Big Books of 2026

Bryan Joppan > Bryan's Quotes

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  • #1
    Charles Dickens
    “I never thought, when I used to read books, what work it was to write them.... It's work enough to read them sometimes.... As to the writing, it has its own charms.”
    ― Charles Dickens, David Copperfield
    tags: hard-work, reading, work, writing, writing-craft
    2 likes

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  • #2
    Oscar Wilde
    “Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.”
    ― Oscar Wilde
    tags: attributed-no-source, be-yourself, gilbert-perreira, honesty, inspirational, misattributed-oscar-wilde, quote-investigator
    176983 likes

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  • #3
    Maya Angelou
    “Let's tell the truth to people. When people ask, 'How are you?' have the nerve sometimes to answer truthfully. You must know, however, that people will start avoiding you because, they, too, have knees that pain them and heads that hurt and they don't want to know about yours. But think of it this way: If people avoid you, you will have more time to meditate and do fine research on a cure for whatever truly afflicts you.”
    ― Maya Angelou, Letter to My Daughter
    tags: honesty, humanity, self-worth, social-mores
    1061 likes

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  • #4
    Kent M. Keith
    “ The Paradoxical Commandments

    People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered.
    Love them anyway.

    If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.
    Do good anyway.

    If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies.
    Succeed anyway.

    The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow.
    Do good anyway.

    Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.
    Be honest and frank anyway.

    The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds.
    Think big anyway.

    People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs.
    Fight for a few underdogs anyway.

    What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.
    Build anyway.

    People really need help but may attack you if you do help them.
    Help people anyway.

    Give the world the best you have and you'll get kicked in the teeth.
    Give the world the best you have anyway.”
    ― Kent M. Keith, The Silent Revolution: Dynamic Leadership in the Student Council
    tags: forgiveness, goodness, happiness, honesty, kindness, misattributed-to-mother-teresa, world
    34330 likes

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  • #5
    Laurell K. Hamilton
    “The truth may not set you free, but used carefully, it can confuse the hell out of your enemies.”
    ― Laurell K. Hamilton, Micah
    tags: enemies, honesty, truth
    327 likes

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  • #6
    Ashly Lorenzana
    “Never try to do anything that is outside of who you are. A forced smile is a sign of what feels wrong in your heart, so recognize it when it happens. Living a lie will reduce you to one.”
    ― Ashly Lorenzana
    tags: deception, forced, honesty, identity, lies, life, morality, self-awareness
    315 likes

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  • #7
    William Faulkner
    “Unless you're ashamed of yourself now and then, you're not honest”
    ― William Faulkner
    tags: ashamed, honesty, yourself
    318 likes

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  • #8
    Marcus Aurelius
    “Never esteem anything as of advantage to you that will make you break your word or lose your self-respect.”
    ― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
    tags: fidelity, honesty, self-respect
    329 likes

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  • #9
    Dark Jar Tin Zoo
    “She asked if I loved another woman, so I answered honestly and said, “Dinner was great, but I could go for dessert.”
    ― Dark Jar Tin Zoo, Love Quotes for the Ages. Specifically Ages 19-91.
    tags: dinner, food, funny, honesty, humor, love, relationships, word-junkies
    56 likes

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  • #10
    Rachel Maddow
    “The single best thing about coming out of the closet is that nobody can insult you by telling you what you've just told them.”
    ― Rachel Maddow
    tags: coming-out-of-the-closet, commentary, gay, honesty, lesbian, lgbt, msnbc, political, politics, rachel-maddow, truth
    505 likes

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  • #11
    Oscar Wilde
    “Appearance blinds, whereas words reveal.”
    ― Oscar Wilde
    tags: clarity, honesty, oscar-wilde, words, writing
    329 likes

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  • #12
    Immanuel Kant
    “Seek not the favor of the multitude; it is seldom got by honest and lawful means. But seek the testimony of few; and number not voices, but weigh them.”
    ― Immanuel Kant
    tags: favor, friendship, honesty, seek, testimony, trust
    235 likes

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  • #13
    Thomas Jefferson
    “The whole art of government consists in the art of being honest.”
    ― Thomas Jefferson, A Summary View of the Rights of British America. Reprinted from the Original Ed
    tags: government, honesty
    175 likes

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  • #14
    Criss Jami
    “When you have wit of your own, it's a pleasure to credit other people for theirs.”
    ― Criss Jami, Killosophy
    tags: copying, copyright, copyright-infringement, creativity, credit, envy, helping-others, honesty, originality, plagiarism, pleasure, selfishness, skill, support, talent, wit
    169 likes

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  • #15
    Salman Rushdie
    “Masks beneath masks until suddenly the bare bloodless skull.”
    ― Salman Rushdie, The Satanic Verses
    tags: face, honesty, mask, people
    215 likes

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  • #16
    Sherrilyn Kenyon
    “Yeah, it never fails to amaze me how a single lie can undo an entire lifetime of good. (Aiden)”
    ― Sherrilyn Kenyon, Upon the Midnight Clear
    tags: honesty, lying
    183 likes

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  • #17
    Robert A. Heinlein
    “I do know that the slickest way to lie is to tell the right amount of truth--then shut up.”
    ― Robert A. Heinlein, Stranger in a Strange Land
    tags: deception, honesty, politics
    196 likes

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  • #18
    Henry Adams
    “No man means all he says, and yet very few say all they mean, for words are slippery and thought is viscous.”
    ― Henry Adams, The Education of Henry Adams
    tags: government, honesty, integrity, truth-telling
    136 likes

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  • #19
    Ralph Waldo Emerson
    “Speak what you think today in hard words and tomorrow speak what tomorrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict every thing you said today.”
    ― Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self-Reliance: An Excerpt from Collected Essays, First Series
    tags: fearlessness, honesty, speaking-your-mind
    190 likes

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  • #20
    Criss Jami
    “To be truly positive in the eyes of some, you have to risk appearing negative in the eyes of others.”
    ― Criss Jami, Killosophy
    tags: controversial, differences, honesty, making-sense-of-the-world, negative, pleasing-others, positive, real, risky, social-status
    135 likes

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  • #21
    Paul Wellstone
    “Never separate the life you lead from the words you speak.”
    ― Paul Wellstone
    tags: honesty
    125 likes

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  • #22
    David Levithan
    “You know there's no such thing as a complete lie. There's always some truth in there.”
    ― David Levithan, Will Grayson, Will Grayson
    tags: communication, honesty, lies, truth
    96 likes

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  • #23
    Criss Jami
    “Being nice merely to be liked in return nullifies the point.”
    ― Criss Jami, Killosophy
    tags: canceled, cancelled, dishonesty, honesty, insincerity, kind, nice, nullified, pointless, sincerity
    111 likes

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  • #24
    Agatha Christie
    “When you find that people are not telling you the truth---look out!”
    ― Agatha Christie, The Mysterious Affair at Styles
    tags: honesty
    122 likes

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  • #25
    Simone Weil
    “We have to endure the discordance between imagination and fact. It is better to say, “I am suffering,” than to say, “This landscape is ugly.”
    ― Simone Weil
    tags: accountability, courage, honesty, inspiration, status-quo, truth
    155 likes

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  • #26
    Ludwig van Beethoven
    “Nothing is more intolerable than to have admit to yourself your own errors.”
    ― Ludwig van Beethoven
    tags: honesty, mistakes
    108 likes

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  • #27
    Socrates
    “Is it true; is it kind, or is it necessary?”
    ― Socrates, Essential Thinkers - Socrates
    tags: honesty, truth, truth-telling
    160 likes

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  • #28
    Thomas Jefferson
    “Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations...entangling alliances with none”
    ― Thomas Jefferson
    81 likes

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  • #29
    Haruki Murakami
    “There is nothing in this world that never takes a step outside a person's heart.”
    ― Haruki Murakami, 1Q84
    82 likes

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  • #30
    Jodi Picoult
    “Suddenly this is all too hard. I am tired of putting up walls. I want someone with the strength - and the honesty - to break them down.”
    ― Jodi Picoult, Vanishing Acts
    tags: break, honesty, strength, wall
    266 likes



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