Seneca One of the causes of the troubles that beset us is the way our lives are guided by the example of others; instead of being set to rights by reason we’re seduced by convention. +
Betty Smith Intolerance is a thing that causes war, pogroms, crucifixions, lynchings, and makes people cruel to little children and each other. It is responsible for most of the viciousness, violence, terror, and heart and soul breaking of the world. +
Arthur Schopenhauer We will gradually become indifferent to what goes on in the minds of other people when we acquire a knowledge of the superficial nature of their thoughts, the narrowness of their views and of the number of their errors. Whoever attaches a lot of value to the opinions of others pays them too much honor. +
John Maynard Keynes The commonest virtues of the individual are often lacking in the spokesmen of nations; a statesman representing not himself but his country may prove, without incurring excessive blame—­as history often records—­vindictive, perfidious, and egotistic. +
Euripides Talk sense to a fool and he calls you foolish. +
Kurt Vonnegut Of all the words of mice and men, the saddest are, It might have been. +
Confucious Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it. +
Seneca In the meantime, cling tooth and nail to the following rule: not to give in to adversity, not to trust prosperity, and always take full note of fortune’s habit of behaving just as she pleases. +
Tacitus The more corrupt the state, the more it legislates. +
Abraham Lincoln Whatever you are, be a good one. +
Aldous Huxley The surest way to work up a crusade in favor of some good cause is to promise people they will have a chance of maltreating someone. To be able to destroy with good conscience, to be able to behave badly and call your bad behavior 'righteous indignation' — this is the height of psychological luxury, the most delicious of moral treats. +
Elbert Hubbart The friend is the person who knows all about you, and still likes you. +
Arthur C. Clarke Civilization and Religion are incompatible and Faith is believing what you know isn't true. +
Voltaire Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. +
William Westmoreland When I took command in Vietnam, I gave great emphasis to food and medical care - and to the mail. William Westmoreland +
Charlotte Bront Take the matter as you find it ask no questions, utter no remonstrances; it is your best wisdom. You expected bread and you have got a stone: break your teeth on it, and don't shriek because the nerves are martyrised; do not doubt that your mental stomach - if you have such a thing - is strong as an ostrich's; the stone will digest. You held out your hand for an egg, and fate put into it a scorpion. Show no consternation; close your fingers firmly upon the gift; let it sting through your palm. Never mind; in time, after your hand and arm have swelled and quivered long with torture, the squeezed scorpion will die, and you will have learned the great lesson how to endure without a sob. +
Clarence Darrow True patriotism hates injustice in its own land more than anywhere else. +
Frederick S. Perls Don't push the river, it flows by itself. +
John Dewey A problem well put is half solved. +
Jean-Jacques Rousseau A taste for ostentation is rarely associated in the same souls with a taste for honesty +
Mark Twain If Christ were here there is one thing he would not be—a Christian. +
Thomas Paine Let it then be heard, and let man learn to feel that the true greatness of a nation is founded on principles of humanity, and not on conquest. +
Hannah Arendt Totalitarianism in power invariably replaces all first-rate talents, regardless of their sympathies, with those crackpots and fools whose lack of intelligence and creativity is still the best guarantee of their loyalty. +
John Locke For where is the man that has incontestable evidence of the truth of all that he holds, or of the falsehood of all he condemns; or can say that he has examined to the bottom all his own, or other men's opinions? The necessity of believing without knowledge, nay often upon very slight grounds, in this fleeting state of action and blindness we are in, should make us more busy and careful to inform ourselves than constrain others. +
Carl von Clausewitz peace is maintained by the equilibrium of forces, and will continue just as long as this equilibrium exists, and no longer. +
Bruce Lee To live content with small means; to seek elegance rather than luxury, and refinement rather than fashion, to be worthy, not respectable, and wealthy, not rich; to study hard, think quietly, talk gently, act frankly; to bear all cheerfully, do all bravely, await occasions, hurry never. +
Arthur Schopenhauer Money is human happiness in the abstract; and so the man who is no longer capable of enjoying such happiness in the concrete, sets his whole heart on money. +
Samuel Johnson But the gradual growth of our own wickedness, endeared by interest, and palliated by all the artifices of self-deceit, gives us time to form distinctions in our own favour, and reason by degrees submits to absurdity, as the eye is in time accommodated to darkness. +
Elizabeth Barrett Browning How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. I love thee to the depth and breadth and height My soul can reach +
Jean-Paul Sartre If you're lonely when you're alone, you're in bad company. +
Epicurus The wealth required by nature is limited and is easy to procure; but the wealth required by vain ideals extends to infinity. +
John Steinbeck I believe a strong woman may be stronger than a man, particularly if she happens to have love in her heart. I guess a loving woman is indestructible. +
Mark Twain Civilization is the limitless multiplication of unnecessary necessities. +
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe A really great talent finds its happiness in execution. +
Arthur Schopenhauer Virtue cannot be taught, no more than genius; indeed, concepts are as unfruitful for it as for art and of use only as tools. +
John Locke In transgressing the law of nature, the offender declares himself to live by another rule than that of reason and common equity +
Friedrich Nietzsche Those who have a why to live can bear almost any how. +
Sun Tzu Those who are skilled in combat do not become angered, those who are skilled at winning do not become afraid. Thus the wise win before they fight, while the ignorant fight to win. +
Arthur Schopenhauer All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident. +
George S. Patton Anyone in any walk of life who is content with mediocrity is untrue to himself and to American tradition. +
Robert G. Ingersoll As a rule, theologians know nothing of this world, and far less of the next; but they have the power of stating the most absurd propositions with faces solemn as stupidity touched by fear. It is a part of their business to malign and vilify the Voltaires, Humes, Paines, Humboldts, Tyndalls, Haeckels, Darwins, Spencers, and Drapers, and to bow with uncovered heads before the murderers, adulterers, and persecutors of the world. They are, for the most part, engaged in poisoning the minds of the young, prejudicing children against science, teaching the astronomy and geology of the bible, and inducing all to desert the sublime standard of reason. +
Ambrose Bierce Speak when you are angry and you will make the best speech you will ever regret. +
Edmund Burke By hating vices too much, they come to love men too little. +
H.L. Mencken One man who minds his own business is more valuable to the world than 10,000 cocksure moralists. +
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Real obscurantism is not to hinder the spread of what is true, clear, and useful, but to bring into vogue what is false. +
Salvador Dali Have no fear of perfection - you'll never reach it. +
Marcus Aurelius Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth. +
Leo Tolstoy Government is an association of men who do violence to the rest of us. +
Juvenal It is a poor thing to lean upon the fame of others, lest the pillars give way and the house fall down in ruin. +
Aristotle The wise man does not expose himself needlessly to danger, since there are few things for which he cares sufficiently; but he is willing, in great crises, to give even his life--knowing that under certain conditions it is not worth while to live. He is of a disposition to do men service, though he is ashamed to have a service done to him. To confer a kindness is a mark of superiority; to receive one is a mark of subordination... He does not take part in public displays... He is open in his dislikes and preferences; he talks and acts frankly, because of his contempt for men and things... He is never fired with admiration, since there is nothing great in his eyes. He cannot live in complaisance with others, except it be a friend; complaisance is the characteristic of a slave... He never feels malice, and always forgets and passes over injuries... He is not fond of talking... It is no concern of his that he should be praised, or that others should be blamed. He does not speak evil of others, even of his enemies, unless it be to themselves. His carriage is sedate, his voice deep, his speech measured; he is not given to hurry, for he is concerned about only a few things; he is not prone to vehemence, for he thinks nothing very important. A shrill voice and hasty steps come to a man through care... He bears the accidents of life with dignity and grace, making the best of his circumstances, like a skillful general who marshals his limited forces with the strategy of war... He is his own best friend, and takes delight in privacy whereas the man of no virtue or ability is his own worst enemy, and is afraid of solitude. +