are snippets of somebody else's clever mind.
Enjoy the wisdom, wit and quips we came across while buried in books or surfed some interesting sites like:
http://quotations.about.com
www.oneliners-and-proverbs.com
www.myfamousquotes.com
Edward Abbey
Wilderness is not a luxury but a necessity of the human spirit, and as vital … as water and good bread.
Mahmoud Abbas
If you run from a leaking roof you'll end up with a flood.
ABC NEWS – AUSTRALIAN BROADCASTING CORPORATION
It's not here to accept instructions from the government of the day, it's here to be independent.
St. Edmund of Abingdon
Study as if you were to live forever; live as if you were to die tomorrow.
ACF (Australian Conservation Foundation)
Nature underpins our lives, our health and our economy. The air we breath, the water we drink, the food we eat. The places we escape to. Our identity.
Paul Achleitner
The patient has changed from Intensive Care to normal care – but he is still in hospital!
Andre Aciman
Youth has no shame, shame comes with age.
People who hide don't always like who they are.
Collin Acton
Being secular doesn't mean we hate religion, it just means a genuine separation of church and state.
Animals Australia
Profit will never justify cruelty.
In a world where you can be anything - be kind.
The day will come when what is ethical matters as much as what is profitable.
If you have to choose between being kind and being right, choose kind and you'll always be right.
Ansel Adams
You don't take a photograph, you make it.
It is horrifying that we have to fight our own government to save the environment.
John Adams
Democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts and undoes itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.
Douglas Adams ("The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy")
I take the awe of understanding over the awe of ignorance any day.
I love deadlines. I love the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.
"I refuse to prove that I exist, for proof denies faith, and without faith I am nothing." - God
Nothing travels faster than the speed of light with the possible exception of bad news, which obeys its own special laws.
Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so.
Harry Adams
You can't define the solution until you define the problem.
Henry Brooks Adams
A friend in power is a friend lost.
Morality is a private and costly luxury.
The proper study of mankind is woman.
Chaos often breeds life, while order breeds habit.
Chaos was the law of nature – order was the dream of man.
Man is an imperceptible atom always trying to become one with God.
A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell, where his influence stops.
John Adams
This would be the best of all possible worlds, if there were no religion in it.
Democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts and undoes itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.
The question ... is, whether the God of nature shall govern the world by his own laws, or whether priests and kings shall rule it by fictitious miracles.
Konrad Adenauer
A thick hide is a gift from God.
If you look deeply into them things become simple.
Experiences are the seeds out of which wisdom grows.
There are things about which I don't even talk to myself.
All human organs eventually tire, only the tongue doesn't.
When everybody else thinks it's the end, we have to begin.
History is also the sum of all that could have been avoided.
You have to take people as they are because there are no others.
First make yourself unpopular, then you will be taken seriously.
To look back into the past only makes sense if it serves the future.
We all live under the same sky, but we don't all have the same horizon.
All that the socialists understand about money is the fact that they want it from others.
The Good Lord hasn't done this well: He placed limits on everything, except on stupidity.
Adidas
Sport is about the constant pursuit of better. Material innovation is no different.
Hans Günther Adler
The impossible is that which has never been tried.
Mario Adorf
Speeches at banquets of vegetarians are thankfully short – because they are afraid the food may wilt.
Theodor Adorno
Love is the ability to discover similarities in the dis-similar.
The audience has a right not to be fooled – even if it insists on being fooled.
Aesop
No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.
Casey Affleck
A good leader needs to know how to follow.
Louis Agassiz
Every scientific truth goes through three states: first, people say it conflicts with the Bible; next, they say it has been discovered before; lastly, they say they always believed it.
Spiro Agnew
The United States, for all its faults, is till the greatest nation in the country.
Roger Ailes
Make the lie big, make it simple, keep saying it, and eventually they will believe it.
Catherine Aird
If you can't be a good example, then you'll just have to serve as a horrible warning.
Tony Albanese
You've got to learn something new every day, and you've got to get better as a person every day.
Madelaine Albright
History is written backwards but lived forwards.
In diplomacy, clear-cut wins and losses are rare.
Where is the security when the neighbours hate?
A skilled diplomat rarely generates extreme reactions.
There is a special place in hell for women who don't help women.
The cover-up, more than the initial wrongdoing, is what is most likely to bring you down.
There is plenty of room in the world for mediocre men, but there is no room for mediocre women.
China is in its own category - too big to ignore, too repressive to embrace, difficult to influence, and very, very proud.
I was taught to strive not because there were any guarantees of success but the act of striving is in itself the only way to keep faith with life.
Louisa May Alcott
I am not afraid of storms for I am learning how to sail my ship.
Robert Alden
There is not enough darkness in the world to put out the light of even one small candle.
Buzz Aldrin
If we can see the horizon, we want to know what's beyond it.
Peter Alexander
A nice compliment is a believable exaggeration.
Svetlana Alexievich
When you sleep alone not even a blanket can warm you. (‘Secondhand Time’)
You can live without thinking about freedom. Freedom is normal.
Alfonso 'the Wise'
If I had been present at the creation, I would have given some useful suggestions for the better ordering of the universe.
Tariq Ali
Empires are always in search of trustworthy collaborators,but there is no such thing as a collaborator loyal to one power.
Roberto D’Alimonte
Democracy has very serious limitations. It has the ability to kill itself, to self-destruct.
Woody Allen
Is sex dirty? Only if it's done right.
My Brain? It's my second-favorite organ.
My only regret in life is that I am not someone else.
Don't knock masturbation - it's sex with someone I love.
Money is better than poverty - if only for financial reasons.
Remember, if you smoke after sex, you're doing it too fast.
Not only is there no God - but try finding a plumber on Sundays.
I don't want to live forever through my work. I want to live forever by not dying.
If you really want to make a million ... the quickest way is to start your own religion.
Sex without love is an empty experience, but as empty experiences go it's one of the best.
I am a practising heterosexual, but bisexuality immediately doubles you chances for a date.
Love is the answer. But while you are waiting for the answer sex raises some pretty good questions.
The good people sleep much better at night than the bad people. Of course, the bad people enjoy the waking hours much more.
To love is to suffer. To avoid suffering one must not love. But then one suffers from not loving. Therefore, to love is to suffer; not to love is to suffer; to suffer is to suffer. To be happy is to love. To be happy, then, is to suffer, but suffering makes one unhappy. Therefore, to be happy one must love or love to suffer or suffer from too much happiness.
Isabel Allende
You have the health you deserve. (‘Portrait in Sepia')
If you like a guy, take the initiative, don't wait!
Everyone in his place and a place for everyone. (‘Portrait in Sepia')
Youth is not a period in life but a state of mind. (‘Portrait in Sepia')
Nothing's as dangerous as power with impunity. (‘Portrait in Sepia')
It isn't being right that wins, it's driving the best bargain. (‘Portrait in Sepia')
Love is a free contract that begins with a spark and can end the same way. (‘Portrait in Sepia')
There is no light without shadow, just as there is no happiness without pain. (‘Portrait in Sepia')
Conceit is a privilege of the ignorant; the wise man is humble because he knows how little he knows. (‘Portrait in Sepia')
Memory is fiction. We select the brightest and the darkest, ignoring what we are ashamed of, and so embroider the broad tapestry of our lives. (‘Portrait in Sepia')
Pedro Almodovar
A dead love never dies.
Peter Altenberg
It is sad to be an exception. But not to be one is even sadder.
God thinks in the geniusses, he dreams in the poets and slumbers in the rest of humanity.
Waleed Aly
Forgiveness requires us to separate the sin from the sinner.
Lies spread more quickly than truths on Twitter in every category of information.
Today there are more famous people you've never heard of than ever before, because they are famous in some nook
you don't inhabit.
Jean Amery
The tortured always remain tortured.
Henri Frederic Amiel
We are always making God our accomplice, so that we may legalise our own inequities.
William (Bill) Anders
We came all this way to explore the Moon, and the most important thing is that we discovered the Earth.
Hans Christian Anderson
Every man's life is a fairy tale written by God's finger.
I covet honour in the same way as a miser covets gold.
Laurie Anderson ("Language is a Virus")
Paradise is exactly like where you are right now - only much, much better.
Giulio Andreotti
Power wears out those who don't have it.
Barbara de Angelis
You don't develop courage by being happy in your relationships everyday. You develop it by surviving difficult times and challenging adversity.
Maya Angelou
It takes courage to be kind.
Talent is like electricity. We don't understand electricity. We use it.
Some of us are timid. We think we have something to lose so we don't try for that next hill.
Music was my refuge. I could crawl into the space between the notes and curl my back to loneliness.
Animals Australia
Take nothing but pictures -
leave nothing but footprints -
kill nothing but time.
Profit will never justify cruelty.
The only impossible journey is the one you never begin.
The day will come when what is ethical matters as much as what is profitable.
Anon (supplied by online personality Crazy Lady)
Raising kids is like nailing Jell-O to a tree.
I keep hitting the escape button but I am still here!
Raising kids is like being pecked to death by ducks.
Lord keep Your arm around my shoulder and Your hand over my mouth.
Kofi Annan
There is no trust more sacred than the one the world holds with children.
Anonymous
Age is nothing; waking up is everything.
Bigamy is having one husband too many. Monogamy is the same.
Its not where your dreams take you, its where you take your dreams.
Marcus Antonius
The art of living is more like wrestling than dancing.
Guillaume Apollinaire
Now and then it's good to pause in our pursuit of happiness and just be happy.
Apollonius of Rhodes
Nothing dries faster than tears.
Thomas Aquinas
Beware the man of one book.
United efforts lead easier to success than divided ones.
There is nothing in your mind which wasn't experienced beforehand.
Faith has to do with things that are not seen, and hope with things that are not in hand.
To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary. To one without faith, no explanation is possible.
Adiga Aravind
Any good society survives on a circulation of favours.
You know a community by the luxuries it can do without.
An old woman's night is so small: a young woman's night is the whole sky.
(all: 'Last Man in Tower')
Jeffrey Archer
When I was three I wanted to be four. When I was four, I wanted to be prime minister.
Archilochus
The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing.
Vauven Argues
Patience is the art to keep hoping.
Marcus Aristides
God is not in need of anything, but all things are in need of him.
Aristotle
Happiness is prosperity plus virtue.
We make war that we may live in peace.
A friend: a single soul dwelling in two bodies.
Nothing in life is more necessary than friendship.
Nature does nothing without purpose or good use.
Those that know, do. Those that understand, teach.
Youth is easily deceived because it is quick to hope.
There was never a genius without a touch of madness.
The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet.
In all things of nature there is something of the wondrous.
Give me a child until he is seven, and I will show you the man.
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not a merit, but a habit.
Man is a goal-seeking animal. His life only has meaning if he is striving for goals.
The ideal man bears the accidents of life with dignity and grace, making the best of circumstances.
Time destroys things. Everything crumbles under the power of time and is forgotten under the sweep of time.
Richard Armour
Beauty is only skin deep, and the world is full of thin skinned people.
John Armstrong
The most beautiful form of compromise is forgiveness.
Karen Armstrong
It is not difficult to find a religious justification for killing.
Louis Armtrong
All music is folk music; I ain’t never heard no horse sing a song.
Neil Armstrong (on the Moon)
That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.
William Armstrong
The business of Civil Service is the orderly management of decline.
Angelique Arnauld
Perfection consists not in doing extraordinary things, but in doing ordinary things extraordinarily well.
Antoine Arnault
For a dream there is no price.
Bernard Arnault
What I love is to win. What I love is being number one.
Ernst Moritz Arndt
Sorrow eats your heart and courage.
Tears are the messengers of true love.
Who has never exploded in a fury does not know love either.
They managed to sleep together, but there wasn't enough for dreaming.
Who has no own conviction dissipates himself in the imitation of others.
Hans Arndt
Detecting your faults in others makes you merciless.
Bettina von Arnim
Flowers are nature’s thoughts of love.
Prof. Michael Arnold
Running a cemetery is like running a housing development. The cost of the real estate is a demand and supply equation.
Gaurav Arya
You can't fight a battle of principles with demons.
Sholem Asch
To dream of the person you would like to be is to waste the person you are.
Anhay Ashtekar
If my only tool is a hammer, then every problem is a nail.
Isaac Asimov
Never let your sense of morals get in the way of doing what's right.
Hans Asperger
For success in science or art, a dash of autism is essential.
Herbert Asquith Earl of Oxford and Asquith
Youth would be an ideal state if it came a little later in life.
Julian Assange
Transparency in government leads to reduced corruption.
St.Francis of Assisi
Preach the Gospel at all times and when necessary use words.
All the darkness in the world cannot extinguish the light of a single candle.
I have been all things unholy. If God can work through me, he can work through anyone.
Fred Astaire
Old age is like everything else: to make a success of it you've got to start young.
The higher up you go, the more mistakes you are allowed. Right at the top, if you make enough of them, it's considered to be your style.
Atatürk
Nations which don't find their national identities will be preyed upon by other nations.
Kate Atkinson
Truth is absolute, but the consequences of it aren't (“Big Sky”)
David Attenborough
We are, after all, the greatest problem solvers to have ever existed on Earth.
The ocean's power of regeneration is remarkable – if we just give it the chance.
We depend on the natural world for every mouthful we eat and for every lungful of air we breath.
It is easy to feel overwhelmed and powerless by the scale of the issues facing our planet, but we have the solutions.
Leaders of the world, you must lead. The continuation of civilisations, and the natural world upon which we depend, is in your hands.
Margaret Atwood
No flowers without shit. ("The Blind Assassin")
Every silver lining has a cloud. ("The Blind Assassin")
A fist is more than the sum of its fingers. ("The Blind Assassin")
God is in the detail, they say. So is the Devil.
It is hope, and hope alone, that keeps us afloat. ('Penelopiad')
You can think clearly only with your cloths on. (‘The Handmaid’s Tail’)
An eye for an eye leads only to more blindness. ("Cat's Eye")
Nobody dies from lack of sex. It’s lack of love we die from.
('The Handmaid's Tale')
In Paradise there are no stories, because there are no journeys.
("The Blind Assassin")
Happiness is a garden walled with glass: there's no way in or out. ("The Blind Assassin"
There is more than one kind of freedom - freedom to and freedom from. (‘The Handmaid’s tail’)
Good judgement comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgement. ("The Blind Assassin")
The moment when you give up hope, that is the moment when you cease to take any action that might be positive to get out of the doom.
D. F. Esprit Auber
Ageing seems to be the only available way to live a long life.
H.W.Auden
Not to be born is the best for man.
Those to whom evil is done, do evil in return.
My face looks like a wedding cake left out in the rain.
The desires of the heart are as crooked as corkscrews.
Rudolf Augstein
It is not all that important that democracy functions according to its original idea, as long as the people perceive it as functioning.
St.Augustine
If the future and the past really exist, where are they?
For many, total abstinence is easier than total moderation.
Symbols are powerful because they are the visible signs of invisible realities.
The world is a great big book, of which those who never travel read only one page.
People travel to wonder at the height of mountains, at the huge waves of the sea, at the long courses of rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the motion of the stars ... and they pass by themselves without wondering.
Markus Aurelius
Every moment of time is a signal from eternity.
So much worse are the consequences of anger than its causes.
The universe is change; our life is what your thoughts make of it.
It is not death a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning with life.
If you are distressed by something, it is due to your own estimate of it; and you have the power to change it at will.
Live not as if you had a thousand years ahead of you. Fate is at your elbow. Reach for your aim while life and power are still yours.
One universe makes up all there is; and one God over it all; and one principle of being; and one law and reason shared by all thinking creatures. Just one truth.
Jane Austen
A large income is the best recipe for happiness I ever heard of. (‘Mansfield Park’)
Paul Auster
How can you think about the world without factoring in the unforseen, the fluke event?
Daniel Austin
Protest isn't protest without risk.
Aung San Suu Kyi
It is not power that corrupts but fear.
David Axelrod (Media advisor / Campaign Manager)
Every election is a reaction to the last president.
It's hard to shine when you stand next to the sun.
Unless a message authentically reflects the messenger it's likely to fail.