Lynne > Lynne's Quotes

“The busy man is never wise and the wise man is never busy.”
― Lin Yutang

“The wise man reads both books and life itself.”
― Lin Yutang

“Besides the noble art of getting things done, there is the noble art of leaving things undone. The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of non-essentials.”
― Lin Yutang, The Importance of Living

“It's only those who do nothing that make no mistakes, I suppose.”
― Joseph Conrad, An Outcast of the Islands

“We live as we dream--alone....”
― Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness

“My task, which I am trying to achieve is, by the power of the written word, to make you hear, to make you feel--it is, before all, to make you see.”
― Joseph Conrad, Lord Jim

“Let them think what they liked, but I didn't mean to drown myself. I meant to swim till I sank -- but that's not the same thing.”
― Joseph Conrad, The Secret Sharer and other stories

“Your strength is just an accident arising from the weakness of others.”
― Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness

“Facing it, always facing it, that’s the way to get through. Face it.”
― Conrad Joseph

“Life is not a having and a getting, but a being and a becoming.”
― Matthew Arnold

“To be conservative, then, is to prefer the familiar to the unknown, to prefer the tried to the untried, fact to mystery, the actual to the possible, the limited to the unbounded, the near to the distant, the sufficient to the superabundant, the convenient to the perfect, present laughter to utopian bliss.”
― Michael Joseph Oakeshott, Rationalism in Politics and other essays

“The rule of law bakes no bread, it is unable to distribute loaves or fishes (it has none), and it cannot protect itself against external assault, but it remains the most civilized and least burdensome conception of a state yet to be devised.”
― Michael Joseph Oakeshott, On history and other essays

“Like Midas, the Rationalist is always in the unfortunate position of not being able to touch anything, without transforming it into an abstraction; he can never get a square meal of experience.”
― Michael Joseph Oakeshott, Rationalism in Politics and other essays

“The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”
― Lao Tzu

“Those who know do not speak. Those who speak do not know.”
― Lao Tsu, Tao Teh Ching

“The truth is not always beautiful, nor beautiful words the truth.”
― Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

“The best fighter is never angry.”
― Lao Tzu

“Care about what other people think and you will always be their prisoner.”
― Lao Tzu

“Silence is a source of Great Strength.”
― Lao Tzu

“Conviction is worthless unless it is converted into conduct.”
― Thomas Carlyle

“Go as far as you can see; when you get there, you'll be able to see further.”
― Thomas Carlyle

“A loving heart is the beginning of all knowledge.”
― Thomas Carlyle

“What we become depends on what we read after all of the professors have finished with us. The greatest university of all is a collection of books.”
― Thomas Carlyle, On Heroes, Hero Worship and the Heroic in History

“The tragedy of life is not so much what
men suffer, but rather what they miss.”
― Thomas Carlyle

“We no longer dare to believe in beauty and we make of it a mere appearance in order the more easily to dispose of it. Our situation today shows that beauty demands for itself at least as much courage and decision as do truth and goodness, and she will not allow herself to be separated and banned from her two sisters without taking them along with herself in an act of mysterious vengeance. We can be sure that whoever sneers at her name as if she were the ornament of a bourgeois past -- whether he admits it or not -- can no longer pray and soon will no longer be able to love.”
― Hans Urs von Balthasar, Seeing the Form

“Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.”
― Albert Einstein

“The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven..”
― John Milton, Paradise Lost

“True beauty could be discovered only by one who mentally complete the incomplete.”
― Kakuzō Okakura, The Book of Tea

“Those who cannot feel the littleness of great things in themselves are apt to overlook the greatness of little things in others.”
― Okakura Kakuzo

“People are not taught to be really virtuous, but to behave properly.”
― Kakuzō Okakura, The Book of Tea