We’ve collected the best Only Quotes from the greatest minds of the world: Montesquieu, Aristotle, Hunter S. Thompson, Henry Adams, Don Miguel Ruiz. Use them as an inspiration.
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A man may imagine things that are false, but he can only understand things that are true, for if the things be false, the apprehension of them is not understanding.
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The natural liberty of man is to be free from any superior power on Earth, and not to be under the will or legislative authority of man, but only to have the law of nature for his rule.
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There is no ‘them’ and ‘us.’ There is only us.
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You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something – your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.
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This most beautiful system of the sun, planets, and comets, could only proceed from the counsel and dominion of an intelligent and powerful Being.
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When you create Hope in people, you create expectations. When you do not fulfill those expectations, when the change becomes more of the same old, same old, the Hope that was created can only turn to anger, frustration and bitter disappointment.
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I am the only person in the world I should like to know thoroughly.
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There is no scarcity of opportunity to make a living at what you love; there’s only scarcity of resolve to make it happen.
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Friendship at first sight, like love at first sight, is said to be the only truth.
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A democratic government is the only one in which those who vote for a tax can escape the obligation to pay it.
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No one can possibly know what is about to happen: it is happening, each time, for the first time, for the only time.
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Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.
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The republican is the only form of government which is not eternally at open or secret war with the rights of mankind.
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Minds are like parachutes – they only function when open.
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The press should be not only a collective propagandist and a collective agitator, but also a collective organizer of the masses.
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I believe in one thing only, the power of human will.
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Life doesn’t require that we be the best, only that we try our best.
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Life is like a landscape. You live in the midst of it but can describe it only from the vantage point of distance.
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Happiness is only real when shared.
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You have to accept whatever comes and the only important thing is that you meet it with courage and with the best that you have to give.
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The truth is not for all men, but only for those who seek it.
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Would you believe in what you believe in if you were the only one who believed it?
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If you have only one smile in you give it to the people you love.
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A healthy social life is found only when, in the mirror of each soul, the whole community finds its reflection, and when, in the whole community, the virtue of each one is living.
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The only thing that makes life possible is permanent, intolerable uncertainty; not knowing what comes next.
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Thus it is that in war the victorious strategist only seeks battle after the victory has been won, whereas he who is destined to defeat first fights and afterwards looks for victory.
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There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences.
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Any form of art is a form of power; it has impact, it can affect change – it can not only move us, it makes us move.
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The only way to prove that you’re a good sport is to lose.
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Persistence and resilience only come from having been given the chance to work though difficult problems.
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Every man has his own destiny: the only imperative is to follow it, to accept it, no matter where it leads him.
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The only joy in the world is to begin.
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Attachment is the great fabricator of illusions; reality can be attained only by someone who is detached.
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What can we gain by sailing to the moon if we are not able to cross the abyss that separates us from ourselves? This is the most important of all voyages of discovery, and without it, all the rest are not only useless, but disastrous.
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I think that the good and the great are only separated by the willingness to sacrifice.
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The belief that there is only one truth, and that oneself is in possession of it, is the root of all evil in the world.
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We only see what we want to see; we only hear what we want to hear. Our belief system is just like a mirror that only shows us what we believe.
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There is no such thing as failure. There are only results.
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Feelings of worth can flourish only in an atmosphere where individual differences are appreciated, mistakes are tolerated, communication is open, and rules are flexible – the kind of atmosphere that is found in a nurturing family.
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Either you give in, or you fight. That’s all I know, being where I’m from. You fight for what you want. You go after what you want. The only thing I could do was give up or keep fighting for what I wanted in life.
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I realize that humor isn’t for everyone. It’s only for people who want to have fun, enjoy life, and feel alive.
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Mistakes are a part of being human. Appreciate your mistakes for what they are: precious life lessons that can only be learned the hard way. Unless it’s a fatal mistake, which, at least, others can learn from.
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There’s only two people in your life you should lie to… the police and your girlfriend.
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Only if you have been in the deepest valley, can you ever know how magnificent it is to be on the highest mountain.
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A dream you dream alone is only a dream. A dream you dream together is reality.
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Reality is only a Rorschach ink-blot, you know.
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Only mothers can think of the future – because they give birth to it in their children.
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Only the dead have seen the end of the war.
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Life is a difficult game. You can win it only by retaining your birthright to be a person.
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Power is given only to those who dare to lower themselves and pick it up. Only one thing matters, one thing; to be able to dare!
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You can’t be afraid to fail. It’s the only way you succeed – you’re not gonna succeed all the time, and I know that.
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We die only once, and for such a long time.
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The only man who never makes a mistake is the man who never does anything.
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Only the mediocre are always at their best.
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I wish they would only take me as I am.
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There is only one success – to be able to spend your life in your own way.
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Dreams do come true, if we only wish hard enough, You can have anything in life if you will sacrifice everything else for it.
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The only true love is love at first sight; second sight dispels it.
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My friends, as I have discovered myself, there are no disasters, only opportunities. And, indeed, opportunities for fresh disasters.
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The only way you gain mental toughness is to do things you’re not happy doing. If you continue doing things that you’re satisfied and make you happy, you’re not getting stronger. You’re staying where you’re at. Either you’re getting better, or you’re getting worse. You’re not staying the same.
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Inner peace can be reached only when we practice forgiveness. Forgiveness is letting go of the past, and is therefore the means for correcting our misperceptions.
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The only thing we know about the future is that it will be different.
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Only those who have learned the power of sincere and selfless contribution experience life’s deepest joy: true fulfillment.
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Betrayal is the only truth that sticks.
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The level of our success is limited only by our imagination and no act of kindness, however small, is ever wasted.
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Most people die of a sort of creeping common sense, and discover when it is too late that the only things one never regrets are one’s mistakes.
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The only thing that makes battle psychologically tolerable is the brotherhood among soldiers. You need each other to get by.
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Practice does not make perfect. Only perfect practice makes perfect.
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The human brain works as a binary computer and can only analyze the exact information-based zeros and ones (or black and white). Our heart is more like a chemical computer that uses fuzzy logic to analyze information that can’t be easily defined in zeros and ones.
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You only grow when you are alone.
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It is impossible for us to break the law. We can only break ourselves against the law.
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War is only a cowardly escape from the problems of peace.
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I only wish that ordinary people had an unlimited capacity for doing harm; then they might have an unlimited power for doing good.
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A great thing can only be done by a great person; and they do it without effort.
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The only way to take sorrow out of death is to take love out of life.
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Resistance to the organized mass can be effected only by the man who is as well organized in his individuality as the mass itself.
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Poetry is not only dream and vision; it is the skeleton architecture of our lives. It lays the foundations for a future of change, a bridge across our fears of what has never been before.
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Real education enhances the dignity of a human being and increases his or her self-respect. If only the real sense of education could be realized by each individual and carried forward in every field of human activity, the world will be so much a better place to live in.
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The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.
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Habit is a second nature that destroys the first. But what is nature? Why is habit not natural? I am very much afraid that nature itself is only a first habit, just as habit is a second nature.
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I hope it is true that a man can die and yet not only live in others but give them life, and not only life, but that great consciousness of life.
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A person hears only what they understand.
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I always pass on good advice. It is the only thing to do with it. It is never of any use to oneself.
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History, in general, only informs us of what bad government is.
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Education must, be not only a transmission of culture but also a provider of alternative views of the world and a strengthener of the will to explore them.
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You’re only lonely if you’re not there for you.
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We’re born alone, we live alone, we die alone. Only through our love and friendship can we create the illusion for the moment that we’re not alone.
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Doctors are the same as lawyers; the only difference is that lawyers merely rob you, whereas doctors rob you and kill you too.
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I think the only way I could make something fun and big is if I don’t expect it to be.
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Men are moved by two levers only: fear and self interest.
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Self-education is, I firmly believe, the only kind of education there is.
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We cannot teach people anything; we can only help them discover it within themselves.
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Every good citizen makes his country‘s honor his own, and cherishes it not only as precious but as sacred. He is willing to risk his life in its defense and is conscious that he gains protection while he gives it.
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If you limit your choices only to what seems possible or reasonable, you disconnect yourself from what you truly want, and all that is left is compromise.
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The only solutions that are ever worth anything are the solutions that people find themselves.
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Give me love and work – these two only.
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The only way to have a friend is to be one.
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I’ve put in so many enigmas and puzzles that it will keep the professors busy for centuries arguing over what I meant, and that’s the only way of insuring one’s immortality.
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It is just that we should be grateful, not only to those with whose views we may agree, but also to those who have expressed more superficial views; for these also contributed something, by developing before us the powers of thought.
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If you get your ego in your way, you will only look to other people and circumstances to blame.
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Every day, you’re only as good as your last show.
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Writing in a diary is a really strange experience for someone like me. Not only because I’ve never written anything before, but also because it seems to me that later on neither I nor anyone else will be interested in the musings of a thirteen-year-old schoolgirl.
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Life has its ups and downs, but you can only look forward.
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What a wonderful life I’ve had! I only wish I’d realized it sooner.
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There is no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather.
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The only strong opinion that I have about myself is that I don’t have any opinions.
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For God so loved the World that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
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We only part to meet again.
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Sure I am of this, that you have only to endure to conquer.
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This nation will remain the land of the free only so long as it is the home of the brave.
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Only the gentle are ever really strong.
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Less is only more where more is no good.
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Light is meaningful only in relation to darkness, and truth presupposes error. It is these mingled opposites which people our life, which make it pungent, intoxicating. We only exist in terms of this conflict, in the zone where black and white clash.
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A human being is only breath and shadow.
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There is no such thing as death; life is only a dream, and we are the imagination of ourselves.
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You can really only enjoy life when you’re extremely busy.
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I only go out to get me a fresh appetite for being alone.
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I am doing things that are true to me. The only thing I have a problem with is being labeled.
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The fact that life has no meaning is a reason to live – moreover, the only one.
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There is only one valuable thing in art: the thing you cannot explain.
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We have to do with the past only as we can make it useful to the present and the future.
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Do the one thing you think you cannot do. Fail at it. Try again. Do better the second time. The only people who never tumble are those who never mount the high wire. This is your moment. Own it.
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Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important.
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There is only one real deprivation… and that is not to be able to give one’s gifts to those one loves most.
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There are two different types of leader. A person can either be like a thermometer or a thermostat. A thermometer will tell you what the temperature is. A thermostat will not only tell you what the temperature is, but it’ll move you to the temperature you need to get to.
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Play the game for more than you can afford to lose… only then will you learn the game.
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The only normal people are the ones you don’t know very well.
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A hen is only an egg’s way of making another egg.
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There are only two mistakes one can make along the road to truth; not going all the way, and not starting.
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Poetry is not a turning loose of emotion, but an escape from emotion; it is not the expression of personality, but an escape from personality. But, of course, only those who have personality and emotions know what it means to want to escape from these things.
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The only journey is the one within.
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The greatest and most important problems of life are all fundamentally insoluble. They can never be solved but only outgrown.
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The only real valuable thing is intuition.
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Revenge only engenders violence, not clarity and true peace. I think liberation must come from within.
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Love you will find only where you may show yourself weak without provoking strength.
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The fact is we can only love what we know personally. And we cannot know much. In public affairs, in the rebuilding of civilization, something less dramatic and emotional is needed, namely tolerance.
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A man’s only as old as the woman he feels.
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Keep silence for the most part, and speak only when you must, and then briefly.
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Only great minds can afford a simple style.
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The only difference between death and taxes is that death doesn’t get worse every time Congress meets.
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India has 2,000,000 gods and worships them all. In religion, all other countries are paupers; India is the only millionaire.
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A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.
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The only real things in life is the unexpected things. Everything else is just an illusion.
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Only do what your heart tells you.
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He who doesn’t fear death dies only once.
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There are only two things we should fight for. One is the defense of our homes and the other is the Bill of Rights.
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Only the lonely know the way I feel tonight.
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No man chooses evil because it is evil; he only mistakes it for happiness, the good he seeks.
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Life is so fresh, life is every day so new if we are fighting, only for the best. Sometimes I think the only real satisfaction in life is failure, failure in your endeavor to do your best.
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I have tried to keep on with my striving because this is the only hope I have of ever achieving anything worthwhile and lasting.
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Complacency is a state of mind that exists only in retrospective: it has to be shattered before being ascertained.
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Desperation is the raw material of drastic change. Only those who can leave behind everything they have ever believed in can hope to escape.
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Each friend represents a world in us, a world not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born.
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Our only security is our ability to change.
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I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary; the evil it does is permanent.
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My only fault is that I don’t realize how great I really am.
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Even the knowledge of my own fallibility cannot keep me from making mistakes. Only when I fall do I get up again.
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Nature shows that with the growth of intelligence comes increased capacity for pain, and it is only with the highest degree of intelligence that suffering reaches its supreme point.
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The first virtue in a soldier is endurance of fatigue; courage is only the second virtue.
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The nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side, but he has a remarkable capacity for not even hearing about them.
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Never be afraid to fail. Failure is only a stepping stone to improvement. Never be overconfident because that will block your improvement.
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Money is not the only answer, but it makes a difference.
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Life is only a dream and we are the imagination of ourselves.
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Do countries with strong gun control laws have lower murder rates? Only if you cherry-pick the data.
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Justice must not only be seen to be done but has to be seen to be believed.
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There is no logical way to the discovery of these elemental laws. There is only the way of intuition, which is helped by a feeling for the order lying behind the appearance.
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Terror is only justice: prompt, severe and inflexible; it is then an emanation of virtue; it is less a distinct principle than a natural consequence of the general principle of democracy, applied to the most pressing wants of the country.
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A community is democratic only when the humblest and weakest person can enjoy the highest civil, economic, and social rights that the biggest and most powerful possess.
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Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for.
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Not only do I not know what’s going on, I wouldn’t know what to do about it if I did.
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If your only intent is to be seen, you’ll never be seen. If your intent is to be happy, comfortable, genuine, and true in craft, you’re destined to be noticed.
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A person may cause evil to others not only by his actions but by his inaction, and in either case he is justly accountable to them for the injury.
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Technology is destructive only in the hands of people who do not realize that they are one and the same process as the universe.
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The only limit to your impact is your imagination and commitment.
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There is only one boss. The customer. And he can fire everybody in the company from the chairman on down, simply by spending his money somewhere else.
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The only real power comes out of a long rifle.
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The only antidote to mental suffering is physical pain.
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I have lived a long life, and I am proud that I spend the whole of my life in the service of my people. I am only proud of this and nothing else. I shall continue to serve until my last breath, and when I die, I can say, that every drop of my blood will invigorate India and strengthen it.
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Capitalist production, therefore, develops technology, and the combining together of various processes into a social whole, only by sapping the original sources of all wealth – the soil and the labourer.
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It is only when they go wrong that machines remind you how powerful they are.
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I’m one of those who believe the bumper sticker: If you outlaw guns, only outlaws will have guns. The first people who are going to be in line to turn in their guns are law-abiding citizens. Criminals are going to be left with guns.
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Many receive advice, only the wise profit from it.
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We are healed from suffering only by experiencing it to the full.
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Character is doing the right thing when nobody‘s looking. There are too many people who think that the only thing that’s right is to get by, and the only thing that’s wrong is to get caught.
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Solitude is the profoundest fact of the human condition. Man is the only being who knows he is alone.
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Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I’m not sure about the former.
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Any man can make mistakes, but only an idiot persists in his error.
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Hope is like peace. It is not a gift from God. It is a gift only we can give one another.
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Education is not only a ladder of opportunity, but it is also an investment in our future.
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The ego is only an illusion, but a very influential one. Letting the ego-illusion become your identity can prevent you from knowing your true self. Ego, the false idea of believing that you are what you have or what you do, is a backwards way of assessing and living life.
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Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything – all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important.
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Remember not only to say the right thing in the right place, but far more difficult still, to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment.
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It’s not only moving that creates new starting points. Sometimes all it takes is a subtle shift in perspective, an opening of the mind, an intentional pause and reset, or a new route to start to see new options and new possibilities.
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Action is a great restorer and builder of confidence. Inaction is not only the result, but the cause, of fear. Perhaps the action you take will be successful; perhaps different action or adjustments will have to follow. But any action is better than no action at all.
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Only you can control your future.
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The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today.
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I was a peripheral visionary. I could see the future, but only way off to the side.
