Quotations byAuthor

   C  Quotes

The optimist proclaims we live in the best of all possible worlds, and the pessimist fears this is true. -James Branch Cabell, novelist, essayist,critic (1879-1958)

The highest purpose is to have no purpose at all. This puts one in accord with nature in her manner of operation. -John Cage, composer (1912-1992)

The first step toward success is taken when you refuse to be a captive of the environment in which you first find yourself. ~ Mark Caine ~

When we quit thinking primarily about ourselves and our own self-preservation, we undergo a truly heroic transformation of consciousness. -Joseph Campbell

Albert Camus (1913-1960) French novelist, essayist, and playwright

A small mind is obstinate. A great mind can lead and be led. -Alexander Cannon

Among my most prized possessions are the words that I have never spoken.
-Orson Rega Card

Never mistake knowledge for wisdom. One helps you make a living; the other helps you make a life. -Sandra Carey
 

It is the first of all problems for a man to find out what kind of work he is to do in this universe. -Thomas Carlyle

Every new opinion, at its starting, is precisely in a minority of one.-Thomas Carlyle

It is the first of all problems for a man to find out what kind of work he is to do in this universe. -Thomas Carlyle

A person usually has two reasons for doing something: a good reason and the real reason. -Thomas Carlyle, historian and essayist (1795-1881)

The greatest of faults, I should say, is to be conscious of none. -Thomas Carlyle, writer (1795-1881)

He that cannot reason is a fool. He that will not is a bigot. He that dare not is a slave. - Andrew Carnegie

Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.
~ Dale Carnegie  1888-1955, American Author, Trainer)

You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you. - Dale Carnegie

There are four ways, and only four ways, in which we have contact with the world. We are evaluated and classified by these four contacts: what we do, how we look, what we say, and how we say it. -Dale Carnegie, author and educator (1888-1955)

A few observation and much reasoning lead to error; many observations and a little reasoning to truth. -Alexis Carrel

Life leaps like a geyser for those willing to drill through the rock of inertia. -Alexis Carrel 1873-1944, French Biologist

If you limit your actions in life to things that nobody can possibly find fault with, you will not do much.-Lewis Carroll -(1832-1898, British Writer, Mathematician)

Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that! -Lewis Carroll, mathematician and writer (1832-1898)

There are only two lasting bequests we can hope to give our children. One of these is roots, the other, wings. -Hodding Carter

Ordinary people believe only in the possible. Extraordinary people visualize not what is possible or probable, but rather what is impossible. And by visualizing the impossible, they begin to see it as possible. ~ Cherie Carter-Scott ~ (American Author, Speaker, Trainer)

As an adolescent I aspired to lasting fame, I craved factual certainty, and I thirsted for a meaningful vision of human life - so I became a scientist. This is like becoming an archbishop so you can meet girls. -Matt Cartmill, anthropology professor and author (1943- )

The love of one's country is a splendid thing. But why should love stop at the border. -Pablo Casals, cellist, conductor, and composer (1876-1973)

All your base are belong to us!!!-CATS, Zero Wing.

How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant of the weak and strong. Because someday in life you will have been all of these.-George Washington Carver (1864?-1943 American Scientist)

Take time to come home to yourself everyday. -Robin Casarjean

We either make ourselves happy or miserable. The amount of work is the same. -Carlos Castenada, mystic and author (1925-1998)

Grasp the subject, the words will follow. -Cato the Elder, statesman, soldier, and writer (234-149 BCE)

After I'm dead I'd rather have people ask why I have no monument than why I have one. - Cato the Elder (234-149 BC, AKA Marcus Porcius Cato)

It is a difficult matter to argue with the belly since it has no ears.-Cato The Elder, statesman and writer (234-149 BCE)

The first virtue is to restrain the tongue; he approaches nearest to the gods who knows how to be silent, even though he is in the right. -Cato the Younger (B.C. 95-46)

It often happens that those of whom we speak least on earth are best known in heaven. -Nicolas Caussin, preacher and moralist (1583-1651)

Bunyan spent a year in prison, Coleridge was a drug addict, Poe was an alcoholic, Marlowe was killed by a man he was trying to stab, Pope took a large sum of money to keep a woman's name out of a vicious satire and then wrote it so that she could be recognized anyway, Chatterton killed himself, Somerset Maugham was so unhappy in his final thirty years that he longed for death... do you still want to be a writer? Bennett Cerf

Tell me what company thou keepst, and I'll tell thee what thou art. -Miguel de Cervantes, Spanish novelist (1547-1616)

Everyone is the son of his own works. -Miguel de Cervantes, novelist (1547-1616)

There's no sauce in the world like hunger. -Miguel de Cervantes, novelist (1547-1616)

Too much sanity may be madness. And maddest of all, to see life as it is and not as it should be! -Miguel de Cervantes, writer (1547-1616)

He who sings scares away his woes. -Miguel de Cervantes, novelist (1547-1616)

A proverb is a short sentence based on long experience. -Miguel de Cervantes, novelist (1547-1616)

In this world, you must be a bit too kind to be kind enough. -Pierre Carlet de Chamblain de Marivaux, dramatist and novelist (1688-1763)

At least half the mystery novels published violate the law that the solution, once revealed, must seem to be inevitable. -Raymond Chandler, writer (1888-1959)

Television's perfect. You turn a few knobs, a few of those mechanical adjustments at which the higher apes are so proficient, and lean back and drain your mind of all thought. And there you are watching the bubbles in the primeval ooze. You don't have to concentrate. You don't have to react.
You don't have to remember. You don't miss your brain because you don't need it. Your heart and liver and lungs continue to function normally.
Apart from that, all is peace and quiet. You are in the man's nirvana. And if some poor nasty minded person comes along and says you look like a fly on a can of garbage, pay him no mind. He probably hasn't got the price of a television set. -Raymond Thornton Chandler, writer (1888-1959)

It is chiefly through books that we enjoy intercourse with superior minds. -William Ellery Channing, clergyman and writer (1780-1842)

Every man is a volume if you know how to read him. -William Ellery Channing, clergyman, reformer (1810-1884)

To live content with small means; to seek elegance rather than luxury, and refinement rather than fashion; to be worthy, not respectable, and wealthy, not, rich; to listen to stars and birds, babes and sages, with open heart; to study hard; to think quietly, act frankly, talk gently, await occasions, hurry never; in a word, to let the spiritual, unbidden and unconscious, grow up through the common--this is my symphony. -William Henry Channing, clergyman, reformer (1810-1884)

Nothing is more dangerous than an idea when it's the only one you have.-Emile Chartier, philosopher (1868-1951)

Television is democracy at its ugliest. -Paddy Chayefsky

If you are afraid of loneliness, don't marry. -- Chekhov

If you want to work on your art, work on your life. -Anton Chekhov, short-story writer and dramatist (1860-1904)

The soul would have no rainbow had the eyes no tears. -John Vance Cheney, poet (1848-1922)

Modesty is the only sure bait when you angle for praise. -Lord Chesterfield

Wear your learning, like your watch, in a private pocket, and do not pull it out and strike it merely to show you have one. If you are asked what o'clock it is, tell it, but do not proclaim it hourly and unasked, like the watchman. -Lord Chesterfield

Wrongs are often forgiven, but contempt never is. Our pride remembers it forever. -Lord Chesterfield, statesman and writer (1694-1773)

It isn't that they can't see the solution. It's that they can't see the problem. -G.K. Chesterton

There is a great man who makes every man feel small. But the real great man is the man who makes every man feel great. -G.K. Chesterton

Democracy means government by the uneducated, while aristocracy means government by the badly educated.- Chesterton G.K., heretics, 1905.

 A stiff apology is a second insult. The injured party does not want to be compensated because he has been wronged; he wants to be healed because he has been hurt. -G. K. Chesterton, author (1874-1936)

An inconvenience is only an adventure wrongly considered; an adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. -G. K. Chesterton

The function of the imagination is not to make strange things settled, so much as to make settled things strange. -G. K. Chesterton, essayist and novelist (1874-1936)

It is always the secure who are humble. -G. K. Chesterton, essayist and novelist (1874-1936)

It is not bigotry to be certain we are right; but it is bigotry to be unable to imagine how we might possibly have gone wrong. -G. K. Chesterton, essayist and novelist (1874-1936)

The thing I hate about an argument is that it always interrupts a good discussion. Author: G.K. Chesterton

The great rulers - the people do not notice their existence. The lesser ones they attach to and praise them. The still lesser ones - they fear them. The still lesser ones - they despise them. For where faith is lacking it cannot be met by faith. -Tao Te Ching

Many people hear voices when no-one is there. Some of them are called mad and are shut up in rooms where they stare at the walls all day. Others are called writers and they do pretty much the same thing. -Margaret Chittenden, writer

If we don't believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don't believe in it at all. -Noam Chomsky, linguistics professor and political activist (1928- )

I like living. I have sometimes been wildly, despairingly, acutely miserable, racked with sorrow, but through it all I still know quite certainly that just to be alive is a grand thing.~ Agatha Christie ~(1891-1976, British Mystery Writer)

Good advice is always certain to be ignored, but that's no reason not to give it. -Agatha Christie

Grandchildren don't make a man feel old; its the knowledge that he's married to a grandmother. -Agatha Christie

Winston Churchill, (1874-1965) British statesman, prime minister, author

Rewards and punishments are the lowest form of education. -Chuang-Tzu, philosopher (4th c. BCE)

Tell me how much a nation knows about its own language, and I will tell you how much that nation cares about its own identity. -John Ciardi

One problem with gazing too frequently into the past is that we may turn around to find the future has run out on us. -Michael Cibenko

Marcus Tullius Cicero, (106-43 BC) Roman senator, speaker, and philosopher

There is hopeful symbolism in the fact that flags do not wave in a vacuum. -Arthur C. Clarke, writer (1917- )

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. -Arthur C. Clarke

Sometimes I think we're alone in the universe, and sometimes I think we're not. In either case, the idea is quite staggering. -Arthur C Clarke, science fiction writer (1917- )

The greatest tragedy in mankind's entire history may be the hijacking of morality by religion. -Arthur C Clarke, science fiction writer (1917- )

We find comfort among those who agree with us--growth among those who don't.- Frank A Clark

Kindness makes a fellow feel good whether it's being done to him or by him. -Frank A. Clark

A man's conscience, like a warning line on the highway, tells him what he shouldn't do - but it does not keep him from doing it. -Frank A. Clark

Criticism, like rain, should be gentle enough to nourish a man's growth without destroying his roots. -Frank A. Clark, writer (1911- )

I think the next best thing to solving a problem is finding some humor in it. -Frank A. Clark, writer (1911- )

A child, like your stomach, doesn't need all you can afford to give it. -Frank A. Clark, writer (1911- )

If life were fair, Dan Quayle would be making a living asking Do you want fries with that?'-John Cleese, British actor, humorist, member of Monty Python

If you want creative workers, give them enough time to play. -John Cleese, comic actor (1939- )

A man's life is interesting primarily when he has failed--I well know. For it is a sign that he has tried to surpass himself. -Georges Clemenceau, French politician (1841-1929)

Sensible and responsible women do not want to vote- Grover Cleveland, 1905

This is my rule of married life: it's better to be happy than to be right. -Click & Clack, the Tappet Brothers

If writers were good businessmen, they'd have too much sense to be writers.-Irwin S. Cobb, author and journalist (1876-1944)

Imagine a school with children that can read or write, but with teachers who can not, and you have a metaphor of the Information Age in which we live. -Peter Cochrane

A committee is a cul-de-sac down which ideas are lured and then quietly strangled. -Barnett Cocks

We must believe in luck. For how else can we explain the success of those we don't like? -Jean Cocteau, author and painter (1889-1963)

The fellow who thinks he knows it all is especially annoying to those of us who do.  Harold Coffin

Ring the bells that still can ring.
Forget your perfect offering.
There is a crack in everything.
That's how the light gets in. -Leonard Cohen

They sentenced me to 20 years of boredom for trying to change the system from within -Leonard Cohen

Let judges secretly despair of justice: their verdicts will be more acute. Let generals secretly despair of triumph; killing will be defamed. Let priests secretly despair of faith: their compassion will be true.-- Leonard Cohen

Why do grandparents and grandchildren get along so well? They have the same enemy--the mother. -Claudette Colbert

Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834)poet and philosopher

Every man has one thing he can do better than anyone else - and usually it's reading his own handwriting. -G. Norman Collie

If we escape punishment for our vices, why should we complain if we are not rewarded for our virtues? -John Churton Collins, literary critic
(1848-1908)
 

Confucius, philosopher and teacher (551-497 BC)

Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned,
Nor hell a fury like a woman scorned.-
William Congreve, (1670-1729) English dramatist

Music hath charms to soothe a savage breast, To soften rocks, or bend a knotted oak. -William Congreve, dramatist (1670-1729)

Courtship to marriage, as a very witty prologue to a very dull play. -William Congreve, dramatist (1670-1729)

A lazy person, whatever the talents with which he set out, will have condemned himself to second-hand thoughts and to second-rate friends."*Cyril Connolly {1903-1974 British Critic}

Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self. -Cyril Connolly, critic and editor (1903-1974)

In a perfect union the man and woman are like a strung bow. Who is to say whether the string bends the bow, or the bow tightens the string? -Cyril Connolly, critic and editor (1903-1974)

All a man can betray is his conscience. -Joseph Conrad (1857-1924)

The belief in a supernatural source of evil is not necessary; men alone are quite capable of every wickedness.-Joseph Conrad, (1857-1924) British novelist, born in Poland

Every age is fed on illusions, lest men should renounce life early and the human race come to an end. -Joseph Conrad

One of the greatest gifts you can get as a writer is to be born into an unhappy family. -Pat Conroy

I never saw an ugly thing in my life: for let the form of an object be what it may, -- light, shade, and perspective will always make it beautiful.-John Constable, painter (1776-1837)

A professional is a person who can do his best at a time when he doesn't particularly feel like it. -Alistair Cooke

Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men of talent. Genius will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan, 'press on' has solved, and always will solve, the problems of the human race.
-Calvin Coolidge, (1872-1933) 30th American president

There is no dignity quite so impressive, and no independence quite so important, as living within your means.

--Calvin Coolidge

I have never been hurt by anything I didn't say. -Calvin Coolidge

President and Mrs. Coolidge, visiting a government farm, were taken around on separate tours.
At the chicken pens Mrs. Coolidge paused to inquire of the overseer whether the rooster copulated more than once a day.
'Dozens of times,' said the man.
'Tell that to the president,' requested Mrs. Coolidge.
The president came past the pens and was told about the rooster.
'Same hen every time?' he asked.
'Oh, no, a different one each time.'
Coolidge nodded.
'Tell that to Mrs. Coolidge,' he said.
(This incident gave the president lasting fame he could never have foreseen. From it arose the technical term 'the Coolidge effect' to describe the rearousal of a male animal by a new female.)

These days people seek knowledge, not wisdom. Knowledge is of the past, wisdom is of the future. -Vernon Cooper

No man is a hero to his valet. -Anne Bigot Cornuel

You become a champion by fighting one more round. When things are tough, you fight one more round. -James Corbett (Boxer)

Laughter is inner jogging. -Norman Cousins, editor and author (1915-1990)

Life is an adventure in forgiveness. -Norman Cousins, author and editor (1915-1990)

History is a vast early warning system. -Norman Cousins, editor and author (1915-1990)

Nothing so soon the drooping spirits can raise / As praises from the men, whom all men praise. -Abraham Cowley, poet (1618-1667)

He has no hope who never had a fear. -William Cowper (1731-1800)

Knowledge is proud that he has learned so much; wisdom is humble that he knows no more. Thomas Cowper

Oh to have a lodge in some vast wilderness. Where rumors of oppression and deceit, of unsuccessful and successful wars may never reach me anymore.
-William Cowper, poet (1731-1800)

There never was night that had no morn. -Dinah Mulock Craik

To make a man happy, fill his hands with work, his heart with affection, his mind with purpose, his memory with useful knowledge, his future with hope, and his stomach with food. Frederick E. Crane, Chief Judge, New York Court of Appeals

A man said to the universe: "Sir I exist!" "However," replied the universe, "The fact has not created in me A sense of obligation." -Stephen Crane, writer (1871-1900)

Eyes are vocal, tears have tongues, \ And there are words not made with lungs. -Crashaw

The one real object of education is to have a man in the condition of continually asking questions. -Bishop Mandell Creighton

We are each of us angels with only one wing, and we can only fly by embracing one another. -Luciano de Crescenzo

The ability to piece together work that will both satisfy and support us is the secret to surviving, even thriving. -Wendy Reid Crisp

What is life? It is the flash of a firefly in the night. It is the breath of a buffalo in the wintertime. It is the little shadow which runs across the grass and loses itself in the sunset. -Crowfoot, Native American warrior and orator (1821-1890)

It is better to wear out than to rust out.- Richard Cumberland  (1631-1718, British Philosopher, Theologian)

To be nobody but yourself -- in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you like everybody else -- means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight, and never stop fighting. -e.e. cummings (1894-1962, American Poet)

The most wasted of all days is one without laughter. -e.e. cummings, poet (1894-1962)

You campaign in poetry. You govern in prose. -Mario M Cuomo, 52nd Governor of NY (1932- )

Aristotle was famous for knowing everything. He taught that the brain exists merely to cool the blood and is not involved in the process of thinking. This is true only of certain persons.
Will Cuppy (1884-1949)

Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. -Marie Curie

There are two kinds of men who never amount to much: those who cannot do what they are told, and those who can do nothing else. -Cyrus Curtis