Quotes on Men

The man who leaves money to charity in his will is only giving away what no longer belongs to him

Which is recorded of Socrates, that he was able both to abstain from, and to enjoy, those things which many are too weak to abstain from, and cannot enjoy without excess. But to be strong enough both to bear the one and to be sober in the other is the mark of a man who has a perfect and invincible soul.

It is a long time,' repeated his wife; 'and when is it not a long time? Vengeance and retribution require a long time; it is the rule.' 'It does not take a long time to strike a man with Lightning,' said Defarge. 'How long,' demanded madame, composedly, 'does it take to make and store the lightning? Tell me?

Those men are most apt to be obsequious and conciliating abroad, who are under the discipline of shrews at home.

The standpoint of the man who relies on religious experience for capturing Reality must always remain individual and incommunicable.

Why should I ask the wise men: Whence is my beginning? I am busy with the thought: Where will be my end?

People who have no hold over their process of thinking are likely to be ruined by liberty of thought. If thought is immature, liberty of thought becomes a method of converting men into animals.

The true civilization is where every man gives to every other every right that he claims for himself.

There can be but little liberty on earth while men worship a tyrant in heaven.

The superior man is the providence of the inferior. He is eyes for the blind, strength for the weak, and a shield for the defenseless. He stands erect by bending above the fallen. He rises by lifting others.

Every man is dishonest who lives upon the labor of others, no matter if he occupies a throne.

Men and women who know the brutal reality of war, who know that war strips people of their very humanity, must unite in a new global partnership for peace.

One of the qualities of liberty is that, as long as it is being striven after, it goes on expanding. Therefore, the man who stands in the midst of the struggle and says, 'I have it,' merely shows by doing so that he has just lost it.

Look into any man's heart you please, and you will always find, in every one, at least one black spot which he has to keep concealed.

There is no substitute for accurate knowledge. Know yourself, know your business, know your men.

The only medicine for suffering, crime, and all other woes of mankind, is wisdom. Teach a man to read and write, and you have put into his hands the great keys of the wisdom box. But it is quite another thing to open the box.

The only question which any wise man can ask himself, and which any honest man will ask himself, is whether a doctrine is true or false.

The best men of the best epochs are simply those who make the fewest blunders and commit the fewest sins.

From their experience or from the recorded experience of others (history), men learn only what their passions and their metaphysical prejudices allow them to learn.

The rung of a ladder was never meant to rest upon, but only to hold a man's foot long enough to enable him to put the other somewhat higher.

Europe is so well gardened that it resembles a work of art, a scientific theory, a neat metaphysical system. Man has re-created Europe in his own image.