Ovid

Tears at times have all the weight of speech.

Voltaire

Every man is guilty of all the good he didn't do.

God is a circle whose center is everywhere and circumference nowhere.

I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: 'O Lord, make my enemies ridiculous.' And God granted it.

If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him.

It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.

It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.

Judge of a man by his questions rather than by his answers.

Love is a canvas furnished by Nature and embroidered by imagination.

The secret of being boring is to say everything.

There is a wide difference between speaking to deceive, and being silent to be impenetrable.

Socrates

By all means marry; if you get a good wife, you'll be happy. If you get a bad one, you'll become a philosopher.

Death may be the greatest of all human blessings.

Get not your friends by bare compliments, but by giving them sensible tokens of your love.

If a man is proud of his wealth, he should not be praised until it is known how he employs it.

Remember what is unbecoming to do is also unbecoming to speak of.

The only good is knowledge and the only evil is ignorance.

Think not those faithful who praise all thy words and actions; but those who kindly reprove thy faults.

I am not an Athenian or a Greek, but a citizen of the world.

I decided that it was not wisdom that enabled [poets] to write their poetry, but a kind of instinct or inspiration, such as you find in seers and prophets who deliver all their sublime messages without knowing in the least what they mean.

The unexamined life is not worth living.

Euripides

Talk sense to a fool and he calls you foolish.

The wisest men follow their own direction.

Waste not fresh tears over old griefs.

Slight not what's near, while aiming at what's far.

I have found power in the mysteries of thought.

A bad beginning makes a bad ending.

Time will explain it all. He is a talker, and needs no questioning before he speaks.

Time cancels young pain.

You were a stranger to sorrow: therefore Fate has cursed you.

Leave no stone unturned.

My tongue swore, but my mind was still unpledged.

There is one thing alone
that stands the brunt of life throughout its course:
a quiet conscience.

Sir Winston Churchill

A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject.

All great things are simple, and many can be expressed in single words: freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope.

An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last.

From now on, ending a sentence with a preposition is something up with which I will not put.

History will be kind to me for I intend to write it.

I like pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals.

It is a mistake to try to look too far ahead. The chain of destiny can only be grasped one link at a time.

It's not enough that we do our best; sometimes we have to do what's required.

Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened.

Never, never, never believe any war will be smooth and easy, or that anyone who embarks on the strange voyage can measure the tides and hurricanes he will encounter. The statesman who yields to war fever must realize that once the signal is given, he is no longer the master of policy but the slave of unforeseeable and uncontrollable events.

One ought never to turn one's back on a threatened danger and try to run away from it. If you do that, you will double the danger. But if you meet it promptly and without flinching, you will reduce the danger by half.

Personally I'm always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught.

Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.

The price of greatness is responsibility.

To build may have to be the slow and laborious task of years. To destroy can be the thoughtless act of a single day.

We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give.

Don't talk to me about naval tradition. It's nothing but rum, sodomy and the lash.

Confucius

Be not ashamed of mistakes and thus make them crimes.

Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves.

Everything has its beauty but not everyone sees it.

Forget injuries, never forget kindnesses.

I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.

Ignorance is the night of the mind, but a night without moon and star.

It does not matter how slowly you go so long as you do not stop.

Men's natures are alike, it is their habits that carry them far apart.

Respect yourself and others will respect you.

Study the past if you would define the future.

The superior man, when resting in safety, does not forget that danger may come. When in a state of security he does not forget the possibility of ruin. When all is orderly, he does not forget that disorder may come. Thus his person is not endangered, and his States and all their clans are preserved.

To be able under all circumstances to practice five things constitutes perfect virtue; these five things are gravity, generosity of soul, sincerity, earnestness and kindness.

To see what is right, and not to do it, is want of courage or of principle.

What the superior man seeks is in himself; what the small man seeks is in others.

When anger rises, think of the consequences.

Wheresoever you go, go with all your heart.

Fine words and an insinuating appearance are seldom associated with true virtue.

Have no friends not equal to yourself.

He who exercises government by means of his virtue may be compared to the north polar star, which keeps its place and all the stars turn towards it.

I am not one who was born in the possession of knowledge; I am one who is fond of antiquity, and earnest in seeking it there.

Mahatma Gandhi

Freedom is not worth having if it does not include the freedom to make mistakes.

Hate the sin, love the sinner.

It is unwise to be too sure of one's own wisdom. It is healthy to be reminded that the strongest might weaken and the wisest might err.

One needs to be slow to form convictions, but once formed they must be defended against the heaviest odds.

The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.

Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it.

When I despair, I remember that all through history the ways of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants, and murderers, and for a time they can seem invincible, but in the end they always fall. Think of it--always.

You must be the change you want to see in the world.

You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.

What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty or democracy?

Victory attained by violence is tantamount to a defeat, for it is momentary.

An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.

Friedrich Nietzsche:

In heaven all the interesting people are missing.

It is hard enough to remember my opinions, without also remembering my reasons for them!

No price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself.

Talking much about oneself can also be a means to conceal oneself.

The advantage of a bad memory is that one enjoys several times the same good things for the first time.

The visionary lies to himself, the liar only to others.

To forget one's purpose is the commonest form of stupidity.

What else is love but understanding and rejoicing in the fact that another person lives, acts, and experiences otherwise than we do…?

When one has much to put into them, a day has a hundred pockets.

You need chaos in your soul to give birth to a dancing star.

There is always some madness in love. But there is also always some reason in madness.

But thus do I counsel you, my friends: distrust all in whom the impulse to punish is powerful!

He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.

Only sick music makes money today.

The man of knowledge must be able not only to love his enemies but also to hate his friends.

The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently.

Morality is herd instinct in the individual.

The Christian resolution to find the world ugly and bad has made the world ugly and bad.

Aristotle:

A friend is a second self.

All paid jobs absorb and degrade the mind.

Dignity consists not in possessing honors, but in the consciousness that we deserve them.

Education is the best provision for the journey to old age.

Happiness depends upon ourselves.

Humor is the only test of gravity, and gravity of humor; for a subject which will not bear raillery is suspicious, and a jest which will not bear serious examination is false wit.

It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.

Law is mind without reason.

Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work.

Poverty is the parent of revolution and crime.

The gods too are fond of a joke.

The only stable state is the one in which all men are equal before the law.

To perceive is to suffer.

We are what we repeatedly do.

Young people are in a condition like permanent intoxication, because youth is sweet and they are growing.

It is not always the same thing to be a good man and a good citizen.

Misfortune shows those who are not really friends.

Education is the best provision for old age.

Hope is a waking dream.