Your Favorite Quotations?

The "economy of language" is efficient and sparing. Unlike many blogs (I fess up!), news
stories, pundits, etc., quotations get to the heart of the matter simply and quickly. Cutting
through the bombardment of everyday information, quotations can soothe the exhausted brain.

Sometimes just a sentence -- a few words acting as emotive symbols -- can stimulate deep,
contemplative thought.

Here are a few of my favorite quotations:

Normal is in the eye of the beholder.
(Whoopi Goldberg)

Ten persons who speak make more noise than ten thousand who are silent.
(Napoleon I)

Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as one wishes to live.
(Oscar Wilde)

Never let your sense of morals prevent you from doing what is right.
(Isaac Asimov)

Character is what you are in the dark.
(Dwight L. Moody)

Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of somebody else.
(Judy Garland)

If you cannot be a poet, be the poem.
(David Carradine)

Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.
(Pablo Picasso)

Art is the signature of civilizations.
(Beverly Sills)

Murder is a crime. Writing about it isn't. Sex is not a crime, but writing about it is. Why?
(Larry Flynt)

Those that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither
liberty nor safety.
(Ben Franklin)

Politics will eventually be replaced by imagery. The politician will be only too happy to abdicate
in favor of his image, because the image will be much more powerful than he could ever be.
(Marshall McLuhan)

Any American who is prepared to run for president should automatically, by definition, be
disqualified from ever doing so.
(Gore Vidal)

There are two ways of exerting one's strength: one is pushing down, the other is pulling up.
(Booker T. Washington)

Sit down before fact as a little child, be prepared to give up every conceived notion, follow humbly wherever and whatever abysses nature leads, or you will learn nothing.
(Thomas Huxley)

Imagination is more important than knowledge.
(Albert Einstein)

History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be
lived again.
(Maya Angelou)

Chop your own wood, and it will warm you twice.
(Henry Ford)

There is no God higher than truth.
(Mahatma Gandhi)

The search for God is like riding around on an Ox hunting for the Ox.
(Buddhist Saying)

Creativity is inventing, experimenting, growing, taking risks, breaking rules, making mistakes,
and having fun.
(Mary Lou Cook)

Here is the test to find whether your mission on Earth is finished. If you're alive, it isn't.
(Richard Bach)

Most of the successful people I've known are the ones who do more listening than talking.
(Bernard M. Baruch)

It is the friends you can call at 4AM that matter.
(Marlene Dietrich)

Life is a tragedy for those who feel, and a comedy for those who think.
(Jean de la Bruyère)

Seize the moment. Remember all those women on the 'Titanic' who waved off the dessert cart.
(Erma Bombeck)

You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.
(Mae West)

What are your favorite quotations? Please post them in the comments section below. I'll choose
some of the best and add them to the next Dialogue Project book and public art installation.