Ralph Waldo Emerson Quote of the Day
“Treat a man as he is, and he will remain as he is. Treat a man as he could be, and he will become what he should be.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
Category: Celebrity quotes
William Faulkner Quotes
I’m bad and I’m going to hell, and I don’t care. I’d rather be in hell than anywhere where you are.
I’m inclined to think that a military background wouldn’t hurt anyone.
If a writer has to rob his mother, he will not hesitate: The “Ode on a Grecian Urn” is worth any number of old ladies.
If I had not existed, someone else would have written me, Hemingway, Dostoevski, all of us.
If I were reincarnated, I’d want to come back a buzzard. Nothing hates him or envies him or wants him or needs him. He is never bothered or in danger, and he can eat anything.
It is my aim, and every effort bent, that the sum and history of my life, which in the same sentence is my obit and epitaph too, shall be them both: He made the books and he died.
It’s a shame that the only thing a man can do for eight hours a day is work. He can’t eat for eight hours; he can’t drink for eight hours; he can’t make love for eight hours. The only thing a man can do for eight hours is work.
Man performs and engenders so much more than he can or should have to bear. That’s how he finds that he can bear anything.
Man will not merely endure; he will prevail.
Maybe the only thing worse than having to give gratitude constantly is having to accept it.
Memory believes before knowing remembers. Believes longer than recollects, longer than knowing even wonders.
My own experience has been that the tools I need for my trade are paper, tobacco, food, and a little whisky.
Our tragedy is a general and universal physical fear so long sustained by now that we can even bear it… the basest of all things is to be afraid.
Perhaps they were right in putting love into books… Perhaps it could not live anywhere else.
Pointless… like giving caviar to an elephant.
The aim of every artist is to arrest motion, which is life, by artificial means and hold it fixed so that a hundred years later, when a stranger looks at it, it moves again since it is life.
The artist doesn’t have time to listen to the critics. The ones who want to be writers read the reviews, the ones who want to write don’t have the time to read reviews.
The best job that was ever offered to me was to become a landlord in a brothel. In my opinion it’s the perfect milieu for an artist to work in.
The end of wisdom is to dream high enough to lose the dream in the seeking of it.
The last sound on the worthless earth will be two human beings trying to launch a homemade spaceship and already quarreling about where they are going next.
Mark Twain Quotes #7
It is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world and moral courage so rare.
In religion and politics, people’s beliefs and convictions are in almost every case gotten at second hand, and without examination.
It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.
Most people are bothered by those passages of Scripture they do not understand, but the passages that bother me are those I do understand.
My mother had a great deal of trouble with me, but I think she enjoyed it.
Apparently there is nothing that cannot happen today.
Often it does seem a pity that Noah and his party did not miss the boat.
Part of the secret of success in life is to eat what you like and let the food fight it out inside.
The best way to cheer yourself is to try to cheer someone else up.
I thoroughly disapprove of duels. If a man should challenge me, I would take him kindly and forgivingly by the hand and lead him to a quiet place and kill him.
The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug.
The right word may be effective, but no word was ever as effective as a rightly timed pause.
The man who doesn’t read good books has no advantage over the man who can’t read them.
Wisdom teaches us that none but birds should go out early, and that not even birds should do it unless they are out of worms.
Sane and intelligent human beings are like all other human beings, and carefully and cautiously and diligently conceal their private real opinions from the world and give out fictitious ones in their stead for general consumption.
It is not in the least likely that any life has ever been lived which was not a failure in the secret judgment of the person who lived it.
Of all the creatures that were made, man is the most detestable. Of the entire brood he is the only one–the solitary one–that possesses malice. That is the basest of all instincts, passions, vices–the most hateful. He is the only creature that has pain for sport, knowing it to be pain. Also–in all the list he is the only creature that has a nasty mind.
Humanity has unquestionably one really effective weapon—laughter. Power, money, persuasion, supplication, persecution—these can lift at a colossal humbug—push it a little—weaken it a little, century by century; but only laughter can blow it to rags and atoms at a blast. Against the assault of laughter nothing can stand.
Nothing is so ignorant as a man’s left hand, except a lady’s watch.
The older we grow the greater becomes our wonder at how much ignorance one can contain without bursting one’s clothes.
Indecency, vulgarity, obscenity–these are strictly confined to man; he invented them. Among the higher animals there is no trace of them.
In morals, conduct, and beliefs we take the color of our environment and associations, and it is a color that can be safely warranted to wash.
Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.
His ignorance covered the whole earth like a blanket, and there was hardly a hole in it anywhere.
Well enough for old folks to rise early, because they have done so many mean things all their lives they can’t sleep anyhow.
Never refuse to do a kindness unless the act would work great injury to yourself, and never refuse to take a drink- under any circumstances.
You can’t reach old age by another man’s road. My habits protect my life but they would assassinate you.
All right, then, I’ll go to hell.
Mark Twain Quotes #6
When red-haired people are above a certain social grade their hair is auburn.
Good breeding consists of concealing how much we think of ourselves and how little we think of the other person.
What a good thing Adam had. When he said a good thing he knew nobody had said it before.
When your friends begin to flatter you on how young you look, it’s a sure sign you’re getting old.
An enemy can partly ruin a man, but it takes a good-natured injudicious friend to complete the thing and make it perfect.
The holy passion of Friendship is of so sweet and steady and loyal and enduring a nature that it will last through a whole lifetime, if not asked to lend money.
Few things are harder to put up with than the annoyance of a good example.
Training is everything. The peach was once a bitter almond; cauliflower is nothing but cabbage with a college education.
Our opinions do not really blossom into fruition until we have expressed them to someone else.
A classic is something that everybody wants to have read and nobody wants to read.
Laws are sand, customs are rock. Laws can be evaded and punishment escaped but an openly transgressed custom brings sure punishment.
I am not one of those who in expressing opinions confine themselves to facts.
Work is a necessary evil to be avoided.
The fact that man knows right from wrong proves his intellectual superiority to other creatures; but the fact that he can do wrong proves his moral inferiority to any creature that cannot.
He had discovered a great law of human action, without knowing it – namely, that in order to make a man or a boy covet a thing, it is only necessary to make the thing difficult to obtain.
Of all the animals, man is the only one that is cruel. He is the only one that inflicts pain for the pleasure of doing it.
A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.
Wrinkles should merely indicate where smiles have been.
Many a small thing has been made large by the right kind of advertising.
Let us not be too particular; it is better to have old secondhand diamonds than none at all.
You cannot depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.
The history of our race, and each individual’s experience, are sown thick with evidence that a truth is not hard to kill and that a lie told well is immortal.
A human being has a natural desire to have more of a good thing than he needs.
The universal brotherhood of man is our most precious possession, what there is of it.
Life would be infinitely happier if we could only be born at the age of eighty and gradually approach eighteen.
It is by the goodness of God that in our country we have those three unspeakably precious things: freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, and the prudence never to practice either of them.
It takes your enemy and your friend, working together, to hurt you: the one to slander you, and the other to get the news to you.
Man is the Only Animal that Blushes. Or needs to.
There are several good protections against temptations, but the surest is cowardice.
The rule is perfect: in all matters of opinion our adversaries are insane.
Let us so live that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry.
Mark Twain Quotes #5
A man’s character may be learned from the adjectives which he habitually uses in conversation.
How little a thing can make us happy when we feel that we have earned it.
To be good is noble; but to show others how to be good is nobler and no trouble.
Under certain circumstances, profanity provides a relief denied even to prayer.
Water, taken in moderation, cannot hurt anybody.
To refuse awards is another way of accepting them with more noise than is normal.
We have a criminal jury system which is superior to any in the world; and its efficiency is only marred by the difficulty of finding twelve men every day who don’t know anything and can’t read.
When I was younger, I could remember anything, whether it had happened or not.
Truth is mighty and will prevail. There is nothing wrong with this, except that it ain’t so.
When in doubt, tell the truth.
When people do not respect us we are sharply offended; yet deep down in his private heart no man much respects himself.
Truth is the most valuable thing we have. Let us economize it.
When we remember we are all mad, the mysteries disappear and life stands explained.
When you cannot get a compliment any other way pay yourself one.
What a wee little part of a person’s life are his acts and his words! His real life is led in his head, and is known to none but himself.
The worst loneliness is not to be comfortable with yourself.
The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco.
Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.
What is the difference between a taxidermist and a tax collector? The taxidermist takes only your skin.
Words are only painted fire; a look is the fire itself.
I cannot call to mind a single instance where I have ever been irreverent, except toward the things which were sacred to other people.
All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence; then success is sure.
What would men be without women? Scarce, sir, mighty scarce.
We are always more anxious to be distinguished for a talent which we do not possess, than to be praised for the fifteen which we do possess.
When a person cannot deceive himself the chances are against his being able to deceive other people.
The report of my death was an exaggeration.
Why is it that we rejoice at a birth and grieve at a funeral? It is because we are not the person involved.
When angry, count to four; when very angry, swear.
The radical of one century is the conservative of the next. The radical invents the views. When he has worn them out the conservative adopts them.
Familiarity breeds contempt – and children.
Work consists of whatever a body is obliged to do. Play consists of whatever a body is not obliged to do.
Mark Twain Quotes #4
I am opposed to millionaires, but it would be dangerous to offer me the position.
The first of April is the day we remember what we are the other 364 days of the year.
The Christian’s Bible is a drug store. Its contents remain the same, but the medical practice changes.
Let us make a special effort to stop communicating with each other, so we can have some conversation.
There are lies, damned lies and statistics.
The human race is a race of cowards; and I am not only marching in that procession but carrying a banner.
Humor is the great thing, the saving thing. The minute it crops up, all our irritations and resentments slip away and a sunny spirit takes their place.
Just the omission of Jane Austen’s books alone would make a fairly good library out of a library that hadn’t a book in it.
Suppose you were an idiot and suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself.
There are times when one would like to hang the whole human race, and finish the farce.
It is just like man’s vanity and impertinence to call an animal dumb because it is dumb to his dull perceptions.
I can live for two months on a good compliment.
There is a charm about the forbidden that makes it unspeakably desirable.
There is no sadder sight than a young pessimist.
I have been through some terrible things in my life, some of which actually happened.
I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.
I was gratified to be able to answer promptly. I said I don’t know.
The human race has one really effective weapon, and that is laughter.
Zeal and sincerity can carry a new religion further than any other missionary except fire and sword.
Thousands of geniuses live and die undiscovered – either by themselves or by others.
If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you. This is the principal difference between a dog and a man.
The universal brotherhood of man is our most precious possession.
There are people who strictly deprive themselves of each and every eatable, drinkable, and smokable which has in any way acquired a shady reputation. They pay this price for health. And health is all they get for it. How strange it is. It is like paying out your whole fortune for a cow that has gone dry.
There is something fascinating about science. One gets such wholesale returns of conjecture out of such a trifling investment of fact.
Time cools, time clarifies; no mood can be maintained quite unaltered through the course of hours.
Thunder is good, thunder is impressive; but it is lightning that does the work.
Truth is more of a stranger than fiction.
Mark Twain Quotes #3
I have a higher and grander standard of principle than George Washington. He could not lie; I can, but I won’t.
In the first place, God made idiots. That was for practice. Then he made school boards.
Only kings, presidents, editors, and people with tapeworms have the right to use the editorial “we.”
In Paris they simply stared when I spoke to them in French; I never did succeed in making those idiots understand their language.
It is better to deserve honors and not have them than to have them and not to deserve them.
The lack of money is the root of all evil.
Only one thing is impossible for God: To find any sense in any copyright law on the planet.
It could probably be shown by facts and figures that there is no distinctly American criminal class except Congress.
Don’t part with your illusions. When they are gone you may still exist, but you have ceased to live.
Patriot: the person who can holler the loudest without knowing what he is hollering about.
The more things are forbidden, the more popular they become.
An Englishman is a person who does things because they have been done before. An American is a person who does things because they haven’t been done before.
Soap and education are not as sudden as a massacre, but they are more deadly in the long run.
The most interesting information comes from children, for they tell all they know and then stop.
Do something every day that you don’t want to do; this is the golden rule for acquiring the habit of doing your duty without pain.
The public is the only critic whose opinion is worth anything at all.
Education: that which reveals to the wise, and conceals from the stupid, the vast limits of their knowledge.
Sometimes too much to drink is barely enough.
It is my belief that nearly any invented quotation, played with confidence, stands a good chance to deceive.
The secret source of humor is not joy but sorrow; there is no humor in Heaven.
Virtue has never been as respectable as money.
New Orleans food is as delicious as the less criminal forms of sin.
Grief can take care of itself, but to get the full value of a joy you must have somebody to divide it with.
Substitute “damn” every time you’re inclined to write “very”; your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be.
Habit is habit and not to be flung out of the window by any man, but coaxed downstairs a step at a time.
The wit knows that his place is at the tail of a procession.
Warren Buffett Quotes
A public-opinion poll is no substitute for thought.
Beware of geeks bearing formulas.
Chains of habit are too light to be felt until they are too heavy to be broken.
Derivatives are financial weapons of mass destruction.
I always knew I was going to be rich. I don’t think I ever doubted it for a minute.
I am quite serious when I say that I do not believe there are, on the whole earth besides, so many intensified bores as in these United States. No man can form an adequate idea of the real meaning of the word, without coming here.
I buy expensive suits. They just look cheap on me.
I don’t look to jump over 7-foot bars: I look around for 1-foot bars that I can step over.
I just think that – when a country needs more income and we do, we’re only taking in 15 percent of GDP, I mean, that – that – when a country needs more income, they should get it from the people that have it.
I never attempt to make money on the stock market. I buy on the assumption that they could close the market the next day and not reopen it for five years.
I think the most important factor in getting out of the recession actually is just the regenerative capacity of – of American capitalism.
If a business does well, the stock eventually follows.
If past history was all there was to the game, the richest people would be librarians.
In the business world, the rearview mirror is always clearer than the windshield.
It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.
It’s better to hang out with people better than you. Pick out associates whose behavior is better than yours and you’ll drift in that direction.
It’s far better to buy a wonderful company at a fair price than a fair company at a wonderful price.
Let blockheads read what blockheads wrote.
Look at market fluctuations as your friend rather than your enemy; profit from folly rather than participate in it.
Of the billionaires I have known, money just brings out the basic traits in them. If they were jerks before they had money, they are simply jerks with a billion dollars.
Mark Twain Quotes #2
Total abstinence is so excellent a thing that it cannot be carried to too great an extent. In my passion for it I even carry it so far as to totally abstain from total abstinence itself.
I have been complimented many times and they always embarrass me; I always feel that they have not said enough.
I have never taken any exercise except sleeping and resting.
None but an ass pays a compliment and asks a favor at the same time. There are many asses.
Martyrdom covers a multitude of sins.
Giving up smoking is the easiest thing in the world. I know because I’ve done it thousands of times.
Denial ain’t just a river in Egypt.
Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see.
My books are like water; those of the great geniuses are wine. (Fortunately) everybody drinks water.
Don’t tell fish stories where the people know you; but particularly, don’t tell them where they know the fish.
Forgiveness is the fragrance that the violet sheds on the heel that has crushed it.
Facts are stubborn things, but statistics are more pliable.
Name the greatest of all inventors. Accident.
But who prays for Satan? Who, in eighteen centuries, has had the common humanity to pray for the one sinner that needed it most?
All generalizations are false, including this one.
Let us be thankful for the fools. But for them the rest of us could not succeed.
It was wonderful to find America, but it would have been more wonderful to miss it.
Necessity is the mother of taking chances.
Chastity — you can carry it too far.
Barring that natural expression of villainy which we all have, the man looked honest enough.
By trying we can easily learn to endure adversity — another man’s I mean.
Laws control the lesser man… Right conduct controls the greater one.
No sinner is ever saved after the first twenty minutes of a sermon.
Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear – not absence of fear.
Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society.
Noise proves nothing. Often a hen who has merely laid an egg cackles as if she laid an asteroid.
The world owes you nothing. It was here first.
There is nothing that saps one’s confidence as the knowing how to do a thing.
We have the best government that money can buy.
I didn’t attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying that I approved of it.
Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities. Truth isn’t.
Nothing so needs reforming as other people’s habits.
If you tell the truth you don’t have to remember anything.
I don’t give a damn for a man that can only spell a word one way.
One of the most striking differences between a cat and a lie is that a cat has only nine lives.
In the Spring, I have counted 136 different kinds of weather inside of 24 hours.
Do the thing you fear most and the death of fear is certain.
Mark Twain Quotes
Get your facts first, and then you can distort them as much as you please.
Better a broken promise than none at all.
It usually takes more than three weeks to prepare a good impromptu speech.
Good friends, good books and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life.
It is easier to stay out than get out.
Go to Heaven for the climate, Hell for the company.
Never put off until tomorrow what you can do the day after tomorrow.
Be careful about reading health books. You may die of a misprint.
Loyalty to petrified opinion never yet broke a chain or freed a human soul.
A man who carries a cat by the tail learns something he can learn in no other way.
Honesty is the best policy – when there is money in it.
If the world comes to an end, I want to be in Cincinnati. Everything comes there ten years later.
A man cannot be comfortable without his own approval.
Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.
Loyalty to the country always. Loyalty to the government when it deserves it.
Some men deserve compliments, but the only one that is welcome to a modest man is the one that is undeserved.
Ideally a book would have no order to it, and the reader would have to discover his own.
Action speaks louder than words but not nearly as often.
Always acknowledge a fault. This will throw those in authority off their guard and give you an opportunity to commit more.
It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog.
A man is never more truthful than when he acknowledges himself a liar.
Golf is a good walk spoiled.
It’s good sportsmanship to not pick up lost golf balls while they are still rolling.
Man – a creature made at the end of the week’s work when God was tired.
I have made it a rule never to smoke more that one cigar at a time.
I make it a rule never to smoke while I’m sleeping.
Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest.
Man will do many things to get himself loved, he will do all things to get himself envied.
The more you explain it, the more I don’t understand it.