Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful.
—Norman Vincent Peale (1898–1993) American Clergyman, Self-Help Author
He who imagines he can do without the world deceives himself much; but he who fancies the world cannot do without him is still more mistaken.
—Francois de La Rochefoucauld (1613–80) French Writer
The world is in your hands, now use it.
—Phil Collins (b.1951) British Singer, Drummer, Songwriter
Let me enjoy the earth no less
Because the all-enacting Might
That fashioned forth its loveliness
Had other aims than my delight.
—Thomas Hardy (1840–1928) English Novelist, Poet
Live your beliefs and you can turn the world around.
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–62) American Philosopher
If the world were a logical place, men would ride side saddle.
—Rita Mae Brown (b.1944) American Writer, Feminist
That is one good thing about this world…there are always sure to be more springs.
—Lucy Maud Montgomery (1874–1942) Canadian Novelist
The only true method of action in this world is to be in it, but not of it.
—Sophie Swetchine (1782–1857) Russian Mystic, Writer
Everything that is done in the world is done by hope. No merchant or tradesman would set himself to work if he did not hope to reap benefit thereby.
—Martin Luther (1483–1546) German Protestant Theologian
We can not play innocents abroad in a world that is not innocent.
—Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) American Head of State
The world has to learn that the actual pleasure derived from material things is of rather low quality on the whole and less even in quantity than it looks to those who have not tried it.
—Unknown
The Work reveals that what you think shouldn’t have happened should have happened. It should happened because it did, and no thinking in the world can change it. This doesn’t mean that you condone it or approve of it. It just means that you can see things without resistance and without the confusion of your inner struggle. No one wants their children to get sick, no one wants to be in a car accident; but when these things happen, how can it be helpful to mentally argue with them? We know better than to do that, yet we do it, because we don’t know how to stop.
—Byron Katie (b.1942) American Speaker, Author
To him who looks upon the world rationally, the world in its turn presents a rational aspect. The relation is mutual.
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831) German Philosopher
That observation which is called knowledge of the world will be found much more frequently to make men cunning than good.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
When the world is destroyed, it will be destroyed not by its madmen but by the sanity of its experts and the superior ignorance of its bureaucrats.
—John le Carre (1931–2020) English Spy Thriller Novelist
This world is a dream within a dream; and as we grow older, each step is an awakening. The youth awakes, as he thinks, from childhood; the full-grown man despises the pursuits of youth as visionary; and the old man looks on manhood as a feverish dream. Death the last sleep? No! It is the last and final awakening!
—Walter Scott (1771–1832) Scottish Novelist, Poet, Playwright, Lawyer
The world has narrowed to a neighborhood before it has broadened to a brotherhood.
—Lyndon B. Johnson (1908–73) American Head of State, Political leader
How novel and original must be each new mans view of the universe – for though the world is so old – and so many books have been written – each object appears wholly undescribed to our experience – each field of thought wholly unexplored – the whole world is an America – a New World.
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–62) American Philosopher
Among true and real friends, all is common; and were ignorance and envy and superstition banished from the world, all mankind would be friend.
—Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822) English Poet, Dramatist, Essayist, Novelist
The softest things in the world overcome the hardest things in the world.
—Laozi (fl.6th Century BCE) Chinese Philosopher, Sage
People do not seem to realize that their opinion of the world is also a confession of character.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
The task for us now, if we are to survive, is to build the earth.
—Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881–1955) French Jesuit Philosopher, Paleontologist
The world is a thing that a man must learn to despise, and even to neglect, before he can learn to reverence it, and work in it and for it.
—Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish Historian, Essayist
The world moves, and ideas that were once good are not always good.
—Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) American Head of State, Military Leader
I’ve been up the mountain and I had a choice. Should I come down? So I came down. God said, “Okay, you’ve been up on the mountain, now you go down. You’re on your own, free. Check in later, but now you’re on your own.”
—Bob Dylan (b.1941) American Singer-songwriter
Spring will still come, without you. Fruit will still be on the trees, without you. The tide will still come in, without you. If they can do without you so can I. So go back in your shell—I’ll do bloody well without you.
—Unknown
What is meant by a “knowledge of the world” is simply an acquaintance with the infirmities of men.
—Charles Dickens (1812–70) English Novelist
Do you want to be right more than you want to know the truth? It’s the truth that set me free. Acceptance, peace, and less attachment to a world of suffering are all effects of doing The Work. They’re not the goals. Do The Work for the love of freedom, for the love of truth.
—Byron Katie (b.1942) American Speaker, Author
Start thinking about yourself as a lifetime student at a large university. Your curriculum is your total relationship with the world you live in, from the moment you’re born to the moment you die.
—Susan Jeffers (1938–2012) American Psychologist, Self-Help Author
The world does not need tourists who ride by in a bus clucking their tongues. The world as it is needs those who will love it enough to change it, with what they have, where they are.
—Robert Fulghum (b.1937) American Unitarian Author, Essayist, Clergyman
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