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Wisdom QuotationsWisdom: What quotations are revered for. All quotations in this category contain timeless bits of wisdom and many are quite provacative Showing 1 through 36 of 379 quotations in this category. "The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, who strives valiantly; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at best, knows the triumph of high achievement; and who, at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat." "War may sometimes be a necessary evil. But no matter how necessary, it is always an evil, never a good. We will not learn how to live together in peace by killing each other's children." "The problem is not that there are problems. The problem is expecting otherwise and thinking that having problems is a problem." "Character is doing the right thing when nobody's looking. There are too many people who think that the only thing that's right is to get by, and the only thing that's wrong is to get caught." "Whatever does not kill me makes me stronger." "The greatest of all faults is to be conscious of none." "Most of our so-called reasoning consists in finding arguments for going on believing as we already do." "People take different roads seeking fulfillment and happiness. Just because they're not on your road doesn't mean they've gotten lost." "The master in the art of living makes little distinction between his work and his play, his labor and his leisure, his mind and his body, his education and his recreation, his love and his religion. He hardly knows which is which; he simply pursues his vision of excellence in whatever he does, leaving others to decide whether he is working or playing. To him he is always doing both." "Am I not destroying my enemies when I make friends of them?" "All the world's a stage, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself -- nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance." "What is good? All that enhances the feeling of power, the Will to Power, and the power itself in man. What is bad? All that proceeds from weakness. What is happiness? The feeling that power is increasing--that resistance has been overcome. Not contentment, but more power; not peace at any price, but war; not virtue, but competence. The first principle of our humanism: The weak and the failures shall perish. They ought even to be helped to perish." "Get wisdom, get understanding; do not forget my words or swerve from them. Do not forsake wisdom, and she will protect you; love her, and she will watch over you. Wisdom is supreme; therefore get wisdom. Though it cost all you have, get understanding. Esteem her, and she will exalt you; embrace her, and she will honor you." "A belief, however necessary it may be for the preservation of a species, has nothing to do with truth. The falseness of a judgment is not for us necessarily an objection to a judgment. The question is to what extent it is life-promoting, life-preserving, species preserving, perhaps even species cultivating. To recognize untruth as a condition of life--that cetainly means resisting accustomed value feelings in a dangerous way; and a philosophy that risks this would by that token alone place itself beyond good and evil." "The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence whatever that it is not utterly absurd; indeed in view of the silliness of the majority of mankind, a widespread belief is more likely to be foolish than sensible." "Science is the search for truth - it is not a game in which one tries to beat his opponent, to do harm to others. We need to have the spirit of science in international affairs, to make the conduct of international affairs the effort to find t he right solution, the just solution of international problems, not the effort by each nation to get the better of other nations, to do harm to them when it is possible." "People are the common denominator of progress. So... no improvement is possible with unimproved people, and advance is certain when people are liberated and educated." "I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country ... corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign ... until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed." "I don't know what will be used in the next world war, but the 4th will be fought with stones." "Do not fear your enemies. The worst they can do is kill you. Do not fear friends. At worst, they may betray you. Fear those who do not care; they neither kill nor betray, but betrayal and murder exists because of their silent consent." "The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one's time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all." "In order to form an immaculate member of a flock of sheep one must, above all, be a sheep." "Discovery consists of seeing what everybody has seen and thinking what nobody has thought." "The worst sin toward our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them: that's the essence of inhumanity." "When a true genius appears in this world, you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against him." "The work of art may have a moral effect, but to demand moral purpose from the artist is to make him ruin his work." "It is well, when judging a friend, to remember that he is judging you with the same godlike and superior impartiality." "Let us be thankful for the fools; but for them the rest of us could not succeed." "I am different from Washington; I have a higher, grander standard of principle. Washington could not lie. I can lie, but I won't." "When I face an issue of great import that cleaves both constituents and colleagues, I always take the same approach. I engage in deep deliberation and quiet contemplation. I wait to the last available minute and then I always vote with the losers. Because, my friend, the winners never remember and the losers never forget." "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." "To be clever enough to get a great deal of money, one must be stupid enough to want it." "Television is the first truly democratic culture - the first culture available to everybody and entirely governed by what the people want. The most terrifying thing is what people do want." "No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism." "Some people speak from experience; others, from experience, don't speak." next page>> |