QUOTATIONS

DISCUSSION GUIDE

ACTIVITIES

Some people grumble because roses have thorns; I am thankful that the

thorns have roses.

-Jean Baptiste Alphonse Karr, French journalist and author (1808-1890)

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Whoever gossips to you will gossip about you. – Spanish proverb

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The secret of getting ahead is getting started. – Unknown

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Everything you do sends a message about who you are and what you value.

– Michael Josephson, founder of CHARACTER COUNTS! and the Josephson Institute

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The smallest good deed is better than the grandest good intention. – Unknown

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The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees opportunity in every difficulty. – Sir Winston Churchill, British prime minister and author (1874-1965)

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Whether you think you can or not, you are right. – Henry Ford, American businessman and founder of the Ford Motor Company (1863-1947)

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If you don’t want anyone to know, don’t do it. – Chinese proverb

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The day you quit school, you condemn yourself to a future of poverty.* – Jaime Escalante, Bolivian-born American high school teacher, inspiration for the movie Stand and Deliver

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Whatever is worth doing is worth doing well. – Earl of Chesterfield (Sir Philip Dormer Stanhope), English member of Parliament, author of Letters to His Son (1694-1773)

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You have not lived a perfect day unless you have done something for someone who will never be able to repay you. – Unknown

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What you are thunders so loudly that I cannot hear what you say to the contrary.

– Ralph Waldo Emerson, American philosopher and writer (1803-1882)

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Anger is a wind which blows out the lamp of the mind.

– Robert G. Ingersoll, American lecturer, author, and politician (1833-1899)

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Noncooperation with evil is as much a duty as is cooperation with good.

– Mohandas “Mahatma” Gandhi, leader for independence of India, pioneer of

nonviolent civil disobedience (1869-1948)

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Necessity is not a fact; it’s an interpretation.

– Friedrich Nietzsche, German philosopher and author (1844-1900)

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Don’t sacrifice a good life for a good time.

– Michael Josephson, founder of CHARACTER COUNTS! and the Josephson Institute

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To educate a person in mind and not in morals is to educate a menace to society.*

– Theodore Roosevelt, 26th U.S. president (1858-1919)

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The moment of victory is much too short to live for that and nothing else.

-Martina Navratilova, Czech-born American tennis champion (b. 1956)

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What is popular is not always right, and what is right is not always popular.

– Unknown

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If it’s painful for you to criticize your friends, you’re safe in doing it; if you take the slightest pleasure in it, that’s the time to hold your tongue.

– Alice Duer Miller, American author (1874-1942)

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Lives of great people all remind us / We can make our lives sublime, / And, departing, leave behind us / Footprints on the sand of time.*

– Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, American poet (1807-1882)

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How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.

– Anne Frank,, (1929-1945)

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My interest is in the future because I am going to spend the rest of my life there.

– Charles F. Kettering, American inventor (1876-1958)

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A man’s true wealth is the good he does in this world.

– Muhammad, founder of Islam (c. 570-632)

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Boredom is the feeling that everything is a waste of time; serenity, that nothing is.

– Thomas Szasz, author and professor of psychiatry (b. 1920)

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The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts.

– Bertrand Russell, English author (1872-1970)

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Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is not a path and leave a trail.

– Ralph Waldo Emerson, American philosopher and writer (1803-1882)

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A life without cause is a life without effect.

- Unknown

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If you change your mind, you can change your life.

– William James, American philosopher and psychologist (1842-1910)

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Our souls are not hungry for fame, comfort, wealth or power. Those rewards create almost as many problems as they solve. Our souls are hungry for meaning, for the sense that we have figured out how to live so that our lives matter, so that the world will be at least a little bit different for our having passed through it.

– Harold Kushner, American rabbi and author of When Bad Things Happen to Good People

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Today is the first day of the rest of your life.

– Charles Dederich, (1913-1997)

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Those who fight fire with fire burn their houses down twice as fast.*

– Vietnamese proverb

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The true measure of people is how they treat others who can do them absolutely no good.*

– Ann Landers American advice columnist (1918-2002)

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Not everything that is good for you is fun and not everything that is fun is good for you.

– Michael Josephson, founder of CHARACTER COUNTS! and the Josephson Institute (b. 1942)

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Dreams are what get you started. Discipline is what keeps you going.

– Jim Ryun, American Congressman and former world record holder in the mile run (b. 1947)

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If you haven’t got the time to do it right, when will you find the time to do it over?

– Jeffrey Mayer, American business consultant and author

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Temptation usually comes in through a door that has deliberately been left open.

-Unknown

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Doing the best at this moment puts you in the best place for the next moment.

– Oprah Winfrey, (b. 1954)

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One unable to dance blames the unevenness of the floor.

– Malay proverb

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Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.

– Theodore Roosevelt, 26th U.S. president (1858-1919)

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To ignore evil is to become an accomplice to it.

– Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968)

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Excuses are the nails used to build a house of failure.

– Don Wilder and Bill Rechin, comic strip creators

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Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

– attributed to Albert Einstein, 1879-1955)

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Saying is one thing, and doing is another.

– Michel de Montaigne, French writer, inventor of the essay (1533-1592)

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Destiny is not a 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.

– William Jennings Bryan, (1860-1925)

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Take time to work. It is the price of success. / Take time to think. It is the source of power. / Take time to play. It is the secret of perpetual youth. / Take time to read. It is the foundation of wisdom. / Take time to be friendly. It is the road to happiness. / Take time to dream. It is hitching your wagon to a star. / Take time to love and be loved. It is the privilege of the gods. / Take time to look around. It is too short a day to be selfish. / Take time to laugh. It is the music of the soul.

– Traditional English prayer

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The early bird catches the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.

– Unknown

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The fragrance always stays in the hand that gives the rose.

– Hada Bejar, actress

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Neither the intensity of your feelings nor the certainty of your convictions is any assurance that you are right.

– Michael Josephson, founder of CHARACTER COUNTS! and the Josephson Institute (b. 1942)

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To carry a grudge is like being stung to death by only one bee.

– Unknown

QUOTATIONS Discussion Guide

Have a discussion with your students about quotes in general or about a few specific quotes. Ask questions like the following:

What do you think this quotation means?
What are the most important ideas and values embedded in the quote?
How would you rewrite this quotation if you had to use synonyms of the original words?
Give a “real life” example of what this quote is about.
What circumstances do you think prompted the speaker to say this?
Why do you suppose this quotation is famous or at least notable?
If this quote doesn’t apply to you directly, what kind of person or situation would it apply to?
Is there something you can learn from this quote about how you should live your life?
How would the world be different if everyone lived by this quotation?
How would the world be different if no one lived by this quotation?
Is this quote realistic or idealistic?

QUOTATIONS Activity Ideas

1. Have students find five quotes about one topic, such as honesty or success, or about one of the Six Pillars.

2. Have students research and write a short biography of the person who said their favorite quote.

3. Have students rewrite five quotes using language a 10-year-old could understand.

4. Use a quotation as a journal prompt at the beginning (or end) of class. Students can then pick out their favorite journal entry to expand into a full essay.

5. Have students find and explain one quote that uses a simile and one that uses a metaphor.

6. Give students the first part of a quote and have them think of different endings. For example, “Most folks are about as happy as ... _________.” (The original quote, from American president Abraham Lincoln, ends with “they make up their minds to be.”)

7. List 10 quotes for students and have them rank the quotes in order of how meaningful they would be to a child, a teenager, a parent, or an old person.

8. Select a quotation and write it on the board. Have students copy it, write what it means in their own words, and give an example from their own lives.

9. As a twist on the traditional “current events” assignment, have students select a quote that relates to the news story and explain why it is relevant to that current event.

10. Have students organize a list of quotes by the Six Pillars of Character (trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring and citizenship). Ask them to explain how each quote relates to the Pillar category in which they placed it.

11. Assign a group of three or four students a particular maxim and have them prepare a one- to two-minute skit to illustrate the essential message of the quotation..

12. Cut the quotes into strips of paper and have students draw a quote from a box. For homework, express the message of the quote in a poster, poem, essay, or song.