1
“To the world you may be one person, but to one person you may be the world.” (Author Unknown)
- This quote has been attributed to Brandi Snyder, Bill Wilson, Taylor Hanson and/or Heather Cortez.
2
“What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.” (Ralph Waldo Emerson)
- Attributed to Emerson in Promotion of Pharmaceuticals : Issues, Trends, Options (1993) pg 74, and also Thoreau elsewhere, but no instance of the quote can be found before 1990, so the authorship of the quote is disputed.
3
“She walks in Beauty, like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies,
And all that’s best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes: Thus mellow’d to that tender light Which heaven to gaudy day denies.” (Lord Byron)
- Hebrew Melodies (1815)
Byron was notorious for his varied tastes in both women and men. This poem was written about one Mrs. R. Wilmot. (Berry Memoirs, vol. iii. p. 7), about whom little is known. This was not the only poem directed at a woman who Byron did not revisit in later work. Regardless, one cannot discount the simplicity and subsequent beauty of the poem.
4
“A picture is worth a thousand words.” (Fred R. Bernard)
- Printers’ Ink (December 8, 1921) pg. 96-97
The first recorded use of this adage came in an article by Bernard advocating the use of pictures in advertisement, specifically in this case for use on streetcars.
5
“What doesn’t kill us makes us stronger.” (Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche)
- Ecce Homo (1888)
Actually more accurately translated as “What does not kill him, makes him stronger,” but is often paraphrased as the quote listed.
6
“Whenever you are to do a thing, though it can never be known but to yourself, ask yourself how you would act were all the world looking at you, and act accordingly.” (Thomas Jefferson)
- The Jefferson Cyclopedia (1900) pg. 6
Jefferson wrote this to Peter Carr. He wrote this as a rule for action.
7
“I cannot believe that God would choose to play dice with the universe.” (Albert Einstein)
- The Born-Einstein Letters (1971)
The direct quote is “I, at any rate, am convinced that He does not throw dice,” but Einstein often used variations of this quote and indeed spoke it differently to different parties.
8
“The language of friendship is not words, but meanings.” (Henry David Thoreau)
- A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers (1849)
This famous American author spent two years living in the wilderness at Walden Pond, where he penned some of his most-remembered works. This quote was written in memory of a trip he took with his brother John, who died of tetanus in 1842. The quote continues, “It is an intelligence above language. One imagines endless conversations with his Friend, in which the tongue shall be loosed, and thoughts be spoken without hesitance or end…”
9
“If you would be loved, love and be lovable.” (Benjamin Franklin)
- As quoted in A Dictionary of American proverbs (1992), pg. 662
Originally written in Franklin’s yearly foray into proverbs, in a work he titled “Poor Richard’s Almanack.” The Almanack itself was famous for weather forecasts, bits of wisdom, and wordplay.
10
“Never ascribe to malice that which can adequately be explained by incompetence.” (Napoleon Bonaparte)
- As quoted in The Best Advice Ever Given (2006) pg. 73
Actually an adage attributed to several people, termed Hanlon’s Razor.