Skip to content
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
  • Many strokes overthrow the tallest oaks. — John Lyly (c. 1554–1606), Euphues: The Anataomy of Wit. Arber’s reprint, 81

    philosophy

  • Men will lie on their backs, talking about the fall of man, and never make an effort to get up. — Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862), Life Without Principle [1863]

    philosophy

  • Morality cannot be legislated, but behavior can be regulated. Judicial decrees may not change the heart, but they can restrain the heartless. — Martin Luther King Jr

    philosophy

  • Most people ask for happiness on condition. Happiness can be felt only if you don’t set any conditions. — Arthur Rubinstein

    philosophy

  • Most people will choose unhappiness over uncertainty. — Timothy Ferriss

    philosophy

  • My religion consists of a humble admiration of the illimitable superior spirit who reveals himself in the slight details we are able to perceive with our frail and feeble minds. — Albert Einstein

    philosophy

  • Nature is the living, visible garment of God. — Goethe

    philosophy

  • Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power. — Abraham Lincoln

    philosophy

  • Never deprive someone of hope. It might be all they have. — H. Jackson Brown Jr

    philosophy

  • Never quit on a bad day. — Jerry Cleaver

    philosophy

  • Never risk what you can’t afford to lose. — H. Jackson Brown Jr

    philosophy

  • Never spend your money before you have it. — Thomas Jefferson

    philosophy

  • Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity. — George S. Patton Jr

    philosophy

  • No Christian has ever been known to recant on his death bed. — C.M. Ward

    philosophy

  • No matter how much you might like the ideal of loving yourself, in reality you may sometimes love yourself, and other times not. The attempts to change this are based on a myth: that people are obligated to love themselves. — Robert Fritz

    philosophy

  • No one can make you feel inferior without your consent. — Eleanor Roosevelt

    philosophy

  • No one ever graduates from Bible study until he meets its Author face to face. — Everett Harris

    philosophy

  • No person was ever honored for what he received. Honor has been the reward for what he gave. — Calvin Coolidge

    philosophy

  • No warning can save a people determined to grow suddenly rich. — Lord Overstone

    philosophy

  • Noble deeds that are concealed are most esteemed. — Blaise Pascal

    philosophy

  • Noise proves nothing. Often a hen who has merely laid an egg cackles as if she laid an asteroid. — Mark Twain

    philosophy

  • Not everything that is faced can be changed. But nothing can be changed until it is faced. — James Baldwin

    philosophy

  • Nothing is easier than self-deceit. For what each man wishes, that he also believes to be true. — Demosthenes (384-322 BC), Third Olynthiac, sec 19

    philosophy

  • Nothing is particularly hard if you divide it into small jobs. — Henry Ford

    philosophy

  • Nothing will ever be attempted if all possible objections must first be removed. — Samuel Johnson

    philosophy

  • Of all the systems of morality, ancient and modern, which have come under my observation, none appear so pure to me as that of Jesus. — Thomas Jefferson

    philosophy

  • Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive! — Sir Walter Scott (1771–1832), Marmion, VI, introduction, st. 17

    philosophy

  • One half of knowing what you want is knowing what you must give up before you get it. — Sidney Howard

    philosophy

  • One of our biggest problems is rooted in our flawed belief that simply investing time in the things we care about will generate a positive return. — Jim Loehr

    philosophy

  • One of the great disadvantages of hurry is that it takes such a long time. — G. K. Chesterton

    philosophy

  • One of the most lasting pleasures you can experience is the feeling that comes over you when you genuinely forgive an enemy—whether he knows it or not. — O. A. Battista

    philosophy

  • One thing I know: the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who will have sought and found how to serve. — Albert Schweitzer

    philosophy

  • One thorn of experience is worth a whole wilderness of warning. — James Russell Lowell

    philosophy

  • Order marches with weighty and measured strides; disorder is always in a hurry. — Napoleon Bonaparte

    philosophy

  • Our culture is so individualistic and wired for success that we often miss the point of life. — Jeff Goins

    philosophy

  • Our opinion of people depends less upon what we see in them than upon what they make us see in ourselves. — Sarah Grand

    philosophy

  • Pain is what it took to teach me to pay attention. — Julia Cameron

    philosophy

  • Patience is something you admire in the driver behind you and scorn in the one ahead. — Mac McCleary

    philosophy

  • People are to be loved. Things are to be used. — Reuel Howe

    philosophy

  • People don’t ask for facts in making up their minds. They would rather have one good, soul-satisfying emotion than a dozen facts. — Keith Leavitt

    philosophy