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May Quotes

Browse 29779 quotes about May.

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May Quotes

“When we hear complaints of the wretchedness or vanity of human life, the proper answer to them would be that there is hardly any one who at some point or other has not been in love. If we consider the high abstraction of this feeling, its depth, its purity, its voluptuous refinement, even in the meanest breast, how sacred and how sweet it is, this alone may reconcile us to the lot of humanity. That drop of balm turns the bitter cup to a delicious nectar.”

IfsLoveHumansMayFeelingsWould BeHumanityTurnsAnswersSweetSacredDepthBitterCupsVanityHuman LifePurityBreastsComplaintsDeliciousAbstractionReconcileRefinementBeen In LoveWretchednessNectarVoluptuous
Book:The Round Table. A collection of Essays ... By W. H. and Leigh Hunt
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“Any woman may act the part of a coquette successfully who has the reputation without the scruples of modesty. If a woman passes the bounds of propriety for our sakes, and throws herself unblushingly at our heads, we conclude it is either from a sudden and violent liking, or from extraordinary merit on our parts, either of which is enough to turn any man's head who has a single spark of gallantry or vanity in his composition.”

IfsMenMayEnoughTurnsWomenExtraordinaryBoundsSakeViolentReputationVanityMeritSparksModestyCompositionProprietyScruplesGallantryCoquette
Author:William Hazlitt
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“We cannot by a little verbal sophistry confound the qualities of different minds, nor force opposite excellences into a union by all the intolerance in the world. If we have a taste for some one precise style or manner, we may keep it to ourselves and let others have theirs. If we are more catholic in our notions, and want variety of excellence and beauty, it is spread abroad for us to profusion in the variety of books and in the several growth of men's minds, fettered by no capricious or arbitrary rules.”

IfsMenWorldWantMindMayLittlesBookDifferentForceGrowthQualityStyleTasteOppositesCatholicUnionsExcellenceNotionSpreadVarietyIntolerancePreciseArbitraryCapriciousSophistryDifferent Minds
Author:William Hazlitt
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“A common obstruction to a vital intimate relationship is what I call the assumption of clairvoyance. You imagine, perhaps unconsciously, that your partner or friend is somehow magically psychic when it comes to you -\-\ so much so that he or she should unfailingly intuit exactly what you need, even if you don't ask for it. This fantasy may seem romantic, but it can undermine the most promising alliances. To counteract any tendencies you might have to indulge in the assumption of clairvoyance, practice stating your desires aloud.”

IfsNeedsShouldMaySeemsMightDesireAsksCommonPracticeFantasyImaginePartnersTendenciesIntimateAssumptionPsychicsIndulgeAlliancesIndulge InObstructionIntimate RelationshipsClairvoyance
Author:Rob Brezsny
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“Hamlet 's character is the prevalence of the abstracting and generalizing habit over the practical. He does not want courage, skill, will, or opportunity; but every incident sets him thinking; and it is curious, and at the same time strictly natural, that Hamlet, who all the play seems reason itself, should he impelled, at last, by mere accident to effect his object. I have a smack of Hamlet myself, if I may say so.”

IfsThinkingWantShouldMayDoeReasonPlayCharacterSeemsLastsOpportunityNaturalEffectsObjectsHabitSkillsMereAccidentsPracticalsCuriousIncidentsSmack
Book:The Complete Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge: With an Introductory Essay Upon His Philosophical and Theological Opinions
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“It is saying less than the truth to affirm that an excellent book (and the remark holds almost equally good of a Raphael as of a Milton) is like a well-chosen and well-tended fruit tree. Its fruits are not of one season only. With the due and natural intervals, we may recur to it year after year, and it will supply the same nourishment and the same gratification, if only we ourselves return to it with the same healthful appetite.”

IfsYearsWellsMayBookNaturalTreeReturnSeasonsFruitDuesChosenExcellentAppetiteRemarksGratificationNourishmentIntervalsMiltonRaphaelFruit TreesSaying Less
Book:The Complete Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge: With an Introductory Essay Upon His Philosophical and Theological Opinions
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“When earth as if on evil dreams Looks back upon her wars, And the white light of Christ outstreams From the red disc of Mars, His fame, who led the stormy van Of battle, well may cease; But never that which crowns the man Whose victory was peace.”

IfsMenWellsLooksMayWarDreamLightEarthEvilChristWhiteHe ManVictoryBattleFameRedCeaseCrownsMarsVansStormyDiscsWhite LightLight Of Christ
Book:Poems of John Greenleaf Whittier
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“May it not be asked of every intelligent friend to the liberties of his country, whether the power exercised in such an act as this ought not to produce great and universal alarm? Whether a rigid execution of such an act, in time past, would not have repressed that information and communication among the people which is indispensable to the just exercise of their electoral rights? And whether such an act, if made perpetual, and enforced with rigor, would not, in time to come, either destroy our free system of government, or prepare a convulsion that might prove equally fatal to it?”

PeopleIfsMayMadeCountryGovernmentMightPastLibertyRightsInformationProduceCommunicationOughtExerciseProveUniversalConstitutionIntelligentPerpetualExecutionIndispensableAlarmsRepressedRigorSystems Of GovernmentTimes PastInformation And Communication
Book:The Debates in the Several State Conventions on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution: As Recommended by the General Convention at Philadelphia in 1787. Together with the Journal of the Federal Convention, Luther Martin's Letter, Yates's Minutes, Congressional Opinions, Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions of '98-'99, and Other Illustrations of the Constitution
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“The continual whine of lamenting the burden of taxes, however successfully it may be practiced in mixed governments, is inconsistent with the sense and spirit of a republic. If taxes are necessary, they are of course advantageous, but if they require an apology, the apology itself implies an impeachment. Why, then, is man imposed upon, or why does he impose upon himself?”

IfsMenMayDoeGovernmentSpiritCoursesTaxesBurdenRepublicApologyInconsistentImpeachment
Book:The Works of Thomas Paine: A Hero in the American Revolution. With an Account of His Life ...
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“Body and spirit I surrendered whole To harsh instructors and received a soul... If mortal man could change me through and through From all I was What may the God not do?”

IfsMenMaySoulWholeBodySpiritMortalsHarshInstructors
Book:The Complete Works of Rudyard Kipling (Illustrated): 5 Novels & 440+ Short Stories, Complete Poetry, Historical Military Works and Autobiographical Writings (Kim, The Jungle Book, The Man Who Would Be King, Land and Sea Tales, Captain Courageous…)
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“If I may throw out a word of counsel to beginners, it is: Treasure your exceptions! When there are none, the work gets so dull that no one cares to carry it further. Keep them always uncovered and in sight. Exceptions are like the rough brickwork of a growing building which tells that there is more to come and shows where the next construction is to be.”

IfsMayShowsCareNextGrowingBuildingSightTreasureDullExceptionRoughConstructionBeginnersNo One Cares
Book:William Bateson, F. R. S., Naturalist: His Essays & Addresses, Together with a Short Account of His Life
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“Pain is temporary. It may last a minute, or an hour, or a day, or a year, but eventually it will subside and something else will take its place. If I quit, however, it lasts forever.”

IfsInspirationalYearsMayMotivationalRunningPainLastsTimeSportsGoalHoursForeverMinutesGiving UpDeterminationPerseveranceAthleteQuittingMotivational SportsTemporaryReplacedDayBad AssInspirational SportsAthleticBodybuildingInspirational RunningToughnessI QuitReplacementsMotivational RunningMotivational Inspirational SportsGreat SportsAthlete MotivationalKeep RunningMental StrengthBest SportsReaching Your GoalsShort SportsShort Inspirational SportsGreatest SportsCross Country RunningShort Motivational SportsProfessional AthleteGreat Inspirational SportsGreat DeterminationMental ToughnessGreat Motivational SportsGreatest AthleteAthletic MotivationalAthletic InspirationalLove PainGym FitnessMotivational BodybuildingRace MotivationalGreat AthleticGym WorkoutBreast Cancer InspirationPerseverance SportsCrossfitLove Is PainMotivational SoftballPain Is TemporaryToughness In SportsMotivational SpeechSports Mental Toughness
Author:Lance Armstrong
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“The amazing thing is that throughout Scripture and history it seems God has chosen the most seemingly unlikely and unqualified people to fulfill his plan and purpose on the earth. Most often, the response of those people has been to insist on their own unworthiness. And if they don’t-the people around them may do so, loudly and shrilly. And therein lies a danger: If we allow other people to tell us what we are and are not qualified to do, we will limit what God wants to do with us.”

PeopleIfsWantMayHas BeensSeemsEarthLyingPurposePlansDangerLimitsResponseScriptureChosenUnlikelyQualifiedAmazing ThingsUnqualified
Author:Christine Caine
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“Virtue is the habit of acting according to wisdom. GOTTFRIED WILHELM LEIBNIZ, "Felicity", Leibniz: Political Writings Virtue is harder to be got than knowledge of the world; and, if lost in a young man, is seldom recovered. JOHN LOCKE, Some Thoughts Concerning Education However wicked men may be, they do not dare openly to appear the enemies of virtue, and when they desire to persecute her they either pretend to believe her false or attribute crimes to her.”

IfsMenWorldWritingBelieveMayYoungPoliticalDesireLostActingEnemyVirtueCrimeHabitHarderDareYoung ManWickedAttributesFelicityWicked ManKnowledge Of The WorldPolitical Writing
Author:Francois de La Rochefoucauld
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“But if there has been on this earth no real, perfect human life, no love that never cooled, no faith that never failed, which may shine as a loadstar across the darkness of our experience, a light to light amidst all convictions of our own meanness and all suspicions of other's littleness, why, we may have a religion, but we have not a Christianity. For if we lose Him as a Brother, we cannot feel Him as a Saviour.”

IfsFeelsHumansMayHas BeensRealLightEarthLosesPerfectChristianityDarknessBrotherShiningConvictionHuman LifeSuspicionSaviourNo LoveMeanness
Book:Sermons Preached at Brighton
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“Before one goes through the gate one may not be aware there is a gate One may think there is a gate to go through and look a long time for it without finding it One may find it and it may not open If it opens one may be through it As one goes through it one sees that the gate one went through was the self that went through it no one went through a gate there was no gate to go through no one ever found a gate no one ever realized there was never a gate”

IfsThinkingLooksMayLongSelfFoundFindingsLong TimeGates
Book:Knots
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“Received as I am by the members of a legislature the majority of whom do not agree with me in political sentiments, I trust that I may have their assistance in piloting the ship of state through this voyage, surrounded by perils as it is; for if it should suffer wreck now, there will be no pilot ever needed for another voyage.”

IfsShouldMayStatesPoliticalSufferingNeededMembersAgreeMajorityShipsSentimentsPilotsAssistancePerilWrecksVoyagesLegislature
Book:The Complete Papers And Writings Of Abraham Lincoln (Biographically Annotated Edition)
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“I am a patient man--always willing to forgive on the Christian terms of repentance, and also to give ample time for repentance. Still, I must save this government, if possible. What I cannot do, of course I will not do, but it may as well be understood, once for all, that I shall not surrender this game leaving any available card unplayed.”

IfsMenGivingWellsMayStillsGovernmentChristianCoursesGamesTermWillingUnderstoodForgivingPatientLeavingAvailableSurrenderCardsRepentance
Book:The collected works of Abraham Lincoln
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“Let none falter who thinks he is right, and we may succeed. But if, after all, we shall fail, be it so: we still shall have the proud consolation of saying to our consciences, and to the departed shade of our country's freedom, that the cause approved of our judgment and adored of our hearts, in disaster, in chains, in torture, in death, we never faltered in defending.”

IfsThinkingHeartMayStillsCountryCausesFailingProudSucceedJudgmentConscienceDisasterOur CountryChainsTortureShadeConsolationApprovedDeparted
Book:The Complete Papers And Writings Of Abraham Lincoln (Biographically Annotated Edition)
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“Darwinian evolution may be the most truthful and powerful idea ever generated by Western Science, but if we continue to illustrate our conviction with an indefensible, unsupported, entirely speculative, and basically rather silly story, then we are clothing a thing of beauty in rags - and we should be ashamed, "for the apparel oft proclaims the man.”

IfsMenShouldMayIdeasStoriesPowerfulHe ManEvolutionWesternConvictionSillyAshamedClothingsTruthfulRagsApparel
Book:Leonardo's Mountain of Clams and the Diet of Worms: Essays on Natural History
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“We may need simple and heroic legends for that peculiar genre of literature known as the textbook. But historians must also labor to rescue human beings from their legends in science if only so that we may understand the process of scientific thought aright.”

IfsNeedsHumansMayLiteratureProcessHuman BeingsSimpleKnownLaborGenreHistorianPeculiarLegendsHeroicRescueTextbooks
Book:The Flamingo's Smile: Reflections in Natural History
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“Since the universe must contain millions of appropriate planets, consciousness in some form - but not with the paired eyes and limbs, and the brain built of neurons in the only example we know - may evolve frequently. But if only one origin of life in a million ever leads to consciousness, then Martian bacteria most emphatically do not imply Little Green Men.”

IfsKnowsMenMayLittlesEyeFormUniverseBrainConsciousnessMillionsExamplePlanetsBuiltGreenEvolveAppropriateLimbsNeuronsBacteriaOrigin Of LifeMartians
Book:Leonardo's Mountain of Clams and the Diet of Worms: Essays on Natural History
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“A license cannot be revoked because a man is red-headed or because he was divorced, except for a calling, if such there be, for which red-headedness or an unbroken marriage may have some rational bearing. If a State licensing agency lays bare its arbitrary action, or if the State law explicitly allows it to act arbitrarily, that is precisely the kind of State action which the Due Process Clause forbids.”

IfsMenKindMayStatesActionLawProcessCallingLaysDuesRationalAgencyLicenseArbitraryDivorcedUnbrokenClausesDue ProcessLicensing
Author:Felix Frankfurter
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“Fashion is not style. Nay, we can say more: Fashion is instead of style. Style is an idiom springing spontaneously from the personality but deliberately maintained. If you have no personality, you may be able to save your face and, possibly, your entire anatomy by following the current fashion, but all we shall know about you, when we see you coming down the street, is that you had enough money to buy a glossy magazine and were sufficiently cunning to work out the cut of the garments shown therein.”

IfsKnowsMayEnoughAbleFacesCuttingStreetsFashionStylePersonalityCurrentsFollowingWork OutMagazinesYour FaceCunningGarmentsHad EnoughAnatomyIdiom
Author:Quentin Crisp
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“There are various methods by which you may achieve ignominy and shame. By murdering a large and respected family in cold blood and afterward depositing their bodies in the water companies' reservoir, you will gain much unpopularity in the neighborhood of your crime, and even robbing a church will get you cordially disliked, especially by the vicar. But if you desire to drain to the dregs the fullest cup of scorn and hatred that a fellow human creature can pour out for you, let a young mother hear you call dear baby "it.”

IfsHumansMayBodyYoungMotherDesireWaterChurchCompanyBloodAchieveCrimeBabyColdCreaturesGainsHatredShameMethodFellowsDearVariousCupsNeighborhoodScornDrainsReservoirsRobbingDregsVicarsYoung MotherIgnominy
Book:Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow
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“It seemed clear to me that life and the world somehow depended upon me now. I may almost say that the world now seemed created for me alone: if I shot myself the world would cease to be at least for me. I say nothing of its being likely that nothing will exist for anyone when I am gone, and that as soon as my consciousness is extinguished the whole world will vanish too and become void like a phantom , as a mere appurtenance of my consciousness, for possibly all this world and all these people are only me myself.”

PeopleIfsWorldMayWholeConsciousnessGoneClearThis WorldShotsMereCeaseWhole WorldVoidMe AlonePhantoms
Author:Fyodor Dostoevsky
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“In obedience to the feeling of reality, we shall insist that, in the analysis of propositions, nothing "unreal" is to be admitted. But, after all, if there is nothing unreal, how, it may be asked, could we admit anything unreal? The reply is that, in dealing with propositions, we are dealing in the first instance with symbols, and if we attribute significance to groups of symbols which have no significance, we shall fall into the error of admitting unrealities, in the only sense in which this is possible, namely, as objects described.”

IfsFirstsMayFeelingsRealityFallGroupsObjectsErrorsInstanceSymbolsObedienceAnalysisSignificanceAttributesPropositionsUnrealAdmittingUnreality
Book:Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy
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“In other things the knowing artist may Judge better than the people; but a play, (Made for delight, and for no other use) If you approve it not, has no excuse.”

PeopleIfsMayMadePlayUseArtistActingKnowingJudgingDelightExcuseNo Excuses
Book:The Poetical Works of Edmund Waller. From Mr. Fenton's Quarto Edition, 1729. With the Life of the Author ... Embellished with Superb Engravings [including a Portrait.]
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“Of course my moods change, but the average is serenity. I have a firm faith in art, a firm confidence in its being a powerful stream which carries a man to a harbor, though he himself must do his bit too; at all events, I think it such a great blessing when a man has found his work that I cannot count myself among the unfortunate. I mean, I may be in certain relatively great difficulties, and there may be gloomy days in my life, but I shouldn't like to be counted among the unfortunate, nor would it be correct if I were.”

IfsThinkingMenMayMeanArtCertainCoursesFoundBitsPowerfulEventsBlessingDifficultyAverageMoodFirmStreamsCarrieSerenityUnfortunateHarborsGloomyMood Changes
Book:Van Gogh's
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“I think Miss Moore was right to cut "The Steeple-Jack" - the poem seems plainer and clearer in its shortened state but she has cut too much... The reader may feel like saying, "Let her do as she pleases with the poem; it's hers, isn't it?" No; it's much too good a poem for that, it long ago became everybody's, and we can protest just as we could if Donatello cut off David's left leg.”

IfsThinkingFeelsMayLongStatesSeemsLeftToo MuchCuttingMissingReaderPleaseLegsProtestLong AgoSteeplesDonatello
Author:Randall Jarrell
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