“To one whose mind is sound, letters are needless.”

— Anthony the Great

Book IV, Chapter 17
From St. Athanasius' Life of St. Antony

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Anthony the Great7

Christian saint, monk, and hermit 251–357

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“Others such as these met him in the outer mountain and thought to mock him because he had not learned letters. And Antony said to them, 'What do you say? Which is first, mind or letters? And which is the cause of which— mind of letters or letters of mind.' And when they answered mind is first and the inventor of letters, Antony said, 'Whoever, therefore, has a sound mind has not need of letters.”

Athanasius of Alexandria (295–373) Patriarch of Alexandria

§ 73
Life of Anthony of Egypt

“The first obligation of Simplicity is that of using the simplest means to secure the fullest effect. But although the mind instinctlvely rejects all needless complexity, we shall greatly err if we fail to recognise the fact, that what the mind recoils from is not the complexity, but the needlessness.”

George Henry Lewes (1817–1878) British philosopher

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“Freedom of mind is the real freedom. A person whose mind is not free though he may not be in chains, is a slave, not a free man. One whose mind is not free, though he may not be in prison, is a prisoner and not a free man. One whose mind is not free though alive, is no better than dead. Freedom of mind is the proof of one's existence.”

Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar (1891–1956) Father of republic India, champion of human rights, father of India's Constitution, polymath, revolutionary…

Political Science for Civil Services Main Examination (2010)

“Consistent poetry is made of letters. Letters have no idea. Letters as such have no sound, they offer only tonal possibilities, to be valuated by the performer. The consistent poem weighs the value of both letters and groups.”

Kurt Schwitters (1887–1948) German artist

1920s
Source: 'Consistent Poetry Art', Schwitters' contribution to 'Magazine G', No. 3, 1924, ed. Hans Richter.

“In a vision of the night, I saw a man whose name was Victoricus coming as it from Ireland with innumerable letters, and he gave me one of them, and I read the beginning of the letter: "The Voice of the Irish"”

Saint Patrick (385–461) 5th-century Romano-British Christian missionary and bishop in Ireland

The Confession (c. 452?)
Context: In a vision of the night, I saw a man whose name was Victoricus coming as it from Ireland with innumerable letters, and he gave me one of them, and I read the beginning of the letter: "The Voice of the Irish", and as I was reading the beginning of the letter I seemed at that moment to hear the voice of those who were beside the forest of Foclut which is near the western sea, and the were crying as if with one voice: "'We beg you, holy youth, that you shall come and shall walk again among us." And I was stung intensely in my heart so that I could read no more, and thus I awoke. Thanks be to God, because after so many ears the Lord bestowed on them according to their cry.

“One prayer routine that is balanced and easy to remember is found in the word ACTS, an acrostic whose four letters stand for adoration, confession, thanksgiving, and supplication.”

Bill Hybels (1951) American writer

Too Busy Not to Pray (2008, InterVarsity Press)

“First one should write no more or no less letters than the sound of the word requires. Second, one should write as one speaks and not try to pay attention to the style of other writers, particularly academicians.”

Quirinus Kuhlmann (1651–1689) German poet and mystic

Preface to Lehrreicher Geschicht-Herold
Other Quotes

“A sound body keeps a sound mind.”

Joe Frazier (1944–2011) American boxer

Wise words from Frazier. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/18/sports/othersports/18frazier.html?pagewanted=2&ei=5090&en=a3509c26258f5380&ex=1318824000&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss

“It is to be expected that Satan will try to inject into the minds of the consecrated the thought that 1925 should see an end of the work, and that therefore it would be needless for them to do more.”

Joseph Franklin Rutherford (1869–1942) American judge

[Watchtower, WTBTS, 1925 September 1, 262]

“You should pray for a sound mind in a sound body.”
Orandum est ut sit mens sana in corpore sano.

Juvenal book Satires

X, line 356; see mens sana in corpore sano.
Variant translation: One should pray to have a sound mind in a sound body.
Satires, Satire X

“To one whose mind is sound, letters are needless.”

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Anthony the Great7

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