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Improvement quotes

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“He felt himself, and did not want to be any one else. All he wanted now was to be better than before.” Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina

“We are kept keen on the grindstone of pain and necessity, and, it seemed to me, that here was that hateful grindstone broken at last!” H. G. Wells, The Time Machine

“Some falls are means the happier to arise.” William Shakespeare, Cymbeline

“What's done can't be undone, but at least you can keep it from happening again.” Anne Frank, The Diary of a Young Girl

“Every hurt is a lesson, and every lesson makes you better.” George R. R. Martin, A Game of Thrones

“when we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better, too.” Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist

“Do you want to improve the world? I don't think it can be done. The world is sacred. It can't be improved. If you tamper with it, you'll ruin it. If you treat it like an object, you'll lose it.” Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

“Marriage: so call I the will of the twain to create the one that is more than those who created it.” Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra

“Economy is the method by which we prepare to-day to afford the improvements of to-morrow.” Calvin Coolidge, State of the Union Address

“True hope is swift, and flies with swallow's wings; Kings it makes gods, and meaner creatures kings.” William Shakespeare, Richard III

“I never felt that I was good enough, strong enough, smart enough. He let me know that there was always room for improvement. A lot of sons would have been crippled by his demands, but instead the discipline rubbed off on me. I turned it into drive.” Arnold Schwarzenegger, Total Recall: My Unbelievably True Life Story

“It is also a duty owed to yourself, for excessive sorrow prevents improvement or enjoyment, or even the discharge of daily usefulness, without which no man is fit for society.” Mary Shelley, Frankenstein

“While civilization has been improving our houses, it has not equally improved the men who are to inhabit them. It has created palaces, but it was not so easy to create noblemen and kings.” Henry David Thoreau, Walden

“Could the straggling thoughts of individuals be collected, they would frequently form materials for wise and able men to improve into useful matter.” Thomas Paine, Common Sense

“America is a land of wonders, in which everything is in constant motion, and every movement seems an improvement.” Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America

“Is it not time to cry that the blind shall see, the deaf hear, the lame walk? But that which fanaticism formerly promised to its elect, science now accomplishes for all men.” Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary

“each thing has to transform itself into something better, and to acquire a new destiny, until, someday, the Soul of the World becomes one thing only.” Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist

“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better.” Dr. Seuss, The Lorax

“All this she must possess . . . and to all this she must yet add something more substantial, in the improvement of her mind by extensive reading.” Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

“If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid” Epictetus, Enchiridion

Related topics

wisdom strength mistake enjoyment stupidity science pain reading sorrow self mind humanity hope marriage past future world emulation progress care

Related authors

William Shakespeare (2)
Paulo Coelho (2)
Thomas Paine (1)
Lao Tzu (1)
Jane Austen (1)
George R. R. Martin (1)
Henry David Thoreau (1)
Friedrich Nietzsche (1)
Alexis de Tocqueville (1)
Leo Tolstoy (1)
Anne Frank (1)
Mary Shelley (1)
Dr. Seuss (1)
H. G. Wells (1)
Arnold Schwarzenegger (1)
Gustave Flaubert (1)
Calvin Coolidge (1)
Epictetus (1)

Related sources

The Alchemist (2)
Thus Spoke Zarathustra (1)
Tao Te Ching (1)
A Game of Thrones (1)
Walden (1)
Anna Karenina (1)
State of the Union Address (1)
Cymbeline (1)
Pride and Prejudice (1)
The Diary of a Young Girl (1)
Democracy in America (1)
Frankenstein (1)
Richard III (1)
Madame Bovary (1)
The Time Machine (1)
Total Recall: My Unbelievably True Life Story (1)
Common Sense (1)
The Lorax (1)
Enchiridion (1)