Berber Quotes

Really great things, when discussed by little men, can usually make such men grow big.

For I wondered that others, subject to death, did live, since he whom I loved, as if he should never die, was dead; and I wondered yet more that myself, who was to him a second self, could live, he being dead. Well said one of his friend, "Thou half of my soul"; for I felt that my soul and his soul were "one soul in two bodies": and therefore was my life a horror to me, because I would not live halved. And therefore perchance I feared to die, lest he whom I had much loved should die wholly.

Therefore, give to the poor. I beg you, I admonish you, I charge you, I command you to give.

Eternity is the now that does not pass away.

You have been professing yourself reluctant to throw off your load of illusion because truth was uncertain. Well, it is certain now, yet the burden still weighs you down, while other people are given wings on freer shoulders, people who have not worn themselves out with research, nor spent a decade and more reflecting on these questions.

While the best men are guided by love, most mean are still goaded by fear.

Hope has two beautiful daughters; their names are Anger and Courage. Anger at the way things are, and Courage to see that they do not remain as they are.

Blessedness consists in the accomplishment of our desires, and in our having only regular desires.

Not to give to those in need what is to you superfluous is akin to fraud.

What is grace? I know until you ask me; when you ask me, I do not know.

Choose to love whomsoever thou wilt: all else will follow.

Do you wish to be great? Then begin by being little. Do you desire to construct a vast and lofty fabric? Think first about the foundations of humility. The higher your structure is to be, the deeper must be its foundation. Modest humility is beauty's crown.

It is love that asks, that seeks, that knocks, that finds, and that is faithful to what it finds.

So you see how endlessly futile and fruitless it would be if we wanted to refute their objections every time they obstinately resolved not to think through what they say but merely to speak, just so long as they contradict our arguments in any way they can.

What I needed most was to love and to be loved, eager to be caught. Happily I wrapped those painful bonds around me; and sure enough, I would be lashed with the red-hot pokers or jealousy, by suspicions and fear, by burst of anger and quarrels.

Singing is a lover's thing.

Fortitude is the disposition of soul which enables us to despise all inconveniences and the loss of things not in our power.

Consequently, if the republic is the weal of the people, and there is no people if it be not associated by a common acknowledgment of right, and if there is no right where there is no justice, then most certainly it follows that there is no republic where there is no justice.

What difference, if you are mistaken? For if I am mistaken, I am. For he who is not, assuredly cannot be mistaken; and therefore I am, if I am mistaken. Therefore because I am if I am mistaken, how am I mistaken that I am, when it is sure that I am, if I am mistaken.

Go forth on your path, as it exists only through your walking.

Even in waging war, cherish the spirit of peace-maker; that, by conquering those whom you attack, you may lead them back to the advantages of peace.

You cannot attain to charity except through humility.

He that is kind is free, though he is a slave; he that is evil is a slave, though he be a king.

I want my friend to miss me as long as I miss him.

Because a thing is eloquently expressed it should not be taken to be as necessarily true; nor because it is uttered with stammering lips should it be supposed false.

Let necessity, and not your will, slay the enemy who fights against you.

You have found that you were more secure before you accumulated so much. See what greed has imposed on you: You have filled your house and now you fear burglars. You have hoarded money and lost sleep. See what greed has commanded you: "Do this!" And you did it.

The fruits of charity are joy, peace, and mercy; charity demands beneficence and fraternal correction; it is benevolence; it fosters reciprocity and remains disinterested and generous; it is friendship and communion: Love is itself the fulfillment of all our works. There is the goal; that is why we run: we run toward it, and once we reach it, in it we shall find rest.

When [men] go to war, what they want is to impose on their enemies the victor's will and call it peace.

In order to discover the character of people we have only to observe what they love.

Therefore once for all this short command is given to you. 'Love and do what you will.' If you keep silent, keep silent by love; if you speak, speak by love; if you correct, correct by love; if you pardon, pardon by love: let love be rooted in you, and from the root nothing but good can grow.

Peace is not sought in order to provoke war, but war is waged in order to attain peace.

Human law cannot punish or forbid all evil, since while doing away with evils it would do away with many good things, which would hinder the advance of the common good.

We are and we know we are and we love to be it and know it.

The good man, though a slave, is free; the wicked, though he reigns, is a slave.

Between urine and filth we are born.

This entire most beautiful order of good things is going to pass away after its measure has been exhausted; for both morning and evening were made in them.

Two works of mercy set a person free: Forgive and you will be forgiven, and give and you will receive.

For if a thing is not diminished by being shared with others, it is not rightly owned if it is only owned and not shared.

Slavery is not penal in character and planned by that law which commands the preservation of the natural order and forbids disturbance.

The measure of love is to love without measuring.

Oh, beauty, ever ancient and ever new.

Love all men, even your enemies; love them, not because they are your brothers, but that they may become your brothers. Thus you will ever burn with fraternal love, both for him who is already your brother and for your enemy, that he may by loving become your brother.

I make bold to say that it is profitable for the proud to fall, in order that they may be humbled in that for which they have exalted themselves.

Charity is no substitute for justice withheld.

My love is my weight. Because of it, I move.

Let your old age be childlike, and your childhood like old age; that is, so that neither may your wisdom be with pride, nor your humility without wisdom.

What does love look like? It has the hands to help others. It has the feet to hasten to the poor and needy. It has eyes to see misery and want. It has the ears to hear the sighs and sorrows of men. That is what love looks like.

Don't go outside; get back to yourself, in the inner man lies the Truth.

The words printed here are concepts. You must go through the experiences.

Thou must be emptied of that wherewith thou art full, that thou mayest be filled with that whereof thou art empty.

Love has reasons that reason knows not.

...If humility does not precede all that we do, our efforts are fruitless.

Love begins with a smile, grows with a kiss, and ends with a teardrop.

By and by never comes.

I have said before, and I shall say again, that I write this book for love of your love.

Better to have fewer wants than greater riches to supply increasing wants.

Such is the strength of the burden of habit. Here I have the power to be but do not wish it. There I wish to be but lacks the power. On both grounds, I'm in misery.

It is salutary for us to learn to hold cheap such things, be they good or evil, as attach indifferently to good men and bad, and to covet those good things which belong only to good men, and flee those evils which belong only to evil men.

When all is said and done, is there any more wonderful sight, any moment when man's reason is nearer to some sort of contact with the nature of the world than the sowing of seeds, the planting of cuttings, the transplanting of shrubs or the grafting of slips?