Quotes to inspire and reflect

All modern revolutions have ended in a reinforcement of the State.

Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends?

He who despairs over an event is a coward, but he who holds hope for the human condition is a fool.

Women marry men hoping they will change. Men marry women hoping they will not. So each is inevitably disappointed.

Too many have dispensed with generosity in order to practice charity.

Those who lack the courage will always find a philosophy to justify it.

Force always attracts men of low morality.

Information is not knowledge.

Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.

We can understand almost anything, but we can't understand how we understand.

Do not wait for the last judgement. It comes every day.

If you want to live a happy life, tie it to a goal, not to people or things.

A hungry man is not a free man.

 

One death is a tragedy, a million deaths a statistic.

 

To the mean all becomes mean.

Most people want security in this world, not liberty.

I do not cut my life up into days but my days into lives, each day, each hour, an entire life.

Love does not cause suffering: what causes it is the sense of ownership, which is love’s opposite.

Art is not a mirror held up to reality, but a hammer with which to shape it.

No one can be good for long if goodness is not in demand.

“Anyone who can make you angry becomes your master.”

The real price of everything is the toil and trouble of acquiring it.

Nothing is built on stone all is built on sand, but we must build as if the sand were stone.

Nothing is more surprising than the easiness with which the many are governed by the few.

The nice thing about being a celebrity is that when you bore people, they think it's their fault.

It is extraordinary how extraordinary the ordinary person is.

Fear makes us feel our humanity.

He who controls the past controls the future.

To my mind, to kill in war is not a whit better than to commit ordinary murder.

Whatever is begun in anger ends in shame.

We cannot change anything unless we accept it. Condemnation does not liberate, it oppresses.

It is easier to prevent bad habits than to break them.

Respect yourself and others will respect you.

Poverty is the parent of revolution and crime.

Whatever you are, be a good one.

Honor has not to be won; it must only not be lost.

When anger rises, think of the consequences.

Never underestimate your own ignorance.

Force is all-conquering, but its victories are short-lived.

Sin is geographical.

I do not care to belong to a club that accepts people like me as members.

Men are born ignorant, not stupid; they are made stupid by education.

There’s one way to find out if a man is honest—ask him. If he says, “Yes,” you know he is a crook.

I was so horrified when I read about the effects of smoking that I gave up reading.

Never confuse movement with action.

If you look for the bad in people expecting to find it, you surely will.

It's not that I'm so smart, it's just that I stay with problems longer.

Originality is the art of concealing your sources.