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Miscellaneous quotes

973 quotes from 439 people

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Man prides himself on being the only animal who can modify his nature, yet when he chooses to do so he is called a phony.
Anton LaVey1930–1997The Devil’s Notebook (1992)
- Change
We Americans write our own history. And the chapters of which we’re proudest are the ones where we had the courage to change.
Al Goreborn 1948Speech at the Democratic National Convention (28 August 1996).
If things do not change, there will be nothing left to change. Either power must pass to the people or everything will perish.
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto1928–1979Letter to his daughter (1978), p. 14.
- Change
- Power
“New friends, however, will not be the same.” No, nor will you yourself remain the same; you change with every day and every hour.
Seneca the Younger5 BC–AD 65Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium (Moral Letters to Lucilius), Letter CIV: On Care of Health and Peace of Mind
- Change
- Friendship
Luck can often mean simply taking advantage of a situation at the right moment. It is possible to make your luck by being always prepared.
MKMichael Kordaborn 1933Success! (1977), p. 40
- Luck
I happen to have a talent for allocating capital. But my ability to use that talent is completely dependent on the society I was born into.
Warren Buffettborn 1930To Barack Obama, as quoted in The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream (2006), Ch. 5
- Luck
- Success
After all, human beings are like that. When they are alone they want to be with others, and when they are with others they want to be alone.
Gertrude Stein1874–1946Paris France (1940)
Friends of my youth, a last adieu! haply some day we meet again;
Yet ne’er the self-same men shall meet; the years shall make us other men.
Richard Francis Burton1821–1890The Kasîdah of Hâjî Abdû El-Yezdî (1870)
- Change
- Friendship
The greater part of human activity is designed to make permanent those experiences and joys which are only lovable because they are changing.
Alan Watts1915–1973The Wisdom of Insecurity (1951), p. 32
- Change
- Happiness
Only a crisis⁠—actual or perceived⁠—produces real change. When that crisis occurs, the actions that are taken depend on the ideas that are lying around.
Milton Friedman1912–2006Capitalism and Freedom (1962), preface to the 1982 edition, p. ix
- Change
- Ideas
It is a callous age; we have seen so many marvels that we are ashamed to marvel more; the seven wonders of the world have become seven thousand wonders.
L. Frank Baum1856–1919“Julius Caesar: An Appreciation of the Hollywood Production” in The Mercury (15 June 1916)
The mark of your ignorance is the depth of your belief in injustice and tragedy. What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly.
Richard Bachborn 1936Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah (1977)
- Change
- Wisdom
Nothing in the world is permanent, and we’re foolish when we ask anything to last, but surely we’re still more foolish not to take delight in it while we have it.
W. Somerset Maugham1874–1965The Razor’s Edge (1943)
- Change
- Happiness
We cannot solve a crisis without treating it as a crisis. […] And if solutions within the system are so impossible to find, then maybe we should change the system itself?
Greta Thunbergborn 2003“You are stealing our future” (December 2018)
- Change
The world to me is a dream and the people in it are sleepers. I have known a few instances of intensity but that is all. I want to find a world in which these instances are united.
Katherine Mansfield1888–1923Letter to S. S. Koteliansky, as quoted in “Always my thoughts & feelings go back to New Zealand” by Vincent O’Sullivan, in NZ Listener Vol 214 No 3556, (July 5-11 2008)