The quote database

My dear Laelius and Scipio, we must stand up against old age and make up for its drawbacks by taking pains.

Every great cause is born from repeated failures and from imperfect achievements.

Overlooking partial and temporary evils as inseparable from the practical operation of all human institutions, and looking only to the general result, every patriot has reason to be satisfied.

The many have always been enthralled by the few; and, monsters who have scarcely shown any discernment of human excellence, have tyrannized over thousands of their fellow creatures.

Slavery to monarchs and ministers, which the world will be long in freeing itself from, and whose deadly grasp stops the progress of the human mind, is not yet abolished.

Life is a verb. We try our best. We don’t always do our best.

Life’s not easy…don’t try and make it that way. It’s not fair, it never was, it isn’t now, it won’t ever be.

If happiness is what you’re after, then you are going to be let down frequently and be unhappy much of your time.

We give thanks for these things and that gratitude reciprocates, creating more to be thankful for. It’s simple, and it works.

Men who are successful always seek the company of others who are successful, while men who are on the ragged side of life always seek the company of those who are in similar circumstances.

TIME is a Master Worker that heals the wounds of temporary defeat; equalizes the inequalities, and rights the wrongs of the world. There is nothing ‘impossible’ with time!

this vice of ingratitude has its source either in avarice or in suspicion

the nature of the people is variable, and whilst it is easy to persuade them, it is difficult to fix them in that persuasion

Failure often leads a man to success by arousing his latent energy, by firing a dormant purpose, by awakening powers which were sleeping.

Most men fail, not through lack of education or agreeable personal qualities, but from lack of dogged determination, from lack of dauntless will.

No matter if you have lost your property, your health, your reputation even, there is always hope for the man who keeps a firm faith in himself and looks up.

Optimism is a success builder; pessimism an achievement killer.

the body is weighed down by the burden of what presses on it, but the soul often adds to the real load a burden of its own

Now the discourse that ought to come from friends and people disposed to be helpful should be consolation, and not mere assent with a man's sad feelings.

Let us cleanse therefore the fountain of contentedness, which is within us, that so external things may turn out for our good, through our putting the best face on them.

the sensible make their life pleasanter and more endurable by mitigating their sorrows with the consideration of their blessings, while most people, like sieves, let the worst things stick to them while the best pass through

It also makes for contentedness, when things happen against our wish, not to overlook our many advantages and comforts, but by looking at both good and bad to feel that the good preponderate.

not to find friends at a time when you want them is hard, as also not to be able to exchange an inconstant and bad friend for a constant and good one

Their once flaming regard is sobered by time in either breast, and losing in violence what it gains in extent, it becomes a thorough good understanding.

What a perpetual disappointment is actual society, even of the virtuous and gifted!