Vladimir Nabokov
Genius is an African who dreams up snow.
Style and Structure are the essence of a book; great ideas are hogwash.
There are aphorisms that, like airplanes, stay up only while they are in motion.
Life is a great surprise. I don't see why death should not be an even greater one.
Imagination ... should be limited. In order to enjoy life we should not enjoy it too much.
Sten Nadolny
The dead see it differently. (‘The Discovery of Slowness')
Fame and ludicrousness are closely related. (‘The Discovery of Slowness')
Oh, how quickly everything turns into the past. (‘The Discovery of Slowness')
Intelligence consists in getting along without rifles. (‘The Discovery of Slowness')
There are three points in time: a correct time, a missed time and a premature time.
(‘The Discovery of Slowness')
Thinking about fame is not easy for a famous person; he stands in his own light.
(‘The Discovery of Slowness')
The number of hours that had elapsed was no indication of the amount of time that had passed. (‘The Discovery of Slowness')
Shuji Nakamura
The most important thing in science and technology is to take risks, like gambling.
Napoleon Bonaparte
A true man hates no one.
A leader is a dealer in hope.
There is no authority without justice.
Ability is of little use without opportunity.
A throne is only a seat covered with velvet.
In a fanatic's head there is no place for reason.
From the sublime to the ridiculous is just a step.
Courage is like love; it needs hope to nourish it.
The French complain of everything, and always.
The best way to keep one's word is not to give it.
The most dangerous moment comes with victory.
Chance is the only legitimate ruler of the universe
A celebrated people lose dignity upon a closer view.
The surest way to remain poor is to be an honest man.
When your enemy is destroying himself, don’t interrupt.
A man's taste can, in time, become accustomed to anything.
Water, air, and cleanness are the main items in my pharmacy.
Let China sleep, for when she awakens she will shake the world.
A people that is able to say everything becomes able to do everything.
Nothing is more difficult, and therefore more precious, than the ability to decide.
The real proof of madness lies in the discrepancy between one's aspirations and one's means.
Ogden Nash
Progress might have been all right once, but it has gone on too long.
People who work sitting down get paid more than people who work standing up.
Julian Nasiri
The wise man knows his limitations – the ignoramus doesn't.
Martina Navratilova
The moment of victory is much too short to live just for that.
Shaquille O'Neal
Two secrets to keep your marriage brimming
1. Whenever you're wrong, admit it,
2. Whenever you're right, shut up.
Nicholas Negroponte
New ideas come from differences. They come from having different perspectives and juxtaposing different theories.
Jawaharlal Nehru
Failure comes only when we forget our ideals and objectives and principles.
Maggie Nelson
Freedom and obligation are not opposites... Freedom needs obligation's constraint.
Nero
Hidden talent counts for nothing.
Jo Nesbo
The best lies are ninety percent truth. ('The Devil's Star')
Righteousness is the virtue of the lazy and the visionless.
Violence is like Coca-Cola and the Bible. A classic. ('The Bat')
It's chance and nuances that separate the hero from the villain.
You soon become lonely if you want to use your own brain to find answers.
People who are convinced that they are beautiful are beautiful. ('The Devil"s Star')
Anyone who doesn't dare to stand up for justice should have a guilty conscience. ('Police')
Without lawbreakers and disobedience we would still have been living in a feudal society.
(from 'The Redeemer' if not marked otherwise).
John Henry Cardinal Newman
By 'garden' is meant mystically a place of spiritual repose, stillness, peace, refreshment, delight.
New Scientist
Personality is pointless unless someone notices you have it. (-Brief- 4.9.10)
Error is the flipside of taking risks and thus part of progress. (Leader 15.8.2015)
Gavin Newsome
The climate crisis is a fossil fuel crisis. It's not complicated.
Isaac Newton
Things are as they are because they were as they were.
I could see so far because I stood on the shoulders of giants.
Such a wonderful uniformity in the planetary system must be allowed the effect of choice.
If I have made any valuable discoveries, it has been owing more to patient attention than to any other talent.
(referring to the universe): This most beautiful system could only proceed from the dominion of an intelligent and powerful Being.
Richard Ney
Money is the sixth sense that makes it possible to enjoy the other five.
Friedrich Nietzsche
All priests are liars.
Every word carries a bias.
Laughter kills more than anger.
Money is the crowbar of power.
A profession is the spine of life.
To forget is part of every action.
Philosophy is revenge on reality.
No victor believes in coincidence.
The last Christian died on the cross.
Without music life would be an error.
One doesn't forget if one strains to forget.
If you want an easy life run with the herd.
The ascetic makes a virtue out of necessity.
Civilisation is the taming of the beast in man.
There is more intrusion in praise than in blame.
In every man there lives a child. It wants to play.
To better your style means to better your thoughts.
Once a nation recognises danger it produces genius.
What's done out of love is done beyond good or evil.
Hope is the rainbow over the hazardous rapids of life.
Our opinions are the skin in which we want to be seen.
The philosopher is the door to the workshop of nature.
In every religion the truly religious one is an exception.
You need fire in your soul to give birth to dancing stars.
He who has a Why to live for can bear almost any How.
Philosophers and artists reveal the trade secrets of nature.
Not the loudest, but our very quiet hours are the big events.
Who can't claim two thirds of each day for himself is a slave.
The philosopher is the speed bump across the course of Time.
Women enrich the highlights of life and they increase its lows.
It is easier to say no to desire than to take it in small measures.
People crowd towards the light not to see better but to appear better.
If you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.
History deals almost exclusively with bad people who were beatified later.
If you would believe more in life you would worry less about the moment.
There is always some madness in love. But there is also some sense in madness.
Above the chaos of the everyday is the sphere of philosophers and artists - beyond necessity.
The era of small-time politics is over. The next century will see the battle for world dominance.
Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster himself.
Politicians divide mankind into two classes: tools and enemies. This means, they know only one class: enemies.
Don't we act the same while awake as we do dreaming? We always first invent and imagine the person we are dealing with.
Fred Nile (Australian Reverend)
If Jesus wept over Jerusalem, he must be heartbroken over Sydney.
Anais Nin
Throw your dreams into space like a kite, and you do not know what it will bring back, a new life, a new friend, a new love, a new country.
Haruka Nishamatsu (Japan Airlines)
Businesses that concentrate only on money fail.
Richard M.Nixon
The sky is no longer the limit.
Life is one crisis after another.
The finest steel has to go through the hottest fire.
When the President does it, that means that it is not illegal.
The greatest honor history can bestow is that of peacemaker.
A man is not finished when he's defeated; he's finished when he quits.
People react to fear, not love -- they don't teach that in Sunday School, but it's true.
If you want to make beautiful music, you must play the black and the white notes together.
Finishing second in the Olympics gets you silver. Finishing second in politics gets you oblivion.
Only if you have been in the deepest valley, can you ever know how magnificent it is to be on the highest mountain.
Lynn Nottage
Procrastination needn't be your enemy.
Novalis
Character is destiny.
Only if a man is happily married to himself is he fit for married life and family life in general.
Nyadol Nyuon
When you're accustomed to privilege, equality feels like oppression.