Without our stories, we are not only able to act clearly and fearlessly, we are also a friend, a listener. We are people living happy lives. We are appreciation and gratitude that have become as natural as breath itself. Happiness is the natural state for someone who knows that there’s nothing to know and that we already have everything we need, right here now.
—Byron Katie (b.1942) American Speaker, Author
In giving rights to others which belong to them, we give rights to ourselves and to our country.
—John F. Kennedy (1917–63) American Head of State, Journalist
Few sometimes may know, when thousands err.
—John Milton (1608–74) English Poet, Civil Servant, Scholar, Debater
It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right.
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–62) American Philosopher
I received a letter from a lad asking me for an easy berth. To this I replied: You cannot be an editor; do not try the law; do not think of the ministry; let alone all ships and merchandise; abhor politics; don’t practice medicine; be not a farmer or a soldier or a sailor; don’t study, don’t think. None of these are easy. O, my son, you have come into a hard world. I know of only one easy place in it, and that is the grave.
—Henry Ward Beecher (1813–87) American Clergyman, Writer
To see what is right, and not do it, is want of courage, or of principle.
—Confucius (551–479 BCE) Chinese Philosopher
Oh, the difference between nearly right and exactly right.
—H. Jackson Brown, Jr. (b.1940) American Self-Help Author
Rights! There are no rights whatever without corresponding duties. Look at the history of the growth of our constitution, and you will see that our ancestors never upon any occasion stated, as a ground for claiming any of their privileges, an abstract right inherent in themselves; you will nowhere in our parliamentary records find the miserable sophism of the Rights of Man.
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834) English Poet, Literary Critic, Philosopher
Being right half the time beats being half-right all the time.
—Malcolm S. Forbes (1919–1990) American Publisher, Businessperson
If you have always done it that way, it’s probably wrong.
—Charles F. Kettering (1876–1958) American Inventor, Entrepreneur, Businessperson
The subliminal mind receives and remembers all those touches that delight the soul. Our soul takes joy in this right touching by the Essence of all experience.
—Sri Aurobindo (1872–1950) Indian Mystic, Philosopher, Poet
Some people would rather be wrong than quiet for a minute.
—Unknown
The fears of one class of men are not the measure of the rights of another.
—George Bancroft (1800–91) American Historian, Politician
Rights that do not flow from duty well performed are not worth having.
—Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869–1948) Indian Hindu Political leader
If the world despises you because you do not follow its ways, pay no heed to it. But be sure your way is right.
—Unknown
Success is a learnable skill. You can learn to succeed at anything. If you want to be a great golfer, you can learn how to do it. If you want to be a great piano player, you can learn how to do it. If you want to be truly happy, you can learn how to do it. If you want to be rich, you can learn how to do it. It doesn’t matter where you are right now. It doesn’t matter where you’re starting from. What matters is that you are willing to learn.
—T. Harv Eker (b.1954) American Motivational Speaker, Lecturer, Author
The golden rule is that there are no golden rules.
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
What is right is often forgotten by what is convenient.
—Bodie Thoene
True happiness comes from doing what’s right not just doing what makes you feel good.
—Unknown
The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or moral, is not a sufficient warrant.
—John Stuart Mill (1806–73) English Philosopher, Economist
To be in the right is often an expensive business.
—Phyllis Bottome (1884–1963) British Novelist, Short Story Writer, Psychoanalysis
There are two ways, one is right; the other is wrong. If your work is only about right, then it is wrong.
—George Washington Carver (1864–1943) American Scientist, Botanist, Educator, Inventor
My principle is to do whatever is right, and leave consequences to him who has the disposal of them.
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) American Head of State, Lawyer
No man has a right to do as he pleases, except when he pleases to do right.
—Charles Simmons (1924–2017) American Editor, Novelist
Let a man try faithfully, manfully to be right, he will daily grow more and more right. It is at the bottom of the condition on which all men have to cultivate themselves.
—Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish Historian, Essayist
From a worldly point of view, there is no mistake so great as that of being always right.
—Samuel Butler
The superior man understands what is right; the inferior man understands what will sell.
—Confucius (551–479 BCE) Chinese Philosopher
Aggressive fighting for the right is the greatest sport in the world.
—Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American Head of State, Political leader, Historian, Explorer
Freedom is not the right to do what we want, but what we ought. Let us have faith that right makes might and in that faith let us; to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it.
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–65) American Head of State
When you are right you cannot be too radical; when you are wrong, you cannot be too conservative.
—Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–68) American Civil Rights Leader, Clergyman