Quotes on Ifs

If you know what you are going to write when you're writing a poem, it's going to be average.

Good poetry could not have been otherwise written than it is. The first time you hear it, it sounds rather as if copied out of some invisible tablet in the Eternal mind than as if arbitrarily composed by the poet.

Every one of us can make a contribution. And quite often we are looking for the big things and forget that, wherever we are, we can make a contribution. Sometimes I tell myself, I may only be planting a tree here, but just imagine what's happening if there are billions of people out there doing something. Just imagine the power of what we can do.

Why does man have reason if he can only be influenced by violence?

If all the Churches of Europe closed their doors until the drums ceased rolling they would act as a most powerful reminder that though the glory of war is a famous and ancient glory, it is not the final glory of God.

If development is the new name for peace, war and preparations for war are the major enemy of the healthy development of peoples. If we take the common good of all humanity as our norm, instead of individual greed, peace would be possible.

If you love peace, then hate injustice, hate tyranny, hate greed � but hate these things in yourself, not in another.

Productive work, love and thought are possible only if a person can be, when necessary, quiet and alone. To be able to listen to oneself is the necessary condition for relating oneself to others.

There never has been a war yet which, if the facts had been put calmly before the ordinary folk, could not have been prevented ... The common man, I think, is the great protection against war.

America has an almost obscene infatuation with itself. Has there ever been a big, powerful country that is as patriotic as America? And patriotic in the tinniest way, with so much flag waving? You'd really think we were some poor little republic, and that if one person lost his religion for one hour, the whole thing would crumble. America is the real religion in this country.

It is a time for martyrs now, and if I am to be one, it will be for the cause of brotherhood. That's the only thing that can save this country.

African nationalism is meaningless, dangerous, anachronistic, if it is not, at the same time, pan-Africanism.

When I run after what I think I want, my days are a furnace of stress and anxiety; if I sit in my own place of patience, what I need flows to me, and without pain. From this I understand that what I want also wants me, is looking for me and attracting me. There is a great secret here for anyone who can grasp it.

The worst speak something good; if all want sense,_x000D_ _x000D_ God takes a text, and preacheth patience.

It were happy if we studied nature more in natural things; and acted according to nature, whose rules are few, plain, and most reasonable.

Good heavens, of what un costly material is our earthly happiness composed... if we only knew it. What incomes have we not had from a flower, and how unfailing are the dividends of the seasons.

If you understood everything I say, you'd be me!

You can play a shoestring if you're sincere.

All of the technique doesn't matter... only if the feeling is right.

If you're gonna sing meaningful songs, you have to be committed to living a life that backs that up.

Jump out the window if you are the object of passion. Flee it if you feel it. Passion goes, boredom remains.