Quotes by Emperors - Page 5

The world is mere change, and this life, opinion.
Marcus Aurelius
When you arise in the moring, think of what a precious privelege it is to be alive-- to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love
Marcus Aurelius
How good it is when you have roast meat or suchlike foods before you, to impress on your mind that this is the dead body of a fish, this is the dead body of a bird or pig; and again, that the Falernian wine is the mere juice of grapes, and your purple edged robe simply the hair of a sheep soaked in shell-fish blood!And in sexual intercourse that it is no more than the friction of a membrane and a spurt of mucus ejected. How good these perceptions are at getting to the heart of the real thing and penetrating through it, so you can see it for what it is!This should be your practice throughout all your life: when things have such a plausible appearance, show them naked, see their shoddiness, strip away their own boastful account of themselves.Vanity is the greatest seducer of reason: when you are most convinced that your work is important, that is when you are most under its spell.
Marcus Aurelius
Education develops the intellect; and the intellect distinguishes man from other creatures. It is education that enables man to harness nature and utilize her resources for the well-being and improvement of his life. The key for the betterment and completeness of modern living is education. But, ' Man cannot live by bread alone '. Man, after all, is also composed of intellect and soul. Therefore, education in general, and higher education in particular, must aim to provide, beyond the physical, food for the intellect and soul. That education which ignores man's intrinsic nature, and neglects his intellect and reasoning power can not be considered true education.
Haile Selassie I
Regain your senses, call yourself back, and once again wake up. Now that you realize that only dreams were troubling you, view this 'reality' as you view your dreams.
Marcus Aurelius
We must become bigger than we have been: more courageous, greater in spirit, larger in outlook. We must become members of a new race, overcoming petty prejudice, owing our ultimate allegiance not to nations but to our fellow men within the human community.
Haile Selassie I
Courage is like love, it must have hope for nourishment.
Napoléon Bonaparte
Nothing has such power to broaden the mind as the ability to investigate systematically and truly all that comes under thy observation in life.
Marcus Aurelius
The things you think about determine the quality of your mind.
Marcus Aurelius
The hand that gives is among the hand that takes. Money has no fatherland, financiers are without patriotism and without decency, their sole object is gain.
Napoléon Bonaparte
Music is what tell us that the human race is greater than we realize.
Napoléon Bonaparte
It is not fit that I should give myself pain, for I have never intentionally given pain even to another.
Marcus Aurelius
If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment.
Marcus Aurelius
Let peace, concord and unanimity reign among all Christian people...for without peace we cannot please God.
Charlemagne
Is your cucumber bitter? Throw it away. Are there briars in your path? Turn aside. That is enough. Do not go on to say, 'Why were things of this sort ever brought into the world?' The student of nature will only laugh at you; just as a carpenter or a shoemaker would laugh, if you found fault with the shavings and scraps from their work which you saw in the shop. Yet they, at least, have somewhere to throw their litter; whereas Nature has no such out-place. That is the miracle of her workmanship: that in spite of this self-limitation, she nevertheless transmutes into herself everything that seems worn-out or old or useless, and re-fashions it into new creations, so as never to need either fresh supplies from without, or a place to discard her refuse. Her own space, her own materials and her own skill are sufficient for her.
Marcus Aurelius
If we could survive without a wife, citizens of Rome, all of us would do without that nuisance; but since nature has so decreed that we cannot manage comfortably with them, nor live in any way without them, we must plan for our lasting preservation rather than for our temporary pleasure.
Augustus
Every living organism is fulfilled when it follows the right path for its own nature.
Marcus Aurelius
In the morning when thou risest unwillingly, let this thought be present - I am rising to the work of a human being. Why then am I dissatisfied if I am going to do the things for which I exist and for which I was brought into the world?
Marcus Aurelius
Death smiles at us all, all a man can do is smile back.
Marcus Aurelius
If I have played my part well, clap your hands, and dismiss me with applause from the stage.
Augustus
At the age of nineteen, on my own initiative and at my own expense, I raised an army by means of which I restored liberty4 to the republic, which had been oppressed by the tyranny of a faction.
Augustus
Have I have played my part well in the comedy of life? If so, clap your hands and dismiss me from the stage with applause.
Augustus
To write history one must be more than a man, since the author who holds the pen of this great justiciary must be free from all preoccupation of interest or vanity.
Napoléon Bonaparte
History is the version of past events that people have decided to agree upon.
Napoléon Bonaparte
History is written by the winners.
Napoléon Bonaparte
History is a set of lies agreed upon.
Napoléon Bonaparte
To write history one must be more than a man, since the author who holds the pen of this great justiciary must be free from all preoccupation of interest or vanity.
Napoléon Bonaparte
History is the version of past events that people have decided to agree upon.
Napoléon Bonaparte
History is written by the winners.
Napoléon Bonaparte
History is a set of lies agreed upon.
Napoléon Bonaparte
Show me a family of readers, and I will show you the people who move the world.
Napoléon Bonaparte
A picture is worth a thousand words.
Napoléon Bonaparte
Imagination governs the world.
Napoléon Bonaparte
A leader is a dealer in hope.
Napoléon Bonaparte
Things of themselves cannot touch the soul at all. They have no entry to the soul, and cannot turn or move it. The soul alone turns and moves itself, making all externals presented to it cohere with the judgements it thinks worthy of itself.
Marcus Aurelius
Your mind will take on the character of your most frequent thoughts: souls are dyed by thoughts.
Marcus Aurelius
You are a little soul carrying about a corpse, as Epictetus used to say.
Marcus Aurelius
That which is really beautiful has no need of anything; not more than law, not more than truth, not more than benevolence or modesty.
Marcus Aurelius
A revolution is an idea, taken up by bayonets.
Napoléon Bonaparte
Observe always that everything is the result of change, and get used to thinking that there is nothing Nature loves so well as to change existing forms and make new ones like them.
Marcus Aurelius
Nothing is more difficult, and therefore more precious, than to be able to decide.
Napoléon Bonaparte
Until the philosophy which hold one race superior and another inferior is finally and permanently discredited and abandoned...Everything is war. Me say war.That until the're no longer 1st class and 2nd class citizens of any nation...Until the color of a man's skin is ofno more significa...nce than the color of his eyes, me say war. That until the basic human rights are equally guaranteed to all without regard to race me say war!
Haile Selassie
There are two levers for moving man -- interest and fear.
Napoléon Bonaparte
Give up your thirst for books, so that you do not die a grouch.
Marcus Aurelius
The memory of everything is very soon overwhelmed in time.
Marcus Aurelius
Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich.
Napoléon Bonaparte
If I had to choose a religion, the sun as the universal giver of life would be my god.
Napoléon Bonaparte
Religion is excellent stuff for keeping common people quiet. Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich.
Napoléon Bonaparte
You have power over your mind - not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.
Marcus Aurelius
Always carry champagne! In victory You deserve it & in defeat You need it!
Napoléon Bonaparte
We must make haste then, not only because we are daily nearer to death, but also because the conception of things and the understanding of them cease first.
Marcus Aurelius
That which has died falls not out of the universe. If it stays here, it also changes here, and is dissolved into its proper parts, which are elements of the universe and of thyself. And these too change, and they murmur not".
Marcus Aurelius
Perfection of character is this: to live each day as if it were your last, without frenzy, without apathy, without pretence.
Marcus Aurelius
No man is happy who does not think himself so.
Marcus Aurelius
A woman laughing is a woman conquered.
Napoléon Bonaparte
The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts.
Marcus Aurelius
As for thy thirst after books, away with it with all speed.
Marcus Aurelius
The soul becomes dyed with the colour of its thoughts.
Marcus Aurelius
Today man sees all his hopes and aspirations crumbling before him. He is perplexed and knows not whither he is drifting. But he must realize that the Bible is his refuge and the rallying point for all humanity. In it, man will find the solution of his present difficulties and guidance for his future action, and unless he accepts with clear conscience the Bible and its great Message, he cannot hope for salvation. For my part, I glory in the BibleHaile Selassie I (1891-1975)Emperor of Ethiopia
Haile Selassie I (1891-1975)
If the gods have determined about me and about the things which must happen to me, they have determined well, for it is not easy even to imagine a deity without forethought; and as to doing me harm, why should they have any desire towards that? For what advantage would result to them from this or to the whole, which is the special object of their providence? But if they have not determined about me individually, they have certainly determined about the whole at least, and the things which happen by way of sequence in this general arrangement I ought to accept with pleasure and to be content with them.
Marcus Aurelius