Big Books of 2026

Madison > Madison's Quotes

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  • #1
    “People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it.”
    ― Puck Magazine
    tags: misattributed-confucius, misattributed-g-b-shaw
    823 likes

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  • #2
    George Bernard Shaw
    “The man who writes about himself and his own time is the only man who writes about all people and all time.”
    ― George Bernard Shaw
    325 likes

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  • #3
    George Bernard Shaw
    “Never wrestle with pigs. You both get dirty and the pig likes it.”
    ― George Bernard Shaw
    tags: bernard-shaw, irish, pigs, pointlessness
    1154 likes

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  • #4
    George Bernard Shaw
    “My religious convictions and scientific views cannot at present be more specifically defined than as those of a believer in creative evolution. I desire that no public monument or work of art or inscription or sermon or ritual service commemorating me shall suggest that I accepted the tenets peculiar to any established church or denomination nor take the form of a cross or any other instrument of torture or symbol of blood sacrifice.

    [From the will of GBS]”
    ― George Bernard Shaw
    tags: blood-sacrifice, commemoration, cross, denomination, evolution, monument, religious-convictions, ritual, science, scientific, sermon, service, tenets, torture, views
    344 likes

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  • #5
    George Bernard Shaw
    “Life does not cease to be funny when people die any more than it ceases to be serious when people laugh.”
    ― George Bernard Shaw, The Doctor's Dilemma
    248 likes

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  • #6
    George Bernard Shaw
    “Better keep yourself clean and bright; you are the window through which you must see the world.”
    ― George Bernard Shaw
    tags: english-playwright
    350 likes

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  • #7
    George Bernard Shaw
    “Patriotism is, fundamentally, a conviction that a particular country is the best in the world because you were born in it....”
    ― George Bernard Shaw
    tags: anti-patriotism, identity, nation, nationalism, politics
    785 likes

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  • #8
    George Bernard Shaw
    “A Native American elder once described his own inner struggles in this manner: Inside of me there are two dogs. One of the dogs is mean and evil. The other dog is good. The mean dog fights the good dog all the time. When asked which dog wins, he reflected for a moment and replied, The one I feed the most.”
    ― George Bernard Shaw
    tags: conscience, good-and-evil, humanity, native-americans, self-determination
    820 likes

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  • #9
    George Bernard Shaw
    “When a stupid man is doing something he is ashamed of, he always declares that it is his duty.”
    ― George Bernard Shaw, Caesar and Cleopatra
    211 likes

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  • #10
    Rudyard Kipling
    “Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind.”
    ― Rudyard Kipling
    tags: words
    5548 likes

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  • #11
    Rudyard Kipling
    “I never made a mistake in my life; at least, never one that I couldn't explain away afterwards.”
    ― Rudyard Kipling, Under The Deodars
    tags: humor, justification, mistakes, pretexts
    699 likes

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  • #12
    George MacDonald
    “Come, then, affliction, if my Father wills, and be my frowning friend. A friend that frowns is better than a smiling enemy. ”
    ― George MacDonald
    130 likes

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  • #13
    John Piper
    “He has made me wary of chronological snobbery. That is, he showed me that newness is no virtue and oldness is no vice. Truth and beauty and goodness are not determined by when they exist. Nothing is inferior for being old, and nothing is valuable for being modern. This has freed me from the tyranny of novelty and opened for me the wisdom of the ages.”
    ― John Piper, Don't Waste Your Life
    tags: new, old, value
    40 likes

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  • #14
    John Steinbeck
    “When a child first catches adults out -- when it first walks into his grave little head that adults do not always have divine intelligence, that their judgments are not always wise, their thinking true, their sentences just -- his world falls into panic desolation. The gods are fallen and all safety gone. And there is one sure thing about the fall of gods: they do not fall a little; they crash and shatter or sink deeply into green muck. It is a tedious job to build them up again; they never quite shine. And the child's world is never quite whole again. It is an aching kind of growing.”
    ― John Steinbeck, East of Eden
    tags: coming-of-age, fall-of-the-gods, growing-up, parents
    1779 likes

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  • #15
    John Piper
    “The thought of building a life around minimal morality or minimal significance—a life defined by the question, “What is permissible?”—felt almost disgusting to me. I didn’t want a minimal life. I didn’t want to live on the outskirts of reality. I wanted to understand the main thing about life and pursue it.”
    ― John Piper, Don't Waste Your Life
    tags: life
    14 likes

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  • #16
    John Piper
    “America is the first culture in jeopardy of amusing itself to death.”
    ― John Piper, Don't Waste Your Life
    tags: america, amusement, entertainment, excess
    60 likes

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  • #17
    John Piper
    “But whatever you do, find the God-centered, Christ-exalting, Bible-saturated passion of your life, and find your way to say it and live for it and die for it. And you will make a difference that lasts. You will not waste your life.”
    ― John Piper, Don't Waste Your Life
    tags: christian-living, making-a-difference, passion
    91 likes

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  • #18
    W. Somerset Maugham
    “People ask you for criticism, but they only want praise.”
    ― W. Somerset Maugham, Of Human Bondage
    tags: criticism
    422 likes

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  • #19
    R.C. Sproul
    “Here, then, is the real problem of our negligence. We fail in our duty to study God's Word not so much because it is difficult to understand, not so much because it is dull and boring, but because it is work. Our problem is not a lack of intelligence or a lack of passion. Our problem is that we are lazy. ”
    ― R. C. Sproul
    112 likes

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  • #20
    C.S. Lewis
    “Mental pain is less dramatic than physical pain, but it is more common and also more hard to bear. The frequent attempt to conceal mental pain increases the burden: it is easier to say “My tooth is aching” than to say “My heart is broken.”
    ― C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain
    tags: depression, pain
    2804 likes

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  • #21
    C.S. Lewis
    “All your life an unattainable ecstasy has hovered just beyond the grasp of your consciousness. The day is coming when you will wake to find, beyond all hope, that you have attained it, or else, that it was within your reach and you have lost it forever.”
    ― C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain
    71 likes

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  • #22
    John Steinbeck
    “It has always seemed strange to me...The things we admire in men, kindness and generosity, openness, honesty, understanding and feeling, are the concomitants of failure in our system. And those traits we detest, sharpness, greed, acquisitiveness, meanness, egotism and self-interest, are the traits of success. And while men admire the quality of the first they love the produce of the second.”
    ― John Steinbeck, Cannery Row
    tags: life
    1335 likes

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  • #23
    John Steinbeck
    “There's more beauty in truth, even if it is dreadful beauty.”
    ― John Steinbeck, East of Eden
    tags: truth
    1500 likes

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  • #24
    John Steinbeck
    “I believe a strong woman may be stronger than a man, particularly if she happens to have love in her heart. I guess a loving woman is indestructible.”
    ― John Steinbeck, East of Eden
    3687 likes

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  • #25
    John Steinbeck
    “Don't make everyone know about your sadness.”
    ― John Steinbeck
    291 likes

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  • #26
    “It is easier to act yourself into a new way of thinking, than it is to think yourself into a new way of acting.”
    ― Millard Fuller
    78 likes

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  • #27
    Thom Yorke
    “I want to be alone and I want people to notice me — both at the same time”
    ― Thom Yorke
    153 likes

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  • #28
    Friedrich Nietzsche
    “It is not a lack of love, but a lack of friendship that makes unhappy marriages.”
    ― Friedrich Nietzsche
    tags: friendship, lack-of-friendship, lack-of-love, love, marriage, unhappy-marriage
    42402 likes

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  • #29
    C.S. Lewis
    “Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art.... It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things which give value to survival.”
    ― C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves
    tags: friendship, inspirational
    10663 likes

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  • #30
    Jalal ad-Din Muhammad ar-Rumi
    “Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing
    and rightdoing there is a field.
    I'll meet you there.

    When the soul lies down in that grass
    the world is too full to talk about.”
    ― Rumi
    tags: friendship, love, peace, silence, soul, zen
    9444 likes



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Tags From Madison’s Quotes

misattributed-confucius
misattributed-g-b-shaw
bernard-shaw
irish
pigs
pointlessness
blood-sacrifice
commemoration
cross
denomination
evolution
monument
religious-convictions
ritual
science
scientific
sermon
service
tenets
torture
views
english-playwright
anti-patriotism
identity
nation
nationalism
politics
conscience
good-and-evil
humanity
native-americans
self-determination
words
humor
justification
mistakes
pretexts
new
old
value
coming-of-age
fall-of-the-gods
growing-up
parents
life
america
amusement
entertainment
excess
christian-living
making-a-difference
passion
criticism
depression
pain
truth
friendship
lack-of-friendship
lack-of-love
love
marriage
unhappy-marriage
inspirational
peace
silence
soul
zen