B
Bacall, Lauren
Imagination is the highest kite one can fly.
Bach, Karl Philipp Emanuel
It appears to me that it is the special province of music to move the heart.
Bach, Richard
Here is the test to determine whether your mission on earth is finished: if you're alive, it isn't.
Bacon, Francis
A principal fruit of friendship is the ease and discharge of the fullness and swellings of the heart, which passions of all kinds do cause and induce.
Bacon, Francis
A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds.
Bacon, Francis
Seek ye first the good things of the mind, and the rest will either be supplied or its loss will not be felt.
Baez, Joan
Action is the antidote to despair.
Baez, Joan
As long as one keeps searching, the answers come.
Baez, Joan
The only thing that's been a worse flop than the organization of non-violence has been the organization of violence.
Bagehot, Walter
The greatest pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do.
Baggett, Byrd
Good leaders are like baseball umpires: they go practically unnoticed when they are doing their jobs right.
Baker, Russell
Ah, summer, what power you have to make us suffer and like it.
Baldwin, James
Experience, which destroys innocence, also leads one back to it.
Balfour, J.
Enthusiasm moves the world.
Ball, Ivern
The past should be a springboard, not a hammock.
Ball, Lucille
The secret to staying young is to live honestly, eat slowly, and lie about about age.
Baltimore Grotto Motto
Take nothing but pictures. Leave nothing but footprints. Kill nothing but time.
Bankhead, Tallulah
If I had my life to live over again, I'd make the same mistakes, only sooner.
Bantu proverb
Work is good, provided you do not forget to live.
Bard, Carl
Though no one can go back and make a brand new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending.
Barnes, Sondra Anice
It's so hard when I have to, and so easy when I want to.
Barnum, Phineas Taylor (P. T.)
Every crowd has a silver lining.
Barr, Amelia E.
The inevitable has always found me ready and hopeful.
Barr, Shari R.
Expecting life to treat you well because you are a good person is like expecting an angry bull not to charge because you are a vegetarian.
Barrie, James M.
The secret of happiness is not in doing what one likes, but liking what one has to do.
Barrie, James M.
Those who bring sunshine to the lives of others cannot keep it from themselves.
Barry, Dave
If you surveyed a hundred typical middle-aged Americans, I bet you'd find that only two of them could tell you their blood types, but every last one of them would know the theme song from The Beverly Hillbillies.
Barry, Dave
Thus the metric system did not really catch on in the States, unless you count the increasing popularity of the nine-millimeter bullet.
Barrymore, Ethel
You grow up the day you have your first real laugh at yourself.
Barton, Bruce
If you can give your son or daughter only one gift, let it be enthusiasm.
Barzun, Jaques
Teaching is not a lost art, but the regard for it is a lost tradition.
Basho, Matsuo
Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of men of old; seek what they sought.
Becker, May Lamberton
We grow neither better nor worse as we get old, but more like ourselves.
Bedford-Pierce, Sophia
There is nothing lost by discarding your faults.
Beecher, Henry Ward
In things pertaining to enthusiasm, no man is sane who does not know how to be insane on proper occasions.
Beecher, Henry Ward
The difference between perseverance and obstinacy is that one often comes from a strong will, and the other from a strong won't.
Beggs, Jim
To find fulfillment . . . don't exist with life&emdash;embrace it.
Benchley, Robert
Anyone can do any amount of work, provided it isn't the work he is supposed to be doing at that moment.
Benchley, Robert
As for me, except for an occasional heart attack, I feel as young as I ever did.
Benedict, Ruth
The trouble with life isn't that there is no answer, it's that there are so many answers.
Bengis, Ingrid
For me, words are a form of action, capable of influencing change.
Benjamin, Arthur
We all basically go back to being children when we're in the dentist's chair.
Berenson, Bernard
Consistency requires you to be as ignorant today as you were a year ago.
Bergman, Ingrid
Happiness is good health and a bad memory.
Bergman, Ingrid
I've never sought success in order to get fame and money; it's the talent and the passion that count in success.
Bergson, Henri
Think like a man of action, act like a man of thought.
Bernhardt, Sarah
Life begets life. Energy creates energy. It is by spending oneself that one becomes rich.
Bernstein, Al
Even more exasperating than the guy who thinks he knows it all is the one who really does.
Bernstein, Leonard
Life without music is unthinkable, Music without life is academic. That is why my contact with music is a total embrace.
Bierce, Ambrose
Admiration: our polite recognition of another's resemblance to ourselves.
Bierce, Ambrose
Brain: an apparatus with which we think we think.
Bierce, Ambrose
Cigarette: a pinch of tobacco, wrapped in paper, fire at one end, fool at the other.
Bierce, Ambrose
Cogito cogito ergo cogito sum. (I think that I think, therefore I think that I am.)
Billings, Josh
Be like a postage stamp&emdash;stick to one thing until you get there.
Billings, Josh
The best way to convince a fool that he is wrong is to let him have his own way.
Bird, Caroline
Femininity appears to be one of those pivotal qualities that is so important no one can define it.
Bird, Larry
I've got a theory that if you give 100 percent all of the time, somehow things will work out in the end.
Bisset, Jacqueline
Character contributes to beauty. It fortifies a woman as her youth fades. A mode of conduct, a standard of courage, discipline, fortitude, and integrity can do a great deal to make a woman beautiful.
Bissonette, Susan J.
An optimist is the human personification of spring.
Bits & Pieces
You are not really successful until someone claims he sat beside you in school.
Black, Hugo
When I was 40, my doctor advised me that a man in his forties shouldn't play tennis, and I could hardly wait until I was 50 to start again.
Block, Ken
If I had wings and I could fly . . . I'd still walk with you.
Bohn, H. G.
Wise men learn by other men's mistakes, fools by their own.
Bolen, Jean Shinoda
There is a potential heroine in every woman.
Bombeck, Erma
Humor is a spontaneous, wonderful bit of an outburst that just comes. It's unbridled, it's unplanned, and it's full of surprises.
Bombeck, Erma
It goes without saying that you should never have more children than you have car windows.
Boorstin, Ruth
Be bold in what you stand for and careful what you fall for.
Boosler, Elayne
I do clean up a little. If company is coming, I'll wipe the lipstick off the milk container.
Borge, Victor
Laughter is the shortest distance between two people.
Borges, Jorge Luis
I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library.
Boswell, James
As in filling a vessel drop by drop, there is at last a drop which makes it run over; so in a series of kindnesses there is at last one which makes the heart run over.
Boucicalt, Dion
Men talk of killing time, while time quietly kills them.
Bow, Clara
The more I know about men, the more I like dogs.
Bowen, Catherine
For your born writer, nothing is so healing as the realization that he has come upon the right word.
Boye, Henry
The most important trip you may take in life is meeting someone halfway.
Brackett, Anna C.
We go on multiplying our conveniences only to multiply our cares. We increase our possessions only to the enlargement of our anxieties.
Bradbury, Ray
You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.
Bradley, General Omar
Bravery is the capacity to perform properly even when scared half to death.
Bradstreet, Anne
Authority without wisdom is like a heavy axe without an edge, fitter to bruise than polish.
Bradstreet, Anne
If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant: if we did not sometimes taste of diversity, prosperity would not be so welcome.
Braken, Peg
Why does a slight tax increase cost you two hundred dollars and a substantial tax cut save you thirty cents?
Brande, Dorothea
Act as if it were impossible to fail.
Braude, Jacob
If a thing goes without saying&emdash;let it.
Bremer, Frederika
Who has not experienced how, on nearer acquaintance, plainness becomes beautified, and beauty loses charm, according to the quality of the heart and mind?
Brice, Fannie
Let the world know you as you are, not as you think you should be, because sooner or later, if you are posing, you will forget the pose, and then where are you?
Brilliant, Ashleigh
I either want less corruption, or more chance to participate in it.
Brilliant, Ashleigh
My sources are unreliable, but their information is fascinating.
Brilliant, Ashleigh
Try to relax and enjoy the crisis.
Brokaw, Tom
It's easy to make a buck. It's a lot tougher to make a difference.
Brontë, Charlotte
I am neither a man nor a woman but an author.
Brontë, Charlotte
Look twice before you leap.
Brontë, Emily
If I could I would always work in silence and obscurity, and let my efforts be known by their results.
Brontë, Emily
Love is like the wild rosebriar; friendship is like the holly tree. The holly is dark when the rosebriar blooms, but which will bloom most constantly?
Brooks, Albert
It's better to be known by six people for something you're proud of than by sixty million for something you're not.
Brooks, Phillips
Do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger men. Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers. Pray for powers equal to your tasks. Then the doing of your work shall be no miracle, but you shall be the miracle.
Brooks, Mel
That's it, baby! When you got it, flaunt it! Flaunt it!
Brooks, Gwendolyn
This is the urgency: live and have your blooming in the noise of the whirlwind.
Brown, A. Whitney
A group of white South Africans recently killed a black lawyer because he was black. That was wrong. They should have killed him because he was a lawyer.
Brown, Bob
Behind every successful man there's a lot of unsuccessful years.
Brown, Charlie
Sometimes I lie awake at night, and I ask, "Where have I gone wrong?" Then a voice says to me, "This is going to take more than one night."
Brown, Gene
Foolproof systems don't take into account the ingenuity of fools.
Brown, H. Jackson
If Mom's on a diet, everyone's on a diet.
Brown, H. Jackson
Success is getting what you want. Happiness is liking what you get.
Brown, H. Jackson
You can get on by charm for about fifteen minutes. After that, you better know something.
Brown, Les
A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful, than a life spent doing nothing.
Brown, Rita Mae
A life of reaction is a life of slavery, intellectually and spiritually. One must fight for a life of action, not reaction.
Brown, Rita Mae
Humor comes from self-confidence. There's an aggressive element to wit.
Brown, Rita Mae
I finally figured out the only reason to be alive is to enjoy it.
Brown, Rita Mae
If the world were a logical place, men would ride sidesaddle.
Brown, Sarah
Only God is in a position to look down on anyone.
Brown, Sarah
The only thing that ever sat its way to success was a hen.
Browne, Junius Henri
Clouds and sunshine, corpse lights and bridal lamps, joy-anthems and funeral-dirges, contrast and mingle in New York! Every ripple of light-hearted laughter is lost in its faintest echoes in a wail of distress. Every happy smile is reflected from a dark background of despair.
Browne, Junius Henri
Fashion upon Mahattan Island will admit of no compromise with Reason and refuses to listen to the voice of Common Sense.
Browne, Junius Henri
New York is much better shaped as a cucumber than as a city.
Browne, Junius Henri
[The New York rough] is not totally depraved, for total depravity is impossible; but his redeeming traits are so few, only the microscope of a broad charity can detect them.
Browning, Elizabeth Barrett
Men get their opinions as boys learn to spell, by reiteration chiefly.
Bruce, H. Addington
The man or woman of enthusiastic trend always exercises a magnetic influence over those with whom he or she comes in contact.
Bryan, William Jennings
Destiny is no matter of chance. It is a matter of choice. It is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved.
Buchan, John
An atheist is a man who has no invisible means of support.
Buchman, Frank
There is enough in the world for everyone's need, but not enough for everyone's greed.
Buck, Pearl Comfort Sydenstricker
I don't wait for moods. You accomplish nothing if you do that. Your mind must know it has to get down to earth.
Buck, Pearl Comfort Sydenstricker
I feel no need for any other faith than my faith in human beings.
Buck, Pearl Comfort Sydenstricker
Perhaps one has to be very old before one learns how to be amused rather than shocked.
Buñuel, Luis
I'm still an atheist, thank God
Burgess, Anthony
Laugh and the world laughs with you, snore and you sleep alone.
Burgess, Frank Gelett
Thinking a smile all the time will keep your face youthful.
Burns, George
Sincerity is the key. If you can fake that, you've got it made.
Buscaglia, Leo
I don't mind if people think I'm crazy. In fact, I think it's great! It gives me tremendous latitude for behavior.
Buscaglia, Leo
It's not enough to have lived. We should be determined to live for something. May I suggest that it be creating joy for others, sharing what we have for the betterment of personkind, bringing hope to the lost and love to the lonely.
Buscaglia, Leo
What we call the secret of happiness is no more a secret than our willingness to chose life.
Bush, Barbara
Somewhere out in this audience may even be someone who will one day follow in my footsteps and preside over the White House as the President's spouse. I wish him well.
Butler, Samuel
A chicken is an egg's way of making another egg.
Byrne, Robert
Getting caught is the mother of invention.
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