cooper > cooper'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

“The science of government it is my duty to study, more than all other sciences; the arts of legislation and administration and negotiation ought to take the place of, indeed exclude, in a manner, all other arts. I must study politics and war, that our sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. Our sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history and naval architecture, navigation, commerce and agriculture in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry and porcelain.”
― John Adams, Letters of John Adams, Addressed to His Wife

“Surrender? I have not yet begun to fight!”
― John Paul Jones, Memoirs Of Rear-admiral John Paul Jones

“I am a slow walker, but I never walk back.”
― Abraham Lincoln

“To the non-combatants and those on the periphery of action, the war meant only boredom or occasional excitement, but to those who entered the meat grinder itself the war was a netherworld of horror from which escape seemed less and less likely as casualties mounted and the fighting dragged on and on. Time had no meaning, life had no meaning. The fierce struggle for survival in the abyss of Peleliu had eroded the veneer of civilization and made savages of us all.”
― E.B. Sledge, With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa

“England expects that every man will do his duty.”
― Horatio Nelson

“I don't measure a man's success by how high he climbs but how high he bounces when he hits bottom”
― General George S. Patton

“I laugh because I must not cry, that is all, that is all. ”
― Abraham Lincoln

“The longer I live, the more I read, the more patiently I think, and the more anxiously I inquire, the less I seem to know...Do justly. Love mercy. Walk humbly. This is enough.”
― John Adams, The Letters of John and Abigail Adams

“Books serve to show a man that those original thoughts of his aren't very new after all.”
― Abraham Lincoln

“No captain can do very wrong if he places his ship alongside that of the enemy.”
― Horatio Nelson

“The practice of love offers no place of safety. We risk loss, hurt, pain. We risk being acted upon by forces outside our control.”
― Bell Hooks, All About Love: New Visions

“No persons are more frequently wrong, than those who will not admit they are wrong.”
― François de La Rochefoucauld

“Courage is fear holding on a minute longer.”
― George S. Patton Jr.

“It is with true love as with ghosts and apparitions: Every one talks of it, and scarcely any one has seen it”
― La Rochefoucauld

“When I do good, I feel good. When I do bad, I feel bad. That's my religion.”
― Abraham Lincoln

“We forgive so long as we love.”
― Francois Duc De La Rochefoucauld, Reflections or Sentences and Moral Maxims

“Being born in a stable does not make one a horse.”
― Arthur Wellesley Wellington

“I cannot trust a man to control others who cannot control himself.”
― Robert E. Lee

“When in doubt, ATTACK!”
― George S. Patton

“Nothing in the world is worth having or worth doing unless it means effort, pain, difficulty… I have never in my life envied a human being who led an easy life. I have envied a great many people who led difficult lives and led them well.”
― Theodore Roosevelt

“The only man who never makes mistakes is the man who never does anything.”
― Theodore Roosevelt

“Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.”
― Abraham Lincoln

“The poorest way to face life is to face it with a sneer. There are many men who feel a kind of twister pride in cynicism; there are many who confine themselves to criticism of the way others do what they themselves dare not even attempt. There is no more unhealthy being, no man less worthy of respect, than he who either really holds, or feigns to hold, an attitude of sneering disbelief toward all that is great and lofty, whether in achievement or in that noble effort which, even if it fails, comes to second achievement. A cynical habit of thought and speech, a readiness to criticise work which the critic himself never tries to perform, an intellectual aloofness which will not accept contact with life’s realities — all these are marks, not as the possessor would fain to think, of superiority but of weakness. They mark the men unfit to bear their part painfully in the stern strife of living, who seek, in the affection of contempt for the achievements of others, to hide from others and from themselves in their own weakness. The role is easy; there is none easier, save only the role of the man who sneers alike at both criticism and performance.”
― Theodore Roosevelt, The Roosevelt Book: Selections From the Writings of Theodore Roosevelt

“Guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism.”
― George Washington

“To encourage literature and the arts is a duty which every good citizen owes to his country.”
― George Washington

“When you're at the end of your rope, tie a knot and hold on.”
― Theodore Roosevelt

“Uncommon valor was a common virtue.”
― Chester W. Nimitz

“Don't tell people how to do things, tell them what to do and let them surprise you with their results.”
― George S. Patton

“To return to love, to get the love we always wanted but never had, to have the love we want but are not prepared to give, we seek romantic relationships. We believe these relationships, more than any other, will rescue and redeem us. True love does have the power to redeem but only if we are ready for redemption. Love saves us only if we want to be saved.”
― bell hooks, All About Love: New Visions