Maimonides > Quotes

“Truth does not become more true by virtue of the fact that the entire world agrees with it, nor less so even if the whole world disagrees with it.”
― Maimonides, The Guide for the Perplexed

“The physician should not treat the disease but the patient who is suffering from it”
― Moses Maimonides

“No disease that can be treated by diet should be treated with any other means.”
― Moses Maimonides

“If a person studies too much and exhausts his reflective powers, he will be confused, and will not be able to apprehend even that which had been within the power of his apprehension. For the powers of the body are all alike in this respect.”
― Moses Maimonides

“Do not consider it proof just because it is written in books, for a liar who will deceive with his tongue will not hesitate to do the same with his pen.”
― Moses Maimonides

“You must accept the truth from whatever source it comes.”
― Moses Ben Maimon

“We naturally like what we have been accustomed to, and are attracted towards it. [...] The same is the case with those opinions of man to which he has been accustomed from his youth; he likes them, defends them, and shuns the opposite views.”
― Maimonides, The Guide for the Perplexed

“Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.”
― Maimonides

“Anticipate charity by preventing poverty.”
― Moses Maimonides

“Your purpose...should always be to know...the whole that was intended to be known.”
― Moses Maimonides, The Guide for the Perplexed

“The risk of a wrong decision is preferable to the terror of indecision.”
― Maimonides, The Guide for the Perplexed

“In the realm of Nature there is nothing purposeless, trivial, or unnecessary”
― Maimonides

“All the evils that men cause to each other because of certain desires, or opinions or religious principles, are rooted in ignorance. [All hatred would come to an end] when the earth was flooded with the knowledge of God.”
― Moses Maimonides

“The person who wishes to attain human perfection should study logic first, next mathematics, then physics, and, lastly, metaphysics.”
― Maimonides, The Guide for the Perplexed

“Commune with your own heart on your bed and be still.”
― Maimonides Moses 1135-1204

“And so our rabbis decreed that a man should honor his wife more than himself, and love her as much as he loves himself.”
― Maimonides

“It is better to acquit a thousand guilty persons than to put a single innocent one to death”
― Maimonides Moses 1135-1204

“Every human being should regard himself as if he were exactly balanced between innocence and guilt. Simultaneously he should regard the world as being in the same case. It follows then that if he performs one good deed, he has weighted the scales in favour of both himself and of the whole world, and thus brought about salvation both for himself and for all the inhabitants of the world.”
― Maimonides

“If God were corporeal, He would consist of atoms, and would not be one; or He would be comparable to other beings: but a comparison implies the existence of similar and of dissimilar elements, and God would thus not be one. A corporeal God would be finite, and an external power would be required to define those limits.”
― Maimonides, A Guide for the Perplexed

“WHEN reading my present treatise, bear in mind that by "faith" we do not understand merely that which is uttered with the lips, but also that which is apprehended by the soul, the conviction that the object [of belief] is exactly as it is apprehended. If, as regards real or supposed truths, you content yourself with giving utterance to them in words, without apprehending them or believing in them, especially if you do not seek real truth, you have a very easy task as, in fact, you will find many ignorant people professing articles of faith without connecting any idea with them.”
― Maimonides, The Guide for the Perplexed

“Answer a fool according to his folly” (Proverbs 26:4).”
― Maimonides, Epistle to Yemen and the Thirteen Principles of Faith: Rambam's Letter to the Jews of Yemen on the Messiah, Astrology, the History of Israel, and the Thirteen Principles of Jewish Faith

“Accept the truth from whatever source it comes.”
― Moses Maimonides

“The passage, “And He rested on the seventh day” (Exod. xx. 11) is interpreted as follows: On the seventh Day the forces and laws were complete, which during the previous six days were in the state of being established for the preservation of the Universe. They were not to be increased or modified.”
― Maimonides, A Guide for the Perplexed

“Whoever rebukes his fellow man, whether concerning matters between the two of them or between him [the fellow man] and God, needs to rebuke him in private. He shall speak to him calmly and gently, and make known to him that he talks to him only for his own good, to bring him to the life of the world-to-come. If he accepts it from him, good; if not, he shall rebuke him a second and a third time. Thus he is always obliged to rebuke him until the sinner strikes him and says to him, "I will not listen." If he does not prevent everything he can possibly prevent, he is ensnared in the sin of all those he could have prevented from sinning.”
― Maimonides, Ethical Writings

“The definition of a thing includes its efficient cause; and since God is the Primal Cause, He cannot be defined, or described by a partial definition. A quality, whether psychical, physical, emotional, or quantitative, is always regarded as something distinct from its substratum;”
― Maimonides, A Guide for the Perplexed

“The basic principle is that there is a First Being who brought every existing thing into being, for if it be supposed that he did not exist, then nothing else could possibly exist.”
― Maimonides, Hilchot Avodat Kochavim

“For the elements have the property of moving back to their place in a straight line, but they have no properties which would cause them to remain where they are, or to move other-wise than in a straight line, These rectilinear motions of these four elements when returning to their original place are are of two kinds, either centrifugal,vziz.>the motion of the air and the fire; or centripedal,viz.> the motion of the earth, and the water; and when the elements have reached their original place, they remain at rest.”
― Moses Maimonides

“When the Rabbis stated that obedience or disobedience to the commandments depends not on the will of Hashem but on man’s free will, they echoed Jeremiah, who said, “Out of the mouth of the Most High there comes neither the bad nor the good” (Lamentations 3:38). By the bad he meant vice, and by the good he intended virtue, meaning that Hashem does not predetermine any person as bad or good. Since this is so, a person owes it to himself to mourn his sins and transgressions, since he has committed them of his own free will, as Jeremiah says, “For what should a living man mourn? Let every man mourn because of his sins” (Lamentations 3:39). Jeremiah answers his question positively, telling us that the remedy for our disease lies with us. Just as our failings stemmed from our own free will, so do we have the power to repent of our evil deeds.”
― Maimonides, Rambam: Shemonah Perakim, The Eight Chapters; Maimonides' Introduction to Ethics of the Fathers; Perek Chelek; Discourse on the World to Come

“the laws remain undisturbed (ch. xxvii.). Apparent exceptions, the miracles, originate in these laws, although man is unable to perceive the causal relation.”
― Maimonides, A Guide for the Perplexed

“You should recognize that man’s soul, this single entity whose powers and parts we have described, may be compared to matter, and that the power of reasoning is its completed form. As long as the soul lies dormant and does not acquire its form from knowledge, then the nature of the soul is useless and exists in vain.”
― Maimonides, Rambam: Shemonah Perakim, The Eight Chapters; Maimonides' Introduction to Ethics of the Fathers; Perek Chelek; Discourse on the World to Come