Utopus having understood that before...

Utopus having understood that before his coming among them the old inhabitants had been engaged in great quarrels concerning religion, by which they were so divided among themselves, that he found it an easy thing to conquer them, since, instead of uniting their forces against him, every different party in religion fought by themselves. After he had subdued them he made a law that every man might be of what religion he pleased, and might endeavour to draw others to it by the force of argument and by amicable and modest ways, but without bitterness against those of other opinions; but that he ought to use no other force but that of persuasion, and was neither to mix with it reproaches nor violence; and such as did otherwise were to be condemned to banishment or slavery. This law was made by Utopus, not only for preserving the public peace, which he saw suffered much by daily contentions and irreconcilable heats, but because he thought the interest of religion itself required it. He judged it not fit to determine anything rashly; and seemed to doubt whether those different forms of religion might not all come from God, who might inspire man in a different manner, and be pleased with this variety; he therefore thought it indecent and foolish for any man to threaten and terrify another to make him believe what did not appear to him to be true. And supposing that only one religion was really true, and the rest false, he imagined that the native force of truth would at last break forth and shine bright, if supported only by the strength of argument, and attended to with a gentle and unprejudiced mind; while, on the other hand, if such debates were carried on with violence and tumults, as the most wicked are always the most obstinate, so the best and most holy religion might be choked with superstition, as corn is with briars and thorns; he therefore left men wholly to their liberty, that they might be free to believe as they should see cause.

It is not possible to...

It is not possible to escape from the results of the irruption of faith into the structures of our knowledge.

Men exist for the sake...

Men exist for the sake of one another. Teach them then or bear with them. (Long translation)

I am displeased with everything....

I am displeased with everything. If they made me God, I would immediately resign.

No lie you can speak...

No lie you can speak or act but it will come, after longer or shorter circulation, like a Bill drawn on Nature's Reality, and be presented there for payment, — with the answer, No effects.

The absurd is the essential...

The absurd is the essential concept and the first truth.

I come out as if...

I come out as if there were no hours in the days, nor planets in the hours; Neither do I care for any thing, but that interlude of Perendenga in Michael Cervantes: Let the old Man my Master live, and Christ be with us thus all. Thou wilt wonder now where this drives, Conde de lemos, nor a cardinal to pray for.

From the moment of his...

From the moment of his self-dedication, when he threw His cares away, and went forth not knowing where to lay his head, the whole energy which others spend on interests of their own was poured into his humane and divine affections, and filled his life with an enthusiasm resistless and unique. However quiet his words, it is impossible not to feel the tender depths from which they come.

When scientists take part in...

When scientists take part in activity they transform themselves from scientists into acting beings, that is, they become elements, data, facts; as soon as they reflect on their activity, however, they are re-transformed into scientists. The trained specialist qua scientist looks upon himself as a chain of judgments and inferences; qua member of society, he regard himself as a mere object. The same holds for everyone. The individual is divided into innumerable functions, the interconnection of which are unknown. In society a man is pater familias under one aspect, business man under another, thinker under a third; to be more precise, he is not a human being at all, but all these aspects and many more in an inevitable succession.

If a man is mistaken,...

If a man is mistaken, instruct him kindly and show him his error. But if thou art not able, blame thyself, or blame not even thyself.

Our labour preserves us from...

Our labour preserves us from three great evils -- weariness, vice, and want.

Read day and night, devour...

Read day and night, devour books — these sleeping pills — not to know but to forget! Through books you can retrace your way back to the origins of spleen, discarding history and its illusions.

I suppose the body to...

I suppose the body to be nothing but a statue or machine made of earth, which God forms with the explicit intention of making it as much as possible like us.

It is a most earnest...

It is a most earnest thing to be alive in this world; to die is not sport for a man. Man's life never was a sport to him; it was a stern reality, altogether a serious matter to be alive!

"I conclude that all is...

"I conclude that all is well," says Oedipus, and that remark is sacred. It echoes in the wild and limited universe of man. It teaches that all is not, has not been, exhausted. It drives out of this world a god who had come into it with dissatisfaction and a preference for futile suffering. It makes of fate a human matter, which must be settled among men.

Abstinence from all injustice to...

Abstinence from all injustice to other first-rate powers is a greater tower of strength than anything that can be gained by the sacrifice of permanent tranquillity for an apparent temporary advantage.

Similarly, societies where news is...

Similarly, societies where news is censored cannot enjoy the luxury of false objectivity because they do not have the true variety. In free civilizations, false objectivity must be fought by true objectivity, not by some alien bureaucracy. Prejudiced history is eliminated, or at least combated, by serious history, and corrupt journalism can only be defeated by honest journalism, not by a government commission whose first act may be to distribute some secret subsidies.

Every philosophical, ethical, and political...

Every philosophical, ethical, and political idea—its lifeline connecting it with its historical origins having been severed—has a tendency to become the nucleus of a new mythology, and this is one of the reasons why the advance of enlightenment tends at certain points to revert to superstition and paranoia. The majority principle … has become the sovereign force to which thought must cater. It is a new god, not in the sense in which the heralds of the great revolutions conceived it, namely, as a power of resistance to existing injustice, but as a power of resistance to anything that does not conform.

Have I done something for...

Have I done something for the general interest? Well then I have had my reward. Let this always be present to thy mind, and never stop doing such good.

All joys do not cause...

All joys do not cause laughter; great pleasures are serious: pleasures of love do not make us laugh.

Nothing surpasses the pleasures of...

Nothing surpasses the pleasures of idleness: even if the end of the world were to come, I would not leave my bed at an ungodly hour.

Enjoying things which are pleasant;...

Enjoying things which are pleasant; that is not the evil: it is the reducing of our moral self to slavery by them that is.

What is a rebel? A...

What is a rebel? A man who says no.

That war is an evil...

That war is an evil is a proposition so familiar to every one that it would be tedious to develop it. No one is forced to engage in it by ignorance, or kept out of it by fear, if he fancies there is anything to be gained by it.

Through a vicious circle of...

Through a vicious circle of pure reason skepsis itself becomes dogma.

Whatever happens to you has...

Whatever happens to you has been waiting to happen since the beginning of time. The twining strands of fate wove both of them together: your own existence and the things that happen to you.

The art of praising caused...

The art of praising caused the art of pleasing.

Life creates itself in delirium...

Life creates itself in delirium and is undone in ennui.

Yes, truly, it is a...

Yes, truly, it is a great thing for a Nation that it get an articulate voice; that it produce a man who will speak forth melodiously what the heart of it means!

To be happy, we must...

To be happy, we must not be too concerned with others.

Lakshmi, the Goddess of wealth,...

Lakshmi, the Goddess of wealth, comes of Her own accord where fools are not respected, grain is well stored up, and the husband and wife do not quarrel.

The fire i th' flint...

The fire i th' flint Shows not till it be struck

In many cases it is...

In many cases it is a matter for decision and not a simple matter of fact whether x understands y; and so on.

Trust not him with your...

Trust not him with your secrets, who, when left alone in your room, turns over your papers.

Marcus Aurelius does not direct...

Marcus Aurelius does not direct his reflections to others but only to himself. The “”Memoirs“” are not a lesson for an ideal or real disciple (as Seneca's “'Letters to Lucilius”' were), but a continuous effort to remind “'himself”' of the philosophical cornerstones that alone can guarantee him serenity and inner peace. They therefore have a dramatic tone that is lacking in other ancient and modern moral works. Marcus Aurelius' interlocutor is only himself: Marcus Aurelius, emperor and man. Only within himself does he believe he can find the law of truth and goodness. Seeking solitude is useless, he says; one must withdraw into oneself because only in the depths of one's soul can tranquillity and truth be found. This attitude, which was adopted by the Christian world, is the fundamental leitmotif of Marcus Aurelius's “Memoirs”. In himself, man finds the reason with which divine providence has ordered the universe, and the criterion of truth and moral conduct. But by withdrawing into himself, man does not find himself in isolation: reason binds him to all men with whom he shares it.

No snowflake in an avalanche...

No snowflake in an avalanche ever feels responsible.

If there is anyone who...

If there is anyone who owes everything to Bach, it is certainly God.

"Understanding being nothing else, but...

"Understanding being nothing else, but conception caused by Speech."

Adversity is sometimes hard upon...

Adversity is sometimes hard upon a man; but for one man who can stand prosperity, there are a hundred that will stand adversity.

Some of the dissident young...

Some of the dissident young look abroad for models. They are attracted by the writing of the French novelist Albert Camus, who, in his conflict between his Algerian birth and his intellectual allegiance to France, expressed some of the conflict they feel; but he is dead.

Now, that we do not...

Now, that we do not really know of what sort each thing is, or is not, has often been shown.

Among civilized peoples, especially the...

Among civilized peoples, especially the very wealthy population of the United States of America, women have become objects of luxury who consume but do not produce.

Ambition is the grand enemy...

Ambition is the grand enemy of all peace.

Law could never, by determining...

Law could never, by determining exactly what is noblest and must just for one and all, enjoin upon them that which is best; for the differences of men and of actions and the fact that nothing, I may say, in human life is ever at rest, forbid any science whatsoever to promulgate any simple rule for everything and for all time… So, that which is persistently simple is inapplicable to things which are never simple.

Only the idiot is equipped...

Only the idiot is equipped to breathe.

And because the condition of...

And because the condition of Man, (as hath been declared in the precedent Chapter) is a condition of Warre of every one against everyone; in which case every one is governed by his own Reason; and there is nothing he can make use of, that may not be a help unto him, in preserving his life against his enemyes; It followeth, that in such a condition, every man has a Right to every thing; even to one anothers body.

Men do reverence men. Men...

Men do reverence men. Men do worship in that 'one temple of the world,' as Novalis calls it, the Presence of a Man! Hero-worship, true and blessed, or else mistaken, false and accursed, goes on everywhere and everywhen. In this world there is one godlike thing, the essence of all that was or ever will be of godlike in this world: the veneration done to Human Worth by the hearts of men. Hero-worship, in the souls of the heroic, of the clear and wise,—it is the perpetual presence of Heaven in our poor Earth: when it is not there, Heaven is veiled from us; and all is under Heaven's ban and interdict, and there is no worship, or worthship, or worth or blessedness in the Earth any more!—

Men have made an idol...

Men have made an idol of luck as an excuse for their own thoughtlessness. Luck seldom measures swords with wisdom. Most things in life quick wit and sharp vision can set right.

The historical materialist leaves it...

The historical materialist leaves it to others to be drained by the whore called "Once upon a time" in historicism's bordello.

The mind of man may...

The mind of man may be compared to a musical instrument with a certain range of notes, beyond which in both directions we have an infinitude of silence.