Thinking, Learning, Knowledge, Wisdom, Education

When the mind is thinking it is talking to itself.

A good decision is based on knowledge and not on numbers.

Wisdom alone is the science of other sciences.

The wisest have the most authority.

The learning and knowledge that we have, is, at the most, but little compared with that of which we are ignorant.

Ignorance, the root and stem of all evil.

Entire ignorance is not so terrible or extreme an evil, and is far from being the greatest of all; too much cleverness and too much learning, accompanied with ill bringing-up, are far more fatal.

The most important part of education is proper training in the nursery.

Let parents bequeath to their children not riches, but the spirit of reverence.

No man should bring children into the world who is unwilling to persevere to the end in their nature and education.

A hero is born among a hundred, a wise man is found among a thousand, but an accomplished one might not be found even among a hundred thousand men.

He was a wise man who invented beer.

Action, Achievement, Success

Good actions give strength to ourselves and inspire good actions in others.

We are twice armed if we fight with faith.

Courage is a kind of salvation.

Courage is knowing what not to fear.

Necessity is the mother of invention.

Excess generally causes reaction, and produces a change in the opposite direction, whether it be in the seasons, or in individuals, or in governments.

Better a little which is well done, than a great deal imperfectly.

Honesty is for the most part less profitable than dishonesty.

When there is an income tax, the just man will pay more and the unjust less on the same amount of income.

Personal Development

We ought to fly away from earth to heaven as quickly as we can; and to fly away is to become like God, as far as this is possible; and to become like him is to become holy, just, and wise.

Life must be lived as play.

There are two things a person should never be angry at, what they can help, and what they cannot.

Nothing in the affairs of men is worthy of great anxiety.

The man who makes everything that leads to → happiness depends upon himself, and not upon other men, has adopted the very best plan for living happily. This is the man of moderation, the man of manly character and of wisdom.

For a man to conquer himself is the first and noblest of all victories.

The first and greatest victory is to conquer yourself; to be conquered by yourself is of all things most shameful and vile.

All the gold which is under or upon the earth is not enough to give in exchange for virtue.

Love  →  Platonic Love

He whom love touches not walks in darkness.

Love is the joy of the good, the wonder of the wise, the amazement of the Gods.

Every heart sings a song, incomplete, until another heart whispers back.

There is no such thing as a lovers' oath.

To love rightly is to love what is orderly and beautiful in an educated and disciplined way.

Those who intend on becoming great should love neither themselves nor their own things, but only what is just, whether it happens to be done by themselves or others.

No one is a friend to his friend who does not love in return.

There are three classes of men; lovers of wisdom, lovers of honor, and lovers of gain.

Love is a serious mental disease.

At the touch of love everyone becomes a poet.

Poetry, Music, Philosophy

Poetry is nearer to vital truth than history.  >>>

Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and to everything.

Music is the movement of sound to reach the soul for the education of its virtue.

Those who wish to sing always find a song.

Philosophy is the highest music.

Philosophy begins in wonder.

Knowing People, People Skills

Rhetoric is the art of ruling the minds of men.

You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.

The measure of a man is what he does with power.

He who is not a good servant will not be a good master.

No one ever teaches well who wants to teach, or governs well who wants to govern.

We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.

Justice in the life and conduct of the State is possible only as first it resides in the hearts and souls of the citizens.

One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.

When men speak ill of thee, live so as nobody may believe them.

He who steals a little steals with the same wish as he who steals much, but with less power.

Only the dead have seen the end of war.

The community which has neither poverty nor riches will always have the noblest principles.