The Quotation IndexThe trusted reference for quotations and the sources behind them
Category Psychology

Featured Quote in Psychology

Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.
Ralph Waldo Emerson Circles · 1841

Subcategories

Imagination (7) Thinking (5) Perception (0) Judgement (4) Memory (1) Learning (40) Emotion (3) Motivation (9) Habits (1) Personality (3) Identity (5) Social influence (2) Consciousness (0) Mental health (0)

Psychology Quotes

“Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson · Circles, 1841 · Primary source

“I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious.”

Albert Einstein · Letter to Carl Seelig, 1952 · Primary source

“Simplicity is the hallmark of truth—we should know better, but complexity continues to have a morbid attraction. When you give for an academic audience a lecture that is crystal clear from alpha to omega, your audience feels cheated [...] The sore truth is that complexity sells better.”

Edsger Dijkstra · The Threats to Computing Science, 1984 · Primary source

“Don’t get enamored with the complexities you have learned to live with (be they of your own making or imported). The lurking suspicion that something could be simplified is the world’s richest source of rewarding challenges.”

Edsger Dijkstra · Advice to a Young Scientist, c. 1989 · Primary source

“The imagination of nature is far, far greater than the imagination of man.”

Richard Feynman · The Meaning of It All, 1998 · Primary source

“One never notices what has been done; one can only see what remains to be done.”

Marie Curie · Madame Curie: A Biography, 1938 · Secondary source

“The maxim Nothing avails but perfection may be spelt shorter: Paralysis.”

Winston Churchill · The Second World War, 1948-1953 · Primary source

“Nature arms each man with some faculty which enables him to do easily some feat impossible to any other, and thus makes him necessary to society.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson · Wealth, 1860 · Primary source

“’Tis easier to prevent bad habits than to break them.”

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

“He that lies down with dogs, shall rise up with fleas.”

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

“And people with obsessions, reflected Bond, were blind to danger.”

Ian Fleming · Moonraker, 1955 · Primary source

“The sting of a reproach is the truth of it.”

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

“Let him think I am more man than I am and I will be so.”

Ernest Hemingway · The Old Man and the Sea, 1952 · Primary source

“Without imagination not much can be done.”

Winston Churchill · Never give in, never, 1941 · Primary source

“You can’t get away from yourself by moving from one place to another.”

Ernest Hemingway · The Sun Also Rises, 1926 · Primary source

“Those whom the Gods wish to destroy, they first make bored.”

Ian Fleming · From Russia, with Love, 1957 · Primary source

“A full belly makes a dull brain.”

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

“Things are pretty, graceful, rich, elegant, handsome, but, until they speak to the imagination, not yet beautiful.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson · Beauty, 1841 · Primary source

“No pessimist ever discovered the secrets of the stars, or sailed to an uncharted land.”

Helen Keller · Optimism, 1903 · Primary source

“Peace of mind is the most important prerequisite for creative work.”

Richard Feynman · A Short Talk about Richard Feynman, 2005 · Secondary source

“Nothing is as good or as bad as it seems.”

Scott Galloway · How Does the End Begin?, 2025 · Primary source

“The tools we use have a profound (and devious!) influence on our thinking habits, and, therefore, on our thinking abilities.”

Edsger Dijkstra · How Do We Tell Truths That Might Hurt?, 1975 · Primary source

“Nothing is troublesome that we do willingly.”

Thomas Jefferson · Letter to Thomas Jefferson Smith, 1825 · Primary source

“Pleasure disappoints; possibility does not.”

Søren Kierkegaard · Either/Or, 1843 · Primary source

“Bond mistrusted anyone who tied his tie with a Windsor knot. It showed too much vanity. It was often the mark of a cad. Bond decided to forget his prejudice.”

Ian Fleming · From Russia, with Love, 1957 · Primary source

“Ill customs and bad advice are seldom forgotten.”

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

“Imagination rules the world.”

Napoleon Bonaparte · The Memorial of Saint Helena, 1824 · Secondary source

“Everything tells me I shall succeed.”

Napoleon Bonaparte · Letter to Joseph Fesch, 1791 · Primary source

“Anger is never without a reason, but seldom with a good one.”

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

“Don’t strive for recognition (in whatever form): recognition should not be your goal, but a symptom that your work has been worthwhile.”

Edsger Dijkstra · Advice to a Young Scientist, c. 1989 · Primary source

“A vase of unbaked clay, when broken, may be remoulded, but not a baked one.”

Leonardo da Vinci · The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci, 1888 · Primary source

“The value of the goal lies in the goal itself; and therefore the goal cannot be attained unless it is pursued for its own sake.”

Arnold J. Toynbee · A Study of History, 1934-1961 · Primary source

“Observe all men; thyself most.”

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

“All the greatest men are maniacs. They are possessed by a mania which drives them forward towards their goal. The great scientists, the philosophers, the religious leaders—all maniacs. What else but a blind singleness of purpose could have given focus to their genius, would have kept them in the groove of their purpose? Mania, my dear Mister Bond, is as priceless as genius. Dissipation of energy, fragmentation of vision, loss of momentum, the lack of follow-through—these are the vices of the herd.”

Ian Fleming · Dr. No, 1958 · Primary source

“I lay no claim to advancing scientific data other than advancing flying knowledge. I can only say that I do it because I want to.”

Amelia Earhart · No reliable source

“No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.”

Eleanor Roosevelt · No reliable source

“A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.”

Winston Churchill · No reliable source

“I think that somehow, we learn who we really are and then live with that decision.”

Eleanor Roosevelt · No reliable source

“Self-pity is our worst enemy and if we yield to it, we can never do anything good in the world.”

Helen Keller · No reliable source

“All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity, but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes, to make it possible. This I did.”

T. E. Lawrence · Seven Pillars of Wisdom, 1926 · Primary source

“Life is not easy for any of us. But what of that? We must have perseverance and above all confidence in ourselves. We must believe that we are gifted for something, and that this thing, at whatever cost, must be attained.”

Marie Curie · Madame Curie: A Biography, 1938 · Secondary source

“The time to worry is three months before a flight. Decide then whether or not the goal is worth the risks involved. If it is, stop worrying. To worry is to add another hazard. It retards reactions, makes one unfit. Hamlet would have been a bad aviator. He worried too much.”

Amelia Earhart · Last Flight, 1937 · Primary source

“It is easy in the world to live after the world’s opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson · Self-Reliance, 1841 · Primary source

“Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become.”

Steve Jobs · Stanford Commencement Address, 2005 · Primary source

“I desire that there may be as many different persons in the world as possible; but I would have each one be very careful to find out and pursue his own way, and not his father’s or his mother’s or his neighbor’s instead. The youth may build or plant or sail, only let him not be hindered from doing that which he tells me he would like to do.”

Henry David Thoreau · Walden, 1849 · Primary source

“You have no responsibility to live up to what other people think you ought to accomplish. I have no responsibility to be like they expect me to be. It’s their mistake, not my failing.”

Richard Feynman · Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!, 1985 · Primary source

Explore the category

Psychology

14 subcategories · 18 authors · 26 works · 94 themes · 172 tags
Authors
Albert Einstein Theoretical physicistAmelia Earhart American aviation pioneerBenjamin Franklin American statesman
Works
A Study of History Arnold J. Toynbee · 1934-1961Poor Richard’s Almanack Benjamin Franklin · 1732-1758The Sun Also Rises Ernest Hemingway · 1926
Themes
Enthusiasm as a force for achievementCommitment to ambitious aimsCuriosity rather than innate gift
Tags
ImaginationPurposeJudgementSelf-awareness
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