Soul Brother’s Favorite Quotes

As I travel thru life, I have compiled quotes that I have found inspiring, truthful, and insightful to me and my life. I am still adding to this compilation as I read, observe, and listen to some very great people. I hope you may find one or two of these quotes inspiring to you also.

This is the way of peace: “Overcome evil with good, falsehood with truth, and hatred with love. – Peace Pilgrim

Am I not destroying my enemies when I make friends of them? – Abraham Lincoln

Never believe that a few caring people can’t change the world. For, indeed, that’s all who ever have. -Margaret Mead

He who conceals his sickness cannot be healed. – African Proverb

A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus. -Martin Luther King Jr.

Your own mind is a sacred enclosure into which nothing can enter except by your permission. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

I can do something else besides stuff a ball through a hoop. My biggest resource is my mind. – Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

He who is courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life. – Muhammad Ali

Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms-to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way. – Victor Frankl

The sun will shine on those who stand before it shines on those who kneel under them. – Chinua Achebe

It doesn’t matter if you win by an inch or a mile. Winning is winning. -Vin Diesel

A nation’s greatness is measured by how it treats its weakest members. – Mohandas Ghandi

Love is the beauty of the soul. – St Augustine of Hippo

America doesn’t respect anything but money. What our people need is a few millionaires. – Madame C.J. Walker

But if you do not find an intelligent companion, a wise and well-behaved person going the same way as yourself, then go on your way alone, like a king abandoning a conquered kingdom, or like a great elephant in the deep forest. – Buddha

Whatever you create in your life you must first create in your imagination. – Tycho Photiou

Whatever we believe about ourselves and our ability comes true for us. – Susan L. Taylor

Have a heart that never hardens, and a temper that never tires, and a touch that never hurts. – Charles Dickens

Fear less, hope more; Eat less, chew more; Whine less, breathe more; Talk less, say more; Love more, and all good things will be yours. – Swedish Proverb

When I discover who I am, I’ll be free. – Ralph Ellison

Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value.- Albert Einstein

When you let your own light shine, you unconsciously give others permission to do the same. – Nelson Mandela

You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe deserve your love and affection. – Buddha

To love is to risk not being loved in return. To hope is to risk pain. To try is to risk failure, but risk must be taken because the greatest
hazard in life is to risk nothing. – Anonymous

You can’t separate peace from freedom because no one can be at peace unless he has his freedom. – Malcom X

When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace. – Jimi Hendrix

Don’t choose the better person, choose the person who makes a better you. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Do what you love, love what you do, and deliver more than you promise. – Harvey Mackay

A man who won’t die for something is not fit to live. – Martin Luther King Jr.

Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom. Mastering others is strength; mastering yourself is true power. – Lao Tzu

Do not believe what your teacher tells you merely out of respect for the teacher. – Buddha

Racism is not an excuse to not do the best you can. – Arthur Ashe

Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without. – Buddha

The whole moon and the entire sky are reflected in one dewdrop on the grass. – Dogen

Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase. – Martin Luther King Jr.

A friend is someone who is there for you when he’d rather be anywhere else. – Len Wein

You can’t lead the people if you don’t love the people. You can’t save the people if you won’t serve the people. – Dr. Cornel West

Education is not preparation for life, education is life itself. – John Dewey

There is a higher court than courts of justice, and that is the court of conscience. – Mahatma Gandhi

Breathe. Let go. And remind yourself that this very moment is the only one you know you have for sure. – Oprah Winfrey

A friend is the person who knows all about you and still loves you. – Elbert Hubbert

Holding onto anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned. – Buddha

You have seen how a man was made a slave; you shall see how a slave was made a man. -Frederick Douglass

The media’s the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that’s power; Because they control the minds of the masses. – Malcom X

When there is no enemy within, the enemies outside cannot hurt you. – African Proverb

I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary; the evil it does is permanent. – Mohandas Gandhi

We may encounter many defeats but we must not be defeated. – Maya Angelou

Knowing what’s right doesn’t mean much unless you do what’s right. – Theodore Roosevelt

Friends help you move. Real friends help you move bodies. – Dave Attell

Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time. – Thomas Merton

A story should have a beginning, a middle, and an end…but not necessarily in that order. – Jean-Luc Godard

Of course I love everyone I meet. How could I fail to? Within everyone is the spark of God. I am not concerned with racial or ethnic background or the color of one’s skin; all people look to me like shining lights! – Peace Pilgrim

There are no facts, only interpretations. – Friedrich Nietzsche

There is only one way to avoid criticism: do nothing, say nothing, and be nothing. – Aristotle

I prefer to be true to myself, even at the hazard of incurring the ridicule of others, rather than to be false, and to incur my own abhorrence. – Frederick Douglass

Hold a true friend with both of your hands. – Friedrich Nietzsche

There are two mistakes one can make along the road to truth — not going all the way, and not starting. – Buddha

All that we are is the result of what we have thought. If a man speaks or acts with an evil thought, pain follows him. If a man speaks or acts with a pure thought, happiness follows him, like a shadow that never leaves him. – Buddha

Life is a series of choices that are made in the present moment. – Darren Main

Laughter is not at all a bad beginning for a friendship, and it is far the best ending for one. – Oscar Wilde

We must have a theme, a goal, a purpose in our lives. If you don’t know where you’re aiming, you don’t have a goal. My goal is to live my life in such a way that when I die, someone can say, she cared. – Mary Kay Ash

A battle lost or won is easily described, understood, and appreciated, but the moral growth of a great nation requires reflection, as well as observation, to appreciate it. – Frederick Douglass

A family is a place where minds come in contact with one another. If these minds love one another the home will be as beautiful as a flower garden. But if these minds get out of harmony with one another it is like a storm that plays havoc with the garden. – Buddha

You’re not supposed to be so blind with patriotism that you can’t face reality. Wrong is wrong no matter who does it or who says it. – Malcom X

Ask yourself this; ‘Are you a human being having a spiritual experience, or a spiritual being having a human experience? – Wayne Dyer, PhD

We are shaped by our thoughts; we become what we think. When the mind is pure, joy follows like a shadow that never leaves. – Buddha

Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed. – Martin Luther King Jr.

It is important to recognize the power of our emotions–and to take responsibility for them by creating a light and positive atmosphere around ourselves. This attitude of joy that we create helps alleviate states of hopelessness, loneliness, and despair. Our relationships with others thus naturally improve, and little by little the whole of society becomes more positive and balanced. – Tarthang Tulku

Living should be perpetual and universal benediction. – Why Lazurus Laughed by Wei Wu Wei

Life is a sum of all your choices. – Albert Camus

Vision impacts your reality – Rev. Dr. Michael L. Pfleger

Vision makes the difference for your future. – Rev. Dr. Michael L. Pfleger

I am a man; I consider nothing that is human alien to me. – Terence

A true leader doesn’t just bring troubles; but bring solutions. – Rev. Dr. Michael L. Pfleger

Sine Qua Non, “without which nothing.”

Form and Substance are opposite ends of the same coin.- President Ronald W. Reagan

Experience without theory is blind, but theory without experience is mere intellectual play. – Immanuel Kant

A parent’s willingness to nurture a child decides our Fate.- President Barack H. Obama

A friend is someone who is there for you when he’d rather be anywhere else. – Len We

The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short, but in setting our aim too low and achieving our mark. – Michelangelo

Context shapes who you are. – Dr. Cornel West

Success is not fianl, failure is not fatal; it is courage to continue that counts. – Winston Churchill

The illiterate of the future are not those who can’t read or write but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn. – Alvin Toffler

Life is change. Growth is optional. Choose wisely. – Karen Kaiser Clark

I’ll lean on you and you lean on me and we’ll be okay. – Dave Matthews Band

God wants us to walk in the miraculous! – Rev. Dr. Michael L. Pfleger

Who and where you look is an indicator of who and what you know.  – Rev. Dr. Michael L. Pfleger

No one saves us but ourselves. No one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk the path. – Buddha

Promise demands Process. – Rev. Dr. Michael L. Pfleger

He who finds a thought that enables him to obtain a slightly deeper glimpse into the eternal secrets of nature has been given great grace. – Albert Einstein

Sometimes being a friend means mastering the art of timing. There is a time for silence. A time to let go and allow people to hurl themselves into their own destiny. And a time to prepare to pick up the pieces when it’s all over. – Octavia Butler

Realization is a matter of becoming conscious of that which is already realized. – Wei Wu Wei

Unity is not blind allegiance. – Rev. Dr. Michael L. Pfleger

Deo adjuvante, non timedum (God helping, fear not) – St. Theresa of Avila

Poverty’s potential for character building is far overrated. – Dr. Steve Perry

Faith must Produce! – Rev. Dr. Michael L. Pfleger

Faith is always about the Future. – Rev. Dr. Michael L. Pfleger

The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed. – Albert Einstein

I can accept failure, but I can’t accept not trying. – Michael Jordan

It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken ones. – Frederick Douglas

Be who God meant you to be and you will set the world on fire. – St. Catherine of Siena

There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things. – Niccolo Machiavelli

Price above Principle makes you a Prostitute. – Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright

I have not lost faith in God. I have moments of anger and protest. Sometimes I’ve been closer to him for that reason. – Elie Wiesel

Here’s what I know about the realm of possibility.
It is always expanding, it is never what you think it is. Everything around us was once deemed impossible.  -David Levithan

Sooner or later you’re going to realize that there’s a difference between knowing the path and walking the path.  -Morpheus aka Laurence Fishburne from the movie Matrix

We will either find a way or make one. -Hannibal

Be extremely subtle, even to the point of formlessness. Be extremely mysterious, even to the point of soundlessness. Thereby you can be the director of the opponent’s fate.  – Sun Tzu

All speech, written or spoken, is a dead language, until it finds a willing and prepared hearer. – Robert Louis Stevenson

Most human beings have an almost infinite capacity for taking things for granted. – Aldous Huxley

Knowledge of God’s Word is a bulwark against deception, temptation, accusation, even persecution. – Edwin Louis Cole

This country will not be a good place for any of us to live in unless we make it a good place for all of us to live in. – Theodore Roosevelt

If there is no struggle, there is no progress. – Frederick Douglass

All men are created equal, it is only men themselves who place themselves above equality. – David Allan Coe

If liberty and equality, as is thought by some, are chiefly to be found in democracy, they will be best attained when all persons alike share in government to the utmost. – Aristotle

It’s choice – not chance – that determines your destiny. – Jean Nidetch

Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything. – Plato

Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves. – Abraham Lincoln

A  good head and good heart are always a formidable combination. – Nelson Mandela

Know where you came. If you know where you came, there are absolutely no limitations to where you can go. – James Baldwin

In daily life we must see that it is not happiness that makes us grateful, but gratefulness that makes us happy. – David Steindl-Rast

To speak gratitude is courteous and pleasant, to enact gratitude is generous and noble, but to live gratitude is to touch Heaven. – Johannes A. Gaertner

Love expects no reward. Love knows no fear. Love Divine gives – does not demand. Love thinks no evil; imputes no motive. To Love is to share and serve. – Sri Swami Sivananda

A man is but the product of his thoughts. What he thinks, he becomes. – Mohandas Gandhi

I will go anywhere, provided it be forward. – David Livingstone

The power of God is with you at all times; through the activities of mind senses, breathing, and emotions; and is constantly doing all the work using you as a mere instrument. – Bhagavad Gita

We are all visitors to this time, this place. We are just passing through. Our purpose here is to observe, to learn, to grow, to love…and then we return home. – Aboriginal Proverb

Leadership is action, not position. – Donald H. McGannon

Dreams come true; without that possibility, nature would not incite us to have them. – John Updike

People seem not to see that their opinion of the world is also a confession of character. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Talent is formed in solitude, character in the bustle of the world. – Johann Wolfgang vonGoethe

Sometimes even to live is an act of courage. – Seneca

A successful man is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks that others throw at him. – Sidney Greenberg

If you correct your mind, the rest of your life will fall into place. – Lao Tzu

Life is too deep for words, so don’t try to describe it, just live it. – C.S. Lewis

We can chart our future clearly and wisely only when we know the path which has led to the present. — Adlai E. Stevenson

Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment. – Buddha

Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die Life is a broken-winged bird, that cannot fly. ― Langston Hughes

Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.
– Carl Jung

Tell me whom you love and I’ll tell you who you are. – Creole Proverb

Each person must live their life as a model for others. – Rosa Parks

Lend yourself to others, but give yourself to yourself. – Michel deMontaigne

Ask for what you want and be prepared to get it. – Maya Angelou

Continuous effort-not strength or intelligence-is the key to unlocking our potential. – Winston Churchill

Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome while trying to succeed. – Booker T. Washington

No one is useless in this world who lightens the burdens of another. – Charles Dickens

Life has its own hidden forces which you can only discover by living. – Soren Kierkegaard

When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be. – Lao Tzu

People have only as much liberty as they have the intelligence to want and the courage to take. – Emma Goldman

Love in the heart of man is a shrine to God on Earth. – Maharishi

Courage isn’t about the absence of fear. It’s about demonstrating faith in the midst of fear. – Mary Manin Morrissey

Three grand essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to love, and something to hope for. – Joseph Addison

A man who is a master of patience is master of everything else. – George Savile

Excellence is not an act but a habit. The things you do the most are the things you will do best. – Marva Collins

You cannot live on hope alone but without it life is not worth living. – Harvey Milk

A human being can survive almost anything, as long as she sees the end in sight. – Elizabeth Wurtzel

You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty. – Mahatma Gandhi

Vision without action is a daydream. Action without vision is a nightmare. – Japanese Proverb

The most potent weapon of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed. – Steven Biko

I began learning long ago that those who are happiest are those who do the most for others. – Booker T. Washington

When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves? – Viktor Frankl

Patience s bitter, but it’s fruit is sweet. – Aristotle

All that spirits desire, spirits attain. – Khalil Gibran

It’s better to be in charge of change than to have to react to change. – Roger Ailes

The beginning of love is to let those we love be perfectly themselves, and not to twist them to fit our own image. Otherwise we love only the reflection of ourselves we find in them. – Thomas Merton

I have become my own version of an optimist. If I can’t make it through one door, I’ll go through another door, or I’ll make a door. Something terrific will come no matter how dark the present. – Rabindranath Tagore

Life is a pattern. To change your life, change your pattern. – Leslie Recall

Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself. ― George Bernard Shaw

Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Wishing is not enough; we must do. – Johann Von Goethe

Do what you love, love what you do, and deliver more than you promise. – Harvey Mackay

Do all the good you can, in all the ways you can, to all the souls you can, in every place you can, at all the times you can, with all the zeal you can, as long as ever you can. – John Wesley

Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they’ve been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It’s an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It’s a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing. – Muhammad Ali

We are one, our cause is one, and we must help each other, if we are to succeed. – Frederick Douglass