Poignant Quotations

A selection of my favourite quotations

Kindness is a language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see. Mark Twain.

A smile is the same in any language. (author unknown)

The feeling of pain is the same in any language. (author unknown)

Always remember; wheresoever you travel North or South, East or West, home is best! (ancient Chinese proverb)

True holiness consists in doing God's will with a smile. If you want to feel rich, just count all the blessings you have that money cannot buy. Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta.

There are two freedoms: the false, where a man is free to do what he likes; and the true where a man is free to do what he ought. Charles Kingsley.

When the missionaries came to Africa they had the Bible and we had the land. They said, "Let us pray." We closed our eyes. When we opened them we had the Bible and they had the land. Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

I need no inspiration other than Nature's. She has never failed me yet. She mystifies me, bewilders me, sends me into ecstasies. Besides God's handiwork, does not man's fade into insignificance? Mahatma Gandhi (1934)

All that is necessary for evil to triumph is that good men do nothing. Edmund Burke, Political philosopher (1729-97)

I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But, if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die. Nelson Mandela, speaking at his trial in April,1964.

I have a dream, that one day, my children and my grandchildren, will be judged; not by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character. Dr. Martin Luther King's immortal words during a public speech in 1963.

I know that we can produce a society where man will cease to simply go to work and have a little leisure, but will release his latent talent and ability and begin to produce in the cultural sense all the things I know he's capable of: music, poetry, writing, sculpture, whole works of art that, at the moment, lie dormant simply because we, as a society, are not able to tap it. Arthur Scargill, former leader of the National Union of Mineworkers, speaking in 1982.

Live simply, love generously, care deeply, speak kindly and leave the rest to God. (author unknown)

Doing what is right today means no regrets tomorrow. (author unknown)

Be of good cheer about death and know this as a truth - that no evil can happen to a good man, either in life or after death. (Socrates)

Remember what is unbecoming to do is also unbecoming to speak of. (Socrates)

"I cried because I had no shoes, until I saw a man with no feet" (Author unknown)

'Never resent growing old. Many are denied that privilege' (Canon Richard Tydeman. Aged 92 in 2008)

Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. Today is a gift, that is why it is called the present! (Author unknown)

"I can and I will" (Catherine Cookson's personal motto)

FEED YOUR FAITH, AND DOUBT WILL STARVE TO DEATH (Holy Scripture)