Quotes by Authors - B
Quotes by Authors - B
If 'publish or perish' were really true, Leonard Euler would still be alive.
J. S. BachThere's nothing remarkable about it. All one has to do is hit the right keys at the right time and the instrument plays itself.
Marcus BachI feel that the great religions should be viewed as different dialects by which man speaks to God -- and God to man.
Richard BachThe bond that links your true family is not one of blood, but of respect and joy in each other's life. Rarely do members of one family grow up under the same roof.
Not being known doesn't stop the truth from being true.
(from There's No Such Place as Far Away) Can miles truly separate us from friends? If we want to be with someone we love, aren't we already there?
(from Illusions) You are never given a wish without also being given the power to make it come true.
Argue for your limitations and sure enough they're yours.
June Masters BacherLove is like a violin. The music may stop now and then, but the strings remain forever.
Francis BaconIt is impossible to love and to be wise.
Hope is a good breakfast, but it is a bad supper.
Some books are to be tasted; others swallowed; and some to be chewed and digested.
To read without reflecting, is like eating without digesting.
Imagination was given to man to compensate him for what he is not; a sense of humor to console him for what he is.
Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; histories make men wise; poets, witty; the mathematics, subtle; natural philosophy, deep; moral philosophy, grace; logic and rhetoric, able to contend.
Joan BaezYou don't get to choose how you're going to die, or when. You can only decide how you're going to live now.
Walter BagehotIt is good to be without vices, but it is not good to be without temptations.
Pat BahnIf the human mind were simple enough to understand we'd be too simple to understand it.
George Baker (1877 - 1965)The world is round and the place which may seem like the end may also be only the beginning.
Robert Bakker, paleontologistI want to find a voracious, small-minded predator and name it after the IRS.
Mikhail BakuninNo theory, no ready-made system, no book that has ever been written will save the world. I cleave to no system. I am a true seeker.
(from God and the State, 1874)You write in order to change the world, knowing perfectly well that you probably can't, but also knowing that literature is indispensable to the world... The world changes according to the way people see it, and if you alter, even by a millimeter, the way ... people look at reality, then you can change it.
Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them.
John BalguyContentment is a pearl of great price, and whoever procures it at the expense of ten thousand desires makes a wise and a happy purchase.
Honore de BalzacAn unfulfilled vocation drains the color from a man's entire existence.
Imamu Amiri BarakaGod has been replaced, as he has all over the West, with respectability and air conditioning.
Benjamin BarberI don't divide the world into the weak and the strong, or the successes and the failures, those who make it or those who don't. I divide the world into learners and non-learners.
Roseanne BarrI'm not going to vacuum 'til Sears makes one you can ride on.
My husband said he needed more space, so I locked him outside.
James M. BarrieGod gave us memories so that we might have roses in December.
When the first baby laughed for the first time, his laugh broke into a million pieces, and they all went skipping about. That was the beginning of fairies.
The reason why birds can fly and we can't is simply that they have perfect faith, for to have faith is to have wings.
(first line of Peter Pan, 1911) All children, except one, grow up.
Nothing is really work unless you would rather be doing something else.
Ethel BarrymoreFor an actress to be a success she must have the face of Venus, the brains of Minerva, the grace of terpischore, the memory of Macaulay, the figure of Juno, and the hide of a rhinoceros.
John BarrymoreA man is not old until regrets take the place of dreams.
Roland BarthesLiterature is the question minus the answer.
Jacques BarzunTeaching is not a lost art, but the regard for it is a lost tradition.
Basho
Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the men of old; seek what they sought.
Orlando A. BattistaAn error doesn't become a mistake until you refuse to correct it.
Charles BaudelaireIt is the hour to be drunken! To escape being the martyred slaves of time, be ceaselessly drunk. On wine, on poetry, or on virtue, as you wish.
Peter S. Beagle, from The Last UnicornWhat use is magic if it can't save a unicorn?
Charles A. BeardWhen it is dark enough, you can see the stars.
Max BebermanMath is as creative as music, painting, or sculpture. The high school freshman will revel in it if we let him play with abstractions. But insisting that he pin numbers down is like asking him to catch a butterfly to explain the sheen on its wings - the magical glint of the sun rubd [rubs] off on his fingers and the fluttering thing in his hands can never lift into the air again to renew his wonder.
Henry Ward BeecherWhere is human nature so weak as in the bookstore?
Books are not made for furniture, but there is nothing else that so beautifully furnishes a house.
The dog was created especially for children. He is the god of frolic.
What the mother sings to the cradle goes all the way down to the coffin.
Every artist dips his brush in his own soul, and paints his own nature into his pictures.
A library is not a luxury but one of the necessities of life.
(on his deathbed) Now comes the mystery.
BeethovenFree me of only half this affliction and I shall be a complete man. You must think of me as being as happy as it is possible to be on this earth - not unhappy. No! I cannot endure it. I will seize fate by the throat. It will not wholly conquer me! Oh, how beautiful it is to live - and live a thousand times over!
Jim BeggsThe color of a man's skin makes no difference to a blind man -- why is it so many sighted men cannot see?
Hada BejarThe fragrance always stays in the hand that gives the rose.
Alexander Graham BellWhen one door closes, another door opens; but we so often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door, that we do not see the ones which open for us.
Cardinal Bellarmine (1615, during the trial of Galileo)To assert that the earth revolves around the sun is as erroneous as to claim that Jesus was not born of a virgin.
Saul BellowA great deal of intelligence can be invested in ignorance when the need for illusion is deep.
Robert BenchleyAnyone can do any amount of work provided it isn't the work he is supposed to be doing at the moment.
John BenfieldEagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines.
Jack BennyI don't deserve this award, but I have arthritis and I don't deserve that either.
Hector BerliozTime is a great teacher, but unfortunately it kills all its pupils.
Sarah BernhardtLife begets life. Energy creates energy. It is by spending oneself that one becomes rich.
Jakob BernoulliWe know what happens to people who stay in the middle of the road. They get run over.
Bhagavad-Gita (the Song of God)(Ecclesiastes 1:18) The more my wisdom, the more my grief.
(Ecclesiastes 3:1-8)(Ephesians 4:26) Let not the sun go down upon your wrath.
(1 John 4:18) There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear.
(Psalms 22:1) My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?
(Psalms 23) The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou annoitest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
(Psalms 30:5) Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.
(Psalms 31:24) Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in the Lord.
(Psalms 39:12-13) Hear my prayer, O Lord, and give ear unto my cry; hold not thy peace at my tears: for I am a stranger with thee, and a sojourner, as all my fathers were. O spare me, that I may recover strength, before I go hence, and be no more.
(Psalms 55:6) . . . Oh that I had wings like a dove! for then I would I fly away, and be at rest.
(Psalms 78:39) [We are] but flesh; a wind that passeth away, and cometh not again.
(Revelation 22:13) I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.
(Ruth 1:16-17) Whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God: Where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried: the Lord do so to me, and more also, if ought but death part thee and me.
(Song of Solomon 8:6) Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm: for love is strong as death.
(Song of Solomon 8:7) Deep waters cannot quench love, nor floods sweep it away.
(Wisdom 6:8-10) I preferred her to scepter and throne,Speak when you are angry and you will make the best speech you will ever regret.
Calamity, n. A more than commonly plain and unmistakable reminder that the affairs of this life are not of our own ordering. Calamities are of two kinds: misfortune to ourselves, and good fortune to others.
Cynic: A blackguard whose faulty vision sees things as they are, not as they ought to be.
Religion: A daughter of Hope and Fear, explaining to Ignorance the nature of the Unknowable.
Saint: A dead sinner revised and edited.
Love: A temporary insanity curable by marriage.
Pray: To ask that the laws of the universe be annulled in behalf of a single petitioner confessedly unworthy.
Josh Billings (Henry Wheeler Shaw)Solitude: A good place to visit, but a poor place to stay.
Augustine BirrellAn ordinary man can... surround himself with two thousand books... and thenceforward have at least one place in the world in which it is possible to be happy.
Elizabeth BishopThe art of losing isn't hard to master.
Bjoernstjerne BjoernsonDen som har droemt Udfaerd og Daad senker ej Sejl uden med Sorg. (He who has dreamed of travel and deeds, does not lower his sail without sorrow.)
Blackadder II
Never before have I encountered such corrupt and foul-minded perversity! Have you ever considered a career in the church?
William Blake(from The Four Zoas, Night the Second) What is the price of Experience? Do men Buy it for a song?! And Wisdom for a Dance in the Street? No! it is bought with the price Of all that a man hath: his Wife, his House, his Children-- And Wisdom is sold in the desolate marketplace Where none come to buy and in the barren fields where Farmers plow for bread in vain.
It is easier to forgive an enemy than to forgive a friend.
Love seeketh not Itself to please, Nor for itself hath any care, But for another gives it ease, And builds a Heaven in Hell's despair.
Robert BlochI have the heart of a child. I keep it in a jar on my shelf.
Roy Blount, Jr.The last time somebody said, `I find I can write much better with a word processor.', I replied, `They used to say the same thing about drugs.'
Niels BohrYour theory is crazy, but it's not crazy enough to be true.
An expert is a person who has made all the mistakes that can be made in a very narrow field.
The opposite of a correct statement is a false statement. But the opposite of a profound truth may well be another profound truth.
Derek BokIf you think education is expensive, try ignorance.
Erma BombeckDreams have but one owner at a time. That is why dreamers are lonely.
Napoleon BonaparteA man will fight harder for his interests than for his rights.
History is the version of past events that people have decided to agree upon.
Glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever.
Dietrich BonhoefferThe test of the morality of a society is what it does for its children.
Elayne BooslerWhen women are depressed they either eat or go shopping. Men invade another country.
Victor BorgeLaughter is the shortest distance between two people.
Jorge Luis BorgesTo fall in love is to create a religion that has a fallible god.
Any life, no matter how long and complex it may be, is made up of a single moment - the moment in which a man finds out, once and for all, who he is.
I have always imagined that paradise will be a kind of library.
Nothing is built on stone; all is built on sand, but we must build as if the sand were stone.
To arrange a library is to practise / in a quiet and modest way / the art of criticism.
To die for a religion is easier than to live it absolutely.
(Matthew 25:33) You have used up the years and they have used up you, and still, and still, you have not written the poem.
Sandra Boynton, from Chocolate: The Consuming PassionAs with most fine things, chocolate has its season. There is a simple memory aid that you can use to determine whether it is the correct time to order chocolate dishes: any month whose name contains the letter A, E, or U is the proper time for chocolate.
Ray BradburyWithout libraries what have we? We have no past and no future.
The human race likes to give itself airs. One good volcano can produce more greenhouse gases in a year than the human race has in its entire history.
General Omar BradleyOurs is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. If we continue to develop our technology without wisdom or prudence, our servant may prove to be our executioner.
We've learned how to destroy, but not to create; how to waste, but not to build; how to kill men, but not how to save them; how to die, but seldom how to live.
Anne BradstreetIf we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant; if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome.
Constantin BrancusiArchitecture is inhabited sculpture.
Robert BraultI value the friend who for me finds time on his calendar, but I cherish the friend who for me does not consult the calendar.
Bertolt BrechtDo not fear death so much but rather the inadequate life.
Frederika BremerThere are words which sever hearts more than sharp swords; there are words the point of which sting the heart through the course of a whole life.
Robert BriffaultFor a male and female to live continuously together is... biologically speaking, an extremely unnatural condition.
Ashleigh BrilliantI either want less corruption, or more chance to participate in it.
The time for action is past! Now is the time for senseless bickering!
Sometimes I need what only you can provide - Your absence.
My life has a superb cast but I can't figure out the plot.
My play was a complete success. The audience was a failure.
All I want is a warm bed and a kind word and unlimited power.
To be sure of hitting the target, shoot first, and call whatever you hit the target.
Please don't ask me what the score is, I'm not even sure what the game is.
Inform all the troops that communications have completely broken down.
Benjamin BrittenIt is cruel, you know, that music should be so beautiful. It has the beauty of loneliness and of pain; of strength and freedom; the beauty of disappointment and never-satisfied love; the cruel beauty of nature, and everlasting beauty of monotony.
Joseph BrodskyThere are worse crimes than burning books. One of them is not reading them.
Jacob BronowskiIt is important that students bring a certain ragamuffin barefoot irreverence to their studies; they are not here to worship what is known but to question it.
Rupert Brook, from The SoldierListening, not imitation, may be the sincerest form of flattery.
Charles BrowerA new idea is delicate. It can be killed by a sneer or a yawn; it can be stabbed to death by a joke or worried to death by a frown on the right person's brow.
Few people are successful unless a lot of other people want them to be.
Andrew BrownThe Internet is so big, so powerful and so pointless that for some people it is a complete substitute for life.
A. Whitney BrownI am not a vegetarian because I love animals; I am a vegetarian because I hate plants.
A group of white South Africans recently killed a black lawyer because he was black. That was wrong. They should have killed him because he was a lawyer.
John Mason Brown - drama criticHe played the king as if afraid someone else would play the ace.
Rita Mae BrownIf the world were a logical place, men would ride side-saddle.
This is a celebration of individual freedom, not of homosexuality. No government has the right to tell its citizens when or whom to love. The only queer people are those who don't love anybody.
Elizabeth Barrett BrowningSince when was genius found respectable?
Earth is crammed with heaven.
I love thee with the breath,(from Andrea del Sarto) Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp, Or what's a heaven for?
Grow old with me! The best is yet to be!
Man partly is and wholly hopes to be.
Take away love, and our life is a tomb.
Lenny Bruce, on using drugsI'll die young, but it's like kissing God.
James BryceThe worth of a book is to be measured by what you can carry away from it.
Pearl S. BuckInside myself is a place where I live all alone and that's where you renew your springs that never dry up.
I feel no need for any other faith than my faith in human beings. Like Confucius of old, I am so absorbed in the wonder of earth and the life upon it that I cannot think of heaven and the angels.
BuddhaWe are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts we make the world.
There are only two mistakes one can make along the road to truth: one, not going all the way; and two, not starting.
Bull Durham, the character Annie SavoyThe world is made for people who aren't cursed with self-awareness.
Edmund BurkeNobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could only do a little.
William S. BurroughsLanguage is a virus from outer space.
Sir Richard F. BurtonThe more I study religions the more I am convinced that man never worshipped anything but himself.
Robert Burton (1577-1640) - English clergymanNo cord or cable can draw so forcibly, or bind so fast, as love can do with a single thread.
George BushI do not like broccoli. And I haven't liked it since I was a little kid and my mother made me eat it. And I'm President of the United States, and I'm not going to eat any more broccoli!
(in Free Inquiry magazine, Fall 1988) I don't know that atheists should be considered citizens, nor should they be considered patriots. This is one nation under God.
Comte de Bussy-RabutinAbsence is to love what wind is to fire; it extinguishes the small, it enkindles the great.
Nicholas Murry ButlerAn expert is one who knows more and more about less and less.
Samuel ButlerFriendship is like money, easier made than kept.
An honest god's the noblest work of man.
The clergyman is expected to be a kind of human Sunday.
The great pleasure of a dog is that you may make a fool of yourself with him and not only will he not scold you, but he will make a fool of himself too.
It is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.
Man is the only animal that can remain on friendly terms with the victims he intends to eat until he eats them.
An apology for the Devil: It must be remembered that we have only heard one side of the case. God has written all the books.
Life is like playing a violin solo in public and learning the instrument as one goes on.
A hen is only an egg's way of making another egg.
Sir William F. ButlerThe country that draws a broad line between its fighting men and its thinking men will find its fighting done by fools and its thinking done by cowards.
James F. ByrnesToo many people are thinking of security instead of opportunity. They are more afraid of life than death.
Lord ByronAnd when we think we lead, we are most led.
Smiles form the channel of a future tear.
When We Two Parted