Honest Quotes - Page 10

• Wisdom and deep intelligence require an honest appreciation of mystery.

  Thomas W. Moore

  Appreciation, Intelligent, Animal Intelligence

  46 Copy quote

• I have always considered "Pascal's Wager" a questionable bet to place. Any God worth "believing in" would surely prefer an honest agnostic to a calculating hypocrite.

  Alan Dershowitz

  Atheist, Believe, Hypocrite

  7 Copy quote

• Well, I tell you, if I have been wrong in my agnosticism, when I die I'll walk up to God in a manly way and say, Sir, I made an honest mistake.

  H. L. Mencken

  Atheist, Honesty, Mistake

  20 Copy quote

• It is an insult to God to believe in God. For on the one hand it is to suppose that he has perpetrated acts of incalculable cruelty. On the other, it is to suppose that he has perversely given his human creatures an instrument - their intellect - which must inevitably lead them, if they are dispassionate and honest, to deny his existence. It is tempting to conclude that if he exists, it is the atheists and agnostics that he loves best, among those with any pretensions to education. For they are the ones who have taken him most seriously.

  Galen Strawson

  Atheist, Believe, Taken

  49 Copy quote

• Two people who were once very close can without blame or grand betrayal become strangers. Perhaps this is the saddest thing in the world.

  Warsan Shire

  Love, Betrayal, Two

  49 Copy quote

• The certainty that life cannot be long, and the probability that it will be much shorter than nature allows, ought to awaken every man to the active prosecution of whatever he is desirous to perform. It is true, that no diligence can ascertain success; death may intercept the swiftest career; but he who is cut off in the execution of an honest undertaking has at least the honour of falling in his rank, and has fought the battle, though he missed the victory.

  Samuel Johnson

  Fall, Procrastination, Cutting

  Samuel Johnson (1840). “The Life and Writings of Samuel Johnson...”, p.101

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• They'll get it all from you sooner or later 'cause they own this f**kin' place. It's a big club and you ain't in it. You and I are not in the big club. By the way, it's the same big club they use to beat you over the head with all day long when they tell you what to believe. All day long beating you over the head with their media telling you what to believe, what to think and what to buy. The table is tilted, folks. The game is rigged and nobody seems to notice. Nobody seems to care. Good, honest, hard-working people: white collar, blue collar, it doesn't matter what color shirt you have on.

  George Carlin

  Believe, Hard Work, Thinking

  34 Copy quote

• I believe that religion, generally speaking, has been a curse to mankind - that its modest and greatly overestimated services on the ethical side have been more than overcome by the damage it has done to clear and honest thinking.

  H. L. Mencken

  Believe, Thinking, Religion

  "What I Believe". "The Forum", 84, (p. 139), September 1930.

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• I wouldn't be honest if I didn't say my mom. Apart from the fact that she's my mother, she's a brilliant comedian and a force as a producer. She paved the way for women to produce and star in their own films, and to balance that with being the matriarch of our family is really inspiring.

  Kate Hudson

  Mom, Mother, Stars

  "Our Own Private Hollywood". Elle Interview, www.elle.com. October 7, 2010.

  10 Copy quote

  Show source

• Violence is a part of America. I don't want to single out rap music. Let's be honest. America's the most violent country in the history of the world, that's just the way it is. We're all affected by it.

  Spike Lee

  Country, Rap, America

  10 Copy quote

• Flowers have an expression of countenance as much as men or animals. Some seem to smile; some have a sad expression; some are pensive and diffident; others are plain, honest and upright, like the broad faced sunflower and the hollyhock.

  Henry Ward Beecher

  Flower, Animal, Men

  Henry Ward Beecher (1855). “Star Papers: Or, Experiences of Art and Nature”, p.100, New York : Boston : J.C. Derby ; Phillips, Sampson & Company

  83 Copy quote

  Show source

• Children are young, but they're not naive. And they're honest. They're not going to keep wide awake if the story is boring. When they get excited you can see it in their eyes.

  Chinua Achebe

  Children, Eye, Justice

  4 Copy quote

• Any honest examination of the national life proves how far we are from the standard of human freedom with which we began. The recovery of this standard demands of everyone who loves this country a hard look at himself, for the greatest achievements must begin somewhere, and they always begin with the person.

  James A. Baldwin

  Country, Recovery, Justice

  4 Copy quote

• In the Spirit which draws us into honest engagement with one another, including those who may be very different from us in various ways, God calls us to wake up and learn how to love and respect one another, period.

  Carter Heyward

  Love, God, Respect

  57 Copy quote

• We must learn to be honest with ourselves, and know our shortcomings. We will acquire cohesion but we will pay dearly for being a slow pupil.

  Zora Neale Hurston

  Justice, Diversity, Pay

  Zora Neale Hurston (2002). “Zora Neale Hurston: A Life in Letters”, Doubleday Books

  14 Copy quote

  Show source

• Out of our first century of national life we evolved the ethical principle that it was not right or just that an honest and industrious man should live and die in misery. He was entitled to some degree of sympathy and security. Our conscience declared against the honest workman's becoming a pauper, but our eyes told us that he very often did.

  Frances Perkins

  Eye, Men, Ethical Principles

  Frances Perkins (1934). “People at work”

  64 Copy quote

  Show source

• If you only notice human proceedings, you may observe that all who attain great power and riches, make use of either force or fraud; and what they have acquired either by deceit or violence, in order to conceal the disgraceful methods of attainment, they endeavor to sanctify with the false title of honest gains.

  Niccolo Machiavelli

  Art, War, Order

  Niccolo Machiavelli (2018). “History of Florence and the Affairs of Italy”, p.115, Ozymandias Press

  148 Copy quote

  Show source

• Those who either from imprudence or want of sagacity avoid doing so, are always overwhelmed with servitude and poverty; for faithful servants are always servants, and honest men are always poor; nor do any ever escape from servitude but the bold and faithless, or from poverty, but the rapacious and fraudulent.

  Niccolo Machiavelli

  Art, War, Men

  Niccolo Machiavelli (2018). “History of Florence and the Affairs of Italy”, p.115, Ozymandias Press

  16 Copy quote

  Show source

• The lack of opportunity is ever the excuse of a weak, vacillating mind. Opportunities! Every life is full of them. Every newspaper article is an opportunity. Every client is an opportunity. Every sermon is an opportunity. Every business transaction is an opportunity, an opportunity to be polite, an opportunity to be manly, an opportunity to be honest, an opportunity to make friends.

  Orison Swett Marden

  Opportunity, Mind, Clients

  Orison Swett Marden (2013). “The Wisdom of Orison Swett Marden”, p.13, Simon and Schuster

  11 Copy quote

  Show source

• He who says there is no such thing as an honest man, you may be sure is himself a knave.

  George Berkeley

  Truth, Lying, Men

  George Berkeley (1837). “Works: Account of His Life and Letters”, p.362

  15 Copy quote

  Show source

• What has a writer to be bombastic about? Whatever good a man may write is the consequence of accident, luck, or surprise, and nobody is more surprised than an honest writer when he makes a good phrase or says something truthful.

  Edward Dahlberg

  Writing, Men, Luck

  74 Copy quote

• The great charm of cats is their rampant egotism, their devil-may-care attitude toward responsibility, their disinclination to earn an honest dollar.

  Robertson Davies

  Attitude, Cat, Responsibility

  Robertson Davies (1986). “The papers of Samuel Marchbanks”, Viking, 1986

  11 Copy quote

  Show source

• I think you can be an honest person and lie about any number of things.

  Dan Rather

  Honesty, Lying, Thinking

  19 Copy quote

• A man is sorry to be honest for nothing.

  Ovid

  Sorry, Honesty, Men

  7 Copy quote

• Don't try to be spiritual. That is only a word in the dictionary. Make it your goal to become a normally functioning individual. Let these principles shape you according to your real nature of a simple, decent, honest, unafraid human being.

  Vernon Howard

  Spiritual, Real, Simple

  65 Copy quote