The Most Inspiring Quotes of Great Men:

ABILITY

Ability is nothing without opportunity.Napoleon I (1769 - 1821)French emperor.

HISTORY

Think of it, soldiers; from the summit of these pyramids, forty centuries look down upon you.Napoleon I (1769 - 1821)French emperor, July 21, 1798.Speech before the Battle of the Pyramids

What is not recorded is not remembered.Benazir Bhutto (1953 - 2007)Pakistani stateswoman.Daughter of Destiny

WISDOM

It is never wise to try to appear to be more clever than you are. It is sometimes wise to appear slightly less so.William Whitelaw (1918 - 1999)British politician.The Observer (London), “Sayings of the Year”

Knowledge is proud that he has learned so much; Wisdom is humble that he knows no more.

William Cowper (1731 - 1800)British poet.The Task.

The most fluent talkers or most plausible reasoners are not always the justest thinkers.

William Hazlitt (1778 - 1830)British essayist and critic.Sketches and Essays, “On Prejudice”

TIME

We kill time; time buries us.Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis (1839 - 1908)Brazilian novelist and short-story writer.Epitaph of a Small Winner

The innocent and the beautiful Have no enemy but time.W. B. Yeats (1865 - 1939)Irish poet and playwright.The Winding Stair and Other Poems, “In Memory of Eva Gore-Booth and Con Markiewicz”

Time moves about dressed in fortune or misfortuneAnonymous

Time heals all wounds.Anonymous

SHYNESS

A timid question will always receive a confident answer.Charles John Darling (1849 - 1936)

British judge and writer.Scintillae Juris

EMOTIONS

A man who has not passed through the inferno of his passions has never overcome

them.Carl Gustav Jung (1875 - 1961)Swiss psychoanalyst.Memories, Dreams, Reflections

There is a road from the eye to the heart that does not go through the intellect.G. K. Chesterton (1874 - 1936)British writer and poet.The Defendant

CONTENTMENT

The noblest mind the best contentment has.Edmund Spenser (1552? - 1599)English poet.The Faerie Queene

DESPAIR

Don’t despair, not even over the fact that you don’t despair.Franz Kafka (1883 - 1924)Czech writer.Diary

Nothing has been spared in this world.Francis Joseph I (1830 - 1916)Austrian monarch.Said upon learning of the assassination of his wife, the Empress Elizabeth.

Remark

Now Giant Despair had a wife, and her name was Diffidence.John Bunyan (1628 - 1688)English preacher and writer.The Pilgrim’s Progress

‘Blessed is the man who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed’ was the ninth beatitude.

Alexander Pope (1688 - 1744)English poet.Letter to Fortescue

POWER

Power? It’s like a dead sea fruit; when you achieve it, there’s nothing there.Harold Macmillan (1894 - 1986)British prime minister.

Power is my mistress. I have worked too hard in conquering her to allow anyone to take her from me, or even to covet her.Napoleon I (1769 - 1821)French emperor.The Journal of Roederer

HOPE

He has no hope who never had a fearWilliam Cowper (1731 - 1800)British poet.“Truth”

Take short views, hope for the best, and trust in God.Sydney Smith (1771 - 1845)British clergyman, essayist, and wit.

When we stop hoping, that which we fear will certainly come.Christa Wolf (1929 - )German writer.No Place on Earth

Positive Thinking

I think that everything is possible as long as you put your mind to it and you put the work and time into it. I think your mind really controls everything. You can't put a limit on anything. The more you dream, the farther you get.

- Michael Phelps (Only Olympian who has won Eight Gold Medals)

FEAR

Dread is a womanish debility in which freedom swoons. Psychologically speaking, the fall into sin always occurs in impotence. But dread is at the same time the most egotistic thing.Søren Kierkegaard (1813 - 1855)Danish philosopher.The Concept of Dread (W. Lowrie (tr.))

Fear is very exciting. People like to get scared. It’s exactly like the moment before you have an orgasm.Jim Morrison (1943 - 1971)U.S. rock singer and songwriter.

For where no hope is left, is left no fear.John Milton (1608 - 1674)English writer.Paradise Regained

We confess our bad qualities to others out of fear of appearing naive or ridiculous by not being aware of them.Gerald Brenan (1894 - 1987)Maltese-born British writer and novelist.Thoughts in a Dry Season

You can discover what your enemy fears most by observing the means he uses to frighten you.Eric Hoffer (1902 - 1983)U.S. philosopher and longshoreman, 1964.

FAVOURITE

A fav’rite has no friend.Thomas Gray (1716 - 1771)British poet.“On a Favourite Cat, Drowned in a Tub of Gold Fishes”

LOVEBecause women can do nothing except love, they’ve given it a ridiculous (unreasonably huge) importance.Somerset Maugham (1874 - 1965)British writer.The Moon and Sixpence

By the time you say you’re his, Shivering and sighing, And he vows his passion is Infinite, undying— Lady, make a note of this:

One of you is lying.Dorothy Parker (1893 - 1967)U.S. writer, poet, and wit.Unfortunate Coincidence

Falling out of love is very enlightening. For a short while you see the world with new eyes.Iris Murdoch (1919 - 1999)Irish-born British novelist and philosopher.The Observer (London), “Sayings of the Week”

In her first passion woman loves her lover, In all the others all she loves is love.

Lord Byron (1788 - 1824)British poet.Don Juan

It is impossible to love and be wise.Francis Bacon (1561 - 1626)English philosopher, statesman, and lawyer.Essays, “Of Love”

Love ceases to be a pleasure, when it ceases to be a secret.Aphra Behn (1640? - 1689)English novelist and dramatist.The Lover’s Watch, “Four o’clock. General Conversation

ADULTERY

Adultery is the application of democracy to love.H. L. Mencken (1880 - 1956)U.S. journalist, critic, and editor.The Vintage Mencken, Sententiæ

CONTRACEPTION

Protestant women may take the Pill. Roman Catholic women must keep taking the Tablet*.Irene Thomas (1920 - )British writer and broadcaster.*The Tablet is a Roman Catholic periodical.The Guardian (London)

Marriages are not normally made to avoid having children.

Rudolf Virchow (1821 - 1902)

German politician, pathologist, archaeologist, and anthropologist, 1928.

LOVE & FRIENDSHIP

Love comes from blindness, friendship from knowledge.Bussy-Rabutin (1618 - 1693)French soldier and writer.Histoire Amoureuse des Gaules, “Maximes d’Amour

WIFE

Man’s best possession is a sympathetic wife.Euripides (c480 - c406 BC)Greek playwright.Antigone

Wives are young men’s mistresses, companions for middle age, and old men’s nurses.

Francis Bacon (1561 - 1626)English philosopher, statesman, and lawyer.Essays, “Of Marriage and the Single Life

DESIRE

Desire for approval and recognition is a healthy motive but the desire to be acknowledged as better, stronger or more intelligent than a fellow being or fellow scholar easily leads to an excessively egoistic psychological adjustment, which may become injurious for the individual and for the community.Albert Einstein (1879 - 1955)German-born U.S. physicist.Ideas and Opinions, “On Education,” address to the State University of New York, Albany

An object in possession seldom retains the same charm that it had in pursuit.Pliny the Younger (62 - 113)Roman politician and writer.

There are perhaps only one or two things in the world which are not far more charming in desire than they are in possession.Anna C. Brackett (1836 - 1911)U.S. writer.The Technique of Rest

There are two tragedies in life. One is to lose your heart’s desire. The other is to gain it.

George Bernard Shaw (1856 - 1950)Irish playwright.Man and Superman

We have been raised to fear the yes within ourselves, our deepest cravings.Audre Lorde (1934 - 1992)U.S. poet, novelist, and feminist.Sister Outsider, “Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power”

What is it men in women do require? The lineaments of Gratified Desire. What is it women do in men require? The lineaments of Gratified Desire.William Blake (1757 - 1827)British poet, painter, engraver, and mystic, 1811.

FLIRTATION

A woman will flirt with anyone in the world as long as other people are looking on.Oscar Wilde (1854 - 1900)Irish poet, playwright, and wit.

SEDUCTION

With womankind, the less we love them, the easier they become to charm.

Aleksandr Pushkin (1799 - 1837)Russian poet and writer.Eugene Onegin (Charles Johnstone (tr.))

BREVITY

Good things, when short, are twice as good.Baltasar Gracián (1601 - 1658)Spanish writer and Jesuit.The Art of Worldly Wisdom

POLONIUS Brevity is the soul of wit.William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616)English poet and playwright.Hamlet, Act 2, Scene 2

CONVERSATION

If there is one general law of communication it is that we never communicate as effectively as we think we do.Charles Handy (1932 - )Irish-born British management educator and writer.Understanding Organisations

In communications, familiarity breeds apathy.

William Bernbach (1911 - 1982)U.S. advertising executive.Bill Bernbach Said...

It is generally better to deal by speech than by letter.Francis Bacon (1561 - 1626)English philosopher, statesman, and lawyer.Essays, “Of Negotiating

It’s easy to get people’s attention, what counts is getting their interest.A. Philip Randolph (1889 - 1979)U.S. labor leader and civil rights activist, 1970.

Online conversation is...talking by writing.John Coate U.S. academic.

QUOTATION

A quotation at the right moment is like bread to the famished.Anonymous The Talmud

To say that anything was a quotation was an excellent method, in Eleanor’s eyes, for withdrawing it from discussion.Saki (1870 - 1916)British short-story writer.The Chronicles of Clovis, “The Jesting of Arlington Stringham”

When a thing has been said and said well, have no scruple. Take it and copy it.Anatole France (1844 - 1924)French novelist, poet, and critic.

SILENCE

God is the friend of silence. Trees, flowers, grass grow in silence. See the stars, moon and sun, how they move in silence.Mother Teresa of Calcutta (1910 - 1997)Albanian-born Roman Catholic nun.

If silence be good for the wise, how much better for fools.Anonymous The Talmud

Recreations: listening to music, silence.

Edith Sitwell (1887 - 1964)British poet, critic, and writer.In her Who’s Who entry for many years.

Silence alone is great; all else is weakness.

Alfred de Vigny (1797 - 1863)French poet, novelist, and playwright.“La Mort du loup”

Silence is the most perfect expression of scorn.George Bernard Shaw (1856 - 1950)Irish playwright.Back to Methuselah

Silences have a climax, when you have got to speak.Elizabeth Bowen (1899 - 1973)Irish novelist and short-story writer.The Heat of the Day

WRITING

All good writing is swimming under water and holding your breath.F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896 - 1940)U.S. writer.Letter to his daughter, Frances Scott Fitzgerald

Clear writers, like clear fountains, do not seem so deep as they are; the turbid look the most profound.Walter Savage Landor (1775 - 1864)British poet and writer.

Imaginary Conversations of Literary Men and Statesmen, “Southey and Porson” For a true writer each book should be a new beginning where he tries again for something that is beyond attainment.Ernest Hemingway (1899 - 1961)

U.S. writer.Acceptance speech, Nobel Prize in literature

Good writing is like a bomb: it explodes in the face of the reader.Nuruddin Farah (1945 - )Somali novelist, playwright, and teacher.Sardines

I am convinced more and more day by day that fine writing is next to fine doing, the top thing in the world.John Keats (1795 - 1821)English poet.Letter to John Hamilton Reynolds

Learn to write well, or not to write at all.John Sheffield (1648 - 1721)English poet and statesman.Essay on Satire

No one who cannot limit himself has ever been able to write.Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux (1636 - 1711)French poet and critic.L’Art poétique

Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man.Francis Bacon (1561 - 1626)English philosopher, statesman, and lawyer.Essays, “Of Studies”

The pen is the tongue of the mind.Miguel de Cervantes (1547 - 1616)Spanish novelist and dramatist.Don Quixote

Unless one is a genius, it is best to aim at being intelligible.Anthony Hope (1863 - 1933)British novelist and playwright.The Dolly Dialogues

You know that I write slowly. This is chiefly because I am never satisfied until I have said as much as possible in a few words, and writing briefly takes far more time than writing at length.

Carl Friedrich Gauss (1777 - 1855)German mathematician and astronomer.

I have made this letter longer than usual, only because I have not had the time to make it shorter.Blaise Pascal (1623 - 1662)French philosopher, mathematician, and physicist.Lettres Provinciales

Words are like leaves; and where they most abound, Much fruit of sense beneath is rarely found.

Alexander Pope (1688 - 1744)English poet.An Essay on Criticism

ARGUMENTS

A man never tells you anything until you contradict him.Attributed to George Bernard Shaw (1856 - 1950)Irish playwright.

ASSASSINATION

Assassination is the extreme form of censorship.George Bernard Shaw (1856 - 1950)Irish playwright.The Shewing-Up of Blanco Posnet, “Limits to Toleration”

FORGIVENESS

Beware of the man who does not return your blow: he neither forgives you nor allows you to forgive yourself.George Bernard Shaw (1856 - 1950)Irish playwright.Man and Superman, “Maxims for Revolutionists”

MARRIAGE

It is a woman’s business to get married as soon as possible, and a man’s to keep unmarried as long as he can.George Bernard Shaw (1856 - 1950)Irish playwright.Man and Superman

MUSIC

Without music we shall surely perish of drink, morphia, and all sorts of artificial exaggerations of the cruder delights of the senses.George Bernard Shaw (1856 - 1950)Irish playwright.Fortnightly Review, “The Religion of the Pianoforte”

POLITICIANS

He knows nothing; and he thinks he knows everything. That points clearly to a political career.George Bernard Shaw (1856 - 1950)Irish playwright.Major Barbara

SCIENCE

Science is always wrong. It never solves a problem without creating ten more.Attributed to George Bernard Shaw (1856 - 1950)Irish playwright.

SOLDIER

I never expect a soldier to think.George Bernard Shaw (1856 - 1950)Irish playwright.The Devil’s Disciple

When the military man approaches, the world locks up its spoons and packs off its

womankind.Attributed to George Bernard Shaw (1856 - 1950)Irish playwright.

Your friend the British soldier can stand up to anything except the British War Office.

George Bernard Shaw (1856 - 1950)Irish playwright.The Devil’s Disciple

WOMEN

Changeable women are more endurable than monotonous ones. They are sometimes murdered but seldom deserted.Attributed to George Bernard Shaw (1856 - 1950)Irish playwright.

ARMY

An army marches on its stomach.Attributed to Napoleon I (1769 - 1821)French emperor.Attributed by Charles Sainte-Beuve.

The worse the man the better the soldier. If soldiers be not corrupt they ought to be made so.

Attributed to Napoleon I (1769 - 1821)French emperor.

SELF HELP

Whoever is unwilling to help himself can be helped by no one.Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi (1746 - 1827)Swiss educational reformer.

Where my heart lies, let my brain lie also.Robert Browning (1812 - 1889)British poet.Men and Women, “One Word More”

AMBITION

Ah, but a man’s reach should exceed his grasp, Or what’s a heaven for?

Robert Browning (1812 - 1889)British poet.Men and Women, “Andrea del Sarto”

BEAUTY

If you get simple beauty and nought else, You get about the best thing God invents.

Robert Browning (1812 - 1889)British poet.Men and Women, “Fra Lippo Lippi”

IDEAS

Stung by the splendour of a sudden thought.Robert Browning (1812 - 1889)British poet.Dramatis Personae, “A Death in the Desert”

IGNORANCE

Ignorance is not innocence but sin.Robert Browning (1812 - 1889)British poet.Aristophanes’ Apology, “The Inn Album”

UNITY

“It’s not the size of the wave but the motion of the ocean.”Anonymous

MOST FAMOUS PROVERBS:

A fair woman without virtue is like palled wine.Anonymous Proverb.

A fault confessed is half redressed.

Anonymous African (Swahili) proverb.

A fool laughs at himself.

Anonymous African (Ovambo) proverb

A good face is a letter of recommendation.

Anonymous Proverb.

A letter from the heart can be read on the face.

Anonymous African (Swahili) proverb.

A maiden marries to please her parents, a widow to please herself.

Anonymous Chinese proverb

A man is as old as he feels, and a woman as old as she looks.

Anonymous Proverb.

A wife is sought for her virtue, a concubine for her beauty.

Anonymous Chinese proverb.

A wise man makes his own decisions; an ignorant man follows the public opinion.

Anonymous Chinese proverb.

All brides are beautiful; all the dead are pious.

Anonymous Yiddish proverb.

Do not strike while the iron is cold.

Anonymous Lebanese proverb.

Duty before devotion.

Anonymous Mexican proverb.

Easily promised, quickly forgotten.

Anonymous Japanese proverb

“THE END” Quotes collected by: Yasir Sabir, student of International Islamic University, Islamabad, PAKISTAN. E-mail: yasir_0092@yahoo.comThanks for reading; I warmly welcome your feedback on my email address.