Inspirational Quotes from Books discussion

A thread on which to post quotes about living life to the full.

“Be always resolute with the present hour. Every moment is of infinite value.” – Johann von Goethe

“See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil." Ephesians 5:15:16

"Be where you are, and do what you are doing." Shaker Proverb

Qu'as-tu fait, toi que voilà,
Pleurant sans cesse?
Dis--qu'as-tu fait, toi que voilà,
De ta jeunesse?

--Paul Verlaine.

Which being translated is:
What have you done, you there,
Weeping all the time?
Tell me, what have you done, you there,
With your youth?

(I often want to quote this at young whiners who have youth, health, time and educational opportunities, as well as first-world lifestyles.)

More things in this life are sacramental than we suppose.
Jade Woman

Here is a test to find out whether your mission in life is finished: If you're alive, it isn't.
(Richard Bach, Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah)

I suppose that a desire to return to what seemed a happier era is present in all of us at different times and to varying degrees. But there is a quality of death in nostalgia. Perhaps a more wholesome approach is to look at the past as honestly as we can, to claim it as our own, and to realise that we always live in present moments. Therefore, we are not trapped into trying to relive our past.

--Barbara Howard

"You are a good boy, Masao. Meditate more."

"If only I could find the time."

"Stand still and very quietly. The time will find you."

Howard Fast, The Case Of The Poisoned Eclairs

"When an idea has hardened into consequences, it is too late to change it for another. That is why ideas should never be put into practice the moment you have them. They should be chewed like cud for twenty-four hours."

Elizabeth Goudge, Linnets and Valerians

A couple of good ones, Orinoco!

Many people spend their lives waiting...for the kids to grow up, for a new job, for the right person in their lives...and forget to live. On that thought:

"Every day is good enough. Every day is filled with challenges and frustrations, amazingly beautiful easy moments and confusing, difficult puzzles. That's life! Don't wait for it to change!"
--Joan GregersonTuning In to Inner Peace: The Surprisingly Fun Way to Transform Your Life

Life engenders life.
Energy creates energy.
It is by spending oneself that one becomes rich.

My Double Life: The Memoirs of Sarah Bernhardt

We'd never get anything fixed to suit us if we waited for things to suit us before we started.

Laura Ingalls Wilder, By the Shores of Silver Lake

If you're born without wings, do nothing to preclude them from growing.

Coco Chanel, quoted in Sleeping with the Enemy: Coco Chanel, Nazi Agent

Thought provoking!

It is not given to man to begin; that privilege is God's alone. But it is given to man to begin again.

--Elie WieselMessengers of God: Biblical Portraits and Legends

Thank goodness we can!

Anna wrote: "Thank goodness we can!"

Yes! I read somewhere that either Luther or Melanchton said that "we worship the God of the "agains". I don't have a source for it though.

Those who dream by day are cognizant of many things that escape those who only dream by night.

--Edgar Allan Poe

"Not what we have, but what we enjoy, constitutes our abundance." -- J. Petit-Senin

And along those lines:
"If we paid ten cents a pound for something, didn't enjoy it and threw some of it out, it was extravagant. If we paid ten dollars for it, ate every crumb and licked the dish--it was a bargain!" Mrs. Rasmussen's book of one-arm cookery,

Orinoco Womble (tidy bag and all) wrote: ""Not what we have, but what we enjoy, constitutes our abundance." -- J. Petit-Senin"

I know that to be true but I could never have said it so succinctly.

Indeed!
Auntie Mame put it another way: "Life is a banquet, and most damned fools are starving to death."Auntie Mame: An Irreverent Escapade

“Even the darkest night will end and the sun will rise.”
Victor Hugo, Les Misérables

“It is nothing to die. It is frightful not to live.”
― Victor Hugo, Les Misérables

Les Misérables is surely influential in many ways. Some there to remember, Corinne.

I will never fear or avoid a possible good rather than a certain evil.--Plato

I'm not sure I understand that completely, or if I would take it to an extreme--but it makes me think. And since I seem to be the only person posting here or reading any of this...well, there it is.

You're certainly not the only one reading this, Orinoco! And I have just spent a couple of minutes reading and rereading your quotation from Plato.

Thank you.

A nation is not its lands; a nation is its hands. -- Gurajada Apparao, quoted in The Many Conditions of Love

Which led me to:

"Hands to work, hearts to God." (Shaker Proverb)

I din't know we owe that one to the Shakers. Good for them.

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do, so throw off the bowlines, sail away from safe harbor, catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore, Dream, Discover." Mark Twain

"What should be done, can be done." Derrick Bell in the Foreword to Mississippi Harmony: Memoirs of a Freedom Fighter

"Speak truth to power." Quaker proverb

We don't live in the opinions of critics.
Qiu Xiaolong, The Mao Case

Orinoco Womble (tidy bag and all) wrote: ""Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do, so throw off the bowlines, sail away from safe harbor, catch the trade winds in yo..."

The same thought appears in the first few pages of


"They say it's not the things you've done that you regret most but the things you haven't done."

How very true - unless, of course, we've done something very wrong!

I've often read online, that when you're on your deathbed the one thing you will be sure not to say is, "I should have spent more time at the office."

Now you've got me laughing - it's so true.

Apparently this group has 107 members. I wonder where they all are?

Mysteries of life!!

Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience. Our problem is that people all over the world have obeyed the dictates of leaders...and millions have been killed because of this obedience. Our problem is that people are obedient all over the world in the face of poverty and starvation, stupidity, war and cruelty. Our problem is that people are obediente while the jails are full of petty thieves...and the grand theives are running the country. That's our problem.

Howard Zinn, The Zinn Reader: Writings on Disobedience and Democracy

All wisdom can be stated in two lines: What is done for you--allow it to be done. What you must do for yourself--make sure you do it.

Dorothy Gilman: A Nun in the Closet

Learn to make the best of what you have. If you can't have that, you have this. Learn to love this.

Jean Lucey Pratt, A Notable Woman: The Romantic Journals of Jean Lucey Pratt