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Quotes by Philosopher
"I hope that here in America more and more the ideal of the well-trained and vigorous body will be maintained neck by neck with that of the well-trained and vigorous mind as the two coequal halves of the higher education for men and women alike."
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"It is beautiful to talk about beautiful things and even more beautiful to silently gaze at them."
16
"In the Second World War he took no public part, having escaped to a neutral country just before its outbreak. In private conversation he was wont to say that homicidal lunatics were well employed in killing each other, but that sensible men would keep out of their way while they were doing it. Fortunately this outlook, which is reminiscent of Bentham, has become rare in this age, which recognizes that heroism has a value independent of its utility. The Last Survivor of a Dead Epoch."
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"It is clear to everyone that astronomy at all events compels the soul to look upwards, and draws it from the things of this world to the other."
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"One's own religion is after all a matter between oneself and one's Maker and no one else's."
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"When your critics raise hell keep building your heaven."
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"Since barbarism has its pleasures it naturally has its apologists."
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"He who writes in blood and aphorisms does not want to be read, he wants to be learned by heart."
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"A degree of culture, and assuredly a very high one, is attained when man rises above superstitions and religious notions and fears, and, for instance, no longer believes in guardian angels or in original sin, and has also ceased to talk of the salvation of his soul."
16
"They forget that love is not a science but an inherent state of mind; they forget that sex is practiced by animals without textbooks and that it is not such a secret that requires a complete science, courses and special training. And so impotent, with artificial stars on the ceilings of their rooms, they become the main teachers on the way to the stars."
16
"I put forward formless and unresolved notions, as do those who publish doubtful questions to debate in the schools, not to establish the truth but to seek it."
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"If roses did not suffer thorns on their journey to beauty, they would lose out on becoming masterpieces."
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"Can anything be stupider than that a man has the right to kill me because he lives on the other side of a river and his ruler has a quarrel with mine, though I have not quarrelled with him?"
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"Worry is spiritual short sight. Its cure is intelligent faith."
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"The world rewards you for what is in your mind, the universe rewards you for what is in your heart, and the Heavens reward you for what is in your soul."
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"For a chic and an honorable full victory, you must make your own fight and win your own battle entirely by yourself! Try to refuse any help to get a pure victory, a victory which belongs merely to yourself!"
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"Don't pay attention to those who offer too much."
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"Ants are successful creatures, they are successful because they know very well that the mind of the team is superior to the mind of the individual!"
16
"Perhaps we cannot prevent this world from being a world in which children are tortured. But we can reduce the number of tortured children."
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"The sweetest apples are eaten first."
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"An over-indulgence of anything, even something as pure as water, can intoxicate."
16
"Thank the past for all the lessons it taught you, anticipate the future for all the blessings it has in store for you."
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"God is a cloud from which rain fell."
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"A man whose strength gives out collapses along the course. In your case you set the limits beforehand."
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"You are as the sun; the world is your stage; even without an audience, shine."
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"We are doomed to live the feeling of being lost because temporal beings are doomed to feel this way, this is something that transitory bodies cannot avoid!"
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"The sword wears out its sheath, as it is sometimes said. That is my story. My passions have made me live, and my passions have killed me. What passions, it may be asked. Trifles, the most childish things in the world. Yet they affected me as much as if the possessions of Helen, or the throne of the Universe, had been at stake."
16
"A sign of power in a man is not only when people follow what he suggests, but also when people make a conscious effort to do the exact opposite of what he suggests."
16
"Amuse yourself, torment your desires. Drink when you're thirsty -- that would be very much too simple! If you didn't harbour a temptation eternally in your soul, you'd run the risk of forgetting yourself."
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"Religion makes people kill each other. Science supplies them with weapons."
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"The best work and of greatest merit for the public has proceeded from the unmarried or childless men."
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"I am not a 'wise man,' nor . . . shall I ever be. And so require not from me that I should be equal to the best, but that I should be better than the wicked. It is enough for me if every day I reduce the number of my vices, and blame my mistakes."
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"Nature never deceives us; it is we who deceive ourselves."
16
"I enjoy books as misers enjoy treasures, because I know I can enjoy them whenever I please."
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"Language is a labyrinth of paths. You approach from one side and know your way about, you approach the same place from another side and no longer know your way about."
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"Too much thinking causes confusion and anxietybetter to stick with the simplicity of Tao."
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"A toothless wolf is less dangerous than a fanged insect."
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"Breaking from the herd is better than getting lost in it."
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"But the Egotist is stuck somewhere between his hidden triad of pride, fear, and insecurity; he is forever fighting to prove himself, instigating battles the Humbleman has unwittingly conquered, already sealed some time ago. Yes, the day he finally accepts face-to-face such an irony as humility - the irony that humility is indeed the mother of giants, that great men, having life so large, as needed, can afford to appear small - the world will then know peace."
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"If truth is like the terrain, are we the generation who sees it as one who has worn shoes all his life or one who has never worn shoes? Yet still, even if the walk starts out as painful, the experience may be well worth it."
16
"We forget old stories, but those stories remain the same."
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