Quotes arranged by Author, F

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Falkson, Jock
  • At age 20, we worry about what others think of us.
    At 40, we don't care what they think of us.
    At 60, we discover they haven't been thinking about us at all.


Fallon, Dan

  • You don't have to accept the invitation to get angry. Instead, practice forgiveness, empathy and encouragement. ("Getting Along in Families" CIGNA Well-Being Winter/Spring 2000)


Fargo, Donna

  • I really think happiness is very closely aligned with success, and may almost be an interchangeable synonym. Happiness (like success) also comes from doing what we feel called to do in life; however, it's also obvious no one can experience one without the other. (in Success Secrets of Super Achievers by Stovall)


Faulkner, William

  • All of us failed to match our dreams of perfection. So I rate us on the basis of our splendid failure to do the impossible.

  • Always dream and shoot higher than you know you can do. Don't bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself.


Feather, William

  • Some people are making such thorough preparation for rainy days that they aren't enjoying today's sunshine.

  • Success seems to be largely a matter of hanging on after others have let go.


Feiffer, Jules

  • It is not size or age that separates children from adults. It is responsibility.


Feltham, Owen

  • The greatest results in life are usually attained by simple means and the exercise of ordinary qualities. These may for the most part be summed up in these two--commonsense and perseverance.


Fenelon, François

  • If the crowns of all the kingdoms of the empire were laid down at my feet in exchange for my books and my love of reading I would spurn them all. New! as of 11/17/09


Fenwick, Millicent

  • Party organization matters. When the door of a smoke-filled room is closed, there's hardly ever a woman inside.


Ferber, Edna

  • Life can't ever really defeat a writer who is in love with writing, for life itself is a writer's lover until death--fascinating, cruel, lavish, warm, cold, treacherous constant.

  • Only amateurs say that they write for their own amusement. Writing is not an amusing occupation. It is a combination of ditch-digging, mountain-climbing, treadmill and childbirth... But amusing? Never.


Ferguson, Marilyn

  • Fear is a question: What are you afraid of, and why? Just as the seed of health is in illness, because illness contains information, our fears are a treasure house of self-knowledge if we explore them.


Fermi, Enrico

  • There's two possible outcomes: if the result confirms the hypothesis, then you've made a discovery. If the result is contrary to the hypothesis, then you've made a discovery.


Ferraro, Geraldine A.

  • We fought hard. We gave it our best. We did what was right and we made a difference.


Ferre, Nels F. S.

  • We must be willing to forgive without limit even as God forgives; otherwise we cannot be forgiven.


Ferreira-Netto, Christine

  • To those of you that's on the path of discovery, No Matter what!! Don't Abandon, despair, or give up, Don't let people's actions and opinions influence you on this journey. Remember "there is always casualties in a war". But alas, the day you have found it, you will discontinue, and be truly happy and fulfilled. You have discovered and you have conquered!


Fiebig, Jim

  • Age does not diminish the extreme disappointment of having a scoop of ice cream fall from the cone.


Field, Eugene

  • I'd like a stocking made for a giant,
    And a meeting house full of toys,
    Then I'd go out in a happy hunt
    For the poor little girls and boys;
    Up the street and down the street,
    And across and over the town,
    I'd search and find them everyone,
    Before the sun went down. ("A Christmas Wish")


Field, Franklin

  • Poor eyes limit your sight; poor vision limits your deeds.


Field, Isobel

  • My dear father! When I remember him, it is always with his arms open wide to love and comfort me. (The Life I've Lived)


Field, Joanna

  • The growth of understanding follows an ascending spiral rather than a straight line.


Field, Sally

  • I started to repeat to myself "If I'm not where I want to be, it's because I'm not good enough ... yet." Which meant it was up to me.


Fielding, Henry

  • If a man has acted right, he has done well, though alone; if wrong, the sanction of all mankind will not justify him.


Fields, Dorothy

  • Grab your coat, and get your hat
    Leave your worry on the doorstep
    Just direct your feet
    To the sunny side of the street. ("On the Sunny Side of the Street")


Fields, W. C.

  • A rich man is nothing but a poor man with money.


Fierstein, Harvey

  • If you deny yourself commitment, what can you do with your life? New! as of 11/17/09

  • Never be bullied into silence. Never allow yourself to be made a victim. Accept no one's definition of your life, but define yourself.


Fillmore, Bobbi

  • And yes the reason I love quotes--it gets us back to the way life used to be and should be... and we must be reminded as life is becoming very stressful, very busy, families are no longer what they "used to be" and I love to be reminded to "slow down and smell the roses" think about where you are going and what you are doing. They truly give life perspective. (email to the Quote Lady, December 1999)

  • Every man who accomplishes things sees first in his mind what he wishes to do. He puts away all doubt. It makes no difference how small or how large the thing you want to do may be; if you have an unlimited confidence in your ability to do it, you will do it.


Fillmore, Charles

  • Here is a mental treatment guaranteed to cure every ill that flesh is heir to: sit for half an hour every night and mentally forgive everyone against whom you have any ill will or antipathy.

  • The value of all service lies in the spirit in which you serve and not in the importance or magnitude of the service. Even the lowliest task or deed is made holy, joyous, and prosperous when it is filled with love.

  • We must learn to let go, to give up, to make room for the things we have prayed for and desired.


Fillmore, Millard

  • It is not strange ... to mistake change for progress.


Finnegan, J.

  • Text processing has made it possible to right-justify any idea, even one which cannot be justified on any other grounds.


Firebaugh, Doug

  • Frustration can become like a chain...and it can strangle your efforts for success... or you can get the key out and open the lock. Oh the key? The key of Decision that unchains the future. (Your Achievement Ezine - Issue No. 153)

  • Time is amazing... it has only one thing to say to anyone... "When?"


Firestone, Harvey

  • Thought, not money, is the real business capital, and if you know absolutely that what you are doing is right, then you are bound to accomplishment it in due season.


Fischer, Martin H.

  • Knowledge is a process of piling up facts; wisdom lies in their simplification.


Fishel. Elizabeth

  • Both within the family and without, our sisters hold up our mirrors: our images of who we are and of who we can dare to become.


Fisher, Carrie

  • There is no point at which you can say, "Well, I am successful now. I might as well take a nap."


Fisher, George

  • When you aim for perfection, you discover it's a moving target.


Fitzgerald, Ella

  • Just don't give up trying to do what you really want to do. Where there is love and inspiration, I don't think you can go wrong.


Fitzgerald, F. Scott

  • Genius is the ability to put into effect what is on your mind.

  • So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.

  • The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function. One should, for example, be able to see that things are hopeless and yet be determined to make them otherwise.


Fitzgerald, Zelda

  • I don't want to live. I want to love first, and live incidentally.

  • Nobody has ever measured, not even poets, how much the human heart can hold.


Fitzhenry, R. I.

  • Uncertainty and mystery are energies of life. Don't let them scare you unduly, for they keep boredom at bay and spark creativity.


Fitzsimmons, Cotton

  • I have a basic philosophy that I've tried to follow during my coaching career. Whether you're winning or losing, it's important to always be yourself. You can't change because of the circumstances around you.


Fitzwalter-Read, Helen

  • If I ever seem to take you for granted, forgive me.


Fix, Paul

  • The only reason some people get lost in thought is because it's unfamiliar territory.


Fleischer, Leonore

  • The likelihood of one individual being right increases in direct ratio to the intensity with which other try to prove him wrong, (Heaven Can Wait, the novelization. Originally written by Elaine May and Warren Beatty in the movie of the same name)


Fleishman, Jerome P.

  • Our trials are tests; our sorrows pave the way for a fuller life when we have earned it.


Fletchall, Gary L.

  • Walking is a form of exercise that loses some appeal when it's done behind a lawn mower.


Fletcher, John

  • The greatest attribute of heaven is mercy;
    And 'tis the crown of justice, and the glory... (Lover's Progress)


Flores, Bettina R.

  • Courage is the atom of change.


Floyd, Doug

  • You don't get harmony when everybody sings the same note.


Foch, Ferdinand (Marshall)

  • In whatever position you find yourself determine first your objective.


Foer, Johathan Safran

  • Why didn't I learn to treat everything like it was the last time. My greatest regret was how much I believed in the future. (Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close) New! as of 11/17/09


Foley, Rae

  • I always feel sorry for people who think more about a rainy day ahead than sunshine today. (Suffer a Witch)


Forbes, B. C.

  • The incontestable truth is that America has been built up by optimists, not by pessimists, but by men possessing courage, confidence in the nation's destiny, by men willing to adventure, to shoulder risks terrifying to the timid.


Forbes, Bertie

  • History has demonstrated that the most notable winners usually encountered heartbreaking obstacles before they triumphed. They won because they refused to become discouraged by their defeats.


Forbes, Malcolm S.

  • Education's purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one.

  • Failure is success if we learn from it.

  • If you have a job without aggravation, you don't have a job.

  • Keeping score of old scores and scars, getting even and one-upping, always makes you less than you are.

  • When you cease to dream you cease to live.


Forche, Carolyn

  • We are responsible for the quality of our vision, we have a say in the shaping of our sensibility. In the many thousand daily choices we make, we create ourselves and the voice with which we speak and work.


Ford, Harrison

  • Being happy is something you have to learn. I often surprise myself by saying "Wow, this is it. I guess I'm happy. I got a home I love. A career that I love. I'm even feeling more and more at peace with myself." If there's something else to happiness, let me know. I'm ambitious for that, too.

  • We all have big changes in our lives that are more or less a second chance. New! as of 11/17/09


Ford, Henry

  • Asking "who ought to be the boss" is like asking "who ought to be the tennor in the quartet?" Obviously, the man who can sing tenor.

  • Before everything else, getting ready is the secret of success.

  • Change is not always progress.... A fever of newness had been everywhere confused with the spirit of progress. (in Democracy and its Discontents by Boorstin)

  • Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success.

  • Don't find fault, find a remedy,

  • Genius is seldom recognized for what it is: a great capacity for hard work.

  • It is not the employer who pays the wages. Employers only handle the money. It is the customer who pays the wages.

  • Life is a series of experiences, each of which makes us bigger, even though it is hard to realize this. For the world was built to develop character, and we must learn that the setbacks and griefs which we endure help us in our marching onward.

  • Nothing is particularly hard if you divide it into small jobs.

  • One who fears failure limits his activities. Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.

  • There is joy in work. There is no happiness except in the realization that we have accomplished something.

  • Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably the reason so few engage in it.

  • Whether you think you can or whether you think you can't, you're right.


Ford, Lauren

  • I only want to love once, but I want to love everybody for the rest of my life.


Ford, Leighton

  • God loves us the way we are, but He loves us too much to leave us that way.


Forman, Max L.

  • Always hold your head up, but be careful to keep your nose at a friendly level.


Forsey, Eugene

  • I have long considered it one of God's greatest mercies that the future is hidden from us. If it were not, life would surely be unbearable.


Forster, E. M.

  • I suggest that the only books that influence us are those for which we are ready, and which have gone a little farther down our particular path than we have yet gone ourselves.


Forsyte, Faith

  • Peace, like every other rare and precious thing, doesn't come to you. You have to go and get it.


Forsyth, P. T.

  • You must live with people to know their problems, and live with God in order to solve them.


Fortas, Abe

  • Dissent and dissenters have no monopoly on freedom. They must tolerate opposition. They must accept dissent from their dissent. (Concerning Dissent and Civil Disobedience)


Fosdick, Harry Emerson

  • He who chooses the beginning of a road chooses the place it leads to. It is the means that determine the end.

  • No horse gets anywhere until he is harnessed. No stream or gas drives anything until it is confined. No Niagara is ever turned into light and power until it is tunneled. No life ever grows great until it is focused, dedicated, disciplined.

  • Rebellion against your handicaps gets you nowhere. Self-pity gets you nowhere. One must have the adventurous daring to accept oneself as a bundle of possibilities and undertake the most interesting game in the world--making the most of one's best.


Foster, John

  • One of the strongest characteristics of genius is the power of lighting its own fire.


Foster, Richard J.

  • Silence is one of the deepest disciplines of the Spirit simply because it puts the stopper on all self-justification. One of the fruits of silence is the freedom to let God be our justifier. We don't need to straighten others out. ("Seeking the Kingdom")


Foster, Willa A.

  • Quality is never an accident. It is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, intelligent direction, and skillful execution. It represents the wise choice of many alternatives.--Willa A Foster (Bits & Pieces)


Fotopoulis, Danielle

  • Even if I don't reach all my goals, I've gone higher than I would have if I hadn't set any.


Fowler, Gene

  • Writing is easy. All you do is stare at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead.


Fowles, John

  • An answer is always a form of death.

  • Our accepting what we are must always inhibit our being what we ought to be.


Fox, Emmet

  • The art of life is to live in the present moment, and to make that moment as perfect as we can by the realization that we are the instruments and expression of God Himself.

  • Bless a thing and it will bless you. Curse it and it will curse you... If you bless a situation, it has no power to hurt you: and even if it is troublesome for a time, it will gradually fade out, if you sincerely bless it.

  • It makes no difference how deeply seated may be the trouble, how hopeless the outlook how muddled the tangle, how great the mistake. A sufficient realization of love will dissolve it all.

  • There is no difficulty that enough love will not conquer; no disease that enough love will not heal; no door that enough love will not open; no gulf that enough love will not bridge; no wall that enough love will not throw down; no sin that enough love will not redeem.


Fox, George

  • Dwelling in the light, there is no occasion at all for stumbling, for all things are discovered in the light.


Fox, Jim

  • My father always told me, "Find a job you love and you'll never have to work a day in your life."


France, Anatole

  • An education isn't how much you have committed to memory, or even how much you know. It's being able to differentiate between what you do know and what you don't.

  • The greatest virtue of man is perhaps curiosity. New! as of 11/17/09

  • I prefer the folly of enthusiasm to the indifference of wisdom.

  • The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread.

  • Simple style is like white light. It is complex, but its complexity is not obvious.

  • To accomplish great things, we must not only act but also dream. Not only plan but also believe.

  • The whole art of teaching is only the art of awakening the natural curiosity of young minds for the purpose of satisfying it afterwards.


France, Marie de, see, Marie de France


Francis, Brendan

  • The best way to escape from a problem is to solve it.


Francke, Katherine

  • As perfume to the flower, so is kindness to speech.


Frank, Anne

  • Everyone has inside of him a piece of good news. The good news is that you don't know how great you can be! How much you can love! What you can accomplish! And what your potential is!

  • I keep my ideals, because in spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart.

  • I simply can't build my hopes on a foundation of confusion, misery and death ... I think ... peace and tranquillity will return again.

  • Laziness may appear attractive, but work gives satisfaction.

  • Parents can only give good advice or put them on the right paths, but the final forming of a person's character lies in their own hands.

  • Think of all the beauty still left around you and be happy.


Frankl, Viktor

  • Everyone has his own specific vocation or mission in life; everyone must carry out a concrete assignment that demands fulfillment. Therein he cannot be replaced, nor can his life be repeated, thus, everyone's task is unique as his specific opportunity to implement it.

  • Everything can be taken from a man but the last of human freedoms, the right to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances--the right to choose one's own way.

  • Only to the extent that someone is living out this self transcendence of human existence, is he truly human or does he become his true self. He becomes so, not by concerning himself with his self's actualization, but by forgetting himself and giving himself, overlooking himself and focusing outward.

  • Those who have a "why" to live, can bear with almost any "how."

  • A weak faith is weakened by predicaments and catastrophes, whereas a strong faith is strengthened by them.

  • When we are no longer able to change a situation ... we are challenged to change ourselves.


Franklin, Adele, see Benedict, Agnes E.


Franklin, Benjamin

  • As we must account for every idle word, so must we account for every idle silence.

  • The constitution only gives people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself.

  • The doorstep to the temple of wisdom is a knowledge of our own ignorance.

  • Human felicity is produced not so much by great pieces of good fortune that seldom happen as by little advantages that occur every day. New! as of 11/17/09

  • Genius without education is like silver in the mine.

  • Great beauty, great strength, and great riches are really and truly of no great use; a right heart exceeds all.

  • He does not possess wealth; it possesses him.

  • He that can take rest is greater than he that can take cities.

  • If a man empties his purse into his head, no man can take it away from him. An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest.

  • Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are.

  • Money never made a man happy yet, nor will it. There is nothing in its nature to produce happiness. The more a man has, the more he wants. Instead of its filling a vacuum, it makes one.

  • Old boys have their playthings as well as young ones, the difference is only in the price.

  • Remember not only to say the right thing in the right place, but far more difficult still, to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment.

  • Setting too good an Example is a Kind of slander seldom forgiven. (Poor Richard's Almanack)

  • Take one thing with another, and the world is a pretty good sort of a world, and it is our duty to make the best of it, and be thankful. (Letter to Mrs. Jane Mecom, March 1, 1766)

  • Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.

  • There never was a good war or a bad peace.

  • Those who desire to give up freedom in order to gain security, will not have, nor do they deserve, either one.

  • Well done is better than well said.

  • Words may show a man's wit, but actions his meaning.

  • Write injuries in dust, benefits in marble.


Franzblau, Rose N.

  • "Honesty" without compassion and understanding is not honesty, but subtle hostility. (in New York Post, 1966)


Fraser, Brendan

  • I believe you have a responsibility to comport yourself ina manner that gives an example to others. As a young man, I prayed for success. Now I pray just to be worthy of it. (Parade, 7/30/2000)


Frederick II (the Great)

  • The greatest and noblest pleasure which we have in this world is to discover new truths, and the next is to shake off old prejudices.


Free, Edward E.

  • The saying that knowledge is power is not quite true. Used knowledge is power, and more than power. It is money, and service, and better living for our fellowmen, and a hundred other good things. But mere knowledge, left unused, has no power in it.


Freeman, Chriswell

  • Quotations help us remember the simple yet profound truths that give life perspective and meaning. When it comes to life's most important lessons, we can all use gentle reminders.


Freud, Anna

  • I was always looking outside myself for strength and confidence but it comes from within. It was there all the time.


Freud, Sigmund

  • I had the greatest respect for the authorities of my day--until I studied things for myself, and came to my own conclusions. (in Fragments of an Analysis with Freud by Wortis)

  • Men are strong so long as they represent a strong idea; they become powerless when they oppose it. (On the History of the Psychoanalytic Movement)


Friedman, Sanya

  • Recognizing a problem is the first step to solving it... Some problems cannot be solved but you can make peace with them.


Friedmann, Isaac

  • Forgiveness is the sweetest revenge.


Fripp, Robert

  • A mistake is always forgivable, rarely excusable and always unacceptable.

  • There are no mistakes, save one: the failure to learn from a mistake.


Frisch, Max

  • Technology ... the knack of arranging the world that we don't have to experience it.

  • Technology is a way of organizing the universe so that man doesn't have to experience it.


Fritz, Robert

  • If you limit your choices only to what seems possible or reasonable, you disconnect yourself from what you truly want, and all that is left is compromise.


Fromm, Erich

  • All genuine ideals have one thing in common: they express the desire for something which is not yet accomplished but which is desirable for the purpose of the growth and happiness of the individual. (Escape from Freedom)

  • The capacity to be puzzled is ... the premise of all creation, be it in art or in science. ("The Creative Attitude" in Creativity and It Cultivation ed. by Anderson)

  • Conditions for creativity are:
    to be puzzled;
    to concentrate;
    to accept conflict and tension;
    to be born everyday;
    to feel a sense of self.

  • In the sphere of material things, giving means being rich. Not he who has much is rich, but he who gives much.

  • Modern man thinks he loses something--time--when he does not do things quickly. Yet he does not know what to do with the time he gains--except kill it.

  • Not he who has much is rich, but he who gives much.

  • The only truly affluent are those who do not want more than they have.

  • Power on the one side, fear on the other, are always the buttresses on which irrational authority is built. (Man for Himself: An Inquiry into the Psychology of Ethics)

  • There can be no real freedom without the freedom to fail.


Frost, David

  • Television is an invention that permits you to be entertained in your living room by people you wouldn't have in your house.


Frost, Robert

  • The brain is a wonderful organ. It starts working the moment you get up and does not stop until you get into the office.

  • Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence.

  • Freedom lies in being bold.

  • Happiness makes up in height what it lacks in length.

  • Have courage and a little willingness to venture and be defeated.

  • The reason why worry kills more people than work is that more people worry than work.

  • Yes, of course [this age] is materialistic, but the only way to counteract it is to create spiritual things. Don't worry yourself about the materialism too much. Create and stir other people to create!


Fry, William F. (Dr., Jr.)

  • Humor offers an alternative to violence... Humor gives us a choice.

  • Humor opposes directly those emotions which have been specifically recorded as being associated with precipitation of heart attack. These emotions are fear and rage. Humor acts to relieve hear. Rage is impossible when mirth prevails.


Fulbright, James W.

  • We must dare to think "unthinkable" thoughts. We must learn to explore all the options and possibilities that confront us in a complex and rapidly changing world. We must learn to welcome and not to fear the voices of dissent. We must dare to think about "unthinkable things" because when things become unthinkable, thinking stops and action becomes mindless.


Fuldman, Dorothy

  • It takes a disciplined person to listen to convictions which are different from their own. (A Thousand Friends)


Fulghum, Robert

  • Be aware of wonder. Live a balanced life--learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some. (All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten)

  • Don't worry that your children never listen to you; worry that they are always watching you.

  • I believe that imagination is stronger than knowledge
    That myth is more potent than history
    I believe that dreams are more powerful than facts--
    That hope always triumphs over experience--
    That laughter is the only cure for grief
    And I believe that love is
    stronger than death.

  • If you break your neck, if you have nothing to eat, if your house is on fire--then you got a problem. Everything else is inconvenience.

  • Leftovers in their less visible form are called memories. Stored in the refrigerator of the mind and the cupboard of the heart.

  • ...peace is not something you wish for; it's something you make, something you do, something you are, and something you give away! (All I Really Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten)


Fuller, Elizabeth

  • Never reach out your hand unless you're willing to extend an arm.


Fuller, Margaret

  • I am suffocated and lost when I have not the bright feeling of progression.

  • Would that the simple maxim, that honesty is the best policy, might be laid to heart; that a sense of the true aim of life might elevate the tone of politics and trade till public and private honor become identical. (Summer on the Lakes)


Fuller, R. Buckminster

  • If I ran a school, I'd give the average grade to the ones who gave me all the right answers, for being good parrots. I'd give the top grades to those who made a lot of mistakes and told me about them, and then told me what they learned from them.

  • We are called to be architects of the future, not its victims.

  • When I'm working on a problem, I never think about beauty. I think only how to solve the problem. But when I have finished, if the solution is not beautiful, I know it is wrong.

  • You can never learn less, you can only learn more.


Fuller, Thomas

  • Eaten bread is forgotten.

  • A few Books well chosen, and well made use of will be more profitable than a great confused Alexandrian library. (Introductio ad Prudentiam)

  • An invincible determination can accomplish almost anything and in this lies the great distinction between great men and little men.

  • If you command wisely, you'll be obeyed cheerfully.

  • It is more difficult to praise rightly than to blame.

  • In fair Weather prepare for foul. (Gnomologia)

  • Rigid justice is the greatest injustice.

  • Zeal without knowledge is fire without light.


Fusselman, W.

  • Today a reader--tomorrow a leader.

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