Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
If a man is not good, what has he to do with the rules of propriety? If he is not good, what has he to do with music?
See a person's means ... Observe his motives. Examine that in which he rests. How can a person conceal his character?
When you see a worthy person, endeavor to emulate him. When you see an unworthy person, then examine your inner self.
In vain I have looked for a single man capable of seeing his own faults and bringing the charge home against himself.
If a man has no humaneness what can his propriety be like? If a man has no humaneness what can his happiness be like?
The Master said, “The gentleman understands what is right, whereas the petty man understands profit.” (Analects 4.16)
He who rules by moral force is like the pole star, which remains in place while all the lesser stars do homage to it.
When the multitude detests a man, inquiry is necessary; when the multitude likes a man, inquiry is equally necessary.
Most problems in contemporary churches can be explained by the fact that members have never decided to follow Christ.
When the light comes into a room, we do not have to say, "Now what are we going to do about the darkness?" It's gone!
[A persons] utmost art and industry can never equal the meanest of nature's productions, either for beauty or value.
of the world and drudgery of business , seeks a pretense of reason to give itself a full and uncontrolled indulgence.
If your desires are not great, a little will seem much to you; for small appetite makes poverty equivalent to wealth.
I feel, I think, I judge; therefore, a part of organized matter like me is capable of feeling, thinking, and judging.
Mental events such as perceivings, rememberings, decisions, and actions resist capture in the net of physical theory.
There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power of our will.
Of all the things which wisdom provides to make us entirely happy, much the greatest is the possession of friendship.
It is futile to judge a kind deed by its motives. Kindness can become its own motive. We are made kind by being kind.
Social improvement is attained more readily by a concern with the quality of results than with the purity of motives.
When we believe ourselves in possession of the only truth, we are likely to be indifferent to common everyday truths.
There is in most passions a shrinking away from ourselves. The passionate pursuer has all the earmarks of a fugitive.
It is to escape the responsibility for failure that the weak so eagerly throw themselves into grandiose undertakings.
First something is a great idea, then it becomes a cause, then it becomes a business and finally it becomes a racket.
People are even more reluctant to admit that man explains nothing, than they were to admit that God explains nothing.
Mental differences between the lowest men and the animals are less than those between the lowest and the highest man.
The only possible proof of the existence of water, the most convincing and the most intimately true proof, is thirst.
To him who looks upon the world rationally, the world in its turn presents a rational aspect. The relation is mutual.
History in general is therefore the development of Spirit in Time, as Nature is the development of the Idea is Space.
On the stage on which we are observing it, — Universal History — Spirit displays itself in its most concrete reality.
Philosophy must indeed recognize the possibility that the people rise to it, but must not lower itself to the people.
God is a being of transcendent and unlimited perfections: his nature therefore is incomprehensible to finite spirits.
The intelligence of the lower forms of animal life, like a great deal of human intelligence, does not involve a self.
Our knowledge is a torch of smoky pine That lights the pathway but one step ahead Across a void of mystery and dread.
To be bewitched is not to be saved, though all the magicians and aesthetes in the world should pronounce it to be so.
Popular poets are the parish priests of the Muse, retailing her ancient divinations to a long since converted public.
My eye, my brain, are images, parts of my body. How could my brain contain images since it is one image among others?
There is no way to use non-Christian language and logic to arrive at Christian utterances, conclusions, and behavior.
Men prefer the false due to habit, passion, will. Preference for truth is rare. Men are ruled by their fear of truth.
Sacrifice still exists everywhere, and everywhere the elect of each generation suffers for the salvation of the rest.
The best people renounce all for one goal, the eternal fame of mortals; but most people stuff themselves like cattle.
The opposite is beneficial; from things that differ comes the fairest attunement; all things are born through strife.
Old forms of government finally grow so oppressive that they must be thrown off even at the risk of reigns of terror.
In assuming any office besides its essential one, the State begins to lose the power of fulfilling its essential one.
It is a general truth that students of language in every era try to colonize some or all of the other human sciences.
The question is not so much whether there is life on Mars as whether it will continue to be possible to live on Earth
Philosophy of science without history of science is empty; history of science without philosophy of science is blind.
In a consumer society there are inevitably two kinds of slaves: the prisoners of addiction and the prisoners of envy.
I never give in to the temptation to be difficult just for the sake of being difficult. That would be too ridiculous.
Freedom is completely without meaning unless it is related to necessity, unless it represents victory over necessity.
A tension or difficulty can signal the approach of a new grace of God. But it has to be looked at wisely and humanly.