Inspirational Quotes 105

You know those useless platitudes that people hand out as advice? Here are some that might actually help.

"Be yourself" is always the worst advice in life. (Sathnam Sanghera)
Be yourself, but try to please as much as possible. (Edith Head)

An inevitable part of being a catch is one’s physical appearance. (The Times, 2022)

Bullies get worse as time goes on. (@TheRoyalButler)

Every generation thinks the new one is much more careless, less thrifty. (Moira Redmond) 

Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored. (Aldous Huxley)

Fairness is an imperfectly attainable goal for which any decent society should aim. (IG)

Freedom of speech does not mean freedom from consequences. (Monisha Rajesh)

Good things come to those who grab them when they can. (Peter Coville)

He sat down and cleared his mind and tried to live in the present moment, to see what it would feel like. It couldn’t be done. (Enchantment, Monica Dickens)

I am an example of what is possible when girls from the very beginning of their lives are loved and nurtured by people around them. (Michelle Obama) 

I am no longer accepting the things I cannot change. I am changing the things I cannot accept. (Angela Davis)

I am proud to be maladjusted. (Martin Luther King)

I can’t believe it comes as a shock to you, but evidence suggests that life is not fair. (Patrick McDonnell)

I dream of never being called resilient again in my life. (Zandashé L’Orelia Brown)

If life’s a joke, make it a good one. (Comedian Kenneth Williams)

It is easy to be yourself when you are part of the status quo – everyone else better learn to fake it. (Forbes.com)

It's amazing how many things "aren't difficult" when you have no idea what you're talking about. (Julian Sanchez)  

Life can’t be solved by admirable maxims from modern literature. (Agatha Christie)

Life is cruel, but unjust. (Film maker Akki Kaurismaki)

Life is not Hollywood, life is Cricklewood. (Writer Alan Coren)

Life itself is uncertain but think how tedious it would be if it wasn’t. (Patrick McDonnell)

Looking different makes a difference. (Sarah Karloff, daughter of Boris.) 

More about you is universal than not universal. (New York Times, 2015)

Music is that glimpse of the infinite, that ineffable light. (Mark Brown)

My troubles are only scratches on the great periphery of cosmology. (Kenneth Williams)

Nothing dates faster than visions of the future. (Katharine Whitehorn)

Older women become invisible – people become quite indiscreet because they think we don’t count. (Novelist Jane Stevenson)

One day we will look back on all this, laugh nervously and change the subject. (Writer John O’Farrell)

One study showed that “social pain” activated the same circuits of the brain as physical pain. (Paul Randolph)

People don’t mean “Don’t copy others” in the absolute. They mean “Don’t copy Kev and Tracey down the road”. (Malcolm Bacchus) 

People generally need three things in life. A mentor. A scapegoat. And someone to hate. (Jeremy O’Grady, probably)

People more often conform to type than deviate from it. (Mystery writer Ngaio Marsh)

People want to be exceptional, unique – even if they don't want to stand out too much. (CS)

Prayer is wider than people often think, and includes the use of caring thoughts and imagination, even if you don’t believe you can address them to God. (The Rev David Grieve)

Reality has a liberal bias. (Professor Brian Cox)

Reality is a cold hard b*tch. (@MsCCFox)

Realizing that life does not contain infinite possibilities and choices is always an ego-bruiser. (Agony relative Danny Lavery)

Religion is full of poetry and magic. (David Baddiel)

Resistance is not futile. (Patrick McDonnell)

Resistance to bad things is not produced by being subjected to the badness one is supposed to resist. (RT)

Rhubarb and custard is a dish best eaten cold. (Jo Brand)

Rudeness is often permissible and sometimes mandatory. (Aaron Haspel)

Science is a method, not a body of facts. (Psychologist Chris French)

Self-help is cold comfort for life’s losers. (Zippy the Pinhead)

Some maintain... that we are happy when we are broken on the wheel, or fall into terrible misfortunes, provided that we are good. Whether they mean to or not, these people are talking nonsense. (Aristotle)

Some people never emotionally graduate from high school. (Reddit)

Some prospects will say "no." A career in sales is not for the weak. (Wendy Weiss)

Sometimes therapy is simply denial with more words. (Chronicle.com)

Sticks and stones may break your bones, but words can do damage that lasts a lifetime. (@DadRogd) 

Symbolic gesture is not effective action. (Simone de Beauvoir)

Take an audit under three headings: plus, minus and interesting. (Eric Berne)

The culture we live in sets expectations, which get manifested through TV, advertising, film, radio, books. (Nick Dunlavy)

The emperor has clothes – you better believe it. (Jules Feiffer)

The inner voice is a basic feature of the human mind. (Ethan Kross)

The invisible people must be seen, and the silent people must be heard. (Sally Magnusson)

The only people who get upset about you setting boundaries are those who were benefiting from you having none. (Amazingmemovement.com)

The truth will set you free, but first it will piss you off. (Gloria Steinem)

The young are obliged to rebel and conform at the same time. (Quentin Crisp)

There are no miracles. (Labi Siffre)

There are so many things one should not try once. (‏@r1z4t)

There comes a moment, when you get lost in the woods, when the woods begin to feel like home. (Jeffrey Eugenides, The Marriage Plot)

There is no problem so big or so terrifying that it can’t be run away from. (Pigpen in Peanuts)

There is often a distance between theory and practice. (Alex J. Lubet)

There is something to be said for stating the obvious. (Danny Lavery) 

There’s a terrible shortage of comfortable ruts. (Writer Peter Wildeblood)

There’s nothing more irritating than fierce individuality. (Charlie Lyne) 

They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself. (Andy Warhol)

They laughed at Columbus, they laughed at the Wright brothers. But they also laughed at Bozo the Clown. (Carl Sagan, paraphrase)

They say money doesn’t make a difference. Of course it makes a difference. (Entrepreneur Martha Lane Fox) 

Three things in human life are important: the first is to be kind; the second is to be kind; and the third is to be kind. (Writer Henry James)

Through Spock, Leonard Nimoy showed us that things like compassion, mercy, dignity, wit and friendship were actually logical. (Ronald D. Moore) 

Tibetan Buddhists do believe in gods. Or archetypes. Or personified abstractions. Or something. (RK)

To feel the supreme and moving beauty of the spectacle to which Nature invites her ephemeral guests! That is what I call prayer. (Claude Debussy) 

To try to do something which is impossible is always a corrupting enterprise. (Philosopher Michael Oakeshott) 

We are the cosmos made conscious and life is the means by which the universe understands itself. (Professor Brian Cox) 

We conform to the majority standard of our social groups while denying this is happening. (The Psychologist)

We construct our identities on the basis of attitudes towards us. (Erving Goffman) 

We live our lives to other people's expectations. (PMD) 

When you’re tall, you can afford to be quiet. (Rugby player Martin Johnson)

Where Buddhism falls short is where Kung Fu comes in. (@spudkitten)

Women’s magazines push the idea that maturity consists of making the best of what you have. Even if what you have is pretty crummy. It stinks. (Angela Carter)

Work is more fun than fun. (Noel Coward)

You play the cards you get given. (RI)

More here, and links to the rest.