Aphorisms Define Quotes & Sayings

I think a person has to believe in something,
or search out some kind of faith;
otherwise life is empty, nothing.
How can you live not knowing why the cranes fly,
why children are born, why there are stars in the sky ...
Either you know why you live,
or it's all small, unnecessary bits. — Sarah Ruhl

If, even as the price to be paid for a fifth vote, I ever joined an opinion for the Court that began: 'The Constitution promises liberty to all within its reach, a liberty that includes certain specific rights that allow persons, within a lawful realm, to define and express their identity,' I would hide my head in a bag. The Supreme Court of the United States has descended from the disciplined legal reasoning of John Marshall and Joseph Story to the mystical aphorisms of the fortune cookie. — Antonin Scalia

God who is everything possesses the eye of awakening, like dreaming a long dream of an impossible task. — Jack Kerouac

That which we say and do, if its effects last not beyond our lives, is unimportant. — Albert Pike

What are the precise characteristics of an epigram it is not easy to define. It differs from a joke, in the fact that the wit of the latter dies in the words, and cannot therefore be conveyed in another language; while an epigram is a wit of ideas, and hence, is translatable. Like aphorisms, songs and sonnets, it is occupied with some single point, small and manageable; but whilst a song conveys a sentiment, a sonnet a poetical, and an aphorism a moral reflection, an epigram expresses a contrast. — William Matthews

I don't think I was ever ... trying to kill myself but I knew that if I'd ever gone too far ... I wouldn't care. — Demi Lovato

The greatest flight I've ever flown was coming home. — Marcel Dionne

All bickering would then cease, and no man would be jealous of his comrade's arms or his passion for glory. As the critical hour approached, everyone would cast away all thoughts of rivalry, and they would see their comrades for what they really were - their closest allies in the struggle for the common good. One — Xenophon

History is always a grand fantasy ... To reconstruct is to invent. — Eca De Queiros

Who would have guessed that the shots heard 'round the world 225 years ago would fall on deaf ears in a nation now more sympathetic to the gun-grabbing Redcoat than the gun-bearing rebel? — Michelle Malkin

The Supreme Court of the United States has descended from the disciplined legal reasoning of John Marshall and Joseph Story to the mystical aphorisms of the fortune cookie. [Referring to pronouncement by Justice Anthony Kennedy in Obergefell v. Hodges: "The Constitution promises liberty to all within its reach, a liberty that includes certain specific rights that allow persons, within a lawful realm, to define and express their identity."] — Antonin Scalia

That was a double negative, Jemail. By saying that you haven't seen nobody, you're actually saying that you have seen somebody. — Michael Monroe