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Reason often makes mistakes, but conscience never does. To have and not to give is often worse than to steal. No army can withstand the strength of an idea whose time has come. Tact is the ability to describe others as they see themselves. The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who, in time of great moral crisis, maintain their neutrality. I have never met a man so ignorant that I couldn't learn something from him. Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power. We can be knowledgeable with other men's knowledge but we cannot be wise with other men's wisdom. Education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance. In seeking wisdom, the first step is silence, the second listening, the third remembering, the fourth practicing, the fifth -- teaching others. Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction. To have doubted one's own first principles is the mark of a civilized man. Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness. If you would stand well with a great mind, leave him with a favorable impression of yourself; if with a little mind, leave him with a favorable
impression of himself. You desire to know the art of living, my friend? It is contained in one phrase: make use of suffering. Shall I tell you the secret of the true scholar? It is this: every man I meet is my master in some point, and in that I learn of him. The man who is denied the opportunity of taking decisions of importance begins to regard as important the decisions he is allowed to take. It is as hard for the good to suspect evil, as it is for the bad to suspect
good. The road uphill and the road downhill are one and the same. Real knowledge is to know the extent of one's ignorance. The man who is a pessimist before forty-eight knows too much; if he is an optimist after it, he knows too little. Minds, like bodies, will often fall into a pimpled, ill-conditioned state from mere excess of comfort. In order that people may be happy in their work, these three things are needed: they must be fit for it; they must not do too much of it; and they
must have a sense of success in it. You can discover what your enemy fears most by observing the means he uses
to frighten you. Few things can help an individual more than to place responsibility on him,
and to let him know that you trust him. Life is a long lesson in humility. We must believe in luck. For how else can we explain the success of those we don't like? The more we live by our intellect, the less we understand the meaning of life. Sin is geographical. Whenever you commend, add your reasons for doing so; it is this which distinguishes the approbation of a man of sense from the flattery of
sycophants and admiration of fools. By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third, by experience,
which is the bitterest. People who are willing to give up freedom for the sake of short term security, deserve neither freedom nor security. God has no religion. The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose. Clay is molded to make a vessel, but the utility of the vessel lies in the
space where there is nothing. Thus, taking advantage of what is, we recognize the utility of what is not. To resist the frigidity of old age one must combine the body, the mind and
the heart - and to keep them in parallel vigor one must exercise, study and love. Ultimately, the only power to which man should aspire is that which he exercises over himself. I'm a great believer in luck and I find the harder I work, the more I have
of it. It is a bit embarrassing to have been concerned with the human problem all
one's life and find at the end that one has no more to offer by way of advice than "try to be a little kinder." To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and
endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy
child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded. Millions long for immortality who do not know what to do with themselves on
a rainy Sunday afternoon. Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people
spend it for you. Those who bring sunshine to the lives of others cannot keep it from themselves. What a man says drunk he has thought sober. It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong. Keep me away from the wisdom which does not cry, the philosophy which does
not laugh and the greatness which does not bow before children. What wisdom can you find that is greater than kindness? Compassion will cure more sins than condemnation. God Himself, sir, does not propose to judge a man until his life is over. Why should you and I? A man does not show his greatness by being at one extremity, but rather by
touching both at once. A lot of people mistake a short memory for a clear conscience. Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding
of ourselves. A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they
shall never sit in. To be well informed, one must read quickly a great number of merely
instructive books. To be cultivated, one must read slowly and with a lingering appreciation the comparatively few books that have been written
by men who lived, thought, and felt with style. It's a shallow life that doesn't give a person a few scars. If the gods listened to the prayers of men, all
humankind would quickly perish since they constantly pray for many evils to
befall one another. Holding on to anger is like
grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the
one getting burned. It is easy enough to be friendly to one's
friends. But to befriend the one who regards himself as your enemy is the
quintessence of true religion. The other is mere business. The truth is rarely pure, and never
simple. There are two kinds of fool. One says, "This is
old, and therefore good." And one says, "This is new, and therefore better." An optimist is a
person who sees a green light everywhere, while a pessimist sees only the red
stoplight... The truly wise person is color-blind.
You can never solve a problem on the level on which it was created. Man is so made
that he can only find relaxation from one kind of labour by taking up another. No one has ever become poor by giving. You have reached the pinnacle of success as soon as you become
uninterested in money, compliments, or publicity. I have always found that mercy bears
richer fruits than strict justice. Who is content with
nothing possesses all things. You think your pains and
heartbreaks are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. It
was books that taught me that the things that tormented me were the very things
that connected me with all the people who were alive, or who have ever been
alive. Creativity is allowing yourself to
make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep. People hate as they love,
unreasonably. Your pain is the
breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding. Kindness is in our
power, even when fondness is not. Try to learn something about
everything and everything about something. The true measure of a man is
how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good. Never idealize others. They
will never live up to your expectations. He that
wrestles with us strengthens our nerves, and sharpens our skill. Our
antagonist is our helper. Moral certainty is
always a sign of cultural inferiority. The more uncivilized the man, the surer
he is that he knows precisely what is right and what is wrong. All human
progress, even in morals, has been the work of men who have doubted the current
moral values, not of men who have whooped them up and tried to enforce them. The
truly civilized man is always skeptical and tolerant, in this field as in all
others. His culture is based on "I am not too sure." The course of true love never did run smooth. I do not feel
obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and
intellect has intended us to forgo their use. The true
civilization is where every man gives to every other every right that he claims
for himself. An expert is a
man who has made all the mistakes which can be made in a very narrow field. The great tragedy of science - the
slaying of a beautiful hypothesis by an ugly fact. The best way to find
yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others. It is a capital mistake to
theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit
theories, instead of theories to suit facts. Say oh wise man
how you have come to such knowledge? A true measure
of your worth includes all the benefits others have gained from your successes. The road to
wisdom? Well it plain and simple to express: Err and err and err again, but less
and less and less. I don't necessarily agree
with everything I say. The aim of an argument or discussion should
not be victory, but progress. Life is an adventure in
forgiveness.
Efficiency is intelligent laziness. One can pay back the loan of gold, but one dies forever in
debt to those who are kind. Remember that there is nothing stable in human affairs;
therefore avoid undue elation in prosperity, or undue depression in adversity. There is no need for temples, no need for complicated philosophy.
Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is kindness. Life is like a ten-speed bike. Most of us have gears we never use. To be able under all circumstances to practice five things constitutes
perfect virtue; these five things are gravity, generosity of soul, sincerity,
earnestness and kindness. In science it often happens that scientists say, "You know that's a really
good argument; my position is mistaken," and then they would actually change
their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it.
It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change
is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time
something like that happened in politics or religion. In a time of drastic change it is the learners who inherit the future. The
learned usually find themselves equipped to live in a world that no longer
exists. Once you hear the details of victory, it is hard to distinguish it from a
defeat. One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that
one's work is terribly important. Three grand essentials to happiness in this life are something to do,
something to love, and something to hope for. Growth in wisdom can be measured precisely by decline in bile. Learning is like rowing upstream: not to advance is to drop back. There are three ingredients to the good life; learning, earning, and
yearning. Force without wisdom falls of its own weight. You can tell whether a man is clever by his answers. You can tell whether
a man is wise by his questions. The less justified a man is in claiming excellence for his own self, the
more ready he is to claim all excellence for his nation, his religion, his race
or his holy cause. A man is likely to mind his own business when it is worth
minding. When it is not, he takes his mind off his own meaningless affairs by
minding other people's business. The most certain test by which we can judge whether a country is really
free is the amount of security enjoyed by minorities. Worth begets in base minds, envy; in great souls, emulation. When I was young, I admired clever people. Now that I am old, I admire
kind people. We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we
created them. The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of
those who have much, it is whether we provide enough for those who have too
little. Intolerance of ambiguity is the mark of an authoritarian personality. Power does not corrupt. Fear corrupts... perhaps the fear of a loss of
power. Neither a man nor a crowd nor a nation can be trusted to act humanely or
to think sanely under the influence of a great fear. An open mind is a prerequisite to an open heart. We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. Whoever imagines himself a favorite with God holds others in contempt. Power always thinks it has a great soul and vast views beyond the
comprehension of the weak; and that it is doing God's service when it is
violating all his laws. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the
tormentor, never the tormented. Civilization is the encouragement of differences. |