The great end of life is not knowledge but action.
- Thomas Henry Huxley
The Four Stages of Public Opinion
I (Just after publication): The novelty is absurd
and subversive of Religion and Morality.
The propounder both fool and knave.
II (Twenty years later): The Novelty is absolute Truth
and will yield a full and satisfactory
explanation of things in general -
The propounder a man of sublime genius and perfect virtue.
III (Forty years later): The Novelty won't explain
things in general after all, and therefore is a wretched failure.
The propounder a very ordinary person advertised by a clique.
IV (A century later): The Novelty a mixture of truth and error.
Explains as much as could reasonably be expected.
The propounder worthy of all honor
in spite of his share of human frailties,
as one who has added to the permanent possessions of science.
- Thomas Henry [T. H.] Huxley
I love being married.
It's so great to find that one special person
you want to annoy for the rest of your life.
- Rita Rudner
It's not as great a day for the bride as she thinks.
She's not marrying the best man.
- Anonymous
The time-traveling is just too dangerous.
Better that I devote myself to study
the other great mystery of the universe - women!
- the movie Back to the Future II
Hey, Marge. Isn't it great being married
to someone who's recklessly impulsive?
- The Simpsons Movie (2007)
One great thing about getting old is that
you can get out of all sorts of social obligations
just by saying you're too tired.
- George Carlin
I am prepared to meet my Maker.
Whether my Maker is prepared for the great ordeal
of meeting me is another matter.
- Winston Churchill
We have a great life here in Alaska,
and we're never going back to America again!
- The Simpsons Movie (2007)
You ask me if I keep a notebook
to record my great ideas.
I've only ever had one.
- Albert Einstein
New York City is a great monument
to the power of money and greed...
a race for rent.
- Frank Lloyd Wright
I begin with the principle that all men are bores.
Surely no one will prove himself
so great a bore as to contradict me in this.
- Soren Kierkegaard
Confused Memories of Childhood:
Hate to my father, cruel hate,
confused with love - a mix not great.
The man I love - the man I hate;
the man I want to emulate.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
No one can have a higher opinion of you than I have,
and I think you're a slimy, contemptible sewer rat!
- the movie The Great Mouse Detective
I always seem to get inspiration and renewed vitality
by contact with this great novel land of yours
which sticks up out of the Atlantic.
- Winston Churchill
Who in the world am I? Ah, that's the great puzzle.
- Lewis Carroll
I love to shop after a bad relationship.
I don't know. I buy a new outfit
and it makes me feel better. It just does.
Sometimes I see a really great outfit,
I'll break up with someone on purpose.
- Rita Rudner
I have great hopes that we shall love each other all our lives
as much as if we had never married at all.
- Lord Byron
People who think they know everything
are a great annoyance to those of us who do.
- Isaac Asimov
To the young child, all life is a great adventure -
when did we grow so dull and brittle.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
As usual, there is a great woman behind every idiot.
- John Lennon
The magic words for a great relationship are,
"I love you just the way you are."
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
The essence of life is not in
the great victories and grand failures,
but in the simple joys.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
Silence is a source of great strength.
- Lao Tzu
Where there is great love,
there are always miracles.
- Willa Cather
Don't be afraid to give up the good to go for the great.
- John D. Rockefeller
You're off to Great Places!
Today is your day!
Your mountain is waiting,
So... get on your way!
- Dr. Seuss
I long to accomplish a great and noble task,
but it is my chief duty to accomplish small tasks
as if they were great and noble.
- Helen Keller
Mostly, it is human to dislike surprises -
often with great intensity.
Be open to new ways;
sometimes newness just knocks on our door;
welcome it.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
If (s)he's an apple and you're an orange,
celebrate your differences -
make a great fruit salad.
Love isn't about being the same -
it's about being sweet with each other.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
Dare to dream of your great success.
- Mary Anne Radmacher
No crime is so great as daring to excel.
- Winston Churchill
To be one, to be united is a great thing.
But to respect the right to be different is maybe even greater.
- Bono
In great contests, each party claims to act
in accordance with the will of God.
Both may be, and one must be wrong.
- Abraham Lincoln
Life is a great big canvas,
and you should throw all the paint you can on it.
- Danny Kaye
Regrets and resentments cause great suffering but fix nothing.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
If a man is called to be a street sweeper,
he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted,
or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry.
He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts
of heaven and earth will pause to say,
here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.
It gives me great pleasure indeed to see the stubbornness
of an incorrigible nonconformist warmly acclaimed.
- Albert Einstein
Neither a man nor a crowd nor a nation
can be trusted to act humanely
or to think sanely under the influence of a great fear.
- Bertrand Russell
Great minds discuss ideas;
average minds discuss events;
small minds discuss people.
- Eleanor Roosevelt
Life in abundance comes only through great love.
- Elbert Hubbard
Dare to dream of your great success.
Become intimate with those things
which deeply motivate you
and regularly work toward
the realization of that mission.
- Mary Anne Radmacher
Having a personal opinion is great.
Believing that one's personal opinion is absolute truth
leads to most of the world's troubles.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
I have a great deal of company in the house,
especially in the morning when nobody calls.
- Henry David Thoreau
I am a firm believer in the people.
If given the truth, they can be depended upon
to meet any national crisis.
The great point is to bring them the real facts.
- Abraham Lincoln
To be oneself is a rare thing, and a great one.
- Ursula K. Le Guin
A great democracy does not make it harder to vote than to buy an assault weapon.
- William J. Clinton
Govern a great nation as you would cook a small fish.
Do not overdo it.
- Lao Tzu
Everything that is really great and inspiring
is created by the individual who can labor in freedom.
- Albert Einstein
In this life we cannot do great things.
We can only do small things with great love.
- Mother Teresa
One of the greatest casualties
of the war in Vietnam is the Great Society...
shot down on the battlefield of Vietnam.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.
After climbing a great hill,
one only finds that there are many more hills to climb.
- Nelson Mandela
Toleration and liberty are the foundations of a great republic.
- Frank Lloyd Wright
These are not dark days -
these are great days.
- Winston Churchill
Living in fear of anything is a terrible waste
of what could be a great life.
If you live in fear of losing your job,
either you fear the embarrassment of being jobless,
or you fear the loss of material goods -
house, car, and such.
If you live in fear of losing your stuff and money,
it is clear that they own you.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
The really great secret - Happiness is free.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
You will become as small as your controlling desire;
as great as your dominant aspiration.
- James Allen
It is only the great-hearted who can be true friends.
The mean and cowardly can never know what true friendship means.
- Charles Kingsley
To the well-organized mind,
death is but the next great adventure.
- J. K. Rowling
From small beginnings come great things.
- Anonymous
Little strokes,
Fell great oaks.
- Benjamin Franklin
Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions.
Small people always do that,
but the really great make you feel that
you, too, can become great.
- Mark Twain
To accomplish great things,
we must not only act, but also dream;
not only plan, but also believe.
- Anatole France
When you become centered, suddenly there is great freedom
because you know you are not the mind and you are not the body.
- Osho
Confidence is the most important single factor in this game,
and no matter how great your natural talent,
there is only one way to obtain and sustain it: work.
- Jack Nicklaus
Character is higher than intellect.
A great soul will be strong to live as well as think.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
He who believes is strong; he who doubts is weak.
Strong convictions precede great actions.
- Louisa May Alcott
To be great is to be misunderstood.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Great acts are made up of small deeds.
- Lao Tzu
Great talents are the most lovely
and often the most dangerous
fruits on the tree of humanity.
They hang upon the most slender twigs
that are easily snapped off.
- Carl Jung
Great men or men of great gifts
you shall easily find,
but symmetrical men never.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
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May the world be kind to you,
and may your own thoughts be gentle upon yourself.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
All materials & writings are copyright © Jonathan Lockwood Huie, except for quotes and other specifically identified material which belong to their respective copyright holders if applicable.