Philosopher Quotes on Knowledge

“Self-control and resistance to distractions. Optimism in adversity—especially illness. (Hays translation)”

I, 15

“He was a man who looked at what ought to be done, not to the reputation which is got by a man's acts.”

I, 16

“Ἕωθεν προλέγειν ἑαυτῷ: συντεύξομαι περιέργῳ, ἀχαρίστῳ, ὑβριστῇ, δολερῷ, βασκάνῳ, ἀκοινωνήτῳ: πάντα ταῦτα συμβέβηκεν ἐκείνοις παρὰ τὴν ἄγνοιαν τῶν ἀγαθῶν καὶ κακῶν.”

When you wake up in the morning, tell yourself: The people I deal with today will be meddling, ungrateful, arrogant, dishonest, jealous, and surly. They are like this because they can't tell good from evil. (Hays translation) | Say to yourself in the early morning: I shall meet today inquisitive, ungrateful, violent, treacherous, envious, uncharitable men. All these things have come upon them thro

“Say to yourself in the early morning: I shall meet today inquisitive, ungrateful, violent, treacherous, envious, uncharitable men. All these things have come upon them through ignorance of real good and ill. II, 1”

Ἕωθεν προλέγειν ἑαυτῷ: συντεύξομαι περιέργῳ, ἀχαρίστῳ, ὑβριστῇ, δολερῷ, βασκάνῳ, ἀκοινωνήτῳ: πάντα ταῦτα συμβέβηκεν ἐκείνοις παρὰ τὴν ἄγνοιαν τῶν ἀγαθῶν καὶ κακῶν.

“Live as on a mountain. ...Let men see, let them know a real man who lives according to nature. If they cannot endure him, let them kill him. For that is better than to live thus.”

Meditations, Book X | X, 15

“If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.”

Si hortum in bibliotheca habes, deerit nihil.

“On Duties (De Officiis) 1.33 (translated by Walter Miller)”

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“Equidem ad pacem hortari non desino; quae vel iniusta utilior est quam iustissimum bellum cum civibus.”

As for me, I cease not to advocate peace. It may be on unjust terms, but even so it is more expedient than the justest of civil wars. Epistulae ad Atticum (Letters to Atticus) Book VII, Letter 14, section 3; as translated by E.O. Winstedt in the Loeb Classical Library

“They are such fools that they seem to expect that, though the Republic is lost, their fish-ponds will be safe.”

Letters to Atticus, Book I, 18.

“Letters to Atticus, Book I, 18.”

They are such fools that they seem to expect that, though the Republic is lost, their fish-ponds will be safe.

“L'imagination ( Imagination: A Psychological Critique ) (1936)”

Imagination is not an empirical or superadded power of consciousness, it is the whole of consciousness as it realizes its freedom .

“What then did you expect when you unbound the gag that muted those black mouths? That they would chant your praises? Did you think that when those heads that our fathers had forcibly bowed down to the ground were raised again, you would find adoration in their eyes?”

Orphée Noir (Black Orpheus)" preface, Anthologie de la Nouvelle Poésie Nègre et Malgache (1948)

“Orphée Noir (Black Orpheus)" preface, Anthologie de la Nouvelle Poésie Nègre et Malgache (1948)”

What then did you expect when you unbound the gag that muted those black mouths? That they would chant your praises? Did you think that when those heads that our fathers had forcibly bowed down to the ground were raised again, you would find adoration in their eyes?

“Orphée Noir (Black Orpheus)”

Every age has its own poetry ; in every age the circumstances of history choose a nation, a race, a class to take up the torch by creating situations that can be expressed or transcended only through poetry.

“The painful secret of Gods and kings; it is that men are free. They are free, Aegisthus. You know it and they don't.”

The Flies(1943) | As quoted in Sartre : A Philosophic Study (1966), by Anthony Manser, p. 227

“Seneca, On Anger (De Ira) 2.34.5 (translated by John W. Basore)”

To be angry with a man is to hate him; to hate him is to wish him harm; but to wish him well, even if he has done you harm, is the mark of a great mind.

“Quaeris Alcidae parem? Nemo est nisi ipse.”

Do you seek Alcides' equal? None is, except himself. line 84; ( Juno )

“Do you seek Alcides' equal? None is, except himself. line 84; ( Juno )”

Quaeris Alcidae parem? Nemo est nisi ipse.

“rursus prosperum ac felix scelus virtus vocatur; sontibus parent boni, ius est in armis, opprimit leges timor.”

Once again prosperous and successful crime goes by the name of virtue ; good men obey the bad , might is right and fear oppresses law . lines 251-253; ( Amphitryon ) | Alternate translation: Successful and fortunate crime is called virtue. (translator unknown) | Alternate translation: Might makes right. (translator unknown).

“inveniet viam aut faciet.”

He [Hercules] will find a way — or make one. line 276; ( Amphitryon ) | In this line, Seneca adapts a well-known saying "Inveniam viam aut faciam" (commonly attributed to the Carthaginian general Hannibal ) for use in his drama

“On parle toujours mal quand on n'a rien à dire.”

One always speaks badly when one has nothing to say. "Commentaires sur Corneille", Oeuvres complètes de Voltaire (1827)

“One always speaks badly when one has nothing to say. "Commentaires sur Corneille", Oeuvres complètes de Voltaire (1827)”

On parle toujours mal quand on n'a rien à dire.

“Pensées, Remarques, et Observations de Voltaire; ouvrage posthume (1802) Posthumously published "Thoughts, remarks and observations" believed to be by Voltaire”

L'homme doit être content, dit-on; mais de quoi?

“Le public est une bête féroce: il faut l'enchaîner ou la fuir.”

The public is a ferocious beast: one must chain it up or flee from it. Letter to Mademoiselle Quinault, quoted in Charles Sainte-Beuve, "Lettres inédites de Voltaire," Causeries de Lundi (20 October 1856) ; an English translation can be found on this page:

“L'amour est de toutes les passions la plus forte, parce qu'elle attaque à la fois la tête, le cœur et le corps.”

Love is of all the passions the strongest, for it attacks simultaneously the head, the heart, and the body. Le Dernier Volume Des Œuvres De Voltaire: Contes — Comédie — Pensées -— Poésies — Lettres (1862)

“Nous nous trompons toujours deux fois sur ceux que nous aimons: d'abord à leur avantage, puis à leur désavantage.”

We always deceive ourselves twice about the people we love — first to their advantage, then to their disadvantage. A Happy Death (written 1938), first published as La mort heureuse (1971), as translated by Richard Howard (1972)

“A novel is never anything but a philosophy put into images. And in a good novel, the whole of the philosophy has passed into the images. But if once the philosophy overflows the characters and action, and therefore looks like a label stuck on the work, the plot loses its authenticity and the novel its life. Nevertheless, a work that is to last cannot dispense with profound ideas. And this secret f”

Review of Nausea by Jean-Paul Sartre , published in the newspaper Alger Républicain (20 October 1938), p. 5; reprinted in Selected Essays and Notebooks , translated and edited by Philip Thody

“It is the failing of a certain literature to believe that life is tragic because it is wretched. Life can be magnificent and overwhelming — that is its whole tragedy. Without beauty , love , or danger it would be almost easy to live. And M. Sartre's hero does not perhaps give us the real meaning of his anguish when he insists on those aspects of man he finds repugnant, instead of basing his reason”

Review of Nausea by Jean-Paul Sartre , published in the newspaper Alger Républicain (20 October 1938), p. 5; also quoted in Albert Camus and the Philosophy of the Absurd (2002) by Avi Sagi, p. 43

“We have exiled beauty ; the Greeks took up arms for her.”

Helen's Exile" (1948)

“Knowing that certain nights whose sweetness lingers will keep returning to the earth and sea after we are gone, yes, this helps us to die.”

"The Sea Close By" in Lyrical and Critical Essays (1970)

“What then is time? If no one asks me, I know what it is. If I wish to explain it to him who asks me, I do not know.”

Quid est ergo tempus? Si nemo ex me quaerat, scio; si quaerenti explicare velim, nescio.

“Patience is the companion of wisdom.”

Patientia comes est sapientiae

“Augustine, Augustine, quid quaeris? Putasne brevi immettere vasculo mare totum?”

Augustinus, Augustinus, what are you trying to do? Do you believe to be able to pour the whole sea in a little jar? As quoted in the letter of Augustine to saint Cyril of Jerusalem related to the treaty titled On the Trinity

“Augustinus, Augustinus, what are you trying to do? Do you believe to be able to pour the whole sea in a little jar? As quoted in the letter of Augustine to saint Cyril of Jerusalem related to the treaty titled On the Trinity”

Augustine, Augustine, quid quaeris? Putasne brevi immettere vasculo mare totum?

“Noli foras ire, in teipsum redi, in interiore homine habitat veritas. Et si tuam naturam mutabilem inveneris, trascende et teipsum .”

Do not go outside yourself, return to yourself: truth dwells in the interiority of man and, if you find that your nature is changeable, transcend yourself too . As quoted in De vera religione , XXXIX, 72

“The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts.”

The fundamental cause of the trouble is that in the modern world the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt.

“The good life is one inspired by love and guided by knowledge.”

What I Believe, 1925

“It is undesirable to believe a proposition when there is no ground whatever for supposing it true.”

Ch. 1: The Value of Scepticism

“Science is what we know and philosophy is what we don't know.”

Unpopular Essays, 1950

“A stupid man's report of what a clever man says is never accurate, because he unconsciously translates what he hears into something he can understand.”

A History of Western Philosophy, 1945

“Learning without thought is labour lost; thought without learning is perilous.”

學而不思則罔，思而不學則殆。

“The Morals of Confucius , 2nd edition (London, 1724), Maxim X, p. 114”

He that in his studies wholly applies himself to labour and exercise, and neglects meditation, loses his time, and he that only applies himself to meditation, and neglects labour and exercise, only wanders and loses himself.

“Men do not stumble over mountains , but over molehills”

Reported in United States Congress House Committee on Agriculture (1973) Hearings Before the Committee on Agriculture, House of Representatives, Ninety-second Congress , p. 21

“Man has three ways of acting wisely. First, on meditation; that is the noblest. Secondly, on imitation ; that is the easiest. Thirdly, on experience ; that is the bitterest.”

The Analects , as reported in Chambers Dictionary of Quotations (1997), p. 279

“It is more shameful to distrust our friends than to be deceived by them.”

Reportedly in: United States. Congress. House. Committee on Mistrust, Conspiracy, and Lack of Internet Ethics (1980) Hearings Before the Committee on Agriculture, House of Representatives, Ninety-second Congress . p. 32

“What is a weed? A plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered.”

Fortune of the Republic (1878)

“All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better.”

November 11, 1842

“He who is in love is wise and is becoming wiser, sees newly every time he looks at the object beloved, drawing from it with his eyes and his mind those virtues which it possesses.”

The Method of Nature (1841), p. 25

“I fancy I need more than another to speak (rather than write), with such a formidable tendency to the lapidary style. I build my house of boulders.”

Letter to Thomas Carlyle (30 October 1841)

“Walter Savage Landor ", from The Dial , xii (1841)”

Yet a man may love a paradox, without losing either his wit or his honesty.

“In the interval between his campaigns Agricola was employed in the great labours of peace. He knew that the general must be perfected by the legislator; and that the conquest is neither permanent nor honourable, which is only an introduction to tyranny... In short, he subdued the Britons by civilizing them; and made them exchange a savage liberty for a polite and easy subjection. His conduct is the most perfect model for those employed in the unhappy, but sometimes necessary, task of subduing a rude and free people.”

An Essay towards an Abridgment of English History (1757– c . 1763), quoted in The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. VI (1856), p. 215

“War ," says Machiavel , "ought to be the only study of a prince;" and by a prince he means every sort of state, however constituted. "He ought," says this great political doctor, "to consider peace only as a breathing-time, which gives him leisure to contrive, and furnishes ability to execute military plans." A meditation on the conduct of political societies made old Hobbes imagine that war was the state of nature.”

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“We scarce ever had a prince, who by fraud, or violence, had not made some infringement on the constitution. We scarce ever had a parliament which knew, when it attempted to set limits to the royal authority, how to set limits to its own. Evils we have had continually calling for reformation, and reformations more grievous than any evils. Our boasted liberty sometimes trodden down, sometimes giddily set up, and ever precariously fluctuating and unsettled; it has only been kept alive by the blasts of continual feuds, wars, and conspiracies.”

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“I take toleration to be a part of religion . I do not know which I would sacrifice; I would keep them both: it is not necessary that I should sacrifice either.”

1770s | Speech on the Bill for the Relief of Protestant Dissenters (7 March 1773)

“Magnanimity in politics is not seldom the truest wisdom ; and a great empire and little minds go ill together.”

Second Speech on Conciliation with America (1775)

“The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways; the point, however, is to change it.”

Die Philosophen haben die Welt nur verschieden interpretirt; es kommt aber darauf an, sie zu verändern.

“Thus heaven I’ve forfeited, I know it full well. My soul, once true to God , is chosen for hell .”

The Pale Maiden” (1837) ballad

“The Pale Maiden” (1837) ballad”

Thus heaven I’ve forfeited, I know it full well. My soul, once true to God , is chosen for hell .

“With disdain I will throw my gauntlet”

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“The history of all hitherto existing societies is the history of class struggles.”

As quoted in The Communist Manifesto (1848), p.2

“All, everything that I understand, I understand only because I love.”

Thoughts of Prince Andrew Bk XII, Ch. 16

“Sevastopol in May (1855), Ch. 16”

The hero of my tale, whom I love with all the power of my soul, whom I have tried to portray in all his beauty, who has been, is, and will be beautiful, is Truth.

“I know that my unity with all people cannot be destroyed by national boundaries and government orders.”

My Religion (1884), as translated in The Human Experience : Contemporary American and Soviet Fiction and Poetry (1989) by the Quaker US/USSR Committee

“There is one evident, indubitable manifestation of the Divinity, and that is the laws of right which are made known to the world through Revelation.”

Anna Karenina(1875–1877; 1878) | Pt. VIII, ch. 19

“Go — take the mother's soul, and learn three truths: Learn What dwells in man, What is not given to man , and What men live by . When thou hast learnt these things, thou shalt return to heaven.”

What Men Live By(1881) | Ch. IV

“What do I know?”

Ch. 16. Of Glory (tr. Cotton, rev. W. Carew Hazlitt, 1877)

“Nothing is so firmly believed as that which we least know.”

... il n'est rien creu si fermement que ce qu'on sçait le moins, ...

“Je veux qu'on me voit en ma façon simple, naturelle, et ordinaire, sans étude et artifice; car c'est moi que je peins...Je suis moi-même la matière de mon livre.”

I want to be seen here in my simple, natural, ordinary fashion, without straining or artifice; for it is myself that I portray...I am myself the matter of my book. | To the Reader (tr. Donald M. Frame, 1957)

“To the Reader (tr. Donald M. Frame, 1957)”

Je veux qu'on me voit en ma façon simple, naturelle, et ordinaire, sans étude et artifice; car c'est moi que je peins...Je suis moi-même la matière de mon livre.

“Certes, c'est un subject merveilleusement vain, divers, et ondoyant, que l'homme. Il est malaisé d'y fonder jugement constant et uniforme.”

Truly man is a marvellously vain, diverse, and undulating object. It is hard to found any constant and uniform judgement on him. | Ch. 1. That Men by various Ways arrive at the same End (tr. Donald M. Frame) Man in sooth is a marvellous, vain, fickle, and unstable subject. (tr. Cotton, rev. W. Hazlitt, 1842)

“Kabir Helminski (ed.) The Rumi Collection: An Anthology of Translations (2000)”

He whose intellect overcomes his desire is higher than the angels; he whose desire overcomes his intellect is less than an animal.

“Timothy Freke, Rumi Wisdom: Daily Teachings from the Great Sufi Master (2000)”

The fault is in the one who blames. Spirit sees nothing to criticize.

“This discipline and rough treatment are a furnace to extract the silver from the dross. This testing purifies the gold by boiling the scum away.”

I, 232-3 (tr. Helminski, 1990)

“I, 232-3 (tr. Helminski, 1990)”

This discipline and rough treatment are a furnace to extract the silver from the dross. This testing purifies the gold by boiling the scum away.

“Fortunate is he who does not carry envy as a companion.”

I, 431 (tr. Helminski, 1990)

“Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited; imagination encircles the world.”

What Life Means to Einstein, 1929 interview

“The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is comprehensible.”

One may say "the eternal mystery of the world is its comprehensibility.

“❝Everything should be made simple as possible but no simpler.❞”

Repeated throughout his life, see: Quote Investigator

“Autoritätsdusel ist der größte Feind der Wahrheit.”

Blind obedience to authority is the greatest enemy of truth.

“Lieber Habicht! / Es herrscht ein weihevolles Stillschweigen zwischen uns, so daß es mir fast wie eine sündige Entweihung vorkommt, wenn ich es jetzt durch ein wenig bedeutsames Gepappel unterbreche... / Was machen Sie denn, Sie eingefrorener Walfisch, Sie getrocknetes, eingebüchstes Stück Seele...?”

Dear Habicht, / Such a solemn air of silence has descended between us that I almost feel as if I am committing a sacrilege when I break it now with some inconsequential babble... / What are you up to, you frozen whale, you smoked, dried, canned piece of soul...? | Opening of a letter to his friend Conrad Habicht in which he describes his four revolutionary Annus Mirabilis papers (18 or 25 May 1905

“Our Lord God, Allmighty Wisdom, All-Love, right as verily as He hath made everything that is, all-so verily He doeth and worketh all-thing that is done.”

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“We may never come to full knowing of God till we know first clearly our own Soul.”

Chapter 56 | Variant: We can never come to full knowing of God till we know first clearly our own Soul.

“Here understand I in truth that all manner of things are made ready for us by the great goodness of God, so far forth that what time we be ourselves in peace and charity, we be verily saved.”

Chapter 40

“There was a treasure in the earth which the Lord loved. I marvelled and thought what it might be, and I was answered in mine understanding: It is a food which is delectable and pleasant to the Lord.”

Chapter 51

“Chapter 54”

Variant: Faith is nought else but a right understanding, with true belief and sure trust, of our Being: that we are in God, and God is in us: Whom we see not.

“The world is everything that is the case.”

Original German: Die Welt ist alles, was der Fall ist .

“Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent.”

Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen.

“The limits of my language mean the limits of my world.”

Variant translations: | The limits of my language stand for the limits of my world. | The limits of my language are the limits of my mind. All I know is what I have words for. | Original German: Die Grenzen meiner Sprache bedeuten die Grenzen meiner Welt.

“Don't think, but look!”

§ 66

“What can be said at all can be said clearly, and whereof one cannot speak thereof one must be silent.”

Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen.

“The highest truth is this: God is present in all beings. They are His multiple forms. There is no other God to seek. . . . It is a man-making religion that we want. . . . Give up these weakening mysticisms, and be strong. . . . For the next fifty years. ... let all other gods disappear from our minds. This is the only God that is awake, our own race, everywhere His hands, everywhere His feet, ever”

Quoted from Will Durant , Our Oriental Heritage.

“And may I ask you, Europeans, what country you have ever raised to better conditions? Wherever you have found weaker races, you have exterminated them by the roots, as it were. You have settled on their lands and they are gone forever. What is the history of your America, your Australia and New Zealand, your Pacific Islands and South Africa? Where are those aboriginal races there today? They are a”

Swami Vivekananda Quoted in Talageri, S. (2000). The Rigveda: A historical analysis. New Delhi: Aditya Prakashan.

“Vedânta philosophy : Lectures by the Swâmi Vivekânanda on Râja Yoga (1899), Ch. VI : Pratyâhâra and Dhâraṇâm”

To succeed, you must have tremendous perseverance, tremendous will. “I will drink the ocean ”, says the persevering soul ; “at my will mountains will crumble up”. Have that sort of energy , that sort of will; work hard, and you will reach the goal.

“Swâmi Vivekânanda on Râja Yoga (1899), Ch. VI : Pratyâhâra and Dhâraṇâ”

A perfect life is a contradiction in terms.

“Death is better than a vegetating ignorant life; it is better to die on the battle-field than to live a life of defeat.”

Call to the Nation

“The Indians do not regret that capable natives can exercise the franchise. They would regret if it were otherwise. They, however, assert that they too, if capable, should have the right. You, in your wisdom , would not allow the Indian or the native the precious privilege under any circumstances, because they have a dark skin .”

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“Indian Opinion (1 October 1903)”

One thing we have endeavoured to observe most scrupulously, namely, never to depart from the strictest facts and, in dealing with the difficult questions that have arisen during the year , we hope that we have used the utmost moderation possible under the circumstances. Our duty is very simple and plain. We want to serve the community, and in our own humble way to serve the Empire. We believe in t

“Why, of all places in Johannesburg , the Indian location should be chosen for dumping down all kaffirs of the town, passes my comprehension. Of course, under my suggestion, the Town Council must withdraw the Kaffirs from the Location. About this mixing of the Kaffirs with the Indians I must confess I feel most strongly. I think it is very unfair to the Indian population, and it is an undue tax on even the proverbial patience of my countrymen.”

Letter to Dr. Porter, Medical Officer of Health for Johannesburg (15 February 1905); later published in The Indian Opinion .

“Why, of all places in Johannesburg , the Indian location should be chosen for dumping down all kaffirs of the town, passes my comprehension. Of course, under my suggestion, the Town Council must withdraw the Kaffirs from the Location. About this mixing of the Kaffirs with the Indians I must confess I feel most strongly. I think it is very unfair to the Indian population, and it is an undue tax on ”

Letter to Dr. Porter, Medical Officer of Health for Johannesburg (15 February 1905); later published in The Indian Opinion .

“In this instance of the fire-arms, the Asiatic has been most improperly bracketed with the native. The British Indian does not need any such restrictions as are imposed by the Bill on the natives regarding the carrying of fire-arms. The prominent race can remain so by preventing the native from arming himself. Is there a slightest vestige of justification for so preventing the British Indian?”

Comments on a court case in The Indian Opinion (25 March 1905)

“A Review of B. F. Skinner’s Verbal Behavior , Language 35, no. 1 (January–March 1959)”

Suppose that we manage to construct grammars having the properties outlined above. We can then attempt to describe and study the achievement of the speaker, listener, and learner. The speaker and the listener, we must assume, have already acquired the capacities characterized abstractly by the grammar. The speaker’s task is to select a particular compatible set of optional rules. If we know, from

“Syntactic investigation of a given language has as its goal the construction of a grammar that can be viewed as a device of some sort for producing the sentences of the language under analysis.”

Chap. 1 : Introduction

“Chap. 1 : Introduction”

Syntactic investigation of a given language has as its goal the construction of a grammar that can be viewed as a device of some sort for producing the sentences of the language under analysis.

“Chap. 1 : Introduction”

We can determine the adequacy of a linguistic theory by developing rigorously and precisely the form of grammar corresponding to the set of levels contained within this theory, and then investigating the possibility of constructing simple and revealing grammars of this form for natural languages.

“Despite the undeniable interest and importance of semantic and statistical studies of language, they appear to have no direct relevance to the problem of determining or characterizing the set of grammatical utterances. I think that we are forced to conclude that grammar is autonomous and independent of meaning, and that probabilistic models give no particular insight into some of the basic problems of syntactic structure.”

Chap. 2 : The Independence of Grammar

“[I am] fast becoming a patriot of the most decided stamp. Scornfully as I used to speak and think of Scotland in my hours of bitterness and irritation, I never fail to stand up manfully in defence of it thro' thick and thin, whenever a renegade Scot takes upon him to abuse it.”

Letter to Thomas Murray (24 August 1824), quoted in Fred Kaplan, Thomas Carlyle: A Biography (1983), p. 100

“Not all his men may sever this, It yields to friends ', not monarchs ', calls; My whinstone house my castle is — I have my own four walls.”

My Own Four Walls” (c. 1825) Froude, James Anthony (1882). Thomas Carlyle: A history of the first forty years of his life, 1795-1835 . p. 189. OCLC 603024 .

“Speech is human , silence is divine , yet also brutish and dead : therefore we must learn both arts .”

Notebooks (1830).

“A man's honest, earnest opinion is the most precious of all he possesses: let him communicate this, if he is to communicate anything. There is, doubtless a time to speak, and a time to keep silence; yet Fontenelle 's celebrated aphorism, I might have my hand full of truth, and would open only my little finger , may be practiced to excess, and the little finger itself kept closed. That reserve, and”

Review of Historic Survey of German Poetry, interspersed with Various Translations by W. Taylor, in The Edinburgh Review Vol. LIII (1831), p. 178.

“(letter written in the summer of 1833), The Correspondence of Thomas Carlyle and Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1834-1872 . Volume 1 (3rd ed.). Boston: James R. Osgood & Company. 1883. pp. 3–4. (edited by Charles Eliot Norton )”

Two days after Emerson's visit , Carlyle wrote to his mother:— "Three little happinesses have befallen us ... Our third happiness was the arrival of a certain young unknown friend, named Emerson, from Boston, in the United States, who turned aside so far from his British, French, and Italian travels to see me here! He had an introduction from Mill , and a Frenchman ( Baron d'Eichtal 's nephew) who

“There is nothing more frightful than ignorance in action.”

Es ist nichts schrecklicher als eine tätige Unwissenheit.

“Instruction does much, but encouragement everything.”

Letter to A. F. Oeser (9 November 1768), Early and miscellaneous letters of J. W. Goethe, including letters to his mother. With notes and a short biography (1884) | Alternative translation: "Correction does much, but encouragement does more.

“Alternative translation: "Correction does much, but encouragement does more.”

Instruction does much, but encouragement everything.

“Wo viel Licht ist, ist starker Schatten.”

There is strong shadow where there is much light . Götz von Berlichingen , Act I (1773)

“There is strong shadow where there is much light . Götz von Berlichingen , Act I (1773)”

Wo viel Licht ist, ist starker Schatten.

“Latin text: Weimar Briefwechsel (correspondence), 1, n. 62, p. 152, 6)”

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“The quote actually comes from Von dem eelichen Leben (1522). It can be seen in an original edition here , in a 19th century reissue here , and in English translation (as " On the Estate of Marriage ") here .”

If a woman becomes weary and at last dead from bearing, that matters not; let her only die from bearing, she is there to do it.

“On Infant Baptism," Large Catechism (1529)”

Lastly, we must also know what Baptism signifies, and why God has ordained just such external sign and ceremony for the Sacrament by which we are first received into the Christian Church. But the act or ceremony is this, that we are sunk under the water, which passes over us, and afterwards are drawn out again. These two parts, to be sunk under the water and drawn out again, signify the power and

“On Infant Baptism," Large Catechism (1529)”

The heathen really make their self-invented notions and dreams of God and idol. Ultimately, they put their trust in that which is nothing. So it is with all idolatry. For it happens not merely by erecting an image and worshipping it, but rather it happens in the heart. For the heart seeks help and consolation from creatures, saints, or devils. It neither cares for God, nor looks to Him for anythin

“By the law is the knowledge of sin [Rom 3:20], so the word of grace comes only to those who are distressed by a sense of sin and tempted to despair.”

On the Bondage of the Will(1525) | p. 168

“In politics , love is a stranger, and when it intrudes upon it nothing is being achieved except hypocrisy. All the characteristics you stress in the Negro people: their beauty, their capacity for joy, their warmth, and their humanity, are well-known characteristics of all oppressed people. They grow out of suffering and they are the proudest possession of all pariahs. Unfortunately, they have neve”

Letter to James Baldwin (21 November 1962)

“On Revolution (1963), ch. 2”

What makes it so plausible to assume that hypocrisy is the vice of vices is that integrity can indeed exist under the cover of all other vices except this one. Only crime and the criminal, it is true, confront us with the perplexity of radical evil; but only the hypocrite is really rotten to the core.

“Kein Mensch hat das Recht zu gehorchen.”

No one has the right to obey . Paradoxical aphorism asserting the responsibility of everyone to engage in critical thinking in response to unjustly oppressive commands or demands against rationality or humanity , implying automatic obedience to tyranny as a betrayal of both, and referencing Immanuel Kant 's philosophical perspectives, in a radio interview with Joachim Fest (9 November 1964); also

“Men in Dark Times (1968)”

Political questions are far too serious to be left to the politicians.

“In a head-on clash between violence and power , the outcome is hardly in doubt. Nowhere is the self-defeating factor in the victory of violence over power more evident than in the use of terror to maintain domination, about whose weird successes and eventual failures we know perhaps more than any generation before us. Violence can destroy power; it is utterly incapable of creating it.”

On Violence (1970)