Top 100 It May Be Quotes
#1. Wars are to be undertaken in order that it may be possible to live in peace without molestation.
Marcus Tullius Cicero
#2. One of the most striking features of karate is that it may be engaged in by anybody, young or old, strong or weak, male or female.
Gichin Funakoshi
#3. It may be well to wait a century for a reader, as God has waited six thousand years for an observer.
Johannes Kepler
#4. It may be annoying, but the rash of hijackings by Connecticut WASP girls surely explains the time-consuming - but still somehow completely useless - examination of my personal effects. We all have to make sacrifices for airline safety.
Ann Coulter
#5. Beauty is a luster which love bestows to guile the eye. Therefore it may be said that only when the brain is without love will the eye look and see no beauty.
Jack Vance
#6. It may be made a question whether men grow wiser as they grow older, anymore than they grow stronger or healthier or honest.
William Hazlitt
#7. As for me, tough duty though it may be, I continue to do my part for the commercial recreation industry. Fishing, boating, tennis, golf, running, hunting, and all of this. Horseshoes. It's tough duty. Somebody has to do it, and I'm going to keep on.
George H. W. Bush
#8. We imagine that a little anxiety and worry is an indication of how wise we really are; it may be an indication of how wicked we really are.
Oswald Chambers
#9. We may not be able to do any great thing; but if each of us will do something, however small it may be, a goof deal will be accomplished for God.
D.L. Moody
#10. The real beauty of it - key to my life was playing key chords on a banjo. For somebody else it may be a golf club that mom and dad put in their hands or a baseball or ballet lessons. Real gift to give to me and put it in writing.
Vince Gill
#11. To be in a world which is a hell, to be of that world and neither to believe in or guess at anything but that world is not merely hell but the only possible damnation: the act of a man damning himself. It may be
William Golding
#12. I want that there should be a belief, a faith in the possibility of removing mountains to the side of right. If we believe that war is wrong, as everyone must, then we ought to believe that by proper efforts on our part, it may be done away with.
Lucretia Mott
#13. It may be true that the government that governs best governs least Unfortunately, the same is also true of the government that governs worst.
Jane Bowles
#14. We must remember that what a writer does to people is not necessarily what he intends to do. It may be only what people are capable of having done to them.
T. S. Eliot
#15. To gain what is worth having, it may be necessary to lose everything else.
Bernadette Devlin
#16. Again, it may be said, that to love justice and equality the people need no great effort of virtue; it is sufficient that they love themselves.
Maximilien Robespierre
#17. We know that man has the faculty of becoming completely absorbed in a subject however trivial it may be, and that there is no subject so trivial that it will not grow to infinite proportions if one's entire attention is devoted to it.
Leo Tolstoy
#18. To quote the Tsalagi, you should never allow your yesterday to use up too much of today. The past is gone and tomorrow is at best a maybe. Live for this moment because it may be all you'll ever have.
Sherrilyn Kenyon
#19. Your faith may be just a little thread. It may be small and weak, but act on that faith. It does not matter how big your faith is, but rather, where your faith is.
Billy Graham
#20. I think there's a notion in our society, and it may be valid, that people aren't as funny when they get older. It's a stigma still attached to the rebelliousness of youth.
Phil Hartman
#21. It may be that there is an afterlife and I'll look incredibly stupid, but at least I will have had a crammed pre afterlife, a crammed life, so to me the most important thing is as Kipling put it, to fill every unforgiving minute with 60 seconds worth of distance run.
Stephen Fry
#22. Work on practicing your smile because at the end of the day it may be the greatest treasure that you own.
Larry S. Gerovac
#23. Now it is raining, but we don't know what will happen in the next moment. By the time we go out it may be a beautiful day, or a stormy day. Since we don't know, let's appreciate the sound of the rain now.
Shunryu Suzuki
#24. So tomorrow we disappear into the unknown. This account I am transmitting down the river by canoe, and it may be our last word to those who are interested in our fate.
Arthur Conan Doyle
#25. Snark often functions as an enforcer of mediocrity and conformity. In its cozy knowingness, snark flatters you by assuming that you get the contemptuous joke. You've been admitted, or readmitted, to a club, though it may be the club of the second-rate.
David Denby
#26. In a free society, there comes a time when the truth - however hard it may be to hear, however impolitic it may seem to say - must be told.
Al Gore
#27. It may be that universal history is the history of the different intonations given a handful of metaphors.
Jorge Luis Borges
#28. Live one day without any unhealthy thoughts. It may be very difficult, but try another day until it becomes habitual, and life will move in the direction of becoming healthy, vital and alive.
Ruth Stafford Peale
#29. It may be romantic to search for the salves of society's ills in slow-moving rustic surroundings, or among innocent, unspoiled provincials, if such exist, but it is a waste of time.
Jane Jacobs
#30. So it may be that going to the hospital slightly increases your odds of surviving if you've got a serious problem but increases your odds of dying if you don't. Such are the vagaries of life.
Steven D. Levitt
#31. It may be infinitely worse to refuse to forgive than to murder, because
George MacDonald
#32. The more our bodies fail us, the more naked and more demanding is the spirit, the more open and loving we can become if we are not afraid of what we are and of what we feel. I am not a phoenix yet, but here among the ashes, it may be that the pain is chiefly that of new wings trying to push through.
May Sarton
#33. Sometimes, what's so right turns out to be wrong. And sometimes what's so wrong turns out to be right. Did you ever think it may be time to just go with the flow?
Charles F. Glassman
#34. Being creative means first of all doing something unusual ... On the other hand, however unusual it may be, the idea also has to be reasonable for people to take it seriously.
Howard Gardner
#35. I don't know if foreigners will take to my novels or not. It may be that my books appeal only to a particular gender or age group rather than convey a more universal appeal.
Natsuo Kirino
#36. In the karmic worldview, you are queer because of karma, and it may be a boon or curse. In the one-life worldview, you are queer because you choose to be so, to express your individuality or to defy authority (Greek mythology) or God/Devil wills it so (biblical mythology).
Devdutt Pattanaik
#37. For us, it's a matter of just staying alive and getting the best deal we can now. Eventually, this will all straighten out. It may be two generations away or 10 generations away, but time is irrelevant in that sense. As long as we, as a people, stay alive, we will survive.
John Trudell
#38. The mathematician is in much more direct contact with reality ... [Whereas] the physicist's reality, whatever it may be, has few or none of the attributes which common sense ascribes instinctively to reality. A chair may be a collection of whirling electrons.
G.H. Hardy
#39. The great thing about athletics is that it's like poker sometimes: you know what's in your hand, and it may be a load of rubbish, but you've got to keep up the front.
Sebastian Coe
#40. My table is now brightly, now dimly lighted. Its temperature varies. It may receive an ink stain. One of its legs may be broken. It may be repaired, polished, and replaced part by part. But, for me, it remains the table at which I daily write.
Ernst Mach
#41. It may be more important in the mathematics class how you teach than what you teach.
George Polya
#42. The mere change of custom, even though it may be of advantage in some respects, unsettles men by reason of the novelty: therefore, if it brings no advantage, it does much harm by unprofitably disturbing the Church.
Saint Augustine
#43. It may be that there is such a thing as racial memory, and it is supported by the undeniable observation that the goblins will get you if you don't watch out.
Jeff Cooper
#44. It may be broadly stated that ... of all animals kept for the recreation of mankind the horse is alone capable of exciting a passion that shall be absolutely hopeless.
Bret Harte
#45. Healing cannot occur by refusing to listen to the truth, unsettling as it may be.
Slade Combs
#46. May intelligent, bookish ladies sometimes be reformed?" he asked her.
She thought about it.
"I suppose it may be within the bounds of possibility," she said, "even if not of probability.
Mary Balogh
#47. When a stray animal crosses your path, it may be as close to God as you're going to get in this lifetime.
Kinky Friedman
#48. The poem is at last between two persons instead of two pages. In all modesty, I confess that it may be the death of literature as we know it.
Frank O'Hara
#49. Cosmos is closed and light cannot escape from it, then it may be perfectly correct to describe the universe as a black hole. If you wish to know what it is like inside a black hole, look around you.
Carl Sagan
#50. But it may be one of our best markets in the long term because when the Japanese society embraces a brand it is a very deep connection, so we're willing to make that investment knowing that it's not the quick route to success that might be in other countries.
Reed Hastings
#51. Cloning may be good and it may be bad. Probably it's a bit of both. The question must not be greeted with reflex hysteria but decided quietly, soberly and on its own merits. We need less emotion and more thought.
Richard Dawkins
#52. It may be said that hysteria is as ignorant of the science of the structure of the nervous system as we ourselves before we have learnt it.
Sigmund Freud
#53. It may be said that it is with our thoughts as with our flowers. Those whose expression is simple carry their seed with them; those that are double by their richness and pomp charm the mind, but produce nothing.
Joseph Joubert
#54. Music is the most natural thing in the world. When we go to a gig and we all like it and we share that experience, it's the same sense of communion as a sacred rite in Borneo or wherever it may be; it just gets dressed up different. Its good for the soul.
Paul Weller
#56. Truth, but not the whole truth, must be the invariable principle of every man who hath either religion, honour, or prudence. Thosewho violate it, may be cunning, but they are not able. Lies and perfidy are the refuge of fools and cowards.
Lord Chesterfield
#57. Often care of the soul means not taking sides when there is a conflict at a deep level. It may be necessary to stretch the heart wide enough to embrace contradiction and paradox.
Thomas Moore
#58. It is "humanism" that should run in the veins of the thinking humanity, not a certain gender-oriented "ism". This entire book is a treatise on gender equality, and as such, it may be hailed as a work of feminism, but it is not - it is a work of humanism.
Abhijit Naskar
#59. That's for calling your father a fool. It may be true, but it's disrespectful. Brian Fraser to teenage Jamie
Diana Gabaldon
#60. I guess, anything and everything that she wants. Marriage, babies, travelling the world, whatever it may be. I'm my strongest and happiest when she is with me, so all I need is her. I intend to love and cherish that girl until the end of time, and more if it's possible.
Angela Richardson
#61. Really, I am entirely material driven. If a project appeals to me, I will try to find the right writer and director. And that may be someone I've worked with before, or it may not. It may be a woman, or it may not.
Alison Owen
#62. The faith that education would destroy intolerance is false. It may be partly true, but people find that intolerance is fun.
Richard Summerbell
#63. It may be that these loan arrangements conform to the letter of the law, but they do not conform to the spirit of the law and to the principle of transparency on which it is based.
Bill Vaughan
#64. It may be true that you can't judge a book by its cover," Daisy G. had told Blister just last summer. "But the cover tells you something about the book and don't ever pretend it doesn't.
Susan Richards Shreve
#65. You put on this set of goggles, and within seconds, your brain is convinced you're now in a different, virtual environment. You're somewhere else, and that somewhere else may be a video game, it may be in a real-time movie, a museum exhibit, or a medical surgical training app.
Brendan Iribe
#66. The way to love anything is to realize that it may be lost.
G.K. Chesterton
#67. Writing generally, it may be said that in design, roof, and general aspect, Japanese Buddhist temples are all alike. The sacred architectural idea expresses itself in nearly the same form always.
Isabella Bird
#68. Learn to shrink yourself to the size of the company you are in. Take their tone, whatever it may be, and excell in it if you can;but never pretend to give the tone. A free conversation will no more bear a dictator than a free government will.
Lord Chesterfield
#69. If any personal description of me is thought desirable, it may be said, I am, in height, six feet, four inches, nearly; lean in flesh, weighing on an average one hundred and eighty pounds; dark complexion, with coarse black hair, and grey eyes
no other marks or brands recollected.
Abraham Lincoln
#70. It may be in seemingly unimportant things that a man expresses his passion for perfection, yet they will count heavily in the long run.
Charles M. Schwab
#71. Creative work is often driven by pain. It may be that if you don't have something in the back of your head driving you nuts, you may not do anything. It's not a good arrangement. If I were God, I wouldn't have done it that way.
[Interview, The Wall Street Journal, Nov. 20, 2009]
Cormac McCarthy
#72. Computer science is not as old as physics; it lags by a couple of hundred years. However, this does not mean that there is significantly less on the computer scientist's plate than on the physicist's: younger it may be, but it has had a far more intense upbringing!
Richard P. Feynman
#73. Against war it may be said that it makes the victor stupid and the vanquished revengeful.
Friedrich Nietzsche
#74. My staff tells me not to say this, but I'm going to say it anyway. In the summer because of the heat and high humidity, you could literally smell the tourists coming into the Capitol. It may be descriptive but it's true.
Harry Reid
#75. I've never tried to reach a certain demographic of an audience or try to say: OK, now I'm going to do this type of film to transition myself into more adult roles. Or a romantic hero. Or whatever it may be.
Leonardo DiCaprio
#76. True beauty is what lies inside of us, not what the world sees. A beautiful shell that houses a vile soul becomes sullied over time. But an outer shell, imperfect as it may be, that houses a beautiful, shines with that beauty, radiating it for all who have eyes to see.
Sara B. Larson
#77. Getting on with her life is important. But right now it may be more important to put the feelings out there, deal with them, and find a way to be okay with all that's happened.
Jennifer Brown
#78. In general it may be said that demand is quite as necessary to the increase of capital as the increase of capital is to demand.
Thomas Malthus
#80. From pacifist to terrorist, each person condemns violence - and then adds one cherished case in which it may be justified.
Gloria Steinem
#81. It is more reasonable to wish for reputation while it may be enjoyed, as Anacreon calls upon his companions to give him for present use the wine and garlands which they propose to bestow upon his tomb.
Samuel Johnson
#82. Get it down. Take chances. It may be bad, but it's the only way you can do anything good.
William Faulkner
#83. We shall be forced to attempt planned and directed research employing hundreds of workers for many years, and this cannot be done without risking the loss of independence and originality. This is a serious and fundamental obstacle but it may be overcome in two ways.
John Desmond Bernal
#84. Atmosphere is a silent music. It has its effect upon the listener, exciting or peaceful, whatever it may be.
Hazrat Inayat Khan
#85. Everything would be spoiled if we were to reserve Christ for the church while granting the world only some law, Christian though it may be.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
#86. Whatever you want to achieve is secondary: the business, the exchange of information, whatever it may be. Yes, you do that also, but there is a deeper foundation - meeting that human being in a state of shared presence.
Eckhart Tolle
#87. The more progress physical sciences make, the more they tend to enter the domain of mathematics, which is a kind of centre to which they all converge. We may even judge the degree of perfection to which a science has arrived by the facility with which it may be submitted to calculation.
Adolphe Quetelet
#88. It may be difficult to understand why a test comes our way, but we must never forget that the test is accomplishing refining and purification.
Billy Graham
#89. Never become attached to anything that continues to hurt God. For you to be free of it, God must be allowed to hurt whatever it may be.
Oswald Chambers
#90. It may be very generous in one person to offer what it would be ungenerous in another to accept.
Samuel Richardson
#91. I believe that the military-industrial state will eventually collapse, possibly even in our lifetime, and that a majority of us (if prepared) will muddle through to a freer, more open, less crowded, green and spacious agrarian society. (Maybe; of course it may be only a repeat of the middle ages.)
Edward Abbey
#92. Women manage, quite brilliantly, on the whole, and to stunning and unforeseeable effect, to survive and surmount being defined by others. They dismiss the definition, however dangerous or wounding it may be
or even, sometimes, find a way to utilize it.
James A. Baldwin
#93. Every person you encounter, whom you interact with, is there to teach you something. Sometimes it may be years before you realize what each had to show you.
Raymond E. Feist
#94. The business of the believer with his Bible open is to pray, 'Lord, give me the meaning and spirit of your word, while it lies open before me; apply your word with power to my soul, threatening or promise, doctrine or precept, whatever it may be; lead me into the soul and marrow of your word.'
Charles Spurgeon
#95. I am lucky that the Western world chooses me to play roles in their movies an television, whatever language it may be.
Irrfan Khan
#96. We do NOT know the past in chronological sequence. It may be convenient to lay it out anesthetized on the table with dates pasted on here and there, but what we know we know by ripples and spirals eddying out from us and from our own time.
Ezra Pound
#97. Art is like therapy; what comes up is what comes up. It may be dark, but that's what comes up. You may want to keep some of it in a drawer but never judge it.
Nick Bantock
#98. And, I think, for those of us who came of age with the women's movement, there's always the fear that it's not real, you're not really allowed to determine your own life. It may be pulled back at any moment.
Frances Mayes
#99. The history of science shows that great mysteries get solved. It may be that there's an answer that humans are too stupid to understand. I'm intrigued by that possibility.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
#100. I have a feeling that climate change may be an issue as severe as a war. It may be necessary to put democracy on hold for a while.
James Lovelock
