Last updated: November 20, 2022

This is my collection of all-time favorite quotes. Its purpose is to remind me of various things I’ve internalized.

Change

“Men did not love Rome because she was great. She was great because they had loved her.” - G.K. Chesterton

“The future is already here. It’s just not very evenly distributed.” - William Gibson

“Critics say America is a lie because its reality falls so far short of its ideals. They are wrong. America is not a lie; it is a disappointment. But it can only be a disappointment because it is also a hope.” - Samuel P. Huntington

“All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.” - Arthur Schopenhauer

Communication

“The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.” - George Bernard Shaw

“Think like a wise man but communicate in the language of the people.” - W.B. Yeats

Design

“Real strength never impairs beauty or harmony, but it often bestows it; and in everything imposingly beautiful, strength has much to do with the magic.” - Herman Melville in Moby Dick

“Before attempting to create something new, it is vital to have a good appreciation of everything that already exists in the field.” - Mikhail Kalashnikov

Discipline

“The higher your structure is to be, the deeper must be its foundation.” - Augustine of Hippo

“The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function.” - F. Scott Fitzgerald

“Be regular and orderly in your life, so that you may be violent and original in your work.” - Gustave Flaubert

“Let him who would move the world first move himself.” - Socrates

Leadership

“The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.” - Apple Inc.

“I wonder how far Moses would have gone if he’d taken a poll in Egypt? What would Jesus Christ have preached if he’d taken a poll in Israel? It isn’t polls or public opinion of the moment that counts. It’s right and wrong.” - Harry Truman

“Nero beheaded Paul. But things change. Today people name their dogs Nero and their sons Paul. Live for the long view.” - John Piper