There are many reflections that we hear throughout the day, and innumerable those that the millions of people who have existed throughout history have uttered. All of them have had or have their importance, as an expression of a thought or feeling or an attempt to tell us what they are. And many of them are the product of deep thoughts, remaining in history for some reason.
In this article we are going to see precisely a series of interesting phrases spoken or written throughout history
Following you will find a selection of several interesting phrases that numerous personalities have made throughout history along with others from tradition and popular wisdom.
Motivating phrase from a Japanese proverb that pushes us not to let ourselves be defeated and not to give up.
2. Fantasy never leads to madness; What drives madness is precisely reason. Poets don’t go crazy, but chess players do.
The writer Gilbert Keith Chesterton tells us that it is the fact that wanting to control and rationalize everything is harmful and dangerous, while the expression of our fantasy and desires is healthy.
3. The words are full of falsehood or art; the look is the language of the heart
William Shakespeare tells us how easy it is to manipulate language to suit our intentions, but that our gaze will tend to be sincere and express what we really feel.
4. The words wax, the works steel
Góngora’s phrase that reflects that what really counts are actions, not words.
5. There is no tree that the wind has not shaken
Curious Hindu proverb which reminds us that we have all suffered, suffer and will suffer throughout our lives when facing reality.
6. Unexpressed emotions never die. They are buried alive and come out later in worse forms
This phrase by Sigmund Freud reflects that what we keep silent about is still valid within us since we cannot find an outlet for it. And this can lead to a worsening of the situation and internal discomfort.
7. Today is the tomorrow that worried you so much yesterday
This phrase from Dale Carnegie tells us that little by little we are overcoming situations and that everything is coming, worrying about tomorrow is not something that should distress us and limit us.
Seneca tells us with this phrase that it is the fact of knowing ourselves and knowing how to manage ourselves and our lives that allows us to be happy.
9. A journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step
This phrase attributed to Lao Tzu tells us that to go far we must start walking
10. The greatest declaration of love is the one that is not made, the man who feels a lot speaks little
Although it may be debatable, this phrase from Plato reflects that we rarely say everything we feel and everything we care about to the people we love.
11. Challenges make life interesting. Overcoming them is what makes life meaningful.
Facing challenges and valuing them as something positive is essential so that we can enrich our lives by daring to act to achieve what we want, as the writer, poet and philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson reminds us.
12. If the whole year were a party, having fun would be more boring than working
Most of us like to enjoy our leisure time. This phrase from William Shakespeare that does not indicate the boredom that ends up resulting in monotony for most people.
13. The most difficult thing is to know ourselves; the easiest is to speak badly of others
Reflection of the philosopher Thales of Miletus, who already in ancient times saw that human beings find it easy to criticize the rest of the world without seeing their own characteristics, seeing the speck only in the other’s eye.
14. Feeling pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional
Well-known phrase sometimes attributed to Buddha and others to M. Kathleen Casey. This phrase points out that although the things that happen to us can be painful, our attitude plays a main role in determining how we are going to react to them and how they are going to affect us.
15. It’s crazy to hate all the roses because one pricked you. Give up on all your dreams because one of them didn’t come true
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry is the author of this phrase, and in fact it appears in The little Princeand reminds us that we cannot generalize a single specific situation or element to the rest of the situations or elements that may occur.
16. Whoever fights with monsters must be careful not to become a monster himself. When you look for a long time into an abyss, the abyss also looks into you.
Nietzche’s phrase in which he expresses that we must take into account that in the fight for what we consider fair or correct there does not come a point where we begin to do precisely what we wanted to fight.
17. Every saint has a past and every sinner has a future
Quote from Oscar Wilde, which tells us that not all good people are so good, nor are all bad people so bad. We can all change.
18. If you are looking for different results, don’t always do the same thing
Einstein’s phrase that tells us the need to risk experimenting with new options if we want to achieve things different from the usual ones.
19. We must not lose faith in humanity, since it is like the ocean: it does not get dirty because some of its drops are corrupted
We often tend to lose faith and believe that everyone is selfish and he will try to achieve his goals by stepping on others and hurting us. But the truth is, as this quote from Gandhi reflects, that the fact that it has happened to us on some occasion does not mean that everyone is the same.
20. Even if I knew that tomorrow the world was going to disintegrate, I would still plant my apple tree
Martin Luther King offered us this phrase as a symbol of the need to maintain hope and bet on the future, no matter how bad we see it.
21. There is always some madness in love, but there is always a little reason in madness
Nietzche’s phrase in which he expresses the sensations and actions that appear or are carried out out of love.
22. One today is worth two tomorrows
This phrase from Benjamin Franklin tells us that the present is much more valuable than the future, since it is only the now that we are living, without being able to know what may be to come.
23. I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave person is not the one who does not feel fear but the one who conquers that fear
Nelson Mandela’s phrase in which he tells us that courage is not being afraid but daring to face it.
24. Holding a grudge is like holding a hot coal with the intention of throwing it at someone else; it is one that burns
Phrase attributed to Buddha that tells us that hating, holding a grudge against someone and wanting revenge in the end only harms ourselves.
25. He who transforms himself, transforms the world
The Dalai Lama indicates that it is the change in one’s own person that will generate a change in the world or in our way of perceiving it.
26. Life is a magnificent spectacle, but we have bad seats and we do not understand what we are witnessing
This phrase by Georges Clemenceau refers to the fact that we are often not able to understand the beauty of life or appreciate the things that are truly worthwhile.
27. Not laughing at anything is stupid, laughing at everything is stupid
Groucho Marx phrase that reminds us of the need to find a balance between seriousness and humor. We have to take life with a certain humor, but without trying to make comedy out of everything.
28. He who wants all things in this life to his liking will have many disappointments
One of Quevedo’s most interesting phrases that expresses the need to accept that not everything will go as we would like.
29. Neither a sublime intelligence, nor a great imagination, nor the two things together form genius; love, that is the soul of genius
Amadeus Mozart uttered this phrase to indicate that what makes us stand out is not the ability but to love what we do.
30. The least common thing in this world is to live. Most people exist, that’s all
This phrase by Oscar Wilde makes us see that most people limit themselves to surviving, without fighting to achieve their dreams and denying or fearing to fight to achieve them. It also tries to encourage us to try to live as we are and believe.
31. Experience is not what happens to you, but what you do with what happens to you
Huxley reminds us that what matters and what defines us is what we do with our lives and what happens, not the things that happen in our lives.
32. The important thing is not to do new things but to do them as if no one had ever done them before.
Possibly most of the things we have thought and done have been done and thought of before. What matters is not being the first, but doing them with maximum enthusiasm and for ourselves.
33. Ask yourself if what you are doing today will take you where you want to be tomorrow.
Walt Disney also made great reflections like this one. In it he pushes us to fight to achieve our dreams and act towards them.
34. Kisses are like cherries: one leads to another
This phrase is an Italian proverb that reflects reciprocity and the desire for more when kissing someone we are attracted to and/or whom we love.
35. All the variety, all the charm and all the beauty that exists in this world is made of light and shadows
Tolstoy reminds us that everything has its good and bad side its lights and shadows, and that we must be able to appreciate it.
36. The only person you should compare yourself to is the person you were yesterday. That is the person you must surpass and focus on to be better.
Attributed to Freud, this phrase criticizes the fact that we tend to continually compare ourselves and want to surpass others, when the only being we should aspire to surpass is our past self.
37. If it is good to live, it is even better to dream, and best of all, to wake up
Beautiful phrase by Antonio Machado, it reminds us that having dreams and fantasies and not just dreaming but fighting to achieve them is what allows us to live our lives happily.
38. We can complain that roses have thorns, or be glad that thorns have roses
Attributed to Abraham Lincoln, this phrase reminds us that everything depends on the perspective from which we see things.
39. Nothing happens until something moves
Albert Einstein tells us the need to act: things don’t just happen.
40. The measure of love is to love without measure
Work of Saint Augustine, this phrase lets us see that love is something that cannot be measured or calculated, it is simply felt in all its intensity.
41. If you are not warned about the media, they will make you love the oppressor and hate the oppressed.
One of the most remembered phrases of the American activist Malcolm X, who considered the media a threat.
42. Art is not a mirror to reflect reality, but a hammer to give it shape
Bertolt Brecht was one of the most prominent artists of the interwar period and his reflections on art are truly suggestive.
43. It is better to have loved and lost than to have never loved
A phrase from the poet Alfred Tennyson that condenses how beautiful love is, even though it may fail in the end.
44. Everything we are is the result of what we think. The mind is everything, what we think is what we become
A famous quote from Buddha, which can help us achieve spiritual balance.
45. When I let go of what I am, I become what I could be
The thinker Lao-Tzu offers us this advice that we can put into practice to realize the great potential that the human will has.
46. Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know which one you’re going to get
One of the most memorable phrases from the movie “Forrest Gump”
47. Worried about a single leaf you will not see the tree
Giving too much importance to insignificant details we will not be able to see the complexity of the reality of anything.
48. Own the mind instead of being dominated by the mind
Sometimes our thoughts can dominate us, we must control both our mind and our feelings.
49. Those who are free from resentment will find peace
This phrase from Buddha perfectly summarizes the Buddhist maxim based on freeing oneself from any resentment or material desires.
50. When you look for it, you can’t find it
A Zen proverb that tells us about how the best things appear in life when you are not looking for them.
51. Better a word that calms those who hear it than a thousand absurd verses
In Buddhist religions, balance, serenity and silence are valued above all, as opposed to noise and unreason.
52. Monsters are real, and ghosts too: they live inside us and sometimes they win
A truly suggestive phrase from Stephen King, one of the great masters of the horror genre.
53. The fact that there is no good reason to stay is a good reason to leave
A tip that we can put into practice in our daily lives.
54. Move and the path will open
It is only when we move forward that we can achieve everything we set out to do.
55. Life is what happens while we make plans
On numerous occasions, life brings us totally unexpected surprises, no matter how much planning we have done.
56. It is better to be silent and look stupid than to speak and clear up doubts definitively.
One of the most memorable and hilarious quotes from Groucho Marx.
57. The purpose of our lives is to be happy
This quote from the spiritual leader of Buddhism, the Dalai Lama, reminds us that only those who have managed to be happy have a full life.
58. If you realize that you have enough, then you are truly rich
The Chinese thinker Lao-Tse gives us in this quote the true secret of happiness.
59. A good teacher opens the door for you, but you must cross it
True learning is what is done by oneself and with one’s own means.
60. Obstacles do not block the path. They are the way
A truly philosophical way of conceiving the setbacks we encounter along the way.
61. Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible
A philosophy of life that according to the Dalai Lama will bring us happiness.
62. Not that you have lied to me, that I can no longer believe you, that terrifies me
A quote attributed to Friedrich Nietzsche, which reminds us of the importance of trust in friendships, family or love.
63. Life begins where fear ends
This phrase from Osho encourages us to leave fear aside and make the most of life.
64. Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.
A phrase from Steve Jobs that encourages us to live according to our principles and get the most out of life.
65. Everything that happens, suits
A popular saying that encourages us to embrace everything that happens in our lives, both the good and the bad, because we learn from everything.
66. We are architects of our own destiny
Albert Einstein was a genius in physics and he also left us truly philosophical and necessary phrases to apply in our daily lives.
67. All your dreams can become reality if you have the courage to pursue them
68. Love is the absence of judgment
A personal reflection on love made by the Dalai Lama, spiritual leader of Buddhism.
69. Why join the army when you can be a pirate?
This phrase from Steve Jobs reminds us how rebellion and going it alone were a constant throughout his career.
70. Two things are infinite: human stupidity and the universe; And I’m not sure about the second.
A truly acidic criticism of human nature, by Albert Einstein.
