"I can find nothing with which to compare the great beauty of a soul and its great capacity."
- From the Interior Castle of St. Teresa of Avila, edited by E. Allison Peers.
Monday, October 31, 2016
St. Teresa of Avila
"I can find nothing with which to compare the great beauty of a soul and its great capacity."
Sunday, October 30, 2016
The Malleus Maleficarum
"And so in this twilight and evening of the world, when sin is flourishing on every side and in every place, when charity is growing cold, the evil of witches and their iniquities superabound."
Find more quote pictures on our official website gallery, here.
Saturday, October 29, 2016
Friday, October 28, 2016
Anna Komnene
"I will wipe away the tears from my eyes, recover from my grief and continue my story, earning thereby a double share of tears, as the playwright says, for one disaster recalls another."
- This passage is from Anna Komnene's The Alexiad (translated by E.R.A. Sewter). The book is a history of her father's reign as emperor of the Byzantine Empire, but she also uses the book to infer that she, and her husband, were unjustly stripped from power after her father's death. She wrote this book after being restrained to a convent by her brother (she was linked to a failed plot to overthrow him).
Apuleius
"Really, I think you are being ignorant and perverse when you account as a lie anything you've never heard of or aren't familiar with the sight of or just find too difficult for your understanding to grasp."
- From The Golden Ass or Metamorphosis by Apuleius, translated by E. J. Kenney.
Wednesday, October 26, 2016
Fragments of the Early Stoics
"Everything that is in tune with you, O Universe, is in tune with me. Nothing that is timely for you is too early or too late for me."
Find more quote pictures on our official website gallery, here.
Tuesday, October 25, 2016
Martin Luther
"Every lawyer is either a good-for-nothing or a know-nothing. If a lawyer wants to dispute this, tell him, 'You hear? A lawyer shouldn't talk until a sow breaks wind!'"
- From Martin Luther's Table Talk, a collection of Luther's sayings gathered by his students and acquaintances and published after his death.
Monday, October 24, 2016
Epicurus
"Death is nothing to us; for that which has been dissolved lacks sensation; and that which lacks sensation is no concern to us."
- From Epicurus' Principle Doctrines in Hellenistic Philosophy: Stoics, Epicureans, Sceptics, edited by A. A. Long.
Sunday, October 23, 2016
Marcus Aurelius
Saturday, October 22, 2016
Diogenes Laertius
"The virtue of the happy man and a well-running life consists in this: that all actions are based on the principle of harmony between his own spirit and the will of the director of the universe."
- From Diogenes Laertius translated by M. Gigante, in Hellenistic Philosophy: Stoics, Epicureans, Skeptics edited by A. A. Long.
Friday, October 21, 2016
The Buddha
"Not abusing, not harming,
restraint in line with the discipline,
moderation in eating and seclusion in dwelling,
exertion in meditation as well—
this is the teaching of the awakened."
- From The Dhammapada (3rd Century BCE, chapter 14) translated by Glen Wallis.
Thursday, October 20, 2016
Lucius Cornelius Sulla
- Sulla (one of Rome's first dictators) supposedly stated this passage after he was convinced by multiple people to remove a young Caesar from his kill list, and let him return to Rome. Marius (Caesar's uncle), mentioned in the quote, took power in Rome alongside another man named Cinna while Sulla was away from Italy in a military campaign against the Kingdom of Pontus.
“Remember—this young man who you have been so
desperate to save will one day destroy the aristocracy you have worked with me
to preserve. For in this Caesar I see many a Marius.”
- From the “I see many a Marius” speech in Suetonius’ Caesar 1 and Plutarch’s Caesar 1
Tuesday, October 18, 2016
Confucius
"As for Goodness - you yourself desire rank and standing; then help others to get rank and standing. You want to turn your own merits to account; then help others to turn theirs to account..."
- From The Analects of Confucius, translated by Arthur Waley.
Monday, October 17, 2016
Benjamin Franklin
"We are taxed twice as much by our Idleness, three times as much by our Pride, and four times as much by our Folly..."
- From Benjamin Franklin's The Autobiography and Other Writings, translated by Kenneth Silverman.
Sunday, October 16, 2016
Saturday, October 15, 2016
Al-Ghazālī
"The rational faculty is a sample of the light of God."
- From Al-Ghazālī's The Niche of Lights translated by David Buchman.
Friday, October 14, 2016
Adam of Bremen
- Adam of Bremen wrote a book about the archbishops of Hamburg-Bremen, in modern northern Germany. The following passage is his diagnosis of the vikings, whose home was in Scandinavia to the north of Hamburg-Bremen.
- From Adam of Bremen's History of the Archbishops of Hamburg-Bremen.
Anna Komnene
"Often one has to bestow on adversaries the highest commendation, where their deeds merit it; often, too, one's nearest relatives have to be censured, as and when their behavior deserves it. The historian, therefore, must shirk neither from remonstrating with their friends, nor from praising their enemies."
- This passage is from Anna Komnene's The Alexiad (translated by E.R.A. Sewter). The Alexiad was a history written by Anna Komnene about her father, Emperor Alexios I Komnenos, of the Byzantine Empire.
Wednesday, October 12, 2016
Theodore Roosevelt
- 26th President of the United States of America
- From a letter written by Theodore Roosevelt cited in Ken Burns' The Roosevelts: An Intimate History.
Tuesday, October 11, 2016
Plato
"If you really want to know what morality is, then don't just ask questions and look for applause by refuting any and every answer you get, because you've realized that it's easier to ask questions than it is to answer them."
- From Plato's Republic.
Monday, October 10, 2016
Friedrich Nietzsche
"The darkening of the sky above mankind has deepened in step with the increase in man's feeling of shame at man."
- From Nietzshe's On the Genealogy of Morals.
Benjamin Franklin
"The best public Measures are therefore seldom adopted from previous Wisdom but forc'd by the Occasion."
- From Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography and Other Writings (Penguin Classics version)
Sunday, October 9, 2016
Confucius
"If out of the 300 Songs I had to take one phrase to cover all my teaching, I would say, 'let there be no evil in your thoughts.'"
- From The Analects of Confucius translated by Arthur Waley.
Thursday, October 6, 2016
Odin
"A man mustn't
walk without weapons
even an inch from home,
because he never knows when,
as he pursues his path,
he'll suddenly need a spear."
- From the Sayings of the High One (Hávamál) translated by David A. H. Evans.
Return to our quote pictures page, HERE.
René Descartes
"It is free-will alone or liberty of choice which I find to be so great in me that I can conceive no other idea to be more great."
- From René Descartes' Meditations on the First Philosophy (Meditation IV).
Tuesday, October 4, 2016
Monday, October 3, 2016
Albert Camus
"In a man's attachment to life there is something stronger than all the ills in the world."
- From Albert Camus' The Myth of Sisyphus.
Sunday, October 2, 2016
Fyodor Dostoevsky
"All man wants is an absolutely free choice, however dear that freedom may cost him and wherever it may lead him to... Ha-ha-ha! But there's really no such thing as choice."
- From Dostoevsky's Notes From Underground (chapters VII and VIII).
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)