John Ray Quotes
English - Environmentalist November 29, 1627 - January 17, 1705


Beauty is power; a smile is its sword.
John Ray

Good words cool more than cold water.
John Ray

Even if you are on the right track, you will get run over if you just sit there.
John Ray

Misery loves company.
John Ray

Nothing is invented and perfected at the same time.
John Ray

Algebra is the metaphysics of arithmetic.
John Ray

In a thousand pounds of law there is not an ounce of love.
John Ray

Diseases are the tax on pleasures.
John Ray

Never meet trouble half-way.
John Ray

Industry is fortune's right hand, and frugality its left.
John Ray


Amos Bronson Alcott Quotes
American - Educator November 29, 1799 - March 4, 1888

Success is sweet and sweeter if long delayed and gotten through many struggles and defeats.
Amos Bronson Alcott

The less routine the more life.
Amos Bronson Alcott

Observation more than books and experience more than persons, are the prime educators.
Amos Bronson Alcott

Our ideals are our better selves.
Amos Bronson Alcott

Thought means life, since those who do not think so do not live in any high or real sense. Thinking makes the man.
Amos Bronson Alcott

Debate is masculine, conversation is feminine.
Amos Bronson Alcott

Strengthen me by sympathizing with my strength, not my weakness.
Amos Bronson Alcott

Our friends interpret the world and ourselves to us, if we take them tenderly and truly.
Amos Bronson Alcott

A true teacher defends his students against his own personal influences.
Amos Bronson Alcott

To keep the heart unwrinkled, to be hopeful, kindly, cheerful, reverent that is to triumph over old age.
Amos Bronson Alcott

A government, for protecting business only, is but a carcass, and soon falls by its own corruption and decay.
Amos Bronson Alcott

To be ignorant of one's ignorance is the malady of the ignorant.
Amos Bronson Alcott

The true teacher defends his pupils against his own personal influence. He inspires self-trust. He guides their eyes from himself to the spirit that quickens him. He will have no disciples.
Amos Bronson Alcott

Who speaks to the instincts speaks to the deepest in mankind, and finds the readiest response.
Amos Bronson Alcott

First find the man in yourself if you will inspire manliness in others.
Amos Bronson Alcott

We climb to heaven most often on the ruins of our cherished plans, finding our failures were successes.
Amos Bronson Alcott

Our notion of the perfect society embraces the family as its center and ornament, and this paradise is not secure until children appear to animate and complete the picture.
Amos Bronson Alcott

Who knows, the mind has the key to all things besides.
Amos Bronson Alcott

That is a good book which is opened with expectation, and closed with delight and profit.
Amos Bronson Alcott

One must be a wise reader to quote wisely and well.
Amos Bronson Alcott

Our dreams drench us in sense, and sense steeps us again in dreams.
Amos Bronson Alcott

While one finds company in himself and his pursuits, he cannot feel old, no matter what his years may be.
Amos Bronson Alcott

Where there is a mother in the home, matters go well.
Amos Bronson Alcott


Wendell Phillips Quotes
American - Activist November 29, 1811 - February 2, 1884

What gunpowder did for war the printing press has done for the mind.
Wendell Phillips

Physical bravery is an animal instinct; moral bravery is much higher and truer courage.
Wendell Phillips

What is defeat? Nothing but education. Nothing but the first step to something better.
Wendell Phillips

Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty; power is ever stealing from the many to the few.
Wendell Phillips

Agitation is the atmosphere of the brains.
Wendell Phillips

The heart is the best reflective thinker.
Wendell Phillips

What the Puritans gave the world was not thought, but action.
Wendell Phillips

The best education in the world is that got by struggling to get a living.
Wendell Phillips

To be as good as our fathers we must be better, imitation is not discipleship.
Wendell Phillips

Governments exist to protect the rights of minorities. The loved and the rich need no protection: they have many friends and few enemies.
Wendell Phillips

If there is anything in the universe that can't stand discussion, let it crack.
Wendell Phillips

The labor movement means just this: it is the last noble protest of the American people against the power of incorporated wealth.
Wendell Phillips

Every step of progress the world has made has been from scaffold to scaffold, and from stake to stake.
Wendell Phillips

Boredom, after all, is a form of criticism.
Wendell Phillips

Two kinds of men generally best succeed in political life; men of no principle, but of great talent; and men of no talent, but of one principle - that of obedience to their superiors.
Wendell Phillips

Truth is one forever absolute, but opinion is truth filtered through the moods, the blood, the disposition of the spectator.
Wendell Phillips

Law is nothing unless close behind it stands a warm, living public opinion.
Wendell Phillips

Whether in chains or in laurels, liberty knows nothing but victories.
Wendell Phillips

If you want to be an orator, first get your great cause.
Wendell Phillips

Exigencies create the necessary ability to meet and conquer them.
Wendell Phillips

Seldom ever was any knowledge given to keep, but to impart; the grace of this rich jewel is lost in concealment.
Wendell Phillips

Difference of religion breeds more quarrels than difference of politics.
Wendell Phillips

Aristocracy is always cruel.
Wendell Phillips

Responsibility educates.
Wendell Phillips

What is fanaticism today is the fashionable creed tomorrow, and trite as the multiplication table a week after.
Wendell Phillips

One on God's side is a majority.
Wendell Phillips

Insurrection of thought always precedes insurrection of arms.
Wendell Phillips

Many know how to flatter, few know how to praise.
Wendell Phillips

You can always get the truth from an American statesman after he has turned seventy, or given up all hope of the Presidency.
Wendell Phillips

Today it is not big business that we have to fear. It is big government.
Wendell Phillips

Debt is the fatal disease of republics, the first thing and the mightiest to undermine governments and corrupt the people.
Wendell Phillips

We live under a government of men and morning newspapers.
Wendell Phillips

Christianity is a battle not a dream.
Wendell Phillips

To hear some men talk of the government, you would suppose that Congress was the law of gravitation, and kept the planets in their places.
Wendell Phillips

The keener the want the lustier the growth.
Wendell Phillips

Power is every stealing from the many to the few.
Wendell Phillips

Let me make the newspapers, and I care not what is preached in the pulpit or what is enacted in Congress.
Wendell Phillips


Louisa May Alcott Quotes
American - Novelist November 29, 1832 - March 6, 1888


Happy is the son whose faith in his mother remains unchallenged.
Louisa May Alcott

Good books, like good friends, are few and chosen; the more select, the more enjoyable.
Louisa May Alcott

I'm not afraid of storms, for I'm learning how to sail my ship.
Louisa May Alcott

I am not afraid of storms for I am learning how to sail my ship.
Louisa May Alcott

Far away there in the sunshine are my highest aspirations. I may not reach them, but I can look up and see their beauty, believe in them, and try to follow where they lead.
Louisa May Alcott

We all have our own life to pursue, our own kind of dream to be weaving, and we all have the power to make wishes come true, as long as we keep believing.
Louisa May Alcott

Painful as it may be, a significant emotional event can be the catalyst for choosing a direction that serves us - and those around us - more effectively. Look for the learning.
Louisa May Alcott

Have regular hours for work and play; make each day both useful and pleasant, and prove that you understand the worth of time by employing it well. Then youth will be delightful, old age will bring few regrets, and life will become a beautiful success.
Louisa May Alcott

Women have been called queens for a long time, but the kingdom given them isn't worth ruling.
Louisa May Alcott

Money is the root of all evil, and yet it is such a useful root that we cannot get on without it any more than we can without potatoes.
Louisa May Alcott

It takes two flints to make a fire.
Louisa May Alcott

Conceit spoils the finest genius. There is not much danger that real talent or goodness will be overlooked long; even if it is, the consciousness of possessing and using it well should satisfy one, and the great charm of all power is modesty.
Louisa May Alcott

A little kingdom I possess, where thoughts and feelings dwell; And very hard the task I find of governing it well.
Louisa May Alcott

Do the things you know, and you shall learn the truth you need to know.
Louisa May Alcott

Father asked us what was God's noblest work. Anna said men, but I said babies. Men are often bad, but babies never are.
Louisa May Alcott

Work is and always has been my salvation and I thank the Lord for it.
Louisa May Alcott

People don't have fortunes left them in that style nowadays; men have to work and women to marry for money. It's a dreadfully unjust world.
Louisa May Alcott

Love is a great beautifier.
Louisa May Alcott

You have a good many little gifts and virtues, but there is no need of parading them, for conceit spoils the finest genius. There is not much danger that real talent or goodness will be overlooked long, and the great charm of all power is modesty.
Louisa May Alcott

He who believes is strong; he who doubts is weak. Strong convictions precede great actions.
Louisa May Alcott

I like to help women help themselves, as that is, in my opinion, the best way to settle the woman question. Whatever we can do and do well we have a right to, and I don't think any one will deny us.
Louisa May Alcott

Let my name stand among those who are willing to bear ridicule and reproach for the truth's sake, and so earn some right to rejoice when the victory is won.
Louisa May Alcott

Housekeeping ain't no joke.
Louisa May Alcott

Girls are so queer you never know what they mean. They say No when they mean Yes, and drive a man out of his wits for the fun of it.
Louisa May Alcott

A faithful friend is a strong defense; And he that hath found him hath found a treasure.
Louisa May Alcott

What do girls do who haven't any mothers to help them through their troubles?
Louisa May Alcott

She had a womanly instinct that clothes possess an influence more powerful over many than the worth of character or the magic of manners.
Louisa May Alcott

It takes people a long time to learn the difference between talent and genius, especially ambitious young men and women.
Louisa May Alcott

'Stay' is a charming word in a friend's vocabulary.
Louisa May Alcott