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Reflection Quotes
"If I shall exist eternally, how shall I exist tomorrow?"
107
"Man never thinks himself happy, but when he enjoys those things which others want or desire."
91
"I never, even for a moment, doubted what they'd told me. This is why it is that adults and even parents can, unwittingly, be cruel: they cannot imagine doubt's complete absence. They have forgotten."
81
"What is this world? A mere curl of smoke for the wind to scatter."
77
"Don't ask why people keep hurting you. Ask yourself why are you allowing it to happen."
72
"Believe me, there is no such thing as great suffering, great regret, great memory... Everything is forgotten, even a great love. That's what's sad about life, and also what's wonderful about it. There is only a way of looking at things, a way that comes to you every once in a while. That's why it's good to have had love in your life after all, to have had an unhappy passion - it gives you an alibi for the vague despairs we all suffer from."
58
"If you think your teacher is tough, wait until you get a boss. He doesn't have tenure."
55
"If one oversteps the bounds of moderation, the greatest pleasures cease to please."
54
"What you do now will be in the past right after you do it."
54
"Nelson Mandela is physically separated from us, but his soul and spirit will never die. He belongs to the whole world because he is an icon of equality, freedom and love, the values we need all the time everywhere."
52
"Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind."
51
"The life which is unexamined is not worth living."
51
"There is always an easy solution to every problem - neat, plausible, and wrong."
51
"Nobody ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public."
50
"That which is bitter to endure may be sweet to remember."
50
"Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success."
48
"Be a reflection of what you'd like to see in others. You get in return what you give."
47
"The only really happy folk are married women and single men."
47
"To be honest I wrote it mainly from the reason and wanting something more than a life something which could explore my life at deeper level. Probably I have done it... probably I haven't done it... what I know is that I won't be for this Century like somebody famous... I will be still average, I can't go on the amazon and starting selling my works... I don't feel comfortable being in that state."
46
"Listen to what is being preached today. Look at everyone around us. You've wondered why they suffer, why they seek happiness and never find it. If any man stopped and asked himself whether he's ever held a truly personal desire, he'd find the answer. He'd see that all his wishes, his efforts, his dreams, his ambitions are motivated by other men. He's not really struggling even for material wealth, but for the second-hander's delusion - prestige. A stamp of approval, not his own. He can find no joy in the struggle and no joy when he has succeeded. He can't say about a single thing: 'This is what I wanted because I wanted it, not because it made my neighbors gape at me'. Then he wonders why he's unhappy."
46
"Reflection is a flower of the mind, giving out wholesome fragrance; but revelry is the same flower, when rank and running to seed."
45
"The word "lost" comes from the Old Norse "los," meaning the disbanding of an army, and this origin suggests soldiers falling out of formation to go home, a truce with the wide world. I worry now that many people never disband their armies, never go beyond what they know."
44
"Dawn was written well before 9/11. People speak a lot today about the banality of evil, but not all evil is banal. Some of it is carefully structured and well-thought-out. That's where the real danger lies."
43
"Realism is a bad word. In a sense everything is realistic. I see no line between the imaginary and the real."
43
"That's all I cared about too, was getting it right."
43
"I'm concerned about a better world. I'm concerned about justice; I'm concerned about brotherhood; I'm concerned about truth. And when one is concerned about that, he can never advocate violence. For through violence you may murder a murderer, but you can't murder murder. Through violence you may murder a liar, but you can't establish truth. Through violence you may murder a hater, but you can't murder hate through violence. Darkness cannot put out darkness; only light can do that."
43
"I am so tired. I have grown old from being serious. I have grown ill from being serious. I want to laugh at myself. I want to forget myself. I am so tired."
43
"How do you dare to ask me for a solution? It's like asking Seneca for a solution. You remember what he did? He committed suicide!"
42
"He thought each memory recalled must do some violence to its origins. As in a party game. Say the word and pass it on. So be sparing. What you alter in the remembering has yet a reality,known or not."
42
"Some things don't last forever, but some things do. Like a good song, or a good book, or a good memory you can take out and unfold in your darkest times, pressing down on the corners and peering in close, hoping you still recognize the person you see there."
42
"For all sad words of tongue and pen, The saddest are these, 'It might have been'."
41
"If you think you can do a thing or think you can't do a thing, you're right."
41
"We pass through the present with our eyes blindfolded. We are permitted merely to sense and guess at what we are actually experiencing. Only later when the cloth is untied can we glance at the past and find out what we have experienced and what meaning it has."
41
"I don't understand your book. Isn't every book a book of words?"
40
"Silence enhances music. What you do not play can sweeten what you do. But it is not the same with words. What you do not say can haunt you."
40
"When all you wanted was to be wanted, you wish you could go back and tell yourself what you know now."
40
"To sit and contemplate - to remember the faces of women without desire, to be pleased by the great deeds of men without envy, to be everything and everywhere in sympathy and yet content to remain where and what you are."
40
"I'm sorry that we have to have a Washington presence. We thrived during our first 16 years without any of this. I never made a political visit to Washington and we had no people here. It wasn't on our radar screen. We were just making great software."
39
"Geraldine keeps her eyes trained on him as she slowly reaches into her purse, wrapping her fingers around her gun. “Callo, I'm so sorry that your life ended up this way,” she sighs as she gets out of her side of the car, her feet burning from the cold as her high heels sink into the fallen snow. “Aren't you scared?”
"I'm you, Geraldine— I fell into the same trap as you, anyway,” Callo answers. His large eyes are shining with tears, but he doesn't seem afraid in the least. “The dead don't feel anything, you know— not even guilt or regret. So, what is there to be afraid of?”
39
"I think this was a nice idea we had in this country and a nice landscape to experiment with. But I think there comes a time in almost any experimentation or idea, where you have to evaluate it, maybe our time has come. In the context of the real world, not just the American world but all around, we haven't done too well. We are not a very good advertisement for the idea we represented. If you lose one wheel of the car, you might be able to get to the side of the road, and some freaks can make it on two, but if you lose three, man, you're in serious trouble. I think we've lost three."
39
"I will not debate with you Dark Elf. By the swords of the Noldor alone are your sunless woods defended. Your freedom to wander there wild you owe to my kin and but for them long since you would have laboured in thraldom in the pits of Angband. And here I am King and whether you will it or will it not my doom is law. This choice is given to you: abide here or to die here and so also for your son."
39
"We can learn from IBM's successful history that you don't have to have the best product to become number one. You don't even have to have a good product."
39
"People do not like to think. If one thinks, one must reach conclusions. Conclusions are not always pleasant."
39
"Worry leads to weary."
39
"When you are offended at any man's fault, turn to yourself and study your own failings. Then you will forget your anger."
38
"Did you ever stop to think, and forget to start again?"
38
"How many things have to happen to you before something occurs to you?"
38
"Where do we begin this process of reevaluation of values? It makes sense to begin with our mind, which is the tool we use to evaluate. Once we make sure it is functioning as it should, we can feel confident in using it to think about our beliefs and priorities."
38
"He loved mountains, or he had loved the thought of them marching on the edge of stories brought from far away; but now he was borne down by the insupportable weight of Middle-earth. He longed to shut out the immensity in a quiet room by a fire."
38
"The historian looks backward. In the end he also believes backward."
38
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