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Showing posts with the label Ralph Waldo Emerson

The cure for boredom

  The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity. - Dorothy Parker The penalty for success is to be bored by the people who used to snub you. - Nancy Astor Every hero becomes a bore at last. - Ralph Waldo Emerson A bore is a man who deprives you of solitude without providing you with company. - Gian Vincenzo Gravina The capacity of human beings to bore one another seems to be vastly greater than that of any other animal. - H. L. Mencken A finished person is a boring person. - Anna Quindlen Good-bye. I am leaving because I am bored. - George Saunders, last words READ MORE  

Personality can open doors

  Personality can open doors, but only character can keep them open. - Elmer G. Letterman Men show their characters in nothing more clearly than in what they think laughable. - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Nature magically suits a man to his fortunes, by making them the fruit of his character. - Ralph Waldo Emerson In attempts to improve your character, know what is in your power and what is beyond it. - Francis Thompson People with courage and character always seem sinister to the rest. - Hermann Hesse Discretion in speech is more than eloquence. - Sir Francis Bacon Where there is a great deal of free speech there is always a certain amount of foolish speech. - Sir Winston Churchill Today's public figures can no longer write their own speeches or books, and there is some evidence that they can't read them either. - Gore Vidal Well-timed silence hath more eloquence than speech. - Martin Farquhar Tupper Speak properly, and in as few words as you can, but always plainly; for the en...

The trouble with being punctual

The trouble with being punctual is that nobody's there to appreciate it. - Franklin P. Jones This time, like all times, is a very good one, if we but know what to do with it. - Ralph Waldo Emerson Half our life is spent trying to find something to do with the time we have rushed through life trying to save. - Will Rogers, New York Times, Apr. 29, 1930 Time cools, time clarifies; no mood can be maintained quite unaltered through the course of hours. - Mark Twain The whole life of man is but a point of time; let us enjoy it. - Plutarch Time is at once the most valuable and the most perishable of all our possessions. - John Randolph We must use time as a tool, not as a crutch. - John F. Kennedy The sinews of war are infinite money. - Cicero When you have given nothing, ask for nothing. - Albanian Proverb Examine what is said, not him who speaks. - Arab Proverb BACA LAGI  

Give all to love

  Give all to love; obey thy heart. - Ralph Waldo Emerson Don't worry about the world coming to an end today. It's already tomorrow in Australia. - Charles M. Schulz All things must change to something new, to something strange. - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow The body says what words cannot. - Martha Graham Flattery is like cologne water, to be smelt of, not swallowed. - Josh Billings The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it. - George Bernard Shaw A cynic is a man who, when he smells flowers, looks around for a coffin. - H. L. Mencken No matter how cynical you get, it is impossible to keep up. - Lily Tomlin Cynics regarded everybody as equally corrupt... Idealists regarded everybody as equally corrupt, except themselves. - Robert Anton Wilson Never be a cynic, even a gentle one. Never help out a sneer, even at the devil. - Vachel Lindsay READ MORE

Men fear thought

  Men fear thought as they fear nothing else on earth -- more than ruin -- more even than death.... Thought is subversive and revolutionary, destructive and terrible, thought is merciless to privilege, established institutions, and comfortable habit. Thought looks into the pit of hell and is not afraid. Thought is great and swift and free, the light of the world, and the chief glory of man. - Bertrand Russell Nature magically suits a man to his fortunes, by making them the fruit of his character. - Ralph Waldo Emerson Henceforth I ask not good fortune. I myself am good fortune. - Walt Whitman Fortune does not change men, it unmasks them. - Suzanne Necker Every man is the architect of his own fortune. - Sallust Fortune favors the brave. - Virgil, Aeneid We should manage our fortunes as we do our health - enjoy it when good, be patient when it is bad, and never apply violent remedies except in an extreme necessity. - Francois de La Rochefoucauld It is better to know some of the quest...

Henceforth I ask not good fortune

  Henceforth I ask not good fortune. I myself am good fortune. - Walt Whitman Behind every great fortune there is a crime. - Honore de Balzac Many men can make a fortune but very few can build a family. - J. S. Bryan Nature magically suits a man to his fortunes, by making them the fruit of his character. - Ralph Waldo Emerson Fortune does not change men, it unmasks them. - Suzanne Necker Depend not on fortune, but on conduct. - Publilius Syrus Every man is the architect of his own fortune. - Sallust Fortune favours the bold. – Virgil Good fortune is what happens when opportunity meets preparation. – Seneca Fortune is like glass — the brighter it shines, the more easily it is broken. – Publilius Syrus READ MORE  

The world owes you nothing

  Don't go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first. - Mark Twain The future is something which everyone reaches at the rate of sixty minutes an hour, whatever he does, whoever he is. - C. S. Lewis I never think of the future - it comes soon enough. - Albert Einstein The future will be better tomorrow. - Dan Quayle There's no present. There's only the immediate future and the recent past. - George Carlin If we open a quarrel between the past and the present, we shall find that we have lost the future. - Sir Winston Churchill The future ain't what it used to be. - Yogi Berra We have come too far, we have sacrificed too much, to disdain the future now. - John F. Kennedy Every sweet has its sour; every evil its good. - Ralph Waldo Emerson No problem is so formidable that you can't walk away from it. - Charles M. Schulz READ MORE

Love is not enough

  Love is not enough. It must be the foundation, the cornerstone - but not the complete structure. It is much too pliable, too yielding. - Bette Davis People need to be reminded more often than they need to be instructed. - Samuel Johnson Every generation laughs at the old fashions, but follows religiously the new. - Henry David Thoreau, "Walden", 1854 The important thing is not to stop questioning. - Albert Einstein Live in such a way that you would not be ashamed to sell your parrot to the town gossip. - Will Rogers Horse sense is the thing a horse has which keeps it from betting on people.  - W. C. Fields If I have lost confidence in myself, I have the universe against me. - Ralph Waldo Emerson I have never taken any exercise except sleeping and resting. - Mark Twain Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise. - Benjamin Franklin When I woke up this morning my girlfriend asked me, 'Did you sleep good?' I said 'No, I made a few mistake...

Honesty is a good thing

  Honesty is a good thing, but it is not profitable to its possessor unless it is kept under control. - Don Marquis Charm is a way of getting the answer yes without asking a clear question. - Albert Camus I am a kind of paranoiac in reverse. I suspect people of plotting to make me happy. - J. D. Salinger Politics is perhaps the only profession for which no preparation is thought necessary. - Robert Louis Stevenson Do something every day that you don't want to do; this is the golden rule for acquiring the habit of doing your duty without pain. -Mark Twain This time, like all times, is a very good one, if we but know what to do with it. - Ralph Waldo Emerson The best way to teach your kids about taxes is by eating 30% of their ice cream. - Bill Murray The art of art, the glory of expression and the sunshine of the light of letters, is simplicity. - Walt Whitman I have left orders to be awakened at any time in case of national emergency, even if I'm in a cabinet meeting. - Ronald ...

Wisdom listens

  Knowledge speaks, but wisdom listens. - Jimi Hendrix Courage is doing what you're afraid to do. There can be no courage unless you're scared. - Eddie Rickenbacker Only solitary men know the full joys of friendship. Others have their family; but to a solitary and an exile, his friends are everything. - Willa Cather Never rely on the glory of the morning nor the smiles of your mother-in-law. - Japanese Proverb The surest way to make a monkey of a man is to quote him. - Robert Benchley The man who writes about himself and his own time is the only man who writes about all people and all time. - George Bernard Shaw Make yourself necessary to somebody. Do not make life hard to any. - Ralph Waldo Emerson They certainly give very strange names to diseases. - Plato Don't hit at all if it is honorably possible to avoid hitting; but never hit soft! - Theodore Roosevelt Every moment of one's existence one is growing into more or retreating into less. - Norman Mailer READ MORE

Give all to love

  Give all to love; obey thy heart. - Ralph Waldo Emerson In the fight between you and the world, back the world.  - Frank Zappa If everything seems under control, you're not going fast enough. - Mario Andretti Politics is supposed to be the second oldest profession. I have come to realize that it bears a very close resemblance to the first. - Ronald Reagan If you watch a game, it's fun. If you play at it, it's recreation. If you work at it, it's golf. - Bob Hope To the soul, there is hardly anything more healing than friendship. - Thomas Moore Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence. - Robert Frost The man who is swimming against the stream knows the strength of it. - Woodrow Wilson A fashion is nothing but an induced epidemic. - George Bernard Shaw Study without desire spoils the memory, and it retains nothing that it takes in. - Leonardo da Vinci READ MORE NICE

Those who dream by day

  Those who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night. - Edgar Allan Poe, 'Eleanora,' 1842 I don't think necessity is the mother of invention - invention, in my opinion, arises directly from idleness, possibly also from laziness. To save oneself trouble. - Agatha Christie, An Autobiography, 1977 One of the advantages of being disorderly is that one is constantly making exciting discoveries. - A. A. Milne The intelligent man finds almost everything ridiculous, the sensible man hardly anything. - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Think of all the beauty still left around you and be happy. - Anne Frank, Diary of a Young Girl, 1952 To avoid criticism do nothing, say nothing, be nothing. - Elbert Hubbard Work and acquire, and thou hast chained the wheel of Chance. - Ralph Waldo Emerson If you are out to describe the truth, leave elegance to the tailor. - Albert Einstein Success is counted sweetest by those who ne'er succeed.  - Emily Dicki...

Time sneaks up on you

  Photo: Mike / Pexels Time sneaks up on you like a windshield on a bug. - John Lithgow A hero is no braver than an ordinary man, but he is braver five minutes longer. - Ralph Waldo Emerson It's the good girls who keep diaries; the bad girls never have the time. - Tallulah Bankhead You may delay, but time will not. - Benjamin Franklin Once we believe in ourselves, we can risk curiosity, wonder, spontaneous delight, or any experience that reveals the human spirit. - e e cummings The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining. - John F. Kennedy There is nothing more dreadful than imagination without taste. - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Art, like morality, consists of drawing the line somewhere. - G. K. Chesterton Do something every day that you don't want to do; this is the golden rule for acquiring the habit of doing your duty without pain. -  Mark Twain To the soul, there is hardly anything more healing than friendship. - Thomas Moore READ MORE NICE

Trust your instincts

  Image by Grok Creativity comes from trust. Trust your instincts. - Rita Mae Brown The world belongs to the energetic. - Ralph Waldo Emerson You can observe a lot just by watching. - Yogi Berra, Berra's Law He that falls in love with himself will have no rivals. - Benjamin Franklin We could never learn to be brave and patient, if there were only joy in the world. - Helen Keller England and America are two countries separated by a common language. - George Bernard Shaw Mothers may still want their sons to grow up to be President, but according to a famous Gallup poll of some years ago, some 73 percent do not want them to become politicians in the process. - John F. Kennedy, Profiles in Courage, 1956 The important thing is this: to be able at any moment to sacrifice what we are for what we could become. - Charles Du Bos Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome. - Booker T. Washington The public will ...

Truth is beautiful

  Truth is beautiful, without doubt; but so are lies. - Ralph Waldo Emerson When you come to a fork in the road, take it. - Yogi Berra I have found the best way to give advice to your children is to find out what they want and then advise them to do it. - Harry S Truman A leader takes people where they want to go. A great leader takes people where they don't necessarily want to go but where they ought to be. - Rosalynn Carter Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read. - Groucho Marx No bird soars too high, if he soars with his own wings. - William Blake You may delay, but time will not. - Benjamin Franklin Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself. - Leo Tolstoy Nobody got anywhere in the world by simply being content. - Louis L'Amour Take the diplomacy out of war and the thing would fall flat in a week. - Will Rogers MORE... NICE

We can learn much from wise words

  Image created by ChatGPT We can learn much from wise words, little from wisecracks, and less from wise guys. - William Arthur Ward Nature magically suits a man to his fortunes, by making them the fruit of his character. - Ralph Waldo Emerson In a mad world only the mad are sane. - Akira Kurosawa There is no abstract art. You must always start with something. Afterward you can remove all traces of reality. - Pablo Picasso It is no good to try to stop knowledge from going forward. Ignorance is never better than knowledge. - Enrico Fermi College isn't the place to go for ideas. - Helen Keller It does not matter how slowly you go so long as you do not stop. - Confucius Associate yourself with men of good quality if you esteem your own reputation, for 'tis better to be alone than in bad company. - George Washington Anything too stupid to be said is sung. - Voltaire There are more pleasant things to do than beat up people. - Muhammad Ali READ MORE NICE

The most wasted of all days

  The most wasted of all days is one without laughter. - e e cummings One can never consent to creep when one feels an impulse to soar. - Helen Keller A Hospital is no place to be sick. - Samuel Goldwyn The world belongs to the energetic. - Ralph Waldo Emerson [Common sense] is the best sense I know of. - Lord Chesterfield You've got to be original, because if you're like someone else, what do they need you for? - Bernadette Peters, Inside the Actors Studio A man is not idle because he is absorbed in thought. There is a visible labor and there is an invisible labor. - Victor Hugo Perpetual devotion to what a man calls his business, is only to be sustained by perpetual neglect of many other things. - Robert Louis Stevenson Habit is habit and not to be flung out of the window by any man, but coaxed downstairs a step at a time. - Mark Twain He who would travel happily must travel light. - Antoine de Saint-Exupery READ MORE NICE

Courage is the price

  Amelia Earhart Courage is the price that Life exacts for granting peace. --Amelia Earhart, Courage, 1927 Love truth, and pardon error. --Voltaire Walking is man's best medicine. --Hippocrates The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man. --George Bernard Shaw Three may keep a secret, if two of them are dead. --Benjamin Franklin In summer, the song sings itself. --William Carlos Williams How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live. --Henry David Thoreau At times one remains faithful to a cause only because its opponents do not cease to be insipid. --Friedrich Nietzsche Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake. --Napoleon Bonaparte Live in the sunshine, swim the sea, drink the wild air. --Ralph Waldo Emerson READ MORE INTERESTING

Love is the reason for it all

  Dorothy Fields Love is the reason for it all. --Dorothy Fields In the absence of clearly-defined goals, we become strangely loyal to performing daily trivia until ultimately we become enslaved by it. -- Robert Heinlein What else is love but understanding and rejoicing in the fact that another person lives, acts, and experiences otherwise than we do...? --Friedrich Nietzsche Sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple. --Dr. Seuss A short saying oft contains much wisdom. --Sophocles Most modern calendars mar the sweet simplicity of our lives by reminding us that each day that passes is the anniversary of some perfectly uninteresting event. --Oscar Wilde I have never been hurt by anything I didn't say. --Calvin Coolidge The truth is that there is nothing noble in being superior to somebody else. The only real nobility is in being superior to your former self. --Whitney Young It is difficult to produce a television documentary that is both incisive and probing...

Birds sing after a storm

  Rose Kennedy Birds sing after a storm; why shouldn't people feel as free to delight in whatever sunlight remains to them? --Rose Kennedy No wise man ever wished to be younger. --Jonathan Swift You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today. --Abraham Lincoln The only good is knowledge and the only evil is ignorance. --Socrates Laugh and the world laughs with you, snore and you sleep alone. --Anthony Burgess This time, like all times, is a very good one, if we but know what to do with it. --Ralph Waldo Emerson That's the trouble with a politician's life-somebody is always interrupting it with an election. --Will Rogers If you explore beneath shyness or party chit-chat, you can sometimes turn a dull exchange into an intriguing one. I've found this to be particularly true in the case of professors or intellectuals, who are full of fascinating information, but need encouragement before they'll divulge it. --Joyce Carol Oates I am not young enough...