Charleen > Charleen's Quotes

“Washington was a typical American. Napoleon was a typical Frenchman, but Lincoln was a humanitarian as broad as the world. He was bigger than his country - bigger than all the Presidents together.

We are still too near to his greatness,' (Leo) Tolstoy (in 1908) concluded, 'but after a few centuries more our posterity will find him considerably bigger than we do. His genius is still too strong and powerful for the common understanding, just as the sun is too hot when its light beams directly on us.' (748)”
― doris kearns goodwin, Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln

“Because power corrupts, society's demands for moral authority and character increase as the importance of the position increases.”
― John Adams, Best Quotations of John Adams

“Whatever you are, be a good one.”
― Abraham Lincoln

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.”
― Martin Luther King Jr., A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches

“Without music, life would be a mistake.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche, Twilight of the Idols

“Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.”
― Neil Gaiman, Coraline

“The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it's indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it's indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it's indifference.”
― Elie Wiesel

“I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.”
― Albert Einstein

“I have decided to stick to love...Hate is too great a burden to bear.”
― Martin Luther King Jr., A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches

“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”
― Martin Luther King Jr., I Have a Dream: Writings and Speeches That Changed the World

“Strive to see with the inner eye, the heart. It sees the reality not subject to emotional or personal error; it sees the essence. Intuition then is the most important quality to develop.”
― Muata Ashby, Egyptian Book of the Dead: The Book of Coming Forth By Day

“There are two roads which human beings can follow, one of wisdom and the other of ignorance. The path of the masses is generally the path of ignorance which leads them into negative situations, thoughts and deeds. These in turn lead to ill health and sorrow in life. The other road is based on wisdom and it leads to health, true happiness and enlightenment.”
― Muata Ashby, Egyptian Book of the Dead: The Book of Coming Forth By Day

“There is no happiness for the soul in the external worlds since these are perishable, true happiness lies in that which is eternal, within us.”
― Muata Ashby, Egyptian Book of the Dead: The Book of Coming Forth By Day

“By living a life based on wisdom and truth, one can discover the divinity of the soul, its union to the universe, the supreme peace and contentment which comes from satisfying the inner drive for self discovery.”
― Muata Ashby, Ancient Egyptian Proverbs

“Those who live today will die tomorrow, those who die tomorrow will be born again; Those who live MAAT will not die.”
― Muata Ashby, Ancient Egyptian Proverbs

“Conceal your heart, control your mouth. Beware of releasing the restraints in you; Listen if you want to endure in the mouth of the hearers. Speak after you have mastered the craft.”
― Muata Ashby, Ancient Egyptian Proverbs

“Seek to perform your duties to your highest ability, this way your actions will be blameless.”
― Muata Ashby, Ancient Egyptian Proverbs

“The Universe is Mental, held in the mind of The ALL. The ALL is SPIRIT”
― Muata Ashby, Ancient Egyptian Proverbs

“Compared with the Egyptians, the Greeks are childish mathematicians.” - Plato”
― Muata Ashby, Ancient Egyptian Proverbs

“Take the fare from him who is wealthy, And let pass him who is poor.”
― Muata Ashby, Ancient Egyptian Proverbs

“The study of the wisdom teachings should be a continuous process in which the teachings become the predominant factor of life rather than the useless and oftentimes negative and illusory thoughts of those who are ignorant of spiritual truths.”
― Muata Ashby, Ancient Egyptian Proverbs

“We have to recognise that there cannot be relationships unless there is commitment, unless there is loyalty, unless there is love, patience, persistence.”
― Cornel West, Breaking Bread: Insurgent Black Intellectual Life

“Never forget that justice is what love looks like in public.”
― Cornel West

“You can't lead the people if you don't love the people. You can't save the people if you don't serve the people.”
― Cornel West

“Because of their impact on our memories, writers rule. They wield the instrument by which our world is organized.”
― Danielle S. Allen, Our Declaration: A Reading of the Declaration of Independence in Defense of Equality

“The text has in it the wizardry of politics—the fact that it is possible for a multitudinous heap of people to build a shared life by doing things with words.”
― Danielle S. Allen, Our Declaration: A Reading of the Declaration of Independence in Defense of Equality

“Prudence is not only the first in rank of the virtues political and moral, but she is the director, the regulator, the standard of them all. Metaphysics cannot live without definition; but prudence is cautious how she defines. Our courts cannot be more fearful in suffering fictitious cases to be brought before them for eliciting their determination on a point of law, than prudent moralists are in putting extreme and hazardous cases of conscience upon emergencies not existing.”
― Edmund Burke, Further Reflections on the Revolution in France

“Try again. Fail again. Fail better.”
― Samuel Beckett

“Rosenzweig daringly criticizes Plato’s dialogues because in them “the thinker knows his thoughts in advance,” and moreover the other is only raising the objections the author thought of himself.”
― Hilary Putnam, Jewish Philosophy as a Guide to Life: Rosenzweig, Buber, Levinas, Wittgenstein

“Philosophy needs vision and argument… there is something disappointing about a philosophical work that contains arguments, however good, which are not inspired by some genuine vision, and something disappointing about a philosophical work that contains a vision, however inspiring, which is unsupported by arguments…Speculation about how things hang together requires… the ability to draw out conceptual distinctions and connections, and the ability to argue… But speculative views, however interesting or well supported by arguments or insightful, are not all we need. We also need what [the philosopher Myles] Burnyeat called ‘vision’ – and I take that to mean vision as to how to live our lives, and how to order our societies.”
― Hilary Putnam