Quote collection
374 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.
"The vulnerability of precious things is beautiful because vulnerability is a mark of existence. The destruction of Troy. The fall of the petals from fruit trees in blossom. To know that what is most precious is not rooted in existence - that is beautiful."
"Stars and blossoming fruit-trees: utter permanence and extreme fragility give an equal sense of eternity."
"Imagination and fiction make up more than three quarters of our real life."
"Love consents to all and commands only those who consent. Love is abdication. God is abdication."
"For when two beings who are not friends are near each other there is no meeting, and when friends are far apart there is no separation."
"Evil when we are in its power is not felt as evil but as a necessity, or even a duty."
"Official history is a matter of believing murderers on their own word."
"When a man's life is destroyed or damaged by some wound or privation of soul or body, which is due to other men's actions or negligence, it is not only his sensibility that suffers but also his aspiration toward the good. Therefore there has been sacrilege towards that which is sacred in him."
"Every being cries out in silence to be read differently. Do not be indifferent to these cries."
"A man thinks he is dying for his country," said Anatole France, "but he is dying for a few industrialists." But even that is saying too much. What one dies for is not even so substantial and tangible as an industrialist."
"The intelligent man who is proud of his intelligence is like the condemned man who is proud of his large cell."
"When war is waged, it is for the purpose of safeguarding or increasing one's capacity to make war. International politics are wholly involved in this vicious cycle. What is called national prestige consists in behaving always in such a way as to demoralize other nations by giving them the impression that, if it comes to war, one would certainly defeat them. What is called national security is an imaginary state of affairs in which one would retain the capacity to make war while depriving all other countries of it."
"When we hit a nail with a hammer, the whole of the shock received by the large head of the nail passes into the point without any of it being lost, although it is only a point. If the hammer and the head of the nail were infinitely big it would be just the same. The point of the nail would transmit this infinite shock at the point to which it was applied. Extreme affliction, which means physical pain, distress of soul and social degradation, all at the same time, constitutes the nail. The point is applied at the very center of the soul, whose head is all necessity, spreading throughout space and time."
"To be rooted is perhaps the most important and least recognized need of the human soul."
"Human existence is so fragile a thing and exposed to such dangers that I cannot love without trembling."
"Justice consists in seeing that no harm is done to men. Whenever a man cries inwardly: 'Why am I being hurt?' harm is being done to him. He is often mistaken when he tries to define the harm, and why and by whom it is being inflicted on him. But the cry itself is infallible."
"Everything beautiful has a mark of eternity."
"The sea is not less beautiful in our eyes because we know that sometimes ships are wrecked by it."
"It is a fault to wish to be understood before we have made ourselves clear to ourselves."
"Whenever one tries to suppress doubt , there is tyranny ."