The Times Great Quotations: Famous quotes to inform, motivate and inspire

Geoffrey Willams (1911–1958) and Ronald Searle (1920–2011), English humourists

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A lovely thing about Christmas is that it’s compulsory, like a thunderstorm, and we all go through it together.

Leaving Home (1987)

Garrison Keillor, American writer, humourist and radio personality (1942–)

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Hogmanay, like all festivals, being but a bank from which we can only draw what we put in.

Sentimental Tommy (1896)

JM Barrie, Scottish writer and dramatist (1860–1937)

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Now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions. Next week you can begin paving hell with them as usual.

[Letter to a US newspaper, 1863]

Mark Twain, American writer (1835–1910)

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Christmas begins about the first of December with an office party and ends when you finally realise what you spent, around April fifteenth of the next year.

Modern Manners (1983)

PJ O’Rourke, American political satirist and journalist (1947–)

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Christmas is the time for kindling the fire of hospitality in the hall, the genial flame of charity in the heart.

Old Christmas (1876)

Washington Irving, American writer, historian and diplomat (1783–1859)

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I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future. The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons that they teach!

A Christmas Carol (1843)

Charles Dickens, English writer and social critic (1812–1870)

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At Christmas I no more desire a rose

Than wish a snow in May’s new fangled shows;

But like of each thing that in season grows.

Love’s Labour’s Lost (1597)

William Shakespeare, English poet and dramatist (1564–1616)

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My idea of Christmas, whether old-fashioned or modern, is very simple: loving others. Come to think of it, why do we have to wait for Christmas to do that?

Bob Hope, English-born American comedian and actor (1903–2003)

COMPETITION (#ulink_44d670a8-cc92-53f1-ae1c-4efe91daac62)

If you don’t try to win you might as well hold the Olympics in somebody’s back yard.

Jesse Owens, American Olympic gold medallist for track and field (1913–1980)

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The important thing in life is not the victory but the contest; the essential thing is not to have won but to have fought well.

[Speech in London, 1908]

Baron Pierre de Coubertin, French founder of the International Olympic Committee (1863–1937)

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Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize.

The Bible

Corinthians 9:24

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Winning is everything. The only ones who remember you when you come second are your wife and your dog.

The Sunday Times (1994)

Damon Hill, British Formula One world champion (1960–)

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