“Critique de l'Œdipe . Première lettre à M. de Genonville . Footnote to second edition. Tr. Harbottle and Dalbiac, Dictionary of Quotations: French and Italian , 2nd ed. (1904) p. 167. Compare: Mothe Le Vayer”
#wisdom
112 quotes
“On doit des égards aux vivants; on ne doit aux morts que la vérité. We should be considerate to the living; to the dead we owe only the truth.”
“Oedipe , act II, scene IV”
“La vertu s'avilit à se justifier. Virtue is debased by self”
“If I had had more time, this letter would have been shorter. Written by Voltaire in an over”
“L'amour est de toutes les passions la plus forte, parce qu'elle attaque à la fois la tête, le cœur et le corps. Love is of all the passions the strongest, for it attacks simultaneously the head, the heart, and the body. Le Dernier Volume Des Œuvres De Voltaire: Contes”
“Lettres inédites de Voltaire,”
“Thoughts, remarks and observations”
“L'homme doit être content, dit”
“Commentaires sur Corneille”
“Theaetetus , 161b”
“ἐγὼ δὲ οὐδὲν ἐπίσταμαι πλέον πλὴν βραχέος, ὅσον λόγον παρ᾽ ἑτέρου σοφοῦ λαβεῖν καὶ ἀποδέξασθαι μετρίως. I myself know nothing, except just a little, enough to extract an argument from another man who is wise and to receive it fairly.”
“Wonder is the feeling of a philosopher, and philosophy begins in wonder. Theaetetus , 155d”
“Nothing is to be preferred before justice”
“Has a philosopher like you failed to discover that our country is more to be valued and higher and holier far than mother or father or any ancestor, and more to be regarded in the eyes of the gods and of men of understanding? Crito”
“One should never do wrong in return, nor mistreat any man, no matter how one has been mistreated by him. Plato, Crito 49c”
“Oh dear Pan and all the other gods of this place, grant that I may be beautiful inside. Let all my external possessions be in friendly harmony with what is within. May I consider the wise man rich. As for gold, let me have as much as a moderate man could bear and carry with him. Socrates' prayer, Phaedrus , 279”
“In every one of us there are two ruling and directing principles, whose guidance we follow wherever they may lead; the one being an innate desire of pleasure; the other, an acquired judgment which aspires after excellence. Phaedrus”
“It would be better for me... that multitudes of men should disagree with me rather than that I, being one, should be out of harmony with myself. Gorgias , 482c”
“I only wish that wisdom were the kind of thing that flowed ... from the vessel that was full to the one that was empty. Plato , Symposium , 175d”
“Seneca the Younger”
“Seneca the Elder”
“Poetry teaches the enormous force of a few words, and, in proportion to the inspiration, checks loquacity. Parnassus (1874) Preface”
“A mollusk is a cheap edition [of man] with a suppression of the costlier illustrations, designed for dingy circulation, for shelving in an oyster”
“Only the great generalizations survive. The sharp words of the Declaration of Independence, lampooned then and since as 'glittering generalities,' have turned out blazing ubiquities that will burn forever and ever. From a lecture on Books given in the Fraternity Course in Boston in 1864; the quoted phrase 'glittering generalities' had been used by Rufus Choate to describe the declaration of the rights of man in the Preamble to the Constitution”
“The clergy are as like as peas. "The Preacher", in The Index: A Weekly Paper (Feb. 5, 1880) pp. 62”
“Always put the best interpretation on a tenet. Why not on Christianity, wholesome, sweet, and poetic? It is the record of a pure and holy soul, humble, absolutely disinterested, a trutn”
“If the colleges were better, if they ... had the power of imparting valuable thought, creative principles, truths which become powers, thoughts which become talents,”
“God may consent, but not forever.”
“Walter Savage Landor”
“I fancy I need more than another to speak (rather than write), with such a formidable tendency to the lapidary style. I build my house of boulders. Letter to Thomas Carlyle”
“He who is in love is wise and is becoming wiser, sees newly every time he looks at the object beloved, drawing from it with his eyes and his mind those virtues which it possesses. The Method of Nature (1841), p. 25”
“I do see one large and grievous kind of ignorance, separate from the rest, and as weighty as all the other parts put together. Thinking that one knows a thing when one does not know it. Through this, I believe, all the mistakes of the mind are caused in all of us. 229c”
“Neither perception nor true opinion, nor reason or explanation combined with true opinion could be knowledge… Then our art of midwifery declare to us that all the offspring that have been born are mere wind”
“Perception and knowledge could never be the same. 186e”
“They do not know the penalty of unrighteousness, which is the thing they most ought to know. For it is not what they think it is”
“It is impossible that evils should be done away with, for there must always be something opposed to the good; and they… must inevitably hover about mortal nature and this earth. Therefore we ought to try to escape from earth to the dwelling of the gods as quickly as we can; and to escape is to become like God, so far as this is possible… God is in no wise and in no manner unrighteous, but utterly and perfectly righteous, and there is nothing so like him as that one of us who in turn becomes most nearly perfect in righteousness. 176a”
“Wonder is the feeling of a philosopher, and philosophy begins in wonder. 155d, The Dialogues of Plato , Volume 3, 1871, p. 377”
“No man of sense can put himself and his soul under the control of names... You must consider courageously and thoroughly and not accept anything carelessly. 440c”
“If the very essence of knowledge changes, at the moment of the change to another essence of knowledge there would be no knowledge, and if it is always changing, there will always be no knowledge, and by this reasoning there will be neither anyone to know nor anything to be known. But if there is always that which knows and that which is known”
“of the soul , their notion being that the soul is buried in the present life ; and again, because by its means the soul gives any signs which it gives, it is for this reason also properly called”
“I shall assume that your silence gives consent . 435b”
“We are our own slaves, not of the British. This should be engraved on our minds. The whites cannot remain if we do not want them. If the idea is to drive them out with firearms, let every Indian consider what precious little profit Europe has found in these. Introduction to the publication of Tolstoy's A Letter to a Hindu , Indian opinion , 25 December,”
“Leo Tolstoy 's life has been devoted to replacing the method of violence for removing tyranny or securing reform by the method of nonresistance to evil. He would meet hatred expressed in violence by love expressed in selfsuffering. He admits of no exception to whittle down this great and divine law of love. He applies it to all the problems that trouble mankind. Introduction to the publication of Tolstoy's A Letter to a Hindu , Indian opinion , 25 December,”
“My Experience in Gaol”
“A general belief seems to prevail in the colony that the Indians are little better, if at all, than the savages or natives of Africa . Even the children are taught to believe in that manner, with the result that the Indian is being dragged down to the position of a raw Kafir. During his time in South Africa from The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi , Government of India (CWMG), Vol I, p. 150”
“You say that the magistrate's decision is unsatisfactory because it would enable a person , however unclean, to travel by a tram, and that even the Kaffirs would be able to do so. But the magistrate's decision is quite different. The Court declared that the Kaffirs have no legal right to travel by tram. And according to tram regulations, those in an unclean dress or in a drunken state are prohibited from boarding a tram. Thanks to the Court's decision, only clean Indians or coloured people other than Kaffirs, can now travel in the trams. Comments on a court case in The Indian Opinion”
“In this instance of the fire”
“Why, of all places in Johannesburg , the Indian location should be chosen for dumping down all kaffirs of the town, passes my comprehension. Of course, under my suggestion, the Town Council must withdraw the Kaffirs from the Location. About this mixing of the Kaffirs with the Indians I must confess I feel most strongly. I think it is very unfair to the Indian population, and it is an undue tax on even the proverbial patience of my countrymen. Letter to Dr. Porter, Medical Officer of Health for Johannesburg (15 February 1905); later published in The Indian Opinion .”
“Ours is one continual struggle against a degradation sought to be inflicted upon us by the Europeans , who desire to degrade us to the level of the raw Kaffir whose occupation is hunting, and whose sole ambition is to collect a certain number of cattle to buy a wife with and, then, pass his life in indolence and nakedness. Address given in Bombay (26 September 1896), Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi , Vol. 1, p. 410 (Electronic Book), New Delhi, Publications Division Government of India, 1999, 98 volumes.”
“Times of Natal , October 26, 1894, in Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi , vol. 1, pp. 166”
“The Indians do not regret that capable natives can exercise the franchise. They would regret if it were otherwise. They, however, assert that they too, if capable, should have the right. You, in your wisdom , would not allow the Indian or the native the precious privilege under any circumstances, because they have a dark skin .”
“Style ought to prove that one believes in an idea; not only that one thinks it but also feels it. Letter to Lou Andreas”
“You have committed one of the greatest stupidities”
“I've seen proof, black on white, that Herr Dr. Förster has not yet severed his connection with the anti”
“So far no one had had enough courage and intelligence to reveal me to my dear Germans. My problems are new, my psychological horizon frighteningly comprehensive, my language bold and clear; there may well be no books written in German which are richer in ideas and more independent than mine. Letter to Carl Fuchs”
“I now myself live, in every detail, striving for wisdom, while I formerly merely worshipped and idolized the wise. Letter to Mathilde Mayer, July 16, 1878, cited in Karl Jaspers , Nietzsche (Baltimore: 1997), p. 46”
“But since it is not known where my center is, it won't be easy to find out where or when I have thus far been”
“There are no facts, only interpretations.”
“there are only facts,”
“Here the ways of men part: if you wish to strive for peace of soul and pleasure, then believe; if you wish to be a devotee of truth, then inquire. Letter to Elisabeth Nietzsche, Bonn, 1865”
“I am utterly amazed, utterly enchanted! I have a precursor , and what a precursor! I hardly knew Spinoza : that I should have turned to him just now , was inspired by "instinct." Not only is his overtendency like mine”
“The wealth required by nature is limited and is easy to procure; but the wealth required by vain ideals extends to infinity .”
“It is impossible for someone to dispel his fears about the most important matters if he doesn't know the nature of the universe but still gives some credence to myths . So without the study of nature there is no enjoyment of pure pleasure. (12) Variant translation: One cannot rid himself of his primal fears if he does not understand the nature of the universe, but instead suspects the truth of some mythical story. So without the study of nature, there can be no enjoyment of pure pleasure. [1]”
“No pleasure is in itself evil , but the things which produce certain pleasures entail annoyances many times greater than the pleasures themselves. (8) Variant translation: No pleasure is itself a bad thing, but the things that produce some kinds of pleasure, bring along with them unpleasantness that is much greater than the pleasure itself.”
“Οὐκ ἔστιν ἡδέως ζῆν ἄνευ τοῦ φρονίμως καὶ καλῶς καὶ δικαίως, οὐδὲ φρονίμως καὶ καλῶς καὶ δικαίως ἄνευ τοῦ ἡδέως. ὅτῳ δὲ τοῦτο μὴ ὑπάρχει ἐξ οὗ ζῆν φρονίμως, καὶ καλῶς καὶ δικαίως ὑπάρχει, οὐκ ἔστι τοῦτον ἡδέως ζῆν. It is impossible to live a pleasant life without living wisely and honorably and justly , and it is impossible to live wisely and honorably and justly without living pleasantly. Whenever any one of these is lacking, when, for instance, the man is not able to live wisely, though he lives honorably and justly, it is impossible for him to live a pleasant life.”
“He who is not satisfied with a little, is satisfied with nothing. The Essential Epicurus : Letters, Principal Doctrines, Vatican sayings, and fragments (1993) edited by Eugene Michael O'Connor, p. 99”
“Letter to Menoeceus" , as translated in Stoic and Epicurean (1910) by Robert Drew Hicks, p. 169”
“τὸ φρικωδέστατον οὖν τῶν κακῶν ὁ θάνατος οὐθὲν πρὸς ἡμᾶς͵ ἐπειδήπερ ὅταν μὲν ἡμεῖς ὦμεν͵ ὁ θάνατος οὐ πάρεστιν͵ ὅταν δὲ ὁ θάνατος παρῇ͵ τόθ΄ ἡμεῖς οὐκ ἐσμέν. Death , therefore, the most awful of evils , is nothing to us, seeing that, when we are, death is not come, and, when death is come, we are not.”
“Luxurious food and drinks , in no way protect you from harm. Wealth beyond what is natural, is no more use than an overflowing container. Real value is not generated by theaters, and baths, perfumes or ointments, but by philosophy . From the esplanade wall at Oenoanda , now in Turkey , as recorded by Diogenes of Oenoanda”
“Δικαιοσύνης καρπὸς μέγιστος ἀταραξία . The greatest reward of righteousness is peace of mind . Attributed to Epicurus by Clement of Alexandria in Stromata”
“ἄφοβον ὁ θεός, ἀνύποπτον ὁ θάνατος, καὶ τἀγαθὸν μὲν εὔκτητον, τὸ δὲ δεινὸν εὐεκκαρτέρητον. Don't fear god , Don't worry about death ; What is good is easy to get, and What is terrible is easy to endure. (tr. D. S. Hutchinson, 1994 ) The Tetrapharmakos , or "four”
“Plato had defined Man as an animal, biped and featherless, and was applauded. Diogenes plucked a fowl and brought it into the lecture”
“He used to reason as follows: 'Everything belongs to the gods; the wise are friends of the gods; friends hold all things in common; ergo , everything belongs to the wise.' Diogenes Laërtius , vi. 37, as reported in Diogenes the Cynic: Sayings and Anecdotes as translated by Robin Hard ( Oxford : 2012), p. 13”
“A child has beaten me in plainness of living.”
“Come, see that you obey orders.”
“Nay, I defeat men, you defeat slaves .”
“Good men nowhere, but good boys at Sparta.”
“Strike, for you will find no wood hard enough to keep me away from you, so long as I think you've something to say.”
“If you are to be kept right , you must possess either good friends or red”
“Aristotle dines when it seems good to King Philip , but Diogenes when he himself pleases. Plutarch , On Exile , 12”
“Yes, stand a little out of my sunshine .”
“巧言令色、鮮矣仁。 Fine words and an insinuating appearance are seldom associated with true virtue.”
“The opening of the Analects and thus the first phrase of Chapter I after which the Chinese title of this book is named 學而.”
“學而時習之、不亦說乎。有朋自遠方來、不亦樂乎。人不知而不慍、不亦君子乎。 Isn't it a pleasure to study and practice what you have learned? Isn't it also great when friends visit from distant places? If one remains not annoyed when he is not understood by people around him, isn't he a sage?”
“Western Civilisation in Relation to Protestant Mission Work”
“The more man meditates upon good thoughts, the better will be his world and the world at large. Attributed to Confucius in Out of the Blue: Delight Comes Into Our Lives (1996) by Mark Victor Hansen, Barbara Nichols, and Patty Hansen, p. 93”
“It is more shameful to distrust our friends than to be deceived by them. Reportedly in: United States. Congress. House. Committee on Mistrust, Conspiracy, and Lack of Internet Ethics (1980) Hearings Before the Committee on Agriculture, House of Representatives, Ninety”
“It is not truth that makes man great, but man that makes truth great. As quoted in The Importance of Living (1937) by Lin Yutang , p. v”
“Man has three ways of acting wisely. First, on meditation; that is the noblest. Secondly, on imitation ; that is the easiest. Thirdly, on experience ; that is the bitterest. The Analects , as reported in Chambers Dictionary of Quotations (1997), p. 279”
“Men do not stumble over mountains , but over molehills Reported in United States Congress House Committee on Agriculture (1973) Hearings Before the Committee on Agriculture, House of Representatives, Ninety”
“He that in his studies wholly applies himself to labour and exercise, and neglects meditation, loses his time, and he that only applies himself to meditation, and neglects labour and exercise, only wanders and loses himself. The Morals of Confucius , 2nd edition (London, 1724), Maxim X, p. 114”
“But it is better to assume principles less in number and finite, as Empedocles makes them to be. All philosophers... make principles to be contraries... (for Parmenides makes principles to be hot and cold, and these he demominates fire and earth) as those who introduce as principles the rare and the dense. But Democritus makes the principles to be the solid and the void; of which the former, he says, has the relation of being, and the latter of non”
“The science which has to do with nature clearly concerns itself for the most part with bodies and magnitudes and their properties and movements, but also with the principles of this sort of substance, as many as they may be. On the Heavens Book I, pg. 1”
“Richard McKeon (tr.) (1963), p. 150”
“Also known as Occam's razor or the principle of parsimony / economy”
“We may assume the superiority ceteris paribus [all things being equal] of the demonstration which derives from fewer postulates or hypotheses”
“Knowledge of the fact differs from knowledge of the reason for the fact. I.13 , 78a.22”
“Of things said without any combination, each signifies either substance or quantity or qualification or a relative or where or when or being”
“Nature does not do anything in vain .”
“My lectures are published and not published; they will be intelligible to those who heard them, and to none beside. Letter to Alexander the Great as quoted by William Whewell , History of the Inductive Sciences (1837), Ch. 2, Sect. 2”
“Philosophy is the science of truth.”
“Does the inertia of a body depend upon its energy content?”
“It followed from the special theory of relativity that mass and energy are both but different manifestations of the same thing”
“If a body gives off the energy L in the form of radiation, its mass diminishes by L/c².”
“Opening of a letter to his friend Conrad Habicht in which he describes his four revolutionary Annus Mirabilis papers (18 or 25 May 1905) Doc. 27”
“Lieber Habicht! / Es herrscht ein weihevolles Stillschweigen zwischen uns, so daß es mir fast wie eine sündige Entweihung vorkommt, wenn ich es jetzt durch ein wenig bedeutsames Gepappel unterbreche... / Was machen Sie denn, Sie eingefrorener Walfisch, Sie getrocknetes, eingebüchstes Stück Seele...? Dear Habicht, / Such a solemn air of silence has descended between us that I almost feel as if I am committing a sacrilege when I break it now with some inconsequential babble... / What are you up to, you frozen whale, you smoked, dried, canned piece of soul...?”
“Letter to Jost Winteler (July 8th, 1901), quoted in The Private Lives of Albert Einstein by Roger Highfields and Paul Carter (1993), p. 79 . Einstein had been annoyed that Paul Drude , editor of Annalen der Physik , had dismissed some criticisms Einstein made of Drude's electron theory of metals.”
“Autoritätsdusel ist der größte Feind der Wahrheit. Blind obedience to authority is the greatest enemy of truth.”
“Mes Projets d'Avenir”
“Un homme heureux est trop content du présent pour trop se soucier de l'avenir. A happy man is too satisfied with the present to dwell too much on the future.”
“❝Everything should be made simple as possible but no simpler.❞ Repeated throughout his life, see: Quote Investigator”