Best Quotes Around the World

I firmly believe that unless one has tasted the bitter pill of failure, one cannot aspire enough for success.

It’s kind of a weird process being pitched by the company you’re already with.

To be frank, it sometimes seems that the American idea of freedom has more to do with my freedom to do what I want than your freedom to do what you want. I think that, in Europe, we’re probably better at understanding how to balance those competing claims, though not a lot.

Shakespeare didn’t work at all for me.

‚The New Yorker‘ was really my first experience with serious editing. Previously, I’d more or less just had copyediting with a few suggestions – not much.

Love of God is not always the same as love of good.

It is a grand mistake to think of being great without goodness and I pronounce it as certain that there was never a truly great man that was not at the same time truly virtuous.

Proselytism is solemn nonsense; it makes no sense. We need to get to know each other, listen to each other and improve our knowledge of the world around us.

You do ill if you praise, but worse if you censure, what you do not understand.

The two worst strategic mistakes to make are acting prematurely and letting an opportunity slip; to avoid this, the warrior treats each situation as if it were unique and never resorts to formulae, recipes or other people’s opinions.

When I was young, an eccentric uncle decided to teach me how to lie. Not, he explained, because he wanted me to lie, but because he thought I should know how it’s done so I would recognise when I was being lied to.

Both oligarch and tyrant mistrust the people, and therefore deprive them of their arms.

My mother was very strong. Once, she picked up a coconut and smashed it against my father’s head. It taught me about women defending themselves and not collapsing in a heap.

Life’s short. Anything could happen, and it usually does, so there is no point in sitting around thinking about all the ifs, ands and buts.

Business is never so healthy as when, like a chicken, it must do a certain amount of scratching around for what it gets.

I am proud of having done what I’ve done. Very proud.

Life is never fair, and perhaps it is a good thing for most of us that it is not.

There is no fate that cannot be surmounted by scorn.

I’ve always felt toward the slightest scene, even if all I had to do in a scene was just to come in and say, ‚Hi,‘ that the people ought to get their money’s worth and that this is an obligation of mine, to give them the best you can get from me.

I like today and perhaps a little future still, but the past is really something I’m not interested in. So, as far as I’m concerned, I like only the past of things and people I don’t know. When I know, I don’t care because I knew how it was.

Science is a wonderful thing if one does not have to earn one’s living at it.

Courage is like love; it must have hope for nourishment.

To hold a pen is to be at war.

All strange and terrible events are welcome, but comforts we despise.

The root of all superstition is that men observe when a thing hits, but not when it misses.

Sometimes, getting up in the morning and brushing your teeth is the hardest part of the day – it all just hurts.

It’s no secret that in New York during the last 30 years there has been a tragic exodus from the churches into materialism, secularism and humanism.

How few there are who have courage enough to own their faults, or resolution enough to mend them.

Technology is destructive only in the hands of people who do not realize that they are one and the same process as the universe.

It is my belief that nearly any invented quotation, played with confidence, stands a good chance to deceive.

Sometimes, reading a blog, which I do infrequently, I see that generations of Americans have been wilfully crippled, and can no longer spell or write a sentence.

Speak the truth, do not yield to anger; give, if thou art asked for little; by these three steps thou wilt go near the gods.

If you can dream it, you can do it.

And as a writer, one of the things that I’ve always been interested in doing is actually invading your comfort space. Because that’s what we’re supposed to do. Get under your skin, and make you react.

Where does discontent start? You are warm enough, but you shiver. You are fed, yet hunger gnaws you. You have been loved, but your yearning wanders in new fields. And to prod all these there’s time, the Bastard Time.

The year was 2081, and everyone was finally equal.

Everything deep is also simple and can be reproduced simply as long as its reference to the whole truth is maintained. But what matters is not what is witty but what is true.

Luck is a matter of preparation meeting opportunity.

Consistency is contrary to nature, contrary to life. The only completely consistent people are dead.

To me, constructive criticism is when people take ownership of their ideas. That’s why I don’t listen to anything that’s anonymous. But it’s hard; when there’s something hurtful out there, I still want to read it over and over and memorize it and explain my point of view to the person.

I know I want to always do the best I can.

It is not once nor twice but times without number that the same ideas make their appearance in the world.

I don’t talk trash often, but when I do, I go for the jugular.

Platitudes? Yes, there are platitudes. Platitudes are there because they are true.

Science is beautiful when it makes simple explanations of phenomena or connections between different observations. Examples include the double helix in biology and the fundamental equations of physics.

English is necessary as at present original works of science are in English. I believe that in two decades times original works of science will start coming out in our languages. Then we can move over like the Japanese.

The middle of the road is where the white line is – and that’s the worst place to drive.

The greatness of a nation can be judged by the way its animals are treated.

The music industry is a strange combination of having real and intangible assets: pop bands are brand names in themselves, and at a given stage in their careers their name alone can practically gaurantee hit records.

It is violence when we use a sharp word, when we make a gesture to brush away a person. So violence isn’t merely organized butchery in the name of God, in the name of society or country. Violence is much more subtle, much deeper.

As a remedy to life in society I would suggest the big city. Nowadays, it is the only desert within our means.

People love chopping wood. In this activity one immediately sees results.

Some people think luxury is the opposite of poverty. It is not. It is the opposite of vulgarity.

I have evolved my own exercises, for the muscles I wish to keep firm, and I know they are right for me because I can feel them putting the proper muscles into play as I exercise.

‚Nothin‘ on You‘ by B.o.B was the first song where I heard myself on the radio. I’d been trying my whole career to write a song like that, which incorporates live instruments with hip-hop and singing.

I was told that someone on Facebook said something ‚horrible‘ about me. Who cares? At least they’re watching the show.

The strictest law sometimes becomes the severest injustice.

I came up from a difficult background.

Design is a funny word. Some people think design means how it looks. But of course, if you dig deeper, it’s really how it works.

For me, writing has always come out of living a fairly to-the-bone kind of life, just really being present to a lot of life. The writing has been really a byproduct of that.