My Favorite Quotes

I love collecting good quotes–inspirational ones, funny ones, thought-provoking ones, informative ones. They are…well, they are just that–inspirational, funny, thought-provoking, and informative. Don’t think I needed to point that out.

A good quote or saying is like an energy drink for the mind–a lot of meaning and significance packed into a few potent words.

[You can also check out my Pinterest board on “Good quotes and wise words”].

Here is my current collection of quotes that I’ve been gathering for a while now. Funny, sweet, stimulating, inspirational . . . A few of them are “aww”-inspiring (not to be confused with awe-inspiring), for those of us girls who like sweet and mushy. Some don’t have authors because they are either unknown (to me) or I forgot them or something like that. I’ll be adding to this list as I find more quotes (newer ones are added at the bottom). I hope they are as inspiring to you as they are to me. Enjoy!

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Silences make the real conversations between friends. Not the saying but the never needing to say is what counts. ~ Margaret Lee Runbeck

God will never reveal more truth about Himself until you have obeyed what you know already. ~ Oswald Chambers

If a man is worth knowing at all, he is worth knowing well. ~ Alexander Smith

If God is all you have . . . you have it all.

Isn’t it nice to think that tomorrow is a new day with no mistakes in it yet? ~ Lucy Maud Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables

Prayer does not equip us for greater works—prayer is the greater work. ~ Oswald Chambers

“So many books, so little time.” ~ Frank Zappa

“He died not for men, but for each man. If each man had been the only man made, He would have done no less.” ~ C.S. Lewis

“All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.” ~ J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring 

“You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me.”  ~ C.S. Lewis

“Getting over a painful experience is much like crossing monkey bars. You have to let go at some point in order to move forward.” ~ C.S. Lewis

“Wondrous as it is, how simple is this mystery! To love Christ and to know that I love Him–this is all!”  ~ Elizabeth Prentiss, Stepping Heavenward

“Friendship is born at the moment when one person says to another: “What! You too? I thought I was the only one.”  ~ C.S. Lewis

“You will never glory in God till first of all God has killed your glorying in yourself.” ~ Charles Spurgeon

“I have learned to kiss the wave that knocks me against The Rock of Ages.” ~ Charles Spurgeon

“Government is not the solution to our problems; government is the problem.” ~ Ronald Reagan

One ought, every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture and, if it were possible, speak a few reasonable words. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, poet, dramatist, novelist, and philosopher (1749-1832)

“That is just the way with some people. They get down on a thing when they don’t know nothing about it.”  ~ Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

“Right is right, and wrong is wrong, and a body ain’t got no business doing wrong when he ain’t ignorant and knows better.” ~ Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

“You can’t pray a lie — I found that out.” ~ Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

“The man who does not read has no advantage over the man who cannot read.” ~ Mark Twain

“ ‘Classic’ – a book which people praise and don’t read.” ~ Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

One who condones evils is just as guilty as the one who perpetrates it. ~ Martin Luther King Jr.

Writing is like driving a car at night. You can only see as far as the headlights, but you make the whole trip that way. ~ E.L. Doctorow, writer (b. 1931)

Music expresses that which cannot be put into words and that which cannot remain silent. ~ Victor Hugo

There is nothing like a dream to create the future. ~ Victor Hugo

A man can no more diminish God’s glory by refusing Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word ‘darkness’ on the walls of his cell. ~ C.S. Lewis

It is better to remain silent at the risk of being thought a fool, than to talk and remove all doubt of it. ~ Maurice Switzer

When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us.  ~ Helen Keller

Be yourself; everyone else is already taken. ~ Oscar Wilde

Outside of a dog, a book is man’s best friend. Inside of a dog it’s too dark to read. ~ Groucho Marx

Anyone who thinks sitting in church can make you a Christian must also think that sitting in a garage can make you a car. ~ Garrison Keillor

Reading is the sole means by which we slip, involuntarily, often helplessly, into another’s skin, another’s voice, another’s soul. ~ Joyce Carol Oates

If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world. ~ C.S. Lewis

We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow men; and among those fibers, as sympathetic threads, our actions run as causes, and they come back to us as effects. ~ Herman Melville

There is nothing better than a friend, unless it is a friend with chocolate. ~ Charles Dickens

Books are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the most accessible and wisest of counselors, and the most patient of teachers. ~ Charles William Eliot

“But for my own part, if a book is well written, I always find it too short.”  ~ Jane Austen

I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book. ~ Groucho Marx

It’s been my experience that you can nearly always enjoy things if you make up your mind firmly that you will. ~ L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables

A library is infinity under a roof. ~ Gail Carson Levine

A peasant that reads is a prince in waiting.  ~ Walter Mosley, The Long Fall

What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make. ~ Jane Goodall

O, there is lovely to feel a book, a good book, firm in the hand, for its fatness holds rich promise, and you are hot inside to think of good hours to come.” ~ Richard Llewellyn, How Green Was My Valley

Each moment is a place you’ve never been.” ~ Mark Strand, New Selected Poems

Happiness quite unshared can scarcely be called happiness; it has no taste. ~ Charlotte Brontë

Be the change that you wish to see in the world. ~ Mahatma Gandhi

It’s an insane world. But in it, there is one sanity — the loyalty of old friends. ~ Lew Wallace, Ben Hur

“I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading! How much sooner one tires of any thing than of a book! — When I have a house of my own, I shall be miserable if I have not an excellent library.” ~ Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

“How easy it is to judge rightly after one sees what evil comes from judging wrongly.” ~ Elizabeth Gaskell, Wives and Daughters

“People laugh at me because I use big words. But if you have big ideas, you have to use big words to express them, haven’t you?”  ~ L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables

“A man who is intimate with God is not intimidated by man.” ~ Leonard Ravenhill

“Someone heroic and valiant, not merely skilled in speech; someone who is kind and pure in heart. Someone who does not play with white roses that belong to others.” ~ Sarah Mally, Before You Meet Prince Charming: A Guide to Radiant Purity

“For every minute you are angry you lose sixty seconds of happiness.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

“You wouldn’t worry so much about what others think of you if you realized how seldom they do.” ~ Eleanor Roosevelt

“There are no faster or firmer friendships than those formed between people who love the same books.” ~ Irving Stone

If you wish to make an apple pie truly from scratch, you must first invent the universe. ~ Carl Sagan, astronomer and writer (1934-1996)

The more sand that has escaped from the hourglass of our life, the clearer we should see through it. ~ Jean-Paul Sartre, writer and philosopher (1905-1980)

Cheerfulness and contentment are great beautifiers and are famous preservers of youthful looks. ~ Charles Dickens

It is more often from pride than from ignorance that we are so obstinately opposed to current opinions; we find the first places taken, and we do not want to be the last. ~ Francois De La Rochefoucauld, moralist (1613-1680)

To read fast is as bad as to eat in a hurry.  ~ Vilhelm Ekelund, poet (1880-1949)

“Books are for people who wish they were somewhere else.” ~ Mark Twain

“A Bible that’s falling apart usually belongs to someone who isn’t.” ~ Charles Spurgeon

“The bigger the darkness, the easier it is to spot your little light.”  ~ Brother Andrew, God’s Smuggler

We should not write so that it is possible for the reader to understand us, but so that it is impossible for him to misunderstand us. ~ Quintilian (Marcus Fabius Quintilianus), rhetorician (c. 35-100)

“Writers will happen in the best of families.”  ~ Rita Mae Brown

“Being a Christian means waking up every morning, and asking God to give you the strength to serve Him throughout your day, and falling asleep every night asking Him to forgive you for the times that you failed.” ~ Micah McAllister

Talent develops in tranquillity, character in the full current of human life.  ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, poet, dramatist, novelist, and philosopher (1749-1832)

Remember this, had any other condition been better for you than the one in which you are, divine love would have put you there. ~ Charles Spurgeon

“The future lies before you like a field of snow: Be careful how you tread it, for every step will show.”

If I had a nickel for every time I thought about you, people would be like, “What’re you doing with all those nickels? That’s too many nickels.” And they would be wrong.

“Why wish upon a star, when you can pray to the One who created it?”

“If you look up beautiful in the dictionary, there will be an accurate description of you. Because the dictionary is not a picture book. Don’t be stupid.”

“Waiting for someone else to make you happy is the best way to be sad.”

“For beautiful eyes, look for the good in others; For beautiful lips, speak only words of kindness; And for poise, walk with the knowledge you are never alone.” ~ Audrey Hepburn

“They told me that to make her fall in love, I had to make her laugh. But every time she laughs, I’m the one who falls in love.” ~ Unknown

“Your struggle may be what brings someone else closer to God. Your trial may be what convinces someone else of what God is and in the process reminds you as well.”

The most erroneous stories are those we think we know best — and therefore never scrutinize or question. ~ Stephen Jay Gould

“A true friend unbosoms freely, advises justly, assists readily, adventures boldly, takes all patiently, defends courageously, and continues a friend unchangeably.” ~ William Penn

You know you’re in love when you can’t fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams. ~ Dr. Seuss

When you find yourself in a hole, stop digging. ~ Will Rogers

A stitch in time would have confused Einstein. ~ unknown

“I don’t believe in mathematics.” ~ Albert Einstein

“It’s kind of fun to do the impossible.” ~ Walt Disney

“I did know once, only I’ve sort of forgotten.” ~ A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh

“Tomorrow is the most important thing in life. It comes to us at midnight, very clean. When it comes, it is perfect. It puts itself in our hands. It hopes we learned something from yesterday.” ~ unknown, Epitaph on headstone of actor John Wayne

Let men tremble to win the hand of woman, unless they win along with it the utmost passion of her heart! ~ Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter

Thought is the blossom; language the bud; action the fruit behind it. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

It’s impossible to be loyal to your family, your friends, your country, and your principles, all at the same time. ~ Mignon McLaughlin, journalist and author (1913-1983)

We never know the love of our parents for us till we have become parents. ~ Henry Ward Beecher

“It is one of the blessings of old friends that you can afford to be stupid with them.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, Emerson in His Journals

“The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.” ~ William Shakespeare, As You Like It

“Books. Cats. Life is Good.” ~ Edward Gorey

“The worker must work for the glory of his handiwork, not simply for pay; the thinker must think for truth, not for fame.” ~ W.E.B. Du Bois

“For my whole life, my favorite activity was reading. It’s not the most social pastime.”  ~ Audrey Hepburn

“I’m an introvert . . . I love being by myself, love being outdoors, love taking a long walk with my dogs and looking at the trees, flowers, the sky.”  ~ Audrey Hepburn [Heather’s Note: I love this girl — she really gets it!]

“Think of the self that God has given as an acorn. It is a marvelous little thing, a perfect shape, perfectly designed for its purpose, perfectly functional. Think of the grand glory of an oak tree. God’s intention when He made the acorn was the oak tree. His intention for us is ‘… the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.’ Many deaths must go into our reaching that measure, many letting-goes. When you look at the oak tree, you don’t feel that the loss’ of the acorn is a very great loss. The more you perceive God’s purpose in your life, the less terrible the losses seem.”  ~ Elisabeth Elliot

“Reading one book is like eating one potato chip.”  ~ Diane Duane, So You Want to Be a Wizard

“We all know that light travels faster than sound. That’s why certain people appear bright until you hear them speak.”  ~ Albert Einstein

“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.”  ~ Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

“Fear not because your prayer is stammering, your words feeble, and your language poor. Jesus can understand you.”  ~ J.C. Ryle

“A lady’s imagination is very rapid; it jumps from admiration to love, from love to matrimony in a moment.”  ~ Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

“It’s been many years since I had such an exemplary vegetable.” ~ Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

“What day is it?”
It’s today,” squeaked Piglet.
My favorite day,” said Pooh.”  ~ A.A. Milne

“You must remember, family is often born of blood, but it doesn’t depend on blood. Nor is it exclusive of friendship. Family members can be your best friends, you know. And best friends, whether or not they are related to you, can be your family.”  ~ Trenton Lee Stewart, The Mysterious Benedict Society

“Every great thinker keeps a journal, you know.”  ~ Trenton Lee Stewart, The Mysterious Benedict Society

“Anyone who takes the time to be kind is beautiful.”  ~ Richelle E. Goodrich

“One should use common words to say uncommon things.” ~ Arthur Schopenhauer

“Ordinary people have big TVs. Extraordinary people have big libraries.” ~ Robin Sharma

“Let me never fall into the vulgar mistake of dreaming that I am persecuted whenever I am contradicted.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Don’t marry someone you think you can live with — marry someone you know you can’t live without.”

“A man is but the product of his thoughts. What he thinks, he becomes.” ~ Mahatma Ghandi [Proverbs 23:7]

“Follow effective action with quiet reflection. From the quiet reflection will come even more effective action.” ~ Peter F. Drucker

“All good books are alike in that they are truer than if they had really happened and after you are finished reading one you will feel that all that happened to you and afterwards it all belongs to you; the good and the bad, the ecstasy, the remorse, and sorrow, the people and the places and how the weather was.” ~ Ernest Hemingway

“Never confuse movement with action.” ~ Ernest Hemingway

“Opportunities flit by while we sit regretting the chances we have lost, and the happiness that comes to us we heed not, because of the happiness that is gone.” ~ Jerome K. Jerome

“Nothing is more beautiful than the love that has weathered the storms of life. The love of the young for the young, that is the beginning of life. But the love of the old for the old, that is the beginning of things longer.” ~ Jerome K. Jerome

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

“A woman’s heart should be so close to God that a man should have to chase Him to find her.” ~ C.S. Lewis

OR:

“A woman’s heart should be so lost in God that a man must seek Him in order to find her.”

[I like the different wordings of both of the above quotes. :)]

“Hope begins in the dark, the stubborn hope that if you just show up and try to do the right thing, the dawn will come. You wait and watch and work: you don’t give up.” ~ Anne Lamott

“There are two ways to live: you can live as if nothing is a miracle; you can live as if everything is a miracle.” ~ Albert Einstein

“A man is what he thinks about all day long.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

“One day your life will flash before your eyes; make sure it is worth watching.” ~ Gerard Way

“Have a heart that never hardens, a temper that never tires, and a touch that never hurts.” ~ Charles Dickens

“Never give up on a dream just because of the time it will take to accomplish it. The time will pass anyway.” ~ Earl Nightingale

“Waiting on God requires the willingness to bear uncertainty, to carry within oneself the unanswered question, lifting the heart to God about it whenever it intrudes upon one’s thoughts.” ~ Elisabeth Elliot

“He who asks is a fool for five minutes, but he who does not ask remains a fool forever.” – Chinese Proverb

“Our lives are defined by opportunities, even the ones we miss.” ~ F. Scott Fitzgerald

“We’re all so desperate to be understood, we forget to be understanding.”

“She was unstoppable, not because she did not have failures or doubts, but because she continued on despite them.” ~ Beau Taplin

“What gives moments meaning is not the moments themselves but the presence of Christ with us in the midst of them.” ― Emily P. Freeman, Simply Tuesday

“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.” ~ Albert Einstein

“Either write something worth reading, or do something worth writing.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

“The best way to cheer yourself up is to try to cheer somebody else up.” ~ Mark Twain

“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” – Winston Churchill

“It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.” – Confucius

“Don’t raise your voice, improve your argument.” – Desmond Tutu

“There are two ways to spread happiness; either be the light who shines it or be the mirror who reflects it.” – Edith Wharton

“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.” – John Quincy Adams

“And in the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.” – Abraham Lincoln

“Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none.” – William Shakespeare

“Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind.” – Dr Seuss

“Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence.” – Helen Keller

“Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realise they were the big things.” – Robert Brault

“Read as much as you can. Nothing will help you as much as reading.”-‘ J.K. Rowling

“You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view.” – Harper Lee

“It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.” ~ Aristotle

“What I really need is to get clear about what I must do, not what I must know, except insofar as knowledge must precede every act. What matters is to find a purpose, to see what it really is that God wills that I shall do; the crucial thing is to find a truth which is truth for me, to find the idea for which I am willing to live and die.” ~ Soren Kierkegaard

“Wherever God has put you, that is your vocation. It is not what we do, but how much love we put into it.” ~ Mother Teresa

“The Modern Scientist has lost God amid the wonder of His World; we Christians are in real danger of losing God amid the wonder of His Word.” ~ A.W. Tozer

“People do not decide to become extraordinary. They decide to accomplish extraordinary things.” ~ Sir Edmund Hillary