"It is the business of the speculative philosopher to mark the proper ends of government. It is the
business of the politician, who is the philosopher in action, to find out proper means to those ends, and
to employ them with effect."
Edmund Burke
"Whoever wishes to foresee the future must consult the past; for human events ever resemble those of
preceding times. This arises from the fact that they are produced by men who ever have been, and ever
shall be, animated by the same passions, and thus they necessarily have the same results."
Machiavelli
Poor and content is rich, and rich enough.
Shakespeare
"History cannot give us a program for the future, but it can give us a fuller understanding of ourselves,
and of our common humanity, so that we can better face the future."
Robert Penn Warren
A Distrust of Intellect
The intellectual power, through words and things,
Went sounding on, a dim and perilous way!
Wordsworth
A Yearning for Divine Edification
God guard me from those thoughts men think
In the mind alone;
He that sings a lasting song
Thinks in a marrow-bone;
Yeats
Charity
That best portion of a good man's life,
His little, nameless, unremembered acts
Of kindness and of love.
Wordsworth
Purity of Heart
A peace above all earthly dignities,
A still and quiet conscience.
Shakespeare
Humility
The best of men
That e'er wore earth about him, was a sufferer,
A soft, meek, patient, humble, tranquil spirit,
The first true gentleman that ever breathed.
Thomas Dekker
Meekness
Since my dear soul was mistress of her choice,
And could of men distinguish her election,
Sh'hath sealed thee for herself, for thou hast been
As one in suff'ring all that suffers nothing,
A man that Fortune's buffets and rewards
Hast ta'en with equal thanks; and blest are those
Whose blood and judgement are so well co-medled,
That they are not a pipe for Fortune's finger
To sound what stop she please: give me that man
That is not passion's slave, and I will wear him
In my heart's core, ay in my heart of heart,
As I do thee.
Shakespeare
Spiritual Truths by one of the world religions in the case of each "Truth":-
A Disdain for Materialism
Chuang Tzu put on cotton clothes with patches in them, and arranging his girdle and tying on his shoes,
(i.e. to keep them from falling off), went to see the prince of Wei.
"How miserable you look, Sir!" Cried the prince. "It is poverty, not misery", replied Chuang Tzu. "A man
who has TAO cannot be miserable. Ragged clothes and old boots make poverty, not misery".
Chuang Tzu - (Taoism)
A Distrust of Intellect
Sell your cleverness and buy bewilderment; Cleverness is mere opinion, bewilderment intuition.
Rumi - (Islam)
A Yearning for Divine Edification
This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the
vanity of their mind. Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the
ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart:
St. Paul - (Christianity)
Charity
He that does everything for Me, whose supreme object I am, who worships Me, being free from attachment
and without hatred to any creature, this man, Arjuna!, comes to Me.
Bhagavad Gita - (Hinduism)
Purity of Heart
The path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day. The way
of the wicked is as darkness: they know not at what they stumble.
Solomon - (Judaism)
Humility
Would you become a pilgrim on the road of love? The first condition is that you make yourself humble as
dust and ashes.
Ansari of Herat - (Islam)
Meekness
Let a man overcome anger by love, let him overcome evil by good; let him overcome the greedy by
liberality, the liar by truth! Speak the truth, do not yield to anger; give, if thou art asked for
little; by these three steps thou wilt go near the gods.
Dhammapada - (Buddhism)
Wisdom Quotes from Christian Sources
A Disdain for Materialism
Some have Me in their mouths, but little in their hearts.
There are others who, being enlightened in their understanding and purified in their affection, always
breathe after things eternal, are unwilling to hear of earthly things, and grieve to be subject to the
necessities of nature; and such as these perceive what the Spirit of Truth speaketh in them.
For it teacheth them to despise the things of the earth and to love heavenly things; to disregard the
world, and all the day and night to aspire after heaven.
Thomas a Kempis
A Distrust of Intellect
Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain
deceit, after the tradition of men, after the
rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.
St. Paul
A Yearning for Divine Edification
It is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things
which God has prepared for them that love him.
But God has revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the
Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God.
...the natural man receives not the things of the
Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him:
neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
St. Paul
Charity
Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and
knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.
St. John
Purity of Heart
Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my
absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to
will and to do of his good pleasure. Do all things without murmurings and disputings: That ye may be
blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation,
among whom ye shine as lights in the world;
St. Paul
Humility
Neither be ye called masters: for one is your Master, even Christ. But he that is greatest among you
shall be your servant. And whomsoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble
himself shall be exalted.
Jesus
Meekness
Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, and slow to wrath: For
the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.
St. James
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