Quotations about:
    improvement


Note not all quotations have been tagged, so Search may find additional quotes on this topic.


History is the only consolation left to the peoples, for it teaches them that their ancestors were as unhappy as themselves, or more unhappy.
 
[En effet, il ne reste guère, pour consoler les peuples, que de leur apprendre que leurs ancêtres ont été aussi malheureux, ou plus malheureux.]

Nicolas Chamfort
Nicolas Chamfort (1741-1794) French writer, epigrammist (b. Nicolas-Sébastien Roch)
Products of Perfected Civilization [Produits de la Civilisation Perfectionée], Part 1 “Maxims and Thoughts [Maximes et Pensées],” ch. 8, ¶ 474 (1795) [tr. Mathers (1926)]
    (Source)

(Source (French)). Alternate translations:

In fact there is no longer any way of consoling the people except by teaching them that their forebears were as wretched as they are, or more so.
[tr. Merwin (1969)]

Indeed, if one is to console the peoples of the world there is little else one can do but teach them that their ancestors were just as wretched, or more so.
[tr. Pearson (1973)]

In effect, there is nearly no way to console peoples except to tell them that their ancestors were as unfortunate or more unfortunate than they are.
[tr. Siniscalchi (1994), ¶ 473]

 
Added on 18-Mar-24 | Last updated 18-Mar-24
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Chamfort, Nicolas

A complaint that’s not looking for a solution is a disease not looking for a cure.

dennis lehane
Dennis Lehane (b. 1965) American novelist, screenwriter
Since We Fell (2017)
    (Source)

A frequent saying of the character Brian Delacroix.
 
Added on 8-Feb-24 | Last updated 8-Feb-24
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , ,
More quotes by Lehane, Dennis

Hope is the feeling we have that the feeling we have is not permanent.

Mignon McLaughlin (1913-1983) American journalist and author
The Neurotic’s Notebook, ch. 5 (1963)
    (Source)
 
Added on 4-Jan-24 | Last updated 4-Jan-24
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , ,
More quotes by McLaughlin, Mignon

That the world can be improved and yet must be celebrated as it is are contradictions. The beginning of maturity may be the recognition that both are true.

Bill Stott
William M. Stott (b. 1940) American diplomat, academic in American Studies and English, author
Documentary Expression and Thirties America, ch. 15 (1973)
    (Source)

Closing words of the book.
 
Added on 3-Nov-23 | Last updated 3-Nov-23
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , ,
More quotes by Stott, William

A successful man is simply one who doesn’t make a fool of himself in the same way more than two or three times running.

H. L. Mencken (1880-1956) American writer and journalist [Henry Lewis Mencken]
A Little Book in C Major, ch. 3, § 5 (1916)
    (Source)
 
Added on 28-Sep-23 | Last updated 28-Sep-23
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , ,
More quotes by Mencken, H. L.

If we can advance any propositions that are both true and new, these are indisputably our own, by right of discovery; and if we can repeat what is old more briefly and brightly than others, this also becomes our own, by right of conquest.

Charles Caleb "C. C." Colton (1780-1832) English cleric, writer, aphorist
Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Vol. 1, Preface (1820)
    (Source)
 
Added on 31-Aug-23 | Last updated 31-Aug-23
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , ,
More quotes by Colton, Charles Caleb

You can’t beat an Administration by attacking it. You have to show some plan of improving on it.

Will Rogers (1879-1935) American humorist
“Weekly Article” column (1924-11-16)
    (Source)
 
Added on 15-Jun-23 | Last updated 15-Jun-23
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , ,
More quotes by Rogers, Will

Even if there were only two men left in the world and both of them saints they wouldn’t be happy. One of them would be bound to try and improve the other. That is the nature of things.

Frank O'Connor
Frank O'Connor (1903-1966) Irish author and translator [pseud. of Michael O'Donovan]
“Song Without Words” (1951)
    (Source)

Opening words. First printed in Argosy (1951-12).
 
Added on 7-Apr-23 | Last updated 7-Apr-23
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , ,
More quotes by O'Connor, Frank

One sure way to lose another woman’s friendship is to try to improve her flower arrangements.

No picture available
Marcelene Cox (1900-1998) American writer, columnist, aphorist
“Ask Any Woman” column, Ladies’ Home Journal (1948-02)
    (Source)

This was a regularly revisited aphorism for Cox:

One sure way to lose another woman's friendship is to try to improve her husband.
(1955-12)

The quickest way to lose another woman's friendship is to endeavor to improve her husband, her children, or her flower arrangements.
(1959-05)

One sure way to lose another woman's friendship is to try to improve either her children or her flower arrangements.
(1961-07)

 
Added on 27-Mar-23 | Last updated 27-Mar-23
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Cox, Marcelene

You can’t always come up with the optimal solution, but you can usually come up with a better solution. A good compromise, a good piece of legislation, is like a good sentence. Or a good piece of music. Everybody can recognize it. They say, “Huh. It works. It makes sense.” That doesn’t happen often, of course, but it happens.

Barack Obama (b. 1961) American politician, US President (2009-2017)
Quoted in William Finnegan, “The Candidate,” The New Yorker (31 May 2004)
    (Source)

While a state senator in Illinois.
 
Added on 8-Nov-22 | Last updated 8-Nov-22
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , ,
More quotes by Obama, Barack

Do not persist in folly. Some make a duty of failure and having started down the wrong road, think it a badge of character to continue.

[No proseguir la necedad. Hacen algunos empeño del desacierto, y porque comenzaron a errar, les parece que es constancia el proseguir.]

Baltasar Gracián y Morales (1601-1658) Spanish Jesuit priest, writer, philosopher
The Art of Worldly Wisdom [Oráculo Manual y Arte de Prudencia], § 261 (1647) [tr. Fischer (1937)]
    (Source)

(Source (Spanish)). Alternate translations:

Not to continue a Foppery. Some make an engagement of their mistakes: when they have once begun to fail, they think they are concerned in honour to continue.
[Flesher ed. (1685)]

Do not follow up a Folly. Many make an obligation out of a blunder, and because they have entered the wrong path thinks it proves their strength of character to go in it.
[tr. Jacobs (1892)]

Don’t persist in folly. Some people commit themselves to their errors. They act mistakenly and consider it constancy to go on that way.
[tr. Maurer (1992)]

 
Added on 31-Oct-22 | Last updated 9-Jan-23
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Gracián, Baltasar

It’s impossible for men and women who love each other not to hurt each other now and then, but most women would settle happily for a man who tried not to cause the same hurt twice.

Merle Shain (1935-1989) Canadian journalist and author
Some Men Are More Perfect than Others (1973)
 
Added on 28-Jan-22 | Last updated 28-Jan-22
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , ,
More quotes by Shain, Merle

Few match their fathers. Any tongue can tell
The more are worse: yea, almost none their sires excel.

[παῦροι γάρ τοι παῖδες ὁμοῖοι πατρὶ πέλονται,
οἱ πλέονες κακίους, παῦροι δέ τε πατρὸς ἀρείους.]

Homer (fl. 7th-8th C. BC) Greek author
The Odyssey [Ὀδύσσεια], Book 2, l. 276ff (2.276) [Athena to Telemachus] (c. 700 BC) [tr. Worsley (1861), st. 37]
    (Source)

(Source (Greek)). Alternate translations:

For few, that rightly bred on both sides stand,
Are like their parents, many that are worse,
And most few better. Those then that the nurse
Or mother call true-born yet are not so,
Like worthy sires much less are like to grow.
[tr. Chapman (1616)]

Few sons exceed or reach their father’s might,
But commonly inferior they are.
[tr. Hobbes (1675), l. 257ff]

Few sons attain the praise
Of their great sires, and most their sires disgrace.
[tr. Pope (1725)]

Few sons their fathers equal; most appear
Degenerate; but we find, though rare, sometimes
A son superior even to his Sire.
[tr. Cowper (1792)]

Few be the children equal to their father:
The most be worse: and few be better men.
[tr. Bigge-Wither (1869)]

For few children, truly, are like their father; lo, the more part are worse, yet a few are better than the sire.
[tr. Butcher/Lang (1879)]

Though not oft is the son meseemeth e'en such an one as his sire.
Worser they be for the more part, and a few may be better forsooth.
[tr. Morris (1887)]

Few sons are like their fathers; most are worse, few better than the father.
[tr. Palmer (1891)]

Sons are seldom as good men as their fathers; they are generally worse, not better.
[tr. Butler (1898)]

Few sons indeed are like their fathers; most are worse, few better than their fathers.
[tr. Murray (1919)]

Few are the sons who attain their fathers' stature: and very few surpass them. Most fall short in merit.
[tr. Lawrence (1932)]

Few sons, indeed, are like their fathers. Generally they are worse; but just a few are better.
[tr. Rieu (1946)]

The son is rare who measures with his father,
and one in a thousand is a better man.
[tr. Fitzgerald (1961)]

For few are the children who turn out to be equals of their fathers,
and the greater number are worse; few are better than their father is.
[tr. Lattimore (1965)]

Few sons are the equals of their fathers;
most fall short, all too few surpass them.
[tr. Fagles (1996)]

You know, few sons turn out to be like their fathers;
Most turn out worse, a few better.
[tr. Lombardo (2000), ll. 300-301]

It is a truth that few sons are the equal of their fathers; most are inferior to their father, and few surpass them.
[tr. Verity (2016), l. 276]

And it is rare for sons to be like fathers;
only a few are better, most are worse.
[tr. Wilson (2017)]

It’s true few men
are like their fathers. Most of them are worse.
Only very few of them are better.
[tr. Johnston (2019), l. 373ff]

 
Added on 10-Nov-21 | Last updated 1-Dec-21
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Homer

I never will believe that our youngest days are our happiest. What a miserable augury for the progress of the race and the destination of the individual, if the more matured and enlightened state is the less happy one! Childhood is only the beautiful and happy time in contemplation and retrospect: to the child it is full of deep sorrows, the meaning of which is unknown.

George Eliot (1819-1880) English novelist [pseud. of Mary Ann Evans]
Letter to Sara Hennell (May 1844)
    (Source)
 
Added on 13-Oct-21 | Last updated 13-Oct-21
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Eliot, George

Good news goes unnoticed. This is a well-known property of the press in the free world. Improvements are never dramatic. Life improves slowly and goes wrong fast, and only catastrophe is clearly visible.

Edward Teller (1908-2003) Hungarian-American theoretical physicist
The Pursuit of Simplicity (1980)
    (Source)
 
Added on 24-Sep-21 | Last updated 24-Sep-21
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Teller, Edward

Two things have always been true about human beings. One, the world is always getting better. Two, the people living at that time think it’s getting worse. It’s because you get older, your responsibilities are different. Now I’m taking care of children instead of being a child. It makes the world look scarier. That happens to everyone.

Penn Jillette (b. 1955) American stage magician, actor, musician, author
“Honest Questions with Penn Jillette,” Interview by Glen Beck, CNN (2 Nov 2007)
    (Source)
 
Added on 15-Apr-21 | Last updated 19-Apr-21
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , ,
More quotes by Jillette, Penn

I believe in human dignity as the source of national purpose, in human liberty as the source of national action, and the human heart as the source of national compassion, and in the human mind as the source of our invention and our ideas. It is, I believe, this faith in our fellow citizens as individuals and as people that lies at the heart of the liberal faith, for liberalism is not so much a party creed or a set of fixed platform promises as it is an attitude of mind and heart, a faith in man’s ability through the experiences of his reason and judgment to increase for himself and his fellow men the amount of justice and freedom and brotherhood which all human life deserves.

John F. Kennedy (1917-1963) US President (1961-63)
Speech, Liberal Party Nomination, New York (14 Sep 1960)
    (Source)
 
Added on 30-Oct-20 | Last updated 30-Oct-20
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , ,
More quotes by Kennedy, John F.

The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths. These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity, and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, and a deep loving concern. Beautiful people do not just happen.

Elisabeth Kübler-Ross (1926-2004) Swiss-American psychiatrist, author
Death: The Final Stage of Growth (1975)
    (Source)
 
Added on 14-Oct-20 | Last updated 14-Oct-20
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Kubler-Ross, Elisabeth

The essence of success is that it is never necessary to think of a new idea oneself. It is far better to wait until somebody else does it, and then to copy him in every detail, except his mistakes.

Aubrey Menen (1912-1989) British writer, novelist, satirist, theatre critic
The Abode of Love, Part 3, “The Random Wooings” (1956)
    (Source)
 
Added on 29-Jul-20 | Last updated 29-Jul-20
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Menen, Aubrey

Things are never so bad that they can’t get worse. But they’re sometimes so bad they can’t get better.

Mignon McLaughlin (1913-1983) American journalist and author
The Second Neurotic’s Notebook, ch. 5 (1966)
    (Source)
 
Added on 7-Jul-20 | Last updated 10-Mar-22
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , , ,
More quotes by McLaughlin, Mignon

No matter what the belief, if it had modestly said, “This is our best thought, go on, think farther!” then we could have smoothly outgrown our early errors and long since have developed a religion such as would have kept pace with an advancing world. But we were made to believe and not allowed to think. We were told to obey, rather than to experiment and investigate.

Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860-1935) American sociologist, writer, reformer, feminist
His Religion and Hers, ch. 10 (1923)
 
Added on 7-Jul-20 | Last updated 7-Jul-20
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Gilman, Charlotte

In the end, it is important to remember that we cannot become what we need to be by remaining what we are.

Max De Pree (1924-2017) American businessman and writer
Leadership Is an Art, “Who Owns This Place?” (1987)
    (Source)

Sometimes misquoted as "by remaining who we are."
 
Added on 1-May-20 | Last updated 1-May-20
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , ,
More quotes by De Pree, Max

Just for the record, darling, not all positive change feels positive in the beginning.

(Other Authors and Sources)
S. C. Lourie
 
Added on 16-Mar-20 | Last updated 16-Mar-20
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , ,
More quotes by ~Other

If conversion to Christianity makes no improvements in a man’s outward actions — if he continues to be just as snobbish or spiteful or envious or ambitious as he was before — then I think we must suspect that his “conversion” was largely imaginary; and after one’s original conversion, every time one thinks one has made an advance, that is the test to apply. Fine feelings, new insights, greater interest in “religion” mean nothing unless they make our actual behavior better.

C. S. Lewis (1898-1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
Mere Christianity, ch. 10 “Nice People or New Men” (1952)
    (Source)
 
Added on 30-Oct-19 | Last updated 7-Sep-21
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Lewis, C.S.

Certainly it is presumptuous to say that we cannot improve, and that Man, who has only been in power for a few thousand years, will never learn to make use of his power. All I mean is that, if people continue to kill one another as they do, the world cannot get better than it is, and that, since there are more people than formerly, and their means for destroying one another superior, the world may well get worse. What is good in people — and consequently in the world — is their insistence on creation, their belief in friendship and loyalty for their own sakes; and, though Violence remains and is, indeed, the major partner in this muddled establishment, I believe that creativeness remains too, and will always assume direction when violence sleeps.

E. M. Forster (1879-1970) English novelist, essayist, critic, librettist [Edward Morgan Forster]
“What I Believe,” The Nation (16 Jul 1938)
    (Source)
 
Added on 30-Oct-19 | Last updated 30-Oct-19
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Forster, E. M.

Right actions for the future are the best apologies for wrong ones in the past — the best evidence of regret for them that we can offer, or the world receive.

Tryon Edwards (1809-1894) American theologian, writer, lexicographer
A Dictionary of Thoughts (1908)
    (Source)

Often wrongly quoted, "... best apologies for bad actions in the past."
 
Added on 9-Jun-19 | Last updated 9-Jun-19
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Edwards, Tryon

Success don’t konsist in never making blunders, but in never making the same one the seckond time.

[Success doesn’t consist in never making blunders, but in never making the same one the second time.]

Josh Billings (1818-1885) American humorist, aphorist [pseud. of Henry Wheeler Shaw]
Everybody’s Friend, Or; Josh Billing’s Encyclopedia and Proverbial Philosophy of Wit and Humor, “Molassis Kandy” (1874)
    (Source)

More discussion of this quotation here.
 
Added on 5-May-19 | Last updated 5-May-19
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , ,
More quotes by Billings, Josh

Where men then are free to consult experience they will correct their practice, and make changes for the better. It follows, therefore, that the more free men are, the more changes they will make. In the beginning, possibly, for the worse; but most certainly in time for the better; until their knowledge enlarging by observation, and their judgment strengthening by exercise, they will find themselves in the straight, broad, fair road of improvement. Out of change, therefore, springs improvement; and the people who shall have imagined a peaceable mode of changing their institutions, hold a surety for their melioration. This surety is worth all other excellences. Better were the prospects of a people under the influence of the worst government who should hold the power of changing it, that those of a people under the best who should hold no such power.

Frances "Fanny" Wright (1795-1852) Scottish-American writer, lecturer, social reformer
Independence Day speech, New Harmony, Indiana (4 Jul 1828)
    (Source)
 
Added on 13-Mar-19 | Last updated 13-Mar-19
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , ,
More quotes by Wright, Fanny

There is a loftier ambition than merely to stand high in the world. It is to stoop down and lift mankind a little higher. There is a nobler character than that which is merely incorruptible. It is the character which acts as an antidote and preventive of corruption.

Henry Van Dyke (1852-1933) American clergyman and writer
“Salt,” Baccalaureate Sermon, Harvard University (19 Jun 1898)
    (Source)
 
Added on 13-Dec-17 | Last updated 7-Jan-22
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Van Dyke, Henry

We readily inquire, “Does he know Greek or Latin?” “Can he write poetry and prose?” But what matters most is what we put last: “Has he become better and wiser?” We ought to find out not who understands most but who understands best.

[Nous nous enquerons volontiers: “Sçait-il du Gre ou du Latin? Estriil en vers ou en prose?” Mais sìl est devenu ou plus advisé, c’estoit le principal, et c’est ce qui demeure derrier. Il falloit sènquerir qui est mieux sçavant, non qui est plus sçavant.]

Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) French essayist
The Complete Essays, I:25 “On Schoolmasters [Du pédantisme]”
    (Source)
 
Added on 30-Oct-17 | Last updated 30-Oct-17
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Montaigne, Michel de

There comes now and then a bolder spirit, I should rather say, a more surrendered soul, more informed and led by God, which is much in advance of the rest, quite beyond their sympathy, but predicts what shall soon be the general fullness; as when we stand by the seashore, whilst the tide is coming in, a wave comes up the beach far higher than any foregoing one, and recedes; and for a long while none comes up to that mark; but after some time the whole sea is there and beyond it.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist, lecturer, poet
“Lecture on the Times,” Boston (1841-12-02)
    (Source)
 
Added on 17-Oct-17 | Last updated 27-Mar-23
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Emerson, Ralph Waldo

If you attack Stupidity, you attack an entrenched interest with friends in government and every walk of public life, and you will make small progress against it.

Robertson Davies (1913-1995) Canadian author, editor, publisher
The Table Talk of Samuel Marchbanks (1949)
    (Source)
 
Added on 8-Sep-17 | Last updated 8-Sep-17
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Davies, Robertson

He that is good will infallibly become better, and he that is bad will as certainly become worse; for vice, virtue, and time are three things that never stand still.

Charles Caleb "C. C." Colton (1780-1832) English cleric, writer, aphorist
Lacon: or, Many Things in Few Words, #457 (1821 ed.)
 
Added on 21-Nov-16 | Last updated 21-Nov-16
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Colton, Charles Caleb

People seldom improve when they have no other model but themselves to copy.

Goldsmith - no other model - wist_info quote

Oliver Goldsmith (1730-1774) Irish poet, playwright, novelist
“On Our Theaters,” The Bee, #11 (13 Oct 1759)
 
Added on 14-Jul-16 | Last updated 14-Jul-16
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Goldsmith, Oliver

I don’t ever lose sight of the fact that this country is the best one. I don’t care nearly as much about other societies. My country is the one I want to make better. But I do think the patriotic thing to do is to critique my country. How else do you make a country better but by pointing out its flaws?

William "Bill" Maher (b. 1956) American comedian, political commentator, critic, television host.
“Bill Maher, Incorrect American Patriot,” Interview with Sharon Waxman, Washington Post (8 Nov 2002)
    (Source)
 
Added on 13-Jul-16 | Last updated 13-Jul-16
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , ,
More quotes by Maher, Bill

Be very circumspect in the choice of thy company. In the society of thine equals thou shalt enjoy more pleasure; in the society of thy superiors thou shalt find more profit. To be the best in the company is the way to grow worse. The best means to grow better is to be the worst there.

Francis Quarles (1592-1644) English poet
Enchyridion, Book 2, ch. 24 (1641)
    (Source)
 
Added on 13-Jun-16 | Last updated 13-Jun-16
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , ,
More quotes by Quarles, Francis

The inventor … looks upon the world and is not contented with things as they are. He wants to improve whatever he sees, he wants to benefit the world; he is haunted by an idea. The spirit of invention possesses him, seeking materialization.

Alexander Graham Bell (1847-1922) Scottish-American scientist, inventor, engineer
Speech (1891)

On a plaque at the entrance to the Alexander Graham Bell Museum in Baddeck, Nova Scotia, Canada.
 
Added on 14-Apr-16 | Last updated 14-Apr-16
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , ,
More quotes by Bell, Alexander Graham

The Earth does not want new continents, but new men.

[Ce ne sont pas de nouveaux continents qu’il faut à la terre, mais de nouveaux hommes!]

Jules Verne (1828-1905) French novelist, poet, playwright
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, Part 1, ch. 18 “Vanikoro” (1870) [tr. Smith & Co. (1873)]
    (Source)

Ch. 19 in the French text.

Alt. trans.: "The planet doesn't need new continents, it needs new men." [Miller (1966)]
 
Added on 8-Apr-16 | Last updated 8-Apr-16
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , ,
More quotes by Verne, Jules

“Do you think the world is growing worse?” Mr. Hennessy asked.
“I do not,” said Mr. Dooley.
“Do you think it’s growing better?”
“No,” said Mr. Dooley. “If it’s doing anything, it’s just turning around as usual.”

Finley Peter Dunne (1867-1936) American humorist and journalist
(Attributed)

Usually paraphrased as "The world is not growing worse and it is not growing better -- it is just turning around as usual."
 
Added on 26-Feb-16 | Last updated 26-Feb-16
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Dunne, Finley Peter

The girl that I will marry
Will be like a fine wine
That will become better
A bit every morning.

[La fille que j’aimera
Sera comme bon vin
Qui se bonifiera
Un peu chaque matin.]

Brel - like a fine wine - wist_info quote

Jacques Brel (1929-1978) Belgian singer, songwriter, actor
“Bachelor’s Dance [La Bourrée Du Célibataire]” (1957)

More commonly translated for English (by Eric Blau): "The girl that I will marry / Will age without a fear / And like the wine grow mellower / With every passing year."
 
Added on 5-Feb-16 | Last updated 5-Feb-16
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Brel, Jacques

A man’s first duty is to make a competence and be independent. But his whole duty does not end there. It his his duty to do something for his needy neighbors who are less favored than himself. It is his duty to contribute to the general good of the community in which he lives. He has been protected by its laws. Because he has been protected in his various enterprises he has been able to make money sufficient for his needs and those of his family. All beyond this belongs in justice to the protecting power that has fostered him and enabled him to win pecuniary success. To try and make the world in some way better than you have found is to have a noble motive in life.

Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919) American industrialist and philanthropist
The Empire of Business, “Thrift as a Duty” (1902)
 
Added on 15-Jan-16 | Last updated 15-Jan-16
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Carnegie, Andrew

Hope
Smiles from the threshold of the year to come
Whispering “it will be happier.”

Tennyson - hope - wist_info quote

Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-1892) English poet
The Foresters, Act 1, sc. 3 [Robin] (1892)
    (Source)
 
Added on 31-Dec-15 | Last updated 17-Dec-22
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , ,
More quotes by Tennyson, Alfred, Lord

Things are not getting worse; things have always been this bad. Nothing is more consoling than the long perspective of history. It will perk you up no end to go back and read the works of progressives past. You will learn therein that things back then were also terrible, and what’s more, they were always getting worse. This is most inspiriting.

Molly Ivins (1944-2007) American writer, political columnist [Mary Tyler Ivins]
The Progressive (Mar 1986)
    (Source)
 
Added on 21-Dec-15 | Last updated 21-Dec-15
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Ivins, Molly

There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self.

Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961) American writer
(Attributed)
 
Added on 23-Nov-15 | Last updated 23-Nov-15
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , ,
More quotes by Hemingway, Ernest

The whole fun of living is trying to make something better.

Charles F. Kettering (1876-1958) American inventor, engineer, researcher, businessman
(Attributed)
 
Added on 9-Oct-15 | Last updated 9-Oct-15
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , ,
More quotes by Kettering, Charles F.

Substantial progress toward better things can rarely be taken without developing new evils requiring new remedies.

William Howard Taft (1857-1930) US President (1909-13) and Chief Justice (1921-1930)
Our Chief Magistrate and His Powers (1916)
 
Added on 10-Aug-15 | Last updated 10-Aug-15
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , ,
More quotes by Taft, William

The real reason for not committing suicide is because you always know how swell life gets again after hell is over.

Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961) American writer
Letter (1926)
 
Added on 14-May-15 | Last updated 14-May-15
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , ,
More quotes by Hemingway, Ernest

What has occurred in this case must ever recur in similar cases. Human nature will not change. In any future great national trial, compared with the men of this, we shall have as weak and as strong, as silly and as wise, as bad and as good. Let us, therefore, study the incidents of this, as philosophy to learn wisdom from, and none of them as wrongs to be revenged.

Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) American lawyer, politician, US President (1861-65)
Speech, Washington, DC (10 Nov 1964)
    (Source)
 
Added on 4-May-15 | Last updated 4-May-15
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Lincoln, Abraham

The elevation of the mind ought to be the principal end of all our studies.

Edmund Burke (1729-1797) Anglo-Irish statesman, orator, philosopher
A Philosophical Inquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and the Beautiful, 1.19 (1756)
 
Added on 11-Dec-14 | Last updated 11-Dec-14
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , ,
More quotes by Burke, Edmund

Only he who has seen better days and lives to see better days again knows their full value.

Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. of Samuel Clemens]
Mark Twain’s Notebook [ed. Paine (1935)]
 
Added on 17-Nov-14 | Last updated 26-Jan-19
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , ,
More quotes by Twain, Mark

True religion invites us to become better people. False religion tells us that this has already occurred.

Abdal Hakim Murad (b. 1960) British Muslim shaykh, researcher, writer, academic [b. Timothy John Winter]
“Contentions 2,” #11
    (Source)
 
Added on 26-Sep-14 | Last updated 26-Sep-14
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , ,
More quotes by Murad, Abdal Hakim

An authentic faith — which is never comfortable or completely personal — always involves a deep desire to change the world, to transmit values, to leave this earth somehow better that we found it.

Francis I (b. 1936) Argentinian Catholic Pope (2013- ) [b. Jorge Mario Bergoglio]
Evangelii Gaudium, sec. 183 (24 Nov 2013)
    (Source)
 
Added on 26-Aug-14 | Last updated 26-Aug-14
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , ,
More quotes by Francis I (Pope)

Don’t go to great trouble to optimize something that never should be done at all. Aim to enhance total systems properties, such as creativity, stability, diversity, resilience, and sustainability — whether they are easily measured or not.

Kenneth Ewart Boulding (1910-1993) American economist, educator, poet, philosopher
(Attributed)
 
Added on 27-Jan-14 | Last updated 27-Jan-14
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: ,
More quotes by Boulding, Kenneth Ewart

Heaven is not reached at a single bound;
But we build the ladder by which we rise
From the lowly earth to the vaulted skies,
And we mount to its summit round by round.

J. G. Holland (1819-1881) American novelist, poet, editor [Josiah Gilbert Holland; pseud. Timothy Titcomb]
“Gradatim”
 
Added on 18-Dec-13 | Last updated 18-Dec-13
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , ,
More quotes by Holland, Josiah G.

If you would lift me, you must be on higher ground.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist, lecturer, poet
“Eloquence,” Atlantic Monthly (1858-09)
 
Added on 15-May-13 | Last updated 27-Mar-23
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , ,
More quotes by Emerson, Ralph Waldo