Wise Words from Wise People (August 2026)

I’ve collected quotes for many years. My database now contains thousands of them, and every month I add the best ones I find in books, articles, newsletters, TED talks, YouTube videos, podcasts, etc.

Here are the best quotes I found this month:

“No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.” -Eleanor Roosevelt

“There is time enough for everything, in the course of the day, if you do but one thing at once; but there is not time enough in the year, if you will do two things at a time.” -Philip Dormer Stanhope (The 4th Earl of Chesterfield)

“Argue like you’re right and listen like you’re wrong. Have the humility to know what you don’t know and the curiosity to pursue knowledge and wisdom. Prize critical thinking over comfort.” -Adam Grant(opens in new tab)

“It is always our own self that we find at the end of the journey. The sooner we face that self, the better.” -Ella Maillart

“Sometimes, you have to look back in order to understand the things that lie ahead.” -Yvonne Woon

“Follow effective action with quiet reflection. From the quiet reflection will come even more effective action.” -Peter Drucker

“By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest.” -Confucius

“There is only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that is your own self. So you have to begin there, not outside, not on other people. That comes afterwards, when you have worked on your own corner.” -Aldous Huxley

“What we become depends on what we read after all of the professors have finished with us. The greatest university of all is a collection of books.” –Thomas Carlyle

“Let it offend you that someone else could be handed your days and turn them into something greater.” -Seneca

“Our greatest fear should not be of failure but of succeeding at things in life that don’t really matter.” -Francis Chan

“Truth is like the sun. You can shut it out for a time, but it ain’t goin’ away.” -Elvis Presley

“Not taking a risk is a risk. That’s how I see it.” -Robert Redford

“The world needs fewer keyboard warriors and more curious conversationalists.” -Adam Grant

“Much of life is in learning to always remain part of the solution rather than allowing ourselves to become part of the problem.” -Jim Rohn

“The major job of leaders is to develop other leaders.” -Noel Tichy

“Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, and one by one.” -Charles Mackay

“He who establishes a dictatorship and does not kill Brutus, or he who founds a republic and does not kill the sons of Brutus, will only reign a short time.” -Machiavelli