The maxim of the British people is Business as usual.
Every one is a genius, more or less. No one is so physically sound that no part of him will be even a little unsound, and no one is so diseased but that some part of him will be healthy — so no man is so mentally and morally sound, but that he will be in part both mad and wicked; and no man is so mad and wicked but he will be sensible and honourable in part. In like manner there is no genius who is not also a fool, and no fool who is not also a genius.
If it doesn’t matter who wins or loses, then why do they keep score?
Life is like playing a violin solo in public and learning the instrument as one goes on.
Excellence in any department can be attained only by the labor of a lifetime; it is not to be purchased at a lesser price.
As you get older, you realize that no one has all the answers. It turns out that life is an exercise in living with the certainty of uncertainty. – Jason Kilar
One cause, which is not always observed, of the insufficiency of riches, is that they very seldom make their owner rich.
Knowledge always demands increase; it is like fire, which must first be kindled by some external agent, but will afterwards always propagate itself.
I don’t do quagmires.
Good fame is like fire; when you have kindled you may easily preserve it; but if you extinguish it, you will not easily kindle it again.
There is nothing in the world like a persuasive speech to fuddle the mental apparatus.
Suffering is but another name for the teaching of experience, which is the parent of instruction and the schoolmaster of life.
All the reasonings of men are not worth one sentiment of women.
It’s not burn baby burn, but learn, baby, learn, so that you can earn, baby, earn.
Coffee is good for talent, but genius wants prayer.
Bitterness is like cancer. It eats upon the host. But anger is like fire. It burns it all clean.
A bargain is something you can’t use at a price you can’t resist.
A habit cannot be tossed out the window; it must be coaxed down the stairs a step at a time.
You cannot spend money in luxury without doing good to the poor. Nay, you do more good to them by spending it in luxury, than by giving it; for by spending it in luxury, you make them exert industry, whereas by giving it, you keep them idle.
The reason that fiction is more interesting than any other form of literature, to those who really like to study people, is that in fiction the author can really tell the truth without humiliating himself.
In the long run, we shape our lives, and we shape ourselves. The process never ends until we die. And the choices we make are ultimately our own responsibility.
