To be oneself is a rare thing, and a great one.
- Ursula K. Le Guin
Though I am a servant, I am not your servant.
- Ursula K. Le Guin
What sane person could live in this world and not be crazy?
- Ursula K. Le Guin
It is the journey that matters, in the end
- Ursula K. Le Guin
To light a candle is to cast a shadow.
- Ursula K. Le Guin
My imagination makes me human and makes me a fool;
it gives me all the world and exiles me from it.
- Ursula K. Le Guin
There are no right answers to wrong questions.
- Ursula K. Le Guin
Love doesn't just sit there like a stone;
it has to be made,like bread,
remade all the time, made new.
- Ursula K. Le Guin
The only thing that makes life possible
is permanent, intolerable uncertainty;
not knowing what comes next.
- Ursula K. Le Guin
Morning comes whether you set the alarm or not.
- Ursula K. Le Guin
It is above all by the imagination
that we achieve perception and compassion and hope.
- Ursula K. Le Guin
I had forgotten how much light there is in the world,
'til you gave it back to me.
- Ursula K. Le Guin
It is good to have an end to journey towards;
but it is the journey that matters in the end.
- Ursula K. Le Guin
The only questions that really matter are the ones you ask yourself.
- Ursula K. Le Guin
There's a point... when you have to choose
whether to be like everybody else the rest of your life,
or to make a virtue of your peculiarities.
- Ursula K. Le Guin
To oppose something is to maintain it.
- Ursula K. Le Guin
The creative adult is the child who has survived.
- Ursula K. Le Guin
The only thing to do with good advice is to pass it on.
It is never of any use to oneself.
- Oscar Wilde
Testing oneself is best when done alone.
- Jimmy Carter
In order to be an immaculate member of a flock of sheep,
one must above all be a sheep oneself.
- Albert Einstein
I always pass on good advice.
It is the only thing to do with it.
It is never of any use to oneself.
- Oscar Wilde
Sometimes, indeed, there is such a discrepancy
between the genius and his human qualities
that one has to ask oneself whether
a little less talent might not have been better.
- Carl Jung
A quotation is a handy thing to have about,
saving one the trouble of thinking for oneself.
- A. A. Milne (Winnie-The-Pooh)
To dare is to lose one's footing momentarily.
Not to dare is to lose oneself.
- Soren Kierkegaard
Toleration is the greatest gift of the mind;
it requires the same effort of the brain
that it takes to balance oneself on a bicycle.
- Helen Keller
When one gets angry, it is always angry AT someone -
perhaps a friend or spouse, perhaps a stranger,
perhaps the nameless "they" - "those people at the bank wronged me,"
perhaps God, or perhaps oneself.
In any case, when one gets angry,
they want to find someone to be "responsible" for what happened.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
Those who are dedicated to a life of wisdom
understand that the impulse to blame
something or someone is foolishness,
that there is nothing to be gained in blaming,
whether it be others or oneself.
- Epictetus
The acceptance of oneself is
the essence of the whole moral problem
and the epitome of a whole outlook on life.
- Carl Jung
To know how to free oneself is nothing;
the arduous thing is to know what to do with one's freedom.
- Andre Gide
One defeats a fanatic precisely by not being a fanatic oneself,
but on the contrary by using one's intelligence.
- George Orwell
These are the keys to a great life...
taking oneself lightly, forgiveness, and acceptance.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
My experience has been that work is
almost the best way to pull oneself out of the depths.
- Eleanor Roosevelt
Violence, even well intentioned,
always rebounds upon oneself.
- Lao Tzu
One's own religion is after all
a matter between oneself
and one's Maker and no one else's.
- Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi
If you are disabled, it is probably not your fault,
but it is no good blaming the world or expecting it to take pity on you.
One has to have a positive attitude
and must make the best of the situation that one finds oneself in.
If one is physically disabled,
one cannot afford to be psychologically disabled as well.
- Stephen Hawking
To accuse others for one's own misfortunes
is a sign of want of education.
To accuse oneself shows that one's education has begun.
To accuse neither oneself nor others
shows that one's education is complete.
- Epictetus
Don't aim at success.
The more you aim at it and make it a target,
the more you are going to miss it.
For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued;
it must ensue, and it only does so as
the unintended side effect of one's personal dedication
to a cause greater than oneself.
- Viktor E. Frankl
When you are alone you are not alone,
you are simply lonely -
and there is a tremendous difference
between loneliness and aloneness.
When you are lonely you are thinking of the other,
you are missing the other.
Loneliness is a negative state.
You are feeling that it would have been
better if the other were there -
your friend, your wife, your mother,
your beloved, your husband.
It would have been good if the other
were there, but the other is not.
Loneliness is absence of the other.
Aloneness is the presence of oneself.
Aloneness is very positive.
It is a presence, overflowing presence.
You are so full of presence
that you can fill the whole universe
with your presence and there is no need for anybody.
- Osho
Except in cases of necessity, which are rare,
leave your friend to learn
unpleasant things from his enemies;
they are ready enough to tell them.
- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
In individuals, insanity is rare;
but in groups, parties, nations and epochs,
it is the rule.
- Friedrich Nietzsche
Friendship without self-interest
is one of the rare and beautiful things in life.
- James Francis Byrnes
Go ahead. Weep for the rare,
the never seen this way again,
the excruciating, ineffable,
unmitigated beauty of love.
- Mary Anne Radmacher
Each contact with a human being is so rare, so precious,
one should preserve it.
- Anais Nin
Real friendships among men are so rare
that when they occur they are famous.
- Clarence Day
Friends are those rare people who ask how we are
and then wait to hear the answer.
- Anonymous
If you can speak what you will never hear,
if you can write what you will never read,
you have done rare things.
- Henry David Thoreau
However rare true love may be,
it is less so than true friendship.
- Francois de La Rochefoucauld
It is curious - curious that physical courage
should be so common in the world, and moral courage so rare
- Mark Twain
Time to Die:
A Zen teacher had a rare and priceless teacup.
One day, his precocious student accidentally broke the cup.
Hearing the footsteps of his teacher,
the student held the pieces of the cup behind his back.
When the master appeared, he asked: "Why do people have to die?"
"This is natural," explained the teacher.
"Everything has to die and has just so long to live."
The student showed the shattered cup, saying,
"It was time for your cup to die."
- Traditional Zen Koan
Oh no, I can't do anything to the death.
Doctor's orders. You see, I have this ulcer condition,
and death is the worst thing for it.
- the movie Love and Death
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
Damn it boss, I like you too much not to say it.
You've got everything except one thing: madness!
- the movie Zorba The Greek
Giving up smoking is the easiest thing in the world.
I know because I've done it thousands of times.
- Mark Twain
Don't expect me to get excited over
another damn thing we need to find.
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (2010)
You can always do one thing less than you think you can.
- Anonymous
Smile first thing in the morning. Get it over with.
- W. C. Fields
The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education.
- Albert Einstein
Take time to play!
Ask for what you want.
Laugh.
Live loudly.
Be avid.
Learn a new thing.
Be Yourself!
- Mary Anne Radmacher
Life is far too important a thing
ever to talk seriously about.
- Oscar Wilde
The most difficult thing in the world
is to know how to do a thing
and to watch somebody else doing it wrong,
without comment.
- Theodore. H. White
The best thing about the future is
that it comes one day at a time.
- Abraham Lincoln
Life is just one damned thing after another.
- Elbert Hubbard (Philistine - A Periodical of Protest, 1896)
If Christ were here now there is one thing
he would not be - a Christian.
- Mark Twain
If you want total security, go to prison.
There you're fed, clothed, given medical care and so on.
The only thing lacking... is freedom.
- Dwight D. Eisenhower
Science is a wonderful thing
if one does not have to earn one's living at it.
- Albert Einstein
She drove me to drink.
That's the one thing I'm indebted to her for.
- the movie Never Give a Sucker an Even Break
There is no such thing as public opinion.
There is only published opinion.
- Winston Churchill
The only good thing ever to come out of religion was the music.
- George Carlin
Life is never fair, and perhaps it is a good thing
for most of us that it is not.
- Oscar Wilde
The age of a woman doesn't mean a thing.
The best tunes are played on the oldest fiddles.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
A joke is a very serious thing.
- Winston Churchill
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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.