Category: Quotes

Quotes & Memes

Quotes May 22-23, 2024

Do the right thing by whoever crosses your path. Those coincidental people are your people.
Maxine Hong Kingston,
writer
May is Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month
 
 
 
 
We evolved, moved around and had success. Success gave us the confidence to push on.
Bruce Nordstrom,
businessperson, retail executive
1933-2024
 
 
 
 
“We live in a perpetually burning building, and what we must save from it, all the time, is love.”
Tennessee Williams
 
 
 
 
“To be a champ, you have to believe in yourself when nobody else will.”
Sugar Ray Robinson
 
 
 
 
Happiness cannot be traveled to, owned, earned, worn or consumed. Happiness is the spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace, and gratitude.
Denis Waitley – Author and Speaker
 
 
 
 
“The air is the only place free from prejudice.”
Bessie Coleman
 
 
 
 
“Follow your heart, your instincts. People might try to dissuade you from your passion, but no one can live your life but you.”
Olympia Dukakis
 
 

Quotes May 21, 2024

The great thing about music, it’s an open sky, it just never ends.
My favorite record is the one I haven’t made yet.
David Sanborn,
alto saxophonist
1945-2024
 
 
 
 
Forget regret / Or life is yours to miss / No other road / No other way / No day but today
Another dance / Another way / Another chance / Another day
Jonathan Larson,
composer, lyricist, playwright
 
 
 
 
We say of some things that they can’t be forgiven, or that we will never forgive ourselves. But we do — we do it all the time.
Alice Munro,
writer
1931-2024
 
 
 
 
Don’t be afraid to invent your own future.
Zena Cardman
 
 
 
 
A winner is a dreamer who never gives up.
Nelson Mandela – 1918-2013 – President of South Africa 1994-1999-Humanitarian-Social Activist
 
 
 
 
The key is not the will to win. Everybody has that. It is the will to prepare to win that is important.
Bobby Knight – American Basketball Coach
 
 
 
 
One word of encouragement can be enough to spark someone’s motivation to continue with a difficult challenge.
Roy T. Bennett – 1939-2014 – Author
 
 
 
 
If you really want to be successful and you really want to be happy, don’t have a job, have a purpose. When you’ve got a purpose, the whole world is your office.
Paulo Coelho – Author
 
 

Quotes May 20, 2024

James Patterson
The Secret Lives of Booksellers and Librarians

Matt Eversmann retired from the US Army after twenty years of service. His first book with James Patterson was Walk in My Combat Boots.

Chris Mooney is the internationally bestselling author of fourteen thrillers. The Mystery Writers of America nominated Remembering Sarah for an Edgar Award. He teaches creative writing at Harvard.
 
 
 
 
Kelly Moore is an adult services librarian at a public library in the Dallas–Fort Worth area of northern Texas.
“Use Nancy Pearl’s formula,” I say, explaining the blueprint that the famed librarian came up with over a decade ago. “She says you should give a book fifty pages. But if you’re over the age of fifty, take your age and subtract it from a hundred. So, if you’re seventy, give the book thirty pages. Life is too short to waste on reading a book you’re not enjoying.”
 
 
 
 
Suzette Baker is a military veteran and former head librarian at the Kingsland Branch Library in Llano County, Texas.
Steve Potash, CEO of the digital distributor OverDrive—one of the systems canceled by our county for carrying what they called inappropriate books—hugs me and breaks down in tears.
 
 
 
 
Karen Roy has been a medical research librarian and a children’s librarian. She has worked around the country and now lives in New York City.
“Who dares to teach must never cease to learn” is a magnificent quotation from the librarian John Cotton Dana in 1912.
 
 
 
 
Bill Kelly is the adult programming manager for the Cuyahoga County Public Library in Northeast Ohio, near Cleveland.
Libraries level the playing field. They’re free and open to the public. All are welcome. Our doors are open. Come in and learn to become your best self. Follow your dreams and reach your true potential. Let your reach exceed your grasp. Whatever book you want to read, it’s free on the honor system.

It’s hard to imagine anywhere else in our society so devoted to the concept of everyone being completely equal.

Quotes May 18-19, 2024

Quotes courtesy of Lori Deschene/Tiny Buddha

“Beautiful young people are accidents of nature, but beautiful old people are works of art.”
Eleanor Roosevelt
 
 
 
 
“Sometimes what you’re most afraid of doing is the very thing that will set you free.”
Robert Tew
 
 
 
 
“New beginnings are often disguised as painful endings.”
Lao Tzu
 
 
 
 
“Every day, the world will drag you by the hand, yelling, ‘This is important! And this is important! And this is important! You need to worry about this! And this! And this!’ And each day, it’s up to you to yank your hand back, put it on your heart, and say, ‘No. This is what’s important.’”
Iain Thomas
 
 
 
 
“The mystery of human existence lies not in just staying alive, but in finding something to live for.”
Fyodor Dostoyevsky
 
 
 
 
“It is important for people to know that no matter what lies in their past, they can overcome the dark side and press on to a brighter world.”
Dave Pelzer, A Child Called “It”
 
 
 
 
“Ever tried, ever failed, no matter. Try again, fail again, fail better.”
Samuel Beckett
 
 
 
 
“When we experience our lives through this lens of personal insufficiency, we are imprisoned in what I call the trance of unworthiness. Trapped in this trance, we are unable to perceive the truth of who we really are.”
Tara Brach
 
 
 
 
“Inner strengths are the supplies you’ve got in your pack as you make your way down the twisting and often hard road of life.”
Rick Hanson
 
 
 
 
“The person who lives life fully, glowing with life’s energy, is the person who lives a successful life.”
Daisaku Ikeda
 
 
 
 
“The flame that burns twice as bright burns half as long.”
Lao Tzu
 
 
 
 
“Words have the power to both destroy and heal. When words are both true and kind, they can change our world.”
Buddha
 
 

Quotes May 17, 2024

“The world is in a constant conspiracy against the brave. It’s the age-old struggle: the roar of the crowd on the one side, and the voice of your conscience on the other.”
Douglas Macarthur
 
 
 
 
“Somewhere inside, we hear a voice. It leads us in the direction of the person we wish to become. But it is up to us whether or not to follow.”
Pat Tillman
 
 
 
 
“In every battle there comes a time when both sides consider themselves beaten; then he who continues the attack wins.”
General Ulysses S. Grant
 
 
 
 
“The discipline which makes the soldiers of a free country reliable in battle is not to be gained by harsh or tyrannical treatment. On the contrary, such treatment is far more likely to destroy than to make an army. It is possible to impart instruction and give commands in such a manner and such a tone of voice as to inspire in the soldier no feeling but an intense desire to obey, while the opposite manner and tone of voice cannot fail to excite strong resentment and a desire to disobey. The one mode or the other in dealing with subordinates springs from a corresponding spirit in the breast of the commander. He who feels the respect which is due to others cannot fail to inspire in them respect for himself; while he who feels, and hence manifests, disrespect toward others, especially his subordinates, cannot fail to inspire hatred against himself.”
LTG John M. Schofield, 1879
 
 
 
 
“Without a word this uniform also whispers of freezing troops, injured bodies, and Americans left forever in foreign fields. It documents every serviceman’s courage, who by accepting this uniform, promises the one gift he truly has to give: his life. I wear my uniform for the heritage of sacrifice it represents and more. I wear my uniform with pride, for it represents the greatest nation of free people in the world.”
Captain Karen Dorman Kimmel
 
 

Quotes May 16, 2024

“No matter what you call it, music is as good as it sounds. Music is an oral art. Until you hear it, it is not music, and if it sounds good, it is good.”
Duke Ellington
 
 
 
 
Not everyone will make it to your future. Some people are just passing through to teach you lessons in life.
Danielle Steel – Writer
 
 
 
 
“I don’t believe you have to be better than everybody else. I believe you have to be better than you ever thought you could be.”
Ken Venturi
 
 
 
 
“Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.”
Benjamin Franklin
 
 
 
 
“A happy man is too satisfied with the present to dwell too much on the future.”
Albert Einstein
 
 
 
 
“A man who dares to waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life.”
Charles Darwin
 
 
 
 
“Greatness is not measured by what a man or woman accomplishes, but by the opposition he or she has overcome to reach his goals.”
Dorothy Height
 
 
 
 
“Be brave and clear. Follow your heart and don’t be overly influenced by outside factors. Be true to yourself.”
Shirley Temple Black
 
 
 
 
“Knowing what you cannot do is more important than knowing what you can do.”
Lucille Ball
 
 
 
 
“The greatness of a community is most accurately measured by the compassionate action of its members.”
Coretta Scott King
 
 
 
 
“Each and every one of you has the power, the will, and the capacity to make a difference in the world in which you live.”
Harry Belafonte

 
 
 
 

Quotes May 13-15

I try to remember we can always make a difference no matter how difficult things are. There’s no such thing as small. … Big or small, it’s all big.
Helen Zia,
writer, journalist, activist
May is Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month
 
 
 
 
As my Aunty Aima’a always says, Once a cup of water is spilled, it can never be retrieved.
Sia Figiel,
poet, writer
May is Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month
 
 
 
 
Twisted tight / the patterns of our ancestors / are revealed. / Twisted tight the shape / will come.
Imaikalani Kalahele,
poet, artist
May is Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month
 
 
 
 
It’s not something that is normalized in our culture, but it’s a very good skill to learn: to be vulnerable enough to ask for help and to receive help.
Jennifer Pharr Davis,
long-distance hiker, environmental activist, entrepreneur
 
 
 
 
All I want anyone to get out of my paintings is the fact that you can see the whole idea without any conclusion.
What you see is what you see.
Frank Stella,
painter, sculptor, printmaker
1936-2024
 
 
 
 
What do you value? What do you want to improve for others? The answers to these questions can be found in the present and will carry through a lifetime.
Zena Cardman,
astronaut
 
 
 
 
I was taught that the way of progress was neither swift nor easy.
Marie Curie – 1867-1934 – French-Polish Physicist
 
 
 
 
It’s just something that’s happening around us. It’s a reminder of the pageantry of nature. It can be very beautiful if you allow for that in your heart.
Jonathan Larson,
entomologist
on the emergence of the double brood of periodical cicadas
 
 
 
 
Classics:

The hard days are what make you stronger.
Aly Raisman – American Gymnast-Model
 
 
 
 
There is no traffic jam along the extra mile.
Roger Staubach – Former Football Player
 
 
 
 
If you start now you will start seeing the result one day earlier than if you wait until tomorrow.
Unknown
 
 
 
 

Quotes May 13-15, 2024

I try to remember we can always make a difference no matter how difficult things are. There’s no such thing as small. … Big or small, it’s all big.
Helen Zia,
writer, journalist, activist
 
 
 
 
May is Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month
As my Aunty Aima’a always says, Once a cup of water is spilled, it can never be retrieved.
Sia Figiel,
poet, writer
May is Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month
 
 
 
 
Twisted tight / the patterns of our ancestors / are revealed. / Twisted tight the shape / will come.
Imaikalani Kalahele,
poet, artist
May is Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month
 
 
 
 
It’s not something that is normalized in our culture, but it’s a very good skill to learn: to be vulnerable enough to ask for help and to receive help.
Jennifer Pharr Davis,
long-distance hiker, environmental activist, entrepreneur
 
 
 
 
All I want anyone to get out of my paintings is the fact that you can see the whole idea without any conclusion.
What you see is what you see.
Frank Stella,
painter, sculptor, printmaker
1936-2024
 
 
 
 
What do you value? What do you want to improve for others? The answers to these questions can be found in the present and will carry through a lifetime.
Zena Cardman,
astronaut
 
 
 
 
I was taught that the way of progress was neither swift nor easy.
Marie Curie – 1867-1934 – French-Polish Physicist
 
 
 
 
It’s just something that’s happening around us. It’s a reminder of the pageantry of nature. It can be very beautiful if you allow for that in your heart.
Jonathan Larson,
entomologist
on the emergence of the double brood of periodical cicadas
 
 
 
 
Classics

The hard days are what make you stronger.
Aly Raisman – American Gymnast-Model
 
 
 
 
There is no traffic jam along the extra mile.
Roger Staubach – Former Football Player
 
 
 
 
If you start now you will start seeing the result one day earlier than if you wait until tomorrow.
Unknown
 
 

Quotes May 12, 2024


 
 
 
 

Quotes May 11, 2024

Be strong enough to stand alone, smart enough to know when you need help, and brave enough to ask for it.
Ziad K. Abdelnour – Financier
 
 
 
 
“Failure will never stand in the way of success if you learn from it.”
Hank Aaron
 
 
 
 
“Life is not a spectator sport. If you’re going to spend your whole life in the grandstand just watching what goes on, in my opinion, you’re wasting your life.”
Jackie Robinson
 
 
 
 
“Study nature, love nature, stay close to nature. It will never fail you.”
Frank Lloyd Wright
 
 
 
 
“You learn about life by the accidents you have, over and over again.”
Kurt Vonnegut
 
 
 
 
“The good and the great are only separated by the willingness to sacrifice.”
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
 
 
 
 
“Stand for something. Always have class, and be humble.”
John Madden
 
 
 
 
“Enduring peace cannot be bought at the cost of other people’s freedom.”
Franklin D. Roosevelt
 
 
 
 
“A person doesn’t have to change who he is to become better.”
Sidney Poitier