Lots of times you have to pretend to join a parade in which you’re not really interested in order to get where you’re going.
—Christopher Morley (1890–1957) American Novelist, Essayist
One and the same thing can at the same time be good, bad, and indifferent, e.g., music is good to the melancholy, bad to those who mourn, and neither good nor bad to the deaf.
—Baruch Spinoza (1632–77) Dutch Philosopher, Theologian
There are some people who live in a dream world, and there are some who face reality; and then there are those who turn one into the other.
—Douglas Hugh Everett (1916–2002) British Physical Chemist, Academic
Everyone has the right to believe and accept what he or she wants, but reality doesn’t discriminate. Reality is not different for different people. Not once has reality excused anyone for good intentions ignorance or stubbornness. Reality shows no mercy, accepts no excuses, and issues no pardons. Reality does not “turn the other cheek.” This does not mean that reality is cruel, it just means that reality is.
—Gary Ryan Blair
Reality is something you rise above.
—Liza Minnelli (b.1946) American Singer, Actress
The permanent temptation of life is to confuse dreams with reality. The permanent defeat of life comes when dreams are surrendered to reality.
—James A. Michener (1907–97) American Novelist, Short Story Writer, Historian
I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells. Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living. It’s a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope, which is what I do, and that enables you to laugh at life’s realities.
—Theodor Seuss Geisel (‘Dr. Seuss’) (1904–91) American Children’s Books Writer, Writer, Cartoonist, Animator
Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler.
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born Physicist
The optimist thinks this is the best of all worlds. The pessimist fears it is true.
—J. Robert Oppenheimer (1904–67) American Nuclear Physicist
You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.
—William J. H. Boetcker (1873–1962) American Presbyterian Minister
A Realist is an idealist who has gone through the fire and been purified. A skeptic is an idealist who has gone through the fire and been burned.
—Warren W. Wiersbe (1929–2019) American Pastor, Biblical Scholar
If you see a whole thing – it seems that it’s always beautiful. Planets, lives… But up close a world’s all dirt and rocks. And day to day, life’s a hard job, you get tired, you lose the pattern.
—Ursula K. Le Guin (b.1929) American Science Fiction and Fantasy Writer
The past exists only in our memories, the future only in our plans. The present is our only reality. The tree that you are aware of intellectually, because of that small time lag, is always in the past and therefore is always unreal. Any intellectually conceived object is always in the past and therefore unreal. Reality is always the moment of vision before the intellectualization takes place. There is no other reality.
—Robert M. Pirsig (b.1928) American Writer, Philosopher, Author
To avoid criticism, do nothing, say nothing, be nothing.
—Elbert Hubbard (1856–1915) American Writer, Publisher, Artist, Philosopher
Facts as facts do not always create a spirit of reality, because reality is a spirit.
—G. K. Chesterton (1874–1936) English Journalist, Novelist, Essayist, Poet
Business underlies everything in our national life, including our spiritual life. Witness the fact that in the Lord’s Prayer, the first petition is for daily bread. No one can worship God or love his neighbor on an empty stomach.
—Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924) American Head of State
He who has health has hope, and he who has hope has everything.
—Arabic Proverb
Since we cannot change reality, let us change the eyes which see reality.
—Nikos Kazantzakis (1883–1957) Greek Novelist, Poet, Dramatist
When you’re the victim of the behavior, it’s black and white; when you’re the perpetrator, there are a million shades of gray.
—Laura Schlessinger (b.1947) American Radio Talk-Show Host, Author
The miracles of nature do not seem miracles because they are so common. If no one had ever seen a flower, even a dandelion would be the most startling event in the world.
—Unknown
The first rule (to Peace of Mind, Serenity) is to keep an untroubled spirit. The second is to look things in the face and know them for what they are.
—Marcus Aurelius (121–180) Emperor of Rome, Stoic Philosopher
We must have strong minds, ready to accept facts as they are.
—Harry S. Truman (1884–1972) American Head of State
Reality isn’t the way you wish things to be, nor the way they appear to be, but the way they actually are.
—Robert Ringer (b.1979) American Entrepreneur, Motivational Speaker, Author
The paradox of reality is that no image is as compelling as the one which exists only in the mind’s eye.
—Shana Alexander (1925–2005) American Journalist, Editor, Author
Our tendency to create heroes rarely jibes with the reality that most nontrivial problems require collective solutions.
—Warren Bennis (1925–2014) American Business Academic, Author
It is difficult to say what is impossible, for the dream of yesterday is the hope of today and the reality of tomorrow.
—Robert H. Goddard (1882–1945) American Inventor, Physicist, Academic
A thing either is what it appears to be; or it is not, but yet appears to be; or it is, but does not appear to be; or it is not, and does not appear to be.
—Epictetus (55–135) Ancient Greek Philosopher
Let us take things as we find them: let us not attempt to distort them into what they are not. We cannot make facts. All our wishing cannot change them. We must use them.
—John Henry Newman (1801–90) British Theologian, Poet
Reality cannot be ignored except at a price; and the longer the ignorance is persisted in, the higher and more terrible becomes the price that must be paid.
—Aldous Huxley (1894–1963) English Humanist, Pacifist, Essayist, Short Story Writer, Satirist
People are where they are because that is exactly where they really want to be—whether they will admit that or not.
—Earl Nightingale (1921–89) American Motivational Speaker, Author