Quotes for Journal Writing

These quotes require students to write what they think the quote or idea means and then write how the idea applies to their lives.

1. “All shall be well and all shall be well and all manner of things shall be well.” – Julian of Norwich
2. “Normality is a fine ideal for those who have no imagination.” – Carl Jung
3. “Everybody is a genius. But, if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will spend its whole life believing that it is stupid.” – Einstein
4. “The best way to predict the future is to invent it.” – Alan Kay
5. “We act as though comfort and luxury were the chief requirements of life, when all that we need to make us happy is something to be enthusiastic about.” – Einstein
6. “I made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it short.” – Blaise Pascal
7. “God wisely designed the human body so that we can neither pat our own backs nor kick ourselves too easily.” – Unknown
8. “It takes no more time to see the good side of life than it takes to see the bad.” – Jimmy Buffet
9. “There is a part of me that wants to write, a part that wants to theorize, a part that wants to sculpt, a part that wants to teach…. To force myself into a single role, to decide to be just one thing in life, would kill off large parts of me.” -H. Prather
10. “Dance as if no one is watching. Sing as if no one is listening. Love as if you have never been hurt.” -Unknown
11. “Maturity is the ability to do a job whether or not you are supervised, to carry money without spending it, and to bear an injustice without wanting to get even.”- Ann Landers
12. “A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.” – Winston Churchill
13. “Success is a journey, not a destination.” – Ben Sweetland
14. “Success is knowing what your values are and living in a way consistent with your values.” – Danny Cox
15. “Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.” – Robert F. Kennedy
16. “I am opposed to millionaires, but it would be dangerous to offer me the position.” – Mark Twain
17. “Remember, happiness doesn’t depend upon who you are or what you have; it depends solely on what you think.” – Dale Carnegie
18. “Find a job that you love doing and you will never have to work a day in your life.” – Confucius
19. “May you live all the days of your life.” – Unknown
20. “Natural abilities are like natural plants; they need pruning by study.” – Francis Bacon
21. “The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who cannot read them.” – Mark Twain
22. “I’m never bored anywhere; being bored is an insult to oneself.” – Jules Renard
23. “Life is short; art is long.” – Hippocrates
24. “Our plans miscarry because they have no aim. When you don’t know what harbor you’re aiming for, no wind is the right wind.” – Seneca
25. “The greatest discovery is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitudes of mind.” – William James
26. “If there is no dull and determined effort, there will be no brilliant achievement.” – Hsun-tzu
27. “He who could learn to fly must first learn to walk and run and climb and dance; one cannot fly into flying.” – Nietzsche
28. “Live every act fully, as if it were your last.” – Buddha
29. “It’s not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves.” – Sir Edmund Hillary
30. “No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.” – John Donne
31. “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” – Lord Acton
32. “Those who can’t remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” – George Santayana
33. “I dislike arguments of any kind; they are always vulgar and often convincing.” – Oscar Wilde
34. “Winning isn’t everything; it’s the only thing.” – Vince Lombardy
35. “Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large numbers.” – Unknown
36. “Curiosity is one of the permanent and certain characteristics of a vigorous mind.” – Unknown
37. “Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.” – Theodore Roosevelt
38. “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.”- Eleanor Roosevelt
39. “Millions say the apple fell, but Newton was the one to ask why.” – Bernard M. Baruch
40. “There can be no surer sign of decay in a country than to see the rites of religion held in contempt.” – Niccolo Machiavelli
41. “When I look back on all these worries I remember the story of the old man who said on his death bed that he had had a lot of trouble in his life, most of which never happened.” – Winston Churchill
42. “One of the most dangerous forms of human error is forgetting what one is trying to achieve.” – Paul Nitze
43. “People want to know how much you care before they care how much you know.” – James F. Hind
44. “There are good men everywhere. I only wish they had louder voices.” – Louis L’Amour
45. “I don’t believe in pessimism. If something doesn’t come up the way you want, forge ahead. If you think it’s going to rain, it will.” – Clint Eastwood
46. “What we must decide is how we are valuable rather than how valuable we are.” – Edgar Z. Friedenberg
47. “Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.” – Albert Einstein
48. “The greater danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it.” – Michelangelo Buonarroti
49. “All man’s miseries derive from not being able to sit quietly in a room alone.” – Blaise Pascal
50. “Learn to be silent. Let your quiet mind listen and absorb.” – Pythagoras
51. “Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.” – Abe Lincoln
52. “A good traveller has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving.” – Lao Tzu

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