The quote database

Life is a stern business in any case: why pretend that it is anything else?

There is no royal road to the control of the brain.

I never arrived at the perfection I had been so ambitious of obtaining, but fell far short of it, yet I was, by the endeavour, a better and a happier man than I otherwise should have been if I had not attempted it

While my care was employ'd in guarding against one fault, I was often surprised by another; habit took the advantage of inattention; inclination was sometimes too strong for reason.

Expect no healthy conclusions from me this month, reader; I can offer you only sick men's dreams.

You will fail at some point in your life. Accept it. You will lose. You will embarrass yourself. You will suck at something. There is no doubt about it.

but to have the spleen, and to dream upon't, is a punishment I would not wish my greatest enemy

If a man is unhappy, remember that his unhappiness is his own fault; for God has made all men to be happy, to be free from perturbations.

To admit failure at this stage was hard, but the facts had to be faced.

One should always follow a denial with an affirmation.

At times I would rise up, a flash of energetic freedom would dart through my soul, accompanied with a faint beam of hope, that flickered for a moment, and then vanished.

If happiness is to be so measured, I who cannot hear or see have every reason to sit in a corner with folded hands and weep.

Fatal is the discovery that our friend is fallible, that he has prejudices.

To admit that this picture has its shades is but to say that it is still the condition of men upon earth.

I seemed to have nothing left to live for.

In that category before anything else comes old age, to which all wish to attain, and at which all grumble when attained.

Overlooking partial and temporary evils as inseparable from the practical operation of all human institutions, and looking only to the general result, every patriot has reason to be satisfied.

We give thanks for these things and that gratitude reciprocates, creating more to be thankful for. It’s simple, and it works.

Life is a verb. We try our best. We don’t always do our best.

Life’s not easy…don’t try and make it that way. It’s not fair, it never was, it isn’t now, it won’t ever be.

If happiness is what you’re after, then you are going to be let down frequently and be unhappy much of your time.

It also makes for contentedness, when things happen against our wish, not to overlook our many advantages and comforts, but by looking at both good and bad to feel that the good preponderate.

the sensible make their life pleasanter and more endurable by mitigating their sorrows with the consideration of their blessings, while most people, like sieves, let the worst things stick to them while the best pass through

the body is weighed down by the burden of what presses on it, but the soul often adds to the real load a burden of its own

Let us cleanse therefore the fountain of contentedness, which is within us, that so external things may turn out for our good, through our putting the best face on them.