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(note: This is true only if one's chosen values are rationally selected in light of the full facts of existence.) Fear always springs from ignorance. -- Ralph Waldo Emerson, The American Scholar When the Round Table is broken every man must follow Galahad or Modred: middle things are gone. -- C.S. Lewis, God in the Dock: Essays on Theology and Ethics Love conquers all things; let us too surrender to Love. -- Virgil, Elogues For the great majority of mankind are satisfied with appearances, as though they were realities, and are often more influenced by things that seem than by those that are. -- Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince Two things fill the mind with ever new and increasing wonder and awe,
the more often and the more seriously reflection concentrates upon them:
the starry heaven above me and the moral law within me. -- Immanuel
Kant, Critique of Practical Reason Their (the Athenians') history furnishes the classic example of the peril of Democracy under conditions singularly favourable…. They were the most religious of the Greeks. They venerated the constitution which had given them prosperity, and equality, and freedom….They tolerated considerable variety of opinion and great licence of speech….They became the only people of antiquity that grew great by democratic institutions. But the possession of unlimited power, which corrodes the conscience, hardens the heart, and confounds the understanding of monarchs, exercised its demoralizing influence on the illustrious democracy of Athens. -- Lord Acton (John E. E. Dalberg), The History of Freedom in Antiquity, 1877 It is by the goodness of God that in our country we have those three unspeakably precious things: freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, and the prudence never to practice either of them. -- Mark Twain, Following the Equator Against the disease of writing one must take special precautions, since it is a dangerous and contagious disease. -- Peter Abelard, Letter 8, Abelard to Heloise God is that, the greater than which cannot be conceived. -- St. Anselm, Proslogion A certain recluse, I know not who, once said that no bonds attached him to this life, and the only thing he would regret leaving was the sky. -- Yoshida Kenko, Essays in Idleness Dante once said that the hottest places in hell are reserved for those who in a period of moral crisis maintain their neutrality. -- John F. Kennedy, remarks in Bonn, West Germany, at the signing of a charter establishing the German Peace Corps, June 24, 1963 True love is never weak and thin, and unconcerned about the character of the beloved. The Father does not 'lay aside' his love when he punishes his erring boy, and keeps him impressed with the reality of moral distinctions. It is the father's intense love which wields the rod. All true corrections and chastisements flow out of love. Even Dante knew this, when he wrote on the door of Hell, "Love was my maker." It is an ignorant and mushy love that cannot rise above kisses and sugar plums, and it is extremely superficial to set up a schism between love and justice. - Jones Is the nature of things so reversed that a creature divine by right of reason can in no other way be splendid in his own eyes save by the possession of lifeless chattels? Yet, while other things are content with their own, ye who in your intellect are God-like seek from the lowest of things adornment for a nature of supreme excellence, and perceive not how great a wrong you do your Maker. - Boethius, The Consolation of Philosophy
For when the One Great Scorer comes The great question is to discover, not what governments prescribe, but what they ought to prescribe; for no prescription is valid against the conscience of mankind. -- Lord Acton (John E. E. Dalberg), The History of Freedom in Antiquity, 1877 To be conceited is to tend to boast of one's own excellences, to pity or ridicule the deficiencies of others, to daydream about imaginary triumphs, to reminisce about actual triumphs, to weary quickly of conversations which reflect unfavorably upon oneself, to lavish one's society upon distinguished persons and to ecnomize in association with the undistinguished. -- Gilbert Ryle, The Concept of Mind America is God's Crucible, the great Melting-Pot where all the races of Europe are melting and reforming!...God is making the American. -- Israel Zangwill, The Melting Pot Honour is not that reward of virtue, for which the virtuous work, but they receive honour from men by way of reward as from those who have nothing greater to offer. But virtue's true reward is happiness itself, for which the virtuous work, whereas if they worked for honour, it would no longer be virtue, but ambition. -- Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica Every actual animal is somewhat dull and somewhat mad. He will at times miss his signals and stare vacantly when he might well act, while at other times he will run off into convulsions and raise a dust in his own brain to no purpose. To fear death, my friends, is only to think ourselves wise, without being wise: for it is to think that we know what we do not know. For anything that men can tell, death may be the greatest good that can happen to them: but they fear it as if they know quite well that it was the greatest of evils. And what is this but that shameful ignorance of thinking that we know what we do not know? -- Socrates, quoted in Plato's Apology Not in the clamor of the crowded street, For peace is not mere absence of war, but is a virtue that springs from force of character. -- Benedict Spinoza, Tractatus Theologico-Politicus It is easier to fight for one's principles than to live up to them. -- Alfred Adler, quoted in Phyliss Bottome's Alfred Adler: Apostle of Freedom Good sense is of all things in the world the most equally distributed, for everybody thinks he is so well supplies with it, that even those most difficult to please in all other matters never desire more of it than they already possess. -- René Descartes, A Discourse on Method For want of a Nail the Shoe was lost; for want of
a Shoe the Horse was lost; and for want of a Horse the Rider was lost;
being overtaken and slain by the Enemy, all for want of Care about a
Horse-shoe Nail. -- Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard's Almanac Persecution cannot harm him who stands by Truth. Did not Socrates fall proudly a victim in body? Was not Paul stoned for the sake of the Truth? It is our inner selves that hurt us when we disobey it, and it kills us when we betray it. -- Kahlil Gibran, The Secrets of the Heart "The real
trouble with this world of ours is not that it is an unreasonable world,
nor even that it is a reasonable one. The commonest kind of trouble is
that it is nearly reasonable, but not quite. Life is not an
illogicality; yet it is a trap for logicians. It looks just a
little more mathematical and regular than it is; its exactitude is
obvious, but its inexactitude is The only standard we have for judging all of our social, economic, and political institutions and arrangements as just or unjust, as good or bad, as better or worse, derives from our conception of the good life for man on earth, and from our conviction that, given certain external conditions, it is possible for men to make good lives for themselves by their own efforts. -- Mortimer J. Adler, The Adler Archives All men are liable to error; and most men are, in many points, by pasion or interest, under temptation to it. -- John Locke, Essay Concerning Human Understanding Thou madest us for Thyself and our heart is
restless until it rest in Thee [referring to God]. -- Saint Augustine, Confessions My soul, sit thou a patient looker-on; Work banishes those three great evils, boredom,
vice and poverty. -- Voltaire, Candide Insomnia can become a form of contemplation. You just lie there, inert, helpless, alone, in the dark, and let yourself be crushed by the inscrutable tyranny of time. -- Thomas Merton, The Sign of Jonas By the time men are finally delivered from disease and decay - all pasteurized, their genes counted and rearranged, fitted with new, replaceable, plastic organs, able to eat, copulate and perform other physical functions innocuously and hygienically as and when desired - they will all be mad, and the world one huge psychiatric ward. -- Malcolm Muggeridge, The Observer, 1969 Love has power that dispels Death; charm that conquers the enemy. -- Kahlil Gibran, "Peace," Tears and Laughter The law of liberty is the law of love. -- Saint Augustine, Letter 167 I see and approve better things, but follow worse. -- Ovid [Publius Ovidius Naso], Metamorphoses, VII, 20 There is a desire deep within the soul which drives man from the seen to the unseen, to philosophy and to the divine. -- Kahlil Gibran, "Al Ghazali," Mirrors of the Soul Talent is nurtured in solitude; character is formed in the stormy billows of the world. -- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Torquato Tasso The Divine intellect indeed knows infinitely more propositions (than we can ever know). But with regard to those few which the human intellect does understand, I believe that its knowledge equals the Divine in objective certainty. -- Galileo, Dialogue on the Great World Systems From thee, great God, we spring, to thee we tend -- Path, motive, guide, original and end. -- Boethius, The Consolations of Philosophy Fleas can be taught nearly anything that a Congressman can. -- Mark Twain, What is Man? The condition for realizing (eternal) truth for the Christian is a gift (Gave) from God, but its realization is a task (Opgave) which must be repeatedly performed by the individual believer. --Keirk "As a matter of opinion, I believe that Glory shines out in
everything, and that any esthetic odiousness is merely our
Unfeelingness resulting from obscurations due to our own moral and
intellectual aberrations."
Peirce He who beings by loving Christianity better than Truth will proceed by loving his own sect or church better than Christianity, and end by loving himself better than all. -- Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Aids to Reflection: Moral and Religious Aphorisms Reason in man is rather like God in the world. -- Thomas Aquinas, Opusc. 11, 1 de Regno, 12 A bad peace is even worse than war. -- Tacitus, Annals For truly in adverse fortune the worst sting of misery is to have been happy. -Boethius The fool and the wise man are equally harmless; it is the half-wise and the half-foolish who are most to be feared. -- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Sprüche in Prosa We acknowledge but one motive -- to follow the truth as we know it, whithersoever it may lead us; but in our heart of hearts we are well assured that the truth which has made us free, will in the end make us glad also. -- Mortimer Adler, The Adler Archives No morality can be founded on authority, even if the authority were divine. -- A. J. Ayer, Essay on Humanism Every man, wherever he goes, is encompassed by a cloud of comforting convictions, which move with him like flies on a summer day. -- Bertrand Russell, Skeptical Essays Conscience is an inner voice that warns us somebody is looking. -- H.L. Mencken, source unknown (as with others on this page, I don't entirely agree --- but this one is funny) Envy is a pain of mind that successful men cause their neighbors. -- Onasander, The General (again, included only for its humor) If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them. -- Henry David Thoreau, Walden There is no sin apart from a sinner. Wherever sin exists there is a conscious deviation from a standard—a sag of the nature—and it produces an effect upon the entire personality. The person who sins, disobeys a sense of right. He falls below his vision of the good. He sees a path, but he does not walk in it. He hears a voice, but he says “no” instead of “yes.” He is aware of a higher self which makes its appeal, but he lets the lower have the reins. -Jones
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