Joseph Raz Quotes

Things actually not said by Joseph Raz

A number of widely-shared lines are circulated as Joseph Raz but are in fact from someone else. Did Joseph Raz say these? No. Each entry below pairs the line with the person who actually wrote it.

• Did Joseph Raz say this? No.

  “A little nonsense now and then Is relished by the wisest men.”

  Actually by: Source uncertain

  This quote is commonly attributed to philosophers but its actual source is uncertain or unverified in the standard reference works. Wikiquote's note on this attribution: This appears to be an anonymous proverb of unknown authorship, only occasionally attributed to Addison.

• Did Joseph Raz say this? No.

  “With regard to donations always expect the most from prudent people, who keep their own accounts.”

  Actually by: Source uncertain

  This quote is commonly attributed to philosophers but its actual source is uncertain or unverified in the standard reference works. Wikiquote's note on this attribution: This is attributed to Addison in The Columbia Dictionary of Quotations (1993) with a citation of "Economy and Benevolence" in Interesting Anecdotes, Memoirs, Allegories, Essays, and Poetical Fragments (1794) but that was a publication of a contemporary "Mr. Addison" in several volumes, and not the p

• Did Joseph Raz say this? No.

  “Reading is a basic tool in the living of a good life.”

  Actually by: Source uncertain

  This quote is commonly attributed to philosophers but its actual source is uncertain or unverified in the standard reference works. Wikiquote's note on this attribution: The earliest attributions of this remark to anyone are in 1941, to Mortimer Adler , in How To Read A Book (1940), although this actually a paraphrased shortening of a statement in his preface: Reading — as explained (and defended) in this book — is a basic tool in the living of a good life.

• Did Joseph Raz say this? No.

  “When you are at Rome, live as Romans live.”

  Actually by: Source uncertain

  This quote is commonly attributed to philosophers but its actual source is uncertain or unverified in the standard reference works. Wikiquote's note on this attribution: St. Ambrose , Si fueris Romæ, Romano vivito more as translated in Latin Proverbs and Quotations (1869) by Alfred Henderson; very commonly paraphrased as "When in Rome do as the Romans do".

• Did Joseph Raz say this? No.

  “To say that authority, whether secular or religious, supplies no ground for morality is not to deny the obvious fact that it supplies a sanction.”

  Actually by: Source uncertain

  This quote is commonly attributed to philosophers but its actual source is uncertain or unverified in the standard reference works. Wikiquote's note on this attribution: Sir Alfred Jules Ayer , in his "The Meaning of Life", collected in The Meaning of Life, and Other Essays (1990)

• Did Joseph Raz say this? No.

  “To a man of pleasure every moment appears to be lost, which partakes not of the vivacity of amusement.”

  Actually by: Source uncertain

  This quote is commonly attributed to philosophers but its actual source is uncertain or unverified in the standard reference works. Wikiquote's note on this attribution: Very often attributed to Addison, this is apparently a paraphrase of a statement by Hugh Blair , published in Blair's Sermons (1815), Vol. 1, p. 219, where he mentions "men of pleasure and the men of business", and that "To the former every moment appears to be lost, which partakes not of the vivaci

• Did Joseph Raz say this? No.

  “The grand essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to love and something to hope for.”

  Actually by: Source uncertain

  This quote is commonly attributed to philosophers but its actual source is uncertain or unverified in the standard reference works. Wikiquote's note on this attribution: Widely quoted as an Addison maxim this is actually by the American clergyman George Washington Burnap (1802-1859), published in Burnap's The Sphere and Duties of Woman : A Course of Lectures (1848), Lecture IV.

• Did Joseph Raz say this? No.

  “Justice is an unassailable fortress, built on the brow of a mountain which cannot be overthrown by the violence of torrents, nor demolished by the force of armies.”

  Actually by: Source uncertain

  This quote is commonly attributed to philosophers but its actual source is uncertain or unverified in the standard reference works. Wikiquote's note on this attribution: Moncure Daniel Conway , in The Sacred Anthology (Oriental) : A Book of Ethnical Scriptures 5th edition (1877), p. 386; this statement appears beneath an Arabian proverb, and Upton Sinclair later attributed it to the Qur'an , in The Cry for Justice : An Anthology of the Literature of Social Protest (

• Did Joseph Raz say this? No.

  “It is only imperfection that complains of what is imperfect. The more perfect we are the more gentle and quiet we become towards the defects of others.”

  Actually by: Source uncertain

  This quote is commonly attributed to philosophers but its actual source is uncertain or unverified in the standard reference works. Wikiquote's note on this attribution: François Fénelon , in Selections from the Writings of Fenelon: With an appendix, containing a Memoir of his Life (1829) as translated by A Lady (Eliza Lee Cabot Follen) , Letter 37, p. 189.

• Did Joseph Raz say this? No.

  “He that would pass the latter part of life with honour and decency, must, when he is young, consider that he shall one day be old; and remember, when he is old, that he has once been young.”

  Actually by: Samuel Johnson

  This quote is commonly attributed to philosophers but the actual source is Samuel Johnson. Wikiquote's note on this attribution: Samuel Johnson in The Rambler , no. 50 (8 September 1750); many of Johnson's remarks have been attributed to Addison

• Did Joseph Raz say this? No.

  “No oppression is so heavy or lasting as that which is inflicted by the perversion and exorbitance of legal authority.”

  Actually by: Samuel Johnson

  This quote is commonly attributed to philosophers but the actual source is Samuel Johnson. Wikiquote's note on this attribution: Samuel Johnson in The Rambler , no. 148 (17 August 1751)

• Did Joseph Raz say this? No.

  “That he delights in the misery of others no man will confess, and yet what other motive can make a father cruel?”

  Actually by: Samuel Johnson

  This quote is commonly attributed to philosophers but the actual source is Samuel Johnson. Wikiquote's note on this attribution: Samuel Johnson in The Rambler , no. 148 (17 August 1751)

• Did Joseph Raz say this? No.

  “The unjustifiable severity of a parent is loaded with this aggravation, that those whom he injures are always in his sight.”

  Actually by: Samuel Johnson

  This quote is commonly attributed to philosophers but the actual source is Samuel Johnson. Wikiquote's note on this attribution: Samuel Johnson in The Rambler no. 148 (17 August 1751)

• Did Joseph Raz say this? No.

  “Education...is a companion which no misfortunes can depress, no clime destroy, no enemy alienate, no despotism enslave: at home a friend, abroad an introduction, in solitude a solace, in society an ornament: it chastens vice, it guides virtue, it gives at once a grace and government to genius. Without it, what is man? A splendid slave, a reasoning savage.”

  Actually by: Source uncertain

  This quote is commonly attributed to philosophers but its actual source is uncertain or unverified in the standard reference works. Wikiquote's note on this attribution: Though sometimes attributed to Addison, this actually comes from a speech delivered by the Irish lawyer Charles Phillips in 1817, in the case of O'Mullan v. M'Korkill, published in Irish Eloquence: The Speeches of the Celebrated Irish Orators (1834) pp. 91-92.

• Did Joseph Raz say this? No.

  “They were a people so primitive they did not know how to get money, except by working for it.”

  Actually by: Source uncertain

  This quote is commonly attributed to philosophers but its actual source is uncertain or unverified in the standard reference works. Wikiquote's note on this attribution: Attributed to Addison in (K)new Words: Redefine Your Communication (2005), by Gloria Pierre, p. 120, there are no indications of such a statement in Addison's writings.

• Did Joseph Raz say this? No.

  “Plenty of people wish to become devout, but no one wishes to be humble.”

  Actually by: Source uncertain

  This quote is commonly attributed to philosophers but its actual source is uncertain or unverified in the standard reference works. Wikiquote's note on this attribution: A translation of one of La Rochefoucauld 's maxims, published posthumously in 1693. In the original: " Force gens veulent être dévots, mais personne ne veut être humble.

• Did Joseph Raz say this? No.

  “The beloved of the Almighty are: the rich who have the humility of the poor, and the poor who have the magnanimity of the rich.”

  Actually by: Saadi as translated

  This quote is commonly attributed to philosophers but the actual source is Saadi as translated. Wikiquote's note on this attribution: Saadi as translated in The Gulistān : Or, Rose-garden, of Shek̲h̲ Muslihu'd-dīn Sādī of Shīrāz as translated by Edward Backhouse Eastwick (1880), p. 203

• Did Joseph Raz say this? No.

  “The utmost extent of man's knowledge, is to know that he knows nothing.”

  Actually by: Source uncertain

  This quote is commonly attributed to philosophers but its actual source is uncertain or unverified in the standard reference works. Wikiquote's note on this attribution: These words, sometimes attributed to Addison, are not found in his works, but in The Spectator , no. 54, he translates the following words of Socrates , as quoted in Plato 's Apology : "When I left him, I reasoned thus with myself: I am wiser than this man, for neither of us appears to know anything

• Did Joseph Raz say this? No.

  “The chief ingredients in the composition of those qualities that gain esteem and praise, are good nature, truth, good sense, and good breeding.”

  Actually by: Source uncertain

  This quote is commonly attributed to philosophers but its actual source is uncertain or unverified in the standard reference works. Wikiquote's note on this attribution: William Temple , in "Heads Designed for an Essay on Conversation" in The Works of Sir William Temple, Bart. in Four Volumes (1757), Vol. III, p. 547

• Did Joseph Raz say this? No.

  “The union of the Word and the Mind produces that mystery which is called Life... Learn deeply of the Mind and its mystery, for therein lies the secret of immortality.”

  Actually by: Source uncertain

  This quote is commonly attributed to philosophers but its actual source is uncertain or unverified in the standard reference works. Wikiquote's note on this attribution: The Life and Teachings of Thoth Hermes Trismegistus ", in The Secret Teachings of All Ages (1928) by the Canadian occultist Manly Hall ; a few quotation websites credit this to Addison.