Quotations by Author

   L Quotes

Nothing is more dangerous than a friend without discretion; even a prudent enemy is preferable.--Jean de La Fontaine

Accustom to the veneer of noise, to the shibboleths of promotion, public relations, and market research, society is suspicious of those who value silence. -John Lahr

Insanity - a perfectly rational adjustment to an insane world. -RD Laing, psychiatrist and author (1927-1989)

If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion. -Dalai Lama

The greatest pleasure I know is to do a good action by stealth, and to have it found out by accident. -Charles Lamb

Presents, I often say, endear absents. -Charles Lamb, essayist and critic (1775-1834)

You can safely assume that you've created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do. -Anne Lamott, writer (1954- )

This world is divided roughly into three kinds of nations: those that spend lots of money to keep their weight down; those whose people eat to live; and those whose people don't know where their next meal is coming from. -David S. Landes, author, professor of economics and history (1924- )

What is reading, but silent conversation. -Walter Savage Landor, writer (1775-1864)

Leadership is getting someone to do what they don't want to do, to achieve what they want to achieve. -Tom Landry

Happiness is something that comes into our lives through doors we don't even remember leaving open. -Rose Lane

Two men look out through the same bars: One sees the mud, and one the stars. Frederick Langbridge

Gravity is the soul of wit. -John Langdon (1946-) [Wordplay]

Rare is the person who can weigh the faults of others without putting his thumb on the scales. -Byron J. Langenfeld
 

To see things in the seed, that is genius. -Lao-Tzu

When the effective leader is finished with his work, the people say it happened naturally. -Lao-Tzu, Chinese philosopher (6th century B.C.)

To hold and fill to overflowing Is not as good as to stop in time. Sharpen a knife-edge to its very sharpest, And the edge will not last long. -Lao-Tzu, Chinese philosopher (circa 600 BC)

Kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness. Kindness in giving creates love. -Lao-Tzu

Knowing ignorance is strength; ignoring knowledge is sickness. -Lao-Tzu, philosopher (6th century BCE)
 

A society that presumes a norm of violence and celebrates aggression, whether in the subway, on the football field, or in the conduct of its business, cannot help making celebrities of the people who would destroy it. -Lewis H. Lapham, editor and writer (1935- )

Dissent is what rescues democracy from a quiet death behind closed doors.-Lewis H. Lapham, editor (1935- )

Some of the world's greatest feats were accomplished by people not smart enough to know they were impossible. -Doug Larson

Heredity is a splendid phenomenon that relieves us of responsibility for our shortcomings. -Doug Larson

It is one of the commonest of mistakes to consider that the limit of our power of perception is also the limit of all there is to perceive. -C.W.Leadbeater

Egotism is the anesthetic that dulls the pain of stupidity. -Frank William Leahy, football coach (1908-1973)

Defeat is a state of mind. No one is ever defeated until defeat has been accepted as a reality. To me, defeat in anything is merely temporary, and its punishment is but an urge for me to greater effort to achieve my goal. Defeat simply tells me that something is wrong in my doing; it is a path leading to success and truth.
~ Bruce Lee ~1940-1973, Chinese-American Martial Artist, Actor, Director, Author

The one thing that doesn't abide by majority rule is a person's conscience.-Harper Lee, writer (1926- )

You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view. -Harper Lee, writer (1926- )

They called me mad, and I called them mad, and damn them, they outvoted me. -Nathaniel Lee (on being consigned to a mental institution, circa 17th c.)

Each snowflake in an avalanche pleads not guilty. -Stanislaw J. Lee

As great scientists have said and as all children know, it is above all by the imagination that we achieve perception, and compassion, and hope.-Ursula LeGuin

When action grows unprofitable, gather information; when information grows unprofitable, sleep.
--Ursula K. Le Guin

The flower that follows the sun does so even on cloudy days. -Robert Leighton (1611-1684)

The great thing about getting older is that you don't lose all the other ages you've been. -Madeleine L'Engle, writer (1918- )

Life is what happens to you when you are busy making other plans. - John Lennon

When you choose the lesser of two evils, always remember that it is still an evil. -Max Lerner

There's a fine line between genius and insanity. I have erased this line. -Oscar Levant

You can always get a good book out of a bad habit. -Oscar Levant

I am no more humble than my talents require. -Oscar Levant, composer (1906-1972)

I envy people who drink - at least they know what to blame everything on.-Oscar Levant, composer (1906-1972)

Having children makes you no more a parent than having a piano makes you a pianist. -Michael Levine [Lessons at the Halfway Point]

If you want truly to understand something, try to change it. -Kurt Lewin

If you drink like a fish, don't drive. Swim. Joe E. Lewis

Before enlightenment, chop wood carry water, after enlightenment chop wood carry water - Wu Li

Nothing contributes more to peace of soul than having no opinion at all. -George Christopher Lichtenberg

The most dangerous of all falsehoods is a slightly distorted truth. -G.C. Lichtenberg (1742-1799)

Everyone is a genius at least once a year. -Georg Christoph Lichtenberg, scientist and philosopher (1742-1799)

If you are having trouble keeping your head above water, you probably aren't on your toes. -Liguorian

In the province of the mind, what one believes to be true either is true or becomes true. -John Lilly

Lincoln (1809-1865) 16th U.S. President

Good communication is as stimulating as black coffee, and just as hard to sleep after. -Anne Morrow Lindbergh

I feel we are all islands -- in a common sea. -Anne Morrow Lindbergh, writer (1906-2001)

Him that I love, I wish to be free -- even from me. -Anne Morrow Lindbergh, writer (1906-2001)

One can never pay in gratitude; one can only pay "in kind" somewhere else in life. -Anne Morrow Lindbergh, writer (1906-2001)

The most exhausting thing in life is being insincere. -Anne Morrow Lindbergh, writer (1906-2001)

Life is like a landscape. You live in the midst of it, but can describe it only from the vantage point of distance. -Charles A. Lindbergh (1902-1974)

While one person hesitates because he feels inferior, another is busy making mistakes and becoming superior. -Henry C. Link.

It is surprising what a man can do when he has to, and how little most men will do when they don't have to. - Walter Linn

Very few established institutions, governments and constitutions ... are ever destroyed by their enemies until they have been corrupted and weakened by their friends. -Walter Lippman, journalist (1889-1974)

There is no pleasure in having nothing to do; the fun is in having lots to do and not doing it. -Mary Little 

Law...begins when someone takes to doing something someone else does not like. -Karl Llewellyn

The great high of winning Wimbledon lasts for about a week. You go down in the record book, but you don't have anything tangible to hold on to. But having a baby -- there isn't any comparison. -Chris Evert Lloyd, tennis player (1954- )

The actions of men are the best interpreters of their thoughts. -John Locke

So difficult it is to show the various meanings and imperfections of words when we have nothing else but words to do it with. -John Locke, philosopher (1632-1704)

New opinions are always suspected, and usually opposed, without any other reason but because they are not already common. -John Locke, philosopher (1632-1704)

Our incomes are like our shoes; if too small, they gall and pinch us; but if too large, they cause us to stumble and to trip. -John Locke, philosopher (1632-1704)

Ability is important, dependability is critical!" --Alexander Lockheart

Attitudes are contagious. Is yours worth catching? --Alexander Lockhart

Longfellow 1819-1892, American Poet

When you are a mother, you are never really alone in your thoughts....A mother always has to think twice, once for herself and once for her child. -Sophia Loren

I believe I found the missing link between animal and civilized man. It is us. -Konrad Lorenz, ethologist, Nobel laureate (1903-1989)

It's good to have money and the things that money can buy, but it's good, too, to check up once in a while and make sure that you haven't lost the things that money can't buy. -George H. Lorimer, editor (1868-1937)

Punctuality is the politeness of kings. -Louis XVIII

Let us be of good cheer, remembering that the misfortunes hardest to bear are those which never happen. -James Russell Lowell (1819-1891)

A sneer is the weapon of the weak. -James Russell Lowell, poet, editor, and diplomat (1819-1891)

Books are the bees which carry the quickening pollen from one to another mind. -James Russell Lowell (1819-1891) [Nationality in Literature]

A grass-blade's no easier to make than an oak. -James Russell Lowell, poet, editor, and diplomat (1819-1891)

Books are the bees which carry the quickening pollen from one to another mind. -James Russell Lowell, poet, editor, and diplomat (1819-1891)

The foolish and the dead alone never change their opinions. -James Russell Lowell, poet, editor, and diplomat (1819-1891)

The important thing is not so much that every child should be taught, as that every child should be given the wish to learn. -Sir John Lubbock (1834-1913)

Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass on a summer day listening to the murmur of water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is hardly a waste of time. -Lubbock, Sir John - 1834-1913, British Statesman, Banker, Naturalist

In the final analysis there is no solution to man's progress but the day's honest work, the day's honest decisions, the day's generous utterances and the day's good deed. - Clare Booth Luce

In this era of stepped up deadlines and supersonic style, It pays to shift into neutral sometimes and just idle for a while. - George O. Ludcke

It's easy to tell when a politician is lying. Watch his lips. If they move, he's lying. -Charles Lyall

In order to see birds its is necessary to become a part of the silence. -Robert Lynd

It is a glorious thing to be indifferent to suffering, but only to one's own suffering. -Robert Lynd, writer (1879-1949)

The belief in the possibility of a short decisive war appears to be one of the most ancient and dangerous of human illusions. -Robert Lynd, writer (1879-1949)

The art of acceptance is the art of making someone who has just done you a small favor wish that he might have done you a greater one. -J. Russell Lynes (1910-1991)

Yesterday is a canceled check; tomorrow is a promissory note; today is the only cash you have-so spend it wisely.--Kay Lyons