Ibn Khaldun

“The only people who accept slavery are the Negroes, owing to their low degree of humanity and proximity to the animal stage”. –Ibn Khaldun

Desiderius Erasmus

“You must acquire the best knowledge first, and without delay; it is the height of madness to learn what you will later have to unlearn”. –Desiderius Erasmus

Philo

“A Judge must bear in mind that when he tries a case he is himself on trial”. –Philo

William Whewell

“Man is the interpreter of nature, science the right interpretation”. –William Whewell

Immanuel Kant

“Have patience awhile; slanders are not long-lived. Truth is the child of time; erelong she shall appear to vindicate thee”. –Immanuel Kant

Henry Liddon

“The life of man is made up of action and endurance; and life is fruitful in the ratio in which it is laid out in noble action or in patient perseverance”. –Henry Liddon

Friedrich Klopstock

“He who has an opinion of his own, but depends upon the opinion and taste of others, is a slave”. –Friedrich Klopstock

Baltasar Gracián

“Better to be cheated by the price than by the merchandise”. –Baltasar Gracián

Karl Barth

“Man as man can never know God: His wishing, seeking, and striving are all in vain”. –Karl Barth

Pythagoras

“The most momentous thing in human life is the art of winning the soul to good or evil”. –Pythagoras

Muhammad

“Even as the fingers of the two hands are equal, so are human beings equal to one another. No one has any right, nor any preference to claim over another. You are brothers”. –Muhammad

Shams Tabrizi

“There may be one fault in a man that conceals a thousand qualities, or one excellence that conceals a thousand faults. The little indicates much”. –Shams Tabrizi

Henri de Lubac

“It is not always charity, alas, which has grown greater, or which has become more enlightened: it is often faith, the taste for the things of eternity, which has grown less. Injustice and violence are still reigning; but they are now in the service of degraded passions”. –Henri de Lubac

Zoroaster

“A reflective, contented mind is the best possession”. –Zoroaster

Martin Niemöller

“We had been frightened of atomic weapons since 1945. In those days I became convinced — and remain convinced now — that, after Hitler, Truman was the greatest murderer in the world”. –Martin Niemöller

Abu Bakr

“Cursed is the man who dies, but the evil done by him survives”. –Abu Bakr

Confucius

“To study and not think is a waste. To think and not study is dangerous”. –Confucius

Jesus Christ

“You shall know truth, and the truth shall set you free”. –Jesus Christ

Giordano Bruno

“Perchance you who pronounce my sentence are in greater fear than I who receive it”. –Giordano Bruno

Shunryu Suzuki

“In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, in the expert’s mind there are few”. –Shunryu Suzuki

Soren Kierkegaard

“People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use”. –Soren Kierkegaard

Diogenes

“The mob is the mother of tyrants”. –Diogenes

Sri Aurobindo

“All fanaticism is false, because it is a contradiction of the very nature of God and of Truth. Truth cannot be shut up in a single book, Bible or Veda or Koran, or in a single religion”. –Sri Aurobindo

Jerome

“Do not let your deeds belie your words, lest when you speak in church someone may say to himself, ‘Why do you not practice what you preach?'”. –Jerome

Arthur Schopenhauer

“Talent hits a target no one else can hit; Genius hits a target no one else can see”. –Arthur Schopenhauer

Francis Bacon

“Prosperity doth best discover vice, but adversity doth best discover truth”. –Francis Bacon

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

“An idea is always a generalization, and generalization is a property of thinking. To generalize means to think”. –Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

Benjamin Jowett

“Doubt comes in at the window when inquiry is denied at the door”. –Benjamin Jowett

Walter Kaufmann

“The great artist is the man who most obviously succeeds in turning his pains to advantage, in letting suffering deepen his understanding and sensibility, in growing through his pains”. –Walter Kaufmann

H.G. Wells

“A time will come when a politician who has willfully made war and promoted international dissension will be as sure of the dock and much surer of the noose than a private homicide. It is not reasonable that those who gamble with men’s lives should not stake their own”. –H.G. Wells

Basil of Caesarea

“Many a man curses the rain that falls upon his head, and knows not that it brings abundance to drive away the hunger”. –Basil of Caesarea

John Milton

“None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license”. –John Milton

Aristotle

“Both oligarch and tyrant mistrust the people, and therefore deprive them of their arms”. –Aristotle

Charles Kingsley

“Science frees us in many ways… from the bodily terror which the savage feels. But she replaces that, in the minds of many, by a moral terror which is far more overwhelming”. –Charles Kingsley

Maximilien Robespierre

“To punish the oppressors of humanity is clemency; to forgive them is cruelty”. –Maximilien Robespierre

G.K. Chesterton

“Impartiality is a pompous name for indifference, which is an elegant name for ignorance”. –G.K. Chesterton

Albert Schweitzer

“The African is my brother — but he is my younger brother by several centuries”. –Albert Schweitzer

Rumi

“If you dig a pit for others to fall into, you will fall into it yourself”. –Rumi

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“Which is the best government? That which teaches us to govern ourselves”. –Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Edgar Cayce

“The Lord marks the fall of the smallest sparrow. He knows how so many in authority treat the infirm, and the aged. Look at the Napoleons, Cæsars, and the like. Rather than casting themselves in God’s image, they made Gods of themselves, and were destroyed”. –Edgar Cayce

Paul Tillich

“He who risks and fails can be forgiven. He who never risks and never fails is a failure in his whole being”. –Paul Tillich

Ammon Hennacy

“Oh, judge, your damn laws: the good people don’t need them and the bad people don’t follow them, so what good are they?” –Ammon Hennacy

Leo Tolstoy

“The more is given, the less the people will work for themselves, and the less they work, the more their poverty will increase”. –Leo Tolstoy

John Pearson

“Death is nothing else but a change of a short and temporary for an unalterable and eternal condition”. –John Pearson

Martin Luther King

“Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place, but I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s Will, and He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain, and I’ve looked over, and I’ve seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you, but I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land”. –Martin Luther King

John Calvin

“I consider looseness with words no less of a defect than looseness of the bowels”. –John Calvin

Dante Alighieri

“The darkest pits of hell are reserved for those who maintain their neutrality in times of moral crisis”. –Dante Alighieri

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

“The ultimate test of a moral society is in the kind of world it leaves to its children”. –Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Thomas Aquinas

“By nature, all men are equal in liberty, but not in other endowments”. –Thomas Aquinas

Martin Luther

“You are not only responsible for what you say, but also for what you do not say”. –Martin Luther

Anton LaVey

“Every religion in the world that has destroyed people is based on love”. –Anton LaVey