Themes

"Titles are marks of honest men, and wise: The fool or knave that wears a title lies."

"Better not to be at all Than not be noble."

"The Chauci are the noblest of the German races, a nation who would maintain their greatness by righteous dealing. Without ambition, without lawless violence, they live peaceful and secluded, never provoking a war or injuring others by rapine and robbery. Indeed, the crowning proof of their valor and their strength is, that they keep up their superiority without harm to others. Yet all have their weapons in readiness, and an army if necessary, with a multitude of men and horses; and even while at peace they have the same renown of valor."

"This was the noblest Roman of them all: All the conspirators save only he Did that they did in envy of great Cæsar; He only, in a general honest thought And common good to all, made one of them."

"His nature is too noble for the world: He would not flatter Neptune for his trident, Or Jove for's power to thunder."

"Take heed that ye love not human glory in any respect, lest your portion also be reckoned among those to whom it was said, "How can ye believe, who seek glory, one from another?" and of whom it is said through the prophet, "Increase evils to them; increase evils to the boastful of the earth"; and elsewhere, "Ye are confounded from your boasting, from your reproaching in the sight of the Lord." For I do not wish you to have regard to those, who are virgins of the world, and not of Christ; who unmindful of their purpose and profession, rejoice in delicacies, are delighted with riches, and boast of their descent from a merely carnal nobility; who, if they assuredly believed themselves to be the daughters of God, would never, after their divine ancestry, admire mere human nobility, nor glory in any honored earthly father: if they felt that they had God as their Father, they would not love any nobility connected with the flesh."

"Almost all the noblest things that have been achieved in the world, have been achieved by poor men; poor scholars, poor professional men, poor artisans and artists, poor philosophers, poets, and men of genius."

"Be aristocracy the only joy: Let commerce perish — let the world expire."

"Be NOBLE! and the nobleness that lies In other men, sleeping, but never dead, Will rise in majesty to meet thine own."

"As one lamp lights another, nor grows less, So nobleness enkindleth nobleness."

"Noble by birth, yet nobler by great deeds."

"Be noble in every thought And in every deed!"

"to men and women there falls the task of exploring truth with their reason, and in this their nobility consists."

"I had been too long away from the nobility; I had forgotten how silly even the best of them could be."

"Il sangue nobile è un accidente della fortuna; le azioni nobili caratterizzano il grande."

"No title of nobility shall be granted by the United States: and no person holding any office of profit or trust under them, shall, without the consent of the Congress, accept of any present, emolument, office, or title, of any kind whatever, from any king, prince, or foreign state."

"But he who neither thinks for himself, nor lays to heart another's wisdom, this is a useless man.’"

"He, too, is good who takes advice from a wiser (person)."

"‘ He is the best of all who thinks for himself in all things."

"It is necessary therefore that the person who is to study, with any tolerable chance of profit, the principles of nobleness and justice and politics generally, should have received a good moral training. For our data here are moral judgments, and if a man knows what it is right to do, he does not require a formal reason. And a person that has been thus trained, either possesses these first principles already, or can easily acquire them. As for him who neither possesses nor can acquire them, let him take to heart the words of Hesiod:"

"She dwelt among the untrodden ways Beside the springs of Dove, A maid whom there were none to praise And very few to love."

"Thus let me live, unseen, unknown, Thus unlamented let me die; Steal from the world, and not a stone Tell where I lie."

"Ut sæpe summa ingenia in occulto latent!"

"Bene qui latuit, bene vixit."

"Some write their wrongs in marble: he more just, Stoop'd down serene and wrote them on the dust, Trod under foot, the sport of every wind, Swept from the earth and blotted from his mind, There, secret in the grave, he bade them lie, And grieved they could not 'scape the Almighty eye."

"As drifting logs of wood may haply meet On ocean's waters surging to and fro, And having met, drift once again apart, So, fleeting is the intercourse of men. E'en as a traveler meeting with the shade Of some o'erhung tree, awhile reposes, Then leaves its shelter to pursue his ways, So men meet friends, then part with them for ever."

"Like driftwood spars which meet and pass Upon the boundless ocean-plain, So on the sea of life, alas! Man nears man, meets, and leaves again."

"Like a plank of driftwood Tossed on the watery main, Another plank encountered, Meets, touches, parts again; So tossed, and drifting ever, On life's unresting sea, Men meet, and greet, and sever, Parting eternally."

"When shall we three meet again In thunder, lightning, or in rain?"

"And so he'll die; and, rising so again, When I shall meet him in the court of heaven I shall not know him."

"Some day, some day of days, threading the street With idle, heedless pace, Unlooking for such grace, I shall behold your face! Some day, some day of days, thus may we meet."

"Talk helps people consider the possibilities open for social change ... Movements begin when people get together to think out loud about the kind of city they might help to create. One person said, "Freedom is an endless meeting.""

"In life there are meetings which seem Like a fate."

"Ships that pass in the night, and speak each other in passing, Only a signal shown and a distant voice in the darkness: So on the ocean of life, we pass and speak one another, Only a look and a voice, then darkness again and a silence."

"As two floating planks meet and part on the sea, O friend! so I met and then drifted from thee."

"And this cuff was but to knock at your ear, and beseech listening."

"In listening mood she seemed to stand, The guardian Naiad of the strand."

"Listen, every one That listen may, unto a tale That's merrier than the nightingale."

"He holds him with his glittering eye— * * * * * * And listens like a three years' child."

"Most people don't know how to listen because the major part of their attention is taken up by thinking. They pay more attention to that than to what the other person is saying, and none at all to what really matters: the Being of the other person underneath the words and the mind. Of course, you cannot feel someone else's Being except through your own. This is the beginning of the realization of oneness, which is love. At the deepest level of Being, you are one with all that is. Most human relationships consist mainly of minds interacting with each other, not of human beings communicating, being in communion. No relationship can thrive in that way, and that is why there is so much conflict in relationships."

"what lovely, larger life becomes ours when we listen to one another"

"Movies don't cause crime any more than prison wardens cause crime. It has been charged against the motion picture industry that we take a sympathetic attitude toward gangsters, thugs, racketeers and criminals. I deny that. After the things that have happened to me and my fellow screen heavies, I don't see how they can say that. So many criminals get killed in The Maltese Falcon that there's a special announcement at the end of the film saying, "If any persons are alive in this picture, it is purely coincidental." There are groups that would like us to show the criminal always outmatched, poorly armed, and all policemen a good six inches taller, armed with tear gas and tommy guns, while the poor, dear, miserable rat of a gangster has to fight it out alone with only one measly little pistol. The object would be to de-glamorize the gangster. That's all right, but it seems to me they are asking us to go about it in the wrong way. It seems to me that disarming the gangster tends to add glamour rather than to remove it and, in some instances, even makes him seem gallant. What these critics forget is that the sympathies of the crowd are always with the underdog. It is better, I think, to deglamorize His Excellency the Rat as we do it at Warners, by showing him well-armed, with an up-to-date arsenal, with smokescreens for his automobile, expensive short-wave radios and other good equipment for the art of murder and arson. When we show a criminal on the screen like that, there is no doubt in the mind of the weakest low-grade moron who the hero is. The hero is unquestionably your friend and mine, the cop."

"The one who recites the Qur’an and the one who listens to it have an equal share in the reward."

"Considering how much the ears are cultivated with all the useless varieties of "lute, sackbut, and psaltery," it is wonderful their first great quality should be so neglected ; it shows how much common sense is overlooked in our present style of education. Now, considering that it is the first step to general popularity — (that general popularity, to be turned, like a patriot’s, to particular account) — considering that it is the great general principle of conciliation towards East Indian uncles and independent aunts, it shows how much real utility is forgotten, when the science of listening is not made a prominent branch of instruction. So many act on the mistaken principle, that mere hearing is listening — the eyes, believe me, listen even better than the ears — there ought to be a professor of listening. We recommend this to the attention of the London University, or the new King's College ; both professing to improve the system of education. Under the head of listening, is to be included the arts of opportune questionings and judicious negatives — those negatives which, like certain votes, become, after a time, affirmatives."

"in a community, we learn to listen"

"Blessed are they who listen when no one is left to speak."

"The sounds we create tomorrow depend on the care we give our ears today."

"Perhaps it is possible to discover more in silence than in speech. Or perhaps it is only that those who are silent among us learn to listen."

"When people talk, listen completely. Most people never listen."

"Understanding does not occur when we try to intercept what someone wants to say to us by claiming we already know it."