All of us who are concerned for peace and triumph of reason and justice must be keenly aware how small an influence reason and honest good will exert upon events in the political field.
After a certain high level of technical skill is achieved, science and art tend to coalesce in esthetics, plasticity, and form. The greatest sceintists are always artists as well.
Anger dwells only in the bosom of fools.
A human being is part of a whole, called by us the Universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separated from the rest–a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circles of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.
At any rate, I am convinced that He [God] does not play dice.
As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain; and as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality.
I do not like to repeat successes, I like to go on to other things.
But in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.
Educate your children to self-control, to the habit of holding passion and prejudice and evil tendencies subject to an upright and reasoning will, and you have done much to abolish misery from their future and crimes from society.
He that is good for making excuses is seldom good for anything else.
Sloth makes all things difficult, but industry, all things easy. He that rises late must trot all day, and shall scarce overtake his business at night, while laziness travels so slowly that poverty soon overtakes him.
Wish not so much to live long as to live well.
Never leave that till tomorrow which you can do today.
An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest.
Hide not your talents, they for use were made. What’s a sun-dial in the shade?
Drive thy business or it will drive thee.
God heals, and the doctor takes the fees.
Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.
To lengthen thy life, lessen thy meals.
If you would know the value of money, go try to borrow some; for he that goes a-borrowing goes a-sorrowing.
Creditors have better memories than debtors.
Remember not only to say the right thing in the right place, but far more difficult still, to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment.
A slip of the foot you may soon recover, but a slip of the tongue you may never get over.
Anger is never without Reason, but seldom with a good one.
Energy and persistence conquer all things.
Do not anticipate trouble, or worry about what may never happen. Keep in the sunlight.
While you are not able to serve men, how can you serve spirits [of the dead]?…While you do not know life, how can you know about death?
Without an acquaintance with the rules of propriety, it is impossible for the character to be established.
With coarse rice to eat, with water to drink, and my bended arm for a pillow
Wheresoever you go, go with all your heart.
When you have faults, do not fear to abandon them.
When we see men of worth, we should think of equaling them; when we see men of a contrary character, we should turn inwards and examine ourselves.
When we see men of a contrary character, we should turn inwards and examine ourselves.
When anger rises, think of the consequences.
Things that are done, it is needless to speak about…things that are past, it is needless to blame.
They must often change who would be constant in happiness or wisdom.
The scholar who cherishes the love of comfort is not fit to be deemed a scholar.
The people may be made to follow a path of action, but they may not be made to understand it.
Study the past if you would define the future.
Respect yourself and others will respect you.
Recompense injury with justice, and recompense kindness with kindness.
Men’s natures are alike, it is their habits that carry them far apart.
It does not matter how slowly you go so long as you do not stop.
Ignorance is the night of the mind, but a night without moon and star.
I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.
Hold faithfulness and sincerity as first principles.
He with whom neither slander that gradually soaks into the mind, nor statements that startle like a wound in the flesh, are successful may be called intelligent indeed.
He who will not economize will have to agonize.
He who speaks without modesty will find it difficult to make his words good.
Everything has its beauty but not everyone sees it.
By nature, men are nearly alike; by practice, they get to be wide apart.
Choose a job you love and you will never have to work a day in your life.
Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves.
Be not ashamed of mistakes and thus make them crimes.
To see what is right, and not to do it, is want of courage or of principle.
Have no friends not equal to yourself.
Forget injuries, never forget kindnesses.
What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others.
When you know a thing, to hold that you know it; and when you do not know a thing, to allow that you do not know it – this is knowledge.
I am not one who was born in the possession of knowledge; I am one who is fond of antiquity, and earnest in seeking it there.
Learning without thought is labor lost; thought without learning is perilous.
If a man takes no thought about what is distant, he will find sorrow near at hand.
The man who in view of gain thinks of righteousness; who in the view of danger is prepared to give up his life; and who does not forget an old agreement however far back it extends – such a man may be reckoned a complete man.
When a man’s knowledge is sufficient to attain, and his virtue is not sufficient to enable him to hold, whatever he may have gained, he will lose again.
What the superior man seeks is in himself; what the small man seeks is in others.
There are three things which the superior man guards against. In youth…lust. When he is strong…quarrelsomeness. When he is old…covetousness.
The superior man…does not set his mind either for anything, or against anything; what is right he will follow.
The superior man, when resting in safety, does not forget that danger may come. When in a state of security he does not forget the possibility of ruin. When all is orderly, he does not forget that disorder may come. Thus his person is not endangered, and his States and all their clans are preserved.
The superior man is satisfied and composed; the mean man is always full of distress.
The superior man is modest in his speech, but exceeds in his actions.
The superior man cannot be known in little matters, but he may be entrusted with great concerns. The small man may not be entrusted with great concerns, but he may be known in little matters.
The superior man acts before he speaks, and afterwards speaks according to his actions.
Virtue is not left to stand alone. He who practices it will have neighbors.
Virtue is more to man than either water or fire. I have seen men die from treading on water and fire, but I have never seen a man die from treading the course of virtue.
To be able under all circumstances to practice five things constitutes perfect virtue; these five things are gravity, generosity of soul, sincerity, earnestness and kindness.
The man of virtue makes the difficulty to be overcome his first business, and success only a subsequent consideration.
The firm, the enduring, the simple, and the modest are near to virtue.
The determined scholar and the man of virtue will not seek to live at the expense of injuring their virtue. They will even sacrifice their lives to preserve their virtue complete.
If a man withdraws his mind from the love of beauty, and applies it as sincerely to the love of the virtuous; if, in serving his parents, he can exert his utmost strength; if, in serving his prince, he can devote his life; if in his intercourse with his friends, his words are sincere – although men say that he has not learned, I will certainly say that he has.
Fine words and an insinuating appearance are seldom associated with true virtue.
Is virtue a thing remote? I wish to be virtuous, and lo! Virtue is at hand.
He who exercises government by means of his virtue may be compared to the north polar star, which keeps its place and all the stars turn towards it.
What this power is I cannot say; all I know is that it exists and it becomes available only when a man is in that state of mind in which he knows exactly what he wants and is fully determined not to quit until he finds it.
The most successful men in the end are those whose success is the result of steady accretion.
Sometimes we stare so long at a door that is closing that we see too late the one that is open.
Neither the Army nor the Navy is of any protection, or very little protection, against aerial raids.
Great discoveries and improvements invariably involve the cooperation of many minds. I may be given credit for having blazed the trail, but when I look at the subsequent developments I feel the credit is due to others rather than to myself.
America is a country of inventors, and the greatest of inventors are the newspaper men.
A man, as a general rule, owes very little to what he is born with – a man is what he makes of himself.
Great discoveries and improvements invariably involve the cooperation of many minds.
Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work at hand. The sun’s rays do not burn until brought to a focus.
When one door closes, another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us.
The nation that secures control of the air will ultimately control the world.
The most successful men in the end are those whose success is the result of steady accretion. It is the man who carefully advances step by step, with his mind becoming wider and wider – and progressively better able to grasp any theme or situation.
Man is an animal which, alone among the animals, refuses to be satisfied by the fulfillment of animal desires.
Winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing.
Before anything else, preparation is the key to success.
Winning isn’t everything, but the will to win is everything.
A man can succeed at almost anything for which he has unlimited enthusiasm.
