A couple of times a day I sit quietly and visualize my body fighting the AIDS virus. It’s the same as me sitting and seeing myself hit the perfect serve. I did that often when I was an athlete.
—Arthur Ashe (1943–93) American Tennis Player
Human foresight often leaves its proudest possessor only a choice of evils.
—Charles Caleb Colton (c.1780–1832) English Clergyman, Aphorist
Just because a man lacks the use of his eyes doesn’t mean he lacks vision.
—Stevie Wonder (b.1950) American Singer, Songwriter
A genius is one who shoots at something no one else can see—and hits it.
—Unknown
Accustom yourself to submit on every occasion to a small present evil, to obtain a greater distant good. This will give decision, tone, and energy to the mind, which, thus disciplined, will often reap victory from defeat, and honor from repulse.
—Charles Caleb Colton (c.1780–1832) English Clergyman, Aphorist
Whoever wishes to win in this game must have patience and money, since the values are so little constant and the rumors so little founded on truth.
—Jonathan Swift (1667–1745) Irish Satirist
When we can’t dream any longer, we die.
—Emma Goldman (1869–1940) Lithuanian-American Anarchist, Feminist
Fantasies are more than substitutes for unpleasant reality; they are also dress rehearsals, plans. All acts performed in the world begin in the imagination.
—Barbara Grizzuti Harrison (1934–2002) American Writer, Essayist, Critic
Few things are brought to a successful issue by impetuous desire, but most by calm and prudent forethought.
—Thucydides (c.455?c.400 BCE) Greek Historian
The artist doesn’t see things as they are, but as he is.
—Unknown
Reach high, for stars lie hidden in your soul. Dream deep, for every dream precedes the goal.
—Ralph Vaull Starr
When there is no vision, a people perish.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Happy those who knowing they are subject to uncertain changes, are prepared and armed for either fortune; a rare principle, and with much labor learned in wisdom’s school.
—Philip Massinger (1583–1640) English Playwright
Whoever fails to turn aside the ills of life by prudent forethought, must submit to the course of destiny.
—Friedrich Schiller (1759–1805) German Poet, Dramatist
If a man takes no thought about what is distant, he will find sorrow near at hand.
—Confucius (551–479 BCE) Chinese Philosopher
The republic is a dream.
Nothing happens unless first a dream.
—Carl Sandburg (1878–1967) American Biographer, Novelist, Socialist
In life so wretched? Isn’t it rather your hands which are too small, your vision which is muddied? You are the one who must grow up.
—Dag Hammarskjold (1905–61) Swedish Statesman, UN Diplomat
A fool sees not the same tree that a wise man sees.
—William Blake (1757–1827) English Poet, Painter, Printmaker
We all live under the same sky, but we don’t all have the same horizon.
—Konrad Adenauer (1876–1967) German Statesman
To fear the worst, oft cures the worst.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
Leaders are visionaries with a poorly developed sense of fear and no concept of the odds against them. They make the impossible happen.
—Robert Jarvik (1946–2025) American Scientist, Researcher, Inventor
It may be that those who do most, dream most.
—Stephen Leacock (1869–1944) Canadian Humorist, Writer
In life, as in chess, forethought wins.
—Charles Buxton (1823–71) British Politician, Writer
The moment of enlightenment is when a person’s dreams of possibilities become images of probabilities.
—Vic Braden (b.1929) American Sportsperson, Author
As a man without forethought scarcely deserves the name of man, so forethought without reflection is but a phrase for the instinct of the beast.
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834) English Poet, Literary Critic, Philosopher
Whatever is foretold by God will be done by man; but nothing will be done by man because it is foretold by God.
—William Wordsworth (1770–1850) English Poet
To have too much forethought is the part of a wretch; to have too little is the part of a fool.
—Richard Cecil
Dreams
Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.
Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow.
—Langston Hughes (1902–67) American Poet, Fiction Writer, Dramatist
A feeble man can see the farms that are fenced and tilled, the houses that are built. The strong man sees the possible houses and farms. His eye makes estates as fast as the sun breeds clouds.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
You can vitally influence your life from within by auto-suggestion. The first thing each morning, and the last thing each night, suggest to yourself specific ideas that you wish to embody in your character and personality. Address such suggestions to yourself, silently or aloud, until they are deeply impressed upon your mind.
—Grenville Kleiser (1868–1935) Canadian Author
Leave a Reply