Quotes by Philosophers - Page 285

In calm waters you still find sharks.
Matshona Dhliwayo
Genius is in you, but like a seed, you determine whether it dies or grows.
Matshona Dhliwayo
Looking on the bright side of life is better than looking on the dark side of despair.
Matshona Dhliwayo
It is impossible to graduate from the University of Life with no scars.
Matshona Dhliwayo
A tree will not wither and die because the wind blew away one leaf.
Matshona Dhliwayo
A tree dances for the wind not because it enjoys it, but because it doesn’t want to break.
Matshona Dhliwayo
In life, those with heart certainly outdo those with ‘smart’.
Matshona Dhliwayo
At the end of every dark storm is a bright rainbow.
Matshona Dhliwayo
Lies spread quicker than truth because they have longer legs.
Matshona Dhliwayo
When dealing with two faced people, it is difficult to know which face is uglier, the real one or the manufactured one.
Matshona Dhliwayo
I attended the University of Earth, and earned my P.H.D in life from the school of hardship.
Matshona Dhliwayo
Life is the song you dance to when reality sings.
Matshona Dhliwayo
Before you wear a crown of gold, life sometimes makes you wear a crown of thorns.
Matshona Dhliwayo
If you have never reached rock bottom, you have never attended the school of greatness.
Matshona Dhliwayo
Don’t be too busy growing old that you forget to grow up.
Matshona Dhliwayo
When reaching for the stars, beware of those who want to cut off your hands.
Matshona Dhliwayo
The past only dies so the future can live.
Matshona Dhliwayo
In poverty, friends are few; in prosperity, acquaintances are numerous; in affluence, associates are countless.
Matshona Dhliwayo
The first professor you meet in life is your mother; the second is hardship, and the last is death.
Matshona Dhliwayo
Don't water anything that you don't want to grow in your life.
Matshona Dhliwayo
No tree becomes large without smaller trees hoping its branches get cut off.
Matshona Dhliwayo
When turbulence hits your sails remind yourself it is an opportunity to get to the shore quicker.
Matshona Dhliwayo
One fish in your net is better than a thousand in the ocean.
Matshona Dhliwayo
Beautiful gifts sometimes come wrapped in ugly paper.
Matshona Dhliwayo
When fortune favors fools, it is to punish them for the sake of the wise.
Matshona Dhliwayo
Be slow to teach, and quick to learn. Avoid impious people, run from fools, and seek out the wise.
Matshona Dhliwayo
People can hurt you, but you must still love. People can betray you, but you can still trust. People can put you down, but you must still rise. People can oppose you, but you can still prevail.
Matshona Dhliwayo
If a man could outpace his shadow, he would still find it waiting for him at the finishing line.
Matshona Dhliwayo
The most beautiful rose still has to contend with ugly thorns.
Matshona Dhliwayo
When you wrestle with life, your heart inevitably becomes a warrior; when you wrestle with death, your soul inevitably becomes a conqueror.
Matshona Dhliwayo
Keep calm and live
Bangambiki Habyarimana
One who cannot swim must not blame the water.
Matshona Dhliwayo
No matter how ugly a fruit is, worms will seek it out.
Matshona Dhliwayo
Strive to be more than number one—strive to be the greatest number one.
Matshona Dhliwayo
No one tries to stone a tree whose fruit is not ripe.
Matshona Dhliwayo
If there are many thorns in your life, it is because you are a rose.
Matshona Dhliwayo
When people smile at a rich man, they are smiling at his wallet.
Matshona Dhliwayo
The say money talks, but I've seen it sing, and even seen it dance.
Matshona Dhliwayo
If you press grapes, wine will pour out; if you crush roses, perfume will pour out; if you afflict the talented, genius will pour out.
Matshona Dhliwayo
Neither should we forget the mean, which at the present day is lost sight of in perverted forms of government; for many practices which appear to be democratical are the ruin of democracies, and many which appear to be oligarchical are the ruin of oligarchies. Those who think that all virtue is to be found in their own party principles push matters to extremes; they do not consider that disproportion destroys a state. A nose which varies from the ideal of straightness to a hook or snub may still be of good shape and agreeable to the eye; but if the excess be very great, all symmetry is lost, and the nose at last ceases to be a nose at all on account of some excess in one direction or defect in the other; and this is true of every other part of the human body. The same law of proportion equally holds in states. Oligarchy or democracy, although a departure from the most perfect form, may yet be a good enough government, but if any one attempts to push the principles of either to an extreme, he will begin by spoiling the government and end by having none at all. Wherefore the legislator and the statesman ought to know what democratical measures save and what destroy a democracy, and what oligarchical measures save or destroy an oligarchy. For neither the one nor the other can exist or continue to exist unless both rich and poor are included in it. If equality of property is introduced, the state must of necessity take another form; for when by laws carried to excess one or other element in the state is ruined, the constitution is ruined.
Aristotle
The two goals of liberation and social justice are not obviously compatible, any more than were the liberty and equality advocated at the French Revolution. If liberation involves the liberation of individual potential, how do we stop the ambitious, the energetic, the intelligent, the good-looking and the strong from getting ahead, and what should we allow ourselves by way of constraining them?
Roger Scruton
Entrepreneurship is the use of self-interest in the service of others. Politics is the use of others in the service of self-interest.
Jakub Bożydar Wiśniewski
On the levels of politics and theology, beauty is perfectly compatible with nonsense and tyranny. Which is very fortunate; for if beauty were incompatible with non­sense and tyranny, there would be precious little art in the world. The masterpieces of painting, sculpture and architecture were produced as religious or political propaganda, for the greater glory of a god, a govern­ment or a priesthood. But most kings and priests have been despotic and all religions have been riddled with superstition. Genius has been the servant of tyranny and art has advertised the merits of the local cult. Time, as it passes, separates the good art from the bad meta­physics. Can we learn to make this separation, not after the event, but while it is actually taking place? That is the question.
Aldous Huxley
It is useful to remember that no matter where we turn, there is rarely any shortage of elevated ideals to accompany the resort to violence.
Noam Chomsky
If we shrug our shoulders at the avoidable suffering of the weak and the poor, of those who are getting exploited and ripped off, we are not the left.
Peter Singer
They declare that it is unpatriotic and disruptive to question the workings of authority--but patriotic to institute harsh and regressive policies that benefit the wealthy, undermine social programs that serve the needs of the great majority, and subordinate a frightened population to increased state control.
Noam Chomsky
Moynihan, when he was ambassador to the United Nations, produced the same effect when he attacked the Third World. These attacks aroused great admiration here; for example, when he denounced Idi Amin of Uganda as a "racist murderer." The question is not whether Idi Amin is a racist murderer. No doubt the appellation is correct. The question is, what does it mean for Moynihan to make this accusation and for others to applaud his honesty and courage in doing so? Who is Moynihan? He served in four administrations, those of Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, and Ford - that is to say, administrations that were guilty of racist murder on a scale undreamed of by Idi Amin. Imagine that some minor functionary of the Third Reich had correctly accused someone of being a racist murderer.
Noam Chomsky
The liberal press cannot question the basic doctrine of the state religion, that the United States is benevolent, even though often misguided in its innocence, that it labors to permit free choice, even though at times some mistakes are committed in the exuberance of its programs of international goodwill. We must believe that we "Americans" are always good, though, to be sure, fallible.
Noam Chomsky
Untalented people, unintelligent people go into politics. Those who are talented become artists, painters, poets, philosophers, mystics, dancers. They have a thousand and one other beautiful things to do, not politics. Only the third rate, the most unintelligent part of a country, moves into politics.
Osho
I live, I am partisan. This is why I hate those who do not take sides; I hate those who are indifferent
Antonio Gramsci
The universe runs on the principle that one who can exert the most evil on other creatures runs the show.
Bangambiki Habyarimana
Life is politics, you do it or it does you
Bangambiki Habyarimana
In politics what you see is not what you get
Bangambiki Habyarimana
Once you are in power, never forget those who put you there. Deal with those who think they can do better than you and those who think you are god's representative on earth. Deal with each other according to his actions
Bangambiki Habyarimana
Power hungry=life loving
Bangambiki Habyarimana
Politicians know it's a game of power, every politician at every level, even in the common of mortals.
Bangambiki Habyarimana
The Golden Mean is for the weakling, it was not meant for the likes of Alexander the Great, Cyrus, Pharaohs, or Hitlers of the world
Bangambiki Habyarimana
Nothing is sweeter and addictive than power, the unlucky soul this demon possesses, if he is not sacrificed on its altar will sacrifice others himself to get it
Bangambiki Habyarimana
If anyone rises to power, it's not only because he could, but also because the stars were aligned in his favor. Many with apparent means to take it failed simply because they weren't destined for the honor
Bangambiki Habyarimana
Powerless=lifeless.
Bangambiki Habyarimana