It may easily come to pass that a vain man may become proud and imagine himself pleasing to all when he is in reality a universal nuisance.
Peace is not the absence of war, but a virtue based on strength of character.
- Topic: Character, Conflict, Peace, Strength
- Photo: Jeffrey Benjamin
More Quotes from Benedict Spinoza
The world would be happier if men had the same capacity to be silent that they have to speak.
Desire is the essence of a man.
The things which . . . are esteemed as the greatest good of all . . . can be reduced to these three headings: to wit, Riches, Fame, and Pleasure. With these three the mind is so engrossed that it cannot scarcely think of any other good.
Surely human affairs would be far happier if the power in men to be silent were the same as that to speak. But experience more than sufficiently teaches that men govern nothing with more difficulty than their tongues.
None are more taken in by flattery than the proud, who wish to be the first and are not.
Man is a social animal.
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Life is a series of experiences, each one of which makes us bigger, even though sometimes it is hard to realize this. For the world was built to develop character, and we must learn that setbacks and griefs which endure help us in our march forward.
Moral courage is the most valuable and usually the most absent characteristics in men.
Men show their characters in nothing more clearly than in what they think laughable.
Not a having and a resting, but a growing and a becoming is the character of perfection as culture conceives it.
Character develops itself in the stream of life.
The liar is no better than the thief, and if his mendacity takes the form of slander he may be worse than most thieves. It puts a premium upon knavery untruthfully to attack an honest man, or even with hysterical exaggeration to assail a bad man with untruth.
Extremists on all sides thrive, fed by the blood lust of centuries gone by.
Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties.
The most important single ingredient in the formula of success is knowing how to get along with people.
When elephants fight, ants get killed.
Do not think of knocking out another person's brains because he differs in opinion from you. It would be as rational to knock yourself on the head because you differ from yourself ten years ago.
Fear not those who argue but those who dodge.
The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.
Nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral questions of our time; the need for man to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to oppression and violence.
Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend.
There is no room in this country for hyphenated Americanism… The one absolutely certain way of brining this nation to ruin, of preventing all possibility of its continuing to be a nation at all, would be to permit it to become a tangle of squabbling nationalities.
How could man rejoice in victory and delight in the slaughter of men?
Our lives are like islands in the sea, or like trees in the forest. The maple and the pine may whisper to each other with their leaves . . . But the trees also commingle their roots in the darkness underground, and the islands also hang together through the ocean's bottom.
Self-control is strength. Right thought is mastery. Calmness is power.
True strength lies in gentleness.
Out of your vulnerabilities will come your strength.
Some people believe holding on and hanging in there are signs of great strength. However, there are times when it takes much more strength to know when to let go and then do it.
Plans will get you into things, but you have got to work your way out.
