Memorable Quotations

Below are some of my favorite quotations that summarize generations of human experience in just a few words or sentences.
EDUCATION If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, it expects what never was and never will be. (Thomas Jefferson)
The only way in which a human being can make some approach to knowing the whole of a subject is by hearing what can be said about it by persons of every variety of opinion, and studying all modes in which it can be looked at by every character of mind. No wise man ever acquired his wisdom in any mode but this. (John Stuart Mill)
Education makes people easy to lead, but difficult to drive; easy to govern, but impossible to enslave. (Henry Peter Brougham)
Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing. (Albert Einstein)
Educated men are as much superior to uneducated men as the living are to the dead. (Aristotle)
Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever. (Mahatma Gandhi)
In the case of good books, the point is not to see how many of them you can get through, but how many can get through to you. (Mortimer J. Adler)
Seek knowledge [even] though it be in China. (Prophet Muhammad)
The ink of the scholar is holier than the blood of the martyr. (Prophet Muhammad)
To acquire knowledge is binding upon all Muslims, whether male or female. (Prophet Muhammad)
He who travels in the search of knowledge, to him God shows the way of Paradise. (Prophet Muhammad)
Acquire knowledge, because he who acquires it, in the way of the Lord, performs an act of piety; who speaks of it praises the Lord; who seeks it, adores God, who dispenses instruction in it, bestows alms; and who imparts it to its fitting objects, performs an act of devotion to God. Knowledge enables its possessor to distinguish what is forbidden from what is not; lights the way to Heaven; it is our friend in the desert, our companion in solitude, our companion, when bereft of friends; it guides us to happiness; it sustains us in misery; it is our ornament in the company of friends; it serves as an armor against our enemies. With knowledge the creatures of Allah rises to the heights of goodness and to noble position, associates with the sovereigns in this world and attains the perfection of happiness in the next. (Prophet Muhammad)
Difference of opinion leads to inquiry, and inquiry to truth. (Thomas Jefferson)
It is better to debate a question without settling it than to settle a question without debating it. (Joseph Joubert)
They know enough who know how to learn. (Henry Brooks Adams)
Education is our passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to the people who 'prepare for it today.' (Malcolm X)
The things taught in schools and colleges are not an education, but the means of education. (Ralph Waldo Emerson)
Judge a man by his questions rather than by his answers. (Voltaire)
When you know a thing, to hold that you know it; and when you do not know a thing, to allow that you do not know it—-this is knowledge. (Confucius)
A classic is something that everybody wants to have read and nobody wants to read. (Mark Twain)
The unexamined life is not worth living. (Socrates)
A mind is like a parachute. It functions only when it is open. (Anonymous)
Example is the school of mankind and they will learn at no other. (Edmund Burke)
Great minds discuss ideas; Average minds discuss events; Small minds discuss people. (Anonymous)
Rarely do we find men who willingly engage in hard, solid thinking. There is an almost universal quest for easy answers and half-baked solutions. Nothing pains some people more than having to think. (Martin Luther King, Jr.)
The critical habit of thought, if usual in society, will pervade all it’s mores because it is a way of taking up the problems of life. Men educated in it cannot be stampeded by stump orators ... They are slow to believe. They can hold things as possible or probable in all degrees, without certainty and without pain. They can wait for evidence and weigh evidence, uninfluenced by the emphasis or confidence with which assertions are made on one side or the other. They can resist appeals to their dearest prejudices and all kinds of cajolery. Education in the critical faculty is the only education of which it can be truly said that it makes good citizens. (William Graham Sumner)
Every person has something to teach me..... and as soon as I accept that, I open myself to truly listening.” (Catherine Doucette)
A little knowledge is dangerous. (Anonymous)
Those who don't remember the lessons of history are doomed to repeat it. (George Santayana)
The heroic mind...one able to see the world whole, not one in which knowledge is divided from wisdom, and politics from principle. (Giambattista Vico)
The desire of knowledge, like the thirst of riches, increases ever with the acquisition of it. (Laurence Sterne)
There are no secrets that time does not reveal. (Jean Racine)
The most basic of all human needs is the need to understand and be understood.
The best way to understand people is to listen to them. (Ralph Nichols)
Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. (Voltaire)

ETHICS Human beings are like parts of a body Created from the same essence. When one part is hurt and in pain, The others cannot remain in peace and be quiet. If the misery of others leaves you indifferent And with no feelings of sorrow, You cannot be called a human being. (Sa'di)
What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? (Bible, Mark 8:36)
He who decides a case without hearing the other side, though he decides justly, cannot be considered just. (Lucius Annaeus Seneca)
O humankind, We created you from a single pair of a male and a female, and made you into nations and tribes, that you may know each other. Verily the most honored of you in the sight of God is one who is the most righteous of you. (Qur'an, 49:13)
Every man is guilty of all the good he didn’t do. (Voltaire)
I submit that an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for the law. (Martin Luther King Jr.)
The love of the world is the root of all evils. (Prophet Muhammad)
Stop judging by mere appearances. (Bible, John 7:24) Appearances are deceptive (Anonymous)
Paradise lies at the feet of thy mother. (Prophet Muhammad)
He who wishes to enter Paradise must please his father and mother. (Prophet Muhammad)
Wealth properly employed is a blessing; and a man may lawfully endeavor to increase it by honest means. (Prophet Muhammad)
It is unpatriotic not to tell the truth. (Theodore Roosevelt)
In a real sense all life is inter-related. All men are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly, I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be, and you can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be. This is the inter-related structure of reality. (Martin Luther King. Jr.)
We make a living with what we get; We make a life with what we give. (Anonymous)
The world is not dangerous because of those who do harm but because of those who look at it without doing anything. (Albert Einstein)
Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country. (John F. Kennedy)
The world will be saved by individuals of integrity freely joining together. ( Buckminster Fuller)
If I am not for myself, who will be for me; if I am only for myself, then what am I? If not now, then when! (Rabbi Hillel)
The character of every act depends upon the circumstances in which it is done. (Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.)
Love your neighbor as yourself. (Bible, Matthew 22: 39)
First they came for the Communists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, but by that time, no one was left to speak up. (Pastor Martin Niemoeller)
It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity. (Albert Einstein)
Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men. (Martin Luther King, Jr.)
Never put off until tomorrow what you can do today. (Philip Dormer Stanhope/Lord Chesterfield )
Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. (General Omar Bradley)
The things that will destroy us are: politics without principle; pleasure without conscience; wealth without work; knowledge without character; business without morality; science without humanity; and worship without sacrifice. (Mahatma Gandhi)
Be the change you want to see in the world. (Mahatma Gandhi)
Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. (Bible, Matthew 7:12)
Do not do to others what you would not want them to do to you. (Confucius and Rabbi Hillel)
God is not merciful to him who is not so to humankind. He who is not kind to God's creation and to his own children, God will not be kind to him. (Prophet Muhammad)
None of you truly believes until he wishes for his brother what he wishes for himself. (Prophet Muhammad)
Consider the rights of others before your own feelings, and the feelings of others before your own rights. (John Wooden)
We have flown the air like birds and swum the sea like fishes, but have yet to learn the simple act of walking the earth as brothers [and sisters]. (Martin Luther King, Jr.)
If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else. (Booker T. Washington)
The art of conversation consists as much in listening politely as in talking agreeably. (Atwell)

FAITH Prayer is not an old woman's idle amusement. Properly understood and applied, it is the most potent instrument of action. (Mahatma Gandhi)
Don't be misled. Remember, that you can't ignore God and get away with it. You will always reap what you sow. (Bible, Galations 6:7)
O ye who believe! Let not others' hatred of you incite you to depart from justice. Be just: That is next to piety. (Qur’an 5:8)
I believe in the sun even if it isn't shining. I believe in love even when I am alone. I believe in God even when He is silent. (World War II Refugee)
Everything on earth has its own time and its own season: a time to be born and time to die, a time to plant and a time to reap, a time to kill and time to heal, a time to destroy and a time to build, a time to cry and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to throw stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to part, a time to search and time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to listen and a time to speak, a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace. (Bible, Ecclesiastes 3:1-8)

HATRED versus FORGIVENESS Bitterness imprisons life; love releases it. (Harry Emerson Fosdick)
Hatred and bitterness can never cure the disease of fear; only love can do that. Hatred paralyzes life; love releases it. Hatred confuses life; love harmonizes it. Hatred darkens life; love illuminates it. (Martin Luther King, Jr.)
Hate is a prolonged form of suicide. (Douglas V. Steere)
I will permit no man to narrow and degrade my soul by making me hate him. (Booker T. Washington)
Do not judge and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned, forgive, and you will be forgiven. (Bible, Luke 6:37)
Without forgiveness, life is governed.....by an endless cycle of resentment and retaliation. (Robert Assaglioli)
The stupid neither forgive nor forget; the naïve forgive and forget; the wise forgive, but do not forget. (Thomas Szasz)
Resentments are burdens we don't need to carry. (Anonymous)
Forgiveness is man's deepest need and highest achievement. (Horace Bushnell)
To err is human, to forgive divine. (Alexander Pope)
An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth will make the whole world blind and toothless. (Mahatma Gandhi)
The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong. (Mahatma Gandhi)
Whoever suppresses his anger, when he has in his power to show it, God will give him a great reward. (Prophet Muhammad)
He is not strong and powerful, who throws people down, but he is strong who withholds himself from anger. (Prophet Muhammad)
Holding onto anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned. (Buddha)
Keep yourselves far from envy, because it eats up and takes away good actions, like the fire that eats up and burns wood. (Prophet Muhammad)
God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. (Saint Francis of Asisi and Reihold Niebuhr)
Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet. (Jean Jacques Rousseau)
If you put on more garments, the cold cannot reach you. Similarly, increase your patience and concentration and even great injuries cannot vex your mind. (Leonardo Da Vinci)

SUCCESS Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome. (Booker T. Washington)
Winners never quit and quitters never win. (Anonymous)
Whether I fail or succeed shall be no man’s doing but my own. I am the force… My choice; my responsibility; win or lose, only I hold the key to my destiny. (Elaine Maxwell)

FREEDOM Peace cannot be kept by force; it can only be achieved by understanding. (Albert Einstein)
We should be eternally vigilant against attempts to check the expression of opinions that we loathe. (Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.)
The mind of a bigot is like the pupil of the eye. The more light you shine on it, the more it will contract. (Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.)
I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it. (Voltaire)
Dissent is the highest form of patriotism. (Thomas Jefferson)
Those who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security deserve neither liberty nor security. (Benjamin Franklin)

HAPPINESS Happiness is the meaning and purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence. (Aristotle)
To be what we are, and to become what we are capable of becoming, is the only end of life. (Robert Louis Stevenson)
If I don't have wisdom, I can only give you ignorance; If I don't have joy, I can only give you despair; If I don't like myself, I can't like you. (Anonymous)
One who acts on truth is happy in this world and beyond. (Buddha: Dhammapada 13.2)
An optimist is the human personification of spring. (Susan J. Bissonette)
There is no more miserable human being than one in whom nothing is habitual but indecision. (William James)
And in the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years. (Abraham Lincoln)
The joy of life is variety. (Samuel Johnson)
Lives of great men all remind us, we can make our lives sublime; and departing leave behind us, footprints on the sands of time. (Henry Wadsworth Longfellow)
Yesterday is history; Tomorrow is a mystery; Today is a gift , and that is why they call it the present. (Desmond Tutu)
I think that, as life is action and passion, it is required of a man that he should share the passion and action of his time at peril of being judged not to have lived. (Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.)
Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm (Ralph Waldo Emerson)

ADVERSITY Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will. (Mahatma Gandhi)
One who overcomes his enemy is brave, but one who conquers the self is powerful. (Lao Tzu)
Life grants nothing to us mortals without hard work. (Horace)
Each player must accept the cards life deals him or her; but once they are in hand, he or she alone must decide how to play the cards in order to win the game. (Voltaire)
Life is thickly sown with thorns, and I know no other remedy than to pass quickly through them. The longer we dwell on our misfortunes, the greater is their power to harm us. (Voltaire)
When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won. There have been tyrants and murderers and for a time they seem invincible but in the end, they always fall - think of it, Always. (Mahatma Gandhi)
Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards. (Soren Kierkegaard)
Life is a grindstone. Whether it grinds us down or polishes us depends on us. (Thomas L. Holdcroft)
The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. (Martin Luther King Jr.)
The blow that doesn’t break my back, strengthens me. (Arab Saying)
What doesn’t kill us, makes us stronger. (Friedrich Nietzsche)

LIFE Dream as if you will live forever; Live as if you will die today. (Anonymous)
A city is a large community where people are lonesome together. (Herbert Prochnow)
If you don't ask, you don't get. (Mahatma Gandhi) Some men see things the way they are and ask, "Why?" I dream things that never were, and ask "Why not?" (George Bernard Shaw)
We have to learn to think in a new way. Remember your humanity and forget the rest. If you can do so, the way lies open to a new paradise; if you cannot, there lies before you the risk of universal death. (Bertrand Russell)