August Quotes

I have always enjoyed quotations that make me think or feel or laugh, or that capture truths in a powerful way. I especially like quotes that remind me of principles I need to internalize or live better. I always have a quotation on my email, and this year I have tried to memorize them as I go along. I find having them at my disposal useful in conversation, teaching, speaking and writing. I've learned that a thought has more credibility if someone famous or dead (or both, ideally) said it before me. Here are a few from August.


"Those individuals have riches just as we say that we 'have a fever,' when really the fever has us."
--Seneca

"By the time you're eighty years old you've learned everything. You only have to remember it."
--George Burns

"You must be the change you wish to see in the world."
--Mahatma Gandhi

"May we live so that when that final summons is heard, we may have no serious regrets, no unfinished business."
--Thomas S. Monson

"A company is stronger if it is bound by love rather than by fear ... If the employees come first, then they're happy."
--Herb Kelleher, Former CEO of Southwest Airlines

"It is far better for a man to go wrong in freedom than to go right in chains."
--Thomas Huxley

"Always notice when you are happy."
--Kurt Vonnegut

"Imagination rules the world."
--Napoleon Bonaparte

"Adults are always asking kids what they want to be when they grow up because they are looking for ideas."
--Paula Poundstone

You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes.
You can steer yourself any direction you choose.
--Dr. Seuss

"He can compress the most words into the smallest idea of any man I know."
--Abraham Lincoln

"If you want others to be happy, practice compassion; if you want to be happy, practice compassion."
– Dalai Lama

"There are three kinds of men: Ones who learn by reading, a few who learn by observation, and the rest of them have to pee on the electric fence to find out for themselves."
--Will Rogers