• Any supervisor worth his salt would rather deal with people who attempt too much than with those who try too little.

• I have found that being honest is the best technique I can use. Right up front, tell people what you're trying to accomplish and what you're willing to sacrifice to accomplish it.

• In a completely rational society, the best of us would be teachers and the rest of us would have to settle for something else.

• You can use the fanciest computers to gather the numbers, but in the end you have to set a timetable and act.

I Ching

• Everything proceeds as if of its own accord, and this can all too easily tempt us to relax and let things take their course without troubling over details. Such indifference is the root of all evil.

• No good ending can be expected in the absence of the right beginning. It is too late.

• Perseverance alone does not assure success. No amount of stalking will lead to game in a field that has none.

Iles, George R.

• The spirit of Christmas can be so wonderfully wrapped up in our hearts, and our way of life, that it is readily manifested by our love and prayers; thus can we make more certain peace on earth to men of good will.

Inge, William Ralph (Dean)

• No Christian can be a pessimist, for Christianity is a system of radical optimism.

• True faith is belief in the reality of absolute values. ("Confessio Fidei" Outspoken Essays: Second Series)

• What is originality? Undetected plagiarism.

• Worry is interest paid on trouble before it is due.

Ingelow, Jean

• A healthy hunger for a great idea is the beauty and blessedness of life.

Ingersoll, Robert C.

• The triumph of justice is the only peace.

Ingersoll, Robert Green

• My creed is that:
  Happiness is the only good.
  The place to he happy is here.
  The time to be happy is now.
  The way to be happy is to make others so.

• The superior man is the providence of the inferior. He is eyes for the blind, strength for the weak, and a shield for the defenseless. He stands erect by bending above the fallen. He rises by lifting others.

Ingram, Paul

• A moment's thought shows that man's feeling of isolation has no foundation, biologically or sociologically. We grow out of the Universe, we are an expression of it. The iron in our blood comes from the high temperature fusion of stars. We constantly interact with our environment. The force of gravity keeps our feet upon the earth and has a vital effect upon our metabolism. The air we breathe comes form the seas and the leaves, and the sun allows the process to take place. Society gives us all that makes us human: our culture, our symbols, our concepts and our values. Without society, the notion of the individual would have no meaning.

Inman, Robert

• When everything is lost, anything is possible. (Captain Saturday)

Innes, Iocasta

• Ever since the first shaggy hunter outlined a running deer with a stick dipped in wood ash or puddle clay or blood, paint has served a vastly more significant and creative purpose--as a vehicle for the human imagination, a creator of illusions, the modest but endlessly pliable means of fixing a glimpse of loveliness for posterity. The true originators in this field have always been the great artists. But close behind these masters of illusion came the masters of the applied arts--designers, architects, decorators, legions of craftsmen whose vocation was to reflect contemporary standards of beauty and harmony.

Ionesco, Eugene

• Childhood is the world of miracle and wonder; as if creation rose, bathed in the light, out of the darkness, utterly new and fresh and astonishing. The end of childhood is when things cease to astonish us.

• You can only predict things after they have happened.

Iorn, Mary Jean

• Normal day, let me be aware of the treasure you are. Let me learn from you, love you, bless you before you depart. Let me not pass you by in quest of some rare and perfect tomorrow. Let me hold you while I may, for it may not always be so.

Irons, Jeremy

• We all have our time machines. Some take us back, they're called memories. Some take us forward, they're called dreams.

Irving, John

• If you are lucky enough to find a way of life you love, you have to find the courage to live it.

• If you don't feel that you are possibly on the edge of humiliating yourself, of losing control of the whole thing, then probably what you are doing isn't very vital. If you don't feel like you are writing somewhat over your head, why do it? If you don't have some doubt of your authority to tell this story, then you are not trying to tell enough.

• There are few things as seemingly untouched by the real world as a child asleep.

Irving, Washington

• Christmas is the season for kindling the fire of hospitality in the hall, the genial flame of charity in the heart.

• How easy it is for one benevolent being to diffuse pleasure around him, and how truly is a kind heart a fountain of gladness, making everything in its vicinity to freshen into smiles.

• A mother is the truest friend we have, when trials, heavy and sudden, fall upon us; when adversity takes the place of prosperity; when friends who rejoice with us in our sunshine, desert us; when troubles thicken around us, still will she cling to us, and endeavor by her kind precepts and counsels to dissipate the clouds of darkness, and cause peace to return to our hearts.

• Of all the old festivals, however, that of Christmas awakens the strongest and most heartfelt associations. There is a tone of solemn and sacred feeling that blends with our conviviality, and lifts the sprit to a state of hallowed and elevated enjoyment. (Christmas)

Irwin, Ben

• Most of us spend our lives as if we had another one in the bank.

Isaac of Syria

• The man with a heart cannot think about or see creatures without his eyes filling up with tears because of the immense compassion which seizes his heart.

Isocrates

• If all who are engaged in the profession of education were willing to state the facts instead of making greater promises than they can possibly fulfill, they would not be in such bad repute with the lay-public.