Some of my favourite quotations that I’ve come across over the years. Proverbs, prominent individuals, books and media. These are the thoughts that make me pause and reflect.

“Don’t walk in front of me, I may not follow; Don’t walk behind me, I may not lead; Walk beside me, and just be my friend.” ― Albert Camus

“The reasonable man adapts himself to the world. The unreasonable man persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. All progress, therefore, depends upon the unreasonable man.” ― George Bernard Shaw

“When you are studying any matter, or considering any philosophy, ask yourself only what are the facts and what is the truth that the facts bear out. Never let yourself be diverted either by what you wish to believe, or by what you think would have beneficent social effects if it were believed. But look only, and solely, at what are the facts.” ― Bertrand Russell

“The good thing about science is that it’s true whether or not you believe in it.” ― Neil deGrasse Tyson

“I am against religion because it teaches us to be satisfied with not understanding the world.” ― Richard Dawkins

“Men never commit evil so fully and joyfully as when they do it for religious convictions.” ― Blaise Pascal

“A man’s ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death.” ― Albert Einstein

“It is far better to grasp the universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.” ― Carl Sagan

“I have noticed even people who claim everything is predestined, and that we can do nothing to change it, look before they cross the road.” ― Stephen Hawking

“One of the great tragedies of mankind is that morality has been hijacked by religion.” ― Arthur C. Clarke

“Is all that we see or seem But a dream within a dream?” ― Edgar Allen Poe

“In the depth of winter I finally learned that there was in me an invincible summer.” ― Albert Camus

“The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.” ― Albert Camus

“Don’t believe your friends when they ask you to be honest with them. All they really want is to be maintained in the good opinion they have of themselves.” ― Albert Camus

“Battle not with monsters, lest ye become a monster, and if you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.” ― Friedrich Nietzsche

“This too shall pass.” ― Turkish Proverb

“Two possibilities exist: either we are alone in the Universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying.” ― Arthur C. Clarke

“Be humble for you are made of earth. Be noble for you are made of stars.” ― Serbian Proverb

“Day before yesterday I saw a rabbit, and yesterday a deer, and today, you.” ― Robert F. Young, The Dandelion Girl

“How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.” ― Annie Dillard

“I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.” ― Frank Herbert

“To live in hearts we leave behind is not to die.” ― Thomas Campbell

“The greatest pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do.” ― Walter Bagehot

“I have loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night.” ― Sarah Williams

“We knew the world would not be the same. Few people laughed, few people cried, most people were silent. I remembered the line from the Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad-Gita. Vishnu is trying to persuade the Prince that he should do his duty and to impress him takes on his multi-armed form and says, ‘Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.’ I suppose we all thought that, one way or another.” ― Robert Oppenheimer

“Some people die at 25 and aren’t buried until 75.” ― Benjamin Franklin

“How strange and foolish is man. He loses his health in gaining wealth. Then, to regain his health he wastes his wealth. He ruins his present while worrying about his future, but weeps in the future by recalling his past. He lives as though death shall never come to him, but dies in a way as if he were never born.” ― Imam Ali

“I’ve survived a lot of things, and I’ll probably survive this.” ― J.D. Salinger

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

“I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul.” ― Invictus by William Ernest Henley

“We judge ourselves by our intentions and others by their behaviour.” ― Stephen M.R. Covey

“Years of love have been forgot, in the hatred of a minute.” ― Edgar Allan Poe

“Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.” ― Oscar Wilde

“A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in.” ― Greek Proverb

“You have no responsibility to live up to what other people think you ought to accomplish. I have no responsibility to be like they expect me to be. It’s their mistake, not my failing.” ― Richard P. Feynman

“The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts.” ― Bertrand Russell

“Just because you’re offended doesn’t mean you’re right.” ― Ricky Gervais

“Be soft. Do not let the world make you hard. Do not let the pain make you hate. Do not let the bitterness steal your sweetness. Take pride that even though the rest of the world may disagree, you still believe it to be a beautiful place.” ― Iain S. Thomas

“I may not have been sure about what really did interest me, but I was absolutely sure about what didn’t.” ― Albert Camus, The Stranger

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. ― A Psalm of David. Psalms 23:4

“If we do discover a complete theory, it should in time be understandable in broad principle by everyone, not just a few scientists. Then we shall all, philosophers, scientists, and just ordinary people, be able to take part in the discussion of the question of why it is that we and the universe exist. If we find the answer to that, it would be the ultimate triumph of human reason—for then we would know the mind of God.” ― Stephen Hawking

“There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.” ― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King

“We are like butterflies who flutter for a day and think it is forever.” ― Carl Sagan, Cosmos