“Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding.” – Solomon, Proverbs 4:7

“Take fast hold of instruction; let her not go: keep her; for she is thy life.” – Solomon, Proverbs 4:13

“Seest thou a man diligent in his business? he shall stand before kings; he shall not stand before mean men.” – Solomon, Proverbs 22:29

“He that walketh with wise men shall be wise: but a companion of fools shall be destroyed.” – Solomon, Proverbs 13:20

“Show me your friends, and I’ll show you your future” – ?

“Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.” – Dr. Seuss

“To love at all is to be vulnerable.” – C. S. Lewis

“Absence is to love as wind is to fire; it extinguishes the small and enkindles the great.” – Comte de Bussy-Rabutin

“. . . Love knows not its own depth until the hour of separation.” – Kahlil Gibran

“You know you’re in love when you can’t fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams.” – Dr. Seuss

“It’s so hard to forget pain, but it’s even harder to remember sweetness. We have no scar to show for happiness. We learn so little from peace.” – Chuck Palahniuk

“Peace hath higher tests of manhood than battle ever knew.” – John Greenleaf Whittier

“Wherever you are, be all there! Live to the hilt every situation you believe to be the will of God.” – Jim Elliot

“He who is not contented with what he has, would not be contented with what he would like to have.” – Socrates

“The part of life we really live is small.” – Seneca

“There is always time to do the will of God.” – Elisabeth Elliot

“The truest lengthening of life is to live while we live, wasting no time but using every hour for the highest ends. So be it this day.” – Charles Spurgeon

“Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.” – Allen Saunders (read more)

“Clarity about what matters provides clarity about what does not.” – Cal Newport, Deep Work (p 62)

“Losing an illusion makes one wiser than finding a truth.” – Ludwig Börne (translated from German)

“It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble; it’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.” – Mark Twain

“The latter part of a wise person’s life is occupied with curing the follies, prejudices, and false opinions they contracted earlier.” – Jonathan Swift

“The problem is not people being uneducated. The problem is that people are educated just enough to believe what they have been taught, and not enough to questions anything from what they have been taught.” – Richard Feynman

“I do not know what I may appear to the world; but to myself, I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the sea shore, and diverting myself now and then in finding a smoother pebble or prettier shell than ordinary, while the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.” – Isaac Newton

“Don’t forget that everybody, including yourself, has only his own experience with which to think.” ~ Rudolf Flesch, The Art of Clear Thinking (paraphrase)

“In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing; the worst thing you can do is nothing.” – Theodore Roosevelt

“History is . . . not written by those who are right, but by those who are left.” – Percy Carte

“Psychology keeps trying to vindicate human nature. History keeps undermining its effort.” – Mason Cooley

“Practice with your fingers and you need all day. Practice with your mind and you will do as much in 1 1/2 hours.” – Leopold Auer

“The most powerful person in the world is the storyteller.” – Steve Jobs

“Tact is the art of making a point without making an enemy.” – Isaac Newton

“A wise man should have money in his head, but not in his heart.” – Jonathan Swift

The world is too noisy, “We no longer hear the Lord speak.” – George Washington Carver

“Critical thinking is thinking about your thinking, while you’re thinking, in order to make your thinking better.” – Richard Paul

“If you would discipline yourself, others wouldn’t have to.” – John Wooden

“The grass isn’t greener on the other side; it’s greener where you water it.” – Sam Ovens

“Consistency, thou art a jewel.” – William Shakespeare

“Never a day without a line.” – Apelles

“[Your sketchbook is] not a holy relic; use the thing.” – Stefan Baumann

“You can’t do sketches enough. Sketch everything and keep your curiosity fresh.” – John Singer Sargent

“There are no rules, only tools.” – Glenn Vilpuu

“If you have difficulty with something, then you study it until it’s not such a problem.” – Glenn Vilpuu

“The greater contains the less – the artist who can conquer a difficulty can certainly do what is easy.” – G. Fraipont, The Art of Sketching

“Painting is concerned with all the 10 attributes of sight; which are: Darkness, Light, Solidity and Colour, Form and Position, Distance and Propinquity, Motion and Rest.” – Leonardo da Vinci

“The skill of an artist is seen in what they leave out.” – ?

“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” – ? (read more)

“When your painting is about everything, then by default it’s about nothing.” – Nathan Fowkes

“Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.” – Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

“Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.” – Pablo Picasso

“Adults follow paths. Children explore.” – Neil Gaiman

“Seeing is forgetting the name of the thing one sees.” – Paul Valery

“Be always searching . . . you can have no formulas for anything . . . don’t learn how to do things, keep on inquiring how.” – Charles Hawthorne

“Suggestion is better illustration than fact.” – Harry Carmean (via Michael Spooner)

“Take the best that exists and make it better. When it does not exist, design it.” – Sir Henry Royce

“Professionals identify and solve specific problems.” ~ Steve Mitchell (paraphrase)

“Finished, not perfect.” – Jake Parker

“Just do it!” – Nike

“Create fearlessly.” – Jazza

“Have no fear in your drawing.” – Ronnie Williford

“Everything you want is on the other side of fear.” – Jack Canfield

“What consumes your mind, controls your life.” – Cait Flanders

“Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow; it empties today of its strength.” – Corrie ten Boom

“Keep your big mouth shut; let the audience decide whether they like it or not.” – Iain McCaig

“If you want to be a great artist, you need a great life” – Iain McCaig

“Take rest; a field that has rested gives a bountiful crop.” – Ovid

“For peace of mind, resign as general manager of the Universe.” – Larry Eisenberg

“Innovation is saying ‘No’ to 1,000 things.” – Steve Jobs

“Only put off until tomorrow what you are willing to die having left undone.” – Pablo Picasso

“There is no limit to the amount of good you can do if you don’t care who gets the credit.” – Ronald Reagan

“There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self.” – Ernest Hemingway

“A good character is the best tombstone. Those who loved you and were helped by you will remember you when forget-me-nots have withered. Carve your name on hearts, not on marble.” – Charles Spurgeon

“Do things for people not because of who they are or what they do in return, but because of who you are.” – Harold Kushner

“Be the change you want to see in the world.” – ? (read more)

“It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.” – Frederick Douglass

“By default, your ego always wants to be right. Your ego will fight for a future that you don’t even want.” – Michael Jr.

“Nobody cares how much you know, until they know how much you care.” – Theodore Roosevelt

“The true mark of maturity is when somebody hurts you and you try to understand their situation instead of trying to hurt them back.” – ?

“We cannot change history, but with love we can heal the future.” – Kim Phuc Phan Thi

“He that cannot forgive others, breaks the bridge over which he must pass himself; for every man has need to be forgiven.” – Lord Herbert

“To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you.” – Lewis B. Smedes

“Forgiveness is an act of the will, and the will can function regardless of the temperature of the heart.” – Corrie ten Boom

“Forgiveness is the fragrance that the violet sheds on the heel that has crushed it.” – Mark Twain

“Write kindness in marble and write injuries in the dust.” – Persian Proverb

“You have enemies? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life.” – Winston Churchill

“Isn’t it funny how day by day nothing changes, but when you look back, everything is different . . .” – C. S. Lewis

“Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?” “That depends a great deal on where you want to get to,” said the Cat. “I don’t much care where,” said Alice. “Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,” said the Cat. – Alice in Wonderland

“What you don’t change, you choose.” – ?

“Time is an equal opportunity employer.” – Dennis Waitley

“Learning never exhausts the mind.” – Leonardo da Vinci

“Iron rusts from disuse; water loses its purity from stagnation . . . even so does inaction sap the vigour of the mind.” – Leonardo da Vinci

“When you have exhausted all possibilities, remember this: you haven’t.” – Thomas Edison

“All you can do is all you can do.” – Art Williams

“The harder you work the luckier you get.” – Jerry Barber

“One may go a long way after one is tired.” – French Proverb

“You don’t learn to walk by following rules. You learn by doing, and by falling over.” – Richard Branson

“Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working.” – Pablo Picasso

“Inspiration is for amateurs. The rest of us just show up and get to work.” – Chuck Close

“You just can’t beat the person who never gives up.” – Babe Ruth

“Cowards die many times before their deaths, the valiant never taste of death but once.” – William Shakespeare

“He who sweats more in training, bleeds less in war.” – Spartan Warrior Proverb

“Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars.” – Kahlil Gibran

“Don’t practice till you get it right; practice till you can’t get it wrong.” – ?

“The difficult things take a long time; the impossible, a little longer.” – ?

“Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.” – Henry Ford

“Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.” – Winston Churchill

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.” – Will Durant

“Our greatest fear should not be of failure, but of succeeding at something that doesn’t really matter.” – D. L. Moody

“Nearly every man who develops an idea works at it up to the point where it looks impossible, and then gets discouraged. that’s not the place to become discouraged.” – Thomas Edison

“The strongest is he that makes use of his opponent’s strength – be the bamboo tree which bends toward the wind; and when the wind ceases, it springs back stronger than before.” – Bruce Lee

“Nothing in the world is more yielding and softer than water; yet it penetrates the hardest. Insubstantial, it enters where no room is. It is so fine that it is impossible to grasp a handful of it; strike it, yet it does not suffer hurt; stab it, and it is not wounded.” – Bruce Lee

“Do not pray for an easy life, pray for the strength to endure a difficult one.” – Bruce Lee

“The man who fiddles around seldom gets to lead the orchestra.” – E. C. McKenzie

“If you want something you’ve never had, you must be willing to do something you’ve never done.” – Thomas Jefferson 

“The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.” – Steve Jobs

“I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.” – Confucius

“Life is a succession of lessons which must be lived to be understood.” – Helen Keller

“God allows us to experience the low points of life in order to teach us lessons that we could learn in no other way.” – C. S. Lewis

“There are three classes of people: those who see, those who see when they are shown, those who do not see.” – Leonardo da Vinci

“If a man is called a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and Earth will pause to say, ‘Here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.’” – Martin Luther King Jr.

“It had long come to my attention that people of accomplishment rarely sat back and let things happen to them. They went out and happened to things.” – Leonardo da Vinci

“Wise men speak because they have something to say; Fools because they have to say something.” – Plato

“Have more than thou showest, Speak less than thou knowest . . .” – William Shakespeare

“When you feel like giving up, remember why you held on for so long in the first place.” – ?

“Friendship improves happiness and abates misery, by the doubling of our joy and the dividing of our grief.” – Marcus Tullius Cicero

“If I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter.” – ? (read more)

“Yes is nothing without how.” – Chris Voss, Never Split the Difference

“Nothing is begun and perfected at the same time.” – preface to the KJV, 1611

“Never ask a barber if you need a haircut.” – Warren Buffett

“Always laugh when you can. It is cheap medicine.” – Lord Byron

“Investing in yourself is the best thing you can do. If you’ve got talents, no one can take them from you.” – Warren Buffett

“It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts.” – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes

“When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.” – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes

“There is that scattereth, and yet increaseth; and there is that withholdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty.” – Solomon, Proverbs 11:24

“In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.” – Paul, 1 Thessalonians 5:18

“Don’t worry about failures, worry about the chances you miss when you don’t even try.” – Jack Canfield

“Watch for big problems; they disguise big opportunities.” – H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

“It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer.” – Albert Einstein

“Everyone is a genius; but if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” – ? (read more)

“In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, in the expert’s mind there are few.” – Shunryu Suzuki

“Ignorance, there’s no authority in the world like it.” – Orson Welles

“You don’t know what cannot be done.” – Gregg Toland

“And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” – Christ Jesus, John 8:32

“Truth exists; only lies are invented.” – Georges Braque

Parkinson’s Law #21: “Just because something seems impossible, doesn’t mean it isn’t easy.” – T. S. Parkinson

“The only barrier to truth is the presumption that you already have it.” – Chuck Missler

“Falsehoods not only disagree with truth, but usually quarell among themselves.” – D. L. Moody

“Sometimes people don’t want to hear the truth because they don’t want their illusions destroyed.” – Friedrich Nietzsche

“There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which is proof against all argument, and which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance. This principle is, contempt prior to examination.” – William Paley

“You do ill if you praise, but worse if you censure, what you do not understand.” – Leonardo da Vinci

“The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.” – Mark Twain

“Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for Thou hast created all things, and for Thy pleasure they are and were created.” – the 24 elders, Revelation 4:11

“May God’s grace give you the necessary humility. Try not to think—much less, speak—of their sins. One’s own are a much more profitable theme! And if on consideration, one can find no faults on one’s own side, then cry for mercy: for this must be a most dangerous delusion.” – C. S. Lewis

“It cost God nothing, so far as we know, to create nice things: but to convert rebellious wills cost him crucifixion.” – C. S. Lewis

“I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen – not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.” – C. S. Lewis

“Man cannot live without joy; therefore when he is deprived of true spiritual joys it is necessary that he become addicted to carnal pleasures.” – Thomas Aquinas

“Satan is so much more in earnest than we are – he buys up the opportunity while we are wondering how much it will cost.” – Amy Carmichael

“I always say there is no coincidence, only Diosidence.” – William Rodriguez, Minister of Tourism, Costa Rica

“If we could see it from God’s perspective, it would make perfect sense.” – Robert Wall

“Faith grows as one acquaints himself with the Scriptures.” – George Müller

“Pray as though everything depended on God. Work as though everything depended on you.” – Augustine

“If I take care of my character, my reputation will take care of itself.” – D. L. Moody

“And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise.” – Christ Jesus, Luke 6:31

“The humble Carpenter of Nazareth is also the mighty Architect of the Universe.” – ?

“I dare quote myself.” – Nathan Parkinson 🙂

“If you’ve forgotten, remember, learning is fun!” – Nathan Parkinson

“Learn like a child: play with what interests you.” – Nathan Parkinson

“I am an explorer; there is no destination; the journey is all I’ve got.” – Nathan Parkinson

“If you want to say something really loudly, shut up and do it.” – Nathan Parkinson

“Fear’s job is to paralyze me. My job is to prevent fear from doing its job.” – Nathan Parkinson

“Work to have to give.” – Nathan Parkinson (Ephesians 4:28; Proverbs 21:26)

“Some things are best said with actions.” – Nathan Parkinson

“I don’t want fame yet; I don’t even know how to handle obscurity.” – Nathan Parkinson

“Be kind to others; it’s for your own good.” – Nathan Parkinson

“The learning is in the doing.” – Nathan Parkinson

“Get back up like a baby.” – Nathan Parkinson

“I like to dance on the edge of a dream.” – Nathan Parkinson