Quotes of I and J

This is a collection of quotes that is still growing. If you have any comments on these quotes, or others you'd like to share email me but PLEASE don't send me any anonymous or self quotes.

"The superior man acquaints himself with many sayings of antiquity and many deeds of the past, in order to strengthen his character thereby." -I Ching

"In a completely rational society, the best of us would be teachers and the rest of us would have to settle for something less, because passing civilization along from one generation to the next ought to be the highest honor and the highest responsibility anyone could have." - Lee Iacocca

"Over the years, many executives have said to me with pride: 'Boy, I worked so hard last year that I didn't take any vacation.' I always feel like responding, "You dummy. You mean to tell me you can take responsibility for an eighty-million-dollar project and you can't plan two weeks out of the year to have some fun?" - Lee Iacocca

"We've got to pause and ask ourselves: How much clean air do we need?" - Lee Iacocca

"It is inexcusable for scientists to torture animals; let them make their experiments on journalists and politicians." - Henrik Ibsen

"A lot has been said about politics; some of it complimentary, but most of it accurate." - Eric Idle

"Doubt is the beginning, not the end, of wisdom." - George Iles

"Moff: Now, the first thing you need to tell me is the one thing that makes your job difficult, and we'll see about eliminating that.

Everyone: Meetings.

Moff: Very good. Now let's spend a few hours discussing why meetings make you unproductive." - Illiad, Userfriendly

"Earlier we posted our weekly e-newsletter. Unfortunately during the process preparing it to go out, a mistake was made in one of the headers. Please note, calves were beaten to death, not cowboys." - In Defense of Animals newsletter

"Call on God, but row away from the rocks." - Indian proverb

"Repel them. Repel them. Induce them to relinquish the spheroid." - chant for Indiana University's football team

"We have not inherited the earth from our fathers, we are borrowing it from our children." - Indigenous American saying

"And the best thing you ever did for me, was to help me take life less seriously. It's only life after all." - Indigo Girls

"The happiest people seem to be those who have no particular reason for being so except that they are so." - William Ralph Inge

"We have enslaved the rest of animal creation, and have treated our distant cousins in fur and feathers so badly that beyond doubt, if they were to formulate a religion, they would depict the Devil in human form." - William Ralph Inge

"The inspiration of the Bible depends on the ignorance of the person who reads it." - Robert G. Ingersoll

"I used to study under this Linguistics professor who was more into his work than anyone I've ever met. He had children, and he called them 'language acquisition devices.'" - a woman near Doe Library, inpassing.org

"We all have wings but some of us don't know why." - INXS

"Waiting until everything is perfect before making a move is like waiting to start a trip until all the traffic lights are green." - Karen Ireland

"Don't break your shin on a stool that is not in your way." - Irish Proverb

"If you dig a grave for others, you might fall into it yourself." - Irish Proverb

"If you do not understand my silence you will never understand my words." - Irish Proverb

"May you have the hindsight to know where you have been, and the foresight to know where you are going, and the insight to know when you have gone too far." - Irish blessing

"There is no need like the lack of a friend." - Irish Proverb

"Trust me, but look to thyself." Irish Proverb

"In our every deliberation, we must consider the impact of our decisions on the next seven generations." - Iroquois Confederacy Maxim

"I don't understand people who go to amusement parks. I spend most of my time trying NOT to be nauseous. 'Excuse me, could you strap me in upside down? I'd like to be as sick as humanly possible. I feel great today, I think I'll go down to Funland and snap my neck on the back of a ride. Honey, let's bring the kids, I want to give them a spinal cord injury for Christmas.'" - Dom Irrera

"Little minds are tamed and subdued by misfortune; great minds rise above them." - Washington Irving

"Attention: Moshing May Occur" - sign outside Lords of Acid show at Irving Plaza

"Most of us spend our lives as if we had another one in the bank." - Ben Irwin

"I'm very militant, you know, in a quite way." - Christopher Isherwood

"A fool may be known by six things: anger, without cause; speech, without profit; change, without progress; inquiry, without object; putting trust in a stranger; and mistaking foe for friends." - Islamic Proverb

"Ignorance is a voluntary misfortune." - Italian Proverb

"Manners are just a formal expression of how you treat people." - Molly Ivins

"I hear too many people complain about standardized test scores and say that American students are getting dumber, especially when it comes to math. Hey, losers, show me another country where 50% of the students score ABOVE the national average!" - Jabberwock (stolen from Ruminations)

"Elisa is the kind of woman I would spend the rest of my life with. It's just hard to know when the rest of your life is supposed to start." - Jack and Jill

"The pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; the optimist, the opportunity in every difficulty." - L.P. Jacks

"An idea isn't responsible for the people who believe in it." - Andrew Jackson

"In complete darkness we are all the same. It is only our knowledge and wisdom that separate us. Don't let your eyes deceive you." - Janet Jackson

"Mathematics is the science of what is clear by itself." - Carl Jacobi

"After finding I was resolved to stand up for my rights, they concluded to treat me well. Let every[one]... do this, and eventually we shall cease to be trampled under foot by our oppressors." - Harriet Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

"It sounds like a mix of... pain and desperation and okra. Yeah, yeah, I said okra. I really hate the stuff. Okra to me is just icky and slimy and probably thinks we should still have a military presence in Iraq." - Elon James (on John McCain in 2008), This Week in Blackness Season 1, Episode 7

"It was not... that she was unaware of the frayed and ragged edges of life. She would merely iron them out with a firm hand and neatly hem them down." - P.D. James

"Acceptance of what has happened is the first step to overcoming the consequences of any misfortune." - William James

"Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does." - William James

"Be not afraid of life." - William James

"Believe that life is worth living and your belief will help create the fact." - William James

"Every man who possibly can should force himself to a holiday of a full month in a year, whether he feels like taking it or not." - William James

"The greatest discovery of my generation is that human beings can alter their lives by altering their attitudes of mind." - William James

"There is no worse lie than a truth misunderstood by those who hear it." - William James

"You can't ever be really free if you admire somebody too much." - Tove Jansson

"He who smiles rather than rages is always the stronger." - Japanese Proverb

"If you believe everything you read, better not read." - Japanese proverb

"The reputation of a thousand years may be determined by the conduct of one hour." - Japanese Proverb

"We're fools whether we dance or not, so we might as well dance." - Japanese Proverb

"True power is knowing that you can, but you don't." - Juliet Alicia Jarvis

"Rosa Parks sat so Martin Luther King could walk. Martin Luther King walked so Obama could run. Obama's running so we all can fly." - Jay-Z

"And the day will come, when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the Supreme Being as His Father, in the womb of a virgin, will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva, in the brain of Jupiter." - Thomas Jefferson

"It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no God. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg." - Thomas Jefferson

"Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom." - Thomas Jefferson

"I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it." - Thomas Jefferson

"Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude." - Thomas Jefferson

"Nothing is troublesome that we do willingly." - Thomas Jefferson

"Peace and friendship with all mankind is our wisest policy, and I wish we may be permitted to pursue it." - Thomas Jefferson

"The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions that I wish it to be always kept alive. It will often be exercised when wrong, but better so than not to be exercised at all." - Thomas Jefferson

"When governments fear the people there is liberty. When the people fear the government there is tyranny." - Thomas Jefferson

"No money of the state shall ever be given or appropriated to any sectarian or religious society or institution." - Thomas Jefferson, Virginia Constitution

"I think this is how Chicago got started. A bunch of people in New York said, 'Gee, I'm enjoying the crime and the poverty, but it just isn't cold enough. Let's go west.'" - Richard Jeni

"My mother never saw the irony in calling me a son-of-a-bitch." - Rich Jeni

"They had things on the Brady Bunch that I never saw in my house. Breakfast, for example." - Richard Jeni

"Why do women care about how big their feet are? I never saw a guy at the beach going, 'Wow, look at that woman, she is really... oh, darn! The feet are too big.'" - Richard Jeni

"You're basically killing each other to see who's got the better imaginary friend." - Rich Jeni (on religious wars)

"To err is human, but when the eraser wears out ahead of the pencil, you're overdoing it." - J. Jenkins

"Get rid of imagined guilt. You did the best you could at the time, all things considered. If you made mistakes, learn to accept that we are all imperfect... Only hindsight is 20-20." - Amy Hillyard Jensen

"Have you ever gotten the feeling that you aren't completely embarrassed yet, but you can glimpse tomorrow's embarrassment?" - Jerry Maguire

"A bird that you set free may be caught again, but a word that escapes your lips will not return." - Jewish Proverb

"A pessimist, confronted with two bad choices, chooses both." - Jewish Proverb

"When you're hungry, sing; when you're hurt, laugh." - Jewish Proverb

"Worries go down better with soup than without." - Jewish Proverb

"When you squeeze an orange, you get orange juice because that's what is inside. The very same principle is true about you. When someone squeezes you, puts pressure on you, what comes out is what's inside. And if you don't like what's inside, you can change by changing your thoughts." - O P Jhunjhunwala

"My favorite thing about the Internet is that you get to go into the private world of real creeps without having to smell them." - Penn Jillette

"If they give you ruled paper, write the other way" - Juan Ramon Jimenez

"Every man gives his life for what he believes. Every woman gives her life for what she believes. Sometimes people believe in little or nothing yet they give their lives to that little or nothing. One life is all we have and we live it as we believe in living it. And then it is gone. But to sacrifice what you are and live without belief, that's more terrible than dying." - Joan of Arc

"In every heart there is a room - a sanctuary safe and strong to heal the wounds of lovers past until a new one comes along. I spoke to you in cautious tones - you answered me with no pretense and still I fear I said too much. My silence is my self defense. And every time I've held a rose it seems I only felt the thorns. And so it goes, and so it goes, and so will you soon I suppose. But if my silence made you leave then that would be my worst mistake so I will share this room with you and you can have this heart to break. And this is why my eyes are closed, it's just as well for all I've seen. And so it goes, and so it goes, and you're the only one who knows. So I will choose to be with you. That's if the choice were mine to make. But you can make decisions too and you can have this heart to break. And so it goes, and so it goes, and you're the only one who knows." - Billy Joel

"The only reason I always try to meet and know the parents better is because it helps me to forgive their children." - Louis Johannot

"Be fond of the man who jests at his scars, if you like; but never believe he is being on the level with you." - Pamela Hansford Johnson

"It is better to suffer wrong than to do it, and happier to be sometimes cheated than not to trust." - Samuel Johnson

"Courage is the greatest of all the virtues. Because if you haven't courage, you may not have an opportunity to use any of the others." - Samuel Johnson

"I hate mankind, for I think myself one of the best of them, and I know how bad I am." - Dr. Samuel Johnson

"I look upon every day to be lost, in which I do not make a new acquaintance." - Dr. Samuel Johnson

"Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information on it." - Dr. Samuel Johnson

"Marriage has many pains, but celibacy has no pleasures." - Dr. Samuel Johnson

"Melancholy, indeed, should be diverted by every means but drinking." - Dr. Samuel Johnson

"One of the disadvantages of wine is that it makes a man mistake words for thoughts." - Samuel Johnson

"We are inclined to believe those whom we do not know because they have never deceived us." - Samuel Johnson

"Always and never are two words you should always remember never to use." - Wendell Johnson

"Things don't go wrong and break your heart so you can become bitter and give up. They happen to break you down and build you up so you can be all that you were intended to be." - Charlie "Tremendous" Jones

"Experience is that marvelous thing that enables you to recognize a mistake when you make it again." - Franklin P. Jones

"Honest criticism is hard to take - especially when it comes from a relative, a friend, an acquaintance, or a stranger." - Franklin P. Jones

"Ours is an age which is proud of machines who think and suspicious of men who try to." - H.M. Jones

"You can feel the punishment, but you can't commit the sin... You can build a mansion, but you just can't live in it. You're the fastest runner but you're not allowed to win. Some break the rules, and let you cut the cost. The insecurity is the thing that won't get lost." - Howard Jones

"One of the hardest things in life is having words in your heart that you can't utter." - James Earl Jones

"The grandchildren of the kids who used to weep because the Little Match Girl froze to death now feel cheated if she isn't slugged, raped and thrown into a Bessemer converter." - Jenkin Lloyd Jones

"There is eloquence in screaming." - Patrick Jones

"I think of lotteries as a tax on the mathematically challenged." - Roger Jones

"Advice is what we ask for when we already know the answer but wish we didn't." - Erica Jong

"Do you want me to tell you something really subversive? Love is everything it's cracked up to be. That's why people are so cynical about it. It really is worth fighting for, being brave for, risking everything for. And the trouble is, if you don't risk everything, you risk even more." - Erica Jong

"I went for years not finishing anything. Because, of course, when you finish something you can be judged... I had poems which were re-written so many times I suspect it was just a way of avoiding sending them out." - Erica Jong

"If, every day, I dare to remember that I am here on loan, that this house, this hillside, these minutes, are all leased to me, not given, I will never despair. Despair is for those who expect to live forever. I no longer do." - Erica Jong

"I can accept failure. Everyone fails at something. But I can't accept not trying." - Michael Jordan

"Peel the apple in your hand, girl, not the one on the tree... Tears are for after; they just waste time before." - Robert Jordan, The Path of Daggers

"It is better to debate a question without settling it than to settle a question without debating it." - Joseph Joubert

"Those who never retract their opinions love themselves more than they love the truth." - Joseph Joubert

"To teach is to learn twice." - Joseph Joubert

"You will find poetry nowhere unless you bring some with you." - Joseph Joubert

"Lie down on this bed of nails, pain can make you wiser... Let it make you wiser." - Joy Machine

"The more we know the more we learn the more it sets us free" - Joy Machine

"Why don't you write books people can read?" - Nora Joyce (to her husband James)

"Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves." - Carl Jung

"Show me a sane man and I will cure him for you." - Carl Gustav Jung

"How much easier it is to be generous than just! Men are sometimes bountiful who are not honest. -Junius, (pseudonym of the unknown author of a series of letters published in a London newspaper during 1769-1772)

"Wait, I just remembered something! You're boring and my legs work." - Just Shoot Me

"You can swim all day in the Sea of Knowledge and still come out completely dry. Most people do." - Norman Juster

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