States quotes
1.6K quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.
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Browse quotes that often appear alongside states — connected by shared ideas and recurring themes.
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"Whereas the truth is that the State in which the rulers are most reluctant to govern is always the best and most quietly governed, and the State in which they are most eager, the worst."
"I am an enemy of the State. But isn't everyone?"
"Not in the state of unconsciousness, but in full awareness when the higher Power will descend into and direct us, then only the yogic life will begin."
"Happiness is an elusive state of mind not to be gained by clumsy pursuit.It is given to those who do not sue for it:to be unconcerned about a desired good is probably the only way to possess it."
"Maintain a state of balance between physical acts and inner serenity,like a lute whose strings are finely tuned."
"The worst thing that can happen to an artist is to be subsidized by the state. It leads to an intellectual and artistic castration."
"The Refugee Convention of 1951 was a major breakthrough, outlining the rights of those displaced across borders as well as the legal obligations of states to protect them."
"Words that arise spontaneously out of the state of presence are charged with spiritual power: the power to awaken."
"To do everything in a sacred manner means to do everything fully in the state of presence."
"Character is the only secure foundation of the state."
"No one who is in a state of fear or sorrow or tension is free, but whosoever is delivered from sorrows or fears or anxieties is at the same time delivered from servitude."
"A constitution is the arrangement of magistracies in a state."
"There is a state when words cease and silence prevails."
"On vague wording of drone strike criteria: “Are you going to just drop a hellfire missile on Jane Fonda? Are you going to drop a missile on Kent State? That’s gobbledygook."
"Dispassion is the best of mental states. . . ."
"Apre' s le rare bonheur de trouver une compagne qui nous soit bien assortie, l'e tat le moins malheureux de la vie est sans doute de vivre seul. After the rare happiness of finding a companion with whom we are well matched, the least unpleasant state of life is without doubt to live alone."
"We can never be like it was at Penn State with Joe Paterno. That was an anomaly in an of itself."
"The payments which have been made into the Treasury show the very productive state of the public revenue."
"To flatter and follow others, without being flattered and followed in turn, is but a state of half enjoyment."
"I'm actually forced to write about Michigan because as a native of that state it's the place I know best."
