John > John's Quotes

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”
― Theodore Roosevelt

“Right, as the world goes, is only in question between equals in power, while the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must.”
― Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War

“He who feared that he would not succeed sat still.”
― Horace

“Only a fool learns from his own mistakes. The wise man learns from the mistakes of others.”
― Otto von Bismarck

“If you want a thing done well, do it yourself.”
― Napoleon Bonaparte

“He who defends everything, defends nothing.”
― Frederick the Great

“History will be kind to me for I intend to write it.”
― Winston S. Churchill

“Respect was invented to cover the empty place where love should be.”
― Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina

“Man cannot possess anything as long as he fears death. But to him who does not fear it, everything belongs. If there was no suffering, man would not know his limits, would not know himself. ”
― Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace

“The reason most people fail instead of succeed is they trade what they want most for what they want at the moment.”
― Napoleon Bonaparte

“everything comes in time to him who knows how to wait . . . there is nothing stronger than these two: patience and time, they will do it all.”
― Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace

“When in doubt, my dear fellow, do nothing.”
― Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace