Anatole France book Penguin Island
Book VII : Modern Times, Ch. IX : The Final Consequences
Penguin Island (1908)
What Is Reality?
Context: Ideas, unlike solid structures, do not perish. They remain immortal, immaterial and everywhere, like all Divine things. Ideas are a golden, savage landscape that we wander unaware, without a map. Be careful: in the last analysis, reality may be exactly what we think it is.
Anatole France book Penguin Island
Book VII : Modern Times, Ch. IX : The Final Consequences
Penguin Island (1908)
Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1821–1881) Russian author
Нет бессмертия души, так нет и добродетели, значит, всё позволено. … Без бога-то и без будущей жизни? Ведь это, стало быть, теперь всё позволено, всё можно делать?
The Brothers Karamazov (1879–1880)
“All perishes. A thing of flesh and pore
Am I. Divine impatience also dies.”
Paul Valéry (1871–1945) French poet, essayist, and philosopher
Allez! Tout fuit! Ma présence est poreuse,
La sainte impatience meurt aussi!
As translated by by C. Day Lewis
Charmes ou poèmes (1922)
William H. Crogman (1841–1931) American classical philologist
Source: Talks for the Times (1896), "The Importance of Correct Ideals" (1892), p. 287
“All men's souls are immortal, but the souls of the righteous are immortal and divine.”
Socrates (-470–-399 BC) classical Greek Athenian philosopher
“Christianity is an idea, and as such is indestructible and immortal, like every idea.”
Heinrich Heine (1797–1856) German poet, journalist, essayist, and literary critic
History of Religion and Philosophy in Germany, Vol. I (1834)
James A. Garfield (1831–1881) American politician, 20th President of the United States (in office in 1881)
[Great applause.] But victory was worth nothing except for the truths that were under it, in it, and above it. We meet tonight as comrades to stand guard around the sacred truths for which we fought. [Loud and prolonged cheers.] And while we have life to meet and grasp the hand of a comrade, we will stand by the great truths of the war. ["Good," "good," and loud cheers.] Many convictions have sunk so deep into our hearts that we can never forget them. Think of the elevating spirit of the war itself. We gathered the boys from all our farms and shops and stores and schools and homes, from all over the Republic. They went forth unknown to fame, but returned enrolled on the roster of immortal heroes. [Great applause.] They went in the spirit of the soldiers of Henry at Agincourt, of whom he said. 'For he today that sheds his blood with me. Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile. This day shall gentle his condition.'
1880s, Speech to the 'Boys in Blue' (1880)
Jorge Luis Borges book The Immortal
"The Immortal", § IV, in The Aleph (1949); tr. Andrew Hurley, Collected Fictions (1998)
Variant: To be immortal is commonplace; except for man, all creatures are immortal, for they are ignorant of death; what is divine, terrible, incomprehensible, is to know that one is immortal.
Albert Pike (1809–1891) Confederate States Army general and Freemason
"1860. In Lodge of Sorrow at Washington: March 30.", p. 11 <!-- [books.google.com/books?id=PTpRwZ1yEWwC&pg=PA11&dq=What+we+have+done+for+ourselves+Albert+Pike&hl=en&sa=X&ei=akWkT_3QCqLA6AHG_7G6CQ&ved=0CDcQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=remains immortal&f=false page 11] -->
In sentiment this is similar to the expression made much earlier by Giordano Bruno in On the Infinite Universe and Worlds (1584) : "What you receive from others is a testimony to their virtue; but all that you do for others is the sign and clear indication of your own."
Ex Corde Locutiones: Words from the Heart Spoken of His Dead Brethren
Variant: What we have done for ourselves alone dies with us; what we have done for others and the world remains and is immortal.
“To reduce opportunities for corruption, you do things like structural changes in the economy.”
Oby Ezekwesili (1963) Nigerian accountant, politician, human rights activist, convener of bring back our girls (Chibok girls) and pres…
Source: https://independent.ng/2019debate-30-powerful-quotes-from-oby-ezekwesili-reactions-to-questions/ Oby Ezekwesili's reply to question during 2019 presidential debate.