Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children… This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron.
—Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) American Head of State, Military Leader
Everything we do has a result. But that which is right and prudent does not always lead to good, nor the contrary to what is bad.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
Whatever our creed, we feel that no good deed can by any possibility go unrewarded, no evil deed unpunished.
—Orison Swett Marden (1850–1924) American New Thought Writer, Physician, Entrepreneur
The reputation of a thousand years may be determined by the conduct of one hour.
—Japanese Proverb
Remember one thing about democracy. We can have anything we want and at the same time, we always end up with exactly what we deserve.
—Edward Albee (1928–2016) American Playwright
He that does good to another, does good also to himself, not only in the consequences, but in the very act; for the consciousness of well doing is, in itself, ample reward.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca) (c.4 BCE–65 CE) Roman Stoic Philosopher, Statesman, Tragedian
Every choice carries a consequence. For better or worse, each choice is the unavoidable consequence of its predecessor. There are not exceptions. If you can accept that a bad choice carries the seed of its own punishment, why not accept the fact that a good choice yields desirable fruit?
—Gary Ryan Blair
There are no rewards or punishments—only consequences.
—William Motter Inge (1913–73) American Playwright, Novelist
As a twig is bent the tree inclines.
—Virgil (70–19 BCE) Roman Poet
In nature there are neither rewards nor punishments—there are consequences.
—Robert G. Ingersoll (1833–99) American Lawyer, Orator, Agnostic
Long-term planning is not about making long-term decisions, it is about understanding the future consequences of today’s decisions.
—Gary Ryan Blair
Everyone will experience the consequences of his own acts. If his act are right, he’ll get good consequences; if they’re not, he’ll suffer for it.
—Harry Browne (1933–2006) American Author, Economist, Politician
Good thoughts bear good fruit, bad thoughts bear bad fruit.
—James Lane Allen (1849–1925) American Novelist, Short Story Writer
The secret of the world is the tie between person and event. Person makes event and event person.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
All successful men have agreed in being causationists; they believed that things were not by luck, but by law—that there was not a weak or cracked link in the chain that joins the first and last of things—the cause and effect.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Because right is right, to follow right were wisdom, in the scorn of consequence.
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–92) British Poet
Don’t be misled: no one makes a fool of God. What a person plants, he will harvest.
—The Holy Bible Scripture in the Christian Faith
Every moment of our lives we are either growing or dying—and it’s largely a choice, not fate. Throughout its life cycle, every one of the body’s trillions of cells is driven to grow and improve its ability to use more of its innate yet untapped capacity. Research biologist Albert Szent-Gyorgyi, who was twice awarded the Nobel Prize, called this syntropy, which he defined as the “innate drive in living matter to perfect itself”. It turns conventional thinking upside down…As living cells—or as people—there is no staying the same. If we aim for some middle ground or status quo, it’s an illusion—beneath the surface what’s actually happening is we’re dying, not growing. And the goal of a lifetime is continued growth, not adulthood. As Rene Dubos put it, “Genius is childhood recaptured”. For this to happen, studies show that we must recapture—or prevent the loss of—such child-like traits as the ability to learn, to love, to laugh about small things, to leap, to wonder, and to explore. It’s time to rescue ourselves from our grown-up ways before it’s too late.
—Robert K. Cooper (b.1957) American Author, Psychologist
No doing without some ruing.
—Sigrid Undset (1882–1949) Norwegian Novelist
The sower may mistake and sow his peas crookedly: the peas make no mistake, but come up and show his line.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Half of the harm that is done in this world is due to people who want to feel important … they do not mean to do harm … they are absorbed in the endless struggle to think well of themselves.
—T. S. Eliot (1888–1965) American-British Poet, Dramatist, Literary Critic
In no sense do I advocate evading or defying the law … That would lead to anarchy. An individual who breaks a law that his conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for law.
—Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–68) American Civil Rights Leader, Clergyman
Sooner or later everyone sits down to a banquet of consequences.
—Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–94) Scottish Novelist
We must remember that hatred is like acid. It does more damage to the vessel in which it is stored than to the object on which it is poured.
—Ask Ann Landers (1918–2002) American Advice Columnist (Ruth Crowley/Eppie Lederer)
A human being fashions his consequences as surely as he fashions his goods or his dwelling his goods or his dwelling. Nothing that he says, thinks or does is without consequences.
—Norman Cousins (1912–1990) American Political Journalist
The consequences of an act affect the probability of its occurring again.
—B. F. Skinner (1904–90) American Psychologist, Author
Their mothers had finally caught up to them and been proven right. There were consequences after all but they were the consequences to things you didn’t even know you’d done.
—Margaret Atwood (b.1939) Canadian Writer, Poet, Critic
There is no limit to how complicated things can get, on account of one thing always leading to another.
—E. B. White (1985–99) American Essayist, Humorist
For every life and every act consequence of good and evil can be shown and as in time results of many deeds are blended so good and evil in the end become confounded.
—T. S. Eliot (1888–1965) American-British Poet, Dramatist, Literary Critic
Consequences are unpitying.
—George Eliot (Mary Anne Evans) (1819–80) English Novelist
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