The Quotation IndexThe trusted reference for quotations and the sources behind them
Subcategory Philosophy Meaning

Featured

Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement; nothing can be done without hope.
Helen Keller Optimism · 1903

Meaning Quotations

“Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement; nothing can be done without hope.”

Helen Keller · Optimism, 1903 · Primary source

“Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time; for that’s the stuff life is made of.”

Benjamin Franklin · Poor Richard’s Almanack, 1732-1758 · Primary source

“The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time.”

Jack London · Jack London’s Tales of Adventure, 1906 · Secondary source

“Life achieves its summit when it does to the uttermost that which it was equipped to do.”

Jack London · White Fang, 1906 · Primary source

“Hitch your wagon to a star.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson · Civilization, 1870 · Primary source

“In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.”

Benjamin Franklin · Letter to French scientist Jean-Baptiste Leroy, 1789 · Primary source

“There is an ecstasy that marks the summit of life, and beyond which life cannot rise. And such is the paradox of living, this ecstasy comes when one is most alive, and it comes as a complete forgetfulness that one is alive.”

Jack London · The Call of the Wild, 1903 · Primary source

“The only sin is limitation.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson · Circles, 1841 · Primary source

“The world is not enough.”

Ian Fleming · On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, 1963 · Primary source

“In proportion as he simplifies his life, the laws of the universe will appear less complex, and solitude will not be solitude, nor poverty poverty, nor weakness weakness.”

Henry David Thoreau · Walden, 1849 · Primary source

“I don’t feel frightened by not knowing things, by being lost in a mysterious universe without having any purpose, which is the way it really is so far as I can tell. It doesn’t frighten me.”

Richard Feynman · Horizon: The Pleasure of Finding Things Out, 1981 · Primary source

“Recollection is more richly satisfying than all actuality.”

Søren Kierkegaard · Either/Or, 1843 · Primary source

“A lake is the landscape’s most beautiful and expressive feature. It is earth’s eye; looking into which the beholder measures the depth of his own nature.”

Henry David Thoreau · Walden, 1849 · Primary source

“Lost time is never found again.”

Benjamin Franklin · Poor Richard’s Almanack, 1732-1758 · Primary source

“Pleasure disappoints; possibility does not.”

Søren Kierkegaard · Either/Or, 1843 · Primary source

“This time, like all times, is a very good one, if we but know what to do with it.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson · The American Scholar, 1837 · Primary source

“The soul refuses limits, and always affirms an Optimism, never a Pessimism.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson · Compensation, 1841 · Primary source

“A long life may not be good enough, but a good life is long enough.”

Benjamin Franklin · Poor Richard’s Almanack, 1732-1758 · Primary source

“Real enjoyment consists not in what one enjoys but in the idea.”

Søren Kierkegaard · Either/Or, 1843 · Primary source

“The first wealth is health.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson · Power, 1860 · Primary source

“Gibraltar may be strong, but ideas are impregnable, and bestow on the hero their invincibility.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson · Civilization, 1870 · Primary source

“Nothing is beneath you, if it is in the direction of your life: nothing is great or desirable, if it is off from that.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson · Wealth, 1860 · Primary source

“Wish not so much to live long as to live well.”

Benjamin Franklin · Poor Richard’s Almanack, 1732-1758 · Primary source

“The one thing in the world of value is the active soul.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson · The American Scholar, 1837 · Primary source

“My time I divide as follows: the one half I sleep; the other half I dream. I never dream when I sleep; that would be a shame, because to sleep is the height of genius.”

Søren Kierkegaard · Either/Or, 1843 · Primary source

“But genius always looks forward. The eyes of man are set in his forehead, not in his hindhead. Man hopes. Genius creates. To create—to create—is the proof of a divine presence.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson · The American Scholar, 1837 · Primary source

“Things do not change; we change.”

Henry David Thoreau · Walden, 1849 · Primary source

“Life is a journey, not a destination.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson · No reliable source

“Marry, and you will regret it. Do not marry, and you will also regret it. Marry or do not marry, you will regret it either way.”

Søren Kierkegaard · Either/Or, 1843 · Primary source

“Don’t be pushed by your problems. Be led by your dreams.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson · No reliable source

Explore the subcategory

Meaning

8 authors · 16 works · 60 themes · 104 tags
Authors
Benjamin Franklin American statesmanRalph Waldo Emerson American essayist and philosopherHenry David Thoreau American writer and philosopher
Works
Poor Richard’s Almanack Benjamin Franklin · 1732-1758Walden Henry David Thoreau · 1849Optimism Helen Keller · 1903
Themes
Hope as a condition for actionOptimism and achievementTime as the substance of life
Tags
PurposeMortalityPrioritiesAspiration
✓Copied