Quotations By Author

   M Quotes

There is no security on earth; there is only opportunity. Gen. Douglas MacArthur

We are not retreating - we are advancing in another direction. -General Douglas MacArthur (1880-1964)

The measure of a man's real character is what he would do if he knew he never would be found out.~ Thomas B. Macaulay ~(1800-1859, American Essayist and Historian)

The walls of books around him, dense with the past, formed a kind of insulation against the present world and its disasters. -Ross MacDonald

The first method for estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the men he has around him. -Niccolo Machiavelli, political philosopher and author (1469-1527)

Many a man's tongue broke his nose. -Seumas MacManus

I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of the rights of the people by the gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations. -James Madison, fourth US president (1751-1836)

The fetters imposed on liberty at home have ever been forged out of the weapons provided for defence against real, pretended, or imaginary dangers from abroad. -James Madison, 4th US president (1751-1836)

If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy. -James Madison, fourth US president (1751-1836)

An act of goodness is of itself an act of happiness. No reward coming after the event can compare with the sweet reward that went with it. -Maurice Maeterlinck, Belgian writer (1862-1949)

The decent moderation of today will be the least of human things tomorrow. At the time of the Spanish Inquisition, the opinion of good sense and of the good medium was certainly that people ought not to burn too large a number of heretics; extreme and unreasonable opinion obviously demanded that they should burn none at all. -Maurice Maeterlinck, poet, dramatist, and Nobel laureate (1862-1949)

You can tell whether a man is clever by his answers. You can tell whether a man is wise by his questions. -Naguib Mahfouz, writer (1911- )

I don't trust a man who uses the word evil eighteen times in ten minutes. If you're half evil, nothing soothes you more than to think the person you are opposed to is totally evil. -Norman Mailer, author (1923- )

There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find the ways in which you yourself have altered. -Nelson Mandela [A Long Walk to Freedom]

I will love the light for it shows me the way, Yet I will endure the darkness for it shows me the stars. -Og Mandino

Habit is a cable. We weave a thread of it every day, and at last we cannot break it. - Horace Mann

A teacher who is attempting to teach, without inspiring the pupil with a desire to learn, is hammering on a cold iron. -Horace Mann, educational reformer (1796-1859)

A writer is somebody for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people. -Thomas Mann, novelist, Nobel laureate (1875-1955)

The more people are reached by mass communication, the less they communicate with each other. -Marya Mannes, writer (1904-1990)

Time wears away error and polishes truth. -Gaston Pierre Marc, Duc de Levis, writer (1764-1830)

Only in quiet waters things mirror themselves undistorted. Only in a quiet mind is adequate perception of the world.-- Hans Margolius

History teaches that grave threats to liberty often come in times of urgency, when constitutional rights seem too extravagant to endure.-Thurgood Marshall, US Supreme Court Justice (1908-1993)

Conceal a flaw, and the world will imagine the worst. -Martial (Marcus Valerius Martialis)

It is far more impressive when others discover your good qualities without your help. -Judith S. Martin

Did you ever realize that Peter O'Toole has a double-phallic name?--Groucho Marx (1890-1977),

Those are my principles, and if you don't like them... well, I have others. -Groucho Marx (1890-1977):

The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing. If you can fake that,  you've got it made. -Groucho Marx

Either I'm dead or my watch has stopped. -last words of Groucho Marx

We are not in a position in which we have nothing to work with. We already have capacities, talents, direction, missions, callings. -Abraham Maslow

A first-rate soup is more creative than a second-rate painting. -Abraham Maslow (1908-1970)

If you deliberately plan on being less than you are capable of being, then I warn you that you'll be unhappy for the rest of your life. Abraham H. Maslow

A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write, if he is to be ultimately at peace with himself. What one can be, one must be. -Abraham Maslow

If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail. --Abraham Maslow

I have enough money to last me the rest of my life, unless I buy something. - Jackie Mason (1931-)

The world we look at everyday is only a description. ... Spinning with your ally will change your idea of the world. That idea is everything; and when that changes, the world itself changes  ---don Juan Mateus

It is a funny thing about life: if you refuse to accept anything but the best you very often get it. -William Somerset Maugham

We are not the same persons this year as last; nor are those we love. It is a happy chance if we, changing, continue to love a changed person. -William Somerset Maugham, writer (1874-1965)

Excess on occasion is exhilarating. It prevents moderation from acquiring the deadening effect of a habit. -William Somerset Maugham

At a dinner party one should eat wisely but not too well, and talk well but not too wisely. -W. Somerset Maugham, novelist, dramatist, and short-story writer (1874-1965)

The common idea that success spoils people by making them vain, egotistic and self-complacent is erroneous; on the contrary it makes them, for the most part, humble, tolerant and kind. -Wlliam Somerset Maugham, writer (1874-1965)

The world in general doesn't know what to make of originality; it is startled out of its comfortable habits of thought, and its first reaction is one of anger. -W. Somerset Maugham, writer (1874-1965)

The value of the average conversation could be enormously improved by the constant use of four simple words: "I do not know." -Andre Maurois

It is an ironic habit of human beings to run faster when we have lost our way. -Rollo May, psychologist (1909-1994)

The tragedy of life doesn't lie in not reaching your goal. The tragedy lies in having no goal to reach. ~ Benjamin Mays ~

Resentment is like taking poison and waiting for the other person to die.-Malachy McCourt, Writer, Author

Be aware that a halo has to fall only a few inches to be a noose. -Dan McKinnon

We'd all like a reputation for generosity and we'd all like to buy it cheap. -Mignon McLaughlin

Every society honors its live conformists and its dead troublemakers. -Mignon McLaughlin, author

True remorse is never just a regret over consequences; it is a regret over motive. -Mignon McLaughlin, author (1915-)

An idea is not responsible for the people who believe in it. -Don Marquis, humorist and poet (1878-1937)

The dissenter is every human being at those moments of his life when he resigns momentarily from the herd and thinks for himself. -Archibald MacLeish, poet and librarian (1892-1982)

Computers are extensions of our brains. . . .The effect of extending the central nervous system is not to create a world-wide city of ever-expanding dimensions but rather a global village of ever-contracting size. -- Marshall McLuhan, Counter-Blast (1969)

There are no passengers on spaceship earth. We are all crew. -Marshall McLuhan (1911-1980)

A point of view can be a dangerous luxury when substituted for insight and understanding.
--Marshall McLuhan

I don't necessarily agree with everything I say. -Marshall McLuhan, cultural historian and communications theorist (1911-1980)

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has. -Margaret Mead (1901-1978)

As the traveler who has once been from home is wiser than he who has never left his own doorstep, so a knowledge of one other culture should sharpen our ability to scrutinize more steadily, to appreciate more lovingly, our own. -Margaret Mead, anthropologist (1901-1978)

No society that feeds its children on tales of successful violence can expect them not to believe that violence in the end is rewarded. -Margaret Mead, anthropologist (1901-1978)

At times it may be necessary to temporarily accept a lesser evil, but one must never label a necessary evil as good. -Margaret Mead, anthropologist (1901-1978)

One of the oldest human needs is having someone to wonder where you are when you don't come home at night. -Margaret Mead, anthropologist (1901-1978)

Always remember that you are absolutely unique. Just like everyone else.- Margaret Mead

The human mind treats a new idea the same way the body treats a strange protein; it rejects it. -Peter. B. Medawar, scientist, Nobel laureate(1915-1987)

To feed men and not to love them is to treat them as if they were barnyard cattle. To love them and not respect them is to treat them as if they were household pets. -Mencius, philosopher (c. 380-289 BCE)

CONSCIENCE: The inner voice that warns us that someone may be looking. - H.L. Mencken

You can't do anything about the length of your life, but you can do something about its width and depth. -H.L. Mencken, writer, editor, and critic (1880-1956)

The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed -- and hence clamorous to be led to safety -- by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary. -H.L. Mencken, writer, editor, and critic (1880-1956)

The older I grow, the more I distrust the familiar doctrine that age brings wisdom. -H.L. Mencken

Whenever 'A' attempts by law to impose his moral standards upon 'B', 'A' is most likely a scoundrel. -H.L. Mencken, writer, editor, and critic (1880-1956)

The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule. -H.L. Mencken, writer, editor, and critic (1880-1956)

For every complex problem, there is a solution that is simple, neat, and wrong. H. L. Mencken

Under democracy one party always devotes its chief energies to trying to prove that the other party is unfit to rule - and both commonly succeed, and are right. -H.L. Mencken, writer, editor, and critic (1880-1956)

Love is like war; easy to begin but very hard to stop. -H.L. Mencken, writer, editor, and critic (1880-1956)

It is inaccurate to say I hate everything. I am strongly in favor of common sense, common honesty, and common decency. This makes me forever ineligible for public office. -H.L. Mencken, writer, editor, and critic (1880-1956)

A living language is like a man suffering incessantly from small haemorrhages, and what it needs above all else is constant transactions of new blood from other tongues. The day the gates go up, that day it begins to die. -H.L. Mencken, writer, editor, and critic (1880-1956) [The American Language]

Moral certainty is always a sign of cultural inferiority. The more uncivilized the man, the surer he is that he knows precisely what is right and what is wrong. All human progress, even in morals, has been the work of men who have doubted the current moral values, not of men who have whooped them up and tried to enforce them. The truly civilized man is always skeptical and tolerant, in this field as in all others. His culture is based on "I am not too sure." - H.L.Mencken

If you torture data sufficiently, it will confess to almost anything. -Fred Menger, chemistry professor (1937- )

Illness is in part what the world has done to a victim, but in a larger part it is what the victim has done with his world. -Karl Menninger, psychiatrist (1893-1990)

What's done to children, they will do to society. -Karl A. Menninger, psychiatrist (1893-1990)

It is in deep solitude that I find the gentleness with which I can truly love my brothers. The more solitary I am the more affection I have for them. Solitude and silence teach me to love my brothers for what they are, not for what they say. -Thomas Merton, writer (1915-1968)

Most institutions demand unqualified faith; but the institution of science makes skepticism a virtue. -Robert King Merton, sociologist (1910-2003)

Genius is eternal patience. Michelangelo {1474-1564 Italian Painter & Sculptor}

I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free.-Michelangelo Buonarroti, sculptor, painter, architect, and poet (1475-1564)

Also see Michelangelo Buonarroti

Be nice to people on your way up because you'll need them on your way down. -W. Migner

You can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him. -James D. Miles

Every great movement must experience three stages: ridicule, discussion, adoption. -John Stuart Mill

Was there ever any domination that did not appear natural to those who possessed it? -John Stuart Mill (1806-1873)

Men are men before they are lawyers, or physicians, or merchants, or manufacturers; and if you make them capable and sensible men, they will make themselves capable and sensible lawyers or physicians. -John Stuart Mill, philosopher and economist (1806-1873)

If mankind minus one were of one opinion, then mankind is no more justified in silencing the one than the one - if he had the power - would be justified in silencing mankind. -John Stuart Mill, philosopher and economist (1806-1873)

A person may cause evil to others not only by his actions but by his inaction, and in either case he is justly accountable to them for the injury. -John Stuart Mill, philosopher and economist (1806-1873)

In this age, the mere example of nonconformity, the mere refusal to bend the knee to custom, is itself a service. -John Stuart Mill, philosopher and economist (1806-1873)

Contempt is the weapon of the weak and a defense against one's own despised and unwanted feelings. -Alice Miller

Teaching a child not to step on a caterpillar is as valuable to the child as it is to the caterpillar. -Bradley Miller

In this age, which believes that there is a short cut to everything, the greatest lesson to be learned is that the most difficult way is, in the long run, the easiest.-Henry Miller {1891-1980 American Author}

The one thing we can never get enough of is love. And the one thing we never give enough is love. -Henry Miller, American writer (1891-1980)

The moment one gives close attention to anything, even a blade of grass, it becomes a mysterious, awesome, indescribably magnificent world in itself. -Henry Miller, novelist (1891-1980)

Until it is kindled by a spirit as flamingly alive as the one which gave it birth a book is dead to us. Words divested of their magic are but dead hieroglyphs. -Henry Miller, novelist (1891-1980)

One has to be a lowbrow, a bit of a murderer, to be a politician, ready and willing to see people sacrificed, slaughtered, for the sake of an idea, whether a good one or a bad one. -Henry Miller, writer (1891-1980)

A book lying idle on a shelf is wasted ammunition. Like money, books must be kept in constant circulation. Lend and borrow to the maximum. -Henry Miller, novelist (1891-1980)

Some people walk in the rain, others just get wet. -Roger Miller, musician(1936-1992)

Jack the Ripper excused himself on the grounds that what he did was human nature -A.A. Milne

Not that I want to be a god or a hero. Just to change into a tree, grow for ages, not hurt anyone. -Czeslaw Milosz

The mind is its own place, and in itself, can make heaven of Hell, and a hell of Heaven. -John Milton

They also serve who only stand and wait. -John Milton, poet (1608-1674)

Those who put out the people's eyes, reproach them for their blindness. -John Milton, poet (1608-1674)

Reality is something you rise above. - Liza Minnelli

Until you've lost your reputation, you never realize what a burden it was or what freedom really is. -Margaret Mitchell, novelist (1900-1949)

Copy from one, it's plagiarism; copy from two, it's research. - Wilson Mizner (1876-1933)

A lover tries to stand in well with the pet dog of the house. -- Moliere

It is not what we do, but also what we do not do, for which we are accountable. -Moliere, actor and playwright (1622-1673)

The trees that are slow to grow bear the best fruit. -Moliere, actor and playwright (1622-1673)

The principal contributor to loneliness in this country is television. What happens is that the family 'gets together' alone. -Ashley Montagu, anthropologist and writer (1905-1999)

There is no remedy so easy as books, which if they do not give cheerfulness, at least restore quiet to the most troubled mind. -Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, author (1689-1762)

Michel Montaigne, essayist (1533-1592)

Expect problems and eat them for breakfast. ~ Alfred A. Montapert ~ American Author

The greatest sign of success for a teacher is to be able to say, "The children are now working as if I did not exist." -Maria Montessori, Italian educator (1870-1952)

If triangles had a God, he would have 3 sides. -Montesquieu

Happy the people whose annals are blank in the history books! -Charles de Montesquieu, philosopher and writer (1689-1755)

There comes a point in many people's lives when they can no longer play the role they have chosen for themselves. When that happens, we are like actors finding that someone has changed the play.
--Brian Moore

Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goals. -Hannah More 1745-1833, British Writer, Reformer, Philanthropist( check for a cross reference to another author)

In every man's heart there is a secret nerve that answers to the vibrations of beauty. -Christopher Morley

When you sell a man a book you don't sell him just twelve ounces of paper and ink and glue--you sell him a whole new life. -Christopher Darlington Morley (1890-1957) [Parnassus on Wheels, 1917]

The unluckiest insolvent in the world is the man whose expenditure of speech is too great for his income of ideas. -Christopher Morley, writer (1890-1957)

There are three ingredients to the good life; learning, earning, and yearning. -Christopher Morley, writer (1890-1957)

Ink is handicapped, in a way, because you can blow up a man with gunpowder in half a second, while it may take twenty years to blow him up with a book. But the gunpowder destroys itself along with its victim, while a book can keep on exploding for centuries. -Christopher Morley, writer
(1890-1957)

You have not converted a man because you have silenced him.--Lord John Morley, statesman and writer (1838-1923)

Where it is a duty to worship the sun, it is pretty sure to be a crime to examine the laws of heat. -John Morley, statesman and writer (1838-1923)

Woodman, spare that tree! / Touch not a single bough! / In youth it sheltered me, / And I'll protect it now. -George Pope Morris. journalist and poet (1802-1864)

Can't nothin make your life work if you aint the architect [Toni Morrison]

Tact is the art of convincing people that they know more than you do. -Raymond Mortimer

Until you make peace with who you are, you'll never be content with what you have. -Doris Mortman

Arithmetic is being able to count up to twenty without taking off your shoes. -Mickey Mouse

News is what people want to keep hidden; everything else is publicity. -Bill Moyers, journalist (1934- )

The world, we are told, was made especially for man--a presumption not supported by all the facts... Why should man value himself as more than a small part of the one great unit of creation? -John Muir, Naturalist and explorer (1838-1914)

When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world. -John Muir, naturalist, explorer, and writer (1838-1914)

Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out that going to the mountains is going home; that wildness is a necessity; and that mountain parks and reservations are useful not only as fountains of timber and irrigating rivers, but as fountains of life. -John Muir, naturalist, explorer, and writer (1838-1914)

One day's exposure to mountains is better than cartloads of books. See how willingly Nature poses herself upon photographers' plates. No earthly chemicals are so sensitive as those of the human soul. -John Muir, naturalist, explorer, and writer (1838-1914)

Few are altogether deaf to the preaching of pine trees. Their sermons on the mountains go to our hearts; and if people in general could be got into the woods, even for once, to hear the trees speak for themselves, all difficulties in the way of forest preservation would vanish. -John Muir, naturalist, explorer, and writer (1838-1914)
 

The bicycle is the most civilized conveyance known to man. Other forms of transport grow daily more nightmarish. Only the bicycle remains pure in heart. -Iris Murdoch, writer (1919-1999)

The reason there are so few female politicians is that it is too much trouble to put makeup on two faces. -Maureen Murphy

We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. -Edward R. Murrow, journalist (1908-1965)

We cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home. -Edward R. Murrow, journalist (1908-1965)

How glorious it is - and also how painful - to be an exception. -Louis Charles Alfred de Musset, French writer (1810-1857)

Life cannot be classified in terms of a simple neurological ladder, with human beings at the top; it is more accurate to talk of different forms of intelligence, each with its strengths and weaknesses. This point was well demonstrated in the minutes before last December's tsunami, when tourists grabbed their digital cameras and ran after the ebbing surf, and all the 'dumb' animals made for the hills. -B.R. Myers, author (1963- )