James Owen - The Times Great Quotations: Famous quotes to inform, motivate and inspire

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Only the actions of the just,

Smell sweet and blossom on their dust.

The Contention of Ajax and Ulysses for the Armour of Achilles (1659)

James Shirley, English playwright (1596–1666)

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It isn’t what we say or think that defines us, but what we do.

Sense and Sensibility (1811)

Jane Austen, English writer (1775–1817)

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I was raised to feel that doing nothing was a sin. I had to learn to do nothing.

The Observer (1998)

Jenny Joseph, English poet (1932–2018)

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It is impossible to enjoy idling thoroughly unless one has plenty of work to do.

Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow (1886)

Jerome K Jerome, English writer (1859–1927)

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Deeds, not words shall speak me.

The Lover’s Progress (1647)

John Fletcher, English playwright (1579–1625)

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I have always thought the actions of men the best interpreters of their thoughts.

An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1689)

John Locke, English philosopher (1632–1704)

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Word is but wynd; leff woord and tak the dede.

Secrets of Old Philosophers

John Lydgate, English poet (1370–1451)

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The highest reward for a man’s toil is not what he gets for it but what he becomes by it.

John Ruskin, English art critic (1819–1900)

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Action is consolatory. It is the enemy of thought and the friend of flattering illusions.

Nostromo (1904)

Joseph Conrad, Polish-British writer (1857–1924)

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Iron rusts from disuse, stagnant water loses its purity, and in cold weather becomes frozen; even so does inaction sap the vigour of the mind.

The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci (1883)

Leonardo da Vinci, Italian polymath (1452–1519)

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Everybody, sooner or later, sits down to a banquet of consequences.

Old Mortality (1884)

Robert Louis Stevenson, Scottish writer (1850–1894)

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The only infallible rule we know is, that the man who is always talking about being a gentleman never is one.

Ask Mamma (1858)

RS Surtees, English editor and sporting writer (1805–1864)

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Everyone is more or less mad on one point.

Plain Tales from the Hills (1888)

Rudyard Kipling, English journalist and writer (1865–1936)

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The ordinary acts we practise every day at home are of more importance to the soul than their simplicity might suggest.

Sir Thomas More, English saint and lawyer (1478–1535)

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Terror … often arises from a pervasive sense of disestablishment; that things are in the unmaking.

Danse Macabre (1981)

Stephen King, American writer (1947–)

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Perfection is terrible, it cannot have children.

The Munich Mannequins (1965)

Sylvia Plath, American poet and writer (1932–1963)

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It is part of human nature to hate the man you have hurt.

Agricola (c. 98)

Tacitus, Roman senator and historian (c. 56–120)

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Considering how foolishly people act and how pleasantly they prattle, perhaps it would be better for the world if they talked more and did less.

A Writer’s Notebook (1946)

W Somerset Maugham, British playwright (1874–1965)

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It is an undoubted truth, that the less one has to do, the less time one finds to do it in. One yawns, one procrastinates, one can do it when one will, and therefore one seldom does it at all.

Lord Chesterfield, British statesman (1694–1773)

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Anything that is worth doing has been done frequently. Things hitherto undone should be given, I suspect, a wide berth.

Mainly on the Air (1946)

Sir Max Beerbohm, English essayist and parodist (1872–1956)

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Truly, when the day of judgment comes, it will not be a question of what we have read, but what we have done.

De Imitatione Christi (c. 1418–1427)

Thomas á Kempis, Dutch-German canon regular and writer (1380–1471)

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Men are rewarded and punished not for what they do, but rather for how their acts are defined. This is why men are more interested in better justifying themselves than in better behaving themselves.

The Second Sin (1973)

Thomas Szasz, American-Hungarian psychiatrist (1920–2012)

Out of clutter, find simplicity.

Albert Einstein, German theoretical physicist (1879–1955)

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There’s only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that’s your own self.

Time Must Have a Stop (1944)

Aldous Huxley, English writer and philosopher (1894–1963)

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Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.

Arthur Ashe, American tennis player and Aids activist (1943–1993)

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If you would be known, and not know, vegetate in a village; if you would know, and not be known, live in a city.

Lacon (1820)

Charles Caleb Colton, English cleric (1780–1832)

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Reflect upon your present blessings, of which every man has many; not on your past misfortunes of which all men have some.

Charles Dickens, English writer and social critic (1812–1870)

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Never make a defence or apology before you be accused.

Charles I, King of England (1600–1649)

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When environment changes, there must be a corresponding change in life.

The Wartime Journals (1970)

Charles Lindbergh, American aviator (1902–1974)

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Get the advice of everybody whose advice is worth having — they are very few — and then do what you think best yourself.

Charles Stewart Parnell, Irish nationalist leader (1846–1891)

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A ruffled mind makes a restless pillow.

Charlotte Brontë, English writer (1816–1855)

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If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.

Ad Familiares IX, 4

Cicero, Roman statesman (106–43 BC)

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Stand a little less between me and the sun.

[On being asked by Alexander the Great what he could do for him]

Diogenes, Greek philosopher (412–323 BC)

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Hope is a good breakfast but a bad supper.

Francis Bacon, English philosopher, statesman and essayist (1561–1626)

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Be wisely worldly, but not worldly wise.

Francis Quarles, English poet (1592–1644)

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Believe me! The secret of reaping the greatest fruitfulness and the greatest enjoyment from life is to live dangerously!

Die fröhliche Wissenschaft (1882)

Friedrich Nietzsche, German philosopher and writer (1844–1900)

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Simplicity is light, carefree, neat and loving — not a self-punishing ascetic trip.

A Place in Space (1995)

Gary Snyder, American poet (1930–)

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Take care to get what you like or you will be forced to like what you get.

Man and Superman (1903)

George Bernard Shaw, Irish playwright (1856–1950)

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We must consult our means rather than our wishes.

George Washington, 1st president of the US (1732–1799)

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One sees great things from the valley; only small things from the peak.

GK Chesterton, English writer (1874–1936)

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Be steady and well-ordered in your life so that you can be fierce and original in your work.

Gustave Flaubert, French writer (1821–1880)

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This is the precept by which I have lived: prepare for the worst; expect the best; and take what comes.

Hannah Arendt, American-German philosopher (1906–1975)

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Up with your damned nonsense will I put twice, or perhaps once, but sometimes always, by God, never.

Hans Richter, Hungarian-born conductor and painter (1888–1976)

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Live all you can: it’s a mistake not to. It doesn’t matter what you do in particular, so long as you have had your life. If you haven’t had that, what have you had?

Henry James, American writer (1843–1916)

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Never trust the man who tells you all his troubles but keeps from you all his joys.

Jewish proverb

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Meetings are a great trap … However, they are indispensable when you don’t want to do anything.

Ambassador’s Journal (1969)

JK Galbraith, Canadian economist (1908–2006)

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Things which matter most must never be at the mercy of things which matter least.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, German writer and statesman (1749–1832)

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Praising all alike is praising none.

A Letter To A Lady

John Gay, English poet (1685–1732)

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Nor love thy life, nor hate; but what thou liv’st live well, how long or short permit to heaven.

Paradise Lost (1667)

John Milton, English poet (1608–1674)

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Though I am always in haste, I am never in a hurry.

John Wesley, English cleric (1703–1791)

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Blessed is he who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed.

Jonathan Swift, Irish poet and satirist (1667–1745)

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A thick skin is a gift from God.

Konrad Adenauer, chancellor of Germany (1876–1967)

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Civility costs nothing and buys everything.

Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, English writer (1689–1762)

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The strongest of all warriors are these two — Time and Patience.

Leo Tolstoy, Russian writer (1828–1910)

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If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there.

Lewis Carroll, English writer (1832–1898)

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A proverb is one man’s wit and all men’s wisdom.

Lord John Russell, prime minister of the UK (1792–1878)

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Turn your face to the sun and the shadows fall behind you.

Maori proverb

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The heart that gives, gathers.

Marianne Moore, American poet (1887–1972)

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You will find it a very good practice always to verify your references, sir!

Martin Joseph Routh, English classical scholar (1755–1854)

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The sense of being well-dressed gives a feeling of inward tranquillity which religion is powerless to bestow.

Emerson, Social Aims (1876)

Miss CF Forbes, English writer (1817–1911)

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Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.

Oscar Wilde, Irish dramatist and poet (1854–1900)

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I always pass on good advice. It is the only thing to do with it. It is never of any use to oneself.

An Ideal Husband (1895)