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Helen Keller

Helen Adams Keller (June 27, 1880 – June 1, 1968) was an American writer and social activist; an illness (possibly scarlet fever or meningitis) at the age of 19 months left her deaf and blind.

Quotes

 * One can never consent to creep when one feels an impulse to soar.
 * Address to the American Association to Promote the Teaching of Speech to the Deaf at Mt. Airy, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (8 July 1896), quoted in supplement to The Story of My Life

 * I want to say to those who are trying to learn to speak and those who are teaching them: Be of good cheer. Do not think of to-day's failures, but of the success that may come to-morrow. You have set yourselves a difficult task, but you will succeed if you persevere, and you will find a joy in overcoming obstacles — a delight in climbing rugged paths, which you would perhaps never know if you did not sometime slip backward — if the road was always smooth and pleasant. Remember, no effort that we make to attain something beautiful is ever lost. Sometime, somewhere, somehow we shall find that which we seek. We shall speak, yes, and sing, too, as God intended we should speak and sing.
 * Address to the American Association to Promote the Teaching of Speech to the Deaf (8 July 1896)

 * The only real blind person at Christmas-time is he who has not Christmas in his heart. We sightless children had the best of eyes that day in our hearts and in our finger-tips. We were glad from the child's necessity of being happy. The blind who have outgrown the child's perpetual joy can be children again on Christmas Day and celebrate in the midst of them who pipe and dance and sing a new song!
 * "Christmas in the Dark" in Ladies Home Journal (December 1906)

 * The bulk of the world's knowledge is an imaginary construction.
 * The World I live in (1910) chapter 8, The Five-sensed World Quoted in:

 * We differ, blind and seeing, one from another, not in our senses, but in the use we make of them, in the imagination and courage with which we seek wisdom beyond the senses.
 * The Five-sensed World (1910)

 * The problems of deafness are deeper and more complex, if not more important, than those of blindness. Deafness is a much worse misfortune. For it means the loss of the most vital stimulus — the sound of the voice that brings language, sets thoughts astir and keeps us in the intellectual company of man.
 * Letter to Dr. James Kerr Love (1910), published in Helen Keller in Scotland: a personal record written by herself (1933), edited by James Kerr Love. Paraphrasing of this statement may have been the origin of a similar one which has become attributed to her:
 * Blindness cuts us off from things, but deafness cuts us off from people.
 * See also FAQ at Gallaudet University

 * Our democracy is but a name. We vote? What does that mean? It means that we choose between two bodies of real, though not avowed, autocrats. We choose between Tweedledum and Tweedledee.... You ask for votes for women. What good can votes do when ten-elevenths of the land of Great Britain belongs to 200,000 and only one-eleventh to the rest of the 40,000,000? Have your men with their millions of votes freed themselves from this injustice?
 * Letter published in the Manchester Advertiser (3 March 1911), quoted in A People's History of the United States (1980) page 345

 * Some years ago I met a gentleman who was introduced to me as Mr. McKelway, editor of the Brooklyn Eagle ... At the time the compliments that he paid me were so generous that I blush to remember them. But now that I have come out for Socialism he reminds me and the public that I am deaf and blind and especially liable to error.... The Eagle and I are at war. When it fights back, let it fight fair.... It is not fair fighting or good argument to remind me and others that I cannot see or hear.
 * "How I Became a Socialist", New York Call (3 November 1912)

 * Our puny sentimentalism has caused us to forget that a human life is sacred only when it may be of some use to itself and to the world.
 * Quoted in, The Black Stork: Eugenics and the Death of "Defective" Babies in American Medicine and Motion Pictures since 1915, (1996), Martin S. Pernick, Oxford University Press, New York, NY., ISBN 0195135393 ISBN 9780195135398Part I: Withholding Treatment, ch. 4, Eliminating the Unfit: Euthanasia and Eugenics, p. 92, citing New York Call Magazine, November 26, 1915, p. 5.   Compare: "The laws of nature require the obliteration of the unfit and human life is valuable only when it is of use to the community or race." - Madison Grant, The Passing of the Great Race: Or, The Racial Basis of European History (1922), Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, p. 49.  ("Hitler thanked Grant for writing the Passing of the Great Race and said that 'the book was his Bible.'" See, Nazi Connection: Eugenics, American Racism, and German National Socialism (1994), Stefan Kühl, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0195082605 ch. 8, p. 85,  Kühl cites: Leon Fradley Whitney (1894-1973), unpublished autobiography, 1971, Whitney Papers, APS, 204-5.  Compare also: "As a result of our modern sentimental humanitarianism we are trying to maintain the weak at the expense of the healthy," Adolph Hitler, as quote in A.E. Samaan, From a "Race of Masters" to a "Master Race": 1948 to 1848, Create Space, ISBN 0615747884 ISBN 9780615747880p. 318.

 * It is the possibility of happiness, intelligence and power that give life its sanctity, and they are absent in the case of a poor, misshapen, paralyzed, unthinking creature.
 * "Physicians", The New Republic (18 December 1915)

 * Strike against war, for without you no battles can be fought. Strike against manufacturing shrapnel and gas bombs and all other tools of murder. Strike against preparedness that means death and misery to millions of human beings. Be not dumb, obedient slaves in an army of destruction. Be heroes in an army of construction.
 * "Strike Against War", speech in Carnegie Hall (5 January 1916)

 * Self-culture has been loudly and boastfully proclaimed as sufficient for all our ideals of perfection. But if we listen to the best men and women everywhere ... they will say that science may have found a cure for most evils; but it has found no remedy for the worst of them all — the apathy of human beings.
 * My Religion (1927); later expanded and edited as Light in My Darkness (1995; 2000), Ch 6

 * When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us.
 * We Bereaved (1929)

 * Believe, when you are most unhappy, that there is something for you to do in the world. So long as you can sweeten another's pain, life is not in vain.
 * We Bereaved (1929)

 * No doubt the reason is that character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, vision cleared, ambition inspired, and success achieved.
 * Helen Keller's Journal: 1936-1937 (1938), p. 60

 * Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. The fearful are caught as often as the bold.
 * Let Us Have Faith (1940)

 * Since my seventeenth year, I have tried to live according to the teachings of Emanuel Swedenborg. By "church" he did not mean an ecclesiastical organization, but a spiritual fellowship of thoughtful men and women who spend their lives for a service to mankind that outlasts them. He called it a civilization that was to be born of a healthy, universal religion—goodwill, mutual understanding, service from each to all, regardless of dogma or ritual.
 * Guideposts (June 1956); also in the second edition of Light in My Darkness (2000), an edited and expanded revision of her ''My Religion"' (1927)

 * Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.
 * The Open Door (1957) This quotation is often contracted into: Security is mostly a superstition... Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing. or paraphrased: Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all.

 * I do not want the peace that passeth understanding. I want the understanding which bringeth peace.
 * Quoted in Henry More: The Rational Theology of a Cambridge Plattonist (1962) by Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein, page 100

 * Some people do not like to think. If one thinks, one must reach conclusions; and conclusions are not always pleasant. They are a thorn in the spirit. But I consider it a priceless gift and a deep responsibility to think.
 * Helen Keller: Her Socialist Years (1967)

 * Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.
 * "Helen and Teacher: The Story of Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan Macy", Joseph P. Lash (1980)

 * Tyranny cannot defeat the power of ideas.
 * As quoted in the Fighting the Fires of Hate: America and the Nazi Book Burnings exhibit at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (13 April 2003)

 * Many people have a wrong of idea of what constitutes true happiness. It is not obtained through a self-gratification, but through fidelity to a worthy purpose.
 * Quoted in: Kabir, Hajara Muhammad,. Northern women development. [Nigeria]. p, 351. ISBN 978-978-906-469-4. OCLC 890820657.

The Story of My Life (1903)

 * The most important day I remember in all my life is the one on which my teacher, Anne Mansfield Sullivan, came to me. I am filled with wonder when I consider the immeasurable contrasts between the two lives which it connects. It was the third of March, 1887, three months before I was seven years old.
 * Ch. 4

 * Have you ever been at sea in a dense fog, when it seemed as if a tangible white darkness shut you in, and the great ship, tense and anxious, groped her way toward the shore with plummet and sounding-line, and you waited with beating heart for something to happen? I was like that ship before my education began, only I was without compass or sounding-line, and had no way of knowing how near the harbour was. "Light! give me light!" was the wordless cry of my soul, and the light of love shone on me in that very hour.
 * Ch. 4

 * We walked down the path to the well-house, attracted by the fragrance of the honeysuckle with which it was covered. Some one was drawing water and my teacher placed my hand under the spout. As the cool stream gushed over one hand she spelled into the other the word water, first slowly, then rapidly. I stood still, my whole attention fixed upon the motions of her fingers. Suddenly I felt a misty consciousness as of something forgotten — a thrill of returning thought; and somehow the mystery of language was revealed to me. I knew then that "w-a-t-e-r" meant the wonderful cool something that was flowing over my hand. That living word awakened my soul, gave it light, hope, joy, set it free! There were barriers still, it is true, but barriers that could in time be swept away. I left the well-house eager to learn. Everything had a name, and each name gave birth to a new thought. As we returned to the house every object which I touched seemed to quiver with life. That was because I saw everything with the strange, new sight that had come to me.
 * Ch. 4

 * I had now the key to all language, and I was eager to learn to use it. Children who hear acquire language without any particular effort; the words that fall from others' lips they catch on the wing, as it were, delightedly, while the little deaf child must trap them by a slow and often painful process. But whatever the process, the result is wonderful. Gradually from naming an object we advance step by step until we have traversed the vast distance between our first stammered syllable and the sweep of thought in a line of Shakespeare.
 * Ch. 6

 * I remember the morning that I first asked the meaning of the word, "love." This was before I knew many words. I had found a few early violets in the garden and brought them to my teacher. She tried to kiss me: but at that time I did not like to have any one kiss me except my mother. Miss Sullivan put her arm gently round me and spelled into my hand, "I love Helen." "What is love?" I asked. She drew me closer to her and said, "It is here," pointing to my heart, whose beats I was conscious of for the first time. Her words puzzled me very much because I did not then understand anything unless I touched it. I smelt the violets in her hand and asked, half in words, half in signs, a question which meant, "Is love the sweetness of flowers?" "No," said my teacher. Again I thought. The warm sun was shining on us. "Is this not love?" I asked, pointing in the direction from which the heat came. "Is this not love?" It seemed to me that there could be nothing more beautiful than the sun, whose warmth makes all things grow. But Miss Sullivan shook her head, and I was greatly puzzled and disappointed. I thought it strange that my teacher could not show me love.
 * Ch. 6

 * Miss Sullivan touched my forehead and spelled with decided emphasis, "Think." In a flash I knew that the word was the name of the process that was going on in my head. This was my first conscious perception of an abstract idea. For a long time I was still ... trying to find a meaning for "love" in the light of this new idea. The sun had been under a cloud all day, and there had been brief showers; but suddenly the sun broke forth in all its southern splendour. Again I asked my teacher, "Is this not love?" "Love is something like the clouds that were in the sky before the sun came out," she replied. Then in simpler words than these, which at that time I could not have understood, she explained: "You cannot touch the clouds, you know; but you feel the rain and know how glad the flowers and the thirsty earth are to have it after a hot day. You cannot touch love either; but you feel the sweetness that it pours into everything. Without love you would not be happy or want to play." The beautiful truth burst upon my mind — I felt that there were invisible lines stretched between my spirit and the spirits of others.
 * Ch. 6

 * Virgil is serene and lovely like a marble Apollo in the moonlight; Homer is a beautiful, animated youth in the full sunlight with the wind in his hair.
 * Ch. 21

 * Ruth is so loyal and gentle-hearted, we cannot help loving her, as she stands with the reapers amid the waving corn. Her beautiful, unselfish spirit shines out like a bright star in the night of a dark and cruel age. Love like Ruth's, love which can rise above conflicting creeds and deep-seated racial prejudices, is hard to find in all the world.
 * Ch. 21

 * The Bible gives me a deep, comforting sense that "things seen are temporal and things unseen are eternal."
 * Ch. 21

 * I do not remember a time since I have been capable of loving books that I have not loved Shakespeare.
 * Ch. 21

 * I read "King Lear" soon after "Macbeth," and I shall never forget the feeling of horror when I came to the scene in which Gloster's eyes are put out. Anger seized me, my fingers refused to move, I sat rigid for one long moment, the blood throbbing in my temples, and all the hatred that a child can feel concentrated in my heart.
 * Ch. 21

 * Literature is my Utopia. Here I am not disenfranchised. No barrier of the senses shuts me out from the sweet, gracious discourse of my book friends. They talk to me without embarrassment or awkwardness. The things I have learned and the things I have been taught seem of ridiculously little importance compared with their "large loves and heavenly charities."
 * Ch. 21

 * If it is true that the violin is the most perfect of musical instruments, then Greek is the violin of human thought.
 * Part II: Letters (1887 - 1901) TO MRS. LAURENCE HUTTON Wrentham, February 20, 1898.

 * Toleration ... is the greatest gift of the mind; it requires the same effort of the brain that it takes to balance oneself on a bicycle.
 * Part III, Ch. 2: Personality

 * It is wonderful how much time good people spend fighting the devil. If they would only expend the same amount of energy loving their fellow men, the devil would die in his own tracks of ennui.
 * Part III, Ch. 5: Literary Style

Optimism (1903)

 * No matter how dull, or how mean, or how wise a man is, he feels that happiness is his indisputable right.

 * I long to accomplish a great and noble task; but it is my chief duty and joy to accomplish humble tasks as though they were great and noble. It is my service to think how I can best fulfil the demands that each day makes upon me, and to rejoice that others can do what I cannot. Green, the historian,[Life and Letters of John Richard Green. Edited by Leslie Stephen.] tells us that the world is moved along, not only by the mighty shoves of its heroes, but also by the aggregate of the tiny pushes of each honest worker; and that thought alone suffices to guide me in this dark world and wide." p. 21

 * It is curious to observe what different ideals of happiness people cherish, and in what singular places they look for this well-spring of their life. Many look for it in the hoarding of riches, some in the pride of power, and others in the achievements of art and literature; a few seek it in the exploration of their own minds, or in search for knowledge.

 * Most people measure their happiness in terms of physical pleasure and material possession. Could they win some visible goal which they have set on the horizon, how happy they would be! Lacking this gift or that circumstance, they would be miserable. If happiness is to be so measured, I who cannot hear or see have every reason to sit in a corner with folded hands and weep. If I am happy in spite of my deprivations, if my happiness is so deep that it is a faith, so thoughtful that it becomes a philosophy of life, — if, in short, I am an optimist, my testimony to the creed of optimism is worth hearing.

 * Once I knew the depth where no hope was, and darkness lay on the face of all things. Then love came and set my soul free. Once I knew only darkness and stillness. Now I know hope and joy. Once I fretted and beat myself against the wall that shut me in. Now I rejoice in the consciousness that I can think, act and attain heaven. My life was without past or future; death, the pessimist would say, "a consummation devoutly to be wished." But a little word from the fingers of another fell into my hand that clutched at emptiness, and my heart leaped to the rapture of living. Night fled before the day of thought, and love and joy and hope came up in a passion of obedience to knowledge. Can anyone who has escaped such captivity, who has felt the thrill and glory of freedom, be a pessimist?

 * It is a mistake always to contemplate the good and ignore the evil, because by making people neglectful it lets in disaster. There is a dangerous optimism of ignorance and indifference.

 * [...] although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it. My optimism, then, does not rest on the absence of evil, but on a glad belief in the preponderance of good and a willing effort always to coöperate with the good, that it may prevail. I try to increase the power God has given me to see the best in everything and every one, and make that Best a part of my life.

 * I demand that the world be good, and lo, it obeys. I proclaim the world good, and facts range themselves to prove my proclamation overwhelmingly true.

 * To what is good I open the doors of my being, and jealously shut them against what is bad. Such is the force of this beautiful and wilful conviction, it carries itself in the face of all opposition. I am never discouraged by absence of good. I never can be argued into hopelessness.

 * I, too, can work, and because I love to labor with my head and my hands, I am an optimist in spite of all. I used to think I should be thwarted in my desire to do something useful. But I have found out that though the ways in which I can make myself useful are few, yet the work open to me is endless.

 * I trust, and nothing that happens disturbs my trust.

 * Optimism, then, is a fact within my own heart. But as I look out upon life, my heart meets no contradiction. The outward world justifies my inward universe of good.

 * But in a little measure my small voice of individual experience does join in the declaration of philosophy that the good is the only world, and that world is a world of spirit. It is also a universe where order is All, where an unbroken logic holds the parts together, where disorder defines itself as non-existence, where evil, as St. Augustine held, is delusion, and therefore is not.

 * I understand how it was possible for Spinoza to find deep and sustained happiness when he was excommunicated, poor, despised and suspected alike by Jew and Christian; not that the kind world of men ever treated me so, but that his isolation from the universe of sensuous joys is somewhat analogous to mine. He loved the good for its own sake. Like many great spirits he accepted his place in the world, and confided himself childlike to a higher power, believing that it worked through his hands and predominated in his being. He trusted implicitly, and that is what I do. Deep, solemn optimism, it seems to me, should spring from this firm belief in the presence of God in the individual; not a remote, unapproachable governor of the universe, but a God who is very near every one of us, who is present not only in earth, sea and sky, but also in every pure and noble impulse of our hearts, 'the source and centre of all minds, their only point of rest.'

 * To know the history of philosophy is to know that the highest thinkers of the ages, the seers of the tribes and the nations, have been optimists. The growth of philosophy is the story of man's spiritual life.

 * The highest result of education is tolerance. Long ago men fought and died for their faith; but it took ages to teach them the other kind of courage, — the courage to recognize the faiths of their brethren and their rights of conscience. Tolerance is the first principle of community; it is the spirit which conserves the best that all men think.

 * I see the clouds part slowly, and I hear a cry of protest against the bigot. The restraining hand of tolerance is laid upon the inquisitor, and the humanist utters a message of peace to the persecuted. Instead of the cry, "Burn the heretic!" men study the human soul with sympathy, and there enters into their hearts a new reverence for that which is unseen.

 * The idea of brotherhood redawns upon the world with a broader significance than the narrow association of members in a sect or creed; and thinkers of great soul like Lessing challenge the world to say which is more godlike, the hatred and tooth-and-nail grapple of conflicting religions, or sweet accord and mutual helpfulness. Ancient prejudice of man against his brother-man wavers and retreats before the radiance of a more generous sentiment, which will not sacrifice men to forms, or rob them of the comfort and strength they find in their own beliefs. The heresy of one age becomes the orthodoxy of the next. Mere tolerance has given place to a sentiment of brotherhood between sincere men of all denominations.

 * The test of all beliefs is their practical effect in life. If it be true that optimism compels the world forward, and pessimism retards it, then it is dangerous to propagate a pessimistic philosophy.

 * Let pessimism once take hold of the mind, and life is all topsy-turvy, all vanity and vexation of spirit. There is no cure for individual or social disorder, except in forgetfulness and annihilation. "Let us eat, drink and be merry," says the pessimist, "for to-morrow we die." If I regarded my life from the point of view of the pessimist, I should be undone. I should seek in vain for the light that does not visit my eyes and the music that does not ring in my ears. I should beg night and day and never be satisfied. I should sit apart in awful solitude, a prey to fear and despair. But since I consider it a duty to myself and to others to be happy, I escape a misery worse than any physical deprivation.

 * Who shall dare let his incapacity for hope or goodness cast a shadow upon the courage of those who bear their burdens as if they were privileges?

 * We have found that our great philosophers and our great men of action are optimists. So, too, our most potent men of letters have been optimists in their books and in their lives. No pessimist ever won an audience commensurately wide with his genius, and many optimistic writers have been read and admired out of all measure to their talents, simply because they wrote of the sunlit side of life.

 * Every optimist moves along with progress and hastens it, while every pessimist would keep the world at a standstill. The consequence of pessimism in the life of a nation is the same as in the life of the individual. Pessimism kills the instinct that urges men to struggle against poverty, ignorance and crime, and dries up all the fountains of joy in the world.

 * Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement; nothing can be done without hope.

 * I believe it is a sacred duty to encourage ourselves and others; to hold the tongue from any unhappy word against God's world, because no man has any right to complain of a universe which God made good, and which thousands of men have striven to keep good. I believe we should so act that we may draw nearer and more near the age when no man shall live at his ease while another suffers. These are the articles of my faith, and there is yet another on which all depends — to bear this faith above every tempest which overfloods it, and to make it a principal in disaster and through affliction. Optimism is the harmony between man's spirit and the spirit of God pronouncing His works good.

To a Woman-Suffragist

 * The country is governed for the richest, for the corporations, the bankers, the land speculators, and for the exploiters of labour. Surely we must free men and women together before we can free women. The majority of mankind are working people. So long as their fair demands -- the ownership and control of their lives and livelihood -- are set at naught, we can have neither men's rights nor women's rights. The majority of mankind are ground down by industrial oppression in order that the small remnant may live in ease. How can women hope to help themselves while we and our brothers are helpless against the powerful organizations which modern parties represent and which contrive to rule the people? They rule the people because they own the means of physical life, land, and tools, and the nourishers of intellectual life, the press, the church, and the school. You say that the conduct of the woman suffragists is being disgracefully misrepresented by the British press. Here in America the leading newspapers misrepresent in every possible way the struggles of toiling men and women who seek relief. News that reflects ill upon the employers is skillfully concealed -- news of dreadful conditions under which labourers are forced to produce, news of thousands of men maimed in mills and mines and left without compensation, news of famines and strikes, news of thousands of women driven to a life of shame, news of little children compelled to labour before their hands are ready to drop their toys. Only here and there in a small and as yet uninfluential paper is the truth told about the workman and the fearful burdens under which he staggers.

What is the IWW? (1918)

 * The IWW's affirm as a fundamental principle that the creators of wealth are entitled to all they create. Thus they find themselves pitted against the whole profit-making system. They declare that there can be no compromise so long as the majority of the working class lives in want while the master class lives in luxury. They insist that there can be no peace until the workers organize as a class, take possession of the resources of the earth and the machinery of production and distribution and abolish the wage system. In other words, the workers in their collectivity must own and operate all the essential industrial institutions and secure to each laborer the full value of his product.
 * It is for these principles, this declaration of class solidarity, that the IWWs are being persecuted, beaten, imprisoned, murdered. If the capitalist class had the sense it is reputed to have, it would know that violence is the worst weapon that can be used against men who have nothing to lose and the world to gain.

 * Capitalism will inevitably find itself face to face with a starving multitude of unemployed workers demanding food or destruction of the social order that has starved them and robbed them of their jobs.

Midstream (1929)

 * Midstream : My Later Life (1929)

 * I do not pretend that I know the whole solution of the world's problems, but I am burdened with a Puritanical sense of obligation to set the world to rights. I feel responsible for many enterprises that are not really my business at all, but many times I have kept silence on issues that interested me deeply through the fear that others would be blamed for my opinions. I have never been willing to believe that human nature cannot be changed; but even if it cannot, I am sure it can be curbed and led into channels of usefulness. I believe that life, not wealth, is the aim of existence — life including all its attributes of love, happiness, and joyful labour. I believe war is the inevitable fruit of our economic system, but even if I am wrong I believe that truth can lose nothing by agitation but may gain all.

Three Days to See (1933)

 * Three Days to See

 * Recently I was visited by a very good friend who had just returned from a long walk in the woods, and I asked her what she had observed. “Nothing in particular,” she replied. I might have been incredulous had I not been accustomed to such responses, for long ago I became convinced that the seeing see little. How was it possible, I asked myself, to walk for an hour through the woods and see nothing worthy of note? I who cannot see find hundreds of things to interest me through mere touch. I feel the delicate symmetry of a leaf. I pass my hands lovingly about the smooth skin of a silver birch, or the rough, shaggy bark of a pine. In spring I touch the branches of trees hopefully in search of a bud, the first sign of awakening Nature after her winter's sleep. I feel the delightful, velvety texture of a flower, and discover its remarkable convolutions; and something of the miracle of Nature is revealed to me.

 * I who am blind can give one hint to those who see — one admonition to those who would make full use of the gift of sight: Use your eyes as if tomorrow you would be stricken blind. And the same method can be applied to other senses. Hear the music of voices, the song of a bird, the mighty strains of an orchestra, as if you would be stricken deaf to-morrow. Touch each object you want to touch as if tomorrow your tactile sense would fail. Smell the perfume of flowers, taste with relish each morsel, as if tomorrow you could never smell and taste again. Make the most of every sense; glory in all the facets of pleasure and beauty which the world reveals to you through the several means of contact which Nature provides.

The Simplest Way to be Happy (1933)

 * The Simplest Way to be Happy

 * Happiness is the final and perfect fruit of obedience to the laws of life.

 * A happy life consists not in the absence, but in the mastery of hardships.

 * It all comes to this: the simplest way to be happy is to do good.

 * If we spend the time we waste in sighing for the perfect golden fruit in fulfilling the conditions of its growth, happiness will come, must come. It is guaranteed in the very laws of the universe. If it involves some chastening and renunciation, well, the fruit will be all the sweeter for this touch of holiness....

Misattributed

 * I am only one, but I am one. I can not do everything, but I can do something. I must not fail to do the something that I can do.
 * Edward Everett Hale in a statement published in A Year of Beautiful Thoughts (1902) by Jeanie Ashley Bates Greenough, p. 172; This has been misattributed to Keller in published works since at least 1980. Keller and Hale were good friends, and letters to Hale can be found in her youthful autobiography The Story of My Life (1902). In 1910 Keller dedicated her poem "The Song of the Stone Wall" to Hale who had died in 1909.

Quotations about Keller

 * Helen Keller, who to all appearance was born with less possibility for pleasure than any of us, wrote this: "In order to attain his highest education the child must be persistently encouraged to extract joy and constructive interest from sight, hearing, touch, smell, and taste... If a mother puts as much gentle art into this delicate fostering of all his physical powers as she does into the task of preserving his health...not only will he reach a well-ordered stewardship of his senses, he will also have the best chance of spiritual maturity...Every person, every group thus excellently equipped for living, is the greatest possible contribution to humanity." "The best chance of spiritual maturity," "a well-ordered stewardship of the senses." This is profound and compassionate advice for all of us, children and grownups alike.
 * Laura Archera Huxley "Open the Door to Pleasure" in You Are Not The Target (1963)

 * I feel that in this child I have seen more of the Divine than has been manifest in anyone I ever met before.
 * Alexander Graham Bell, as quoted in The Blackwell Reader In Developmental Psychology by Alan Slater and Darwin Muir, p. 481

 * The greatest woman of our age.
 * Winston Churchill, as quoted in When They Were 22 : 100 Famous People at the Turning Point in Their Lives (2006) by Brad Dunn, p. 80

 * I have been a great admirer of you always.
 * Albert Einstein, as quoted in The Blackwell Reader In Developmental Psychology by Alan Slater and Darwin Muir, p. 481

 * Our stand against conscription and our condemnation to prison had gained us many new friends, among them Helen Keller. I had long wanted to meet this remarkable woman who had overcome the most appalling physical disabilities. I had attended one of her lectures, which was to me an affecting experience. Helen Keller's phenomenal conquest had strengthened my faith in the almost illimitable power of the human will. When we had begun our campaign, I wrote to her asking her support. Not receiving a reply for a long time, I concluded that her own life was too difficult to permit interest in the tragedies of the world. Weeks later came a message from her that filled me with shame for having doubted her. Far from being self-absorbed, Helen Keller proved herself capable of an all-embracing love for humanity and profound feeling for its woe and despair...The marvellous woman, bereft of the most vital human senses, could nevertheless, by her chic strength, see and hear and articulate. The electric current of her vibrant fingers on my lips and her sensitized hand over mine spoke more than mere tongue. It eliminated physical barriers and held one in the spell of the beauty of her inner world.
 * Emma Goldman, Living My Life (1931)

 * She will live on, one of the few, the immortal names not born to die. Her spirit will endure as long as man can read and stories can be told of the woman who showed the world there are no boundaries to courage and faith.
 * Eulogy by Senator J. Lister Hill of Alabama

 * Whatever you were or are, you're a blessing!
 * William James, in a letter to Keller (1908), published in The Thought and Character of William James (1935) Vol. 2, by Ralph Barton Perry, p. 455

 * Southern legislatures tended to place African American deaf and blind students together: for example, the North Carolina State School for the Colored Deaf and Blind; Texas's Institute for Deaf, Dumb and Blind Colored Youth; the Alabama School for the Negro Deaf and Blind; or the Virginia State School for Colored Deaf and Blind. When deafblind activist Helen Keller testified before Congress about the importance of expanding the Social Security Act in 1944, she emphasized discriminatory state funding and the ways in which racism and ableism intersected to limit opportunities. "In my travels up and down the continent," she testified, "I have visited their shabby school buildings and witnessed their pathetic struggles against want. I have been shocked by the meagerness of their education, lack of proper medical care and the discrimination which limits their employment chances." It was a disgrace, she went on, "that in this great wealthy land such injustice should exist to men and women of a different race-and blind at that! It is imperative that colored people without sight be granted financial aid worthy of their human dignity and courage in the face of fearful obstacles."
 * Kim E. Nielsen A Disability History of the United States (2012)

 * At the People's College in Fort Scott, Kansas, my mother met Arthur Le Sueur, who with Helen Keller, Eugene Debs, and Charles Steinmetz had founded the greatest workers' school in the country. Thousands of farmers and hillbilly men, miners, and other workers took correspondence courses in workers' law and workers' English and workers' history.
 * Meridel Le Sueur "The Ancient People and the Newly Come" (1976)

 * The two greatest characters in the 19th century are Napoleon and Helen Keller. Napoleon tried to conquer the world by physical force and failed. Helen tried to conquer the world by power of mind — and succeeded!
 * Mark Twain, as quoted in A.A.S.A. Official Report, (1937) by the American Association of School Administrators, p. 65

 * I am charmed with your book — enchanted. You are a wonderful creature, the most wonderful in the world — you and your other half together — Miss Sullivan, I mean, for it took the pair of you to make a complete and perfect whole.
 * Mark Twain to Helen Keller (17 March 1903), published in Mark Twain's Letters, Vol. 1 (1917) edited by Albert Bigelow Paine, 731

 * I need not go into any particulars about Helen Keller. She is fellow to Caesar, Alexander, Napoleon, Homer, Shakespeare, and the rest of the immortals. She will be as famous a thousand years from now as she is today.
 * Mark Twain, as quoted in Mark Twain : A Portrait (1938) by Edgar Lee Masters, p. 188

 * No one is more welcome to the House than Helen Keller, whom we love. And she has a genius for finding words for great truths. Her comment on our busy programme was: "Sympathy without works is like eyes without light."
 * Lillian Wald Windows on Henry Street (1934)

 * The most wonderful being in America,
 * H. G. Wells, as quoted in The Blackwell Reader In Developmental Psychology by Alan Slater and Darwin Muir, p. 481

 * No history of the world can be complete which does not mention Mary Helen Keller... whose overcoming of her blindness and deafness were arguably victories more important than those of Alexander the Great, because they have implications still for every living person.
 * Theodore Zeldin in An Intimate History of Humanity (1994) This quote seems to obviously refer to Helen Adams Keller, but why she is referred to as "Mary Helen Keller" is not clear.

 * Helen Keller, the gifted blind-mute-deaf woman with her extraordinary social vision, commented on the expulsion of Bill Haywood in a letter to the New York Call: “It is with the deepest regret that I have read the attacks upon Comrade Haywood... such an ignoble strife between two factions which should be one, and that, too, at a most critical period in the struggle of the proletariat...What? Are we to put difference of party tactics before the desperate needs of the workers?... While countless women and children are breaking their hearts and ruining their bodies in long days of toil, we are fighting one another. Shame upon us!”
 * Howard Zinn, A People’s History of the United States

title: Helen Keller


text:
Wikiquote talk:FAQ

For older question before 2004 see the history:

Addition
"Quotes by your neighbour" is a good guideline I think. How do you think to add like the above "Please don't make a redirect under your neighbor's name on main namespace to your user page. We think it is almost same to have an article on main namespace. We hope someday your neighbor becomes so notable as to have his own article on Wikiquote. Same things apply to your own quote. Thank you." --Aphaia 00:52, 3 May 2005 (UTC)

Quotes in bold?
Are quotes in bold supposed to be quotes that were featured as the Quote of the Day? I like the idea since it highlights the best quotes, but I suspect that some people just look and say "Oh, they bold their favourite quotes, I'm going to bold the quotes that I like", as evidenced with pages with lots of bold quotes like Jerry Seinfeld (unless he earned QOTD that many times).

So is bold for QOTD quotes or just popular quotes? The former sounds good but it should be pointed out to newcomers... I'm sure a page somewhere mentions it but I haven't come across it :( --67.70.99.102 17:48, 8 May 2005 (UTC)

 * Bolding is an option that any user can use to emphasize famous quotes, famous portions of longer passages, or simply quotes or portions of quotes that they find notable. If disputes arise about what is or what should be in bold emphasisis, they can be settled on a case by case basis. Thus far only a few actual disputes have arisen. ~ Kalki 18:48, 8 May 2005 (UTC)

Greetings,

1. I find the emboldening often to be relatively random, as in: "The one I enter should be bold!" Since it is not applied evenly, I think it makes reading the page challenging when so much is not bold and some are. It makes it a head scratcher. If it isn't obvious why somebody chose to embolden a quote, it is okay to de-bold it or is that bad form? How about emboldening the rest for consistency? Does something like this need to be discussed to death on a discussion page?

2. I am a WP person with an account and everything. Why does my name appear in red here? Do I have to re-apply to WQ to be considered a member? If so, does the name have to be the same as on the main WP area? If you respond to my query, will I be notified even if I am a Scarlet Letter member?

Thank you for your time, Wordreader (talk) 23:39, 2 November 2022 (UTC)
 * 1. Yep, pretty random. Feel free to modify, the discussion will start if someone reverts your change.
 * 2. It just means your WQ user page is blank. - Butwhatdoiknow (talk) 07:15, 8 November 2022 (UTC)

Vandalism
I would like to change the Vandalism response to the following one (roughly same content, but refactored). I will do so in a week if there are no objections. Thanks ~ MosheZadka (Talk) 06:55, 21 July 2005 (UTC)

Q: Is there a place within Wikiquote to call attention to vandalism - and what can be done against it?
 * A: When vandalism is obvious anyone can simply revert the edits that have been made by calling up the history of the article, clicking to edit the last version before the vandalism occurred, and saving that. If you believe that blocking, or other protective measures should be taken, you can post on the Vandalism in progress page and/or notify an admin on their talk pages. More information on possible responses exist in the Wikipedia article "Dealing with vandalism".

 * I concur with MosheZadka, except that perhaps we should de-emphasize personal contact with individual sysops for urgent matters, since one cannot assume that any particular sysop will "have their ears on" at any given time. This assumes, of course, that we consistently monitor VIP for new postings. I must admit that a "you have new messages" flag is more visible than any manual watchlist or recent changes checking. ~ Jeff Q (talk) 08:11, 21 July 2005 (UTC)

 * I have changed the order and added "and/or" between the two notifying options, to address Jeff's concerns. Thanks for the comment! ~ MosheZadka (Talk) 08:23, 21 July 2005 (UTC)

 * As promised, I have changed the answer to my proposed wording a week later. Enjoy! ~ MosheZadka (Talk) 12:43, 28 July 2005 (UTC)

quote?
Sorry to be nitpicky, but technically "quote" is a verb, as in "to quote", and the noun form is "quotation". I'm not suggesting an entire name-change, but perhaps the "Quote of the Day" could be the "Quotation of the Day" to appease the Gods of Grammar? -- 65.87.167.133 02:59, 15 August 2005

 * No need to worry about the Gods of Grammar (or Vocabulary); the word "quote" is perfectly acceptable as a short version of "quotation", according to Wiktionary, Merriam-Webster Online and Cambridge Dictionaries Online (my three favorite online dictionaries). Wikiquote addressed this question in its earliest days; see Talk:Main Page/old for a bit of that conversation. ~ Jeff Q (talk) 04:31, 15 August 2005 (UTC)

 * Perhaps it is good for us to keep this conversation in FAQ, because it is apparently a question multiple readers conceive. --Aphaia 08:13, 15 August 2005 (UTC)

 * I've added "Quote" vs. "quotation" to the FAQ. Thanks for the idea, Aphaia! ~ Jeff Q (talk) 04:00, 17 August 2005 (UTC)

Help:Starting a new page
I want to change the answer to the first question to be a pointer to the H:SANP page. It has more information, is more useful and has better ways of creating articles. Any objections? ~ MosheZadka (Talk) 07:01, 21 August 2005 (UTC)

 * That change would be logical, and would certainly help new editors, but I have two concerns:
 * First, the new Inputbox procedure creates "orphan" articles — articles with no links to any other regular articles, like List of people. This may not be as significant a problem as it has been in the wiki past. As long as people articles are minimally categorized (which they are if people use the templates correctly), there is a link to them, however untraditional. (In fact, this might even be the future standard place to find people, as we're trying to move away from manually maintained lists.)
 * Second is a problem with the question itself. Wikiquote originally started out as a collection of people, mainly authors, so this question ("How do I add quotations by people who do not already exist on Wikiquote?") was essentially the same as ("How do I start a new article?"). That's even more reason to point it to H:SANP, but it should be rephrased to accomodate the more general WQ collection.
 * In any case, there should be short paragraph providing a basic answer, not just a link to the full explanation. ~ Jeff Q (talk) 18:55, 21 August 2005 (UTC)

Q: How do I add new articles to wikiquote — for example, quotations by people who do not already exist here?
 * A: Full, comprehensive, documentation exists at Help:Starting a new page. The easiest way is to use one of the buttons at the inputbox section to be launched straight into the editing page with a ready boilerplate. If you choose one of the other ways listed there, see Templates for common formatting standards here.

Does that sound good? ~ MosheZadka (Talk) 22:42, 21 August 2005 (UTC)

P.S. Yes, I feel that using List-of pages is inferior to having a good category scheme. Wikipedia relies much more on "random" linkage than wikiquote, since the purposes are different. ~ MosheZadka (Talk) 22:42, 21 August 2005 (UTC)

 * MosheZadka, your text above looks good to me, except I'd lose the word "full". Despite all the stuff we crammed into the current version, there are many more details that could be explored. But "comprehensive" (in the sense of "everything that is necessary") seems reasonable, IMHO. ~ Jeff Q (talk) 23:16, 21 August 2005 (UTC)

 * Done ~ MosheZadka (Talk) 04:12, 22 August 2005 (UTC)

Can one just extract a sentence from a book?
Is it considered "submitting copyrighted work without permission" if one opens a book and extracts a sentence or two without asking the authors, the translators, the press and/or the rest of the copyright holders? Are there examples of borderline cases regarding how to avoid copyright violations to be found on Wikiquote? Dilaudid 20:39, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

 * Quoting a sentence or two from a book for critical or educational purposes, rather than commercial ones, is not considered a copyright violation; in the US it is considered fair use. Most uses of modern quotations occur under fair use, or similar provisions of law. ~ Kalki 21:24, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

 * Thanks for a quick answer. The problem was that material published under the GNU Free Documentation License can — as far as I understand — freely be used for commercial purposes as well. My confusion resulted from not understanding straight away that the principle that everything published on the Wikimedia projects is released under GFDL doesn't concern quotes themselves. As the quotations are entered in Wikiquote, they themselves are not released under the GFDL. The Copyrights page answers these questions clearly enough though. Dilaudid 00:03, 3 February 2006 (UTC)

Copying Wikiquote material
You kind of have to clarify what this means, exactly, when 99% of the content on the site is not copyrighted by editors or released under the GFDL. Only the selection of quotes, their collection in a single document, arrangement on the page, and stuff like that can be copyrighted. So no, although we "allow any use of its material", people can't necessarily just take the quotes and use them however they want. They need to know about their local laws. Omegatron 04:28, 24 June 2007 (UTC)

 * Wikiquote, as a work, is released under the GFDL. All of the material excerpted from copyrighted works is used under fair-use law. The real issue is that we have to work harder to ensure our excerpted material does indeed stay within fair-use law. This is an ongoing battle, your help in which would be greatly appreciated. All editors are welcome to identify potential problem articles by:
 * Raising the issue on the article talk page.
 * Tagging the article with checkcopyright to further encourage editors to trim excessive quoting.
 * Help this effort by working on articles listed under Category:Pages which need their copyright status checked.
 * Delete large amounts of quoted material (but be sure to explain that it's to reduce exposure to copyright violation, lest it look like vandalism).
 * If these other efforts fail, replace the content of the article with copyvio to force a rewriting of the article.
 * ~ Jeff Q (talk) 04:46, 24 June 2007 (UTC)

 * That section's not about us, though, it's about downstream use. Downstream use isn't really our responsibility, and lawsuits would very rarely be pursued for quotes and stuff like this, but we shouldn't mislead people by implying that they can reuse this content however they want.  Fair use for us is not necessarily fair use for downstream users. Omegatron 00:15, 25 June 2007 (UTC)

 * Your point worries me because Wikipedia at least is quite committed to ensuring it is "downstream safe". They have implemented a 10-point test that weeds out a lot of fair-use material that is not arguably essential to the articles. To the extent this is driven by the Wikimedia Foundation, I would expect it to be a concern for Wikiquote as well. I frankly don't know how they would view Wikiquote, which may be unique among all the Wikimedia projects in how much of its primary content retains external copyrights. (Commons, Wikibooks, and Wikisource are have zero fair-use rules; I expect Wikinews is like Wikipedia in rephrasing all its material; and Wiktionary's use of quotes, although they would make up a larger part of each page than WP, is nowhere near as quote-heavy as Wikiquote.) You've given me yet another potentially thorny issue to ponder. Meanwhile, we know (and senior Wikimedians have made clear) that we need to work much more effectively to reduce copyvio problems here. ~ Jeff Q (talk) 00:35, 25 June 2007 (UTC)

 * English Wikipedia's new restrictive non-free content rules don't apply to Wikiquote; the Wikimedia Foundation's licensing resolution does. Wikiquote can decide its own exemption policy rules, as long as they meet those guidelines.  But Wikiquote really needs to create its own formal policy instead of just borrowing Wikipedia's, as mentioned in this FAQ.  Wikipedia's new policies are too restrictive for a project like this.

 * As I understand the law, you can gather together copyrighted quotes (under fair use or with the permission of the authors, for instance) in a single document and you are automatically granted copyright on the completed aggregate document. You don't get a copyright on the individual quotes, though; only on the creative aspects of the new document.  (See Feist Publications v. Rural Telephone Service  for a similar topic; an alphabetical list of telephone numbers is not copyrightable, but the telephone book as a whole is.  So you can't copy original, creative parts of a telephone book or almanac, or copy its structure or formatting, but you can take the factual data out and reformat it as your own document without paying royalties or getting permission, since that factual data or public domain information is not copyrightable.)

 * You can then license that complete collection of quotes under the GFDL, and the original creative content (introductions, the selection of quotes, and formatting) can be reused under the GFDL, but downstream users can't just take the quotes out of context and use them however they want. Any downstream use has to also be fair, which varies by country and circumstances.  (The fair use defense is quite shaky, and varies from case to case, and I think the English Wikipedia's prohibition of all other non-free licenses was quite a bad decision.)

 * My English Wikipedia user page is currently devoted to a rant on the Wikimedia Foundation's "one size fits all" licensing policy and certain users' increasing obsession with only free content. (Our primary mission has historically been the collection and dissemination of information; not the creation of free content.  Free content is a very important means to that end; but it's not an end in itself.)

 * Wikinews and Chinese Wikipedia are especially unhappy with the licensing resolution, from what I've heard, and I can see it being a problem for Wikiquote, too. One Wikimedia Board nominee has even said he would like Wikiquote to be shut down because it's "outside our core mission".  You might not want to vote for him...

 * I think this is absurd, and we should be focusing on the original mission of gathering the sum of all human knowledge and making it as accessible and useful as possible. But most editors are apathetic and ignore the elections, so we're only going to see more and more restrictive policies until Wikiquote, Wikinews, and all non-free content on Wikipedia is squeezed out of existence.

 * If you all haven't voted yet, you have one week left to read through the candidates' question pages and voice your opinion. Maybe when Wikiquote is deleted people will finally start paying attention to what the WMF is doing. Omegatron 23:15, 30 June 2007 (UTC)

Translations
Could anyone add some clarifications about languages. I mean, if a quote is in Arabic, can it be listed here with a translation? I thought that the arabic wikiquote was for that. But I'm seeing English quotes being translated into a lot of languages and listed in many different wikiquote projects. What is the policy of the English Wikiquote regarding this? That could be used as a guideline for other sister projects. --Steinninn 05:09, 27 December 2007 (UTC)

 * English Wikiquote tends to focus on quotes that are known in the English-speaking world, but many of those started out in other languages. We officially prefer to have the original quote cited (and sourced) first, then the English translation given underneath. (Whether the translation should reliably sourced or not is an ongoing debate, but if a source is known, by all means include it.) A brief example of this can be found at Templates/People.

 * As far as updating this FAQ with this kind of info, we're admittedly quite behind in doing this. Feel free to add a succinct statement of this and other practices. Somewhere along the way we're probably going to need to rethink its structure and organization to accomodate expansion. ~ Jeff Q (talk) 09:22, 27 December 2007 (UTC)

Quotes found on the internet
The answer in this section no longer reflects current practice. Anonymousities from random web pages are not encouraged: new ones are usually reverted and old ones are being removed. ~ Ningauble 15:06, 26 September 2010 (UTC)

Adding a question to the FAQ
I've done a little searching on wikiquote and can't find the process I should go through to add a question to the FAQ. Is there a list of questions (and answers) somewhere that are less frequent, or are pending approval? Or is it just a case of suggesting the question on the FAQ talk page (which, being really meta I am doing right now)? St3f (talk) 11:04, 20 October 2018 (UTC)
 * The answer is "C. Just add it." If other editors believe it is inappropriate they'll remove it. Butwhatdoiknow (talk) 17:00, 21 October 2018 (UTC)

Doctors
I Need to ask her a question but I am not supposed to be this 2607:FB91:E63:D938:AC39:BD71:CA20:ED92 09:10, 30 June 2023 (UTC)

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Wikiquote talk:FAQ


text:
Cato the Elder

Marcus Porcius Cato (234 BC – 149 BC), Roman statesman, often called "The Censor," Sapiens, Priscus, or Major (the Elder), to distinguish him from Cato the Younger (his great-grandson).

Quotes

 * All mankind rules its women, and we rule all mankind, but our women rule us.
 * In bitter criticism of the prevalent domination of women (The Classical weekly, Vol. 25–26, 1932, p. 273).
 * Quoted in Plutarch Apophthegmata regum et imperatorum, in Greek.

 * Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.
 * Sometimes quoted as Carthago delenda est.
 * Moreover, I consider that Carthage should be destroyed.
 * Cato was convinced that the security of Rome depended on the annihilation of Carthage and he urged his countrymen to the Third Punic War. Towards the end of his life he ended all of his speeches in the Roman senate with these words.

 * Emas non quod opus est, sed quod necesse est. Quod non opus est, asse carum est.
 * Buy not what you want, but what you have need of; what you do not want is dear at a farthing.
 * As quoted by Seneca (Epistles, 94)

 * Rem tene, verba sequentur.
 * Grasp the subject, the words will follow.
 * Cato's advice to orators (as quoted in Julius Victor, Art of Rhetoric. p. 197, Orell.; see also Wilhelm Sigismund Teuffel, Teuffel's History of Roman literature, Vol. 1 (1873), p. 158)
 * Cf. Dionysius Halicarnassensis, De Isocrate, ch. 12: "βούλεται δὲ ἡ φύσις τοῖς νοήμασιν ἕπεσθαι τὴν λέξιν, οὐ τῇ λέξει τὰ νοήματα." [Νature has it that style is in the service of thought, not the other way around.]
 * Variant translations: Stick to your subject, and words will follow. Get hold of the matter, the words will come of themselves. Lay hold of the subject, and the words will follow. Keep to the subject and the words will come. Grasp the point, the words will follow. Seize the subject; the words will follow. Stick to the point; the words will follow. Master the facts; the words will follow. Lay hold of the substance, the words will follow. Hold fast to the matter, the words will come. Hang onto your meaning, and the words will come. Have a grip of your theme and the words will come. Hold the idea and the words will follow. Stick to the meaning, and the words will take care of themselves.

 * The best way to keep good acts in memory is to refresh them with new.
 * Apothegms (no. 247)

 * Wise men learn more from fools than fools from the wise.
 * Plutarch's Life of Cato Variant: Wise men profit more from fools than fools from wise men; for the wise men shun the mistakes of fools, but fools do not imitate the successes of the wise.
 * Original Greek: Τοὺς δὲ φρονίμους ἔλεγε μᾶλλον ὑπὸ τῶν ἀφρόνων ἢ τοὺς ἄφρονας ὑπὸ τῶν φρονίμων ὠφελεῖσθαι· τούτους μὲν γὰρ φυλάττεσθαι τὰς ἐκείνων ἁμαρτίας, ἐκείνους δὲ τὰς τούτων μὴ μιμεῖσθαι κατορθώσεις.

 * I would much rather have men ask why I have no statue, than why I have one.
 * Attributed to Cato in Plutarch, Parallel Lives 19:4.
 * Original Greek: ‘μᾶλλον γὰρ,’ ἔφη, ‘βούλομαι ζητεῖσθαι, διὰ τί μου ἀνδριὰς οὐ κεῖται ἢ διὰ τί κεῖται’

 * Those who commit private theft pass their lives in confinement and fetters; plunderers of the public, in gold and purple.
 * English translation by John C. Rolfe,(1859-1943)
 * Latin: Fures priuatorum furtorum in neruo atque in compedibus aetatem agunt, fures publici in auro atque in purpura.
 * Attributed to Cato by Aulus Gellius in Noctes Atticae 11:18.
 * Gellius was referring to a speech by Cato "On Dividing Spoils among the Soldiers". Gold and purple possibly alludes to the toga picta worn by the victorious general at a.

De Agri Cultura, about 160 BC
Translation by: A Virginia Farmer. Roman farm management : the treatises of Cato and Varro done into English, with notes of modern instances by a Virginia farmer. 1918. pp. 19-50; with intro by

 * The pursuits of commerce would be as admirable as they are profitable if they were not subject to so great risks: and so, likewise, of banking, if it was always honestly conducted. For our ancestors considered, and so ordained in their laws, that, while the thief should be cast in double damages, the usurer should make four-fold restitution.
 * Introduction: of the dignity of the farmer

 * When you have decided to purchase a farm, be careful not to buy rashly; do not spare your visits and be not content with a single tour of inspection. The more you go, the more will the place please you, if it be worth your attention. Give heed to the appearance of the neighbourhood, - a flourishing country should show its prosperity. "When you go in, look about, so that, when needs be, you can find your way out."
 * Of buying a farm; Cited in (1825) An Encyclopædia of Agriculture. Part 1. p. 14
 * Loudon commented: In the time of Cato the Censor, the author of The Husbandry of the Ancients observed, though the operations of agriculture were generally performed by servants, yet the great men among the Roman continued to give particular attention to it, studied its improvement, and were very careful and exact in the management of nil their country affairs. This appears from the directions given them by this most attentive farmer. Those great men had both houses in town, and villas in the country; and, as they resided frequently in town, the management of their country affairs was committed to a or overseer. Now their attention to the culture of their land and to every other branch of husbandry, appears, from the directions given them how to behave upon their arrival from the city at their villas.

 * When you have arrived at your country house and have saluted your household, you should make the rounds of the farm the same day, if possible; if not, then certainly the next day. When you have observed how the field work has progressed, what things have been done, and what remains undone, you should summon your overseer the next day, and should call for a report of what work has been done in good season and why it has not been possible to complete the rest, and what wine and corn and other crops have been gathered.
 * Of the duties of the owner

 * The accounts of money, supplies and provisions should then be considered. The overseer should report what wine and oil has been sold, what price he got, what is on hand, and what remains for sale. Security should be taken for such accounts as ought to be secured. All other unsettled matters should be agreed upon. If any thing is needed for the coming year, it should be bought; every thing which is not needed should be sold. Whatever there is for lease should be leased.
 * Of the duties of the owner

 * These are the duties of the overseer: He should maintain discipline. He should observe the feast days. He should respect the rights of others and steadfastly uphold his own. He should settle all quarrels among the hands; If any one is at fault he should administer the punishment. He should take care that no one on the place is in want, or lacks food or drink; in this respect he can afford to be generous, for he will thus more easily prevent picking and stealing.
 * On the duties of the overseer

 * The overseer should be responsible for the duties of the housekeeper. If the master has given her to you for a wife, you should be satisfied with her, and she should respect you. Require that she be not given to wasteful habits; that she does not gossip with the neighbours and other women. She should not receive visitors either in the kitchen or in her own quarters. She should not go out to parties, nor should she gad about.
 * Of the duties of the housekeeper

Quotes about Cato

 * [A]s Cato said of the statue: So many statues in that Forum of yours, may it not be better if they ask, Where is Cato's statue?"
 * Thomas Carlyle, Sartor resartus; and, On heroes, hero-worship and the heroic in history

Misattributed

 * Woman is a violent and uncontrolled animal, and it is useless to let go the reins and then expect her not to kick over the traces. You must keep her on a tight rein [...] Women want total freedom or rather - to call things by their names - total licence. If you allow them to achieve complete equality with men, do you think they will be easier to live with? Not at all. Once they have achieved equality, they will be your masters ...
 * This is composed of excerpts (with some paraphrasing) from a speech of Cato as reported in Livy's History of Rome, book 34, sections 2-4.

 * Fronte capillata, post est occasio calva.
 * Hairy in front, opportunity is bald behind.
 * Disticha, Bk. ii, No. 26. The Distichs of Cato were long attributed to Cato the Elder but probably are the work of a much later author called Dionysius Cato from the 3rd or 4th century A.D.

title: Cato the Elder


text: User:Fantasy

title: User:Fantasy


text:
Epicurus

Epicurus (341 BC – 270 BC) was an Ancient Greek philosopher and Sage whose ideas gave rise to systems of thought known as Epicureanism. Influenced by Democritus, Aristippus, Pyrrho, and possibly the Cynics, he turned against the Platonism of his day. He openly allowed women and slaves to join the school as a matter of policy.

Quotes
Tetrapharmakos_PHerc_1005_col_5.png is easy to get, and

What is terrible is easy to endure.]]

Don't worry about death; What is good is easy to get, and What is terrible is easy to endure.'''
 * Μη φοβάσαι τον θεό, Μην ανησυχείτε για το θάνατο. Αυτό που είναι καλό είναι εύκολο να αποκτηθεί, και Αυτό που είναι τρομερό είναι εύκολο να υπομείνει.
 * '''Don't fear god,
 * The "Tetrapharmakos" [τετραφάρμακος], or "The four-part cure" of Epicurus, from the "Herculaneum Papyrus", 1005, 4.9–14 of Philodemus, as translated in The Epicurus Reader: Selected Writings and Testimonia (1994) edited by D. S. Hutchinson, p. vi

 * Δικαιοσύνης καρπὸς μέγιστος ἀταραξία.
 * The greatest reward of righteousness is peace of mind.
 * Attributed to Epicurus by Clement of Alexandria in Stromata

 * Luxurious food and drinks, in no way protect you from harm. Wealth beyond what is natural, is no more use than an overflowing container. Real value is not generated by theaters, and baths, perfumes or ointments, but by philosophy.
 * From the esplanade wall at Oenoanda, now in Turkey, as recorded by Diogenes of Oenoanda

 * Let no one be slow to seek wisdom when he is young nor weary in the search of it when he has grown old. For no age is too early or too late for the health of the soul. And to say that the season for studying philosophy has not yet come, or that it is past and gone, is like saying that the season for happiness is not yet or that it is now no more. Therefore, both old and young alike ought to seek wisdom, the former in order that, as age comes over him, he may be young in good things because of the grace of what has been, and the latter in order that, while he is young, he may at the same time be old, because he has no fear of the things which are to come. So we must exercise ourselves in the things which bring happiness, since, if that be present, we have everything, and, if that be absent, all our actions are directed towards attaining it.
 * "Letter to Menoeceus", as translated in Stoic and Epicurean (1910) by Robert Drew Hicks, p. 167
 * Variant translation: Let no one delay to study philosophy while he is young, and when he is old let him not become weary of the study; for no man can ever find the time unsuitable or too late to study the health of his soul. And he who asserts either that it is not yet time to philosophize, or that the hour is passed, is like a man who should say that the time is not yet come to be happy, or that it is too late. So that both young and old should study philosophy, the one in order that, when he is old, he many be young in good things through the pleasing recollection of the past, and the other in order that he may be at the same time both young and old, in consequence of his absence of fear for the future.

 * τὸ φρικωδέστατον οὖν τῶν κακῶν ὁ θάνατος οὐθὲν πρὸς ἡμᾶς͵ ἐπειδήπερ ὅταν μὲν ἡμεῖς ὦμεν͵ ὁ θάνατος οὐ πάρεστιν͵ ὅταν δὲ ὁ θάνατος παρῇ͵ τόθ΄ ἡμεῖς οὐκ ἐσμέν.
 * Death, therefore, the most awful of evils, is nothing to us, seeing that, when we are, death is not come, and, when death is come, we are not.
 * "Letter to Menoeceus", as translated in Stoic and Epicurean (1910) by Robert Drew Hicks, p. 169

 * He who is not satisfied with a little, is satisfied with nothing.
 * The Essential Epicurus : Letters, Principal Doctrines, Vatican sayings, and fragments (1993) edited by Eugene Michael O'Connor, p. 99

 * Self-sufficiency is the greatest of all wealth.
 * The Essential Epicurus : Letters, Principal Doctrines, Vatican sayings, and fragments (1993) edited by Eugene Michael O'Connor, p. 99

Sovereign Maxims

 * The 40 "Sovran Maxims" (or "Sovereign Maxims), or "Principal Doctrines" as translated by Robert Drew Hicks

What is blessed and indestructible has no troubles itself, nor does it give trouble to anyone else, so that it is not affected by feelings of anger or gratitude. For all such things are signs of weakness. (Hutchinson) The blessed and immortal is itself free from trouble nor does it cause trouble for anyone else; therefore it is not constrained either by anger of favour. For such sentiments exist only in the weak (O'Connor) A blessed and imperishable being neither has trouble itself nor does it cause trouble for anyone else; therefore, it does not experience anger nor gratitude, for such feelings signify weakness. (unsourced translation)
 * A happy and eternal being has no trouble himself and brings no trouble upon any other being; hence he is exempt from movements of anger and partiality, for every such movement implies weakness. (1)
 * Variant translations:

 * Οὐκ ἔστιν ἡδέως ζῆν ἄνευ τοῦ φρονίμως καὶ καλῶς καὶ δικαίως, οὐδὲ φρονίμως καὶ καλῶς καὶ δικαίως ἄνευ τοῦ ἡδέως. ὅτῳ δὲ τοῦτο μὴ ὑπάρχει ἐξ οὗ ζῆν φρονίμως, καὶ καλῶς καὶ δικαίως ὑπάρχει, οὐκ ἔστι τοῦτον ἡδέως ζῆν.
 * It is impossible to live a pleasant life without living wisely and honorably and justly, and it is impossible to live wisely and honorably and justly without living pleasantly. Whenever any one of these is lacking, when, for instance, the man is not able to live wisely, though he lives honorably and justly, it is impossible for him to live a pleasant life. (5)

 * No pleasure is in itself evil, but the things which produce certain pleasures entail annoyances many times greater than the pleasures themselves. (8)
 * Variant translation: No pleasure is itself a bad thing, but the things that produce some kinds of pleasure, bring along with them unpleasantness that is much greater than the pleasure itself.

 * It is impossible for someone to dispel his fears about the most important matters if he doesn't know the nature of the universe but still gives some credence to myths. So without the study of nature there is no enjoyment of pure pleasure. (12)
 * Variant translation: One cannot rid himself of his primal fears if he does not understand the nature of the universe, but instead suspects the truth of some mythical story. So without the study of nature, there can be no enjoyment of pure pleasure.

 * The wealth required by nature is limited and is easy to procure; but the wealth required by vain ideals extends to infinity. (15)

 * Chance seldom interferes with the wise man; his greatest and highest interests have been, are, and will be, directed by reason throughout his whole life. (16).

 * Ὁ δίκαιος ἀταρακτότατος, ὁ δ᾽ ἄδικος πλείστης ταραχῆς γέμων.
 * The just man is most free from disturbance, while the unjust is full of the utmost disturbance. (17)

 * The flesh receives as unlimited the limits of pleasure; and to provide it requires unlimited time. But the mind, intellectually grasping what the end and limit of the flesh is, and banishing the terrors of the future, procures a complete and perfect life, and we have no longer any need of unlimited time. Nevertheless the mind does not shun pleasure, and even when circumstances make death imminent, the mind does not lack enjoyment of the best life. (20)

 * We must consider both the ultimate end and all clear sensory evidence, to which we refer our opinions; for otherwise everything will be full of uncertainty and confusion. (22)

 * If you reject absolutely any single sensation without stopping to discriminate with respect to that which awaits confirmation between matter of opinion and that which is already present, whether in sensation or in feelings or in any immediate perception of the mind, you will throw into confusion even the rest of your sensations by your groundless belief and so you will be rejecting the standard of truth altogether. If in your ideas based upon opinion you hastily affirm as true all that awaits confirmation as well as that which does not, you will not escape error, as you will be maintaining complete ambiguity whenever it is a case of judging between right and wrong opinion. (24)

 * Of all the means which wisdom acquires to ensure happiness throughout the whole of life, by far the most important is friendship. (28)

 * Of our desires some are natural and necessary, others are natural but not necessary; and others are neither natural nor necessary, but are due to groundless opinion. (29)

 * Natural justice is a symbol or expression of usefulness, to prevent one person from harming or being harmed by another. (31)
 * Variant: Natural justice is a pledge of reciprocal benefit, to prevent one man from harming or being harmed by another.

 * Those animals which are incapable of making binding agreements with one another not to inflict nor suffer harm are without either justice or injustice; and likewise for those peoples who either could not or would not form binding agreements not to inflict nor suffer harm. (32)

 * It is impossible for a man who secretly violates the terms of the agreement not to harm or be harmed to feel confident that he will remain undiscovered, even if he has already escaped ten thousand times; for until his death he is never sure that he will not be detected. (35)

 * Among the things held to be just by law, whatever is proved to be of advantage in men's dealings has the stamp of justice, whether or not it be the same for all; but if a man makes a law and it does not prove to be mutually advantageous, then this is no longer just. And if what is mutually advantageous varies and only for a time corresponds to our concept of justice, nevertheless for that time it is just for those who do not trouble themselves about empty words, but look simply at the facts. (37)

 * Where without any change in circumstances the things held to be just by law are seen not to correspond with the concept of justice in actual practice, such laws are not really just; but wherever the laws have ceased to be advantageous because of a change in circumstances, in that case the laws were for that time just when they were advantageous for the mutual dealings of the citizens, and subsequently ceased to be just when they were no longer advantageous. (38)

 * Those who were best able to provide themselves with the means of security against their neighbors, being thus in possession of the surest guarantee, passed the most agreeable life in each other's society; and their enjoyment of the fullest intimacy was such that, if one of them died before his time, the survivors did not mourn his death as if it called for sympathy. (40)

Ancient and Modern Celebrated Freethinkers (Half-Hours with the Freethinkers)

 * by Charles Bradlaugh, A. Collins, and J. Watts (1877) full text

 * The end of living, or the ultimate good, which is to be sought for its own sake, according to the universal opinion of mankind, is happiness; yet men, for the most part, fail in the pursuit of this end, either because they do not form a right idea of the nature of happiness, or because they do not make use of proper means to attain it.

 * Since it is every man's interest to be happy through the whole of life, it is the wisdom of every one to employ philosophy in the search of felicity without delay; and there cannot be a greater folly, than to be always beginning to live.

 * The happiness which belongs to man, is that state in which he enjoys as many of the good things, and suffers as few of the evils incident to human nature as possible; passing his days in a smooth course of permanent tranquility. A wise man, though deprived of sight or hearing, may experience happiness in the enjoyment of the good things which yet remain; and when suffering torture, or laboring under some painful disease, can mitigate the anguish by patience, and can enjoy, in his afflictions, the consciousness of his own constancy.

 * Pleasure, or pain, is not only good, or evil, in itself, but the measure of what is good or evil, in every object of desire or aversion; for the ultimate reason why we pursue one thing, and avoid another, is because we expect pleasure from the former, and apprehend pain from the latter. If we sometimes decline a present pleasure, it is not because we are averse to pleasure itself, but because we conceive, that in the present instance, it will be necessarily connected with a greater pain. In like manner, if we sometimes voluntarily submit to a present pain, it is because we judge that it is necessarily connected with a greater pleasure.

 * There are two kinds of pleasure: one consisting in a state of rest, in which both body and mind are undisturbed by any kind of pain; the other arising from an agreeable agitation of the senses, producing a correspondent emotion in the soul. It is upon the former of these that the enjoyment of life chiefly depends. Happiness may therefore be said to consist in bodily ease, and mental tranquility.

 * When pleasure is asserted to be the end of living, we are not then to understand that violent kind of delight or joy which arises from the gratification of the senses and passions, but merely that placid state of mind, which results from the absence of every cause of pain or uneasiness. Those pleasures, which arise from agitation, are not to be pursued as in themselves the end of living, but as means of arriving at that stable tranquility, in which true happiness consists. It is the office of reason to confine the pursuit of pleasure within the limits of nature, in order to the attainment of that happy state, in which the body is free from every kind of pain, and the mind from all perturbation. This state must not, however, be conceived to be perfect in proportion as it is inactive and torpid, but in proportion as all the functions of life are quietly and pleasantly performed. A happy life neither resembles a rapid torrent, nor a standing pool, but is like a gentle stream, that glides smoothly and silently along.

 * This happy state can only be obtained by a prudent care of the body, and a steady government of the mind. The diseases of the body are to be prevented by temperance, or cured by medicine, or rendered tolerable by patience.

 * Against the diseases of the mind, philosophy provides sufficient antidotes. The instruments which it employs for this purpose are the virtues; the root of which, whence all the rest proceed, is prudence. This virtue comprehends the whole art of living discreetly, justly, and honorably, and is, in fact, the same thing with wisdom. It instructs men to free their understandings from the clouds of prejudice; to exercise temperance and fortitude in the government of themselves: and to practice justice towards others. Although pleasure, or happiness, which is the end of living, be superior to virtue, which is only the means, it is every one's interest to practice all the virtues; for in a happy life, pleasure can never be separated from virtue.

 * A prudent man, in order to secure his tranquility, will consult his natural disposition in the choice of his plan of life. If, for example, he be persuaded that he should be happier in a state of marriage than in celibacy, he ought to marry; but if he be convinced that matrimony would be an impediment to his happiness, he ought to remain single.

 * Temperance is that discreet regulation of the desires and passions, by which we are enabled to enjoy pleasures without suffering any consequent inconvenience. They who maintain such a constant self-command, as never to be enticed by the prospect of present indulgence, to do that which will be productive of evil, obtain the truest pleasure by declining pleasure.

 * Since, of desires some are natural and necessary; others natural, but not necessary; and others neither natural nor necessary, but the offspring of false judgment; it must be the office of temperance to gratify the first class, as far as nature requires: to restrain the second within the bounds of moderation; and, as to the third, resolutely to oppose, and, if possible, entirely repress them.

 * Sobriety, as opposed to inebriety and gluttony, is of admirable use in teaching men that nature is satisfied with a little, and enabling them to content themselves with simple and frugal fare.

 * Continence is a branch of temperance, which prevents the diseases, infamy, remorse, and punishment, to which those are exposed, who indulge themselves in unlawful amours.

 * Gentleness, as opposed to an irascible temper, greatly contributes to the tranquility and happiness of life, by preserving the mind from perturbation, and arming it against the assaults of calumny and malice.

 * A wise man, who puts himself under the government of reason, will be able to receive an injury with calmness, and to treat the person who committed it with lenity; for he will rank injuries among the casual events of life, and will prudently reflect that he can no more stop the natural current of human passions, than he can curb the stormy winds.

 * Moderation, in the pursuit of honors or riches, is the only security against disappointment and vexation. A wise man, therefore, will prefer the simplicity of rustic life to the magnificence of courts.

 * Fortitude, the virtue which enables us to endure pain, and to banish fear, is of great use in producing tranquility. Philosophy instructs us to pay homage to the gods, not through hope or fear, but from veneration of their superior nature. It moreover enables us to conquer the fear of death, by teaching us that it is no proper object of terror; since, whilst we are, death is not, and when death arrives, we are not: so that it neither concerns the living nor the dead.

 * Justice respects man as living in society, and is the common bond without which no society can subsist.

 * Nearly allied to justice are the virtues of beneficence, compassion, gratitude, piety, and friendship.

 * A true friend will partake of the wants and sorrows of his friend, as if they were his own; if he be in want, he will relieve him; if he be in prison, he will visit him; if he be sick, he will come to him; nay-situations may occur, in which he would not scruple to die for him. It cannot then be doubted, that friendship is one of the most useful means of procuring a secure, tranquil, and happy life.

Disputed
or can but does not want to, or neither wishes to nor can, or both wants to and can. If he wants to and cannot, then he is weak and this does not apply to god. If he can but does not want to, then he is spiteful which is equally foreign to god's nature. If he neither wants to nor can, he is both weak and spiteful, and so not a god. If he wants to and can, which is the only thing fitting for a god, '''where then do bad things come from? Or why does he not eliminate them?'" Lactantius, On the Anger of God'', 13.19
 * Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?
 * This attribution occurs in chapter 13 (Ioan. Graphei, 1532, p. 494) of the Christian church father's Lactantius's De Ira Dei (c. 318):
 * "God," he [Epicurus] says, "either wants to eliminate bad things and cannot,
 * Charles Bray, in his 1863 The Philosophy of Necessity: Or, Natural Law as Applicable to Moral, Mental, and Social Science quotes Epicurus without citation as saying a variant of the above statement (p. 41) (with "is not omnipotent" for "is impotent"). This quote appeared in "On the proofs of the existence of God: a lecture and answer questions" (1960) by professor Kryvelev I.A. (Крывелёв И.А. О доказательствах бытия божия: лекция и ответы на вопросы. М., 1960). And N. A. Nicholson, in his 1864 Philosophical Papers (p. 40), attributes "the famous questions" to Epicurus, using the wording used earlier by Hume (with "is he" for "he is"). Hume's statement occurs in Book X (p. 186) of his renowned Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion, published posthumously in 1779. The character Philo precedes the statement with "Epicurus's old questions are yet unanswered.…". Hume is following the enormously influential Dictionnaire Historique et Critique (1697–1702) of Pierre Bayle, which quotes Lactantius attributing the questions to Epicurus (Desoer, 1820, p. 479).
 * There has also arisen a further disputed extension, for which there has been found no published source prior to The Heretic's Handbook of Quotations: Cutting Comments on Burning Issues (1992) by Charles Bufe, p. 186: "Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?"

Quotes about Epicurus

 * For if they imagine infinite spaces of time before the world, during which God could not have been idle, in like manner they may conceive outside the world infinite realms of space, in which, if any one says that the Omnipotent cannot hold His hand from working, will it not follow that they must adopt Epicurus' dream of innumerable worlds? with this difference only, that he asserts that they are formed and destroyed by the fortuitous movements of atoms, while they will hold that they are made by God's hand, if they maintain that, throughout the boundless immensity of space, stretching interminably in every direction round the world, God cannot rest, and that the worlds which they suppose Him to make cannot be destroyed. ... there is no place beside the world ...no time before the world.
 * Augustine of Hippo, The City of God, Book XI, Ch. 5 "That We Ought Not to Seek to Comprehend the Infinite Ages of Time Before the World, Nor the Infinite Realms of Space"

 * Verily, no modern atheist, Mr. Huxley included, can outvie Epicurus in materialism; he can but mimic him. And what is his “ protoplasm.” but a rechauffe of the speculations of the Hindu Swabhavikas or Pantheists, who assert that all things, the gods as well as men and animals, are born from Swabhava or their own nature?! As to Epicurus, this is what Lucretius makes him say: “The soul, thus produced, must be material, because we trace it issuing from a material source; because it exists, and exists alone in a material system ; is nourished by material food ; grows with the growth of the body; becomes matured with its maturity; declines with its decay; and hence, whether belonging to man or brute, must die with its death.” Nevertheless, we would remind the reader that Epicurus is here speaking of the Astral Soul, not of Divine Spirit. Still, if we rightly understand the above, Mr. Huxley's “mutton protoplasm” is of a very ancient origin, and can claim for its birthplace, Athens, and for its cradle, the brain of old Epicurus. p. 250
 * H. P. Blavatsky, Isis Unveiled, The Veil of Isis, Part 1, Science,  (1877)

 * Truly says Cudworth that the greatest ignorance of which our modern wiseacres accuse the ancients is their belief in the soul's immortality. Like the old skeptic of Greece, our scientists—to use an expression of the same Dr. Cudworth—are afraid that if they admit spirits and apparitions they must admit a God too; and there is nothing too absurd, he adds, for them to suppose, in order to keep out the existence of God. The great body of ancient materialists, skeptical as they now seem to us, thought otherwise, and Epicurus, who rejected the soul's immortality, believed still in a God, and Demokritus fully conceded the reality of apparitions. The preexistence and God-like powers of the human spirit were believed in by most all the sages of ancient days. p. 251
 * H. P. Blavatsky, Isis Unveiled, The Veil of Isis, Part 1, Science,  (1877)
 * Epicurus says, no life can be pleasant except a virtuous life; and he charges you to avoid whatever maybe calculated to create disquiet in the mind, or give pain to the body.
 * Charles Bradlaugh, A. Collins, and J. Watts, in Ancient and Modern Celebrated Freethinkers (Half-Hours with the Freethinkers) (1877)

 * We know, that of all living beings man is the best formed, and, as the gods belong to this number, they must have a human form. ... I do not mean to say that the gods have body and blood in them; but I say that they seem as if they had bodies with blood in them. . ., Epicurus, for whom hidden things were as tangible as if he had touched them with his finger, teaches us that gods are not generally visible, but that they are intelligible; that they are not bodies having a certain solidity . . . but that we can recognize them by their passing images; that as there are atoms enough in the infinite space to produce such images, these are produced before us . . . and make us realize what are these happy, immortal beings.
 * Cicero in De Natura Deorum  – On the Nature of the GodsBook I, Section 18  (45 BC)

 * We cannot quote from his own works, in his own words, because, although he wrote very much, only a summary of his writings has come to us uninjured; but his doctrines have been so fully investigated and treated on, both by his opponents and his disciples, that there is no difficulty or doubt as to the principles inculcated in the school of Epicurus....
 * Laertius, quoted in Ancient and Modern Celebrated Freethinkers (Half-Hours with the Freethinkers) by Charles Bradlaugh, A. Collins, and J. Watts (1877)

 * The sum of his doctrine concerning philosophy, in general, is this: Philosophy is the exercise of reason in the pursuit and attainment of a happy life; whence it follows, that those studies which conduce neither to the acquisition nor the enjoyment of happiness are to be dismissed as of no value. The end of all speculation ought to be, to enable men to judge with certainty what is to be chosen, and what to be avoided, to preserve themselves free from pain, and to secure health of body, and tranquillity of mind. True philosophy is so useful to every man, that the young should apply to it without delay, and the old should never be weary of the pursuit; for no man is either too young or too old to correct and improve his mind, and to study the art of happiness. Happy are they who possess by nature a free and vigorous intellect, and who are born in a country where they can prosecute their inquiries without restraint: for it is philosophy alone which raises a man above vain fears and base passions, and gives him the perfect command of himself.
 * Laertius, quoted in Ancient and Modern Celebrated Freethinkers (Half-Hours with the Freethinkers) by Charles Bradlaugh, A. Collins, and J. Watts (1877)

 * As nothing ought to be dearer to a philosopher than truth, he should, pursue it by the most direct means, devising no actions himself, nor suffering himself to be imposed upon by the fictions of others, neither poets, orators, nor logicians, making no other use of the rules of rhetoric or grammar, than to enable him to speak or write with accuracy and perspicuity, and always preferring a plain and simple to an ornamented style. Whilst some doubt of everything, and others profess to acknowledge everything, a wise man will embrace such tenets, and only such as are built upon experience, or upon certain and indisputable axioms.
 * Laertius, quoted in Ancient and Modern Celebrated Freethinkers (Half-Hours with the Freethinkers) by Charles Bradlaugh, A. Collins, and J. Watts (1877)

 * Ergo vivida vis animi pervicit, et extra Processit longe flammantia moenia mundi Atque omne immensum peragravit, mente animoque.
 * So the vital strength of his spirit won through, and he made his way far outside the flaming walls of the world and ranged over the measureless whole, both in mind and spirit.
 * Lucretius, in De Rerum Natura, Book I, line 72

Quotes about Epicureans

 * "The Epicureans in their writings established this precept: always keep in your mind one of those ancients who practiced virtue." - Marcus Aurelius (The Essential Marcus Aurelius)
 * "The thought for today is one which I discovered in Epicurus; for I am wont to cross over even into the enemy’s camp – not as a deserter but as a scout. (Letters, 2)" - Seneca (What Seneca Really Said about Epicureanism)

title: Epicurus