Here, we’ve compiled a list of the best Only Quotes from famous persons: Lenny Bruce, Johnny Depp, Charles Dickens, A. Philip Randolph, Robert Louis Stevenson. The wide variety of quotes available makes it possible to find a quote to suit your needs. You’ve likely heard some of the Only Quotes before, but that’s because they truly are great.
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I only ask to be free. The butterflies are free.
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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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Your entire life only happens in this moment. The present moment is life itself. Yet, people live as if the opposite were true and treat the present moment as a stepping stone to the next moment – a means to an end.
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Only do what your heart tells you.
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An organization, no matter how well designed, is only as good as the people who live and work in it.
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The only antidote to mental suffering is physical pain.
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The only difference between the Republican and Democratic parties is the velocities with which their knees hit the floor when corporations knock on their door. That’s the only difference.
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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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Love. Fall in love and stay in love. Write only what you love, and love what you write. The key word is love. You have to get up in the morning and write something you love, something to live for.
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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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Paradise is exactly like where you are right now… only much, much better.
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You’re only lonely if you’re not there for you.
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Land is the only thing in the world that amounts to anything, for ‘Tis the only thing in this world that lasts, ‘Tis the only thing worth working for, worth fighting for – worth dying for.
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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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What is life? A madness. What is life? An illusion, a shadow, a story. And the greatest good is little enough; for all life is a dream, and dreams themselves are only dreams.
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The only thing we never get enough of is love; and the only thing we never give enough of is love.
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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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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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The wounds of love can only be healed by the one who made them.
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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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If I take death into my life, acknowledge it, and face it squarely, I will free myself from the anxiety of death and the pettiness of life – and only then will I be free to become myself.
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The only thing we know about the future is that it will be different.
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Life is neither good or evil, but only a place for good and evil.
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I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something. And I will not let what I cannot do interfere with what I can do.
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A human being is only breath and shadow.
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I never said, ‘I want to be alone.’ I only said, ‘I want to be left alone.’ There is all the difference.
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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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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 real things in life is the unexpected things. Everything else is just an illusion.
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What this power is I cannot say; all I know is that it exists and it becomes available only when a man is in that state of mind in which he knows exactly what he wants and is fully determined not to quit until he finds it.
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Only the weak are cruel. Gentleness can only be expected from the strong.
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Great and glorious God, and Thou Lord Jesus, I pray you shed abroad your light in the darkness of my mind. Be found of me, Lord, so that in all things I may act only in accordance with Thy holy will.
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Foreign languages was the only thing that interested me when I was at school, so playing in another language… it is quite demanding because if it is not your mother tongue, you are missing some connotations and some emotional depth of certain things.
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Life doesn’t require that we be the best, only that we try our best.
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Only government can take perfectly good paper, cover it with perfectly good ink and make the combination worthless.
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If you want total security, go to prison. There you’re fed, clothed, given medical care and so on. The only thing lacking… is freedom.
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Leadership can not be measured in a poll or even in the result of an election. It can only be truly seen with the benefit of time. From the perspective of 20 years, not 20 days.
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The only cure for grief is action.
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A person hears only what they understand.
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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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The only normal people are the ones you don’t know very well.
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If you have only one smile in you give it to the people you love.
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The only reason for time is so that everything doesn’t happen at once.
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Football fans share a universal language that cuts across many cultures and many personality types. A serious football fan is never alone. We are legion, and football is often the only thing we have in common.
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If you look for truth, you may find comfort in the end; if you look for comfort you will not get either comfort or truth only soft soap and wishful thinking to begin, and in the end, despair.
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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 ‘them’ and ‘us.’ There is only us.
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Only the wisest and stupidest of men never change.
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There are some ideas so wrong that only a very intelligent person could believe in them.
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God can only do for you what He can do through you.
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Miracles are not contrary to nature, but only contrary to what we know about nature.
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Fashion is not something that exists in dresses only. Fashion is in the sky, in the street, fashion has to do with ideas, the way we live, what is happening.
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Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle.
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The best thing about the future is that it comes only one day at a time.
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There is no such thing as failure. There are only results.
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Beauty is a gift, just like good health or intelligence. The only thing is not to be proud of being beautiful. Because you didn’t do anything – it was given to you.
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An escalator can never break: it can only become stairs. You should never see an Escalator Temporarily Out Of Order sign, just Escalator Temporarily Stairs. Sorry for the convenience.
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It is wonderful how much time good people spend fighting the devil. If they would only expend the same amount of energy loving their fellow men, the devil would die in his own tracks of ennui.
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God does not begin by asking our ability, only our availability, and if we prove our dependability, He will increase our capability.
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I think frugality drives innovation, just like other constraints do. One of the only ways to get out of a tight box is to invent your way out.
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Not only must we be good, but we must also be good for something.
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Words are only painted fire; a look is the fire itself.
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Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.
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We are not final because we are infallible, but we are infallible only because we are final.
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A poem is never finished, only abandoned.
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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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Life is only a dream and we are the imagination of ourselves.
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Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile.
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I found there was only one way to look thin: hang out with fat people.
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The only way to prove that you’re a good sport is to lose.
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Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather.
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Embrace your differences and the qualities about you that you think are weird. Eventually, they’re going to be the only things separating you from everyone else.
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Human rights are not only violated by terrorism, repression or assassination, but also by unfair economic structures that creates huge inequalities.
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Only the lonely know the way I feel tonight.
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I only like two kinds of men, domestic and imported.
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I think we judge talent wrong. What do we see as talent? I think I have made the same mistake myself. We judge talent by people’s ability to strike a cricket ball. The sweetness, the timing. That’s the only thing we see as talent. Things like determination, courage, discipline, temperament, these are also talent.
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The only way I can lose is if I’m caught in bed with either a dead girl or a live boy.
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The unreal is more powerful than the real, because nothing is as perfect as you can imagine it, because it’s only intangible ideas, concepts, beliefs, fantasies that last. Stone crumbles, wood rots. People, well, they die. But things as fragile as a thought, a dream, a legend, they can go on and on.
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The only people who never fail are those who never try.
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Everyone in society should be a role model, not only for their own self-respect, but for respect from others.
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Sometimes, only one person is missing, and the whole world seems depopulated.
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No nation has friends only interests.
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God loves each of us as if there were only one of us.
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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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In a mad world, only the mad are sane.
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Capitalism knows only one color: that color is green; all else is necessarily subservient to it, hence, race, gender and ethnicity cannot be considered within it.
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Even if the government spends itself into bankruptcy and the economy still does not recover, Keynesians can always say that it would have worked if only the government had spent more.
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Knowledge is power only if man knows what facts not to bother with.
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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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Don’t marry the person you think you can live with; marry only the individual you think you can’t live without.
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Never trust anyone completely but God. Love people, but put your full trust only in God.
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The only way to have a friend is to be one.
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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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All over the place, from the popular culture to the propaganda system, there is constant pressure to make people feel that they are helpless, that the only role they can have is to ratify decisions and to consume.
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We only have one earth. Let’s take care of it.
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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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Our lives improve only when we take chances – and the first and most difficult risk we can take is to be honest with ourselves.
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Happiness can exist only in acceptance.
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There are many paths but only one journey.
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Only mothers can think of the future – because they give birth to it in their children.
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You are not only responsible for what you say, but also for what you do not say.
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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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I never see what has been done; I only see what remains to be done.
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There is only one difference between a madman and me. The madman thinks he is sane. I know I am mad.
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It is only those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for blood, more vengeance, more desolation. War is hell.
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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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A man is only as faithful as his options.
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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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Imagine all the people living life in peace. You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one. I hope someday you’ll join us, and the world will be as one.
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Only the disciplined ones in life are free. If you are undisciplined, you are a slave to your moods and your passions.
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Physical fitness is not only one of the most important keys to a healthy body, it is the basis of dynamic and creative intellectual activity.
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You only live once – but if you work it right, once is enough.
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To the living we owe respect, but to the dead we owe only the truth.
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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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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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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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There is no such thing as death; life is only a dream, and we are the imagination of ourselves.
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Life in abundance comes only through great love.
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There is only one valuable thing in art: the thing you cannot explain.
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There are four ways, and only four ways, in which we have contact with the world. We are evaluated and classified by these four contacts: what we do, how we look, what we say, and how we say it.
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Only Americans can hurt America.
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One only dies once, and if one does not die well, a good opportunity is lost and will not present itself again.
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I wish they would only take me as I am.
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Fast cars are my only vice.
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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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Life has its ups and downs, but you can only look forward.
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A family can develop only with a loving woman as its center.
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You can’t control where you were born, the family you were born into, what you look like; you can’t control any of those circumstances. The only thing you can control is how you react.
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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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Only divine love bestows the keys of knowledge.
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The only way to keep your health is to eat what you don’t want, drink what you don’t like, and do what you’d rather not.
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Life would be infinitely happier if we could only be born at the age of eighty and gradually approach eighteen.
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Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.
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You can only do your best. That’s all you can do. And if it isn’t good enough, it isn’t good enough.
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Life is inherently risky. There is only one big risk you should avoid at all costs, and that is the risk of doing nothing.
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Love is like a friendship caught on fire. In the beginning a flame, very pretty, often hot and fierce, but still only light and flickering. As love grows older, our hearts mature and our love becomes as coals, deep-burning and unquenchable.
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If you’re in trouble, or hurt or need – go to the poor people. They’re the only ones that’ll help – the only ones.
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There must be a reason why some people can afford to live well. They must have worked for it. I only feel angry when I see waste. When I see people throwing away things that we could use.
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People sacrifice the present for the future. But life is available only in the present. That is why we should walk in such a way that every step can bring us to the here and the now.
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We cannot change our past. We can not change the fact that people act in a certain way. We can not change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude.
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A dream you dream alone is only a dream. A dream you dream together is reality.
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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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Love is not only something you feel, it is something you do.
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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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My only fault is that I don’t realize how great I really am.
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The fragrance of flowers spreads only in the direction of the wind. But the goodness of a person spreads in all directions.
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Happiness is the only good. The time to be happy is now. The place to be happy is here. The way to be happy is to make others so.
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Our knowledge can only be finite, while our ignorance must necessarily be infinite.
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The only way to get the best of an argument is to avoid it.
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Markets are lethal, if only because of ignoring externalities, the impacts of their transactions on the environment.
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There is no end. There is no beginning. There is only the passion of life.
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Every man’s life ends the same way. It is only the details of how he lived and how he died that distinguish one man from another.
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Remember always that you not only have the right to be an individual, you have an obligation to be one.
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On your journey, don’t forget to smell the flowers. Take time out to notice that you’re alive. You can only live in one day.
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It is only the modern that ever becomes old-fashioned.
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True self is non-self, the awareness that the self is made only of non-self elements. There’s no separation between self and other, and everything is interconnected. Once you are aware of that you are no longer caught in the idea that you are a separate entity.
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There are only two people who can tell you the truth about yourself – an enemy who has lost his temper and a friend who loves you dearly.
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There are only two types of women – goddesses and doormats.
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I believe in one thing only, the power of human will.
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People often only see one side to someone’s personality, but there are levels.
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I don’t think of myself as a role model. I do try to live in a compassionate, considerate and positive way. The only advice I can offer is to find what you love to do, find the joy in it, and express yourself through your passion.
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Look for yourself, and you will find in the long run only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage, ruin, and decay. But look for Christ, and you will find Him, and with Him everything else thrown in.
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Hatred does not cease by hatred, but only by love; this is the eternal rule.
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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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Only the pure in heart can make a good soup.
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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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Many individuals are doing what they can. But real success can only come if there is a change in our societies and in our economics and in our politics.
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The only good political movement I’ve seen lately was Occupy Wall Street. They had no leaders, which was genius. But unfortunately it always ends up with some hippy playing a flute.
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I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.
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Only fools are positive.
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Move out of your comfort zone. You can only grow if you are willing to feel awkward and uncomfortable when you try something new.
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You’re only as good as your last haircut.
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The only solutions that are ever worth anything are the solutions that people find themselves.
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The only real valuable thing is intuition.
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Bravery is being the only one who knows you’re afraid.
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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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There’s only two people in your life you should lie to… the police and your girlfriend.
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Practice does not make perfect. Only perfect practice makes perfect.
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The only real power comes out of a long rifle.
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I look only to the good qualities of men. Not being faultless myself, I won’t presume to probe into the faults of others.
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We Spaniards know a sickness of the heart that only gold can cure.
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Everything about your life, about your body, grows! Your cells regenerate; your hair, your nails, everything grows for your entire life. And your soul needs exploration and growth. And the only way you’ll get it is by forcing yourself to be uncomfortable. Forcing yourself to get outside, out of your head.
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Only entropy comes easy.
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Personality is only ripe when a man has made the truth his own.
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Success is only meaningful and enjoyable if it feels like your own.
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Take care of your body. It’s the only place you have to live.
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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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When my mother had to get dinner for 8 she’d just make enough for 16 and only serve half.
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Love is the only gold.
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Trust has to be earned, and should come only after the passage of time.
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The whole art of teaching is only the art of awakening the natural curiosity of young minds for the purpose of satisfying it afterwards.
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I am the only person in the world I should like to know thoroughly.
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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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What a wonderful life I’ve had! I only wish I’d realized it sooner.
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Your mind knows only some things. Your inner voice, your instinct, knows everything. If you listen to what you know instinctively, it will always lead you down the right path.
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Let us ask ourselves, ‘What kind of people do we think we are?’ And let us answer, ‘Free people, worthy of freedom and determined not only to remain so but to help others gain their freedom as well.’
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I was born not knowing and have had only a little time to change that here and there.
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Less is only more where more is no good.
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A business absolutely devoted to service will have only one worry about profits. They will be embarrassingly large.
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We cannot continue to rely only on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives that we’ve set. We’ve got to have a civilian national security force that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded.
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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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Of all the gods only death does not desire gifts.
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People are increasingly realising that what they eat is important. You can’t put junk food in your body and be healthy. All sorts of problems can develop, like diabetes, heart disease, obesity, strokes. Gardening not only helps with exercise and mental health, but it can improve diet as well.
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Your representative owes you, not his industry only, but his judgment; and he betrays instead of serving you if he sacrifices it to your opinion.
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You can’t get much done in life if you only work on the days when you feel good.
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Only the dead have seen the end of the war.
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Cooking is all about people. Food is maybe the only universal thing that really has the power to bring everyone together. No matter what culture, everywhere around the world, people get together to eat.
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It is only in adventure that some people succeed in knowing themselves – in finding themselves.
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Democracy is only an experiment in government, and it has the obvious disadvantage of merely counting votes instead of weighing them.
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Sure I am of this, that you have only to endure to conquer.
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Cultural patterns of oppression are not only interrelated but are bound together and influenced by the intersectional systems of society. Examples of this include race, gender, class, ability, and ethnicity.
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When Christ died, He died for you individually just as much as if you’d been the only man in the world.
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Own only what you can always carry with you: know languages, know countries, know people. Let your memory be your travel bag.
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Self-education is, I firmly believe, the only kind of education there is.
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The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today.
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The resistance that you fight physically in the gym and the resistance that you fight in life can only build a strong character.
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The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.
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Music is God’s gift to man, the only art of Heaven given to earth, the only art of earth we take to Heaven.
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The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only object of good government.
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I have found out one thing and that is, if you have an idea, and it is a good idea, if you only stick to it you will come out all right.
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Perseverance is a great element of success. If you only knock long enough and loud enough at the gate, you are sure to wake up somebody.
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We can only see a short distance ahead, but we can see plenty there that needs to be done.
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Not only do I think being nice and kind is easy but being kind, in my opinion, is important.
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There is a land of the living and a land of the dead and the bridge is love, the only survival, the only meaning.
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At the end of the day, you can’t control the results; you can only control your effort level and your focus.
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The essential lesson I’ve learned in life is to just be yourself. Treasure the magnificent being that you are and recognize first and foremost you’re not here as a human being only. You’re a spiritual being having a human experience.
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If you’re white and you’re wrong, then you’re wrong; if you’re black and you’re wrong, you’re wrong. People are people. Black, blue, pink, green – God make no rules about color; only society make rules where my people suffer, and that why we must have redemption and redemption now.
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A person can only be born in one place. However, he may die several times elsewhere: in the exiles and prisons, and in a homeland transformed by the occupation and oppression into a nightmare.
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There is only one sort of discipline, perfect discipline.
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The only good is knowledge, and the only evil is ignorance.
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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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Friendship at first sight, like love at first sight, is said to be the only truth.
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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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I know you are here to kill me. Shoot, coward, you are only going to kill a man.
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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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I never worry about action, but only inaction.
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Effort only fully releases its reward after a person refuses to quit.
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The only place that matters is first.
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The only books that influence us are those for which we are ready, and which have gone a little farther down our particular path than we have yet got ourselves.
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There are only two tragedies in life: one is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it.
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The only thing that will make you happy is being happy with who you are, and not who people think you are.
479
I have short goals – to get better every day, to help my teammates every day – but my only ultimate goal is to win an NBA championship. It’s all that matters. I dream about it. I dream about it all the time, how it would look, how it would feel. It would be so amazing.
480
Winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing.
481
Don’t only practice your art, but force your way into its secrets; art deserves that, for it and knowledge can raise man to the Divine.
482
Our imagination is the only limit to what we can hope to have in the future.
483
True independence and freedom can only exist in doing what’s right.
484
485
486
The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or moral, is not sufficient warrant.
487
An unmarried man, in my opinion, enjoys only half a life.
488
If people are good only because they fear punishment, and hope for reward, then we are a sorry lot indeed.
489
An optimist is a person who sees a green light everywhere, while a pessimist sees only the red stoplight… the truly wise person is colorblind.
490
You can’t be brave if you’ve only had wonderful things happen to you.
491
For God so loved the World that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
492
493
There is nothing stable in the world; uproar’s your only music.
494
This most beautiful system of the sun, planets, and comets, could only proceed from the counsel and dominion of an intelligent and powerful Being.