Jon Angell > Jon's Quotes

“I speak to everyone in the same way, whether he is the garbage man or the president of the university.”
― Albert Einstein

“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go.”
― Dr. Seuss, I Can Read with My Eyes Shut!

“It is what you read when you don't have to that determines what you will be when you can't help it.”
― Oscar Wilde

“A children's story that can only be enjoyed by children is not a good children's story in the slightest.”
― C.S. Lewis

“An imbalance between rich and poor is the oldest and most fatal ailment of all republics.”
― Plutarch

“To find fault is easy; to do better may be difficult.”
― Plutarch

“Once again, I was reminded that Tally was the prettiest girl I'd ever met, and when she smiled at me my mind went blank. Once you've seen a pretty girl naked, you feel a certain attachment to her.”
― John Grisham, A Painted House

“The one thing that doesn't abide by majority rule is a person's conscience.”
― Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird

“You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view... Until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it.”
― Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird

“In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on.”
― Robert Frost

“When you're traveling, you are what you are, right there and then. People don't have your past to hold against you. No yesterdays on the road.”
― William Least-Heat Moon

“Beware thoughts that come in the night. They aren't turned properly; they come in askew, free of sense and restriction, deriving from the most remote of sources.”
― William Least Heat-Moon, Blue Highways

“I am always humbled by the infinite ingenuity of the Lord, who can make a red barn cast a blue shadow.”
― E.B. White

“I’ve read that one out of twenty-four people is a sociopath, and if you ask me, the other twenty-three of you should be worried.”
― Lisa Scottoline, Every Fifteen Minutes

“Writing a check separates a commitment from a conversation.”
― Warren Buffett

“We who live in quiet places have the opportunity to become acquainted with ourselves, to think our own thoughts and live our own lives in a way that is not possible for those keeping up with the crowd.”
― Laura Ingalls Wilder

“Finding your way doesn't mean you always know where you're going. It's knowing how to find your way back home that's important.”
― Clare Vanderpool, Navigating Early

“...the person you encounter is often more than the person you see.”
― Clare Vanderpool, Moon Over Manifest

“Still, the question remained. Was he straitjacket strange or just go-off-by-yourself-at-recess-and-put-bugs-in-your-nose strange?”
― Clare Vanderpool, Navigating Early

“But my mom shook her head at him and said to me, "Yes, you made your bed, but for heaven's sakes, don't just lie in it!”
― Clare Vanderpool, Navigating Early

“Great words, arranged with cunning and artistry, could change the perceived world for some readers”
― Pat Conroy

“The 'private sector' of the economy is, in fact, the voluntary sector; and ... the 'public sector' is, in fact, the coercive sector.”
― Henry Hazlitt, Man vs. the Welfare State

“In dying, she allayed my greatest fear -- of death. Dying joined shoe tying and coat zipping and bed making on the long list of acts Mom demonstrated for her children, so that we could someday do it for ourselves.”
― Steve Rushin, Sting-Ray Afternoons

“Practically all government attempts to redistribute wealth and income tend to smother productive incentives and lead toward general impoverishment. It is the proper sphere of government to create and enforce a framework of law that prohibits force and fraud. But it must refrain from specific economic interventions. Government's main economic function is to encourage and preserve a free market. When Alexander the Great visited the philosopher Diogenes and asked whether he could do anything for him, Diogenes is said to have replied: "Yes, stand a little less between me and the sun." It is what every citizen is entitled to ask of his government.”
― Henry Hazlitt, Economics in One Lesson

“This is perhaps as good a place as any to point out that what distinguishes many reformers from those who cannot accept their proposals is not their greater philanthropy, but their greater impatience. The question is not whether we wish to see everybody as well off as possible. Among men of good will such an aim can be taken for granted. The real question concerns the proper means of achieving it. And in trying to answer this we must never lose sight of a few elementary truisms. We cannot distribute more wealth than is created. We cannot in the long run pay labor as a whole more than it produces.”
― Henry Hazlitt, Economics in One Lesson

“..either immediately or ultimately every dollar of government spending must be raised through a dollar of taxation. Once we look at the matter. In this way, the supposed miracles of government spending will appear in another light.”
― Henry Hazlitt, Economics in One Lesson

“There are men regarded today as brilliant economists, who deprecate saving and recommend squandering on a national scale as the way of economic salvation; and when anyone points to what the consequences of these policies will be in the long run, they reply flippantly, as might the prodigal son of a warning father: "In the long run we are all dead." And such shallow wisecracks pass as devastating epigrams and the ripest wisdom.”
― Henry Hazlitt, Economics in One Lesson

“Let’s imagine a cluttered room. It does not get messy all by itself. You, the person who lives in it, makes the mess. There is a saying that “a messy room equals a messy mind.” I look at it this way. When a room becomes cluttered, the cause is more than just physical. Visible mess helps distract us from the true source of the disorder. The act of cluttering is really an instinctive reflex that draws our attention away from the heart of an issue. If you can’t feel relaxed in a clean and tidy room, try confronting your feeling of anxiety. It may shed light on what is really bothering you. When your room is clean and uncluttered, you have no choice but to examine your inner state. You can see any issues you have been avoiding and are forced to deal with them. From the moment you start tidying, you will be compelled to reset your life. As a result, your life will start to change. That’s why the task of putting your house in order should be done quickly. It allows you to confront the issues that are really important. Tidying is just a tool, not the final destination. The true goal should be to establish the lifestyle you want most once your house has been put in order. Storage”
― Marie Kondō, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing

“The only time you truly become an adult is when you finally forgive your parents for being just as flawed as everyone else.”
― Douglas Kennedy, The Pursuit of Happiness

“People always think that happiness is a faraway thing," thought Francie, "something complicated and hard to get. Yet, what little things can make it up; a place of shelter when it rains - a cup of strong hot coffee when you're blue; for a man, a cigarette for contentment; a book to read when you're alone - just to be with someone you love. Those things make happiness.”
― Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn