Many / One

A database of 11,000+ illuminated guiding quotations in 40 categories from 600+ inspired books by our most brilliant and influential authors.
Compiled by JoAnn Kite

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1		"I feel compelled to look for a first Cause." Charles Darwin (1809-1882), English biologist, letter to Rev. J. Fordyce, July 7, 1879

2		"The forms of Virtue are: justice, courage, magnificence, magnanimity, liberality, gentleness, prudence, wisdom." Aristotle, (384-322 bce), Greek philosopher, 'Rhetoric', Bk. II

3		"Religion is the root of human existence." Wilhelm Schlegel (1767-1845), German poet, 'Lectures, 1807-1808'

4		"Full wise is he that can himself know!" Geoffrey Chaucer (1340?-1400), English poet, 'The Monk's Tale' [modernized]

5		"To live without love I think is impossible, happily impossible for each one of us." Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986), Argentine author, 'Blindness'

6		"Almighty God hath created the mind free." Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), 3rd American President, 'The Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom', 1779

7		"Fundamentally, I believe history teaches us a categorical lesson: that once a people are determined to become free, then nothing can stop them from reaching their goal." Desmond Tutu (b. 1931), South African cleric, 'The Words of Desmond Tutu'

8		"Confucius replied….'wisdom, compassion and courage – these are the three universally recognized moral qualities of man." Tze-sze (ca. 335-288 bce), Chinese philosopher, grandson of Confucius, 'The Golden Mean of Tze-sze'

9		"I believe in the fundamental Truth of all the great religions of the world. I believe that they are all God-given." Mohandes Gandhi (1869-1948), Hindu national leader, 'Harijan (a weekly

10		"Dust as we are, the immortal spirit grows like harmony in music; there is a dark inscrutable workmanship that reconciles discordant elements." William Wordsworth (1770-1850), English poet, 'The Prelude'

11		"In endowing us with memory, nature has revealed to us a truth utterly unimaginable to the unreflective creation, the truth of immortality." George Santayana (1863-1952), Spanish-born American philosopher, 'Reason in Common Sense'

12		"There is only one way for a man to be true to himself. If he does not know what is good, a man cannot be true to himself." Confucius (551-479 bce), Chinese sage, 'The Doctrine of Mean'

13		"To fear love is to fear life." Bertrand Russell (1872-1970), British mathematician, philosopher, 'Marriage and Morals'

14		"Love a man even in his sin for that love is a likeness of the divine love, and is the summit of love on earth." Fyodor Dostoyevski (1821-1881), Rusian novelist, 'The Brothers Karamazov', Bk. VI, Ch. 3

15		"Man is what he believes." Anton Chekhov (1860-1904), Russian writer, 'Notebooks'

16		"Then she (Philosophy personified) said…I assert that there is no such thing as chance and I declare that chance is just an empty word with no real meaning. For what place can be left for purposelessness when God puts all things in order?" Boethius (ca. 480-524), Roman philosopher, 'The Consolation of Philosophy'

17		"Morality will conquer war, even as it has conquered human sacrifices, slavery, feuds, head-hunting and cannibalism." Max Nordau (1849-1923), German physician, author 'Morals and the Evolution of Man'

18		"Creativity cannot exist without the feminine principle, and I am sure God is not merely male or female but He-She – our Father-Mother God." Margaret Walker (b. 1915), American teacher

19		"What's freedom for? To know eternity." Theodore Roethke (1908-1963), American poet, 'I Knew A Woman'

20		"The question was once put to him [Aristotle], how we ought to behave to our friends; and the answer he gave was, 'As we should wish our friends to behave to us.'" Diogenes Laertius (fl. 200 ad), Biographer of Greek philosophers, 'Aristotle'

21		"Love produces a certain flowering of the whole personality which nothing else can achieve." Ivan Turgenev (1818-1883), Russian writer

22		"If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?" Alexander I. Solzhenitsyn (b. 1918), Russian author, Nobel Prize 1970, 'The Gulap Archipelago'

23		"It is forbidden to decry other sects; the true believer gives honor to whatever in them is worthy of honor." Asoka (d. 238 bce), Buddhist emperor of India, Decree (inscription on a pillar),

24		"He who loves according to the guidance of reason strives as much as possible to repay the hatred, anger, or contempt of others toward himself with love and generosity." Baruch Spinoza (1632-1677), Dutch philosopher, 'Ethics'

25		"The shore is an ancient world, for as long as there has been an earth and sea there has been this place of the meeting of land and water. Yet it is a world that keeps alive the sense of continuing creation and of the relentless drive of life. Each time I enter it, I gain some new awareness of its beauty and its deeper meanings, sensing that intricate fabric of life by which one creature is linked with another, and each with its suroundings." Rachel Carson (1907-1964), American naturalist, author, 'The Edge of the Sea'