Top Quotes

I came across a ‘Top Quotes’ section on a blog I follow. This reminded me of a nice little section on Facebook where I used to save all my favorite quotes. I thought that I should have a similar section here so that all my readers could read and enjoy (hopefully) them too.

Here they are, in no particular order, with commentary by yours truly,

To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded. – Ralph Waldo Emerson, US essayist & poet (1803 – 1882)

So much wisdom in so few lines. What is the purpose of life? This is the answer. I just wish that it had 42 words. That would have been perfect!

I do not agree with what you have to say, but I’ll defend to the death your right to say it. – Voltaire

One of the best. I like the confidence with which it was expressed. I used to agree with it, but not any more. I don’t think that the world should suffer the pathetic meanderings of feeble minds. Only the greatest of voices deserve to be heard. Who decides that? I certainly do.

All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others. – George Orwell in Animal Farm

All the quotes here are my favorite, but some are more favorite than the others.

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. – Anonymous

A cheesy one, I admit, but very beautiful in its simplicity.

Its funny how day by day nothing changes. but when you look back, everything is different. – C. S. Lewis

Whoa! What a profound quote! I initially thought that Bill Watterson (of Calvin and Hobbes fame) wrote it. But I think it was C. S. Lewis. I am still not sure about the origin, but great quote.

For forty-odd years in this noble profession
I’ve harbored a guilt and my conscience is smitten.
So here is my slightly embarrassed confession
I don’t like to write, but I love to have written.
– Michael Kanin

Haha! So true! I came across this when Tame SheWolf said that to me.

I must obey the inscrutable exhortations of my soul. – Calvin of Calvin and Hobbes.

Something that I live my life by.

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you and then, they fight you and you win
– Mohandas K. Gandhi

Definitely the most powerful one liner I have ever come across.

Nothing that grieves us can be called little: by the eternal laws of proportion a child’s loss of a doll and a king’s loss of a crown are events of the same size.
– Mark Twain

The whole problem with the world is that the fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and the wise are always so full of doubts.
– Bertrand Russell

To me, the one thing I hope every student has, The one experience everyone must have, be it in high school, or college, is to have some belief that you profoundly, deeply hold, prove to be wrong. It’s a huge eye-opener.
– Lawrence Krauss (Physicist)

There is something feeble and a little contemptible about a man who cannot face the perils of life without the help of comfortable myths. Almost inevitably some part of him is aware that they are myths and that he believes them only because they are comforting. But he dare not face this thought! Moreover, since he is aware, however dimly, that his opinions are not rational, he becomes furious when they are disputed.
-Bertrand Russell

I may not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.
-Voltaire

What are fifty; what a thousand slaves match’d to the sinew of a single arm that strikes for liberty?
-Brookes Gustavus Vasa

A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves.
-Edward R. Murrow

You have your way. I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way, and the only way, it does not exist.
-Friedrich Nietzsche

When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him
by this sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against him.
-Jonathan Swift

All you touch and all you see is all your life will ever be
-Pink Floyd (Waters, Gilmour, Wright)

The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page
-Saint Augustine

The one who does not remember history is bound to live through it again
-George Santayana

Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.
-Martin Luther King Jr.

No painter’s brush nor poet’s pen, in justice to her fame. Has ever reached, half high enough, to write a mother’s name
-Anonymous

If you want something said, ask a man. If you want something done, ask a woman
-Margaret Thatcher

The young do not know enough to be prudent, and therefore they attempt the impossible — and achieve it, generation after generation
-Pearl S. Buck

If you tell the truth you don’t have to remember anything
-Mark Twain

Patriotism is your conviction that this country is superior to all other countries because you were born in it.
-George Bernard Shaw

The essence of a great mind is not what it thinks, but how it thinks.
-Christopher Hitchens

A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal.
-Oscar Wilde

Happy the man, and happy he alone, he who can call today his own: he who, secure within, can say, ‘Tomorrow do thy worst, for I have lived today.’
– John Dryden

A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.
– Robert A. Heinlein

Where shall the word be found, where will the word resound?
Not here, there is not enough silence.
-TS Eliot

When you pray, don’t you pray to the highest power, goodness and strength WITHIN YOU and not to some invisible, all-powerful spirit who can’t do anything about it? Aren’t you talking to your highest abilities? Aren’t you gathering all the will, your dreams and desires, your strength, your mind to come together and help you out? Why do you need an idol to bend to? Isn’t the limitless sky a more beautiful metaphor for your inner infinite power?
– Tame SheWolf

I don’t know what atheism is defined as. Is it having no faith in God or no faith at all? I ask this because I believe in spirits and the ‘Soul of the Universe’. I believe that happiness is inescapable, life is not suffering. I believe that truth will triumph. I believe Love (not blind love) will conquer. I believe Virtues will be rewarded. I believe we are both– a story-teller and actor each; story-tellers spinning yarn and twisting each others tales and actors playing our roles; thereby making an intricate, inter-connecting, complex web of life. I believe we will all have our own meaningful closure to our varied, magnificent life? Who needs God, when we have us?
– Tame SheWolf