Our present time is indeed a criticizing and critical time, hovering between the wish, and the inability to believe. Our complaints are like arrows shot up into the air at no target: and with no purpose they only fall back upon our own heads and destroy ourselves.
—William Temple (1881–1944) British Clergyman, Theologian
I felt sorry for myself because I had no shoes, until I met a man who had no feet.
—Hebrew Proverb
Complaint is the largest tribute Heaven receives.
—Jonathan Swift (1667–1745) Irish Satirist
I think a compliment ought to always precede a complaint, where one is possible, because it softens resentment and insures for the complaint a courteous and gentle reception.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
To hear complaints is tiresome to the miserable and the happy.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
Instead of complaining that the rosebush is full of thorns, be happy that the thorn bush has roses.
—German Proverb
When complaints are freely heard, deeply considered and speedily reformed, then is the utmost bound of civil liberty attained that wise men look for.
—John Milton (1608–74) English Poet, Civil Servant, Scholar, Debater
He cannot complain of a hard sentence, who is made master of his own fate.
—Friedrich Schiller (1759–1805) German Poet, Dramatist
There is one topic peremptorily forbidden to all well-bred, to all rational mortals, namely, their distempers. If you have not slept, or if you have slept, or if you have headache, or sciatica, or leprosy, or thunder-stroke, I beseech you, by all angels, to hold your peace, and not pollute the morning.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Things cannot always go your way. Learn to accept in silence the minor aggravations, cultivate the gift of taciturnity and consume your own smoke with an extra draught of hard work, so that those about you may not be annoyed with the dust and soot of your complaints.
—William Osler (1849–1919) Canadian Physician
I will not be as those who spend the day in complaining of headache, and the night in drinking the wine that gives it.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
Firmness, both in suffering and exertion, is a character which I would wish to possess.—I have always despised the whining yelp of complaint, and the cowardly feeble resolve.
—Robert Burns (1759–96) Scottish Poet, Songwriter
Realize that if you have time to whine and complain about something then you have the time to do something about it.
—Anthony J. D’Angelo
The tendency to whining and complaining may be taken as the surest sign symptom of little souls and inferior intellects.
—Francis Jeffrey, Lord Jeffrey (1773–1850) Scottish Judge, Literary Critic
When a person finds themselves predisposed to complaining about how little they are regarded by others, let them reflect how little they have contributed to the happiness of others.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
Never complain. Never explain.
—Henry Ford (1863–1947) American Businessperson, Engineer
It is a general popular error to suppose the loudest complainers for the public to be the most anxious for its welfare.
—Edmund Burke (1729–97) British Philosopher, Statesman
Murmur at nothing: if our ills are irreparable, it is ungrateful; if remediless, it is vain. A Christian builds his fortitude on a better foundation than stoicism; he is pleased with everything that happens, because he knows it could not happen unless it had first pleased God and that which pleases Him must be the best.
—Charles Caleb Colton (c.1780–1832) English Clergyman, Aphorist
You can overcome anything if you don’t bellyache.
—Bernard M. Baruch (1870–1965) American Financier, Economic Consultant
Depend upon it, that if a man talks of his misfortunes there is something in them that is not disagreeable to him: for where there is nothing but pure misery, there never is any mention of it.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
I think that the insane desire one has sometimes to bang and kick grumblers and peevish persons is a Divine instinct.
—Robert Hugh Benson (1871–1914) English Roman Catholic Priest, Writer
In trying to get our own way, we should remember that kisses are sweeter than whine.
—Unknown
Nobody can tell what I suffer! But it is always so. Those who do not complain are never pitied.
—Jane Austen (1775–1817) English Novelist
It’s better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.
—William Lonsdale Watkinson
Sweat silently. Let’s have no squawking about a little expenditure of energy.
—Martin H. Fischer
Oh, wouldn’t the world seem dull and flat with nothing whatever to grumble at?
—W. S. Gilbert (1836–1911) English Dramatist, Librettist, Poet, Illustrator
People that pay for things never complain. It’s the guy you give something to that you can’t please.
—Will Rogers (1879–1935) American Actor, Rancher, Humorist
We lose the right of complaining sometimes, by denying something, but this often triples its force.
—Laurence Sterne (1713–68) Irish Anglican Novelist, Clergyman
Don’t complain about the snow on your neighbor’s roof when your own doorstep is unclean.
—Confucius (551–479 BCE) Chinese Philosopher
To make a criticism is a bit like complaining about the shape of the Pyramids.
—Unknown