The Quotable Books Series ...

The Best
Things
in Life
Are Free

(my favorite quotes)

(sample quotations from the book)

No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted. — Aesop

When you pray, move your feet. — African proverb

Can you walk on water? You have done no better than a straw. Can you fly in the air? You have done no better than a bluebottle. Conquer your heart; then you may become somebody. — Ansari of Herat, hermit

Here is the test to find whether your mission on earth is finished. If you're alive, it isn't. — Richard Bach, author

The reason birds can fly and we cannot is simply that they have perfect faith, for to have faith is to have wings. — James Matthew Barrie, children's author

Life begets life. Energy becomes energy. It is by spending oneself that one becomes rich. — Sarah Bernhardt, actress

When you reach the end of all the light there is and you must step out into the darkness, remember that two things may happen: You either will find something to stand on or you will be taught how to fly. — Book of Edges

Kindness is a language the dumb can speak, and the deaf can hear and understand. — Christian Bovee

If your knees aren't green by the end of the day, you ought to seriously re-examine your life. — Calvin of Calvin & Hobbes comic strip

The day is coming when a single carrot, freshly observed, will set off a revolution. — Paul Cezanne, painter

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. — Arthur C. Clarke, science fiction author

You must speak straight so that your words go as sunlight into our hearts. — Cochise, Indian leader

And though I have all faith, so that I could move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. — 1 Corinthians 13:2

To be nobody but yourself, in a world which is doing its best to make you everybody else, means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight, and never stop fighting. — e. e. cummings, poet

If a man throws himself out of the fourth floor window, and you can’t make a sketch of him before he gets to the ground, you will never do anything big. — Eugène Delacroix, painter

If you cannot find the truth right where you are, where else do you expect to find it? — Dogen

We are bits of stellar matter that got cold by accident, bits of a star gone wrong. — Arthur Eddington, physicist

Not everything that can be counted, counts. And not everything that counts can be counted. — Albert Einstein, physicist

There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle. — Albert Einstein, physicist

All that you are seeking is also seeking you. If you lie still, sit still, it will find you. It has been waiting for you a long time. — Clarissa Pinkola Estes, mythologist

How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world. — Anne Frank, author, The Diary of Anne Frank

The secrets of the universe are discovered when you break things. — game players blog

Believe those who are seeking the truth. Doubt those who find it. — Andre Gidé, novelist and critic

Nothing splendid was ever created in cold blood. Heat is required to forge anything. Every great accomplishment is the story of a flaming heart. — Arnold H. Glasow, author

A mind once stretched by a new idea never regains its original dimensions. — Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., U.S. supreme court justice

Dance as if no one were watching. Sing as if no one were listening. And live every day as if it were your last. — Irish proverb

May serenity circle on silent wings and catch the whisper of the wind. — Cheewa James, author

You do not need to leave your room. Remain sitting at your table and listen. Do not even listen. Simply wait. Do not even wait; be quiet, still and solitary. The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked. It has no choice. It will roll in ecstasy at your feet. — Franz Kafka, novelist

Express everything you like. No word can hurt you. None. No idea can hurt you. Not being able to express an idea or a word will hurt you much more. As much as a bullet. — Jamaica Kincaid

The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good. — Ann Landers, advice columnist

I don't see why I am always asking for private, individual, selfish miracles when every year there are miracles like white dogwood. — Anne Morrow Lindbergh, author

I have a simple philosophy. Fill what's empty. Empty what's full. Scratch where it itches. — Alice Roosevelt Longworth, author

Everything you'll ever need to know is within you; the secrets of the universe are imprinted on the cells of your body. — Dan Millman, author

The soul can split the sky in two,
and let the face of God shine through.
— Edna St. Vincent Millay, poet

If you surrendered to the air, you could ride it. — Toni Morrison, novelist

Everything is a miracle. It is a miracle that one does not dissolve in one's bath like a lump of sugar. — Pablo Picasso, artist

This is the miracle that happens every time to those who really love; the more they give, the more they possess. — Rainer Maria Rilke, poet

If the people we love are stolen from us, the way to have them live on is to never stop loving them. Buildings burn. People die. But real love lives forever. — Sarah, character in The Crow TV show

All things are connected like the blood that unites one family. Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons of the earth. If men spit on the ground, they spit on themselves. — Chief Seattle, Indian leader

Every single one of us can do things that no one else can do—can love things that no one else can love. We are like violins. We can be used for doorstops, or we can make music. You know what to do. — Barbara Sher, author

Making the decision to have a child—it’s momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking outside your body. — Elizabeth Stone, author

Joy is prayer. Joy is strength. Joy is love. Joy is a net of love by which you can catch souls. — Mother Teresa, religious leader

The force that through the green fuse drives the flower drives my green soul. — Dylan Thomas, poet

God made everything out of nothing, but the nothingness shows through. — Paul Valery, poet and critic

The day you really want to end all hunger, there will be no more hunger. — Neale Donald Walsch, author, Conversations with God

We are all gods, all forces of nature. We can destroy, we can build. We are like oceans and like fires. — Barry White, singer

They say that every snowflake is different. If that were true, how could the world go on? How could we ever get up off our knees? How could we ever recover from the wonder of it? — Jeanette Winterson

If you can spend a perfectly useless afternoon in a perfectly useless manner, you have learned how to live. — Lin Yutang

Here are the other seven books in the Illustrated Quotable Books section. Click on the titles to see sample quotations:

How to Live Your Dreams

If at First You Don’t Succeed, Try, Try Again

If God Intended Man to Smoke, He’d Have Set Him on Fire … and Other Conclusions of God’s Work

If I Had My Life to Live Over . . .

The Miracle of Life

Playing the Percentages: Lies, Damned Funny Lies, Statistics, and Everything in Between

When in Doubt, Kiss the Fish — And Other Extremely Wise Advice

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