Quotable Quotes (16 page)

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Authors: Editors of Reader's Digest

—
W
ILLIAM
W
HARTON

Tidings

 

I don't like a man to be efficient. He's likely to be not human enough.

—
F
ELIX
F
RANKFRUTER

 

When a man points a finger at someone else, he should remember that three of his fingers are pointing at himself.

—
A
NONYMOUS

 

Ought is not a word we use to other people. It is a word we should reserve for ourselves.

—
S
ISTER
W
ENDY
B
ECKETT

 

Perhaps no phenomenon contains so much destructive feeling as “moral indignation,” which permits envy or hate to be acted out under the guise of virtue.

—
E
RICH
F
ROMM

 

If you judge people, you have no time to love them.

—
M
OTHER
T
ERESA OF
C
ALCUTTA

 

Speak not against anyone whose burden you have not weighed yourself.

—
M
ARION
B
RADLEY

Black Trillium

 

Puritanism is the haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.

—
H
.
L
.
M
ENCKEN

 

This is a do-it-yourself test for paranoia: you know you've got it when you can't think of anything that's your fault.

—
R
OBERT
M
.
H
UTCHINS

 

That which we call sin in others is experiment for us.

—
R
ALPH
W
ALDO
E
MERSON

 

We all have weaknesses. But I have figured that others have put up with mine so tolerantly that I would be less than fair not to make a reasonable discount for theirs.

—
W
ILLIAM
A
LLEN
W
HITE

 

We are all inclined to judge ourselves by our ideals; others, by their acts.

—
H
AROLD
N
ICOLSON

 

Distrust all in whom the impulse to punish is powerful.

—
F
RIEDRICH
N
IETZSCHE

 

Nothing so needs reforming as other people's habits.

—
M
ARK
T
WAIN

 

Our faults irritate us most when we see them in others.

—
P
ENNSYLVANIA
D
UTCH PROVERB

 

The enthusiastic, to those who are not, are always something of a trial.

—
A
LBAN
G
OODIER

 

There is little room left for wisdom when one is full of judgment.

—
M
ALCOLM
H
EIN

 

Nothing in the world is so rare as a person one can always put up with.

—
G
IACOMO
L
EOPARDI

 

When nobody around you seems to measure up, it's time to check your yardstick.

—
B
ILL
L
EMLEY

 

It has been my experience that folks who have no vices have very few virtues.

—
A
BRAHAM
L
INCOLN

 

There are certain small faults that offset great virtues. There are certain great faults that are forgotten in small virtues.

—
G
RANTLAND
R
ICE
W
ATTS

 

Accept me as I am—only then will we discover each other.

—
F
ROM
F
EDERICO
F
ELLINI'S
8 1/2

 

The less secure a man is, the more likely he is to have extreme prejudices.

—
C
LINT
E
ASTWOOD

 

Nothing dies so hard, or rallies so often, as intolerance.

—
H
ENRY
W
ARD
B
EECHER

 

Prejudices are the chains forged by ignorance to keep men apart.

—
C
OUNTESS OF
B
LESSINGTON

 

Prejudice is a disease characterized by hardening of the categories.

—
W
ILLIAM
A
RTHUR

 

A prejudice is a vagrant opinion without visible means of support.

—
A
MBROSE
B
IERCE

 

It is never too late to give up our prejudices.

—
H
ENRY
D
AVID
T
HOREAU

 

Every bigot was once a child free of prejudice.

—
S
ISTER
M
ARY
D
E
L
OURDES

 

Too many of our prejudices are like pyramids upside down. They rest on tiny, trivial incidents, but they spread upward and outward until they fill our minds.

—
W
ILLIAM
M
C
C
HESNEY
M
ARTIN

 

S
TUPIDITY WON'T KILL YOU 
. . .

 

Stupidity won't kill you, but it can make you sweat.

—
E
NGLISH PROVERB

 

Ignorance is not bliss—it is oblivion.

—
P
HILIP
W
YLIE

 

I am patient with stupidity but not with those who are proud of it.

—
E
DITH
S
ITWELL

 

The greatest obstacle to discovering the shape of the earth, the continents and the ocean was not ignorance but the illusion of knowledge.

—
D
ANIEL
J
.
B
OORSTIN

The Discoverers

 

Ignorance is bold, and knowledge reserved.

—
T
HUCYDIDES

 

The trouble with most folks isn't so much their ignorance, as knowing so many things that ain't so.

—
J
OSH
B
ILLINGS

 

Sometimes the best way to convince someone he is wrong is to let him have his way.

—
R
ED
O
'
D
ONNELL

 

Everybody is ignorant, only on different subjects.

—
W
ILL
R
OGERS

 

Nothing will divide this nation more than ignorance, and nothing can bring us together better than an educated population.

—
J
OHN
S
CULLEY

in
The Atlantic

 

Preconceived notions are the locks on the door to wisdom.

—
M
ERRY
B
ROWNE

in
National Enquirer

 

Fears are educated into us and can, if we wish, be educated out.

—
K
ARL
A
.
M
ENNINGER,
MD

The Human Mind

 

The intelligent man who is proud of his intelligence is like the condemned man who is proud of his large cell.

—
S
IMONE
W
EIL

 

I
F MALICE OR ENVY WERE TANGIBLE 
. . .

 

It is never wise to seek or wish for another's misfortune. If malice or envy were tangible and had a shape, it would be the shape of a boomerang.

—
C
HARLEY
R
EESE

 

Spite is never lonely; envy always tags along.

—
M
IGNON
M
C
L
AUGHLIN

 

Envy is the art of counting the other fellow's blessings instead of your own.

—
H
AROLD
C
OFFIN

 

Do not believe those persons who say they have never been jealous. What they mean is that they have never been in love.

—
G
ERALD
B
RENAN

 

Love looks through a telescope; envy, through a microscope.

—
J
OSH
B
ILLINGS

 

Jealousy is all the fun you think they had.

—
E
RICA
J
ONG

 

I'd never try to learn from someone I didn't envy at least a little. If I never envied, I'd never learn.

—
B
ETSY
C
OHEN

The Snow White Syndrome

 

T
HE CHAINS OF HABIT 
. . .

 

The chains of habit are generally too small to be felt until they are too strong to be broken
.

—
S
AMUEL
J
OHNSON

 

Good habits are as easy to form as bad ones.

—
T
IM
M
C
C
ARVER

 

Habits are first cobwebs, then cables.

—
S
PANISH PROVERB

 

Comfort comes as a guest, lingers to become a host and stays to enslave us.

—
L
EE
S
.
B
ICKMORE

 

Habit is habit, and not to be flung out of the window by any man, but coaxed downstairs a step at a time.

—
M
ARK
T
WAIN

 

A habit is a shirt made of iron.

—
H
AROLD
H
ELFER

 

Habits are like supervisors that you don't notice.

—
H
ANNES
M
ESSEMER

 

We can often endure an extra pound of pain far more easily than we can suffer the withdrawal of an ounce of accustomed pleasure.

—
S
YDNEY
J
.
H
ARRIS

 

Habit, if not resisted, soon becomes necessity.

—
S
T.
A
UGUSTINE

 

It is easy to assume a habit; but when you try to cast it off, it will take skin and all.

—
J
OSH
B
ILLINGS

 

A habit is something you can do without thinking—which is why most of us have so many of them.

—
F
RANK
A
.
C
LARK

 

The best way to break a habit is to drop it.

—
L
EO
A
IKMAN

 

A bad habit never disappears miraculously; it's an undo-it-yourself project.

—
A
BIGAIL
V
AN
B
UREN

 

N
EVER BE HAUGHTY . . .

 

Never be haughty to the humble. Never be humble to the haughty.

—
J
EFFERSON
D
AVIS

 

None are so empty as those who are full of themselves.

—
B
ENJAMIN
W
HICHCOTE

 

The louder he talked of his honor, the faster we counted our spoons.

—
R
ALPH
W
ALDO
E
MERSON

 

He who truly knows has no occasion to shout.

—
L
EONARDO DA
V
INCI

 

The question we do not see when we are young is whether we own pride or are owned by it.

—
J
OSEPHINE
J
OHNSON

The Dark Traveler

 

If you are all wrapped up in yourself, you are overdressed.

—
The Wedded Unmother

 

A man wrapped up in himself makes a very small parcel.

—“Thought for the Day,” BBC Radio

 

When someone sings his own praises, he always gets the tune too high.

—
M
ARY
H
.
W
ALDRIP

 

Vanity is the result of a delusion that someone is paying attention.

—
P
AUL
E
.
S
WEENEY

 

Oh, for a pin that would puncture pretension!

—I
SAAC
A
SIMOV

Buy Jupiter and Other Stories

 

Men often mistake notoriety for fame, and would rather be remarked for their vices and follies than not be noticed at all.

—
H
ARRY
S
.
T
RUMAN

 

It is far more impressive when others discover your good qualities without your help.

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