Over 40,000 Famous Quotes Sorted By Topic and Author

...definitions are temporary verbalizations of concepts, and concepts- particularly difficult concepts- are usually revised repeatedly as our knowledge and understanding grows.

New opinions are always suspected, and usually opposed, without any other reason but because they are not already common.

Violence arises not out of superfluity of power but out of powerlessness.

Responsibility and danger do not tend to free or stimulate the average person's mind- rather the contrary; but wherever they do liberate an individual's judgement and confidence we can be sure that we are in the presence of exceptional ability.

When under the pretext of fraternity, the legal code imposes mutual sacrifices on the citizens, human nature is not thereby abrogated. Everyone will then direct his efforts toward contributing little to, and taking much from, the common fund of sacrifices. Now, is it the most unfortunate who gains from this struggle? Certainly not, but rather the most influential and calculating.

Sometimes the subconscious mind manifests a wisdom several steps or even years ahead of the conscious mind, and has its own way of leading us toward our destiny.

It is very good for a man to talk about what he does not understand; as long as he understands that he does not understand it.

The endeavor to understand is the first and only basis of virtue.

Veracity is the heart of morality.

In that the wisdom of the few becomes available to the many, there is progress in human affairs; without it, the static routine of tradition continues.

I think it is all a matter of love: the more you love a memory, the stronger and stranger it is. - Strong Opinions.

Anyone can escape into sleep, we are all geniuses when we dream, the butcher's the poet's equal there. - The Tempation to Exist.

A man is not old until regrets take the place of dreams.

A large part of the popularity and persuasiveness of psychology comes from its being a sublimated spiritualism: a secular, ostensibly scientific way of affirming the primacy of "spirit" over matter.

Beauty is not diminished by being shared.

...brainpower is the scarcest commodity and the only one of real value.

Men never do evil so fully and so happily as when they do it for conscience's sake.

If you happen to be one of the fretful minority who can do creative work, never force an idea; you'll abort it if you do. Be patient and you'll give birth to it when the time is ripe. Learn to wait.

Avoid making irrevocable decisions when tired or hungry.

To stay young requires unceasing cultivation of the ability to unlearn old falsehoods.