Famous Quotes & Sayings

Charles Dickens

All other swindlers upon earth are nothing to the self-swindlers, and with such pretences did I cheat myself. Surely a curious thing. That I should innocently take a bad half-crown of somebody else's manufacture, is reasonable enough; but that I should knowingly reckon the spurious coin of my own make, as good money!

Charles Caleb Colton

Alas! how has the social spirit of Christianity been perverted by fools at one time, and by knaves and bigots at another; by the self-tormentors of the cell, and the all-tormentors of the conclave!

Charles Caleb Colton

He that abuses his own profession will not patiently bear with any one else who does so. And this is one of our most subtle operations of self-love. For when we abuse our own profession, we tacitly except ourselves; but when another abuses it, we are far from being certain that this is the case.

Charles Caleb Colton

Self-love, in a well-regulated breast, is as the steward of the household, superintending the expenditure, and seeing that benevolence herself should be prudential, in order to be permanent, by providing that the reservoir which feeds should also be fed.

Charles Caleb Colton

We are sure to be losers when we quarrel with ourselves; it is civil war.

Charles Dickens

Old Mr. Rarx was not a pleasant man to look at, nor yet to talk to, or to be with, for no one could help seeing that he was a sordid and selfish character, and that he had warped further and further out of the straight with time.

Charles Dickens

Notwithstanding his very liberal laudation of himself, however, the Major was selfish. It may be doubted whether there ever was a more entirely selfish person at heart; or at stomach is perhaps a better expression, seeing that he was more decidedly endowed with that latter organ than with the former.

Charles Stross

I'd like to be proven wrong firstly on the difficulty of building a self-sustaining closed circuit ecosystem in space that can support human life.

Charles Spurgeon

What is needed is not the removal of the trouble but the conquest of self.

Denis Waitley

Give your best effort, because you are worth your best effort.

Anton Chekhov

Despite your best efforts, you could not invent a better police force for literature than criticism and the author's own conscience.

Brandon Sanderson

Marsh: Our best efforts were never even a mild annoyance to the Lord Ruler." Kelsier: Ah, but being an annoyance is something that I am very good at. In fact, I'm far more than just a 'mild' annoyance--people tell me I can be downright frustrating. Might as well use this talent for the cause of good, eh?

Jacki Weaver

I guess just a lively imagination is the best effort an actor can have.

Jeremy Lin

I realize I had to learn ... to stop chasing the perishable prizes of this earth ... and give my best effort unto God and trust Him with the results.

Harriet Beecher Stowe

Everyone confesses in the abstract that exertion which brings out all the powers of body and mind is the best thing for us all; but practically most people do all they can to get rid of it, and as a general rule nobody does much more than circumstances drive them to do.

Gerald R. Ford

Never be satisfied with less than your very best effort. If you strive for the top and miss, you'll still 'beat the pack.'

Peter Lynch

There's no use diversifying into unknown companies just for the sake of diversity. A foolish diversity is the hobgoblin of small investors. That said, it isn't safe to own just one stock, because in spite of your best efforts, the one you choose might be the victim of unforeseen circumstances. In small portfolios, I'd be comfortable owning between three and ten stocks.

Peter Straub

Fear and I were old buddies, despite my best efforts to the contrary.

Charles Dickens

We lawyers are always curious, always inquisitive, always picking up odds and ends for our patchwork minds, since there is no knowing when and where they may fit into some corner.

Charles Spurgeon

This is faith, receiving the truth of Christ; first knowing it to be true, and then acting upon that belief.

Alan Alda

I'm greedy for that satisfaction of doing something hard and knowing that, even though I was afraid I couldn't do it, that somehow I can deliver.

Aiden Wilson Tozer

To know God is to fear Him. And this fear is to love Him as He deserves to be loved.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Death would be a complete knowingness, but what frightened him was this: not knowing beforehand what it was he would know.

Dave Barry

I never start a section of the story without knowing how it will end. I also consciously try to shape the story as though it were a movie.

David Sanborn

Its all about finding the right note at the right place and knowing when to leave well enough alone. And that's a lifelong quest.

Bruce Wilkinson

What counts is knowing who you want to be and asking for it.

Bryan Stevenson

Knowing what I know about the people who have come before me, and the people who came before them, and what they had to do, it changes my capacity to stay engaged, to stay productive.