May Quotes

• You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.

  Maya Angelou

  Inspirational, Life, Positive

  Maya Angelou (2008). “Letter to My Daughter”, p.5, Random House

  85 Copy quote

  Show source
• 

  A man's character may be learned from the adjectives which he habitually uses in conversation.

  Mark Twain

  Inspirational, Leadership, Character

  Mark Twain (2014). “Mark Twain on Common Sense: Timeless Advice and Words of Wisdom from America's Most-Revered Humorist”, p.50, Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

  131 Copy quote

  Show source

• Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Inspirational, Motivational, Success

  Attributed in "Forbes", Volume 102, 1968.

  146 Copy quote

  Show source

• Don't walk behind me; I may not lead. Don't walk in front of me; I may not follow. Just walk beside me and be my friend.

  Albert Camus

  Love, Friendship, Happy

  574 Copy quote

• We may encounter many defeats but we must not be defeated.

  Maya Angelou

  Inspirational, Strength, Inspiring

  Interview with Marianne Schnall, www.psychologytoday.com. February 17, 2009.

  47 Copy quote

  Show source

• You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it.

  Maya Angelou

  Moving On, Spiritual, Strong Women

  FaceBook post by Maya Angelou from May 01, 2009

  245 Copy quote

  Show source

• The world's favorite season is the spring.
  All things seem possible in May.

  Edwin Way Teale

  Spring, World, All Things

  Edwin Way Teale (1951). “North With the Spring”

  25 Copy quote

  Show source

• Perhaps travel cannot prevent bigotry, but by demonstrating that all peoples cry, laugh, eat, worry, and die, it can introduce the idea that if we try and understand each other, we may even become friends.

  Maya Angelou

  Life, Travel, Laughter

  Maya Angelou (2011). “Wouldn't Take Nothing for My Journey Now”, p.8, Bantam

  81 Copy quote

  Show source
• 

  We may have all come on different ships, but we're in the same boat now.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Inspirational, Inspiring, Meaningful

  237 Copy quote

• Each generation has to stand up for democracy. It can't take anything for granted and may have to fight fundamental battles anew.

  Margaret Thatcher

  Inspirational, Motivational, Success

  "Why democracy will last". Margaret Thatcher's second Carlton Lecture at the Carlton Club in central London, www.margaretthatcher.org. November 26, 1984.

  82 Copy quote

  Show source

• Sweet May hath come to love us,
  Flowers, trees, their blossoms don;
  And through the blue heavens above us
  The very clouds move on.

  Heinrich Heine

  Sweet, Flower, Moving

  Heinrich Heine (1866). “The Poems of Heine: Complete”, p.182

  19 Copy quote

  Show source

• May the saddest day of your future be no worse than the happiest day of your past.

  P.B. Kerr

  Blessing, Past, Irish Drinking

  18 Copy quote

• When April steps aside for May,
  Like diamonds all the rain-drops glisten;
  Fresh violets open every day:
  To some new bird each hour we listen.

  Lucy Larcom

  Rain, Bird, Violet

  18 Copy quote

• The chief danger in life is that you may take too many precautions.

  Alfred Adler

  Self Esteem, Life Is Good, Danger In Life

  137 Copy quote

• May and June. Soft syllables, gentle names for the two best months in the garden year: cool, misty mornings gently burned away with a warming spring sun, followed by breezy afternoons and chilly nights. The discussion of philosophy is over; it's time for work to begin.

  H. Peter Loewer

  Morning, Philosophy, Spring

  H. Peter Loewer (1983). “Peter Loewer's Month by Month Garden Almanac for Indoor & Outdoor Gardening”

  44 Copy quote

  Show source

• May, queen of blossoms,
  And fulfilling flowers,
  With what pretty music
  Shall we charm the hours?
  Wilt thou have pipe and reed,
  Blown in the open mead?
  Or to the lute give heed
  In the green bowers.

  Edward Thurlow, 1st Baron Thurlow

  Queens, Flower, Giving

  Edward Thurlow, “May”

  18 Copy quote

  Show source

• To build may have to be the slow and laborious task of years. To destroy can be the thoughtless act of a single day.

  Winston Churchill

  Philosophy, Not Giving Up, Years

  Winston S. Churchill (2014). “The Unwritten Alliance”, p.412, RosettaBooks

  23 Copy quote

  Show source

• The sun was warm but the wind was chill. You know how it is with an April day. When the sun is out and the wind is still, You're one month on in the middle of May. But if you so much as dare to speak, a cloud come over the sunlit arch, And wind comes off a frozen peak, And you're two months back in the middle of March.

  Robert Frost

  Spring, Clouds, Wind

  Robert Frost (1977). “North of Boston: poems”, Dodd Mead

  17 Copy quote

  Show source

• But winter lingering chills the lap of May.

  Oliver Goldsmith

  Winter, Lap, Chill

  Oliver Goldsmith (1856). “The Works of Oliver Goldsmith: Comprising His Poems, Comedies, Essays, and Vicar of Wakefield”, p.6

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• May your neighbors respect you, trouble neglect you, angels protect you and heaven accept you

  Drake

  Friendship, Family, Angel

  "Shot for Me". Song by Drake, 2011.

  74 Copy quote

  Show source

• All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds, wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act on their dreams with open eyes, to make them possible.

  T. E. Lawrence

  Inspirational, Success, Dream

  The Seven Pillars of Wisdom suppressed introductory chapter (1926).

  167 Copy quote

  Show source

• I sing of brooks, of blossoms, birds, and bowers:
  Of April, May, or June, and July flowers.
  I sing of Maypoles, Hock-carts, wassails, wakes,
  Of bridegrooms, brides, and of the bridal cakes.

  Robert Herrick

  Spring, Flower, June

  Robert Herrick, John Donne (1948). “The Love Poems of Robert Herrick and John Donne”

  14 Copy quote

  Show source

• When May, with cowslip-braided locks,
  Walks through the land in green attire.
  And burns in meadow-grass the phlox
  His torch of purple fire:
  And when the punctual May arrives,
  With cowslip-garland on her brow,
  We know what once she gave our lives,
  And cannot give us now!

  Bayard Taylor

  Fire, Land, Purple

  Bayard Taylor (1883). “The Poetical Works of Bayard Taylor”

  11 Copy quote

  Show source

• May you live all the days of your life.

  Jonathan Swift

  Inspirational, Life, Birthday

  Jonathan Swift (1768). “The works of Dr. Jonathan Swift ...: With the author's life and character; notes, historical, critical, and explanatory; tables of contents, and indexes. More complete than any preceding edition ... Accurately corrected by the best editions”, p.153

  41 Copy quote

  Show source

• Victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory however long and hard the road may be; for without victory, there is no survival.

  Winston Churchill

  Fear, War, Greatest Victory

  Speech in House of Commons, 13 May 1940

  64 Copy quote

  Show source