Famous Quotes & Sayings

Michel de Montaigne

Is it not a noble farce, where kings, republics, and emperors have for so many ages played their parts, and to which the whole vast universe serves for a theatre?

Michel de Montaigne

What we are told of the inhabitants of Brazil, that they never die but of old age, is attributed to the tranquility and serenity of their climate; I rather attribute it to the tranquility and serenity of their souls, which are free from all passion, thought, or any absorbing and unpleasant labors. Those people spend their lives in an admirable simplicity and ignorance, without letters, without law, without king, without any manner of religion.

Michel de Montaigne

There is not one of us that would not be worse than kings, if so continually corrupted as they are with a sort of vermin called flatterers.

Michael Novak

We talk about a civilization and love and we're seeing it at the end. So many people around the world are - that whole electronic band that Dostoyevsky imagined of love around the world - that every contribution, every moment of love, every act of kindness feeds that and is like a reservoir for somebody in need to draw upon.

Markus Zusak

Clearly," said Arthur,"you're an idiot- but you're our kind of idiot. Come on.

Markus Zusak

And I can promise you something, because it was a thing I saw many years later - a vision in the book thief herself - that as she knelt next to Hans Hubermann, she watched him stand and play the accordion. He stood and strapped it on in the alps of broken houses and played the accordion with kindness silver eyes and even a cigarette slouched on his lips. The bellows breathed and the tall man played for Liesel Meminger one last time as the sky was slowly taken away from her.

Mark Twain

The humorous writer professes to awaken and direct your love, your pity, your kindness--your scorn for untruth, pretension, imposture....He takes upon himself to be the week-day preacher.

Mark Twain

It didn't take me long to make up my mind that these liars warn't no kings nor dukes at all, but just low-down humbugs and frauds. But I never said nothing, never let on; kept it to myself; it's the best way; then you don't have no quarrels, and don't get into no trouble. If they wanted us to call them kings and dukes, I hadn't no objections, 'long as it would keep peace in the family; and it warn't no use to tell Jim, so I didn't tell him. If I never learnt nothing else out of pap, I learnt that the best way to get along with his kind of people is to let them have their own way.

Mark Twain

All kings is mostly rapscallions, as fur as I can make out.

Mark Twain

When I am king they shall not have bread and shelter only, but also teachings out of books, for a full belly is little worth where the mind is starved.

Mark Twain

Kings cannot ennoble thee, thou good, great soul, for One who is higher than kings hath done that for thee; but a king can confirm thy nobility to men.

Mark Twain

The fact is, the king was a good deal more than a king, he was a man; and when a man is a man, you can't knock it out of him.

Mark Twain

The only people who should use the possessive 'we' are kings, newspaper editors, and persons with tapeworms.

Marianne Williamson

It's soul force that removed the English from India. It's soul force that brought down the Berlin Wall. It's soul force that gave life to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s struggle for civil rights.

Marianne Williamson

Desperately seeking something is not what attracts it to us. When we dwell, in deep peace and kindness, whatever would add to our happiness just flows to our door.

Mikhail Bulgakov

Kindness. The only possible method when dealing with a living creature. You'll get nowhere with an animal if you use terror, no matter what its level of development may be. That I have maintained, do maintain and always will maintain. People who think you can use terror are quite wrong. No, no, terror is useless, whatever its colour – white, red or even brown! Terror completely paralyses the nervous system.

Mikhail Baryshnikov

I really reject that kind of comparison that says, Oh, he is the best. This is the second best. There is no such thing.

Maria Cantwell

Dr. King's leadership reaffirmed the promise of our democracy: that everyday people, working together, have the power to change our government and our institutions for the better.

Margot Asquith

My dear old friend King George V told me he would never have died but for that vile doctor, Lord Dawson of Penn.

Margot Asquith

The ingrained idea that, because there is no king and they despise titles, the Americans are a free people is pathetically untrue. . . . There is a perpetual interference with personal liberty over there that would not be tolerated in England for a week.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Cowardice asks the question, is it safe?

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Every now and then I think about my own death, and I think about my own funeral. ... Every now and then I ask myself, 'What is it that I want said?' I'd like somebody to mention that day, that Martin Luther King Jr., tried to give his life serving others. I'd like for somebody to say that day, that Martin Luther King Jr., tried to love somebody.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Right defeated is stronger than evil triumphant.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Lord help me to see M. L. King as M. L. King in his true perspective.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Through violence, you may murder the hater, but you do not murder the hate.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

There are often multiple sources for some famous statements by King; as a professional speaker and minister he used some significant phrases with only slight variation many times in his essays, books, and his speeches to different audiences.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Our goal is to create a beloved community," said Dr. King, "and this will require a qualitative change in our souls as well as a quantitative change in our lives.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

I am not interested in power for power's sake, but I'm interested in power that is moral, that is right and that is good.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Returning violence for violence multiplies violence... Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

What are you doing for others?

Martin Luther King, Jr.

We are not makers of history. We are made by history.

Mark Webber

I don't really know what I'm ever looking for, it's kind of like whatever happens to resonate at the time with me.