Escritas — Poems List

Pope John Paul II (Karol Wojtyla)

Science can purify religion from

Science can purify religion from error and superstition. Religion can purify science from idolatry and false absolutes.

20

Queen Victoria

I feel sure that no

I feel sure that no girl would go to the altar if she knew all.

40

Epictetus

It is the action of

It is the action of an uninstructed person to reproach others for his own misfortune; of one entering instruction, to reproach himself; and one perfectly instructed, to reproach neither others nor himself.

53

Robert Louis Stevenson

To be what we are,

To be what we are, and to become what we are capable of becoming, is the only end of life.

168

Winston Churchill

Man will occasionally stumble over

Man will occasionally stumble over the truth, but usually manages to pick himself up, walk over or around it, and carry on.

65

Rose Macauley

You should always believe what

You should always believe what you read in the newspapers, for that makes them more interesting.

10

William Shakespeare

He that is giddy thinks

He that is giddy thinks the world turns round.

157

Wilfred Funk

The more words you know,

The more words you know, the more clearly and powerfully you will think and the more ideas you will invite into your mind.

28

e. e. cummings

To be nobody but yourself

To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best day and night to make you everybody else means to fight the hardest battle any human being can fight and never stop fighting.

386

Marlene Dietrich

I was raised almost entirely

I was raised almost entirely on turnips and potatoes, but I think that the turnips had more to do with the effect than the potatoes.

100

William Shakespeare

My tongue will tell the

My tongue will tell the anger of mine heart, Or else my heart, concealing it, will break.

130

Mark Twain

All say, How hard it

All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"--a strange complaint to come from the mouths of people who have had to live.

98

Nancy Mitford

I love children --- especially

I love children --- especially when they cry, for then someone takes them away.

51

Baltasar Gracian

Attempt easy tasks as if

Attempt easy tasks as if they were difficult, and difficult as if they were easy; in the one case that confidence may not fall asleep, in the other that it may not be dismayed.

59

Mark Twain

Why is it that we

Why is it that we rejoice at a birth and grieve at a funeral? It is because we are not the person involved.

119

William Shakespeare

But no perfection is so

But no perfection is so absolute, That some impurity doth not pollute.

178

Iris Murdoch

The cry of equality pulls

The cry of equality pulls everyone down.

27

Douglas Adams

I find the whole business

I find the whole business of religion profoundly interesting. But it does mystify me that otherwise intelligent people take it seriously.

68

Eric Hoffer

He who has nothing and

He who has nothing and wants something is less frustrated than he who has something and wants more.

31

Dylan Thomas

You are the most beautiful

You are the most beautiful girl that has ever lived, and it is worth dying to have kissed you.

147

Jane Austen

For what do we live,

For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbors and laugh at them in our turn?

69

Ayn Rand

Civilization is the process of

Civilization is the process of setting man free from men.

118

Oscar Levant

When you give up drinking,

When you give up drinking, you have to deal with that wonderful personality that started you drinking in the first place.

79

Frederick Buechner

Despair has been called the

Despair has been called the unforgivable sin--not presumably because God refuses to forgive it but because it despairs of the possibility of being forgiven.

76