Courage is the first of human qualities because it is the quality which guarantees the others.
Aristotle

In making a speech one must study three points: first, the means of producing persuasion; second, the language; third the proper arrangement of the various parts of the speech.
Aristotle

For though we love both the truth and our friends, piety requires us to honor the truth first.
Aristotle

My second favorite household chore is ironing. My first being hitting my head on the top bunk bed until I faint.
Erma Bombeck

Did you ever notice that the first piece of luggage on the carousel never belongs to anyone?
Erma Bombeck

Read the best books first, or you may not have a chance to read them at all.
Henry David Thoreau

After the first blush of sin comes its indifference.
Henry David Thoreau

It is usually the imagination that is wounded first, rather than the heart; it being much more sensitive.
Henry David Thoreau

All personal achievement starts in the mind of the individual. Your personal achievement starts in your mind. The first step is to know exactly what your problem, goal or desire is.
W. Clement Stone

I consider myself a poet first and a musician second. I live like a poet and I'll die like a poet.
Bob Dylan

If you would take, you must first give, this is the beginning of intelligence.
Lao Tzu

The first virtue in a soldier is endurance of fatigue; courage is only the second virtue.
Napoleon Bonaparte

It's all right for a woman to be, above all, human. I am a woman first of all.
Anais Nin

Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win.
Sun Tzu

Thus it is that in war the victorious strategist only seeks battle after the victory has been won, whereas he who is destined to defeat first fights and afterwards looks for victory.
Sun Tzu

The good fighters of old first put themselves beyond the possibility of defeat, and then waited for an opportunity of defeating the enemy.
Sun Tzu

Men always want to be a woman's first love - women like to be a man's last romance.
Oscar Wilde

Illusion is the first of all pleasures.
Oscar Wilde

All my life I've looked at words as though I were seeing them for the first time.
Ernest Hemingway

The first panacea for a mismanaged nation is inflation of the currency; the second is war. Both bring a temporary prosperity; both bring a permanent ruin. But both are the refuge of political and economic opportunists.
Ernest Hemingway