Fear not death, for the sooner we die the longer we shall be immortal.
A man is not completely born until he is dead.
Benjamin Franklin
Category: Quotations
A Little Relaxation
Every now and then go away, have a little relaxation, for when you come back to your work your judgment will be surer since to remain constantly at work will cause you to lose power of judgment. Go some distance away because then the work appears smaller, and more of it can be taken in at a glance, and a lack of harmony or portion is more readily seen.
Leonardo da Vinci
Love and Fear
Since love and fear can hardly exist together, if we must choose between them, it is far safer to be feared than loved.
Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince
Three Classes of Intellects
There are three classes of intellects: one which comprehends by itself; another which appreciates what others comprehend; and a third which neither comprehends by itself nor by the showing of others; the first is the most excellent, the second is good, and the third is useless.
Niccolo Machiavelli
Walden
Quotations from Walden
But lo! Men have become the tools of their tools.
We have built for this world a family mansion, and for the next a family tomb.
Our inventions are wont to be pretty toys, which distract our attention from serious things. They are but improved means to an unimproved end.
In short, I am convinced, both by faith and experience, that to maintain one’s self on this earth is not a hardship but a pastime. It is not necessary that a man should earn his living by the seat of his brow, unless he sweats easier than I do.
There is no odor so bad as that which arises from goodness tainted.
A man is not a good man to me because he will feed me if I should be starving, or warm me if I should be freezing, or pull me out of a ditch if I should ever fall into one. I can find you a Newfoundland dog that will do as much.
As long as possible live free and uncommitted.
Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth.
There are nine hundred and ninety-nine patrons of virtue to one virtuous man, but it is easier to deal with the real possessor of a thing than with the temporary guardian of it.
After the first blush of sin, comes its indifference.
Absolutely speaking, the more money, the less virtue; for money comes between a man and his objects and obtains them for him; and it was certainly no great virtue to obtain them.
Henry David Thoreau
Values, Principles, Maxims
A person who chooses to die or to risk death demonstrates that there are values, principles, maxims, that are more valuable to him than is life itself. In short, he places his immortal self above his mortal self.
Henry David Thoreau
Mark Twain
If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you; that is the principal difference between a dog and a man
Most writers regard truth as their most valuable possession, and therefore are most economical in its use.
Why shouldn’t truth be stranger than fiction? Fiction, after all, has to make sense.
Mark Twain
Prophet Muhammad (PBUH)
The ink of the scholar is more sacred than the blood of the martyr.
All actions are judged by the motives prompting them.
This world is a prison for the Faithful, but a Paradise for unbelievers.
Prophet Muhammad
Ernest Hemingway
A man can be destroyed but not defeated.
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
Definition of courage: ‘Grace under pressure.’
Ernest Hemingway
Fear
Melt the icy fingers of fear with the sunshine of hope.
Unknown