PROJECT EDITOR
Deborah DeFord
PROJECT ART EDITOR
Judy Speicher
RESEARCH EDITOR
Mark LaFlaur
COVER ILLUSTRATOR
Travis Foster
Sales of this book without a front cover may be unauthorized. If this book is coverless, it may have been reported to the publisher as “unsold or destroyed” and neither the author nor the publisher may have received payment for it.
Copyright © 1997 by The Reader’s Digest Association, Inc.
All rights reserved. Unauthorized reproduction, in any manner, is prohibited.
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Reader’s digest quotable quotes : wit and wisdom for all occasions from America’s most popular magazine.
p.cm.
Includes index.
ISBN 13: PLACEHOLDER
1.Quotations, English. I. Reader’s Digest Association.
PN6083.R431997
082--dc2096-34560
Reader’s Digest is a registered trademarks of The Reader’s Digest Association, Inc.
Contents
A Note from the Editors
Within Ourselves
People Together
Our Better Side
For Better or Worse
When We Act
The Art of Conversation
Civilization’s Gift
The Nature of Life
The Natural World
The World of Nations
Index
A Note from the Editors
“The only thing sure about luck is that it will change.”
That quote from Bret Harte is as appealing today as when it ran in the very first appearance of Quotable Quotes®—in the May 1933 issue of Reader’s Digest. Since then, thousands of quotes have graced the feature, delighting and inspiring generations of readers.
In a publication that prides itself on the art of condensation, the quotations in this popular collection represent the finest tradition of brevity: they package profound ideas in just a few words. In compiling this column, we search out quotes that are serious and those that are amusing. We look for provocative comments, well expressed, on universal themes. Ideal candidates can be contemporary or classic, timeless or topical, whimsical or earnest.
We cull quotes from a wide variety of sources—books, newspapers, magazines, television, radio, movies, the Internet, anywhere we come across a likely thought pithily expressed. And these gems have a life span that endures long after and far beyond their appearance in The Digest. They can be found on refrigerator doors, sprinkled into commencement speeches, enlivening sales pitches, wherever someone thinks they can do the most good. Humorists and social commentators have thrived on them. And more than a few have wound their way into a poignant eulogy.
By their very nature, Quotable Quotes beg to be repeated, whether you share them during trying times or use them to drive home a point. What you derive from Quotable Quotes is of course personal, yet these brief words can also serve as a bridge to connect people or ideas.
In Quotable Quotes you’ll find the wit and wisdom of men and women from all walks of life and from all ages—from Benjamin Franklin to Colin Powell, Abraham Lincoln to Mother Teresa of Calcutta, Margaret Mead to Garrison Keillor. Read what they have to say. And enjoy it!
THE ADVANTAGE OF SOLITUDE . . .
Be able to be alone. Lose not the advantage of solitude.
—SIR THOMAS BROWNE
When we cannot bear to be alone, it means we do not properly value the only companion we will have from birth to death—ourselves.
—EDA LESHAN
in Newsday (Long Island, New York)
We visit others as a matter of social obligation. How long has it been since we have visited with ourselves?
—MORRIS ADLER
We cannot confront solitude without moral resources.
—HONORÉ DE BALZAC
Madame de la Chanterie
The result of joining two solitudes will always be a greater solitude.
—PEDRO LUIS
Flores de Otuno
Solitude is a good place to visit but a poor place to stay.
—JOSH BILLINGS
The same fence that shuts others out shuts you in.
—BILL COPELAND
There’s one thing worse than being alone: wishing you were.
—BOB STEELE
Loneliness and the feeling of being uncared for and unwanted are the greatest poverty.
—MOTHER TERESA OF CALCUTTA
Of all things that can happen to us, triumph is the most difficult to endure when we are alone. Deprived of witnesses, it shrinks at once.
—GABRIELLE ROY
La Detresse et L’enchantement
Our language has wisely sensed the two sides of being alone. It has created the word “loneliness” to express the pain of being alone. And it has created the word “solitude” to express the glory of being alone.
—PAUL TILLICH
The Eternal Now
The man who goes alone can start today; but he who travels with another must wait until the other is ready.
—HENRY DAVID THOREAU
What a lovely surprise to finally discover how unlonely being alone can be.
—ELLEN BURSTYN
Man loves company—even if it is only that of a small burning candle.
—GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG
THE RIGHT MEASURE OF HIMSELF . . .
Fortunate, indeed, is the man who takes exactly the right measure of himself and holds a just balance between what he can acquire and what he can use.
—PETER LATHAM
Integrity is not a conditional word. It doesn’t blow in the wind or change with the weather. It is your inner image of yourself, and if you look in there and see a man who won’t cheat, then you know he never will.
—JOHN D. MACDONALD
The Turquoise Lament
Integrity has no need of rules.
—ALBERT CAMUS
We get so much in the habit of wearing a disguise before others that we eventually appear disguised before ourselves.
—JIM BISHOP
We don’t know who we are until we see what we can do.
—MARTHA GRIMES
Writer’s Handbook
What we must decide is how we are valuable rather than how valuable we are.
—EDGAR Z. FRIEDENBERG
Our credulity is greatest concerning the things we know least about. And since we know least about ourselves, we are ready to believe all that is said about us. Hence the mysterious power of both flattery and calumny.
—ERIC HOFFER
The Passionate State of Mind
No one beneath you can offend you. No one your equal would.
—JAN L. WELLS
The superior man is distressed by the limitations of his ability; he is not distressed by the fact that men do not recognize the ability he has.
—CONFUCIUS
No man, for any considerable time, can wear one face to himself and another to the multitude without finally getting bewildered as to which may be the true.
—NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE
Maybe taking ourselves for somebody else means that we cannot bear to see ourselves as we are.
—ALBERT BRIE
Le Devoir
Until you make peace with who you are, you’ll never be content with what you have.
—DORIS MORTMAN
Circles
If we have our own “why” of life, we can bear almost any “how.”
—FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE
Man shies away from nothing as from a rendezvous with himself—which makes the entertainment industry what it is.
—FRITZ MULIAR
To have doubted one’s own first principles is the mark of a civilized man.
—OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES JR.
When one is out of touch with oneself, one cannot touch others.
—ANNE MORROW LINDBERGH
Gift From the Sea
Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.
—CARL G. JUNG
Memories, Dreams, Reflections
Fair play is primarily not blaming others for anything that is wrong with us.
—ERIC HOFFER
Working and Thinking on the Waterfront
Our opinion of people depends less upon what we see in them than upon what they make us see in ourselves.
—SARAH GRAND
One can only face in others what one can face in oneself.
—JAMES BALDWIN
—DWIGHT L. MOODY
Being yourself is not remaining what you were, or being satisfied with what you are. It is the point of departure.
—SYDNEY J. HARRIS
People often say that this or that person has not yet found himself. But the self is not something that one finds. It is something one creates.
—THOMAS SZASZ
The Second Sin
You have to start knowing yourself so well that you begin to know other people. A piece of us is in every person we can ever meet.
—JOHN D. MACDONALD
introduction to Night Shift by Stephen King
The best vision is insight.
—MALCOLM S. FORBES
in Forbes magazine
Men go abroad to wonder at the heights of mountains, at the huge waves of the sea, at the long courses of the rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motions of the stars; and they pass by themselves without wondering.
—ST. AUGUSTINE
If a man happens to find himself, he has a mansion which he can inhabit with dignity all the days of his life.
—JAMES A. MICHENER
No sooner do we think we have assembled a comfortable life than we find a piece of ourselves that has no place to fit in.
—GAIL SHEEHY
Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves.
—HENRY DAVID THOREAU
You may find the worst enemy or best friend in yourself.
—ENGLISH PROVERB
Know yourself. Don’t accept your dog’s admiration as conclusive evidence that you are wonderful.
—ANN LANDERS
Be yourself. No one can ever tell you you’re doing it wrong.
—JAMES LEO HERLIHY
Often we change jobs, friends and spouses instead of ourselves.
—AKBARALI H. JETHA
Reflections
Everybody thinks of changing humanity and nobody thinks of changing himself.
—LEO TOLSTOY
Everyone complains of his memory, and nobody complains of his judgment.
—FRANÇOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
SO SOOTHING TO OUR SELF-ESTEEM . . .
Nothing is so soothing to our self-esteem as to find our bad traits in our forebears. It seems to absolve us.
—VAN WYCK BROOKS
From a Writer’s Notebook
I don’t want everyone to like me; I should think less of myself if some people did.
—HENRY JAMES
When we are confident, all we need is a little support.
—ANDRÉ LAURENDEAU
Une Vie D’Enfer
We may not return the affection of those who like us, but we always respect their good judgment.
—LIBBIE FUDIM
A man can stand a lot as long as he can stand himself.
—AXEL MUNTHE
Misfortunes one can endure—they come from outside; they are accidents. But to suffer for one’s own faults—ah, there is the sting of life.
—OSCAR WILDE
We are all worms, but I do believe I am a glowworm.
—WINSTON CHURCHILL
The most difficult secret for a man to keep is the opinion he has of himself.
—MARCEL PAGNOL
Appearances give us more pleasure than reality, especially when they help to satisfy our egos.
—ÉMILE CHEVALIER
The ingenuities we practice in order to appear admirable to ourselves would suffice to invent the telephone twice over on a rainy summer morning.
—BRENDAN GILL
We have to learn to be our own best friends because we fall too easily into the trap of being our worst enemies.
—RODERICK THORP
Rainbow Drive
A human being’s first responsibility is to shake hands with himself.
—HENRY WINKLER
—HAIM GINOTT
We appreciate frankness from those who like us. Frankness from others is called insolence.
—ANDRÉ MAUROIS
We probably wouldn’t worry about what people think of us if we could know how seldom they do.
—OLIN MILLER
We judge ourselves by what we feel capable of doing, while others judge us by what we have already done.
—HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW
Argue for your limitations and, sure enough, they’re yours.
—RICHARD BACH
Illusions
Morale is self-esteem in action.
—AVERY WEISMAN, MD
Lack of something to feel important about is almost the greatest tragedy a man may have.
—ARTHUR E. MORGAN
Once in a century a man may be ruined or made insufferable by praise. But surely once in a minute something generous dies for want of it.
—JOHN MASEFIELD
In the depth of winter I finally learned that there was in me an invincible summer.
—ALBERT CAMUS
Lyrical and Critical Essays
Self-respect is the fruit of discipline; the sense of dignity grows with the ability to say no to oneself.
—ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHEL
The better we feel about ourselves, the fewer times we have to knock somebody else down to feel tall.
—ODETTA
A man can’t ride your back unless it’s bent.
—REV. MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.
Never feel self-pity, the most destructive emotion there is. How awful to be caught up in the terrible squirrel cage of self.
—MILLICENT FENWICK
Self-pity in its early stages is as snug as a feather mattress. Only when it hardens does it become uncomfortable.
—MAYA ANGELOU
Gather Together in My Name
Trust yourself. You know more than you think you do.
—BENJAMIN SPOCK, MD
Baby and Child Care
IMAGINATION IS A GOOD HORSE TO CARRY YOU . . .
Imagination is a good horse to carry you over the ground—not a flying carpet to set you free from probability.
—ROBERTSON DAVIES
The Manticore
Imagin
ation is the true magic carpet.
—NORMAN VINCENT PEALE
The man who has no imagination has no wings.
—MUHAMMAD ALI
Imagination offers people consolation for what they cannot be, and humor for what they actually are.
—ALBERT CAMUS
There are lots of people who mistake their imagination for their memory.
—JOSH BILLINGS
You can’t depend on your judgment when your imagination is out of focus.
—MARK TWAIN
He who has imagination without learning has wings but no feet.
—JOSEPH JOUBERT
Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it, we go nowhere.
—CARL SAGAN
Cosmos
Imagination is the highest kite that one can fly.
—LAUREN BACALL
Lauren Bacall, By Myself
Imagination is as good as many voyages—and much cheaper.
—GEORGE WILLIAM CURTIS
I believe in the imagination. What I cannot see is infinitely more important than what I can see.