The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.
—Thomas Jefferson
There are four powers: memory and intellect, desire and covetousness. The two first are mental and the others sensual. The three senses sight, hearing, and smell cannot well be prevented; touch and taste not at all.
—Leonardo Da Vinci
I am alone in the midst of these happy, reasonable voices. All these creatures spend their time explaining, realizing happily that they agree with each other. In Heaven’s name, why is it so important to think the same things all together.
—Jean-Paul Sartre
Those who reason most powerfully and are the most successful at ordering their thoughts so as to make them clear and intelligible will always be best able to persuade others of what they say, even if they speak in the thickest of dialects.
If I have a book that thinks for me, a pastor who acts as my conscience, a physician who prescribes my diet, and so on… then I have no need to exert myself. I have no need to think, if only I can pay; others will take care of that disagreeable business for me.
—Immanuel Kant
Let us ask that the stillness in which only His lights can shine may be ever around us, the stillness of the calm of His presence. And oh, let us ask that in this dark world we may so shine that others may see to read His love in the face of our loving Jesus.
—Amy Carmichael
Pleasure is never as pleasant as we expected it to be and pain is always more painful. The pain in the world always outweighs the pleasure. If you don’t believe it, compare the respective feelings of two animals, one of which is eating the other.
—Arthur Schopenhauer
Love is the expression of the one who loves, not of the one who is loved. Those who think they can love only the people they prefer do not love at all. Love discovers truths about individuals that others cannot see
—Søren Kierkegaard
“If ye love Christ, show it, and show it by doing good to others, by laying yourself out to help others that Jesus may have joy of them.”
He who listens to what others say about him will never be at peace.
—Leo Tolstoy
You might be in prison, sick, or deprived of all possibility of external action, but your inner life continues: you can blame, condemn, envy and hate others, and you can replace these feelings with good ones. Every minute of your life is yours, and no one can take it from you.
—Leo Tolstoy
You might be in prison, sick, or deprived of all possibility of external action, but your inner life continues: you can blame, condemn, envy and hate others, and you can replace these feelings with good ones. Every minute of your life is yours, and no one can take it from you.
—Leo Tolstoy
If you want to be respected by others the great thing is to respect yourself.
Only by that, only by self-respect will you compel others to respect you.
—Fyodor Dostoevsky
Never forget the good that people have done for you; tell others about it and try to repay them with good as well.
—Leo Tolstoy
He who talks a lot does little. A wise person is always afraid that his words will be greater than his deeds. Therefore, he’s more usually silent and speaks only when it is necessary for others rather than himself.
—Leo Tolstoy
If we ourselves are good, we shall excite others to goodness. If we do evil, we shall entice others to do evil also. There is a close connection between doing and teaching.
—George Whitefield
He who talks a lot does little. A wise person is always afraid that his words will be greater than his deeds. Therefore, he’s more usually silent and speaks only when it is necessary for others rather than himself.
—Leo Tolstoy
We only truly live when we live for others. It sounds strange, but try it and you’ll see that it’s true.
—Leo Tolstoy
If a person only thinks about himself and seeks his own benefit in everything, he’ll never be happy. If you want to live for yourself, live for others. Seneca
—Leo Tolstoy
The more a person lives for others, the freer and more joyful is his life. The more he lives for himself alone, the more his life is constricted and painful.
—Leo Tolstoy
I had great hopes of the ingathering of precious souls to Christ; not only among my own people, but others also.
—David Brainerd
“If you have no wish to bring others to heaven, you are not going there yourself.”
— Charles Spurgeon
Man’s vocation is to serve God and all people, not to serve some people and do evil to others. Therefore a person who understands his vocation cannot consider himself a member of an individual state.
—Leo Tolstoy
Never praise yourself, never judge others, and never argue.
—Leo Tolstoy
Each of us only needs one thing: a heart beating within us that’s free of blame, contempt, irritation, and ill will toward others. Therefore, every act that makes you irritated with people and distances you from them rather than bringing you closer to them is a waste.
—Leo Tolstoy
If this is the best of possible worlds, what then are the others?
—Voltaire
Let us therefore animate and encourage each other, and show the whole world that a Freeman, contending for liberty on his own ground, is superior to any slavish mercenary on earth.
—George Washington
As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light in the darkness of mere being.
Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.
—Carl Jung
Appreciation is a wonderful thing. It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well.
—Voltaire
When two great forces oppose each other, the victory will go to the one that knows how to yield.
—Laozi