Things are seldom what they seem. ...
by Gilbert and Sullivan

Things are seldom what they seem.
- William S. Gilbert (Gilbert and Sullivan: HMS Pinafore)

Related topics: Wisdom

A time for work, a time for play -
balance in all things.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

God grant me the serenity
To accept the things I cannot change;
the courage to change the things I can;
and the wisdom to know the difference.
- Reinhold Niebuhr (Serenity Prayer)

Our lives begin to end the day we become silent
about things that matter.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

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Thank you for joining me on this journey we call life,
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Don't underestimate the value of Doing Nothing,
of just going along,
listening to all the things you can't hear,
and not bothering.
- A. A. Milne (Winnie-The-Pooh)

All things at first appear difficult.
- Chinese proverb

We don't see things as they are,
we see things as we are.
- Anais Nin

Joy is what happens to us when we allow ourselves
to recognize how good things really are.
- Marianne Williamson

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed
by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do.
So throw off the bowlines.
Sail away from the safe harbor.
Catch the trade winds in your sails.
Explore. Dream. Discover.
- widely misattributed to Mark Twain

I Dream This Day of Wondrous Things,
of Peace and Hope and Pride.
I Dance My Dance with Life Today,
I'm Filled with Love Inside.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Two things a man should never be angry at:
what he can help,
and what he cannot help.
- Thomas Fuller

I am one with the Earth,
with the Water, with the Fire,
with the Air that I breathe,
with all Living Things,
and we are all one with Spirit.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

The softest things in the world overcome
the hardest things in the world.
- Lao Tzu

The things of this world exist;
they are; you can't refuse them.
- Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching - Book One #2 - version by Ursula K. Le Guin

Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex...
It takes a touch of genius - and a lot of courage
to move in the opposite direction.
- Albert Einstein

Obstacles are those frightful things
you see when you take your eyes off your goals.
- Henry Ford

If you realize that all things change,
there is nothing you will try to hold on to.
If you are not afraid of dying,
there is nothing you cannot achieve.
- Lao Tzu

Besides the noble art of getting things done,
there is the noble art of leaving things undone.
The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of non-essentials.
- Lin Yutang

Morality is the basis of things
and truth is the substance of all morality.
- Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi

All things share the same breath -
the beast, the tree, the man...
the air shares its spirit with all the life it supports.
- Chief Seattle (attributed)

Winners must have two things:
definite goals and a burning desire to achieve them.
- Anonymous

Mastery is not measured by the number of terrible
things you eliminate from your life,
but by the number of times you eliminate calling them terrible.
- Neale Donald Walsch

If we all did the things we are capable of doing,
we would literally astound ourselves.
- Thomas Edison

Things do not change; we change.
- Henry David Thoreau

What people say, what people do,
and what they say they do
are entirely different things.
- Margaret Mead

Simply put, you believe that things
or people make you unhappy,
but this is not accurate.
You make yourself unhappy.
- Wayne Dyer

If things are not as you wish,
wish them as they are.
- Yiddish Proverb

The highest and most beautiful things in life
are not to be heard about, nor read about, nor seen but,
if one will, are to be lived.
- Soren Kierkegaard

Some things will never seem adequate
no matter how hard we try.
- from the movie White Man's Burden

A ship in port is safe,
but that's not what ships are built for.
Sail out to sea and do new things.
- Grace Hopper

Everything is a miracle,
not just the beautiful and lovely things.
- Anonymous

The promises we makes to ourselves are the things
that assure us we have the capacity to keep our promises to others.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

Personal importance, or taking things personally,
is the maximum expression of selfishness
because we make the assumption that everything is about me.
- don Miguel Ruiz

Good things happen to those who hustle.
- Anais Nin

Chaos is inherent in all compounded things.
Strive on with diligence.
- The Buddha

You see things and you say, Why?
But I dream things that never were and say, Why not
- George Bernard Shaw

There are some things you learn best in calm,
and some in storm.
- Willa Cather

All difficult things have
their origin in that which is easy,
and great things in that which is small.
- Lao Tzu

Things turn out best for the people
who make the best of the way things turn out.
- Art Linkletter

I believe that everything happens for a reason.
People change so that you can learn to let go,
things go wrong so that you appreciate them when they're right,
you believe lies so you eventually learn to trust no one but yourself,
and sometimes good things fall apart so better things can fall together.
- Marilyn Monroe

Time cures all things.
- Proverb

The problems of the world cannot possibly
be solved by skeptics or cynics
whose horizons are limited by the obvious realities.
We need men who can dream of things that never were.
- John F. Kennedy

Common sense is the knack of seeing things as they are,
and doing things as they ought to be done.
- Josh Billings

Learn to do common things uncommonly well;
we must always keep in mind that anything
that helps fill the dinner pail is valuable.
- George Washington Carver

We know nothing at all.
All our knowledge is but the knowledge of schoolchildren.
The real nature of things we shall never know.
- Albert Einstein

When trouble arises and things look bad,
there is always one individual who perceives a solution
and is willing to take command.
Very often, that individual is crazy.
- Dave Barry

There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying
about things which are beyond the power of our will.
- Epictetus

Do first things first, and second things not at all.
- Peter F. Drucker

If you understand, things are just as they are;
if you do not understand, things are just as they are.
- Zen Proverb

Dare to dream of your great success.
Become intimate with those things
which deeply motivate you
and regularly work toward
the realization of that mission.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

To accomplish great things,
we must not only act, but also dream;
not only plan, but also believe.
- Anatole France

Don't try to manage people;
You manage things; You lead people.
- Grace Hopper

You have to expect things of yourself before you can do them.
- Michael Jordan

Women must try to do things as men have tried.
When they fail their failure must be
but a challenge to others.
- Amelia Earhart

From small beginnings come great things.
- Anonymous

All life is change.
Release your attachment to the way things have been,
and wend your way joyfully
through life's unfolding majesty.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

If we let things terrify us,
life will not be worth living.
- Seneca

Good things come in small packages.
- old proverb

You will do foolish things,
but do them with enthusiasm.
- Colette

Practice yourself, for heaven's sake in little things,
and then proceed to greater.
- Epictetus

People are not disturbed by things,
but by the view they take of them.
- Epictetus

The most important things in life
are seldom the most obvious.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Never do things others can do and will do
if there are things others cannot do or will not do.
- Amelia Earhart

The beginning of wisdom is to
call things by their right names.
- Chinese proverb

In this life we cannot do great things.
We can only do small things with great love.
- Mother Teresa

Difficulties are things that show a person what he is.
- Epictetus

We keep moving forward, opening new doors,
and doing new things, because we're curious
and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.
- Walt Disney

Things are only impossible until they're not.
- Jean-Luc Picard, character in STAR TREK: The Next Generation

All the great things are simple,
and many can be expressed in a single word:
freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope.
- Winston Churchill

I have just three things to teach:
simplicity, patience, compassion.
These three are your greatest treasures.
- Lao Tzu

As for accomplishments,
I just did what I had to do as things came along.
- Eleanor Roosevelt

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May the world be kind to you, and may your own thoughts be gentle upon yourself.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie