Quotes to inspire and reflect

Every intellectual attitude is latently political.

It is easier to know man in general than to know one man in particular.

Action is the proper fruit of knowledge.

If one does not reflect, one thinks oneself master of everything; but when one does reflect, one realises that one is master of nothing.

The end of man is an action and not a thought, though it were the noblest.

Of all the ruins that of a noble mind is the most deplorable.

The true genius is a mind of large general powers, accidentally determined to some particular direction.

There’s nothing of so infinite vexation as man’s own thoughts.

Dare to know! Have the courage to use your own reason!

The surface of the earth is soft and impressible by the feet of men; and so with the paths which the mind travels.

Even if the hopes you started out with are dashed, hope has to be maintained.

Little minds are interested in the extraordinary; great minds in the commonplace.

George the First knew nothing, and desired to know nothing; did nothing, and desired to do nothing; and the only good thing that is told of him is, that he wished to restore the crown to its hereditary successor.

For last year’s words belong to last year’s language

Our duty is to preserve what the past has had to say for itself, and to say for ourselves what shall be true for the future.

If history were taught in the form of stories, it would never be forgotten.

History is a combination of reality and lies. The reality of history becomes a lie. The unreality of the fable becomes the truth.

If you want the present to be different from the past, study the past.

Exercise is bunk. If you are healthy, you don’t need it: if you are sick you shouldn’t take it.

Not to be healthy … is one of the few sins that modern society is willing to recognise and condemn.

It is not true that suffering ennobles the character; happiness does that sometimes, but suffering, for the most part, makes men petty and vindictive.

Most of the time we think we’re sick, it’s all in the mind.

A contented mind is the greatest blessing a man can enjoy in this world.

Nobody owns anything but everyone is rich — for what greater wealth can there be than cheerfulness, peace of mind, and freedom from anxiety?

The most hateful torment for men is to have knowledge of everything but power over nothing.

Happiness is not a goal … it’s a by-product of a life well lived.

There are no limits to human ingratitude.

Here is a law which is above the King and which even he must not break. This reaffirmation of a supreme law and its expression in a general charter is the great work of Magna Carta; and this alone justifies the respect in which men have held it.

A man who is good enough to shed his blood for his country is good enough to be given a square deal afterwards. More than that no man is entitled to, and less than that no man shall have.

We can’t all do everything.

It’s every man’s business to see justice done.

We have Africa in our blood and Africa has our bones.

I am constantly amazed by man’s inhumanity to man.

A land that does not like doing things by halves.

Thank heavens we do not get all of the government that we are made to pay for.

One has not only a legal, but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.

We must concentrate not merely on the negative expulsion of war but the positive affirmation of peace.

In place of the old bourgeois society, with its classes and class antagonisms, we shall have an association, in which the free development of each is the condition for the free development of all.

I heartily accept the motto, — “That government is best which governs least” … Carried out, it finally amounts to this, which I also believe, — “That government is best which governs not at all.”

He is a lover of his country who rebukes and does not excuse its sins. It is righteousness that exalteth a nation while sin is a reproach to any people.

These unhappy times call for the building of plans that … build from the bottom up and not from the top down, that put their faith once more in the forgotten man at the bottom of the economic pyramid.

Justice extorts no reward, no kind of price; she is sought, therefore, for her own sake.

The car, the furniture, the wife, the children — everything has to be disposable. Because you see the main thing today is — shopping.

No nation was ever so virtuous as each believes itself, and none was ever so wicked as each believes the other.

You must trust and believe in people or life becomes impossible.

The thoughts of a prisoner — they’re not free either. They keep returning to the same things.

What is the greatest good and evil? — two ends of an invisible chain which come closer together the further they move apart.

We are each our own devil, and we make this world our hell.