Quotations Set 37

1. Nothing, to my way of thinking, is a better proof of a well-ordered mind than a man's ability to stop just where he is and pass some time in his own company. - Lucius Annaeus Seneca, philosopher (BCE 3-65 CE)

2. Be not too hasty to trust or admire the teachers of morality; they discourse like angels but they live like men. - Samuel Johnson, lexicographer (1709-1784)

3. We know now that a man can read Goethe or Rilke in the evening, that he can play Bach and Schubert, and go to his day's work at Auschwitz in the morning. - George Steiner, professor and writer (b. 1929)

4. I come from a people who gave the Ten Commandments to the world. Time has come to strengthen them by three additional ones, which we ought to adopt and commit ourselves to: thou shall not be a perpetrator; thou shall not be a victim; and thou shall never, but never, be a bystander. - Yehuda Bauer, professor (b. 1926)

5. What is wanted is not the will to believe, but the will to find out, which is the exact opposite. - Bertrand Russell, philosopher, mathematician, author, Nobel laureate (1872-1970)

6. When I do good, I feel good; when I do bad, I feel bad. That's my religion. - Abraham Lincoln, 16th president of the U.S. (1809-1865)

7. The successful revolutionary is a statesman, the unsuccessful one a criminal. - Erich Fromm, psychoanalyst and author (1900-1980)

8. We lie the loudest when we lie to ourselves. - Eric Hoffer, philosopher and author (1902-1983)

9. I would rather try to persuade a man to go along, because once I have persuaded him he will stick. If I scare him, he will stay just as long as he is scared, and then he is gone. - Dwight D. Eisenhower, U.S. general and 34th president (1890-1969)

10. A child's education should begin at least one hundred years before he is born. - Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., US Supreme Court Justice (1841-1935)

11. A belief which leaves no place for doubt is not a belief; it is a superstition. - Jose Bergamin, author (1895-1983)

12. No protracted war can fail to endanger the freedom of a democratic country. - Alexis de Tocqueville, statesman and historian (1805-1859)

13. Evil is like a shadow - it has no real substance of its own, it is simply a lack of light. You cannot cause a shadow to disappear by trying to fight it, stamp on it, by railing against it, or any other form of emotional or physical resistance. In order to cause a shadow to disappear, you must shine light on it. - Shakti Gawain, teacher and author (b. 1948)

14. The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed - and hence clamorous to be led to safety - by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary. - H.L. Mencken, writer, editor, and critic (1880-1956)

15. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. - Elie Wiesel, writer, Nobel laureate (b. 1928)

16. Our heads are round so that thoughts can change direction. - Francis Picabia, painter and poet (1879-1953)

17. Life consists in what a man is thinking of all day. - Ralph Waldo Emerson, writer and philosopher (1803-1882)

18. Knowing what / Thou knowest not / Is in a sense / Omniscience. - Piet Hein, poet and scientist (1905-1996)

19. Society is like a stew. If you don't keep it stirred up you get a lot of scum on the top. - Edward Abbey, naturalist and author (1927-1989)

20. What the mind doesn't understand, it worships or fears. - Alice Walker, author (1944- )

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------