Quotes of: Abraham Keyword

It is bad to be oppressed by a minority, but it is worse to be oppressed by a majority. For there is a reserve of latent power in the masses which, if it is called into play, the minority can seldom resist. But from the absolute will of an entire peo...

Essays on Freedom and Power

We can believe in the future and work to achieve it and preserve it, or we can whirl blindly on, behaving as if one day there will be no children to inherit our legacy. The choice is ours; the earth is in balance.

Earth in the Balance: Ecology and the Human Spirit

But it is not only the difficulty and labor which men take in finding out of truth, nor again that when it is found it imposeth upon men's thoughts, that doth bring lies in favor; but a natural though corrupt love of the lie itself.

The Essays

[M]an cannot be wicked without being evil, nor evil without being degraded, nor degraded without being punished, nor punished without being guilty. In short … there is nothing so intrinsically plausible as the theory of original sin.

The Executioner

Liberty may be endangered by the abuses of liberty as well as by the abuses of power.

Federalist Papers By James Madison: Federalist No. 10, Federalist No. 45, Federalist No. 51, Federalist No. 44, Federalist No. 47

Good habits are hard to form and easy to live with. Bad habits are easy to form and hard to live with. Pay attention. Be aware . If we don't consciously form good ones, we will unconsciously form bad ones.

Freedom from Fear

If ideas and beliefs are to be denied validity outside the geographical and cultural bounds of their origin, Buddhism would be confined to north India, Christianity to a narrow tract in the Middle East and Islam to Arabia.

Freedom from Fear

The search for scapegoats is essentially an abnegation of responsibility: it indicates an inability to assess honestly and intelligently the true nature of the problems which lie at the root of social and economic difficulties and a lack of resolve i...

Freedom from Fear

Do not envy the rich; pity them. Matthew 19:24.

Face to Face Meetings with Jesus Christ: Biblical Mysteries Revealed in His Own Words Like Never Before in Human History

The Church has an excellent appetite. She has swallowed whole countries and the question Has never risen of indigestion. Only the Church . . . can take Ill-gotten goods without stomach-ache!

Faust: First Part

There is nothing more to be said or to be done tonight, so hand me over my violin and let us try to forget for half an hour the miserable weather and the still more miserable ways of our fellowmen.

The Five Orange Pips

…iubirea mea, nu-ți pot spune cât de recunoscătoare sunt pentru mica noastră infinitate. N-aș schimba-o pentru nimic în lume. Tu mi-ai oferit o veșnicie în interiorul zilelor numărate și pentru asta îți sunt recunoscătoare.

The Fault in Our Stars

I believe that positive energy and optimism help us to take up any challenge in life and to succeed in even the most difficult tasks. I also believe that positive energy is contagious: we can transmit it to others.

Flashes of Thought

Rights and empowerment are interconnected: unless a substantial number of women in a community come to believe that they have rights and demand to exercise them, right remains an abstraction.

Faith and Freedom: Women's Human Rights in the Muslim World

Promote, then, as an object of primary importance, institutions for the general diffusion of knowledge. In proportion as the structure of a government gives force to public opinion, it is essential that public opinion should be enlightened.

George Washington's Farewell Address

I came to realize that if people could make me angry they could could control me. Why should I give someone else such power over my life?

Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story

[on the phone, discussing casting for his movie]: "What about Claudette Colbert? She's British, isn't she? She sounds British. Is she, like, affected or is she British?

Gosford Park: The Shooting Script

There are innumerable ways to murder a person, but the most subtle and pernicious of these is to mutilate the soul of the innocent by denying or downgrading their uniqueness and their beauty.

How to Argue & Win Every Time: At Home, At Work, In Court, Everywhere, Everyday

I would rather have a mind opened by wonder than one closed by belief.

How to Argue & Win Every Time: At Home, At Work, In Court, Everywhere, Everyday

For even if we know very little that is certain about spirit or soul, the true nature of the body, of materiality, is totally unknown and incomprehensible to us.

Humanist Without Portfolio: An Anthology of the writings of Wilhelm von Humboldt

Why am I as I am? To understand that of any person, his whole life, from Birth must be reviewed. All of our experiences fuse into our personality. Everything that ever happened to us is an ingredient.

The Autobiography of Malcolm X