Our Centers for Ethics:

Quotations: Miscellaneous

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Don't wrestle with pigs. You both get dirty and the pig likes it.
— Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens), American humorist, author and journalist (1835-1910)

Life isn't a matter of milestones, but of moments.
— Rose Kennedy, mother of JFK (1890-1995)

The younger we are, the more we want to change the world. The older we are, the more we want to change the young.
— Unknown

The optimist sees the donut
But the pessimist sees the hole.
— McLandburgh Wilson, American writer (b. 1915)

He who conquers others is strong; he who conquers himself is mighty.
— Lao-tzu, Chinese founder of Taoism (fl. 6th century B.C., possibly apocryphal)

The meaning of life is that nobody knows the meaning of life.
— Woody Allen (Allan Stewart Konigsberg), American humorist and filmmaker (b. 1935)

When evil men plot, good men must plan. When evil men burn and bomb, good men must build and bind. When evil men shout ugly words of hatred, good men must commit themselves to the glories of love.''
— Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., American civil rights leader (1929-1968)

Small opportunities are often the beginning of great enterprises.
— Demosthenes, Athenian orator and statesman (384-322 B.C.)

The question for each man to settle is not what he would do if he had the means, time, influence and educational advantages, but what he will do with the things he has.
— Hamilton Wright Mabee

Let no man be sorry he has done good because others have done evil. If a man has acted right he has done well, though alone. If wrong, the sanction of all mankind will not justify him.
— Henry Fielding, English novelist (1707-1754)

Life is one long struggle between conclusions based on abstract ways of conceiving cases, and opposite conclusions prompted by our instinctive perception of them.
— William James, American philosopher and psychologist (1842-1910)

Punctuality is the politeness of kings and the duty of gentle people everywhere.
— Unknown

There can be no high civility without a deep morality.
— Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882), American essayist and poet

Experience is the name everyone gives to their mistakes.
— Oscar Wilde, Anglo-Irish wit and author (1854-1900)

Not a day passes over this earth, but men and women of no note do great deeds, speak great words and suffer noble sorrows.
— Charles Reed

Perfection has one grave defect; it is apt to be dull.
— Somerset Maugham, English author (1874-1965)

Satire is tragedy plus time.
— Lenny Bruce (Leonard Schneider), American comedian (1925-1966)

When speculation has done its worst, two and two still make four.
— Samuel Johnson, English lexicographer, essayist and public philosopher (1709-1784)

A true history of human events would show that a far larger proportion of our acts are the results of sudden impulses and accident than of that reason of which we so much boast.
— Peter Cooper, American manufacturer and philanthropist (1791-1883)

If you can’t explain what youre doing in simple English, you’re probably doing something wrong.
— Alfred Kazin, American critic and author (1915-1998)

The kingdom of God is within you.
— Jesus (from the Bible, Luke 17:21)

We become just by the practice of just actions, self-controlled by exercising self-control, and courageous by performing acts of courage.
— Aristotle, ancient Greek philosopher

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