Quotes by Statesmen - Page 17

that you would not anticipate misery since the evils you dread as coming upon you may perhaps never reach you at least they are not yet come Thus some things torture us more than they ought, some before they ought and some which ought never to torture us at all. We heighten our pain either by presupposing a cause or anticipation
Seneca
Man is not born to solve the problem of the universe, but to find out what he has to do; and to restrain himself within the limits of his comprehension.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Nothing, to my way of thinking, is a better proof of a well ordered mind than a man’s ability to stop just where he is and pass some time in his own company.
Seneca
Atheism leaves a man to sense, to philosophy, to natural piety, to laws, to reputation; all which may be guides to an outward moral virtue, though religion were not; but superstition dismounts all these, and erecteth an absolute monarchy in the minds of men. Therefore atheism did never perturb states; for it makes men wary of themselves, as looking no further: and we see the times inclined to atheism (as the time of Augustus Cæsar) were civil times. But superstition hath been the confusion of many states, and bringeth in a new primum mobile, that ravisheth all the spheres of government. The master of superstition is the people; and in all superstition wise men follow fools; and arguments are fitted to practice, in a reversed order.
Francis Bacon
It is not God that is worshipped but the authority that claims to speak in His name. Sin becomes disobedience to authority not violation of integrity.
Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan
Each day acquire something that will fortify you against poverty, against death, indeed against other misfortunes as well; and after you have run over many thoughts, select one to be thoroughly digested that day.
Seneca
Wherever there is a human being, there is an opportunity for crisis.
Seneca
Histories make men wise; poets, witty; the mathematics, subtle; natural philosophy, deep; moral, grave; logic and rhetoric, able to contend.
Francis Bacon
No living creature is naturally greedy, except from fear of want - or in the case of human beings, from vanity, the notion that you're better than people if you can display more superfluous property than they can.
Thomas More
To win true freeedom you must be a slave to philosophy.
Seneca
No man is crushed by misfortune unless he has first been deceived by prosperity
Seneca
the serpent if it wants to become the dragon must eat itself.
Francis Bacon
Philosophy when superficially studied, excites doubt, when thoroughly explored, it dispels it.
Francis Bacon
Let mental culture go on advancing, let the natural sciences progress in even greater extent and depth, and the human mind widen itself as much as it desires: beyond the elevation and moral culture of Christianity, as it shines forth in the Gospels, it will not go.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
The best ideas are common property
Seneca
Until we have begun to go without them, we fail to realize how unnecessary many things are. We've been using them not because we needed them but because we had them.
Seneca
No man was ever wise by chance
Seneca
Non est ad astra mollis e terris via" - "There is no easy way from the earth to the stars
Seneca
Know thyself? If I knew myself, I'd run away.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little.
Edmund Burke
Never follow the crowd.
Bernard M. Baruch
Millions saw the apple fall, Newton was the only one who asked why?
Bernard M. Baruch
As is a tale, so is life: not how long it is, but how good it is, is what matters.
Seneca
Difficulties strengthen the mind, as labor does the body.
Seneca
Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.
Seneca
He who moves not forward, goes backward.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
If you would create something,you must be something.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Timendi causa est nescire - Ignorance is the cause of fear.
Seneca
Life is like a play: it's not the length, but the excellence of the acting that matters.
Seneca
Life belongs to the living, and he who lives must be prepared for changes.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
There is nothing more frightful than ignorance in action.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
If you've never eaten while crying you don t know what life tastes like.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
As soon as you trust yourself, you will know how to live.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts; but if he will be content to begin with doubts, he shall end in certainties.
Francis Bacon
This is the true measure of love: when we believe that we alone can love, that no one could ever have loved so before us, and that no one will ever love in the same way after us.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
You can’t, if you can’t feel it, if it neverRises from the soul, and swaysThe heart of every single hearer,With deepest power, in simple ways.You’ll sit forever, gluing things together,Cooking up a stew from other’s scraps,Blowing on a miserable fire,Made from your heap of dying ash.Let apes and children praise your art,If their admiration’s to your taste,But you’ll never speak from heart to heart,Unless it rises up from your heart’s space.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
I have so much in me, and the feeling for her absorbs it all; I have so much, and without her it all comes to nothing.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
The world is so empty if one thinks only of mountains, rivers & cities; but to know someone who thinks & feels with us, & who, though distant, is close to us in spirit, this makes the earth for us an inhabited garden.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
If I love you, what business is it of yours?
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe