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Karen Smiley
Apr 18, 2024
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I have more to add from my off-Substack collection as time permits; this is a starter set 😊

Quotations

Individuality and Courage

“We need to stop waiting for permission to write. … The voice is your head that’s asking how dare you is the voice produced by an environment that’s going to be challenged by your daring.” (Ayesha Siddiqi)

“It is never too late to be what you might have been.” (George Eliot)

“Remember always that you not only have the right to be an individual, you have an obligation to be one.” (Eleanor Roosevelt)

“If they don’t like you for being yourself, be yourself even more.” (Taylor Swift)

“Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind.” (Bernard M. Baruch - often misattributed to Dr. Seuss)

“It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.” (e.e. cummings)

“Whatever you are, be a good one.” (Abraham Lincoln)

“Life is not easy for any of us. But what of that? We must have perseverance and above all confidence in ourselves.” (Marie Curie)

“Don't let anyone rob you of your imagination, your creativity, or your curiosity.” (Dr. Mae Jemison)

“Life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.” (George Bernard Shaw)

“Do what you feel in your heart to be right – for you’ll be criticized anyway.” (Eleanor Roosevelt)

“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)

“A ship in port is safe, but that’s not what ships are built for. Sail out to sea and do new things.” (Admiral Grace Hopper)

“Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” (Mary Oliver)

“We are like books. Most people only see our cover, the minority read only the introduction, many people believe the critics. Few will know our content.” (Emile Zola)

“The idea behind a kaleidoscope is that it’s a structure that’s filled with broken bits and pieces, and somehow if you can look through them, you can still see something beautiful. I feel like we are all that way a little bit.” (Sarah Bareilles)

“Not everything that is faced can be changed.  But nothing can be changed until it is faced." (James Baldwin)

“You never know how strong you are until being strong is the only option.” (Bob Marley)

“Stay afraid, but do it anyway. What’s important is the action. You don’t have to wait to be confident. Just do it and eventually the confidence will follow.” (Carrie Fisher)

“Feminist: a person who believes in the social, political, and economic equality of the sexes.” (Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie)

“A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies, said Jojen. The man who never reads lives only one.” (George R.R. Martin)

"There's no correct way to be a woman, so you might as well do whatever you want.” (Kristi Coulter)

“Be depressed, discouraged and disappointed at failure and the disheartening effects of ignorance, greed, corruption, and bad politics — but never give up.” (Marjory Stoneman Douglas)

“Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is the little voice at the end of the day that says I’ll try again tomorrow.” (Mary Anne Radmacher)

“People are like stained-glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within.” (Elisabeth Kubler-Ross)

“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.” (Gandhi)

“If you are always trying to be normal, you will never know how amazing you can be.” (Maya Angelou)

"Greetings! I am pleased to see that we are different. May we together become greater than the sum of both of us." (Surak in the Savage Curtain episode of Star Trek, via Frederick Zarndt)

…

Service to Others

“If you judge people, you have no time to love them.” (Mother Teresa)

“If you have a chance to accomplish something that will make things better for people coming behind you, and you don't do that, you are wasting your time on this earth.” (Roberto Clemente)

“Be the person you needed when you were younger.” (Ayesha Siddiqi)

“Be the change that you wish to see in the world.” (Mahatma Gandhi)

“I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” (Maya Angelou)

"Fight for the things that you care about, but do it in a way that will lead others to join you." (Ruth Bader Ginsburg)

“The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.” (Steve Jobs)

“Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.” (Theodore Roosevelt)

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” (Margaret Mead)

“I don’t know how to explain to you that you should care for other people.” (Dr. Anthony Fauci)

…

Problem Solving

“We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are.” (Anaïs Nin)

"Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not one bit simpler."  (Albert Einstein)

"For every human problem, there is a neat, simple solution; and it is always wrong."  (H. L. Mencken, Mencken's Metalaw)

"In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice, there is."  (Jan L. A. van de Snepscheut)

“Logic will get you from A to Z; imagination will get you everywhere.” (Albert Einstein)

“Life is what happens to us while we are making other plans.” (Allen Saunders, often mis-attributed to John Lennon)

“A goal without a plan is just a wish.” (Antoine de Saint-Exupéry)

“I did then what I knew how to do. Now that I know better, I do better.” (Maya Angelou)

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

“The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge.” (Stephen Hawking)

“If debugging is the process of removing software bugs, then programming must be the process of putting them in.” (Edsger Dijkstra)

…

Books

“If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking.” (Haruki Murakami, Norwegian Wood)

“I wish it need not have happened in my time," said Frodo. "So do I," said Gandalf, "and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. 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)

“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 Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches)

“Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.” (Neil Gaiman, Coraline)

“How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.” (Anne Frank, Anne Frank's Tales from the Secret Annex: A Collection of Her Short Stories, Fables, and Lesser-Known Writings)

“Well-behaved women seldom make history.” (Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History)

“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not.” (Dr. Seuss, The Lorax)

“It’s no use going back to yesterday, because I was a different person then.” (Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland)

…

Lyrics and Movies

“Principles only mean something when you stick to them when it’s inconvenient.” (Laine Hanson, played by Joan Allen, “The Contender”)

“They say that these are not the best of times
But they’re the only times I’ve ever known.”
(Billy Joel, “Summer, Highland Falls”)

“So often times it happens that we live our lives in chains
And we never even know we have the key”
(The Eagles, “Already Gone”)

“Slow down, you crazy child - you’re so ambitious for a juvenile
But then if you’re so smart, tell me, why are you still so afraid? …
You’re so ahead of yourself that you forgot what you need
You can see when you’re wrong, but you can’t always see when you’re right”
(Billy Joel, “Vienna”)

“That's how we're going to win. Not fighting what we hate, saving what we love.” (Rose Tico, played by Kelly Marie Tran, “Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi”)

…

Miscellaneous Humor & Wisdom

“If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, of what, then, is an empty desk a sign?” (Laurence J. Peter)

“You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.” (Mae West)

“Insanity is doing the same thing, over and over again, but expecting different results.” (Narcotics Anonymous)

“Even if you are on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.”
(Will Rogers)

“Stability can only be attained by inactive matter.” (Marie Curie)

“Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups.” (George Carlin)

“The trouble with being in the rat race is that even if you win, you're still a rat.” (Lily Tomlin)

“Writing a book is like an adventure. To begin with, it is a toy and an amusement. Then it becomes a mistress, then it becomes a master, then it becomes a tyrant. The last phase is that just as you are about to be reconciled to your servitude, you kill the monster and fling him to the public.” (Winston Churchill)

“The forest was shrinking, but the Trees kept voting for the Axe, for the Axe was clever and convinced the Trees that because his handle was made of wood, he was one of them." (Turkish proverb)

"Flattery is like cologne water, to be smelt, not swallowed." (Josh Billings, American humorist, via Sigma Xi)

"Try a thing you haven't done three times. Once, to get over the fear of doing it. Twice, to learn how to do it. And a third time to figure out whether you like it or not." (Virgil Thomson)

"The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts.” (Bertrand Russell)

"Be always at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let each new year find you a better [hu]man." ([adapted slightly] from ~Benjamin Franklin)

"The truth will set you free, but first it will piss you off." (Gloria Steinem)

"Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough." (Franklin Delano Roosevelt)

"Your value doesn't decrease based on someone's inability to see your worth."(Anonymous)

"Never grow a wishbone where your backbone ought to be." (Clementine Paddleford)

…

Bonuses

Some great Albert Einstein quotes:

1. “Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution.”

2. “Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds. The mediocre mind is incapable of understanding the man who refuses to bow blindly to conventional prejudices and chooses instead to express his opinions courageously and honestly.”

3. “I, at any rate, am convinced that He (God) does not throw dice.”

4. “The important thing is not to stop questioning; curiosity has its own reason for existing.”

5. “Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.”

6. “Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I’m not sure about the universe.”

7. “Falling in love is not at all the most stupid thing that people do— but gravitation cannot be held responsible for it.”

8. “The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of true art and true science.”

9. “Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.”

10. “Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value”

11. “The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.”

12. “The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits.”

13. “Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character.”

14. “Pure mathematics is, in its way, the poetry of logical ideas.”

15. “Nature shows us only the tail of the lion. But I do not doubt that the lion belongs to it even though he cannot at once reveal himself because of his enormous size.”

16. “Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile.”

17. “It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer.”

18. “My religion consists of a humble admiration of the illimitable superior spirit who reveals himself in the slight details we are able to perceive with our frail and feeble mind.”

19. “Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding.”

20. “I never think of the future. It comes soon enough.”

21. “Do not worry about your difficulties in mathematics, I can assure you that mine are all greater”

22. “In order to form an immaculate member of a flock of sheep one must, above all, be a sheep.”

23. “The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is comprehensible.”

24. “Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.”

25. “Truth is what stands the test of experience.”

26. “Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving”

27. “Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

28. “Human knowledge and skills alone cannot lead humanity to a happy and dignified life. Humanity has every reason to place the proclaimers of high moral standards and values above the discoverers of objective truth.”

29. “Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most people are even incapable of forming such opinions.”

30. “Common sense is nothing more than a deposit of prejudices laid down by the mind before you reach eighteen.”

Image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay