Famous Quotes & Sayings

Bertrand Russell

Dogma demands authority, rather than intelligent thought, as the source of opinion; it requires persecution of heretics and hostility to unbelievers; it asks of its disciples that they should inhibit natural kindliness in favor of systematic hatred.

Bertrand Russell

To understand the actual world as it is, not as we should wish it to be, is the beginning of wisdom.

Bertrand Russell

Both in thought and in feeling, even though time be real, to realise the unimportance of time is the gate of wisdom.

Benjamin Disraeli

It is the fashion to style the present moment an extraordinary crisis.

Benjamin Disraeli

The profound thinker always suspects that he is superficial.

Benjamin Disraeli

Knowledge must be gained by ourselves. Mankind may supply us with facts; but the results, even if they agree with previous ones, must be the work of our own minds.

Benjamin Disraeli

Desperation is sometimes as powerful an inspirer as genius.

Carl von Clausewitz

It should be noted that the seeds of wisdom that are to bear fruit in the intellect are sown less by critical studies and learned monographs than by insights, broad impressions, and flashes of intuition.

Carl Sandburg

Tell no man anything, for no man listens Yet hold thy lips ready to speak.

C. S. Lewis

Surely what a man does when he is taken off his guard is the best evidence for what sort of man he is.

C. S. Lewis

Now is our chance to choose the right side. God is holding back to give us that chance. It won't last forever. We must take it or leave it.

C. S. Lewis

Telling us to obey instinct is like telling us to obey 'people.' People say different things: so do instincts. Our instincts are at war... Each instinct, if you listen to it, will claim to be gratified at the expense of the rest.

C. S. Lewis

Be sure that the ins and outs of your individuality are no mystery to Him; and one day they will no longer be a mystery to you.

C. S. Lewis

If we cut up beasts simply because they cannot prevent us and because we are backing our own side in the struggle for existence, it is only logical to cut up imbeciles, criminals, enemies, or capitalists for the same reasons.

C. S. Lewis

Talk to me about the truth of religion and I'll listen gladly. Talk to me about the duty of religion and I'll listen submissively. But don't come talking to me about the consolations of religion or I shall suspect that you don't understand.

C. S. Lewis

We live, in fact, in a world starved for solitude, silence, and private: and therefore starved for meditation and true friendship.

C. S. Lewis

What seem our worst prayers may really be, in God's eyes, our best. Those, I mean, which are least supported by devotional feeling. For these may come from a deeper level than feeling. God sometimes seems to speak to us most intimately when he catches us, as it were, off our guard.

C. S. Lewis

If you are really a product of a materialistic universe, how is it that you don't feel at home there?

C. S. Lewis

To live his life in his own way, to call his house his castle, to enjoy the fruits of his own labour, to educate his children as his conscience directs, to save for their prosperity after his death -- these are wishes deeply ingrained in civilised man. Their realization is almost as necessary to our virtues as to our happiness. From their total frustration disastrous results both moral and psychological might follow.

Clarence Day

Will and wisdom are both mighty leaders. Our times worship will.

Elizabeth Janeway

I am not sure how many "sins" I would recognize in the world. Some would surely be defused by changed circumstances. But I can imagine none that is more irredeemably sinful than the betrayal, the exploitation, of the young by those who should care for them.

Elizabeth I

There is small disproportion betwixt a fool who useth not wit because he hath it not and him that useth it not when it should avail him.

Eli Broad

There is no substitute for knowledge. To this day, I read three newspapers a day. It is impossible to read a paper without being exposed to ideas. And ideas - more than money - are the real currency for success.

B. C. Forbes

Vitally important for a young man or woman is, first, to realize the value of education and then to cultivate earnestly, aggressively, ceaselessly, the habit of self-education.

Arthur Helps

Wisdom is seldom gained without suffering.

A proverb is the wisdom of many and the wit of one.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

If only it were all so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?

Aleister Crowley

Science is always discovering odd scraps of magical wisdom and making a tremendous fuss about its cleverness.

Albert Einstein

The important things are always simple.

Albert Einstein

Any fool can know. The point is to understand.

Alfred North Whitehead

Everything of importance has been said before by somebody who did not discover it.

Alfred North Whitehead

Great people plant trees they'll never sit under.

Alfred North Whitehead

Wisdom alone is true ambition's aim, wisdom is the source of virtue and of fame; obtained with labour, for mankind employed, and then, when most you share it, best enjoyed.