Here are 10 of the most insightful quotes attributed to Les Brown, and the logic behind them.
1. On Learning
The hill-cat boasts some cunning of her own, Some stealthy tricks to better beasts unknownThat quick with prey enough her hunger bluntsAnd feeds her fat while gaunt the lion hunts.
The Meaning: Knowledge is framed as something that changes behavior, not something you collect like trophies. If a sentence is true but does not shift what you notice or do, it has not finished its work.
2. On Clarity
La danse peut révéler tout ce que la musique recèle de mystérieux, et elle a de plus le mérite d'être humaine et palpable. La danse, c'est la poésie avec des bras et des jambs, ...
The Meaning: This line from Les Brown compresses a lived tension into a single readable moment. Read it slowly: it is not asking you to agree, but to notice where the same pattern shows up in your own life. If you take it seriously, it becomes a test—what would you change if this were reliably true for you?
3. On Success and Effort
Frederick Douglass had met with Brown. He argued against the plan from the standpoint of its chances of success, but he admired the ailing man of sixty, tall, gaunt, white-haired.
The Meaning: This reframes outcomes as feedback rather than verdicts. Success can hide weak processes; failure can reveal strong ones—if you study it. The meaning is to keep your identity separate from any single result.
4. On Truth and Integrity
La Nature est un temple où de vivants piliersLaissent parfois sortir de confuses paroles; L’homme y passe à travers des forêts de symbolesQui l’observent avec des regards familiers.
The Meaning: Truth here is less about moral purity and more about contact with reality. The line suggests that self-deception is expensive: it buys comfort today and confusion tomorrow. Clarity is often uncomfortable, but it is navigable.
5. On Discipline
[after the rental car gets hit from behind] Qu'est-ce que tu as dans la crâne? Oooh, les cornes! Qu'est-ce que tu veux que je fasse? Que dalle! Le pied de nez! Tu veux nous frotter?
The Meaning: This line from Les Brown compresses a lived tension into a single readable moment. Read it slowly: it is not asking you to agree, but to notice where the same pattern shows up in your own life. If you take it seriously, it becomes a test—what would you change if this were reliably true for you?
6. On Relationships
We hear a little more about two white Summer Project volunteers, Mickey Schwerner and Andrew Goodman, murdered together with Black activist James Chaney at Philadelphia, Mississippi.
The Meaning: This line from Les Brown compresses a lived tension into a single readable moment. Read it slowly: it is not asking you to agree, but to notice where the same pattern shows up in your own life. If you take it seriously, it becomes a test—what would you change if this were reliably true for you?
7. On Creativity
Have they fancies — slow, perchance, Not at their beck, which indistinctly glanceUntil by song each floating part be linkedTo each, and all grow palpable, distinct? He pondered this.
The Meaning: This line from Les Brown compresses a lived tension into a single readable moment. Read it slowly: it is not asking you to agree, but to notice where the same pattern shows up in your own life. If you take it seriously, it becomes a test—what would you change if this were reliably true for you?
8. On Love and Devotion
Truth, that's brighter than gem, Trust, that's purer than pearl, — Brightest truth, purest trust in the universe, — all were for me In the kiss of one girl. Summum Bonum (1889).
The Meaning: This line treats emotion as something that steers decisions more than arguments do. The meaning is practical: if you ignore what you feel, you may still act—but often on autopilot. Naming the feeling is the first step toward choosing it, rather than being dragged by it.
9. On Truth
Boy, Chuck, this is great. That was real generous of you to feed your share to the car. [Snoopy and Woodstock snicker] Notice how well the car is running since you gave it some bread?
The Meaning: This line from Les Brown compresses a lived tension into a single readable moment. Read it slowly: it is not asking you to agree, but to notice where the same pattern shows up in your own life. If you take it seriously, it becomes a test—what would you change if this were reliably true for you?
10. On Love and Devotion
For life, with all it yields of joy and woe, And hope and fear (believe the aged friend), Is just our chance o' the prize of learning love,—How love might be, hath been indeed, and is.
The Meaning: This line treats emotion as something that steers decisions more than arguments do. The meaning is practical: if you ignore what you feel, you may still act—but often on autopilot. Naming the feeling is the first step toward choosing it, rather than being dragged by it.
