Benjamin Quotes

Go to heaven for the climate and hell for the company.

Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.

Trust yourself. You know more than you think you do.

There are three types of lies -- lies, damn lies, and statistics.

Three may keep a secret, if two of them are dead.

Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.

They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.

I bet you could sometimes find all the mysteries of the universe in someone's hand.

Words were different when they lived inside of you.

I got to thinking that poems were like people. Some people you got right off the bat. Some people you just didn't get--and never would get.

Another secret of the universe: Sometimes pain was like a storm that came out of nowhere. The clearest summer could end in a downpour. Could end in lightning and thunder.

The summer sun was not meant for boys like me. Boys like me belonged to the rain.

To be careful with people and with words was a rare and beautiful thing.

He that can have patience can have what he will.

You may delay, but time will not.

Many people die at twenty five and aren't buried until they are seventy five.

Maybe we just lived between hurting and healing.

A Penny Saved is a Penny Earned

In wine there is wisdom, in beer there is Freedom, in water there is bacteria.

Never ruin an apology with an excuse.

We are all born ignorant, but one must work hard to remain stupid.

We all fight our own private wars.

Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are.

But love was always something heavy for me. Something I had to carry.

Fear not death for the sooner we die, the longer we shall be immortal.

I didn't fail the test, I just found 100 ways to do it wrong.

For what it’s worth: it’s never too late or, in my case, too early to be whoever you want to be. There’s no time limit, stop whenever you want. You can change or stay the same, there are no rules to this thing. We can make the best or the worst of it. I hope you make the best of it. And I hope you see things that startle you. I hope you feel things you never felt before. I hope you meet people with a different point of view. I hope you live a life you’re proud of. If you find that you’re not, I hope you have the courage to start all over again.

And it seemed to me that Dante's face was a map of the world. A world without any darkness. Wow, a world without darkness. How beautiful was that?

By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.

How could I have ever been ashamed of loving Dante Quintana?

I hated being volunteered. The problem with my life was that it was someone else's idea.

Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.

Our lives are defined by opportunities, even the ones we miss.

I had a feeling there was something wrong with me. I guess I was a mystery even to myself.

Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy. [misquote of a letter about wine, see quotes/831031]

How many observe Christ's birthday! How few, His precepts!

An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest.

Being ignorant is not so much a shame, as being unwilling to learn.

Well done is better than well said.

Hide not your talents, they for use were made, What's a sundial in the shade?

Sometimes, you do things and you do them not because you're thinking but because you're feeling. Because you're feeling too much. And you can't always control the things you do when you're feeling too much.

Lost Time is never found again.

It is the first responsibility of every citizen to question authority.

I wondered what that was like, to hold someone’s hand. I bet you could sometimes find all of the mysteries of the universe in someone’s hand.

Three may keep a secret, if two of them are dead.

Your smile is back.' That's what Dante said. 'Smiles are like that. They come and go.

Do you really want to be happy? You can begin by being appreciative of who you are and what you've got.

I renamed myself Ari. If I switched the letter, my name was Air. I thought it might be a great thing to be the air. I could be something and nothing at the same time. I could be necessary and also invisible. Everyone would need me and no one would be able to see me.

Scars. A sign that you had been hurt. A sign that you had healed.

If all printers were determined not to print anything till they were sure it would offend nobody, there would be very little printed.

Everyone was always becoming someone else.

You know, sometimes all you need is twenty seconds of insane courage. Just literally twenty seconds of just embarrassing bravery. And I promise you, something great will come of it.

I don't always have to understand the people I love.

The Constitution only guarantees the American people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself.

I had a rule that it was better to be bored by yourself than to be bored with someone else. I pretty much lived by that rule. Maybe that's why I didn't have any friends.

Be at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let every new year find you a better man.

Why do we smile? Why do we laugh? Why do we feel alone? Why are we sad and confused? Why do we read poetry? Why do we cry when we see a painting? Why is there a riot in the heart when we love? Why do we feel shame? What is that thing in the pit of your stomach called desire?

This is my problem. I want other people to tell me how they feel. But I'm not so sure I want to return the favor.

I have always felt terrible inside. The reasons for this keep changing.

Remember not only to say the right thing in the right place, but far more difficult still, to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment.

History is written by the victors.

Sometimes, all you have to do is tell people the truth. They won't believe you. After that, they'll leave you alone.

It was good to laugh. I wanted to laugh and laugh and laugh until I laughed myself into becoming someone else.

Time is precious, but truth is more precious than time.

Tis a great confidence in a friend to tell him your faults; greater to tell him his.

The person who deserves most pity is a lonesome one on a rainy day who doesn't know how to read.

The only way of knowing a person is to love them without hope.

There are worse things in the world than a boy who likes to kiss other boys.

But I had learned to hide what I felt. No, that's not true. There was no learning involved. I had been born knowing how to hide what I felt.

Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that's the stuff life is made of.

I hope you live a life you’re proud of. If you find that you’re not, I hope you have the strength to start all over again.

Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.

I love swimming" "I know," I said. "I love swimming," he said again. He was quiet for a little while. And then he said, "I love swimming—and you." I didn't say anything. "Swimming and you, Ari. Those are the things I love the most.

I wondered if my smile was as big as hers. Maybe as big. But not as beautiful.

Never confuse Motion with Action.

He that is good for making excuses is seldom good for anything else.

I wanted to tell them that I'd never had a friend, not ever, not a real one. Until Dante. I wanted to tell them that I never knew that people like Dante existed in the world, people who looked at the stars, and knew the mysteries of water, and knew enough to know that birds belonged to the heavens and weren't meant to be shot down from their graceful flights by mean and stupid boys. I wanted to tell them that he had changed my life and that I would never be the same, not ever. And that somehow it felt like it was Dante who had saved my life and not the other way around. I wanted to tell them that he was the first human being aside from my mother who had ever made me want to talk about the things that scared me. I wanted to tell them so many things and yet I didn't have the words. So I just stupidly repeated myself. "Dante's my friend.

The heart can get really cold if all you've known is winter.

It’s a funny thing coming home. Nothing changes. Everything looks the same, feels the same, even smells the same. You realize what’s changed, is you.

The best way to become acquainted with a subject is to write about it.

The surest way to become Tense, Awkward, and Confused is to develop a mind that tries too hard - one that thinks too much.

The main problem with this great obsession for saving time is very simple: you can't save time. You can only spend it. But you can spend it wisely or foolishly.

Whatever is begun in anger, ends in shame.

Do not anticipate trouble, or worry about what may never happen. Keep in the sunlight.

Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech.

If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail!

When men are pure, laws are useless; when men are corrupt, laws are broken.

Love your Enemies, for they tell you your Faults.

Be slow in choosing a friend, slower in changing.

I am for doing good to the poor, but...I think the best way of doing good to the poor, is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it. I observed...that the more public provisions were made for the poor, the less they provided for themselves, and of course became poorer. And, on the contrary, the less was done for them, the more they did for themselves, and became richer.

One of the secrets of the universe was that our instincts were sometimes stronger than our minds.

The greatest good you can do for another is not just share your riches, but to reveal to him his own.

Educate your children to self-control, to the habit of holding passion and prejudice and evil tendencies subject to an upright and reasoning will, and you have done much to abolish misery from their future and crimes from society.

Do you think it will always be this way?” “What?” “I mean, when do we start feeling like the world belongs to us?” I wanted to tell him that the world would never belong to us. “I don't know,” I said. “Tomorrow.

A member of Parliament to Disraeli: 'Sir, you will either die on the gallows or of some unspeakable disease.' That depends, Sir,' said Disraeli, 'whether I embrace your policies or your mistress.

Senior year. And then life. Maybe that's the way it worked. High school was just a prologue to the real novel. Everybody got to write you -- but when you graduated, you got to write yourself. At graduation you got to collect your teacher's pens and your parents' pens and you got your own pen. And you could do all the writing. Yeah. Wouldn't that be sweet?

For the want of a nail the shoe was lost, For the want of a shoe the horse was lost, For the want of a horse the rider was lost, For the want of a rider the battle was lost, For the want of a battle the kingdom was lost, And all for the want of a horseshoe-nail.

Try it again," I said. "Kiss me." "No," he said. "Kiss me." "No," And then he smiled. "You kiss me." I placed my hand on the back of his neck. I pulled him toward me. And kissed him. I kissed him. And I kissed him. And I kissed him. And I kissed him. And he kept kissing me back.

Summer was here again. Summer, summer, summer. I loved and hated summers. Summers had a logic all their own and they always brought something out in me. Summer was supposed to be about freedom and youth and no school and possibilities and adventure and exploration. Summer was a book of hope. That's why I loved and hated summers. Because they made me want to believe.

All this time. This was what was wrong with me. All this time I had been trying to figure out the secrets of the universe, the secrets of my own body, of my own heart. All of the answers had always been so close and yet I'd always fought them without even knowing it. From the minute I'd met Dante, I had fallen in love with him. I just didn't let myself know it, think it, feel it. My father was right. And it was true what my mother said. We all fight our own private wars.