It is always the best policy to speak the truth -- unless, of course, you are an exceptionally good liar.
Jerome K. Jerome 1859 - 1927
1859 - 1927
Entire Collection
Wear your learning, like your watch in a private pocket: and do not merely pull it out and strike it, merely to show that you have one.
Lord Chesterfield 1694 - 1773
1694 - 1773
The opposite of the religious fanatic is not the fanatical atheist but the gentle cynic who cares not whether there is a god or not.
Eric Hoffer 1902 - 1983
1902 - 1983
Age is deformed, youth unkind, We scorn their bodies, they our mind.
Thomas Bastard 1566 - 1618
1566 - 1618
Many individuals are doing what they can. but real success can only come if there is a change in our societies and in our economics and in our politics.
David Attenborough born 1926
born 1926
I would remind you that extremism in the defence of liberty is no vice! And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue!
Barry Goldwater 1909 - 1998
1909 - 1998
I do not pretend to be able to prove that there is no God. I equally cannot prove that Satan is a fiction. The Christian god may exist; so may the gods of Olympus, or of ancient Egypt, or of Babylon. But no one of these hypotheses is more probable than any other: they lie outside the region of even probable knowledge, and therefore there is no reason to consider any of them.
Bertrand Russell 1872 - 1970
1872 - 1970
I have offended God and mankind because my work didn't reach the quality it should have.
1452 - 1519
Last Words
You got your passion, you got your pride, But don't you know that only fools are satisfied? Dream on, but don't imagine they'll all come true, When will you realise... Vienna waits for you?
Billy Joel born 1949
born 1949
Early morning cheerfulness can be extremely obnoxious.
William Feather 1889 - 1981
1889 - 1981
Under all speech that is good for anything there lies a silence that is better. Silence is deep as Eternity; speech is shallow as Time.
Thomas Carlyle 1795 - 1881
1795 - 1881
Lying increases the creative faculties, expands the ego, and lessens the frictions of social contacts.
Clare Boothe Luce 1903 - 1987
1903 - 1987
Religion is a conceited effort to deny the most obvious realities.
H. L. Mencken 1880 - 1956
1880 - 1956
Every positive value has its price in negative terms... the genius of Einstein leads to Hiroshima.
Pablo Picasso 1881 - 1973
1881 - 1973
A man that is born falls into a dream like a man who falls into the sea. If he tries to climb out into the air as inexperienced people endeavour to do, he drowns...to the destructive element submit yourself, and with the exertions of your hands and feet in the water make the deep, deep sea keep you up.
1857 - 1924
‘Lord Jim’ Oxford dictionary of quotations
To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.
Ralph Waldo Emerson 1803 - 1882
1803 - 1882
Never make a defence or apology before you be accused.
Charles I of England 1600 - 1649
1600 - 1649
Cubism is no different from any other school of painting. The same principles and the same elements are common to all. The fact that for a long time cubism has not been understood and that even today there are people who cannot see anything in it, means nothing. I do not read English, and an English book is a blank to me. This does not mean that the English language does not exist, and why should I blame anyone but myself if I cannot understand what I know nothing about?
1881 - 1973
'Picasso Speaks', interview with Marius de Zayas, The Arts (1923)
The road to the City of Emeralds is paved with yellow brick.
1856 - 1919
The Wizard of Oz Oxford Dictionary of Quotations
I wish my deadly foe, no worse Than want of friends, and empty purse.
1545 - 1626
'A Farewell to Town', st. 3, in The Works of a Young Wit (1577)
The matter with human beans,' the BFG went on, 'is that they is absolutely refusing to believe in anything unless they is actually seeing it right in front of their own schnozzles.'
1916 - 1990
The BFG
Hope is a good breakfast, but it is a bad supper.
Francis Bacon 1561 - 1626
1561 - 1626
I am America. I am the part you won't recognise. But get used to me. Black, confident, cocky; my name, not yours; my religion, not yours; my goals, my own; get used to me.
Muhammad Ali 1942 - 2016
1942 - 2016
You could give Aristotle a tutorial. And you could thrill him to the core of his being. Aristotle was an encyclopaedic polymath, an all time intellect. Yet not only can you know more than him about the world. You also can have a deeper understanding of how everything works. Such is the privilege of living after Newton, Darwin, Einstein, Planck, Watson, Crick and their colleagues. I'm not saying you're more intelligent than Aristotle, or wiser. For all I know, Aristotle is the cleverest person who ever lived. That's not the point. The point is only that science is cumulative, and we live later.
Richard Dawkins born 1941
born 1941
What you're thinking is what you're becoming.
Muhammad Ali 1942 - 2016
1942 - 2016