Never contend with a man who has nothing to lose.
—Baltasar Gracian
Whenever you are to do a thing, though it can never be known but to yourself, ask yourself how you would act were all the world looking at you, and act accordingly.
—Thomas Jefferson (American Head of State)
The walls we build around us to keep sadness out also keep out the joy.
—Jim Rohn (American Entrepreneur)
For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them.
—Aristotle (Ancient Greek Philosopher)
The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance—it is the illusion of knowledge.
—Daniel J. Boorstin (American Historian)
Riches get their value from the mind of the possessor; they are blessings to those who know how to use them, and curses to those who do not.
—Terence (Ancient Roman Playwright)
If we subject everything to reason, our religion will have nothing mysterious or supernatural; if we violate the principles of reason, our religion will be absurd and ridiculous.
—Blaise Pascal (French Catholic Mathematician)
A single lie destroys a whole reputation of integrity.
—Baltasar Gracian
It is not the language but the speaker that we want to understand.
—The Upanishads
A bibliophile of little means is likely to suffer often. Books don’t slip from his hands but fly past him through the air, high as birds, high as prices.
—Pablo Neruda (Chilean Poet)
It requires greater courage to preserve inner freedom, to move on in one’s inward journey into new realms, than to stand defiantly for outer freedom. It is often easier to play the martyr, as it is to be rash in battle.
—Rollo May (American Philosopher)
The greatest mistake we make is living in constant fear that we will make one.
—John C. Maxwell (American Christian Professional Speaker)
Life is made up of constant calls to action, and we seldom have time for more than hastily contrived answers.
—Learned Hand
The reading of all good books is indeed like a conversation with the noblest men of past centuries who were the authors of them, nay a carefully studied conversation, in which they reveal to us none but the best of their thoughts.
—Rene Descartes (French Philosopher, Mathematician)
That which does not kill us makes us stronger.
—Friedrich Nietzsche (German Philosopher, Scholar)
The oppression of any people for opinion’s sake has rarely had any other effect than to fix those opinions deeper, and render them more important.
—Hosea Ballou (American Universalist Clergyman)