world - quotes

Helen (Adams) Keller, 1880-1968

was an US blind and deaf educator

The world is moved not only by the mighty shoves of the heroes, but also by the aggregate of the tiny pushes of each honest worker.

E(lwyn) B(rooks) White, 1899-1985

was an US author and humorist

If the world were merely seductive, that would be easy. If it were merely challenging, that would be no problem. But I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world, and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day.

Anne Frank, 1929-1945

was a German Jewish diarist

How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.

( “Diary of a Young Girl”, 1952 )

Henry David Thoreau, 1817-1862

was an US Transcendentalist author

In wildness is the preservation of the world.

( “Walking”, p 26, 1862 )

George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans), 1819-1880

was an English novelist

We are all apt to believe what the world believes about us.

William Wordsworth, 1770-1850

was an English poet

The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers:
Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!

( Sonnet “The World Is Too Much with Us”, ca 1802 )

William Congreve, 1670-1729

was an English dramatist

I came upstairs into the world; for I was born in a cellar.

( “Love for Love”, 1695 )

Albert Einstein, 1879-1955

was an US (German-born) physicist

The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is at all comprehensible.