disastrous of all human failings.

  —ARTHUR PONSONBY

  Anger is a symptom, a way of cloaking and expressing feelings too awful to experience directly—hurt, bitterness, grief and, most of all, fear.

  —JOAN RIVERS

  Still Talking

  Getting angry can sometimes be like leaping into a wonderfully responsive sports car, gunning the motor, taking off at high speed and then discovering the brakes are out of order.

  —MAGGIE SCARF

  in The New York Times Magazine

  Anyone can become angry. That is easy. But to be angry with the right person, to the right degree, at the right time, for the right purpose and in the right way—that is not easy.

  —ARISTOTLE

  Anger is a bad counselor.

  —FRENCH PROVERB

  Resentment is an extremely bitter diet, and eventually poisonous. I have no desire to make my own toxins.

  —NEIL KINNOCK

  There’s a bit of ancient wisdom that appeals to us: it’s a saying that a fight starts only with the second blow.

  —HUGH ALLEN

  I will permit no man to narrow and degrade my soul by making me hate him.

  —BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

  My life is in the hands of any fool who makes me lose my temper.

  —JOSEPH HUNTER

  It is only our bad temper that we put down to being tired or worried or hungry; we put our good temper down to ourselves.

  —C. S. LEWIS

  Mere Christianity

  Temper, if ungoverned, governs the whole man.

  —ANTHONY SHAFTESBURY

  Temper is a quality that at a critical moment brings out the best in steel and the worst in people.

  —WILLIAM P. GROHSE

  Revenge has no more quenching effect on emotions than salt water has on thirst.

  —WALTER WECKLER

  Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent.

  —ISAAC ASIMOV

  A man that studieth revenge keeps his own wounds green.

  —FRANCIS BACON

  Getting even throws everything out of balance.

  —JOE BROWNE

  in Post-Gazette (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania)

  If a small thing has the power to make you angry, does that not indicate something about your size?

  —SYDNEY J. HARRIS

  I imagine one of the reasons people cling to their hates so stubbornly is because they sense, once hate is gone, they will be forced to deal with pain.

  —JAMES BALDWIN

  To carry a grudge is like being stung to death by one bee.

  —WILLIAM H. WALTON

  Nothing lowers the level of conversation more than raising the voice.

  —STANLEY HOROWITZ

  Not the fastest horse can catch a word spoken in anger.

  —CHINESE PROVERB

  Speak when you are angry and you will make the best speech you will ever regret.

  —AMBROSE BIERCE

  Hot words make a real cool friendship.

  —FLO ASHWORTH

  in Advertiser & News (Dawsonville, Georgia)

  The best remedy for a short temper is a long walk.

  —JACQUELINE SCHIFF

  in National Enquirer

  GOSSIP NEEDN’T BE FALSE . . .

  Gossip needn’t be false to be evil—there’s a lot of truth that shouldn’t be passed around.

  —FRANK A. CLARK

  There is nothing busier than an idle rumor.

  —HERBERT V. PROCHNOW

  The New Speaker’s Treasury of Wit and Wisdom

  In our appetite for gossip, we tend to gobble down everything before us, only to find, too late, that it is our ideals we have consumed, and we have not been enlarged by the feasts but only diminished.

  —PICO IYER

  in Time

  Knowledge is power, if you know it about the right person.

  —ETHEL WATTS

  A gossip is a person who creates the smoke in which other people assume there’s fire.

  —DAN BENNETT

  Gossip is that which no one claims to like—but everybody enjoys.

  —JOSEPH CONRAD

  Bad news goes about in clogs, good news in stockinged feet.

  —WELSH PROVERB

  The gossip of the future may not be a backbiting, nosy, tongue-wagging two-face but a super-megabyte, random-access, digital interface.

  —RONALD B. ZEH

  Some people will believe anything if it is whispered to them.

  —PIERRE DE MARIVAUX

  Men gossip less than women, but mean it.

  —MIGNON MCLAUGHLIN

  Scandal is the coin of contemporary celebrity. It keeps the public interested.

  —RICHARD CORLISS

  He who is caught in a lie is not believed when he tells the truth.

  —SPANISH PROVERB

  Gossip, unlike river water, flows both ways.

  —MICHAEL KORDA

  Trying to squash a rumor is like trying to unring a bell.

  —SHANA ALEXANDER

  A rumor without a leg to stand on will get around some other way.

  —JOHN TUDOR

  in Omni

  Just because a rumor is idle doesn’t mean it isn’t working.

  —MAURICE SEITTER

  To speak ill of others is a dishonest way of praising ourselves.

  —WILL DURANT

  WHEN FLATTERERS MEET . . .

  When flatterers meet, the devil goes to dinner.

  —ENGLISH PROVERB

  Of all music, that which most pleases the ear is applause. But it has no score. It ends and is carried off by the wind. Nothing remains.

  —ENRIQUE
SOLARI

  Flattery is counterfeit money which, but for vanity, would have no circulation.

  —FRANÇOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

  Beware the flatterer: he feeds you with an empty spoon.

  —COSINO DEGREGRIO

  A detour is a straight road which turns on the charm.

  —ALBERT BRIE

  Le Devoir

  Flatterers look like friends, as wolves like dogs.

  —GEORGE CHAPMAN

  The punishment for vanity is flattery.

  —WILHELM RAABE

  We protest against unjust criticism, but we accept unearned applause.

  —JOSÉ NAROSKY

  Si Todos Los Sueños

  I have yet to be bored by someone paying me a compliment.

  —OTTO VAN ISCH

  Flattery is all right—if you don’t inhale.

  —ADLAI E. STEVENSON

  Praise, if you don’t swallow it, can’t hurt you.

  —MORT WALKER

  Praise can be your most valuable asset as long as you don’t aim it at yourself.

  —O. A. BATTISTA

  Fish for no compliments; they are generally caught in shallow water.

  —D. SMITH

  Praise is warming and desirable. But it is an earned thing. It has to be deserved, like a hug from a child.

  —PHYLLIS MCGINLEY

  in The Saturday Evening Post

  Sometimes we deny being worthy of praise, hoping to generate an argument we would be pleased to lose.

  —CULLEN HIGHTOWER

  He who praises everybody praises nobody.

  —SAMUEL JOHNSON

  FORBIDDEN FRUIT . . .

  While forbidden fruit is said to taste sweeter, it usually spoils faster.

  —ABIGAIL VAN BUREN

  A compulsion is a highbrow term for a temptation we’re not trying too hard to resist.

  —HUGH ALLEN

  Most people want to be delivered from temptation but would like it to keep in touch.

  —ROBERT ORBEN

  Those who flee temptation generally leave a forwarding address.

  —LANE OLINGHOUSE

  Temptation usually comes in through a door that has deliberately been left open.

  —ARNOLD H. GLASOW

  Temptations, unlike opportunities, will always give you many second chances.

  —O. A. BATTISTA

  There is no original sin; it has all been done before.

  —LOUIS DUDEK

  Be cautious. Opportunity does the knocking for temptation too.

  —AL BATT

  Being virtuous is no feat once temptation ceases.

  —DANISH PROVERB

  Nothing makes it easier to resist temptation than a proper bringing-up, a sound set of values—and witnesses.

  —FRANKLIN P. JONES

  In this era of rapid change, one thing remains constant: it’s easier to pray for forgiveness than to resist temptation.

  —SOL KENDON

  About the only time losing is more fun than winning is when you’re fighting temptation.

  —TOM WILSON

  Come good times or bad, there is always a market for things nobody needs.

  —KIN HUBBARD

  When there’s a lot of it around, you never want it very much.

  —PEG BRACKEN

  The I Hate to Cook Almanack

  LAZINESS HAS MANY DISGUISES . . .

  Laziness has many disguises. Soon “winter doldrums” will become “spring fever.”

  —BERN WILLIAMS

  in National Enquirer

  He who is carried on another’s back does not appreciate how far off the town is.

  —AFRICAN PROVERB

  If you get a reputation as an early riser, you can sleep till noon.

  —IRISH PROVERB

  Cultivate the habit of early rising. It is unwise to keep the head long on a level with the feet.

  —HENRY DAVID THOREAU

  Laziness may appear attractive, but work gives satisfaction.

  —ANNE FRANK

  The Diary of a Young Girl

  The safest road to hell is the gradual one—the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.

  —C. S. LEWIS

  The Screwtape Letters

  Laziness is nothing more than resting before you get tired.

  —JULES RENARD

  A lot of what passes for depression these days is nothing more than a body saying that it needs work.

  —GEOFFREY NORMAN

  Beware of the man who won’t be bothered with details.

  —WILLIAM FEATHER SR.

  It is better to have loafed and lost than never to have loafed at all.

  —JAMES THURBER

  The day will happen whether or not you get up.

  —JOHN CIARDI

  I’m lazy. But it’s the lazy people who invented the wheel and the bicycle because they didn’t like walking or carrying things.

  —LECH WALESA

  About the only thing that comes to us without effort is old age.

  —GLORIA PITZER

  I can do only one thing at a time, but I can avoid doing many things simultaneously.

  —ASHLEIGH BRILLIANT

  What a fearful object a long-neglected duty gets to be!

  —CHAUNCEY WRIGHT

  A life of ease is a difficult pursuit.

  —WILLIAM COWPER

  Most of our so-called reasoning consists in finding arguments for going on believing as we already do.

  —JAMES HARVEY ROBINSON

  The Mind in the Making

  No one ever excused his way to success.

  —DAVE DEL DOTTO

  How to Make Nothing But Money

  Excuses are the nails used to build a house of failure.

  —DON WILDER AND BILL RECHIN

  Whoever wants to be a judge of human nature should study people’s excuses.

  — FRIEDRICH HEBBEL

  Don’t tell me how hard you work. Tell me how much you get done.

  —JAMES LING

  in Newsweek

  To be idle requires a strong sense of personal identity.

  —ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON

  There are no shortcuts to any place worth going.

  —BEVERLY SILLS

  The older generation thought nothing of getting up at five every morning—and the younger generation doesn’t think much of it either.

  —JOHN J. WELSH

  THE FAULTS OF OTHERS . . .

  Rare is the person who can weigh the faults of others without putting his thumb on the scales.

  —BYRON J. LANGENFIELD

  Only God is in a position to look down on anyone.

  —SARAH BROWN

  The unforgiving man assumes a judgment that not even the theologians has [sic] given to God.

  —SYDNEY J. HARRIS

  I have never for one instant seen clearly within myself. How then would you have me judge the deeds of others?

  —MAURICE MAETERLINCK

  Moral indignation is jealousy with a halo.

  —H. G. WELLS

  Other people’s faults are like bees — if we don’t see them, they don’t harm us.

  —LUIS VIGIL

  Pensamientos y Observaciónes

  Make no judgments where you have no compassion.

  —ANNE MCCAFFREY

  Dragonquest

  How much easier it is to be critical than to be correct.

  —BENJAMIN DISRAELI

 
What we all tend to complain about most in other people are those things we don’t like about ourselves.

  —WILLIAM WHARTON

  Tidings

  I don’t like a man to be efficient. He’s likely to be not human enough.

  —FELIX FRANKFRUTER

  When a man points a finger at someone else, he should remember that three of his fingers are pointing at himself.

  —ANONYMOUS

  Ought is not a word we use to other people. It is a word we should reserve for ourselves.

  —SISTER WENDY BECKETT

  Perhaps no phenomenon contains so much destructive feeling as “moral indignation,” which permits envy or hate to be acted out under the guise of virtue.

  —ERICH FROMM

  If you judge people, you have no time to love them.