“I learned that good judgment comes from experience and that experience grows out of mistakes.”
– Omar Bradley, general

“Trouble is only opportunity in work clothes.”
– Henry Kaiser, industrialist

“Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers. Pray for powers equal to your tasks.”
– Phillips Brooks, clergyman

“Courage is rarely reckless or foolish. Courage usually involves a highly realistic estimate of the odds that must be faced.”
– Margaret Truman, author

“You can’t do it unless you can imagine it.”
– George Lucas, director

“You are not beaten until you admit it.”
– George Patton, general

“Wisdom is knowing what to do; virtue is doing it.”
– David Jordan, scientist

“Dreams never hurt anybody if he keeps working right behind the dream to make as much of it become real as he can.”
– Frank Woolworth, Entrepreneur

“Knowledge has to be improved, challenged and increased constantly, or it vanishes.”
– Peter Drucker, management expert

“Problems should be solved on the spot, as soon as they arise. No frontline employee should have to wait for a supervisor’s permission.”
– Jan Carlzon, airline executive

“Instead of comparing our lot with that of those who are more fortunate than we are, we should compare it with the lot of the great majority of our fellow men. It then appears that we are among the privileged.”
– Helen Keller, lecturer

“All men who deliberate on controversial matters should do it free of hate, friendship, anger and pity.”
– Sallust, historian

“We can learn from past failures and mistakes, but we shouldn’t get stuck there. We can keep future goals in mind, but we shouldn’t get stuck there, either. The only way to reach our potential is to focus on what we must do now – this moment, this day – to perform effectively and win.”
– Joe Torre

“The successful man is the one who had the chance and took it.”
– Roger Babson, executive

“Small opportunities are often the beginning of great enterprises.”
– Demosthenes, statesman

“The virtue you would like to have, assume it is already yours, appropriate it, enter into the part and live the character just as the great actor is absorbed in… the part he plays.”
– Ralph Waldo Emerson, poet

“Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless.”
– Mother Teresa, charity worker

“All achievements, all earned riches, have their beginning in an idea.”
– Napolean Hill, author

“Our minds can shape the way a thing will be because we act according to our expectations.”
– Federico Fellini, director

“A man may fulfill the object of his existence by asking a question he cannot answer and attempting a task he cannot achieve.”
– Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., physician

“No matter what it is, pick yourself up and go on to the next project.”
– Shelley Duvall, actress

“Deal first with whatever is causing you the greatest emotional distress. Often this will break the logjam in your work and free you up mentally to complete (the) other tasks.”
– Brian Tracy, motivational coach

“Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are.”
– John Wooden, basketball coach

“If you want to conquer fear, don’t sit at home and think about it. Go out and get busy. ”
– Dale Carnegie, motivational expert

“I am willing to put myself through anything; temporary pain or discomfort means nothing to me as long as I can see that the experience will take me to a new level.”
– Diana Nyad, swimmer

“Don’t ever be afraid to admit you were wrong. It’s like saying you’re wiser today than you were yesterday.”
– Robert Newell, humorist

“Character is built daily by the way one thinks and acts – thought by thought, action by action.”
– Helen Douglas, legislator

“I don’t think that once you get to one level, you can relax. You’ve got to keep pushing. ”
– Larry Bird, basketball player

“Life is the sum of all your choices.”
– Albert Camus, Author

“All men who have achieved great things have been great dreamers.”
– Orison Swett Marden, writer

“You can easily judge the character of others by how they treat those who can do nothing for them or to them.”
– Malcolm Forbes, publisher

“The real winners in life are the people who look at every situation with an expectation that they can make it work or make it better.”
– Barbara Pletcher, author

“If life was so easy that you could just go buy success, there would be a lot more successful companies in the world. Successful enterprises are built from the ground up.”
– Lou Gerstner, IBM CEO

“If you want to get the best out of a person you must look for the best that is in him.”
– Bernard Haldane

“Deliberation is the work of many men. Action, of one alone.”
– Charles de Gaulle, statesman

“Character is the ability to carry out a good resolution long after the excitement of the moment has passed.”
– Cavett Robert

“The chains of habit are too weak to be felt until they are too strong to be broken.”
– Samuel Johnson, Lexicographer

“There is no such thing as a minor lapse of integrity.”
– Tom Peters, Author

“No great performance ever came from holding back.”
– Don Greene, performance coach

“It is dangerous to go into eternity with possibilities that oneself has prevented from becoming realities. A possibility is a hint from God. One must follow it. ”
– Soren Kierkegaard, Philosopher

“It’s not what you do once in a while; it’s what you do day in and day out that makes the difference.”
– Jenny Craig, diet guru

“A strong imagination begetteth opportunity.”
– Michel de Montaigne, writer

“I love the man who can smile in trouble, gather strength from distress and grow brave by reflection.”
– Thomas Paine, Statesman

“I have never known a really successful man who deep in his heart did not understand the grind, the discipline it takes to win.”
– Vince Lombardi, American Football Coach

“What will your children remember? Moments spent listening, talking, playing and sharing together may be the most important times of all.”
– Gloria Gaither

“The important thing is to learn a lesson every time you lose.”
– John McEnroe, tennis champion

“Life without risk is not worth living.”
– Chuck Lindbergh, aviator

“Managing is getting paid for home runs someone else hits.”
– Casey Stengel, baseball manager

“The starting point of all achievement is desire. Keep this constantly in mind. Weak desires bring weak results, just as a small fire makes a small amount of heat.”
– Napoleon Hill, author

“You have set yourself a difficult task, but you will succeed if you persevere.”
– Helen Adams Keller, American Author and Lecturer

“Lost time is never found again.”
– Benjamin Franklin, inventor

“Until you make peace with who you are you will never be content with what you have.”
– Doris Mortman

“Experience is valuable only if it’s imbued with meaning from which one can draw salient conclusions. Otherwise, experience becomes imprisoning.”
– Barry McCaffrey, general

“Rowing harder doesn’t help if the boat is headed in the wrong direction.”
– Kenichi Ohmae, business coach

“Every man, however wise, needs the advice of some sagacious friend in the affairs of life.”
– Plautus, Playwright

“Each man (is) the architect of his own fortune.”
– Appius Caecus, builder

“For every disadvantage there is a corresponding advantage.”
– Clement Stone, executive

“We either make ourselves miserable or we make ourselves strong. The amount of work is the same.”
– Carlos Castaneda, author

“Before you begin a thing, remind yourself that difficulties and delays quite impossible to foresee are ahead… You can only see one thing clearly, and that is your goal. Form a mental vision of that and cling to it through thick and thin.”
– Kathleen Norris, Writer

“Create a definite plan for carrying out your desire, and begin at once, whether you’re ready or not, to put it into action.”
– Napoleon Hill, motivational expert

“I’ve come to believe that each of us has a personal calling that’s as unique as a fingerprint–and that the best way to succeed is to discover what you love and then find a way to offer it to others in the form of service, working hard, and also allowing ”
– Oprah Winfrey, Talk Show Host

“Leaders get out front and stay there by raising the standards by which they judge themselves – and by which they are willing to be judged.”
– Frederick Smith, Federal Express founder

“Success is waking up in the morning and bounding out of bed because there’s something out there that you love to do, that you believe in, that you’re good at – something that’s bigger than you are, and you can hardly wait to get at it again.”
– Whit Hobbs

“Before a person can achieve the kind of life he wants, he must think, act, walk, talk and conduct himself in all of his affairs as would the person he wishes to become.”
– Zig Ziglar, Author

“Be like a postage stamp. Stick to one thing until you get there.”
– Josh Billings, humorist

“In real estate, it’s location, location, location. In business, it’s differentiate, differentiate, differentiate.”
– Robert Goizueta, executive

“To be prepared is half the victory.”
– Miguel de Cervantes

“Stay committed to your decisions, but stay flexible in your approach. It’s the end you’re after.”
– Anthony Robbins, Motivational Speaker

“The more informative your advertising, the more persuasive it will be.”
– David Ogilvy, Advertising Executive

“The person who pays an ounce of principle for a pound of popularity gets badly cheated.”
– Ronald Reagan, 40th U.S. president

“If you don’t fail now and again, it’s a sign you’re playing it safe.”
– Woody Allen, Director

“Setting a goal is not the main thing. It is deciding how you will go about achieving it and staying with that plan.”
– Tom Landry, football coach

“Giving up is the ultimate tragedy.”
– Robert Donovan, writer

“Keep your sense of humor. There’s enough stress in the rest of your life to let bad shots ruin a game you’re supposed to enjoy.”
– Amy Alcott, golfer

“If you want to leave your footprints on the sands of time, be sure you’re wearing work shoes.”
– Author Unknown

“Begin challenging your own assumptions. Your assumptions are your windows on the world. Scrub them off every once in a while, or the light won’t come in.”
– Alan Alda, Actor

“It is the studying that you do after your school days that really counts. Otherwise, you know only that which everyone else knows.”
– Henry Doherty

“If your actions create a legacy that inspires others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, then you are an excellent leader.”
– Dolly Parton, Singer

“In times like these, it helps to recall that there have always been times like these.”
– Paul Harvey, broadcaster

“Not only strike when the iron is hot, but make it hot by striking.”
– Oliver Cromwell, military leader

“Never say no when a client asks for something, even if it is the moon. You can always try, and anyhow there is plenty of time afterward to explain that it was not possible.”
– Cesar Ritz, hotelier

“The entrepreneur is… the most important player in the building of the global economy. So much so that big companies are reconstituting themselves as networks of entrepreneurs.”
– John Naisbitt, writer

“It’s the little things that make the big things possible. Only close attention to the fine details of any operation makes the operation first class.”
– J. Willard Marriott Sr., hotel executive

Man is never truly himself except when he is actively creating something.
~ Dorothy Sayers

I want God, not my idea of God.
~ C.S. Lewis

When I fail as a critic I may yet be useful as a specimen.
~ C.S. Lewis

Science without religion is lame; religion without science is blind.
~ Albert Einstein

The Bible assumes as a self-evident fact that men can know God with at least the same degree of immediacy as they know any other person or thing.
~ A.W. Tozer

There lives more faith in honest doubt,
Believe me, than in half the creeds.
~ Alfred, Lord Tennyson

We must know where to doubt, where to feel certain, where to submit.
~ Pascal

The righteous man is the one who lives for the next generation.
~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer

It is the heart that is not yet sure of its god that is afraid to laugh in His presence.
~ George MacDonald

We have very efficiently pared the claws of the lion of Judah, certified him meek and mild, and recommended him as a fitting household pet for pale curates and pious old ladies.
~ Dorothy L. Sayers

Marilyn [Monroe] once was asked if she believed in God. With a flirtatious grin she said, “I just believe in everything—a little bit.” This “Monroe doctrine” might be the defining doctrine of postmodern times.
~ Philip Graham Ryken, in Is Jesus The Only Way?, page 15

Governments need armies to protect them against their enslaved and oppressed subjects.
~ Leo Tolstoy, in The Kingdom of God is Within You

Once more into the breach, dear friends,
Once more; …
~ William Shakespeare, in King Henry V

I was too weak to defend, so I attacked.
~ Robert E. Lee

Strength lies not in defense but in attack.
~ Adolf Hitler, in Mein Kampf

We are so outnumbered there’s only one thing to do. We must attack.
~ Andrew Browne Cunningham, before attacking the Italian fleet at Taranto on November 11, 1940

Impetuosity and audacity often achieve what ordinary means fail to achieve.
~ Nicholi Machiavelli, in Discourses

Arm me, audacity, from head to foot.
~ William Shakespeare, in Cymbeline

De l’audace, encore de l’audace, et toujours de l’audace! [Audacity, audacity again, and audacity always.]
~ Georges Danton, to the French Legislative Assembly on September 2, 1792

In audacity and obstinacy will be found safety.
~ Napoleon I, in Maxims of War

So ends the bloody business of the day.
~ Homer, in Odyssey

I always say that next to a battle lost, the greatest misery is a battle gained.
~ The Duke of wellington

Battles are won by slaughter and manoeuvre. The greater the general, the more he contributes in manoeuvre, the less he demands in slaughter.
~ Winston Churchill, The World Crisis, vol. 2

The late M. Venizelos observed that in all her wars England—he should have said Britain, of course—always wins one battle – - the last.
~ Winston Churchill, in a speech at the Lord Mayor’s Luncheon in London, on November 10, 1942

Nothing is more exhilarating than to be shot at without result.
~ Winston Churchill, in The Malakand Field Force

The purple testament of bleeding war.
~ William Shakespeare, in King Richard II

Blood is the price of victory.
~ Karl von Clausewitz, in On War

The gods favour the bold.
~ Ovid, in Metamorphoses, x

Great empires are not maintained by timidity.
~ Tacitus, in Histories

Be bold, be bold, and everywhere be bold.
~ Edmund Spenser, in The Faerie Queene

Boldness be my friend!
Arm me, audacity, from heat to foot!
~ William Shakespeare, in Cymbeline

Desperate affairs, require desperate remedies
~ Horatio Nelson

Bold decisions give the best promise of success.
~ Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, in Rules of Desert Warfare

Fortes fortuna adiuvat. [Fortune favours the brave.]
~ Terence, in Phormio

Bravery never goes out of fashion.
~ William Makepeace Thackeray, in The Four Georges

As soon as you feel too old to do a thing, go out and do it. As soon as you feel critical, say something kind in a kindly way. As soon as you feel neglected, send a cheerful note to a friend.
~ Oliver Wilson

We do not “make” Christ Lord; he is Lord! Those who will not receive Him as Lord are guilty of rejecting Him. “Faith” that rejects His sovereign authority is really unbelief. Conversely, acknowledging His lordship is no more a human work than repentance or faith itself. In fact, it is an important element of divinely produced saving faith, not something added to faith.
~ John MacArthur, in The Gospel According To Jesus, page 28

When we want to read of the deeds that are done for love, whither do we turn? To the murder column.
~ George Bernard Shaw

I like not only to be loved, but to be told that I am loved; the realm of silence is large enough beyond the grave.
~ George Elliot

The Bible tells us to love our neighbors, and also to love our enemies; probably because they are generally the same people.
~ G. K. Chesterton

Ninety-nine percent of the people in the world are fools and the rest of us are in great danger of contagion.
~ Thornton Wilder

Patience is a necessary ingredient of genius.
~ Benjamin Disraeli

Little things affect little minds.
~ Benjamin Disraeli

We all of us live too much in a circle.
~ Benjamin Disraeli

Pride is at the bottom of all great mistakes.
~ John Ruskin

Good name in man and woman, dear my lord,
Is the immediate jewel of their souls:
Who steals my purse steals trash; ‘tis something, nothing;
‘Twas mine, ‘tis his, and has been slave to thousands;
But he that filches from me my good name
Robs me of that which not enriches him,
And makes me poor indeed.
~ William Shakespeare

Sometimes it is said that man cannot be trusted with the government of himself. Can he then be trusted with the government of others.
~ Thomas Jefferson

A bad man is wretched amidst every earthly advantage: a good man—troubled on every side, yet not distressed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed.
~ Plato

The tree most difficult things are: to keep a secret, to employ time properly, and to bear an injury.
~ Chilon

No prophet has been raised up who has not performed the work of a shepherd.
~ Mohammed

Postmodernism defies definition because we’re right in the middle of a cultural phenomenon still unfolding before us—it’s a moving target.
~ Peter Sacks, in Generation X Goes To College, page 116.

But perhaps the best candidate for postmodernity’s byword is given us by Nirvana and Kurt Cobain, the grunge rockers may observers ight contend are emblematic of Generation X culture: “Here we are now / entertain us,” says a line from “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” a lyric that hits upo n the domination of entertainment values in contemporary culture, spanning politics, education, and even religious institutions. Indeed, one migh modify Nirvana’s lyric along the lines of Descartes to say, “I am entertained, therefore I am.”
~ Peter Sacks, Generation X Goes To College, page 118

Generation X is not a thing; it’s the lack of a thing, the lack of a positive theory, or an opinion about anything. They don’t believe in anything, and everything is up for grabs.
~ Lloyd, quoted by Peter Sacks, Generation X Goes To College, page 139

Post-modernism means the end of a single world view, and by extension, a “war on totality,” a resistance to single explanations, a respect for difference and a celebration of the regional, local and particular.
~ Charles Jencks, in The Post-Modern Reader, page 12

Sooner or later politics will be faced with the task of finding a new postmodern face. A politician must become a person again, someone who trusts not only scientific representation and analysis of the world, but also the world itself. He must believe not only in sociolicial statistics but also in real people. He must trust not only an objective interpretation of reality, but also his own soul; no only an adopted ideology, but also his own thoughts; not only the summary reports he receives each morning, but olso his own feelings.
~ Vaclav Havel, in a speech at the World Economic Forum in 1995

For we let our young men and women go out unarmed in a day when armor was never so necessary. By teaching them to read, we have left them a the mercy of the printed word. By the invention of the film and the radio, we have made certain that no aversion to reading shall secure them from the incessant battery of words, words, words. They do not know what the words mean; they do not know how to ward them off or blunt their edge or fling them back; they are prey to words in their emotions instead of being the masters of them in their intellects.
~ Dorothy Sayers, in The Lost Tools of Learning

Homo mensura.
~ Protagoras

All statements are false.
~ Gorgias

The unexamined life is not worth living.
~ Socrates

If there is no God, then all things are permissible.
~ Dostoevsky

To have people who are well informed but not constrained by conscience is conceivably, the most dangerous outcome of education possible. Indeed it could be argued that ignorance is better than unguided intelligence, for the most dangerous people are those who have knowledge without a moral framework.
~ Ernest Boyer, in “The Third Wave of School Reform”, Christianity Today , 9/22/89, p. 16

I am a machine condemned to devour books.
~ Karl Marx, in a letter to Engels, April 11, 1868

If an unfriendly foreign power had attempted to impose on America the mediocre educational performance that exists today, we might well have viewed it as an act of war. As it stands, we have allowed this to happen to ourselves.
~ Report of the National Commission on Excellence in Education, 1983

Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.
~ Winston Churchill, while speaking before the House of Commons, August 20, 1940 in regard to the RAF in the Battle of Britain

The plain, unvarnished truth is that public education is a shoddy, fraudulent piece of goods sold t to the public at an astronomical price. It’s time the American consumer knew the extent of the fraud which is victimizing millions of children each year.
~ Samuel Blumenfeld, in NEA: Trojan Horse In American Education [Boise, Idaho: Paradigm, 1984] page xiv

No man is religiously neutral in his knowledge of and his appropriation of reality.
~ Henry Zylstra, in Testament of Vision, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1981, page 148

The world is not composed of religious and non-religious people. It is composed rather of religious people who have different ultimate concerns, different gods, and who respond to the living God in different ways…. All humans are incurably religious; we simply manifest different religious allegiances.
~ Ronald Nash, in The Closing of the American Heart, page 38

Batter my heart, three-personed God; for you
As yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend;
That I may rise and stand, o’erthrow me, and bend
Your force to break, blow, burn, and make me new.
I, like an usurped town, to another due, Labor to admit you, but O, to no end;
Reason, your viceroy in me, me should defend,
But is captive, and proves weak or untrue.
Yet dearly I love you, and would be loved fain,
But am betrothed unto your enemy.
Divorce me, untie or break that knot again;
Take me to you, imprison me, for I,
Except you enthrall me, never shall be free,
Nor ever chaste, except your ravish me
~ John Donne, Sonnet no. 14

But then no artist is normal; if he were, he wouldn’t be an artist. Normal men don’t creat works of art. They eat, sleep, hold down routine jobs, and die. You are hypersensitive to life and nature; that’s why you are able to interpret for the rest of us. But if you are not careful, that very hypersensitiveness will lead you to your destruction. The strain of it breaks every artist in time.
~ Irving Stone, in Lust for Life

You must therefore conceal from the patient the true end of Humility. Let him think of it, not as self-forgetfulness, but as a certain kind of opinion (namely, a low opinion) of his own talents and character. Some talents, I gather he really has. Fix in his mind the idea that humility consists in trying to believe those talents to be less valuable that he believes them to be…. The great thing is to make him value an opinon for some quality other than truth, thus introducing an element of dishonesty and make-believe into the heart of what otherwise threatens to become a virtue. By this method thousands of humans have been brought to think that humility means pretty women trying to believe they are ugly and clever men trying to believe they are fools. And since what they are trying to believe may, in some cases, be manifest nonsense, they cannot succeed in believing it, and we have the chance of keeping their minds endlessly revolving on themselves in an effort to achieve the impossible.
~ Screwtape talking to Wormwood, in C.S. Lewis’ book The Screwtape Letters, NY: Bantam, 1982, page 41

Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man. We say that people are proud of being rich, or clever, or good-looking, but they are not. They are proud of being richer, or cleverer, or better-looking than others. If every one else became equally rich, or clever, or good-looking there would be nothing to be proud about. It is the comparison that makes you proud: the pleasure of being above the rest.”
~ C.S. Lewis, in Mere Christianity, NY: Touchstone, Simon & Schuster, 1996, page 110

Nothing disciplines the inordinate desires of the flesh like service, and nothing transforms the desires of the flesh like serving in hiddenness. The flesh whines agains service but screams against hidden service. It strains and pulls for honor and recognition. It will devise subtle, religiously acceptable means to call attention to the service rendered. If we stoutly refuse to give in to this lust of the flesh, we crucify it. Every time we crucify the flesh, we crucify our pride and arrogance.
~ Richard Foster, in Celebration of Discipline (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1978) page 130.

When you forget yourself and your fear, when you get beyond self-consciousness because your mind is thinking bout what you are trying to communicate, you become a better communicator.
~ Peggy Noonan, in Simply Speaking (NY: HarperCollins, 1998), page 8

As a performer there’s nothing better than moments where you feel that you have the option—within the given text—to do exactly as you want, where you’re not worried about what you look like or whether you’ve warmed up enough. You just seem to be involved in a pure expression which is completely appropriate.
~ Mark Morris in “Marvelous Mark Morris,” BBC Music Magazine, special issue, Ballet from Ritual to Romance (1996), page 64

Worship is the submission of all our nature to God. It is the quickening of conscience by His holiness; the nourishment of mind with His truth; the purifying of imagination by His beauty; the opening of the heart to his love; the surrender of will to His purpose—and all of this gathered up in adoration, the mos selfless emotion of which our nature is capable and therefore the chief remedy for that self-centeredness which is our original sin and the source of all actual sin.
~ William Temple, in Readings in St. John’s Gospel, vol. 1 (London: Macmillan, 1939), page 68

Truth without emotion produces dead orthodoxy and a church full (or half full) of artificial admirers (like people who write generic anniversary cards for a living). Emotion without truth produces empty frenzy and cultivates shallow people who refuse the disciplines of rigorous thought. But true worship comes from people who are deeply emotional and who love deep and sound doctrine. Strong affections from God rooted in truth are the bone and marrow of biblical worship.”
~ John Piper, in Desiring God (Sisters, OR: Multnomah, 1986), page 76

The glory of God is the fully alive human being.
~ Irenaeus of Lyons

Educationists are entertaining. We can always find a good laugh in their prose, with its special, ludicrous combination of ignorance and pretentiousness.
~ Richard Mitchell, in The Graves of Academe

Perhaps the number one problem in public education is the attempt to educate students without a moral point of reference. With a floating target of truth and the desertion of absolutes, the entire system has abandoned its base.
~ Kenneth Gangel, in Schooling Choices, edited by Wayne House (Portland, OR: Multnomah, 1988) page 127.

We have too readily blamed shortcomings in American education on social changes (the disorientation of the American family or the impact of television ( or incompetent teachers or structural flaws in our school systems. But the chief blame should fall on faulty theories promulgated in our schools of education and accepted by educational policymakers.
~ E.D. Hirsch, Jr., in Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs To Know (Boston: Houghton-Mifflin, 1987

There is one thing a professor can be absolutely certain of: almost every student entering the university believes, or says he believes, that truth is relative.
~ Allan Bloom, in The Closing of the American Mind (NY: Simon & Schuster, 1987), page 25

Relativism, then is a position for which the world still awaits an argument. It is also self-defeating in the sense that every self-styled relativist is forced, sooner or later, to appeal to absolutes of his own making. And it is a theory that robs life of elements needed for any life to have meaning.
~ Ronald Nash, in The Closing of the American Heart, page 67

There is no God and there is no soul. Hence, there are no needs for the props of traditional religion. With dogma and creed excluded, the immutable truth is also dead and buried.
~ John Dewey

If you want to predict the future of our land, go to school and look around.
~ Richard Mitchell, in The Graves of Academe

The most important Christian education institution is not the pulpit or the school, important as those institutions are; but it is the Christian family. And that institution has to a very large extent ceased to do its work.
~ J. Gresham Machen, in Education, Christianity, and the State, edited by John w. Robbins (Jefferson, MD: The Trinity Foundation, 1987), page 8

I have never met a genuine Christian who disparaged the importance of conversion, faith, commitment, sacrifice, Bible study, holy living, and the like. But I know lots of Christians who have not yet seen the importance of sound doctrine. It is important THAT we believe (spiritual concern); but it is also important WHAT we believe (theological concern).
~ Ronald Nash, Closing of the American Heart, page 99

The parents must have knowledge of what has happened in the past, and prescriptions for what ought to be, in order to resist the philistinism or the wickedness of the present.
~ Allan Bloom, in Closing of the American Mind, page 57

My Lord, If I attempted to answer the mass of futile correspondence that surrounds me, I should be debarred from all serious business of campaigning. I must remind your Lordship—for the last time—that so long a I retain and independent position, I shall see that no officer under my command is debarred, by attending to the futile driveling of mere quill-driving in your Lordship’s office, from attending to his first duty—which is, and always has been, so to train the private men under his command that they may, without question, beat any force opposed to them in the field.
~ Duke of Wellington

The Navy can lose us the war, but only the Air Force can win it.
~ Winston Churchill, to the War Cabinet, September 3, 1940

It is our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world.
~ George Washington, in his Farewell Address, September 17, 1796

In war I would deal with the Devil and his grandmother.
~ Joseph Stalin

Any alliance whose purpose is not the intention to wage war is senseless and useless.
~ Adolph Hitler, in Mein Kampf

War without allies is bad enough—with allies it is Hell!
~ John Slessor, in Strategy for the West

Put your trust in God, my boys, and keep your powder dry.
~ Oliver Cromwell, to his troops at Marston Moor on July 2, 1644

There cannot be good laws where there are not good arms.
~ Niccolo Machiavelli, in The Prince

When princes think more of luxury than of arms, they lose their state.
~ Niccolo Machiavelli, in The Prince

It is war that shapes peace, and armament that shapes war.
~ J.F.C Fuller, in Armament and History

We can do without butter, but, despite all our love for peace, not without arms. One cannot shoot with butter but with guns.
~ Paul Joseph Goebbels, in a Berlin speech on January 17, 1936

It is customary in democratic countries to deplore expenditures on armaments as conflicting with the requirements of the social services. There is at tendency to forget that the most important social service that a government can do for its people is to keep them alive and free.
~ John Slessor, in Strategy For the West

Only when our arms are sufficient beyond doubt can we be certain that they will never be employed.
~ John F. Kennedy, in his Inaugural Address, January 20, 1961

The Country must have a large and efficient army, one capable of meeting the enemy abroad, or they must expect to meet him at home.
~ The Duke of Wellington, in a letter on January 28, 1811

A fish always rots from the head down.
~ Michael Dukakis

By the time you swear 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

Unkindness strikes a deeper wound than steel.
~ William Shakespeare

The greatest of faults, I should say, is to be conscious of none.
~ Thomas Carlyle

The secret of success is constancy of purpose.
~ Benjamin Disraeli

God created woman only to tame mankind.
~ Voltaire

Habit is a cable; we weave a thread of it every day, and at last we can not break it.
~ Horace Mann

Self-confidence is the first requisite to great undertakings.
~ Samuel Johnson

Self-trust is the first secret of success.
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

The same measure of gratitude which we show our parents, we may expect from our children.
~ Thales of Miletus

It is better to adorn the mind than the face.
~ Thales

The most happy man is he who is sound in health, moderate in fortune and cultivated in understanding.
~ Thales

Let a fool hold his tongue and he will pass for a sage.
~ Syrus

I have often regretted my speech, never my silence.
~ Syrus

The instruction we find in books is like fire. We fetch it from out neighbors, kindle it at home, communicate it to others, and it becomes the property of all.
~ Voltaire

Books rule the world, or at least those nations which have a written language; the others do not matter.
~ Voltaire

Nothing enfranchises like education.
~ Voltaire

Form your plans with deliberations, but execute them with vigor.
~ Bias of Priene

It is better to decide a difference between your enemies than your friends; for, in the former case, you will certainly gain a friend, and in the latter lose one.
~ Bias of Priene

Minds are conquered not by arms, but by greatness of soul.
~ Spinoza

To me it seems as if God conceived the world, that was poetry; he formed it, and that was sculpture; He colored it, and that was painting; He peopled it with living beings, and that was the grand, divine, eternal drama.
~ Charlotte Cushman

The man who trusts men will make fewer mistakes than he who distrusts them.
~ Camillo Cavour

Let any man speak long enough, he will get believers.
~ Robert Louis Stevenson

The truth is always the strongest argument.
~ Sophocles

Most recently, athletes have started to endorse Jesus, as they would shoes or soda pop, and that probably helps to bring impressionable children into the fold. It’s a narcissistic kind of evangelism, though, because the athlete is usually still first in the equation.
~ Frank Deford

No one knows what he can do till he tries.
~ Syrus

Are not the pleasures of the affections greater than the pleasures of the senses, and are not the pleasures of the intellect greater than the pleasures of the affections.
~ Francis Bacon

A little philosophy inclineth a man’s mind to atheism; but depth in philosophy bringeth men’s minds about to religion.
~ Francis Bacon

I had rather excel in the knowledge of what is good than in the extent of my power and dominion.
~ Alexander the Great

If thou wouldst be happy, bring thy mind to thy condition, and have an indifferency for more than what is sufficient.
~ William Penn

Before a man goes to the devil himself, he sends plenty of other souls thither.
~ William Thackeray

He who has conquered doubt and fear has conquered failure.
~ James Allen

If you think you are beaten, you are:
If you think you dare not, you don’t.
If, you like to win but think you can’t
It’s almost a cinch you won’t.

If you think you’ll lose, you’re lost:
For out in the world we find
Success begins with a fellow’s will:
It’s all in the state of mind.

If you think you are outclassed, you are:
You’ve got to think high to rise,
You’ve got to be sure of yourself before
You can ever win a prize.

Life’s battles don’t always go
To the stronger or faster man;
But soon or late the man who wins
Is the man who thinks he can.
~ Anonymous

If Christ, in fact, said, “I came not to bring peace but a sword,” it is the only prophecy in the New Testament that has been literally fulfilled.
~ Robert G. Ingersoll

__________

RELATED CONTENT

• Trivia Index
• Index to Great Quotes

__________

If the power to do hard work is not a skill, it’s the best possible substitute for it.
– James Garfield

Gardens are not made by sitting in the shade.
– Rudyard Kipling

A good marriage is when you’re married not to someone you can live with, but to someone you really cannot live without.
– Dr. Howard Hendricks

The purest treasure mortal times afford is spotless reputation.
– William Shakespeare

No task is a long one but the task on which one dare not start. It becomes a nightmare.
– Charles Baudelaire

There is no such thing as natural touch. Touch is something you create by hitting millions of golf balls.
– Lee Trevino

I learn something new about the game almost every time I step on the course.
– Ben Hogan

The great creators-the thinkers, the artists, the scientists, the inventors-stood alone against the men of their time.
– Ayn Rand

The most powerful element in advertising is the truth.
– William Bernbach

We are made to persist. That’s how we find out who we are.
– Tobias Wolff

Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear – not absence of fear.
– Mark Twain

Every man ought to be inquisitive through every hour of his great adventure down to the day when he shall no longer cast a shadow in the sun. For if he dies without a question in his heart, what excuse is there for his continuance.
– Frank Moore Colby

Middle age is when work is a lot less fun, and fun is a lot more work.
– Milton Berle

__________

Related Content

Determine that the thing can and shall be done, and then we shall find the way.
– Abraham Lincoln

The highest form of success… comes… to the man who does not shrink from danger, from hardship or from bitter toil, and who out of these wins the splendid ultimate triumph.
– Theodore Roosevelt

We must have perseverance and above all confidence in ourselves. We must believe that we are gifted for something and that this thing must be attained.
– Marie Curie

It’s better to light a candle than curse the darkness.
– Eleanor Roosevelt

It’s better to hang out with people better than you. Pick out associates whose behavior is better than yours, and you’ll drift in that direction.
– Warren Buffett

There is only one way to make a great deal of money, and that is in a business of your own.
– J. Paul Getty

Freedom lies in being bold.
– Robert Frost

People often say that this or that person has not yet found himself. But the self is not something one finds. It is something one creates.
– Thomas Szasz

Happy are those who dream dreams and are ready to pay the price to make them come true.
– Leon Suenens

No great performance ever came from holding back.
– Don Greene

A bold, vigorous assault has won many a faltering cause.
– Ira Eaker

Nothing great has ever been achieved except by those who dared believe that something inside them was superior to circumstances.
– Bruce Barton

In prosperity our friends know us; in adversity we know our friends.
– John Churton Collins

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

If anything terrifies me, I must try to conquer it.
– Francis Chichester

__________

RELATED CONTENT

• Index To Great Quotes

__________

“People will not bear it when advice is violently given, even if it is well founded. Hearts are flowers; they remain open to the softly falling dew, but shut up in the violent downpour of rain.”
– John Paul Richter

“The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heav’n of hell and a hell of a heav’n.”
– John Milton, poet

“It’s the little things that make the big things possible. Only close attention to the fine details of any operation makes the operation first class.”
– J. Willard Marriot

“Without faith, nothing is possible. With it, nothing is impossible.”
– Mary Bethune, educator

“The only real security that a man will have in this world is a reserve of knowledge, experience and ability.”
– Henry Ford, carmaker

“It is not enough to fight. It is the spirit that we bring to the fight that decides the issue. It is morale that wins the victory.”
– George Marshall, general

“The most important thing about goals is… having one.”
– Geoffry F. Abert

“Without ambition, one starts nothing. Without work, one finishes nothing. The prize will not be sent to you. You have to win it.”
– Ralph Waldo Emerson, Poet

“The majority of men meet with failure because (they don’t create) new plans to take the place of those that fail.”
– Napoleon Hill, motivational expert

“The barrier (to) success is not something which exists in the real world; it is composed purely and simply of doubts about ability.”
– Franklin Roosevelt, 32nd U.S. President

“As long as you’re going to be thinking anyway, think big.”
– Donald Trump, Real Estate Magnate

“When you find yourself stressed, ask yourself one question: Will this matter five years from now? If yes, then do something about the situation. If no, then let it go.”
– Catherine Pulsifer, writer

“Once men are caught up in an event, they cease to be afraid. Only the unknown frightens men.”
– Antoine de Saint-Exupery, aviator

“The measure of a man is the way he bears up under misfortune.”
– Plutarch, historian

“Courage is like a muscle. We strengthen it with use.”
– Ruth Gordon, actress

“To be conscious that you are ignorant of the facts is a great step to knowledge.”
– Benjamin Disraeli, British prime minister

“Should you find yourself in a chronically leaking boat, energy devoted to changing vessels is likely to be more productive than energy devoted to patching leaks.”
– Warren Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway, CEO

“When a man dies, if he can pass enthusiasm along to his children, he has left them an estate of incalculable value.”
– Thomas Edison, inventor

“It’s the little things that make the big things possible. Only close attention to the fine details of any operation makes the operation first class.”
– J. Willard Marriot

“If you don’t like the situation you’re in, you don’t have to settle for it. ”
– Macy Gray, Singer

“The ability to summon positive emotions during periods of intense stress lies at the heart of effective leadership.”
– Jim Loehr, psychologist

“Being miserable is a habit. Being happy is a habit. The choice is yours.”
– Tom Hopkins, sales trainer

The most important single ingredient in the formula of success is knowing how to get along with people.”
– Theodore Roosevelt, 26th U.S. president

“All glory comes from daring to begin.”
– Alexander Graham Bell, Inventor

“Believe you will be successful and you will.”
– Dale Carnegie, motivational speaker

“Too many people overvalue what they are not and undervalue what they are.”
– Malcolm Forbes, Publisher

“I’ve felt that dissatisfaction is the basis of progress. When we become satisfied in business, we become obsolete.”
– J. Willard Marriott Sr., hotel executive

“Everyone has talent. What is rare is the courage to follow the talent to the dark place where it leads.”
– Erica Jong, Author

“The world makes way for the man who knows where he is going.”
– Ralph Waldo Emerson, Poet

“Seek to do good and you will find that happiness will run after you.”
– James Freeman Clarke

“Long-range goals keep you from being frustrated by short-term failures.”
– J.C. Penney, Retailer

“Age wrinkles the body. Quitting wrinkles the soul.”
– Douglas MacArthur, General

“The making of friends who are real friends is the best token we have of a man’s success in life.”
– Edward Hale, theologian

“In playing ball, and in life, a person occasionally gets the opportunity to do something great. When that time comes, only two things matter: being prepared to seize the moment and having the courage to take your best swing.”
– Hank Aaron, Baseball Player

“I have always been driven to buck the system, to innovate, to take things beyond where they’ve been.”
– Sam Walton, Wal-Mart founder

“The majority of men meet with failure because (they don’t create) new plans to take the place of those that fail.”
– Napoleon Hill, motivational expert

“Always dream and shoot higher than you know you can do. Don’t bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself.”
– William Faulkner, Author

__________

Related Content

• Index to Great Quotes
• Trivia Index

__________

Ideas pull the trigger, but instinct loads the gun.
~ Don Marquis

Choice, not chance, determines human destiny.
~ Robert W. Ellis

True grit is making a decision and standing by it, doing what must be done.
~ John Wayne

No matter how bad someone has it, there are others who have it worse. Remembering that makes life a lot easier and allows you to take pleasure in the blessings you have been given.
~ Lou Holtz

God gives everyone certain attributes, characteristics, talents, and then He says, “If you use what you have I’ll increase it, but if you don’t use it, you’ll lose it.” Use it or lose it; it’s a law.
~ Charlie “Tremendous” Jones

Insanity is big business. And vice versa.
~ Robyn Hitchcock

The tragedy of life is not that it ends so soon, but that we wait so long to begin it.
~ Anonymous

I am free of all prejudice. I hate everyone equally.
~ W. C. Fields

__________

RELATED CONTENT

• Index to Great Quotes
• Trivia Index

__________

Committee–a group of men who individually can do nothing but as a group decide that nothing can be done.
~ Fred Allen

Set peace of mind as your highest goal, and organize your life around it.
~ Brian Tracy

Your greatness is measured by your horizons.
~ Michelangelo

Well, if crime fighters fight crime and fire fighters fight fire, what do freedom fighters fight? They never mention that part to us, do they?
~ George Carlin

By the time a man realizes that maybe his father was right, he usually has a son who thinks he’s wrong.
~ Charles Wadsworth

I bought a seven-dollar pen because I always lose pens and I got sick of not caring.
~ Mitch Hedberg

Sometimes the best helping hand you can get is a good, firm push.
~ Joann Thomas

Don’t be afraid to take a big step if needed. You can’t cross a chasm in two small jumps.”
~ Anonymous

Men are anxious to improve their circumstances, but are unwilling to improve themselves; they therefore remain bound.
~ James Allen

A vision is a clearly-articulated, results-oriented picture of a future you intend to create. It is a dream with direction.
~ Jesse Stoner Zemel

You can’t be a smart cookie if you have a crummy attitude.
~ John Maxwell

Ultimately we know deeply that the other side of every fear is freedom.
Marilyn Ferguson

We need to learn to set our course by the stars, not by the lights of every passing ship.”
~ General Omar N. Bradley

One’s dignity may be assaulted, vandalized and cruelly mocked, but it cannot be taken away unless it is surrendered.
~ Michael J. Fox

You’re only given a little spark of madness. You mustn’t lose it.
~ Robin Williams

More than any other time in history, mankind faces a crossroads. One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness. The other, to total extinction. Let us pray we have the wisdom to choose correctly.
~ Woody Allen

People who have no weaknesses are terrible; there is no way of taking advantage of them.
~ Anatole France

You can observe a lot just by watching.
~ Yogi Berra

Three may keep a secret, if two of them are dead.
~ Benjamin Franklin

~ We all think alike, no one thinks very much.
Walter Lippmann

Eighty-five percent of the reason you get a job, keep that job, and move ahead in that job has to do with your people skills and people knowledge.
~ Cavett Robert

The first great gift we can bestow on others is a good example.
~ Thomas Morell

Anyone can hold the helm when the sea is calm.
~ Publilius Syrus

__________

RELATED CONTENT

• Index To Great Quotes

__________

We cannot become what we need to be by remaining what we are.
~ Max De Pree

I’ve wrestled with reality for 35 years, Doctor, and I’m happy to state I finally won out over it.
~ Mary Chase

I think that one possible definition of our modern culture is that it is one in which nine-tenths of our intellectuals can’t read any poetry.
~ Randall Jarrell

It is always easier to believe than to deny. Our minds are naturally affirmative.
~ John Burroughs

The miracle is this – the more we share, the more we have.
~ Leonard Nimoy

__________

RELATED

• Master List of Great Quotes

There is a time to let things happen and a time to make things happen.
~ Hugh Prather

If you can find a path with no obstacles, it probably doesn’t lead anywhere.
~ Frank A. Clark

All the problems of the world could be settled easily if men were only willing to think.
~ Thomas J. Watson, Former President of IBM

The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The next best time is now.
~ Chinese Proverb

Today I will do what others won’t, so tomorrow I can accomplish what others can’t.
~ Jerry Rice

Going into business for yourself, becoming an entrepreneur, is the modern-day equivalent of pioneering on the old frontier.
~ Paula Nelson

A good manager is a man who isn’t worried about his own career but rather the careers of those who work for him.
~ H.S.M. Burnes

Bottom line: if you show a genuine interest in learning about how others became successful, you can open up a world of opportunities. ~ Armstrong Williams, Political Commentator

Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending.
~ Maria Robinson

Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.
~ Howard Thurman

The happiest excitement in life is to be convinced that one is fighting for all one is worth on behalf of some clearly seen and deeply felt good.
~ Ruth Benedict

Life is full of beauty. Notice it. Notice the bumble bee, the small child, and the smiling faces. Smell the rain, and feel the wind. Live your life to the fullest potential, and fight for your dreams.
~ Ashley Smith

I always read the last page of a book first so that if I die before I finish I’ll know how it turned out.
~ Nora Ephron

People, when they first come to America, whether as travelers or settlers, become aware of a new and agreeable feeling: that the whole country is their oyster.
~ Alistair Cooke