One Hit Wonder Quotes

Not every wise man or woman used a thousand letters just to make a point. Some of the smartest people proved that one great quote can be enough to earn a place in history.

Here are all the so-called one hit wonders of The Cite Site.

“Enlightenment is a destructive process. It has nothing to do with becoming better or being happier. Enlightenment is the crumbling away of untruth. It’s seeing through the facade of pretence. It’s the complete eradication of everything we imagined to be true.”

“Familiarity breeds contempt, while rarity wins admiration.”

“I praise loudly. I blame softly.”

“Dwell in peace in the home of your own being, and the Messenger of Death will not be able to touch you.”

“When children play, they exercise their senses, their intellect, their emotions, their imagination—keenly and energetically… To play is to explore, to discover and to experiment. Playing helps children develop ideas and gain experience. It gives them a wealth of knowledge and information about the world in which they live—and about themselves. So to play is also to learn. Play is fun for children. But it’s much more than that—it’s good for them, and it’s necessary… Play gives children the opportunity to develop and use the many talents they were born with.”

“There is little that can withstand a man who can conquer himself.”

“He who labors diligently need never despair; for all things are accomplished by diligence and labor.”

“Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and it may be necessary from time to time to give a stupid or misinformed beholder a black eye.”

“Just do it!”

“Everything not saved will be lost.”

“He conquers who endures.”

“Never reach out your hand unless you're willing to extend an arm.”

“Let each man pass his days in that wherein his skill is greatest.”

“Man is the measure of all things.”

“Every man is the architect of his own future.”

“Whoever walks with the wise will become wise, but the companion of fools suffers harm.”

“He who lives only to benefit himself confers on the world a benefit when he dies.”

“Criticism comes easier than craftsmanship.”

“The best thing about the future is that it comes only one day at a time.”

“Everything you've ever wanted is on the other side of fear.”

“All television is children's television.”

“If we were to wake up some morning and find that everyone was the same race, creed and color, we would find some other cause for prejudice by noon.”

“Like a lump of clay in the hands of the creator, we are forever being molded by life’s experiences.”

“My theory is that if you look confident you can pull off anything - even if you have no clue what you're doing.”

“A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort.”

“People do not decide their futures, they decide their habits and their habits decide their futures.”

“The sad truth is that excellence makes people nervous.”

“It is sad to be an exception. But it's even sadder to be none.”

“A good name, like good will, is got by many actions and lost by one.”

“Death has this much to be said for it:
You don’t have to get out of bed for it.
Wherever you happen to be
They bring it to you—free.”

“Life is just a mirror, and what you see out there, you must first see inside of you.”

“No matter how slow you run, you’re lapping everyone on the couch.”

“Focus on the journey, not the destination. Joy is found not in finishing an activity but in doing it.”

“Our entire life consists ultimately in accepting ourselves as we are.”

“Truth sits upon the lips of dying men.”

“Among those whom I like or admire, I can find no common denominator, but among those whom I love, I can: all of them make me laugh.”

“Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.”

“Public opinion is no more than this: what people think that other people think.”

“If things go wrong, don’t go with them.”

“The greatest justice in life is that your vision and looks tend to go simultaneously.”

“There is no teaching to compare with example.”

“The secret of staying young is to live honestly, eat slowly, and lie about your age.”

“Real happiness is cheap enough, yet how dearly we pay for its counterfeit.”

“If we have data, let’s look at data. If all we have are opinions, let’s go with mine.”

“Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the men of old; seek what they sought.”

“Any transition serious enough to alter your definition of self will require not just small adjustments in your way of living and thinking but a full-on metamorphosis.”

“Learn the rules, break the rules, make up new rules, break the new rules.”

“Call no man foe, but never love a stranger.”

“Hard work never killed anybody, but why take a chance?”

“To be is to be perceived.”

“Time is a great teacher, but unfortunately it kills all its pupils.”

“Courage is just fear that has said its prayers.”

“It is not moral to lie, but you don’t always have to tell the truth.”

“I'm fairly certain that YOLO is just Carpe Diem for stupid people.”

“I've grown to realize the joy that comes from little victories is preferable to the fun that comes from ease and the pursuit of pleasure.”

“Striving for success without hard work is like trying to harvest where you haven’t planted.”

“While farmers generally allow one rooster for ten hens, ten men are scarcely sufficient to service one woman.”

“Forgiveness does not change the past, but it does enlarge the future.”

“Map out your future, but do it in pencil.”

“Don't talk unless you can improve the silence.”

“There are two ways of meeting difficulties. You alter the difficulties or you alter yourself to meet them.”

“Love is an obsessive delusion that is cured by marriage.”

“What makes a river so restful to people is that it doesn’t have any doubt – it is sure to get where it is going, and it doesn’t want to go anywhere else.”

“If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant: if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome.”

“Let me not seem to have lived in vain. ”

“In every man, there is a sleeping giant. When the giant awakes, miracles happen.”

“Act as if it were impossible to fail.”

“Someday is not a day of the week.”

“If at first you don't succeed, remove all evidence you tried.”

“Lay a firm foundation with the bricks that others throw at you.”

“I look like the kind of guy who has a bottle of beer in my hand.”

“Sometimes you just need to run away just to see who will come after you.”

“Money doesn't always bring happiness. People with ten million dollars are no happier than people with nine million dollars.”

“The reward for conformity is that everyone likes you except yourself.”

“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”

“True friends are those who really know you but love you anyway.”

“People who say they sleep like a baby usually don't have one.”

“Opposites attract. If two people just alike get married, one of you is unnecessary.”

“Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men's blood... Make big plans, aim high in hope and work.”

“A paranoid is someone who knows a little of what's going on”

“Sex is like air, it’s not important unless you aren’t getting any.”

“I think the problem is that geography, like far too many things, is presented as dry and dull and boring by people who must have personally found it that way. I don't think it has to be... We don't use the word 'educational' anywhere on any of our products. The term translates into 'boring' in kidspeak. I prefer 'explorational'.”

“You can give without loving, but you cannot love without giving.”

“To progress again, man must remake himself. And he cannot remake himself without suffering. For he is both the marble and the sculptor. In order to uncover his true visage he must shatter his own substance with heavy blows of his hammer.”

“A work of art which did not begin in emotion is not art.”

“The value of Dhamma isn’t to be found in books. Those are just the external appearances of Dhamma; they’re not the realization of Dhamma as a personal experience. If you realize the Dhamma, you realize your own mind. You see the truth there. When the truth becomes apparent it cuts off the stream of delusion.”

“The whole point of getting things done is knowing what to leave undone.”

“The most wasted day of all is that on which we have not laughed.”

“It is wrong always, everywhere and for everyone, to believe anything upon insufficient evidence.”

“There aren't reasons why you like this song or this piece of music, or don't like it. It's just, it's either right or wrong, you know?”

“If you want to achieve greatness stop asking for permission.”

“Trust yourself. Think for yourself. Act for yourself. Speak for yourself. Be yourself. Imitation is suicide.”

“Behold the turtle. He makes progress only when he sticks his neck out.”

“Do just once what others say you can't do, and you will never pay attention to their limitations again.”

“Writing about music is like dancing about architecture.”

“When you're skating on thin ice you may as well tap dance.”

“Death is not the greatest loss in life. The greatest loss is what dies inside us while we live.”

“The generation of random numbers is too important to be left to chance.”

“Tips are for waiters.”

“When you go into court you are putting your fate into the hands of twelve people who weren't smart enough to get out of jury duty.”

“Fake it 'til you become it.”

“Every day holds the possibility of a miracle.”

“Your grades in school, your scores on the SAT, mean less for life success than your capacity to co-operate, your ability to regulate your emotions, your capacity to delay your gratification, and your capacity to focus your attention.”

“The really frightening thing about middle age is that you know you'll grow out of it.”

“Change your life today. Don’t gamble on the future, act now, without delay.”

“Imagination is the one weapon in the war against reality.”

“Instinct is the nose of the mind.”

“The more passions and desires one has, the more ways one has of being happy.”

“Put up with it and you will get more of it.”

“I can't change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination.”

“Today is the first day of the rest of your life”

“The road leading to a goal does not separate you from the destination; it is essentially a part of it.”

“Golf and sex are about the only things you can enjoy without being good at.”

“Dreaming permits each and every one of us to be quietly and safely insane every night of our lives.”

“Most of us serve our ideals by fits and starts. The person who makes a success of living is the one who sees his goal steadily and aims for it unswervingly. That is dedication.”

“Computer science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes.”

“A smile is a curve that sets everything straight.”

“It’s not hard to make decisions when you know what your values are.”

“If you focus on results, you will never change. If you focus on change, you will get results.”

“A lot of fellows nowadays have a B.A., M.D., or Ph.D. Unfortunately, they don't have a J.O.B.”

“If you want to see what children can do, you must stop giving them things.”

“It’s okay to look back at the past. Just don’t stare.”

“When nothing is sure, everything is possible.”

“None are so busy as the fool and knave.”

“The important thing is this: to be able at any moment to sacrifice what we are for what we could become.”

“Writers should be read, but neither seen nor heard.”

“The past always looks better than it was. It's only pleasant because it isn't here.”

“If you don't stand for something you will fall for anything.”

“The dread of doing a task uses up more time and energy than doing the task itself.”

“Of the seven deadly sins, only envy is no fun at all.”

“A compromise is the art of dividing a cake in such a way that everyone believes he has the biggest piece.”

“It's not a nice thing to send a pen*s to a woman. It's disrespectful.”

“The buried talent is the sunken rock on which most lives strike and founder.”

“Death comes to all, but great achievements build a monument which shall endure until the sun grows cold.”

“We were happily married for eight months. Unfortunately, we were married for four and a half years.”

“Always dream and shoot higher than you know you can do. Do not bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself.”

“Christ died for our sins. Dare we make his martyrdom meaningless by not committing them?”

“Until you know that life is interesting - and find it so - you haven't found your soul.”

“Normal is not something to aspire to, it's something to get away from.”

“To live in freedom. To go forward. To love your family. To make something of your life. To never give up. To never quit. That's success.”

“It is easier to live through someone else than to become complete yourself.”

“The scientific name for an animal that doesn't either run from or fight its enemies is lunch.”

“The human body is an incredible machine, but most people only get out of that machine what their mind allows them to.”

“The television is an invention that permits you to be entertained in your living room by people you wouldn't have in your home.”

“You cannot dream yourself into a character; you must hammer and forge yourself one.”

“The grass is not, in fact, always greener on the other side of the fence. Fences have nothing to do with it. The grass is greenest where it is watered. When crossing over fences, carry water with you and tend the grass wherever you may be.”

“It’s easier to act your way into a new way of thinking than to think your way into a new way of acting.”

“What can you say about a society that says God is dead and Elvis is alive?”

“Where facts are few, experts are many.”

“Always be a first rate version of yourself and not a second rate version of someone else.”

“Men will not be free until the woman is also liberated.”

“There is no greater mistake than to try to leap an abyss in two jumps.”

“A doctor saves lives — It's up to people to create lives that are worth saving.”

“When you are kind to someone in trouble, you hope they'll remember and be kind to someone else. And it'll become like a wildfire.”

“A mind troubled by doubt cannot focus on the course to victory.”

“Genius is creative, but not predictive.”

“The impossible is often the untried.”

“It's so hard when I have to, and so easy when I want to.”

“Each life is made up of mistakes and learning, waiting and growing, practicing patience and being persistent.”

“Perfectionism is often an excuse for procrastination.”

“Every English poet should master the rules of grammar before he attempts to bend or break them.”

“Build your own dreams, or someone else will hire you to build theirs.”

“I appreciate people who are civil, whether they mean it or not. I think: Be civil. Do not cherish your opinion over my feelings. There's a vanity to candor that isn't really worth it. Be kind.”

“Time is the currency of everyone’s life.”

“Any woman who thinks the way to a man's heart is through his stomach is aiming about 10 inches too high.”

“Do it now. It is not safe to leave a generous feeling to the cooling influences of the world.”

“If you like nerds, raise your hand. If you don’t, raise your standards.”

“We did not change as we grew older; we just became more clearly ourselves.”

“Everyone has complicated lives, but the more you can simplify it and make it work for you, the better it is going to be.”

“The only disability in life is a bad attitude.”

“You create your opportunities by asking for them.”

“And you ask “what if I fall?” Oh but my darling, what if you fly?”

“What people think of you is none of your business.”

“The things which are most important don’t always scream the loudest.”

“No matter what side of the argument you are on, you always find people on your side that you wish were on the other.”

“The true meaning of life is to plant trees, under whose shade you do not expect to sit.”

“21st century kids are being taught by 20th century adults using 19th century curriculum and techniques on an 18th century calendar!”

“Humor is a rubber sword - it allows you to make a point without drawing blood.”

“The work that you do when procrastinating is probably the work that you should be doing for the rest of your life.”

“When the best things are not possible, the best may be made of those that are.”

“A bank is a place that will lend you money if you can prove that you don't need it.”

“Space isn't remote at all. It's only an hour's drive away if your car could go straight upwards.”

“Get pleasure out of life... as much as you can. Nobody ever died from pleasure.”

“If you are lucky enough to find a way of life you love, you have to find the courage to live it.”

“One man with courage makes a majority.”

“Never look down on anybody unless you're helping him up.”

“You can't ever be really free if you admire somebody too much.”

“I drank to drown my sorrows, but the damned things learned how to swim.”

“Life is a great big canvas; throw all the paint on it you can.”

“Remove every barrier you can to fandom. A fan will be an evangelist for your work.”

“Fail faster. Succeed sooner.”

“Every burden is a blessing.”

“Only those who dare to fail greatly can achieve greatly.”

“Don't sacrifice your political convictions for the convenience of the hour.”

“It's better to be a lion for a day than a sheep all your life.”

“The beautiful thing about learning is nobody can take it away from you.”

“We're headed toward a two-tiered society -- a society that's destroying opportunities for the disadvantaged and creating welfare for the rich.”

“We tend to forget that happiness doesn’t come as a result of getting something we don’t have, but rather of recognizing and appreciating what we do have.”

“Life is not about how fast you run or how high you climb but how well you bounce.”

“When life hands us a beautiful bouquet of flowers we stare at it in cautious expectation of a bee.”

“Behavioral economics tells us that people often focus too much on the wrong things, and tend to focus on aspects of the job that are salient. So, for example, the pay is salient, especially the starting pay.”

“In most pursuits, one's self is one of the biggest hurdles to get over. You can't pursue something and be committed to it if you're apologizing for it at every party.”

“A good beginning makes a good end.”

“Intuition isn't the enemy, but the ally, of reason.”

“A year from now you may wish you had started today.”

“If the world seems cold to you, kindle fires to warm it.”

“Home computers are being called upon to perform many new functions, including the consumption of homework formerly eaten by the dog.”

“A creator is a scientist, an artist, and a businessperson in one.”

“I cannot trust a man to control others if he cannot control himself.”

“We live in the best of all possible worlds.”

“No matter how successful you get, always send the elevator back down.”

“A successful business is either loved or needed.”

“A successful individual typically sets his next goal somewhat but not too much above his last achievement. In this way he steadily raises his level of aspiration.”

“The tragedy of life is not that it ends so soon, but that we wait so long to begin it.”

“Where all think alike, no one thinks very much.”

“Running away will never make you free.”

“Just because there is a problem doesn't mean that we have to solve it, if the cure is going to be more expensive than the original ailment.”

“You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.”

“When things are bad, it's the best time to reinvent yourself.”

“Do what you love, love what you do, leave the world a better place and don't pick your nose.”

“Challenges are what make life interesting and overcoming them is what makes life meaningful.”

“Let go of your attachment to being right, and suddenly your mind is more open.”

“Laugh at yourself first, before anyone else can.”

“It is impossible to defeat an ignorant man in argument.”

“Patience is something you admire in the driver behind you, but not in the one ahead.”

“Test your assumptions ruthlessly. The repercussions of doing what you want are vastly overrated.”

“A man who thinks he has a higher purpose can do terrible things, even to those he professes to love.”

“The position of the artist is humble. He is essentially a channel.”

“I think in terms of the day's resolutions, not the years'.”

“Take chances, make mistakes. That's how you grow. Pain nourishes your courage. You have to fail in order to practice being brave.”

“A pretty face may be enough to catch a man, but it takes character and good nature to hold him.”

“You have not converted a man because you have silenced him.”

“Like Liberty, gold never stays where it is undervalued.”

“When we can sustain the land, it can sustain us.”

“A peasant that reads is a prince in waiting.”

“A certain amount of opposition is a great help to a man. Kites rise against, not with, the wind.”

“An entire sea of water can’t sink a ship unless it gets inside the ship. Similarly, the negativity of the world can’t put you down unless you allow it to get inside you.”

“A strong positive mental attitude will create more miracles than any wonder drug.”

“Of those who say nothing, few are silent.”

“Don't listen to her, listen through her.”

“The finest steel has to go through the hottest fire.”

“The more you find out about the world, the more opportunities there are to laugh at it.”

“Not sharing an opportunity to learn is a cardinal sin.”

“Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana.”

“Those who flee temptation generally leave a forwarding address.”

“If women didn't exist, all the money in the world would have no meaning.”

“The man who has nothing to boast of but his illustrious ancestry is like the potato – the best part under ground.”

“To want to be what one can be is purpose in life.”

“The reason people find it so hard to be happy is that they always see the past better than it was, the present worse than it is, and the future less resolved than it will be.”

“What do I mean by concentration? I mean focusing totally on the business at hand and commanding your body to do exactly what you want it to do.”

“Begin with the end in mind.”

“Procrastination is like credit card, it's a lot of fun until you get the bill.”

“Winners lose more than losers. They win and lose more than losers, because they stay in the game.”

“To follow, without halt, one aim: There's the secret of success.”

“To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong.”

“I phoned my dad to tell him I had stopped smoking. He called me a quitter.”

“I had very little connection with Henry Lee during the war and I found him vain and uncooperative.”

“The moments that make life worth living are when things are at their worst and you find a way to laugh.”

“There is no monument dedicated to the memory of a committee.”

“When deeds speak, words are nothing.”

“The future is much like the present, only longer.”

“The world itself is but a large prison, out of which some are daily led to execution.”

“In the 21st century, the database is the marketplace.”

“Sow an act and you reap a habit. Sow a habit and you reap a character. Sow a character and you reap a destiny.”

“Life is full of surprises and and serendipity. Being open to unexpected turns in the road is an important part of success. If you try to plan every step, you may miss those wonderful twists and turns. Just find your next adventure-do it well, enjoy it-and then, not now, think about what comes next.”

“Today I will do what others won't, so tomorrow I can accomplish what others can't.”

“Risk is what’s left when you think you’ve thought of everything.”

“Look at a stone cutter hammering away at his rock, perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred-and-first blow it will split in two, and I know it was not the last blow that did it, but all that had gone before.”

“Disbelief in magic can force a poor soul into believing in government and business.”

“f you don’t go after what you want, you’ll never have it. If you don’t ask, the answer is always no. If you don’t step forward, you’re always in the same place.”

“Success in business requires training and discipline and hard work. But if you're not frightened by these things, the opportunities are just as great today as they ever were.”

“There are no statues built to those who lived lives of mediocrity, and on the tomb of no heroes will you find the words, he played it safe.”

“The secret of eternal youth is arrested development.”

“Every successful person I know has humility at their core. When you become more secure in yourself and who you are, you become more humble.”

“I have found that if you love life, life will love you back.”

“Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans.”

“Goals are dreams with deadlines.”

“For four-fifths of our history, our planet was populated by pond scum.”

“An ounce of practice is generally worth more than a ton of theory.”

“If you would not step into the harlot's house, do not go by the harlot's door.”

“The truth is that the only education is self-education. Teachers can impart information and make suggestions, but they are like sign-posts—they can only by example and precept point out the way. A sign-post is of no earthly use unless the person who consults it wants to go somewhere.”

“A ship in harbor is safe – but that is not what ships are built for.”

“Happiness is essentially a state of going somewhere, wholeheartedly, one-directionally, without regret or reservation.”

“As Terence McKenna observed, “Modern science is based on the principle: ‘Give us one free miracle and we’ll explain the rest.’ The one free miracle is the appearance of all the mass and energy in the universe and all the laws that govern it in a single instant from nothing.”4”

“Pay no attention to what critics say. A statue has never been erected to a critic.”

“In Mexico we have a word for sushi: Bait.”

“It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his job depends on not understanding it.”

“What one generation finds ridiculous, the next accepts; and the third shudders when it looks back on what the first did.”

“The knowledge of Natural-History, being Observation of Matters of Fact, is more certain than most others, and in my slender Opinion, less subject to Mistakes than Reasonings, Hypotheses, and Deductions are; ... These are things we are sure of, so far as our Senses are not fallible; and which, in probability, have been ever since the Creation, and will remain to the End of the World, in the same Condition we now find them.”

“You’re supposed to expand your mind to fit the art, you’re not supposed to chop the art down to fit your mind.”

“If you fail to prepare, you’re prepared to fail.”

“In reality, there is no such thing as an inflation of prices, relative to gold. There is such a thing as a depreciated paper currency.”

“There are no traffic jams along the extra mile.”

“Nothing is more admirable than the fortitude with which millionaires tolerate the disadvantages of their wealth.”

“The bitterest tears shed over graves are for words left unsaid and for deeds left undone.”

“You don't have to be famous. You just have to make your mother and father proud of you.”

“A good rule of thumb for many things in life holds that things take longer to happen than you think they will, and then happen faster than you thought they could.”

“It is better to remain silent at the risk of being thought a fool, than to talk and remove all doubt of it.”

“Great products sell themselves.”

“Freedom is not an essential and basic condition for the growth of science; the care and diligence of government authorities are the most important conditions for this development.”

“A bore is a man who, when you ask him how he is, tells you.”

“A sailor without a destination cannot hope for a favorable wind.”

“Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow; it empties today of its strength.”

“Let your mind alone, and see what happens.”

“Man is asked to make of himself what he is supposed to become to fulfill his destiny.”

“Never tell a man you can read him through and through; most people prefer to be thought enigmas.”

“The most remarkable thing about my mother is that for thirty years she served the family nothing but leftovers. The original meal has never been found.”

“People who reach the top of the tree are only those who haven't got the qualifications to detain them at the bottom.”

“You’ve got to be willing to lose everything to gain yourself.”

“The best revenge is to live on and prove yourself.”

“Never look at an ugly thing twice. It is fatally easy to get accustomed to corrupting influences.”

“The Louis Vuitton woman is more about a quality – a quality within some women that needs to come forward, to be noticed and recognised.”

“By the time a man realizes that his father was right, he has a son who thinks he’s wrong.”

“Associate with well-mannered persons and your manners will improve. Run around with decent folk and your own decent instincts will be strengthened.”

“Obsessed is just a word the lazy use to describe the dedicated.”

“Nothing is impossible for the man who doesn't have to do it himself.”

“If you spend your whole life waiting for the storm, you’ll never enjoy the sunshine.”

“Less is often more.”

“Hindsight is always twenty-twenty.”

“Not doing more than the average is what keeps the average down.”

“If your ship doesn't come in, swim out to it!”

“You suffer a lot more hiding something than if you face up to it.”

“You can be pleased with nothing when you are not pleased with yourself.”

“Love the giver more than the gift.”

“Procrastination is the thief of time.”

“Stay centered by accepting whatever you are doing. This is the ultimate.”

“Quit now, you'll never make it. If you disregard this advice, you'll be halfway there.”