Quotations - My Personal Favorites
Ranked #3,418 in Books, Poetry & Writing, #130,388 overall
Why I Love Quotations...
I've always been inspired or amused or enlightened by quotations...sometimes all three at once!
But that's not the only reason I like quotations. Quotations are like poetry, if you think about it. Spontaneous poetry. Some funny; some serious; some inspiring. But all are glimmers of truth.
This page will highlight some of my favorite quotations. I hope they'll touch you the same way they touch me.
Enjoy.
Quotations by Topic
You'll find quotations on a variety of topics on this page. It is by no means definitive but it's a list of my favorites. I'll add to them from time to time so visit often to refresh your memory or learn a new quote.
Quotations On Success
A lovely goal for anyone...
SUCCESS
Ralph Waldo Emerson
To laugh often and much
to win the respect
of intelligent people
and the affection of children;
to earn the appreciation
of honest critics and endure
the betrayal of false friends;
to appreciate beauty,
to find the best in others;
to leave the world
a bit better, whether
by a healthy child,
a garden patch
or a redeemed social condition;
to know even one life
has breathed easier
because you have lived.
That is to have succeeded.
"I merely took the energy it takes to pout and wrote some blues."
Duke Ellington
On Challenges
"We are all faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as unsolvable problems."
-- John W. Gardner
"When written in Chinese, the word 'crisis' is composed of two characters. One represents danger and the other represents opportunity."
John F. Kennedy
"Learn from the mistakes of others. You can't live long enough to make them all yourself."
-- Eleanor Roosevelt
"I will not let past failures haunt me. Even though my life is scarred with mistakes, I refuse to rummage through my trash heap of failures. I will admit them. I will correct them. I will press on. Victoriously. No failure is fatal. It's OK to stumble . . . I will get up. It's OK to fail . . . I will rise again. Today I will make a difference."
(Max Lucado)
"The cautious seldom err."
(Confucious)
"I -think-I-can, I-think-I-can, I-think-I-can..."
(The Little Engine That Could)
On Enlightenment
This ancient proverb is simple but profound.
"Before enlightenment - chop wood, carry water.
After enlightenment - chop wood, carry water."
"Sound when stretched is music. Movement when stretched is dance. Mind when stretched is meditation. Life when stretched is celebration." ~Shri Shri Ravishankar Jee
On Dreams
Everyone dreams...
Erma Bombeck was a funny, wise and beloved writer. This is one of her gems.
There are people who put their dreams in a little box and say, 'Yes, I've got dreams, of course I've got dreams.' Then they put the box away and bring it out once in awhile to look in it, and yep, they're still there.
These are great dreams, but they never even get out of the box. It takes an uncommon amount of guts to put your dreams on the line, to hold them up and say, 'How good or how bad am I?' That's where courage comes in."
-- Erma Bombeck
On Risk and Failure
So very true...
"Yes, risk taking is inherently failure-prone. Otherwise, it would be called sure-thing-taking." ~Tim McMahon
"The thing we call "failure" is not the falling down, but the staying down. Mary Pickford
On Tolerance
"People take different roads seeking fulfillment and happiness. Just because they're not on your road doesn't mean they've gotten lost."
H. Jackson Brown
(As a fairly opinionated person (at times) it's important for me to remember this...)
On Freedom
"Freedom is not given to us by anyone; we have to cultivate it ourselves."
~Thich Nhat Hanh
On Christmas
And the Grinch, with his Grinch-feet ice cold in the snow,
stood puzzling and puzzling,
how could it be so?
It came without ribbons.
It came without tags.
It came without packages, boxes or bags.
And he puzzled and puzzled
'till his puzzler was sore.
Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before.
"What if Christmas", he thought, "doesn't come from a store.
What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more."
Dr. Seuss
Holiday Quotes and More
A gift for you or someone you love...
Humor for the Holidays: Stories, Quips, and Quotes for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years
Amazon Price: $0.32 (as of 05/27/2012)![]()
From the Product Description:
Holidays can be both fun and frustrating, can't they? All the chaos that goes with the holidays can make you grin or groan. What you need for happy holidays is to have your stocking stuffed with tasty bits of humor.
Imagine reaching into your stocking and finding a hilarious story by Patsy Clairmont, pulling out funny-bone ticklers by Martha Bolton, Jack Hayford, and Tim Wildmon, and discovering goodies to make you giggle by many other gifted writers.
So grab a cup of wassail, curl up in your favorite chair, and indulge yourself with this heart-lifting book of holiday cheer -- it's stuffed full of special surprises to raise your spirits and add joy to your world!
On Wisdom
"Besides the noble art of getting things done, there is a nobler art of leaving things undone. The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of nonessentials."
Lin Yutang
On Self Worth
"Sometimes, if you stand on the bottom rail of a bridge
and lean over to watch the river slipping slowly away beneath you,
you will suddenly know everything there is to be known."
A. A. Milne, Pooh's Little Instruction Book
"Once we give up searching for approval, we often find it easier to earn respect."
(Gloria Steinem)
The greatest thing in the world is to know how to belong to oneself."
(Montaigne)
On Camping
And here are a couple of good Dave Barry quotes about the great outdoors:
"Camping is nature's way of promoting the motel business."
(My sentiments, exactly)"It always rains on tents. Rainstorms will travel thousands of miles, against prevailing winds for the opportunity to rain on a tent."
"The ultimate camping trip was the Lewis and Clark expedition."
(Boy, isn't THAT the truth??)
On Peace

Peace: It does not mean to be in a place where there is no noise, trouble or hard work. It means to be in the midst of those things and still be calm in your heart."
On Goals
Reaching for a goal is as important as achieving it....That's my own personal thought...

"Don't say you don't have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein."
-- H. Jackson Brown
And my favorite (because it's fun) is:
"Even Noah got no salary for the first six months partly on account of the weather and partly because he was learning navigation."
(Mark Twain)
More Gift Books on Quotations
These would make excellent gifts for anyone who loves reading.
"The person who doesn't read good books has no advantage over the person who can't read them."
.......Mark Twain
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Thanks for stopping by...
Please leave a message to let me know you visited.
I'd love it if you would share your favorite quotes, too.
I don't know who first said this but I'll end with another of my very favorite quotes..."A smile is a silent hello".
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BarbaraCasey
Nov 29, 2011 @ 10:41 pm | delete
- Some great zingers on this page, thanks.
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CherylK Feb 1, 2012 @ 10:31 pm | delete
- Thanks, Barbara!
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WebaliciousGuides
Sep 23, 2011 @ 4:16 pm | delete
- Very inspirational lens, thanks!
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CherylK Nov 29, 2011 @ 12:56 pm | delete
- So glad you enjoyed it...thank you for visiting.
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Gloriousconfusion
Feb 13, 2011 @ 9:02 am | delete
- i Love this lens and the quotations you have chosen - here are some Angel Blessings, and I am lensrolling to my lenses "Quiz: Famous Quotes" and "Quiz: Quotes by Famous People"
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More Favorite Quotations Books...
by CherylK
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