Little Box of Quotes
Daily quotes. No noise.
A daily quote. Simple.
No nonsense, no noise, no hooks, no ads. Just one quote each day.
Want a sample of the quotes? The most-recent 20 are at the bottom of this page…
Origin of my collection
A long time ago I began collecting inspirational quotes and aphorisms.
I kept them on the first version of my web site, where they were displayed randomly. But as time went on, I realized I wanted them where I would see them. Eventually I copied the fledgeling collection onto 3×5 cards and put them in a small box. As I find new ones, I add cards.
I keep the box on my desk with one card showing — just wedged in so it stands up readable. I change the card randomly, whenever the urge strikes.
Countless times I’ve pulled another card and found it eerily appropriate to the challenges of the day.
Countless times I’ve returned to my desk and felt inspired upon rediscovering an old card’s whispered counsel.
Countless times, just as I was about to throw in the towel, I was saved by an echo from the little box on my desk.
Who am I?
Hello 👋 I’m Craig Constantine.
My mission is creating better conversations to spread understanding and compassion. I want us to go from simply having conversations, to actively creating better conversations. You can learn more about me and all my projects at, https://craigconstantine.com.
If you like what I’m doing, please support me via Ko-Fi. (I like Ko-Fi because they don’t take a slice from the money you contribute.)
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Latest 20 quotes
Here are the last 20 quotes sent via email. Yes, it updates here every day.
- I am glad that I paid so little attention to good advice; Had I abided by it I might have been saved from some of my most valuable mistakes. ~ Edna St. Vincent Millay
- I get paid to read and comment on the news for a living, and I still wake up every morning completely overwhelmed by all that’s going on. I can feel my blood pressure go up as I try to figure out what to focus on first. The way I manage it is to remember that the world will go on if I don’t read everything. Newspapers will publish again the next day. I will always be better off consumg a smaller amount of high-quality information that trying to consume it all. ~ Tommy Vietor
- Supreme excellence consists of breaking the enemy’s resistance without fighting. ~ Sun Tzu
- “The appearance of the bull changes when you enter the ring.” The matador’s point of view is different from the spectator’s. ~ Mexican proverb
- Remember how long you’ve been putting this off, how many extensions have been given you, and you didn’t use them. At some point you have to recognize what world it is that you belong to; what power rules it and from what source you spring; that there is a limit to the time assigned you, and if you don’t use it to free yourself it will be gone and will never return. ~ Marcus Aurelius
- Courage is being scared to death, but saddling up anyway. ~ John Wayne
- What I understand today is that when the Stoics said that there was an opportunity in every obstacle, what they meant was the opportunity to practice virtue. To be a good person despite the bad things that have happened. To do good in the world despite the bad that has befallen you. They were speaking of the idea of arete. Excellence—in all forms. ~ Ryan Holiday
- Not to support this side or that in chariot-racing, this fighter or that in the games. To put up with discomfort and not make demands. To do my own work, mind my own business, and have no time for slanderers. ~ Marcus Aurelius
- The title “scholar” suggests that a person has gone to school, and that he studied, but it does not mean that he has acquired any truly important knowledge. ~ George Lichtenberg
- True friends stab you in the front. ~ Oscar Wilde
- Diligence is quick to carry out what intelligence has lingered over. Fools are fond of hurry: They take no heed of obstacles and act incautiously. The wise usually fail through hesitation. Fools stop at nothing, the wise at everything. Sometimes things are judged correctly but go wrong out of inefficiency and neglect. Readiness is the mother of luck. It is a great deed to leave nothing for the morrow. A lofty motto: Make haste slowly. ~ Baltasar Gracián
- Like the impresario ringing down the curtain on an actor: “But I’ve only gotten through three acts… !” Yes. This will be a drama in three acts, the length fixed by the power that directed your creation, and now directs your dissolution. Neither was yours to determine. So make your exit with grace—the same grace shown to you. ~ Marcus Aurelius
- One never notices what has been done; One can only see what remains to be done. ~ Marie Curie
- Some take nothing into account, and others want to take account for everything. They are always talking importance, always taking things too seriously, turning them into debate and mystery. Few bothersome things are important enough to bother with. It is folly to take to heart what you should turn your back on. Not the least of life’s rules is to leave well enough alone. ~ Baltasar Gracián
- It’s not about overcoming our fears but understanding that both hope and fear contain a dangerous amount of want and worry in them. And, sadly, the want is what causes the worry. ~ Ryan Holiday
- Those who can’t find anything to live for, always invent something to die for. Then they want the rest of us to die for it too. ~ Lew Welch
- [T]he dedications of philosophy are impregnable; age cannot erase their memory or diminish their force. Each succeeding generation will hold them in even higher reverence; what is close at hand is subject to envy, whereas the distant we can admire without prejudice. The philosopher’s life is therefore spacious; he is not hemmed in and constricted like others. He alone is exempt from the limitations of humanity; all ages are at his service as at a god’s. Has time gone by? He holds it fast in recollection. Is time now present? He utilizes it. Is it still to come? He anticipates […]
- The ideal agent’s frame of reference is thus her whole life, represented as accurately as a human being can remember its history and imagine its future, and lived as intelligently as a human being can exploit its possibilities. ~ Lawrence Becker
- I have perused your piece, and find it to be scurrilous and defamatory. To determine whether I should publish it or not, I went home in the evening, purchased a two penny loaf at the baker’s, and with water from the pump made my supper; I then wrapped myself up in my great coat, and laid down on the floor and slept till morning, when, on another loaf and a mug of water, I made my breakfast. From this regimen I feel no inconvenience whatever. Finding I can live in this manner, I have formed a determination never to prostitute […]
- The highest form of creativity is found by improvising within a set of restrictions. ~ Christopher Nolan