2098 Quotations Found

Responsibility for every injustice that occurs is borne not only by the person who commits it but, also, by those who fail to prevent it.

Author: Erich Kästner | Subjects: Culture, Life & Society, Wisdom

How different our lives are when we really know what is deeply important to us, and keeping that picture in mind, we manage ourselves each day to be and to do what really matters most.

Author: Stephen Covey | Subjects: Life & Society, Wisdom

So long as governments set the example of killing their enemies, private individuals will occasionally kill theirs.

Author: Elbert Hubbard | Subjects: Culture, Politics & Public Policy

God has given us free will, but on the whole we are not very good at exercising the judgment that comes with it.

Author: Jeff Blum | Subjects: Culture, Freedom | Liberty, Life & Society, Psychology | Behavior

Men grant and withdraw their love according to their whims, but fear is a hand that rests on their shoulders in a way they can never shake.

Author: Unknown | Subjects: Fear, Love

The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook.

Author: William James | Subject: Wisdom

There is an Indian tale that goes like this. At the beginning of time God decided to give humans the highest form of power, which belonged to God himself. Of course, humans decided to misuse and abuse that power. Later, God decided that he wanted to reserve this power for just those who earned it. So God decided to call a meeting with his angels. … [ Read more ]

Author: Unknown | Subjects: Personal Improvement, Wisdom

Of all sad words of tongue or pen, the saddest are these: ‘It might have been.’

Author: Unknown | Subjects: Philosophy, Poetry

How can you wonder your travels do you no good, when you carry yourself around with you? You are saddled with the very thing that drove you away.

Author: Unknown | Subjects: Personal Improvement, Travel

There is no worse sickness for the soul, o you who are proud, than this pretense of perfection.

Author: Mevlana Rumi | Subjects: Psychology | Behavior, Wisdom

Don’t judge others by their behavior and yourself by your intentions.

Author: Unknown | Subject: Wisdom

History is replete with examples of the devastating impact of those who promote intolerance and use rules to try to control a world that they will never know. More often than not, people [cling to] the dogma and basically mistake a set of rules for spirituality. Spirituality being your relationship with God, your relationship with a higher power, your relationship with something bigger than yourself. … [ Read more ]

Author: Jeff Tweedy | Subjects: Philosophy, Religion

To avoid disillusionment with human nature, we must first give up our illusions about it.

Author: Abraham Maslow | Subjects: Psychology | Behavior, Wisdom

To get power you need to display absolute pettiness, to exercise power you need to show true greatness.

Author: Napolean | Subjects: Leadership, Power

As [William F. ] May points out, parents give their children two kinds of love: accepting love and transforming love. Accepting love affirms the being of the child, whereas transforming love seeks the well-being of the child. Each aspect corrects the excesses of the other, he writes: “Attachment becomes too quietistic if it slackens into mere acceptance of the child as he is.” Parents have … [ Read more ]

Authors: Michael J. Sandel, William F. May | Subjects: Family & Friends, Love, Psychology | Behavior

To acknowledge the giftedness of life is to recognize that our talents and powers are not wholly our own doing, despite the effort we expend to develop and to exercise them. It is also to recognize that not everything in the world is open to whatever use we may desire or devise.

Author: Michael J. Sandel | Subjects: Life & Society, Personal Improvement, Religion

This is an uncomfortable fact for democratic societies. We want to believe that success, in sports and in life, is something we earn, not something we inherit. Natural gifts, and the admiration they inspire, embarrass the meritocratic faith; they cast doubt on the conviction that praise and rewards flow from effort alone. In the face of this embarrassment we inflate the moral significance of striving, … [ Read more ]

Author: Michael J. Sandel | Subjects: Ability | Skill, Culture, Psychology | Behavior

A wise man listening to a fool will learn more than a fool listening to a wise man.

Author: Unknown | Subject: Wisdom

You’re not going to solve the problem of poverty by redistributing the wealth you have; that’s ridiculous. The only way you can solve the problem of poverty is by creating more and more wealth.

Author: N. R. Narayana Murthy | Subjects: Economics | Economy, Politics & Public Policy

We spend the first 12 months of our children’s lives teaching them to walk and talk and the next 12 telling them to sit down and shut up.

Author: Phyllis Diller | Subjects: Education | Scholarship, Gratitude, Psychology | Behavior