I loooooooove quotes
Here you’ll find some of my favourite collected quotes.
I can stop a movie in the middle of a scene to scribble down a few good words that intrigue me.
As a results, I actively published quotes between 2001 and 2019. Today, I am posting quotes on a more ad hoc basis.
The power of words
Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind.
Rudyard Kipling
Sorting
You can sort the table – by author, quote or month.
Enjoy!
| When | Quote | Author |
|---|---|---|
| nov-23 | Money can’t buy happiness, but it can make you awfully comfortable while you’re being miserable. | Clare Boothe Luce |
| okt-23 | When I have a little money, I buy books; and if I have any left, I buy food and clothes. | Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus |
| sep-23 | If I can stop one heart from breaking, I shall not live in vain ; If I can ease one life the aching, Or cool one pain, Or help one fainting robin Unto his nest again, I shall not live in vain. | Emily Dickinson |
| aug-23 | Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is a gift of God, which is why we call it the present. | Bill Keane |
| jul-23 | I can’t believe what you say, because I see what you do. | James Baldwin |
| jun-23 | Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life? | Mary Oliver |
| may-23 | Be thine own palace, or the world’s thy jail. | John Donne |
| apr-23 | There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in time, this expression in unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and will be lost. | Martha graham |
| mar-23 | We are sun and moon, dear friend; we are sea and land. It is not our purpose to become each other; it is to recognize each other, to learn to see the other and honor him for what he is: each the other’s opposite and complement. | Hermann Hesse |
| As of May 2019 | Posting quotes on ad hoc basis only. | Madeleine |
| apr-19 | A truly happy person is one who can enjoy the scenery while on a detour. | Anonymous |
| mar-19 | A friend is one before whom I may think aloud. | Ralph Waldo Emerson |
| feb-19 | White people all have watches, but they never have the time. | African saying |
| jan-19 | If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got. | Henry Ford |
| dec-18 | Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened. | Dr Seuss |
| nov-18 | So many books, so little time. | Frank Zappa |
| okt-18 | The first rule of frog eating is this: if you have to eat two frogs, eat the ugliest one first. | Brian Tracy |
| sep-18 | Nothing is impossible; even the word “impossible” says “I’m possible.” | Anonymous |
| aug-18 | Then ask yourself alone one question: does this path have a heart? If it does, the path is good. If it doesn’t, it’s of no use. | Carlos Castaneda |
| jul-18 | When you lose – don’t lose the lesson. | Anonymous |
| jun-18 | Who gets up early to discover the moment life begins? | Rumi |
| may-18 | Work like you don’t need the money. Love like you’ve never been hurt. Dance like nobody is watching. Live like it is Heaven on Earth. | Mark Twain |
| apr-18 | Sow a thought and you reap an act. Sow an act and you reap a habit. Sow a habit and you reap a character. Sow a character and you reap a destiny. | Charles Reade |
| mar-18 | There is nothing in a caterpillar that tells you it’s going to be a butterfly. | R. Buckminster Fuller |
| feb-18 | If a man wishes to be sure of the road he treads on, he must close his eyes and walk in the dark. | St. John of the Cross |
| jan-18 | Sometimes I think the surest sign intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is none of it has tried to contact us. | Bill Watterson |
| dec-17 | Caliber will deliver you. Character will sustain you. Consciousness will carry you. Courage will bring you honor. Commitment will bring you trust. | Yogi Bhajan |
| nov-17 | The fool wonders, the wise man asks. | Benjamin Disraeli |
| oct-17 | The tragedy of life is not that it ends so soon, but that we wait so long to begin it. | W.M. Lewis |
| sep-17 | The present moment never leaves you. It is you who leaves the present moment. | Leonard Jacobson |
| aug-17 | Total absence of humor renders life impossible. | Sidonie Gabrielle Colette |
| jul-17 | More powerful than the will to win is the courage to begin. | Anonymous |
| jun-17 | The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining. | John F. Kennedy |
| may-17 | Consider how hard it is to change yourself and you’ll understand what little chance you have in trying to change others. | Jacob M. Braude |
| apr-17 | Be willing to make decisions. That’s the most important quality in a good leader. Don’t fall victim to what I call the ready-aim-aim-aim-aim syndrome. You must be willing to fire. | T. Boone Pickens |
| mar-17 | Nothing is better than simplicity. | Walt Whitman |
| feb-17 | Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect. | Mark Twain |
| jan-17 | While we are postponing, life speeds by. | Seneca |
| dec-16 | When you lose – don’t lose the lesson. | Anonymous |
| nov-16 | We must all suffer from one of two pains: the pain of discipline or the pain of regret. The difference is discipline weighs ounces while regret weighs tons. | Jim Rohn |
| oct-16 | We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand. | Randy Paush |
| sep-16 | Nothing is better than simplicity. | Walt Whitman |
| aug-16 | Crying doesn’t indicate that you’re weak. Since birth, it’s always been a sign that you’re alive. | Anonymous |
| jul-16 | If it smells fishy, first look under the soles of your own shoes. | Cees Boer |
| jun-16 | Where do you want to be at age 43?” I don’t know. “Well, you made it. | Dr. John. T. Reese |
| may-16 | After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music. | Aldous Huxley |
| apr-16 | To do nothing at all is the most difficult thing in the world. The most difficult and most intellectual. | Oscar Wilde |
| mar-16 | The only difference between merely satisfactory delivery and great delivery is attention to detail. | Richard Branson |
| feb-16 | Character is like a tree and reputation like its shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing. | Abraham Lincoln |
| jan-16 | We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give. | Winston Churchill |
| dec-15 | I shut my eyes in order to see. | Paul Gaugin |
| nov-15 | I have found the best way to give advice to your children is to find out what they want and then advise them to do it. | Henry S. Truman |
| oct-15 | The best way to predict the future is to invent it. | Alan Kay |
| sep-15 | The life which is unexamined is not worth living. | Plato |
| aug-15 | Anything you want to ask a teacher, ask yourself and wait for the answer in silence. | Byron Katie |
| jul-15 | When you were born, you cried and the world rejoiced. Live your life so that when you die, the world cries and you rejoice. | Cherokee Expression |
| jun-15 | If we were supposed to talk more than we listen, we would have two mouths and one ear. | Mark Twain |
| may-15 | If you can see your path laid out, in front of you step by step, you know it’s not your path. Your own path you make with every step you take. That’s why it’s your path. | Joseph Campbell |
| apr-15 | Inspiration exists but it has to find you working. | Pablo Picasso |
| mar-15 | You were born an original. Don’t die a copy. | John Mason |
| feb-15 | It is not enough to be busy, so are the ants. The question is, ‘What are we busy about?” | Henry David Thoreau |
| jan-15 | Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore. | Lord Chesterfield |
| dec-14 | Use what talents you possess. The woods would be very silent if no birds sang there except those that sang best. | Henry van Dyke |
| nov-14 | The secret to success is to do the common things uncommonly well | John D. Rockefeller jr |
| oct-14 | Wheresoever you go, go with all your heart | Confucius |
| sep-14 | Everything is in walking distance if you have the time | Steven Wright |
| aug-14 | Change your opinions, keep to your principles; change your leaves, keep intact your roots. | Victor Hugo |
| jul-14 | I am an old man and have known a great many troubles, but most of them never happened. | Mark Twain |
| jun-14 | We grown-up people think that we appreciate music, but if we realized the sense that an infant has brought with it of appreciating sound and rhythm, we would never boast of knowing music. The infant is music itself. | Inayat Khan |
| may-14 | No snowflake ever falls in the wrong place. | Zen Saying |
| apr-14 | Fear not that thy life shall come to an end, but rather that it shall never have a beginning. | John Henry Newman |
| mar-14 | If you wish to be understood, please say exactly what you mean. | David Baird |
| feb-14 | Ever tied. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better. (and I like to add this line ‘Fail Forward.’) | Samuel Beckett |
| jan-14 | Become so quiet that life can begin to whisper to you again. | Charlotte Selver |
| dec-13 | People rarely succeed unless they have fun in what they are doing. | Dale Carnegie |
| nov-13 | Action may not always lead to happiness, but there is no happiness without action. | Benjamin Disraeli |
| oct-13 | Have a bias toward action – let’s see something happen now. You can break that big plan into small steps and take the first step right away. | Indira Ghandhi |
| sep-13 | Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better. (and someday, succeed!) | Samuel Beckett (and myself) |
| aug-13 | What lies behind you and what lies in front of you, pales in comparison to what lies inside you. | Ralph Waldo Emerson |
| jul-13 | The good news is that the moment you decide that what you know is more important than what you have been taught to believe, you will have shifted gears in your quest for abundance. Success comes from within, not from without. | Ralph Waldo Emerson |
| jun-13 | All achievement, all earned riches, have their beginning in an idea! | Napoleon Hill |
| may-13 | All limitations are self-imposed. | Anonymous |
| apr-13 | What saves a man is to take a step. Then another step. It is always the same step, but you have to take it. | Antoine de Saint-Exupery |
| mar-13 | Let us rise and be thankful, for if we didn’t learn a lot today at least we learned a little; and if we didn’t learn a little, at least we didn’t get sick, and if we got sick, at least we didn’t die; so let us be thankful. | Buddha |
| feb-13 | The thought manifests as the word. The word manifests as the deed. The deed develops into habit, & the habit hardens into character. | Buddha |
| jan-13 | Think of today as a prototype. What would you change? | Tim Brown |
| dec-12 | If opportunity does not knock, build a door! | Milton Berle |
| nov-12 | It is not enough to think outside the box. Thinking is passive. Get used to acting outside the box. | Timothy Ferris |
| oct-12 | A belief is only a thought you continue to think. A belief is nothing more than a chronic pattern of thought, and you have the ability -if you try even a little bit- to begin a new pattern, to tell a new story, to achieve a different vibration, to change your point of attraction. | Esther Hicks |
| sep-12 | Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere. | Albert Einstein |
| aug-12 | A not lived experience is forever lost. | Bert Hellinger |
| jul-12 | Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world. | Albert Einstein |
| jun-12 | Millions saw the apple fall, but Newton was the one who asked why. | Bernard Baruch |
| may-12 | When in a hurry, take a detour! | Japanese saying |
| apr-12 | Whenever you speak, you should listen to what you say. People always listen to what others speak; that is the greatest insult. You must always listen to what you speak. Without that you cannot be a complete human being. Whatever you say, you must listen. …If you can listen when you talk, youll become so powerful, that whatever you say shall happen! | Yogi Bhajan |
| mar-12 | It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit. | Harry Truman |
| feb-12 | To know thy own self, you dont need any teaching. What you really are, always you are that itself. No one is going to teach you. You have to realize who you are. Here and Now. This moment. | Papaji (H.W.L. Poonja) |
| jan-12 | I’m not weird. I am a limited edition. | @IlseBaeyens |
| dec-11 | Underneath all the stories, we can experience that deep core of ourselves that is historyless, genderless, and parentless. Naked. That presence is unencumbered by relationships and has no past and no future. In the core of our beingness we are free of definitions. | Gangaji |
| nov-11 | We cannot be present and run our story-line at the same time. | Pema Chodron |
| oct-11 | Everyone is a genius. But if you judge a fish on its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid. | Albert Einstein |
| sep-11 | Dont go out and become a victim. Go inside and become a master. | Yogi Bhajan |
| aug-11 | We, as far as we know, are the only corner of creation that can refuse to be itself. We are the only portion of the universe that can refuse to show up! | David Whyte |
| jul-11 | Be like melting snow. Wash yourself of yourself. | Rumi |
| jun-11 | What is to give light must first endure burning. | Victor Frank |
| may-11 | You can’t stay in your corner of the forest waiting for others to come to you. You have to go to them sometimes. | Winnie the Pooh |
| apr-11 | What you are the world is. And without your transformation there can be no transformation of the world. | Krishnamurti |
| mar-11 | To realise is to see with real eyes. | Anodea Judith |
| feb-11 | His disciples said: Teach us about the place where you are, for it is necessary for us to seek it. He said to them: He who has ears, let him hear! There is Light within a man of Light, and he lights the whole world. If he does not shine, there is darkness. | Gospel of Thomas, 24 |
| jan-11 | To live is so startling it leaves little time for anything else. | Emily Dickinson |
| dec-10 | You need 60 muscles to frown and 20 to smile. Why tire yourself? Smile! | Anonymous |
| nov-10 | Happiness is a Butterfly which, when pursued is just beyond your grasp… but if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you. | Nathaniel Hawthorne |
| oct-10 | When an old culture is dying, the new culture is born from a few people who are not afraid to be insecure. | Rudolf Bahro |
| sep-10 | The main problem in your life is the difference between what you say and what you want to say. If you say what you want to say, with the impact to be heard by the person with whom you are speaking, your life will be very comfortable. | Yogi Bhajan |
| aug-10 | Wake up and roar! | Papaji |
| jul-10 | To live is so startling it leaves little time for anything else. | Emily Dickinson |
| jun-10 | The kingfisher never has a bad kingfisher day! It never says “you know God, I’m just utterly with this whole kingfisher trip.” | David Whyte |
| may-10 | Love must be as much a Light, as it is a Flame. | Henry David Thoreau |
| apr-10 | Behold the turtle: He only makes progress when he sticks his neck out! | Twitter Michael Martin |
| mar-10 | I don’t know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody. | Bill Cosby |
| feb-10 | 1. Everything that exists, has the right to exist. 2. The more silence you have, the more the other can exist. | Guru Dev |
| jan-10 | Just choose Silence. Don’t even choose Love… If we choose Love we already have an idea of what Love is. | Gangaji |
| dec-09 | First say to yourself what you would be and then do what you have to do. | Epictetus |
| nov-09 | Stillness is what creates love. Movement is what creates life. To be still, and still moving, that is everything. | Chinese poet Do Hyan Choe |
| oct-09 | When you talk, you repeat what you already know; when you listen, you often learn something! | Jared Sparks |
| sep-09 | Be yourself, everyone else is already taken. | Oscar Wilde |
| aug-09 | Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass on a summer day listening to the murmur of water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is hardly a waste of time! | Sir John Lubbock |
| jul-09 | Start by doing what’s necessary; then do what’s possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible. | Francis of Assisi |
| jun-09 | Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is the little voice at the end of the day that says I’ll try again tomorrow. | Mary Ann Radmacher |
| mar-may 09 | Spent this time on creating the new website you are now visiting! | Madeleine |
| feb-09 | Your heart has not to open to others. Your heart has to open to yourself. | Yogi Bhajan |
| jan-09 | Every time you meet a situation, though you think at the time it is an impossibility, and you go through the tortures of the damned, once you have met it and lived through it, you find that forever after you are freer than you were before | Eleanor Roosevelt |
| dec-08 | Experience is what you get when you didn’t get what you wanted | Randy Pausch |
| nov-08 | One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making darkness conscious | Carl Jung |
| oct-08 | There is no remedy for love but to love more | Henry David Thoreau |
| sep-08 | The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances: if there is any reaction, both are transformed. | Carl Jung |
| aug-08 | All that we are is a result of what we have thought | Buddha |
| jul-08 | This very moment is the perfect teacher, and, lucky for us, it’s with us wherever we go | Pema Chodron |
| jun-08 | What you do to your body today, will determine your quality of life tomorrow. | Anonymous |
| may-08 | Take the first step in faith. You don’t have to see the whole staircase. Just take the first step. | Dr Martin Luther King |
| apr-08 | To love deeply in one direction makes us more loving in all others | Anne-Sophie Swetchine |
| mar-08 | I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear | Henry David Thoreau |
| feb-08 | You create your own universe as you go along. | Winston Churchill |
| jan-08 | So you see, imagination needs moodling – long, inefficient, happy idling, dawdling and puttering | Brenda Ueland |
| dec-07 | The path of the Warrior of Light. It is a path of tolerance: “In order to have faith in his own path, he does not need to prove that someone else’s path is wrong.” It is a path of intuition: “the warrior knows that intuition is God’s alphabet and he continues listening to the wind and talking to the stars.” | Paulo Coelho |
| nov-07 | Osiris cannot rise without Isis, nor Isis without Osiris | Maria Magdalena |
| oct-07 | One to the practice of being in the flow and one to the tears of the things we let go | Michael Franti |
| sep-07 | The most powerful weapon on earth is the human soul on fire | Field Marshal Ferfinand Foch |
| aug-07 | Follow your passion and success will follow you | Arthur Buddhold |
| jul-07 | We choose our joys and sorrows long before we experience them | Kahlil Gibran |
| jun-07 | A discovery is said to be an accident meeting a prepared mind | Albert Szent – Gyorgyi |
| may-07 | We don’t know if by changing we will improve but we do know what to improve we must change | Winston Churchill |
| apr-07 | The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen, nor touched …but are felt in the heart | Helen Keller |
| mar-07 | It is not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves. | Sir Edmund Hillary |
| feb-07 | If you want to learn something, read it. If you want to know something, write it. If you want to MASTER something, Teach it! | Yogi Bhajan |
| jan-07 | Whenever you say I dont know, ask yourself but what if I did know? | John Conway |
| dec-06 | Present is what is needed, at present. | Unknown |
| nov-06 | A genuine passion is like a mountain stream; it admits of no impediment; it cannot go backwards, it must go forward. | Christan Nestell Bovee |
| oct-06 | When you do the common things in life in an uncommon way, you command the attention of the world | Unknown |
| sep-06 | The best way to make your dreams come true is to wake up. | Paul Valery |
| mar-aug 06 | During these months, I had various hard- & software problems | Madeleine |
| feb-06 | It is only with the heart that one can see rightly. What is essential is invisible to the eye. | Antoine de Saint-Exupery |
| jan-06 | The question ‘Who ought to be the boss?”, is like asking “Who ought to be the tenor in the quartet?” Obviously, the man who can sing tenor! | Henry Ford |
| dec-05 | The uncreative mind can spot wrong answers, but it takes a very creative mind to spot wrong questions | Anthony Jay |
| nov-05 | He can inspire a group only if he himself is filled with confidence and hope of success | Floyd V. Filson |
| oct-05 | The fastest way to still the mind, is to move the body | Gabrielle Roth |
| sep-05 | If you cannot hug your own soul, you cannot hug another human being | Yogi Bhajan |
| aug-05 | Knowing creates responsibility; responsibility demands action | Marieke de Vrij |
| jul-05 | Winners are willing to do what losers won’t | Anonymous |
| jun-05 | You cannot expect to win unless you know why you lose | Benjamin Lipson |
| may-05 | Not our senses deceive us, but our judgement! | J.W. Goethe |
| apr-05 | Dance like no one is watching. Love like you’ll never be hurt. Sing like no one is listening. Live like it is heaven on earth. | William Purkey |
| mar-05 | Where you stumble, there lies your treasure. | Joseph Campbell |
| feb-05 | One person can make a difference and every person should try. | John F. Kennedy |
| jan-05 | No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it. | Albert Einstein |
| dec-04 | How does one make sure a drop of water does not dry up? By taking it to the ocean! | Buddhist saying |
| nov-04 | Believing in change is letting go, also that which you think is indispensable, such as your ego. Change requires courage. | Jaap Westerbos |
| oct-04 | If it is not right for them, it is not right for you, and if it is not right for you, it is not right for them. | Inayat Khan |
| sep-04 | What the Caterpillar calls the end of the world, the Master calls the Butterfly | Richard Bach |
| jun-aug 04 | During these months, i travelled through the US and Canada | Madeleine |
| may-04 | Where there’s an end, there is a new beginning | Anonymous |
| apr-04 | There are no mistakes, there are only variations. | Jan Pieter van Lieshout |
| mar-04 | Dear hammer, why can’t you saw? | Marjolein Kalter |
| feb-04 | An experience not lived, is forever lost | Unknown |
| jan-04 | To find a solution, you do not need a problem. | Bert Hellinger |
| jan-04 | (extra quote in January): The real art of discovery consists not in finding new lands, but in seeing with new eyes. | Proust |
| dec-03 | If you wish for something, you create it to be found. | George Parker |
| oct-03 | The present is a present. | Anonymous |
| sep-03 | What you do speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what you say. | Ralph Waldo Emerson |
| aug-03 | The ancestor of every action, is a thought. | Ralph Waldo Emerson |
| jul-03 | Don’t find fault, find a remedy… | Henry Ford |
| jun-03 | I like to invite you. How would you like to be invited? | Anet Verweij |
| may-03 | To love and be loved is to feel the sun from both sides | David Viscott |
| apr-03 | We can make ourselves miserable or, we can make ourselves strong. The amount of work is the same. | Carlos Castenada |
| mar-03 | Directions are only needed by those with a destination. | Ram Tzu |
| feb-03 | I have no time for a short letter, therefore, I write you a long one. | Chinese wise man |
| jan-03 | Conscious faith is liberty; Emotional faith is slavery; Mechanical faith is stupidity. | Gurdjieff |
| dec-02 | What we create in the world, we must first create within ourselves. For there to be magic in your life, you must first believe in magic. | Lyn Andrews |
| nov-02 | A man is what he thinks about all day. | Ralph Waldo Emerson |
| oct-02 | If you see that which is small, the way it sees itself, and accept that which is weak with the strength it has, and use that which is dark with the light it gives, everything will go well. That is called natural doing. | Lao Tse Tae-te Tjing |
| sep-02 | There are two ways to deal with the mind. Either your mind is under you, or you are under your mind. | Yogi Bhajan |
| aug-02 | What if life is a game and one of the rules is ‘you have to show up’? | Richard Bach |
| jul-02 | The greatest things in life happen in a moment. If you’re not in the moment, you miss everything. | Lyn Andrews |
| jun-02 | The biggest danger for most people, is NOT that we aim too high and miss, but that we aim too low and hit. | Michelangelo |
| may-02 | You cannot get to 2nd base, if you one of your feet is still on first base | Nataraj |
| apr-02 | Knowlegde of what is possible is the beginning of happiness | George Santayana |
| mar-02 | The people who progress in this world are the people that rise, searching for the circumstances they want, and if they cannot find them, they will create them. | Translation of Dutch quote by Bernard Shaw |
| feb-02 | A fool can ask more questions than a wise man can answer. | Newspaper quote |
| jan-02 | To laugh often and much; to win respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded! | Ralph Waldo Emerson |
| dec-01 | Communion is the root word of Communication; reminding us that to communicate with another person is not to pass on information. It is to draw another into yourself. | Deepak Chopra |
| nov-01 | What you think, you create. What you create, you become. What you become, you express. What you express, you experience. What you experience, you are. What you are, you think. | Neale Donald Walsch |
| oct-01 | What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail? | Dr Robert Schuller |
And more collected quotes
In case you wish to know more about me, my books, activities & interests or recorded musings, click on said links. Oh, and if you are interested in more quotes, are you familiar with the list of quotes on Goodreads?