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Ali's Favourite Quotes

In no particular order here’s a selection of some thought-provoking quotes I‘ve come across. Take your time to scroll through them…

Never be afraid to sit a while and think
To appreciate the sun you must have felt the storm
There is no point avoiding a fall by never climbing
Those who make worst use of time are those who complain most of its shortness to others.
Wealth, if you use it, comes to an end. Learning, if you use it, will nourish you forever
It is the sum of our life experiences which makes us what we are. We must recognise them, cherish them and understand them.
Everyone carries with them their own interests and prejudices
We are a society of consumers who consume so much, but so little of it is truly nourishing.
Laughter makes your life longer
Let your life speak for itself
If something is possible, make it probable
Better to leave something well done than well said
Always think critically and think for yourself
You can leave but you’ll always leave roots
The less time we have the more we value it
To be able to run properly you need plenty of cuts and bruises
Was it you who opened the door I never dared open?
If you are peace with yourself you can be alone. But you’ll never be lonely
Food gives you life. Give your life substance
The night knows only those who have felt it
What is difficult is always worthwhile - Plato
Always remember that you are absolutely unique. Just like everyone else.
Start by doing what is necessary, then what is possible, and suddenly you are doing the impossible
Travel is only glamorous in retrospect
What is this life full of care, if we have no time to stand and stare?
Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body
Be careless in your dress, but keep a tidy soul
Search others for their virtues and yourself for your vices
Never believe in mirrors or newspapers
There is no worse lie than a truth misunderstood
Common sense is not really all that common
One today is worth two tomorrows. So little done, so much more to do
The man who makes no mistakes does not usually make anything
No question is so difficult to ask as that to which the answer is obvious
Mistakes themselves are the best teachers of all
A man who cannot change his mind can change nothing
A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity. An optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty
Have no fear of perfection; you’ll never reach it
The man who gets knocked down and picks himself up again will be stronger than the man who has never been knocked down.
Still waters run deep
The art of being wise is knowing what to overlook. Scepticism is slow suicide
Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity
Nothing is more unpleasant than a virtuous person with a mean mind
He that climbs a ladder must begin on the first rung
The men who really believe in themselves are all in lunatic asylums
A lifetime of happiness? No man alive could bear it; it would be hell on earth - George Bernard Shaw
Have a heart that never hardens, a temper that never fires and a touch that never hurts
An unfortunate thing about this world is that the good habits are much easier to give up than the bad ones
Anyone can steer the ship when the sea is calm
Little things affect little minds
Ask yourself whether you are happy and you may cease to be so
By nourishing and developing our capacity to fantasize, we enrich and expend life itself.
Chaos often breeds life, where order breeds habit
Don’t go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first.
Every form of addiction is bad, no matter whether the narcotic be alcohol or morphine or idealism
Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds you plant.
Human life is everywhere a state in which much is to be endured and little to be enjoyed.
In skating over thin ice our safety is in our speed
Everyone says forgiveness is a lovely idea, until they have something to forgive
It is always easier to fight for one’s principles than to live up to them.
It is not impossibilities which fill us with despair, but possibilities which we have failed to realise
Let every fellow tell his tale and let his life speak
Life - how curious is the habit that makes it is not here, but elsewhere
Life is a great big canvas and you should throw all the paint on it you can
Life is a tragedy when seen in close-up, but a comedy in long-shot
Life is for each man a solitary cell whose walls are mirrors.
Life is hell. Most people are bastards and everything is bullshit.
Life is short but its ills make it seem long
Life is very short and very uncertain; let us spend it as well as we can
Mistakes are part of the dues one pays for a full and enriched life
The truth is rarely pure and never simple
No man and no force can abolish memory
Our lives are frittered away and used up by details of trivia
Take care to get what you like or you will be forced to like what you get
The best way to get the better of temptation is just to yield to it
The Noah rule: predicting rain doesn’t count, building arks does.
The only disability in life is bad attitude
There are two things to aim for in life - first to get what you want, and after that to enjoy it. Only the wisest of men achieve the second
Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it
We are all in the gutter, but some of us looking at the stars
We learn from experience that not everything that is incredible is untrue
We must accept finite disappointment, but we must never lose infinite hope
We think in generalities, but we live in detail
What we anticipate seldom occurs, but what we least expect generally happens
The chief danger in life is that you may take too many precautions
There are two ways to slide through life; to believe everything or to doubt everything. Both ways save us from thinking
Experience is not what happens to a man, it is what a man does with what happens to him
Many a person has an excellent aim in life but no ammunition
Follow your bliss
A man can fail many times, but he is not a failure until he begins to blame somebody else
Anyone who builds a strong pedestal had better use strong cement
All growth is a leap in the dark
Blessed is he that expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed
Do not look where you fell, but where you slipped
Everyone excels in something in which another fails
Failure is not falling down. It is not getting up again to continue life’s journey
Fortune favours the brave
For they can conquer who believe they can
Happy he or she who has been able to learn the causes of things
He or she who is overcautious will accomplish little
He who has begun has half-done
Hope is a good breakfast but a poor supper
I am an idealist, I don’t know where I am going but I am on my way
I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by conscious endeavour
If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. Then use a stunt double
If you run after two hares you will catch neither
If you want to increase your success rate, then double your failure rate
It does not matter how slowly you go so long as you don’t stop
It is a profitable thing, if one is wise, to seem foolish
It is always better to have a little than nothing
It is the first step that is the most difficult
Little strokes fell great oaks
Men do not fail, they stop trying
Nothing gets the media angrier than prolonged success
Nothing is so bad it cannot get worse
Poverty is the step-mother of genius
Restlessness and discontent are the first necessities of progress
Rome was not built in a day
Self-conquest is the greatest of all victories
Success always occurs in private and failure in full view
Success is not measured by the position you reach in life. It is measured by the obstacles you have overcome
Sweet is pleasure after pain
The fact you cannot be defeated is the real source of happiness
The reasonable man adapts himself to the world. The unreasonable man persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress will depend on the unreasonable man.
A house without books is like a room without windows
A little nonsense is relished now and then by the wisest of men
A mind stretched to a new idea never goes back to its original dimension
An abundance of knowledge does not always teach one to be wise
Better a witty fool than a foolish wit
Curiosity is one of the permanent and certain characteristics of a vigorous mind
Comment is free but facts are sacred
Education has for its object the formation of character
Education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance
Education is an admirable thing. But it is well to remember that nothing that is worth knowing can actually be taught.
Education is light. Lack of it is darkness
Education is not the filling of a pail but the lighting of a fire
Education is the transmission of civilisation
Everyone is ignorant, only on differing subjects
Fear always springs from ignorance
He that knows little, often repeats it
He that knows nothing, doubts nothing
He who knows others is learned. He who knows himself is wise
If a man empties his purse into his head, no one takes it from him
If you are planning for one year, plant rice. If you are planning for ten years, plant trees. If you are planning for 100 years, educate people - Chinese proverb!
I have never let my schooling interfere with my education
Ignorance never settles a question
Information is the currency of democracy
In education we are striving not to teach youth to make a living, but to make a life
It is better to ask some of the questions than know all of the answers
Knowledge comes but wisdom lingers
Knowledge is power
Knowledge is the antipode to fear
Minds are like parachutes. They only function when fully open
Never read any book that is not one year old
Talent is nurtured in solitude. Character is formed in the stormy billows of the world
The fool wonders. The wise man asks
The roots of education are bitter but the fruits are sweet
To know all things is not permitted
To think is to differ
The origin of true thinking is some perplexity, confusion or doubt
When ignorance gets started it knows no bounds
You do not really understand something unless you can explain it to your grandmother.
A still tongue makes a wise head
Be careful with you thoughts, they may become words at any moment
Be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath
We can never master time, nor make it stand still. But we can make the most of it.
Happiness is speechless
I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude
I regret often that I have spoken; never that I have been silent
Let a fool hold his tongue and he will pass for a sage
Life is too short to learn German
One man’s word alone is no man’s word. We should quietly hear both sides always
Speak the loudest and you’ll be heard the least
There’s a great power in words…if you do not hitch too many of them together
We have two ears and only one tongue so we can hear more and speak less
When you have nothing to say, say nothing
We make more enemies by what we say, than friends by what we do
A good example is the best sermon
A great teacher never strives to explain his vision. He simply invites you to stand beside him and see for yourself
A teacher who is attempting to teach without inspiring the pupil with a desire to learn, is hammering on cold iron
Awaken people’s curiosity. It is enough to open minds. Do not overload them. Put just a spark
Every time you stop a school, you will have to build a jail. What you gain at one end, you lose at the other. Its like feeding a dog on his own tail, it wont fatten the dog
Experience is the best teacher
The man who can make hard things seem easy is the great educator
From a little spark may burst a mighty flame
Give me a fish and I eat for a day. Teach me to fish and I eat for a lifetime
Capitalism without failure is like religion without sin - it doesn't work
Genius must be born and can never be taught
Good teaching is more a giving of right questions than a giving of right answers
I am always ready to learn, but I do not always like being taught
In teaching it is the drawing out, not the pumping in, that is most effective
Just think of the tragedy of teaching children not to doubt
People have a way of becoming what you encourage them to be, not what you nag them to be
The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.
The art of teaching is the art of assisting discovery
Teachers open the door. You enter yourself - another Chinese proverb!
See everything. Overlook a great deal; correct when needed
Tell me and I’ll forget. Show me and I may not remember. Involve me and I’ll understand
The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be ignited
The years teach much which the days never know
Who dares to teach must never cease to learn
Being ignorant is not so much a shame, as showing unwilling to learn
Every problem contains the seed of its own solution
He who is ashamed of asking is ashamed of learning
He who asks a question is a fool for five minutes; he who does not ask a question remains a fool forever - Chinese proverb
I am still learning. You learn more from your mistakes than from your successes
Learning is a treasure which accompanies its owner everywhere
Learning is never done without errors and defeat
Mistakes are the portals of discovery
Readers are plentiful. Thinkers are rare
To arrive at the simple is difficult
The wisest mind always has something yet to learn
The mind grows on what it feeds on
There are no evil thoughts, except one - the refusal to think
There are no foolish questions and no man becomes a fool until he has stopped asking questions
Think wrongly if you please, but in all cases think for yourself
To every answer you can find a new question
What we have to learn to do, we learn by doing
A critic is someone who knows the way but cannot drive the car
Be like a postage stamp - stick to one thing until you get there
Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together
Haste makes waste
Hard work pays off in the future. Laziness pay off only now
If you want a thing done well, do it for yourself
If you wish to be a writer, write. The desire to write grows with writing.
Its not work that kills, but worry. More people worry than work
Journalism has become a sort of competitive screeching; what is trivial but noisy and immediate takes precedence over important matters that develop over time
Keep your shop and you shop will keep you
Let us cultivate our own gardens
No man can serve two masters
No one reaches a high position without daring
Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn't mean politics wont take an interest in you.
The penalty of not participating in politics is that you end up being governed by inferiors
Nothing can be done at once hastily and also prudently
The quickest way to do many things is to do only one thing at a time
The difficult is done at once; the impossible takes longer
The busy have no time for tears
To do two things at once is to do neither
Undertake not what you cannot perform, but be careful to keep your promise
Well done is better than well said
What we do willingly is easy. What is done wisely is done well
No nation was ever ruined by trade
It takes two to make a bargain. It is an ill bargain where no one wins
Some see capitalism as a predatory target to be shot, others as a cow to be milked, but few are those who see it as a sturdy horse pulling the entire wagon
The best advertisement is an excellent product
The essence of good advertising is not to inspire hope, but to create greed. The science of advertising is the science of greed
What you own, you take care of. What nobody or ‘everybody’ owns falls into disrepair
You can tell the ideals of a nation by its advertisements
Advice, the smallest coin of currency with the highest value
An exaggeration is a truth that has lost its temper
At times it is wise to remain silent and be considered a fool, than speak and remove all doubt
Angels can fly because they take themselves lightly
First things first, second things never
Food comes first, then morals
Criticism is prejudice made plausible
Bigotry may be roughly defined as the anger of men who have no opinions
Gratitude is a duty which ought to be paid but which none have a right to expect
I have to live for others, not for myself - that is middle class morality- GB Shaw
If you continually give, you continually have
In giving a man receives more than he gives. Kindness gives birth to kindness
I never resist temptation because I have found things that are bad for me do not tempt me
It is better to die on your feet than to live on your knees
Love truth, but pardon error
It is better to have old second hand diamonds than none at all
Nothing is so strong a gentleness, and nothing so gentle as real strength
Patience is the best remedy for every trouble. Patience is the best of all virtues
Politeness is half good manners and half good lying
Pride, the never failing vice of fools
The truth can set you free, but first it will piss you off.
The pursuit of truth is like picking fruit. You miss a lot of it if you only approach it from one angle
There is no love sincerer than the love of food
Think for yourself and let others enjoy the privilege to do so too
A man can be destroyed but not defeated
All of us are liable to error. All sins are attempts to fill voids
A man who admits he was wrong is wiser today than he was yesterday.
The Brain, an apparatus with which we think we think
Despair is the price one pays for setting oneself an impossible aim
Everyone wants to be right. But no one stops to consider if their idea really is right.
From the sublime to the ridiculous there is only one small step
Four would be the things I’d be better off without: love, curiosity, freckles and doubt
Good sense is a thing we all need, few have and none think they want
Happiness is a habit, cultivate it
He who has never hoped can never despair
It can destroy nerves of anyone to be relentlessly amiable all day long
I observe myself, and so I come to know others better
It is necessary to always try bettering yourself, an occupation which can last a lifetime
Man is made of dreams and bones, ordinary things and habit is his nurse
Never sound as angry as you feel
None but yourself, who is your greatest foe
People ask for criticism, but they only want praise
Our deeds determine us as much as we determine our deeds
People never lie so much as after a hunt, during a war, or before an election
None of us is as smart as all of us
Good counsel has no price
Noble deeds and hot baths are the cure for depression
Pride is pleasure arising form someone thinking too highly of themselves
Rudeness is the weak man’s imitation of strength
Self-love seems so often unrequited
Speak of your own self first and let it teach you
True style is knowing who you are, what you are, and not giving a dam
The strongest man in the world is he who stands most alone
There is no duty we so much underrate as the duty of being happy
There is no more miserable human being than the one in whom nothing is habitual but indecision
To confess a fault freely is the next best thing to being innocent of it. To err is human
Unless men are free to be vicious, they cannot be virtuous
There is not a passion so strongly rooted in the human heart as envy
We are all of us more or less the salves of opinion and prejudice
Consistency is contrary to nature, contrary to life. The only completely consistent people are the dead.
We know what we are, but we know not what we may be
You see, but you do not always properly observe
Your feelings are your true strength, be in touch with them
You cannot create a desert, hand a person a cup of water and call that compassion
A man is known by the company he keeps
Attack is the best form of defence
A bore. Someone who talks when you want them to listen
Calamities are of two kinds. Misfortunes to ourselves and good fortunes to others.
Gossip is what no one claims to like, but everybody enjoys and thrives on
Good fences make good neighbours
Happiness seems made to be shared.
I talk because I feel, and I talk to you because I want you to know how I feel
He who wrestles with us strengthens our nerves and sharpens our skills
If you have integrity, nothing else matters
It is very true that we seldom confide in those who are better than ourselves
Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are endless
Mistrust a subordinate who never finds fault with his superior
Some cause happiness wherever they go; other whenever they go
The mind is more vulnerable than the stomach because it can be poisoned without feeling immediate pain
The way to change the minds of others if through affection, less so anger
To be humble to superiors is duty, to equals courtesy and to inferiors nobleness
The worst sin towards our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them. That is the essence of inhumanity
We drink one another’s health, and then spoil our own
We grow through sharing ourselves
Wink at small faults. Remember you have great ones
When in Rome do as the Romans do
A friend to all is a friend to none
Admonish your friends privately but praise them openly
Company in distress makes sorrow less
Friendship is the wine of life
Prosperity makes friends and adversity tries them
You can make new friends but you cannot make old friends
The more we love our friends the less we flatter them
True friendship is never serene
At 20 yrs old the will reigns, at 30 the wit, at 40 the judgement
Do not squander time for that is the stuff that life is made of
Don’t worry about the world coming to an end. It is already tomorrow in Australia
Every man desires to live long, but no man would be old
Difficult things take a long time
Honour the old, instruct the young, consult the wise and bear with the foolish
If you look like your passport photo in all probability you need a journey
If youth knew; if age could
In youth and beauty wisdom is but rare
People talk of killing time while time slowly kills them
Middle age is when work is a lot less fun, and fun is more like work
No winter lasts for ever. No spring skips its turn
One hours sleep before midnight is worth two after
The old believe everything; the middle-aged suspect everything; the young know everything
The young have aspirations that never come to pass, while the old have reminiscences of what never happened
You are only young once but you remain immature indefinitely
A lawyer with his briefcase and silver tongue can steal more than a hundred men with guns
Guard you thoughts, they become words. Choose your words, they become actions. Understand your actions, they become habits. Study your habits, they mould your character. It will be your fate.
Many complain of their memory, few of their judgement
Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened.
Beware the fury of a patient man
Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake
He would never had true friends who is afraid of making enemies
Peace, commerce and honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none
The best way to destroy your enemy is to make him your friend
To find a friend one must close one eye, to keep him two
Don’t wait for the last judgement. It happens every day
Tide and time wait for no man
Money cannot buy friends but you get a better class of enemy
Pockets are the most sensitive part of a human being; that’s why we need to touch hearts and minds first
Poverty is no disgrace but it is a great inconvenience
Adventure is the life of commerce. But caution is the life of making money
Drive your business, let not that drive you
Only those who add to my life, not those devour it, are my market. Only those who produce, not consume, can ever be anybody’s market. I deal with life-givers, not cannibals.
Beware of little expenses; a small leak will sink a great ship
Good name is better than riches - Chinese proverb
If you want to know what God thinks of money, just look at those he gave it to
Money has no smell. Money doesn’t talk, it swears
One can accumulate enough wealth to buy a golden bed, but one cannot buy sound sleep with money
The first wealth is health. There is no wealth but life
The more money you get, the more you want
We are all born with a grab bag of gifts and talents, Identify your true talents and then find out how to use them to make money
A woman’s mind is like spring weather
Charms strike the sights, but merit wins the soul
Fortune and love befriend the bold
If you want a speech to be made ask a man. If you want something done, ask a woman
If you want to be loved, then love.
Love enters a man through his eyes; a woman through her ears
Love is like war; easy to begin but very hard to stop
Love is a temporary insanity curable by marriage
Being with someone has many pains, but celibacy has few pleasures
Men make houses; women make homes
Of all forms of caution, caution in love is perhaps the most fatal of true happiness
The happiest women, like the happiest nations, have no history
The quarrel of lovers is the renewal of love
The archeologist is the best husband a woman can have; the older she gets the more interested in her he becomes
To live is like to love; all reason is against it, and all healthy instinct is for it
When a man gets up to speak people listen, then they look. When a woman gets up, people look, then if they like what they see, they listen
Children are certain cares, but uncertain comforts
Growth, character and enjoyment of life come from our mistakes. A child that is not permitted to fall will never learn to walk, for walking is a succession of falls
Teach your child to hold his tongue, he’ll learn fast enough to speak
The thing that impresses me most about America is the way parents obey their children
The wildest colts make the best horses
The first half of our life is ruined by our parents, the second half by our children
Opera is like when a guy gets stabbed in the back and instead of bleeding, he sings
A bore is a man who, when you ask him how he is, tells you. A bore is a person who wishes to talk when you want him to listen
A good laugh in sunshine in a house
Cinema, radio, television, magazines are a school of inattention: people look without seeing and listen without hearing
For when the wine is in, the wit is out. Laughter is the music of life
Everyone is dragged on by their favourite pleasure
Humour is emotional chaos, remembered in tranquillity. Everything is funny as long as it is happening to someone else
One you get people laughing, they’re listening and you can tell them anything
The secret of being a bore is to tell everything
Religions must learn humility as well as teach it. Better to be a good man than a holy man
That people in power do not learn very much from the lessons of history is the most important of all the lessons history has to teach
The frog does not drink up the pond in which he lives
Treat the earth well. It wasn’t given to you by your parents, it was loaned to you by your children
We cannot command nature except by obeying her
A government big enough to give you everything you want is also big enough to take everything you have
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights
A society of sheep must, in time, beget a government of wolves
An election is nothing more than an advanced auction of stolen goods
Communism is like prohibition. It is a good idea, but it doesn’t work
Diplomacy is to do and say the nastiest thing in the nicest way
Honesty is always the best policy
Liberty and responsibility are inseparable - the opportunity and the burden of choice
Man is not free unless government is limited. As government expands, liberty contracts. Politics are too serious to be left to the politicians
Nations are renewed from the bottom, not from the top
No nation can be truly free if it oppresses other nations
Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun - Mao Tse-tung
Power corrupts, nearly always, like a sweet drug, the desire for which increases with habit
Politics is meant to be the second oldest profession; it bears a close resemblance to the oldest profession
That government is best is that which governs the least because its people discipline themselves. The more corrupt the state, the more laws
Tyranny is always better organised than freedom
Better a lean peace than a fat victory. The real lasting victories are those of peace, not war
Always better the most unfair peace than the most righteous war
In war events of importance are the result of trivial causes
Mankind must put an end to war, or war will put an end to mankind
More than an end to war, we want an end to the beginnings of all wars
The enemies of freedom do not argue. They shout and they shoot. When war is declared, truth is the first casualty
Time flies over us but it leaves its shadows behind
Time is the best healer and a great teacher, but it devours all things
Think positive; it could add years to your life
Time makes more converts than reason
Time is the most valuable thing that anyone can spend
Time wasted is existence. Time used is life
Do not place your happiness in days to come.
Nietzsche - A man reaches out, so that he can grow.
Every good and evil that exists, If you mark it well is for a blessing
I set out to cover the world, and the world covered me
Its not what you show off; it’s what you conceal
Success is not final, failure is not fatal, it is the courage to continue that counts - Churchill.
If you have lived with fear and survived, you can do anything.
Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they've been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It's an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It's a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing. - Muhammed Ali
Sometimes you have to go through the troughs of despair to reach the views from the peaks
Time that you have enjoyed wasting is not wasted.

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