The Quotes canon
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Browse all 10,075 quotes or apply filters in different categories to narrow your search.
Browse all 10,075 quotes or apply filters in different categories to narrow your search.
Aristotle3 quotes
We learn an art or craft by doing the things that we shall have to do when we have learnt it. — Aristotle · 322 BCNeither by nature, then, nor contrary to nature do the virtues arise in us; rather we are adapted by nature to receive them, and are made perfect by habit. — Aristotle · 322 BCThe good of man is the active exercise of his soul's faculties in conformity with excellence or virtue... Moreover this activity must occupy a complete lifetime; for one swallow does not make spring, nor does one fine day; and similarly one day or a brief period of happiness does not make a man supremely blessed and happy. — Aristotle · 322 BCBenjamin Franklin2 quotes
Each year one vicious habit rooted out, in time might make the worst man good throughout. — Benjamin Franklin · 1738How few there are who have courage enough to own their Faults, or resolution enough to mend them! — Benjamin Franklin · 1743Confucius2 quotes
Is Goodness indeed so far away? If we really wanted Goodness, we should find that it was at our very side. — Confucius · 221 BCIn the presence of a good man, think all the time how you may learn to equal him. In the presence of a bad man, turn your gaze within. — Confucius · 221 BCAdam Smith1 quote
Never complain of that of which it is at all times in your power to rid yourself. — Adam Smith · 1759Albert Einstein1 quote
Try not to become a man of success but rather try to become a man of value. — Albert Einstein · 1955Carl Jung1 quote
If there is anything that we wish to change in the child, we should first examine it and see whether it is not something that could better be changed in ourselves. — Carl Jung · 1939E.M. Forster1 quote
Of all means to regeneration Remorse is surely the most wasteful. It cuts away healthy tissues with the poisoned. It is a knife that probes far deeper than the evil. — E.M. Forster · 1910Eugene Delacroix1 quote
Cultivate a well-ordered mind, it's your only road to happiness; and to reach it, be orderly in everything, even in the smallest details. — Eugene Delacroix · 1823Frances Burney1 quote
O, we all acknowledge our faults, now; 'its the mode of the day: but the acknowledgement passes for current payment; and therefore we never amend them. — Frances Burney · 1796Fred Rogers1 quote
I'm proud of you for the times you came in second, or third, or fourth, but what you did was the best you had ever done. — Fred Rogers · 2003Gautama Buddha1 quote
If you find a man who points out faults and who reproves, follow such a wise person as you would a guide to hidden treasure. — Gautama Buddha · 520 BCHenry Adams1 quote
All experience is an arch, to build upon. — Henry Adams · 1907Henry David Thoreau1 quote
I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by a conscious endeavor. — Henry David Thoreau · 1854Joshua Reynolds1 quote
If you have great talents, industry will improve them: if you have but moderate abilities, industry will supply their deficiency. — Joshua Reynolds · 1769Kazuo Ishiguro1 quote
If you are under the impression you have already perfected yourself, you will never rise to the heights you are no doubt capable of. — Kazuo Ishiguro · 1989Leo Tolstoy1 quote
Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself. — Leo Tolstoy · 1900Marcus Aurelius1 quote
Waste no more time arguing what a good man should be. Be one. — Marcus Aurelius · 180Melvin Udall1 quote
You make me want to be a better man. — Melvin Udall · 1997Michael J. Fox1 quote
I am careful not to confuse excellence with perfection. Excellence, I can reach for; perfection is God's business. — Michael J. Fox · 1997Michel de Montaigne1 quote
Virtue shuns ease as a companion... It demands a rough and thorny path. — Michel de Montaigne · 1580Oliver Wendell Holmes1 quote
Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul,
As the swift seasons roll!
Leave thy low-vaulted past! — Oliver Wendell Holmes · 1858Robert M. Pirsig1 quote
The place to improve the world is first in one's own heart and head and hands. — Robert M. Pirsig · 1974W. Somerset Maugham1 quote
The only way to be new is constantly to change yourself, and the only way to be original is to increase, enlarge, deepen your own personality. — W. Somerset Maugham · 1949William Makepeace Thackeray1 quote
Whatever you are, try to be a good one. — William Makepeace Thackeray · 1897Xunxi1 quote
To pursue it is to be human, to give it up is to be a beast. — Xunxi · 250 BC