Vladimir Nabakov
The pages are still blank,
but there is a miraculous feeling
of the words being there,
written in invisible ink
and clamoring to become visible.
~Vladimir Nabakov~
Siddha Nagarjuna
Virtues are acquired through endeavor,
Which rests wholly upon yourself.
So, to praise others for their virtues,
Can but encourage one's own efforts.
~Siddha Nagarjuna~
Napoleon I
Courage is like love;
it must have hope for nourishment.
~Napoleon I~
José Narosky
In war,
there are no unwounded soldiers.
~José Narosky~
George Jean Nathan
A man reserves his true
and deepest love not for
the species of woman in whose company
he finds himself electrified and enkindled,
but for that one in whose company
he may feel tenderly drowsy.
~George Jean Nathan~
Patricia Neal with Richard DeNeut
A master can tell you what he expects of you.
A teacher, though, awakens your own expectations.
~Patricia Neal with Richard DeNeut~
Charles B. Newcomb
If we are not responsible for the thoughts
that pass our doors,
we are at least responsible
for those we admit and entertain.
~Charles B. Newcomb~
Ernest Newman
The great composer does not
set to work because he is inspired,
but becomes inspired
because he is working.
Beethoven, Wagner, Bach and Mozart
settled down day after day
to the job in hand with as much regularity
as an accountant settles down
each day to his figures.
They didn't waste time
waiting for inspiration.
~Ernest Newman~
Joseph Fort Newton
We cannot tell what may happen to us
in the strange medley of life.
But we can decide what happens in us --
how we can take it, what we do with it --
and that is what really counts in the end.
How to take the raw stuff of life
and make it a thing of worth and beauty --
that is the test of living.
~Joseph Fort Newton~
Reinhold Niebuhr
Nothing worth doing is completed in our lifetime;
therefore we must be saved by hope.
Nothing true or beautiful makes complete sense
in any immediate context of history;
therefore we must be saved by faith.
Nothing we do, however virtuous,
can be accomplished alone;
therefore, we are saved by love.
~Reinhold Niebuhr~
Friedrich Nietzsche
Dancing in all its forms
cannot be excluded from the curriculum
of all noble education;
dancing with the feet,
with ideas, with words, and,
need I add
that one must also be able to dance
with the pen?.
~Friedrich Nietzsche~
People who have given us their complete confidence
believe that they have a right to ours.
The inference is false, a gift confers no rights.
~Friedrich Nietzsche~
Anaïs Nin
The role of a writer is not to
say what we all can say,
but what we are unable to say.
~Anaïs Nin~
Each friend
represents a world in us,
a world possibly not born
until they arrive.
~Anäis Nin~
And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud
was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.
~Anais Nin~
Each friend represents a world in us,
a world possibly not born until they arrive,
and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born.
~Anais Nin~
Richard M. Nixon
The greatness comes
not when things go always good for you.
But the greatness comes when you're really tested,
when you take some knocks, some disappointments,
when sadness comes. Because only if you've been
in the deepest valley can you ever know
how magnificent it is to be
on the highest mountain.
~Richard M. Nixon~
Peggy Noonan
I think miracles exist in part as gifts
and in part as clues that there is
something beyond the flat world we see.
~Peggy Noonan~
Anthony Norvell
Plant a kernel of wheat and you reap a pint;
plant a pint and you reap a bushel.
Always the law works to give you back
more than you give.
~Anthony Norvell~
Henri Nouwen
Joy
does not simply happen to us.
We have to choose joy and
keep choosing it every day.
It is a choice based on the knowledge
that we belong to God
and have found in God
our refuge and our safety
and that nothing, not even death,
can take God away from us.
Joy is the experience of knowing
that you are unconditionally loved
and that nothing - sickness, failure, emotional distress, oppression, war, or even death
- can take that love away.
~Henri Nouwen~