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Frank Ball writing in his study

The quote library

Frankisms

Short truths, collected over a lifetime of writing and teaching. Read a few, or lose an afternoon.

Collected
413
  • Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up. — Pablo Picasso

    philosophy

  • A bore is someone who persists in holding his own views after we have enlightened him with ours. — Malcolm S. Forbes

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  • A bored person is one who is unacquainted with himself and God. — Helen Keller

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  • A choice means that you can do it, or not do it. — Robert Fritz

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  • A common strategy in life is to take something that matters to you and translate it into a sense of obligation, so that you manipulate yourself into doing what you want to do anyway. — Robert Fritz

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  • A faith that hasn’t been tested can’t be trusted. — Adrain Rogers

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  • A feeling is about as opposite to a fact as you can get. — Dwight V. Swain

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  • A fox should not be of the jury at a goose’s trial. — Thomas Fuller

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  • A good price is not necessarily what an object is marked, but what it is worth to you. — H. Jackson Brown Jr

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  • A great deal of time and intellectual force are lost in the world, because the false seems great and the truth so small and insignificant. — Maria Montessori

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  • A laugh is a smile that bursts. — Mary H. Waldrip

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  • A leader is a dealer in hope. — Napoleon Bonaparte

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  • A leader knows what’s best to do. A manager knows merely how best to do it. — Ken Adelman

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  • A liar is not believed even though he tells the truth. — Cicero

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  • A man’s reach should exceed his grasp. — Robert Browning

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  • A man’s true wealth is the good he does in this world. — Mohammed

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  • A penny saved is a penny earned. — Benjamin Franklin

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  • A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both. — Dwight David Eisenhower

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  • A pint of sweat will save a gallon of blood. — George S. Patton Jr

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  • A Thomas Kinkade painting on your wall doesn’t make you qualified to paint one. — Cheryl St.John

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  • A truth that’s told with bad intent beats all the lies you can invent. — William Blake

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  • Actions that seems prudent in foresight can look irresponsibly negligent in hindsight. — Daniel Kahneman

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  • Afflictions are but the shadows of God’s wings. — George MacDonald

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  • After crosses and losses men grow humbler and wiser. — Benjamin Franklin

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  • Airline insurance replaces the fear of death with the comforting prospect of cash. — Cecil Beaton

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  • All I have seen teaches me to trust the Creator for all I have not seen. — Ralph Waldo Emerson

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  • All my life I have been seeking to climb out of the pit of my besetting sins and I cannot do it and I never will unless a hand is let down to draw me up. — Seneca

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  • All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. — James Howell (c. 1594–1666), Proverbs [1659]

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  • All work is as seed sown. It grows and spreads, and sows itself anew. — Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881), On Boswell’s Life of Johnson

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  • All you need in life is ignorance and confidence, and then success is sure. — Mark Twain

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  • Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it. — Helen Keller

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  • Always do everything you ask of those you command. — George S. Patton

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  • Always do more than is required of you. — George S. Patton Jr

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  • An excuse is worse and more terrible than a lie; for an excuse is a lie guarded. — Alexander Pope

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  • An eye can threaten like a loaded and leveled gun, or it can insult like hissing or kicking. Or in its altered mood, by beams of kindness, it can make the heart dance for joy. — Ralph Waldo Emerson

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  • An obstinate man does not hold opinions, but they hold him. — Alexander Pope

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  • Anger blows out the lamp of the mind. In the examination of a great and important question, everyone should be serene, slow-pulsed, and calm. — Charles J. Ingersoll

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  • Anger is never without a reason, but seldom with a good one. — Benjamin Franklin

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  • Anger pushes people away. — Thomas Harris

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  • Any attempts to love yourself will eventually backfire. When you attempt to impose self-love on yourself, you actually are reinforcing a lack of love. — Robert Fritz

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