51
The spirit of the frontier is written into our hearts.
The complete collection
The quote database
Every quote we hold, 1549 of them from 213 people across 387 works. Filter it, sort it, and follow any citation back to the source.
1529 checked at source
Filter the collection
Category
Feeling
Attribution
52
as it must be the supreme purpose of all free men, so it must be the dedication of their leaders, to save humanity from preying upon itself
53
Our attempts to banish this importunate duty will only make it return upon us again and again, and every time in a shape more unpleasant than the former.
54
Yet is it far better to light the candle than to curse the darkness.
Eleanor Rooseveltmisattributed·The Invincible Strategy, in The Supreme Conquest and Other Sermons Preached in America, by W. L. Watkinson·1907
Wrongly attributed
Adlai Stevenson used a version of this in his eulogy for Eleanor Roosevelt in 1962, and it has been hers ever since; it is also sold as Confucius and as an old Chinese proverb. It is neither. It is W. L. Watkinson, the English Methodist preacher, in a sermon called The Invincible Strategy, printed in 1907 -- and he presents it as a saying already in circulation rather than as his own coinage. What is certain is that this is the earliest printed appearance anybody has produced, and it predates Roosevelt's public life.
55
Life is not only short, but uncertain, and art is not only long, but absorbing.
56
If an idea, I reasoned, were really a valuable one, there must be some way of realising it.
57
It has always seemed to me, during many years of active private practice, that the first and constant aim of the family physician should be to diffuse the sanitary knowledge which would enable parents to bring up healthy children.
58
To me there was no question so important as the emancipation of women from the dogmas of the past, political, religious, and social.
59
After all is said, if the young people have an earnest purpose in life it is easy to plan a method of living and to carry it out.
60
Yet it is only intelligence and sympathy that can bring us closer to the source of human suffering, and teach us the ultimate way out of it.
61
Real wealth consists in things of utility and beauty, in things that help to create strong, beautiful bodies and surroundings inspiring to live in.
62
Lastly, and possibly most important, forests make this earth comfortable and beautiful. Next to the soil, they are the most useful and helpful of Nature's agencies.
63
Does it seem to you so small and worthless a thing to be good and happy?
64
When you want to succeed as bad as you want to breathe, then you'll be successful.
65
That was all of tangible things; but in memories we were rich. We had pierced the veneer of outside things.
66
The time for renewed action was coming, and though our situation was grave enough, we were facing the future hopefully.
67
Man should make an art of thinking.
68
The vision and action must go hand in hand.
69
The object of the game of life is to see clearly one’s good and to obliterate all mental pictures of evil.
70
Most people consider life a battle, but it is not a battle, it is a game.
71
Few things are needed to make a wise man happy; nothing can make a fool content; that is why most men are miserable.
72
Lives of nations are determined not by the count of years, but by the lifetime of the human spirit.
73
Preeminently, the power of our advocacy reposes in our example; but no example, be it remembered, can be powerful for lasting good, whatever apparent advantages may be gained, which is not based upon eternal principles of right and justice.
74
Hence a sound and comprehensive policy should embrace not less the distant future than the urgent present.
75
The silver trump of freedom had roused my soul to eternal wakefulness.