Quotes about the world
page 3

“[Fascism] was an explosion against intolerable conditions, against remediable wrongs which the old world failed to remedy. It was a movement to secure national renaissance by people who felt themselves threatened with decline into decadence and death and were determined to live, and live greatly.”

Oswald Mosley (1896–1980) British politician; founder of the British Union of Fascists

Excerpt from My Life by Oswald Mosley (1968), Ch.16.

Death, People

“Truth is a naked and open daylight, that doth not shew the masks and mummeries and triumphs of the world, half so stately and daintily as candlelights.”

Francis Bacon book Essays

Of Truth
Essays (1625)

Truth

“We do not know why we are born into the world, but we can try to find out what sort of a world it is — at least in its physical aspects.”

Edwin Hubble (1889–1953) American astronomer

Quoted in Edwin Hubble: Mariner of the Nebulae (1996) by Gale E. Christianson, p. 183.

“Looking at it now.
It all seems so simple.
We were lying on your couch.
I remember.
You took a Polaroid of us.
Then discovered (then discovered)
The rest of the world was black and white.
But we were in screaming color.
And I remember thinking…”

Taylor Swift (1989) American singer-songwriter

Out of the Woods, written by Taylor Swift and Jack Antonoff
Song lyrics, 1989 (2014)

Color, Lying, Thinking

“He's probably the world's most beautiful-looking man, yet he doesn't think that he's gorgeous. And to me, he's just smelly, farty Leo.
- Kate Winslet (Vanity Fair, January 1998)”

Leonardo DiCaprio (1974) American actor and film producer

About

Beauty, Thinking

“The world is a king, and like a king, desires flattery in return for favor; but true art is selfish and perverse — it will not submit to the mold of flattery.”

Ludwig Van Beethoven (1770–1827) German Romantic composer

Conversations (March 1820)

Art, Selfishness

“My main professional interest during the 1970s has been in the dramatic change of concepts and ideas that has occurred in physics during the first three decades of the century, and that is still being elaborated in our current theories of matter. The new concepts in physics have brought about a profound change in our world view; from the mechanistic conception of Descartes and Newton to a holistic and ecological view, a view which I have found to be similar to the views of mystics of all ages and traditions.”

Fritjof Capra book The Turning Point

Preface.
The Turning Point (1982)

Age, Idea, Change

“Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree.”

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement

Martin Luther
Misattributed

Tree, Deep, Inspirational, Faith

“You are the sun, you make me shine, or more like the stars, that twinkle at night. You are the moon that glows in my heart. You're my daytime, my night-time, my world…you are my life.”

Michael Jackson (1958–2009) American singer, songwriter and dancer

You Are My Life
Invincible (2001)

Life, Star, Time, Sun

“If you enter this world knowing you are loved and you leave this world knowing the same, then everything that happens in between can be dealt with.”

Michael Jackson book Dancing the Dream

Dancing the Dream (1992), also used in his funeral invitation. Quoted in "Dead stars and classic art will surround Michael Jackson" in CNN.com/entertainment (3 July 2009) http://edition.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/Music/09/03/michael.jackson.funeral/index.html#cnnSTCOther1

Love, Relationship

“If we can’t solve our problems we must DESTROY our problems… One day incels will realise their true strength and numbers and will overthrow this oppressive feminist system. Start envisioning a world where WOMEN FEAR YOU.”

Elliot Rodger (1991–2014) American spree killer

As quoted in Rhys Blakely, "‘I will be a god. I will slaughter you like animals’", The Australian (July 19, 2014)
Bodybuilding.com, PUAhate and ForeverAlone posts

Women, Fear, Problem

“Our fear that Communism might someday take over most of the world blinds us to the fact that anti-communism already has.”

Michael Parenti (1933) American academic

The Anti-Communist Impulse http://books.google.com/books?id=i6V2AAAAMAAJ&q=%22Our+fear+that+Communism+might+someday+take+over+most+of+the+world+blinds+us+to+the+fact+that+anti-communism+already+has%22&pg=PA4#v=onepage (1970)

Fear, Communication

“Give, you gods,
Give to your boy, your Caesar,
The rattle of a globe to play withal,
This gewgaw world, and put him cheaply off;
I'll not be pleased with less than Cleopatra.”

John Dryden All for Love

Act II, scene II
All for Love (1678)

God, Boy

“Without a doubt, Banksy is the most influential street artist in the world today. It took him many years vandalizing the streets of London with his iconic stencils to receive a worldwide recognition. I am not sure, but I don’t think there is any city or any police department in the world that wants to have a vandal that is so famous as Banksy.”

Clandestine Culture (1970) American artist

http://artdistricts.com/clandestine-culture-between-street-art-and-social-activism/

Thinking

“In tomorrow's world we must all work together as hard as ever, if we're truly to be United Nations”

Isabel II do Reino Unido (1926–2022) queen of the UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, and head of the Commonwealth of Nations

The Queen urging nations to work together at her second address of the United Nations http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/10533451.stm

“Mathematics is the gate and key of the sciences. … Neglect of mathematics works injury to all knowledge, since he who is ignorant of it cannot know the other sciences or the things of this world. And what is worse, men who are thus Ignorant are unable to perceive their own ignorance and so do not seek a remedy.”

Roger Bacon book Opus Majus

cited in: Morris Kline (1969) Mathematics and the physical world. p. 1
Opus Majus, c. 1267

Men, Mathematics, Knowledge, Science

“The tears were flowing again, but he smiled. "That's how it is every day", he said, "all over the world."”

Stephen King book The Green Mile

The Green Mile (1996)
Context: "He kill them with they love", John said. "They love for each other. You see how it was?" I nodded, incapable of speech.
He smiled. The tears were flowing again, but he smiled. "That's how it is every day", he said, "all over the world."

Smile, Tear

“I feel confident because I'm the best player in the world. It's that simple.”

LeBron James (1984) American basketball player

Feeling, Confidence, Self-confidence

“So, "normal" is really what society dictates as normal and if we're born in that world, we would see that as normal. But if you think about it for a second, is it really?”

Jacque Fresco (1916–2017) American futurist and self-described social engineer

Thinking

“It’s sad to think what the state of rock and roll will be twenty years from now. It just seems like when rock and roll is dead the whole world’s gonna explode. It’s already so rehashed and so plagariazed that it’s barely alive now. It’s disgusting. I mean, kids don’t even really care about rock and roll as much as they used to, as the other generations have. It’s already turned into nothing but a fashion statement and an identity for kids to use as a tool for them to fuck and have a social life. And at that point I really can’t see music being of any importance to a teenager, really.”

Kurt Cobain (1967–1994) American musician and artist

to Michael Azerrad in an interview from 1992 or 1993, in Kurt Cobain: About a Son
Interviews (1989-1994), Video

Life, Sadness, Music, Fashion

“I like people to go away from a Queen show feeling fully entertained, having had a good time. I think Queen songs are pure escapism, like going to see a good film - after that, they can go away and say that was great, and go back to their problems. I don't want to change the world with our music. There are no hidden messages in our songs, except for some of Brian's.”

Freddie Mercury (1946–1991) British singer, songwriter and record producer

"The Man Who Would Be Queen" in Melody Maker (2 May 1981).

People, Music, Feeling, Problem

“In today's world, where we live, there is no longer someone else’s war. None of you can feel safe when there is a war in Ukraine, when there is a war in Europe.”

Volodymyr Zelensky (1978) 6th President of Ukraine

Zelensky’s speech at the UN General Assembly https://www.president.gov.ua/en/news/vistup-prezidenta-ukrayini-volodimira-zelenskogo-na-zagalnih-57477 (25 September 2019)

War, Feeling

“If you want to make the world a better place
Take a look at yourself, and then make a change.”

Michael Jackson (1958–2009) American singer, songwriter and dancer

Source: Song Man in the Mirror
Context: I'm starting with the man in the mirror
I'm asking him to change his ways
And no message could have been any clearer
If you want to make the world a better place
Take a look at yourself, and then make a change

Making love, Change

“Words are life. Words are light. Words are power. Words are energy. Words are truth. Words can enliven and words can also kill. Words can give hope, or plunge us into despair. People use words to build peace, and use words to make war. Words can create walls between cultures, religions, and nations. And words can also build bridges. The existence of an individual, a family, a community, a country, and our planet is being led to good or to evil through the power of the words we speak. The words we speak are responsible for everything that happens in this world. We, therefore, must be responsible for the words we speak. On behalf of future generations, I hope that each of us will do all we can to speak only bright, light-filled words, so that one day, our descendants will be born into a world filled with light. There is no time to lose. Starting at this very moment, I hope all of us will take a close look at the words we have been using and make constant efforts to fill them with brightness.”

Alexis Karpouzos (1967)

Source: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/14108295.alexis_karpouzos

Life, War, People, Truth

“The correct lesson to learn from surprises: the world is surprising.”

Daniel Kahneman (1934) Israeli-American psychologist

Learning

“Awakening is realizing that you are the citizen of the universe, rather than identifying yourself as the citizen of your own country or that of the world.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

Universe, Country

“We must take into consideration the opinions of others; simply because we all look at the world through different lenses.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

“Our comforting conviction that the world makes sense rests on a secure foundation: our almost unlimited ability to ignore our ignorance.”

Daniel Kahneman book Thinking, Fast and Slow

Source: Thinking, Fast and Slow (2011), Chapter 19, "The illusion of understanding", page 201 (ISBN 9780141033570).

Sense

“I wonder if I've been changed in the night. Let me think. Was I the same when I got up this morning? I almost think I can remember feeling a little different. But if I'm not the same, the next question is 'Who in the world am I?' Ah, that's the great puzzle!”

Lewis Carroll book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Source: Alice in Wonderland

Feeling, Question, Thinking, Change

“I believe one writes because one has to create a world in which one can live.”

Anaïs Nin (1903–1977) writer of novels, short stories, and erotica

February 1954 The Diary of Anaïs Nin Vol. 5 (1947-1955), as quoted in Woman as Writer (1978) by Jeannette L. Webber and Joan Grumman, p. 38
Diary entries (1914 - 1974)
Context: Why one writes is a question I can answer easily, having so often asked it of myself. I believe one writes because one has to create a world in which one can live. I could not live in any of the worlds offered to me — the world of my parents, the world of war, the world of politics. I had to create a world of my own, like a climate, a country, an atmosphere in which I could breathe, reign, and recreate myself when destroyed by living. That, I believe, is the reason for every work of art.

“Follow me reader! Who told you that there is no true, faithful, eternal love in this world! May the liar's vile tongue be cut out!”

Mikhail Bulgakov book The Master and Margarita

Book Two in 'Margarita', P/V, opening lines of Book Two
Variant: Who told you that there is no true, faithful, eternal love in this world! May the liar’s vile tongue be cut out!
Source: The Master and Margarita (1967)

Love, Faith

“Be afraid of nothing. Hating none, giving love to all, feeling the love of God, seeing His presence in everyone, and having but one desire - for His constant presence in the temple of your consciousness - that is the way to live in this world.”

Paramahansa Yogananda (1893–1952) Yogi, a guru of Kriya Yoga and founder of Self-Realization Fellowship

Source: In the Sanctuary of the Soul: A Guide to Effective Prayer

Love, God, Hate, Way

“It takes great deal of courage to see the world in all its tainted glory, and still to love it.”

Oscar Wilde An Ideal Husband

Variant: It takes great courage to see the world in all its tainted glory, and still to love it. And even more courage to see it in the one you love
Source: An Ideal Husband

Love, Courage

“It surprises me how disinterested we are today about things like physics, space, the universe and philosophy of our existence, our purpose, our final destination. Its a crazy world out there. Be curious.”

Stephen Hawking (1942–2018) British theoretical physicist, cosmologist, and author

Universe

“I tell you this
to break your heart,
by which I mean only
that it break open and never close again
to the rest of the world.”

Mary Oliver (1935–2019) American writer

Source: New and Selected Poems, Vol. 2

Heart

“How wrong is it for a woman to expect the man to build the world she wants, rather than to create it herself?”

Anaïs Nin (1903–1977) writer of novels, short stories, and erotica

For women

“The world is round.”

Cristoforo Colombo (1451–1506) Explorer, navigator, and colonizer

“I tell you, commander, it's true that some of the most terrible things in the world are done by people who think, genuinely think, that they're doing it for the best, especially if there is some god involved.”

Terry Pratchett book Snuff

Source: Snuff

God, People, Thinking

“If you even dream of beating me, you'd better wake up and apologize.”

Muhammad Ali (1942–2016) African American boxer, philanthropist and activist

Dreams

“Tell me, is the rose naked
or is that her only dress?

Why do trees conceal
the splendor of their roots?

Who hears the regrets
of the thieving automobile?

Is there anything in the world sadder
than a train standing in the rain?”

Pablo Neruda (1904–1973) Chilean poet

Source: The Book of Questions

Tree, Training

“It is not great men who change the world, but weak men in the hands of a great God.”

Brother Yun (1958) Chinese christian house church leader

Source: The Heavenly Man: The Remarkable True Story of Chinese Christian Brother Yun

Men, God, Change

“Any great work of art … revives and readapts time and space, and the measure of its success is the extent to which it makes you an inhabitant of that world — the extent to which it invites you in and lets you breathe its strange, special air.”

Leonard Bernstein (1918–1990) American composer, conductor, author, music lecturer, and pianist

"What Makes Opera Grand?", Vogue (December 1958)

Art, Time, Success

“The very best thing you can do for the whole world is to make the most of yourself.”

Wallace D. Wattles (1860–1911) American writer

Motivational

“Why do people have to be this lonely? What's the point of it all? Millions of people in this world, all of them yearning, looking to others to satisfy them, yet isolating themselves. Why? Was the earth put here just to nourish human loneliness?”

Haruki Murakami book Sputnik Sweetheart

Source: Sputnik Sweetheart

People, Loneliness, Sad

The quote is mistakenly attributed to the author

“She was a wild, wicked slip of a girl. She burned too brightly for this world.”

Emily Brontë book Wuthering Heights

Variant: She burned too bright for this world.
Source: The quote is attributed to Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë, but only first part appears in book. https://books.google.pl/books?id=Aiye9MLNh9EC&q=wild%2C+wicked+slip#v=snippet&q=wild%2C%20wicked%20slip&f=false

Girl

“You can resolve to live your life with integrity. Let your credo be this: Let the lie come into the world, let it even triumph. But not through me.”

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (1918–2008) Russian writer

Life, Lie

“Because you can't argue with all the fools in the world. It's easier to let them have their way, then trick them when they're not paying attention.”

Christopher Paolini (1983) American author

Fools, Way

“To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour.”

William Blake Auguries of Innocence

Variant: To see a World in a grain of sand,
And a Heaven in a wild flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand,
And Eternity in an hour.
Source: 1800s, Auguries of Innocence (1803), Line 1

Flowers, Peaceful

“For the world is in a bad state, but everything will become still worse unless each of us does his best.”

Viktor E. Frankl book Man's Search for Meaning

Source: Man's Search for Meaning

“You can be the ripest, juiciest peach in the world, and there's still going to be somebody who hates peaches.”

Dita Von Teese (1972) American burlesque dancer, model and actress

Hate, Motivational, Success, Inspirational

“Tell me a story, Pew.
What kind of story, child?
A story with a happy ending.
There's no such thing in all the world.
As a happy ending?
As an ending.”

Jeanette Winterson book Lighthousekeeping

Source: Lighthousekeeping (2004), p. 49

Happiness

“Faeries, come take me out of this dull world,
For I would ride with you upon the wind,
Run on the top of the dishevelled tide,
And dance upon the mountains like a flame.”

W.B. Yeats The Land of Heart's Desire

Source: The Land of Heart's Desire

Mountain, Dance

“Most of the world's problems could be avoided if people just said what they meant.”

Marilyn Manson (1969) American rock musician and actor

Source: The Long Hard Road Out of Hell

People, Problem

“The world is the great gymnasium where we come to make ourselves strong.”

Swami Vivekananda (1863–1902) Indian Hindu monk and phylosopher

Pearls of Wisdom

Strong

“To be a vegetarian is to disagree — to disagree with the course of things today. Starvation, world hunger, cruelty, waste, wars — we must make a statement against these things. Vegetarianism is my statement. And I think it’s a strong one.”

Isaac Bashevis Singer (1902–1991) Polish-born Jewish-American author

Preface to Food for the Spirit: Vegetarianism and the World Religions by Steven Rosen (New York: Bala Books, 1987, )
Variant: To be a vegetarian is to disagree - to disagree with the course of things today... starvation, cruelty - we must make a statement against these things. Vegetarianism is my statement. And I think it's a strong one.
Context: Vegetarianism is my religion. I became a consistent vegetarian some twenty-three years ago. Before that, I would try over and over again. But it was sporadic. Finally, in the mid-1960s, I made up my mind. And I've been a vegetarian ever since. When a human kills an animal for food, he is neglecting his own hunger for justice. Man prays for mercy, but is unwilling to extend it to others. Why should man then expect mercy from God? It's unfair to expect something that you are not willing to give. … This is my protest against the conduct of the world. To be a vegetarian is to disagree — to disagree with the course of things today. Nuclear power, starvation, cruelty — we must make a statement against these things. Vegetarianism is my statement. And I think it's a strong one.

Hunger, War, Thinking, Strong

“There's nothing more dangerous than someone who wants to make the world a better place.”

Banksy pseudonymous England-based graffiti artist, political activist, and painter

Existencilism (2002)

“Thus, in one way or another, the whole world is more or less the debtor to and vassal of these forn international banker countries, the four "pillars" of world finance capital.”

Vladimir Lenin (1870–1924) Russian politician, led the October Revolution

Source: Imperialism, The Highest Stage of Capitalism (1917), Chapter Three
Source: Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism: Full Text of 1916 Edition

Way, Country

“Dr. Franklin says "it is the eyes of others and not our own eyes which ruin us. If all the world were blind except myself I should not care for fine clothes or furniture.”

P.T. Barnum (1810–1891) American showman and businessman

Source: The Art of Money Getting; Or, Golden Rules for Making Money

Clothes

“Ambition is a dream with a V8 engine. Ain't nowhere else in the world where you can go from driving a truck to cadillac overnight”

Elvis Presley (1935–1977) American singer and actor

Dreams

“There is not one little blade of grass, there is no color in this world that is not intended to make men rejoice.”

John Calvin (1509–1564) French Protestant reformer

Sermon Number 10 on I Corinthians, 698. As quoted in John Calvin: A Sixteenth-Century Portrait (1989) by William J. Bouwsma, pp. 134–135.
Epistles to the Corinthians

Men, Color, Grass

“How happy is the blameless vestal’s lot!
The world forgetting, by the world forgot.
Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind!
Each pray’r accepted, and each wish resign’d”

Alexander Pope Eloisa to Abelard

Source: Eloisa to Abelard

Happiness, Forgetting

“We artists are indestructible; even in a prison, or in a concentration camp, I would be almighty in my own world of art, even if I had to paint my pictures with my wet tongue on the dusty floor of my cell.”

Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer

Art, Painting

“When you came you cried and everybody smiled with joy; when you go smile and let the world cry for you.”

Rabindranath Tagore (1861–1941) Bengali polymath

Smile, Joy, Cry

“Alone, I often fall down into nothingness. I must push my foot stealthily lest I should fall off the edge of the world into nothingness. I have to bang my head against some hard door to call myself back to the body.”

Virginia Woolf book The Waves

Source: The Waves

“We read the world wrong and say that it deceives us.”

Rabindranath Tagore Stray Birds

75
Source: Stray Birds (1916)

Reading

“Friendship is the hardest thing in the world to explain. It's not something you learn in school. But if you haven't learned the meaning of friendship, you really haven't learned anything.”

Muhammad Ali (1942–2016) African American boxer, philanthropist and activist

Friendship, School, Learning, Friendship

“If we behave like those on the other side, then we are the other side. Instead of changing the world, all we'll achieve is a reflection of the one we want to destroy.”

Jean Genet The Balcony

Source: The Balcony

Change

“What is the most precious thing in the world? I see now that it is the knowledge that you have no part in injustice. Injustice is stronger than you, it always was and always will be, but let it not be done through you.”

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn book The First Circle

Source: The First Circle

Knowledge, Parting

“That becomes the revolution, to be idealistic enough that you think you can change the world, and what you find is you can't change anything but yourself.”

Marilyn Manson (1969) American rock musician and actor

Thinking, Change

“Sometimes I feel so sick at the state of the world I can’t even finish my second apple pie.”

Banksy pseudonymous England-based graffiti artist, political activist, and painter

Source: Wall and Piece (2005)

Feeling

“Everyone who wants to know what will happen ought to examine what has happened: everything in this world in any epoch has their replicas in antiquity.”

Niccolo Machiavelli (1469–1527) Italian politician, Writer and Author

“There are moments when one has to choose between living one's own life, fully, entirely, completely-or dragging out some false, shallow, degrading existence that the world in its hypocrisy demands.”

Oscar Wilde Lady Windermere's Fan

Source: Lady Windermere's Fan

Life, Falseness

“How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.”

Anne Frank (1929–1945) victim of the Holocaust and author of a diary

Source: Anne Frank's Tales from the Secret Annex

Waiting, Motivational, Deep, Success

“The weight of the world is love.
Under the burden of solitude,
under the burden of dissatisfaction
the weight, the weight we carry is love.”

Allen Ginsberg (1926–1997) American poet

Love, Solitude

“To be an artist, you need to exist in a world of silence.”

Louise Bourgeois (1911–2010) American and French sculptor

Silence

“The books transported her into new worlds and introduced her to amazing people who lived exciting lives. She went on olden-day sailing ships with Joseph Conrad. She went to Africa with Ernest Hemingway and to India with Rudyard Kipling. She travelled all over the world while sitting in her little room in an English village.”

Roald Dahl book Matilda

Source: Matilda

People, Books, Travel

“All over the world, wherever there are capitalists, freedom of the press means freedom to buy up newspapers, to buy writers, to bribe, buy and fake “public opinion” for the benefit of the bourgeoisie.”

Vladimir Lenin (1870–1924) Russian politician, led the October Revolution

Collected Works, Vol. 32, pp. 504–9.
Collected Works
Source: Revolution!: Sayings of Vladimir Lenin

Freedom

“The tragedy of this world is that no one is happy, whether stuck in a time of pain or joy.”

Alan Lightman book Einstein's Dreams

Source: Einstein's Dreams

Pain, Happiness, Time, Joy

“In this world, whenever there is light, there are also shadows. As long as the concept of winners exist, there must also be losers. The selfish desire of wanting to maintain peace causes wars and hatred is born to protect love.”

Masashi Kishimoto (1974) Japanese manga artist

Love, War, Peace, Light

“The measure of a society is found in how they treat their weakest and most helpless citizens. As Americans, we are blessed with circumstances that protect our human rights and our religious freedom, but for many people around the world, deprivation and persecution have become a way of life.”

Jimmy Carter (1924) American politician, 39th president of the United States (in office from 1977 to 1981)

Life, People, Way, Freedom

“There are always some lunatics about. It would be a dull world without them.”

Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930) Scottish physician and author

Source: The Red Headed League

“There are two kinds of people in the world—only two kinds. Not black or white, rich or poor, but those either dead in sin or dead to sin.”

Leonard Ravenhill (1907–1994) British writer

People, Dead

“If the world were perfect, it wouldn't be.”

Yogi Berra (1925–2015) American baseball player, manager, coach

When You Come to a Fork in the Road, Take It!: Inspiration and Wisdom from One of Baseball's Greatest Heroes, Hyperion, 2002, ISBN 0786867752, p. 154
Yogiisms

Perfection

“Most persons are so absorbed in the contemplation of the outside world that they are wholly oblivious to what is passing on within themselves.”

Nikola Tesla book My Inventions: The Autobiography of Nikola Tesla

My Inventions (1919)
Source: My Inventions: The Autobiography of Nikola Tesla
Context: From childhood I was compelled to concentrate attention upon myself. This caused me much suffering, but to my present view, it was a blessing in disguise for it has taught me to appreciate the inestimable value of introspection in the preservation of life, as well as a means of achievement. The pressure of occupation and the incessant stream of impressions pouring into our consciousness through all the gateways of knowledge make modern existence hazardous in many ways. Most persons are so absorbed in the contemplation of the outside world that they are wholly oblivious to what is passing on within themselves. The premature death of millions is primarily traceable to this cause. Even among those who exercise care, it is a common mistake to avoid imaginary, and ignore the real dangers. And what is true of an individual also applies, more or less, to a people as a whole.

Personality

“The greatest crimes in the world are not committed by people breaking the rules. It's people who follow orders that drop bombs and massacre villages. As a precaution to ever committing major acts of evil it is our solemn duty never to do what we're told, this is the only way we can be sure.”

Banksy pseudonymous England-based graffiti artist, political activist, and painter

Source: Wall and Piece (2005)

People, Way, Evil

“If I had to tell you how humans made their way to Earth, it would go like this: In the beginning, there was nothing at all but the moon and the sun. And the moon wanted to come out during the day, but there was something so much brighter that seemed to fill up all those hours. The moon grew hungry, thinner and thinner, until she was just a slice of herself, and her tips were as sharp as a knife. By accident, because that is the way most things happen, she poked a hole in the night and out spilled a million stars, like a fountain of tears.

Horrified, the moon tried to swallow them up. And sometimes this worked, because she got fatter and rounder.. But mostly it didn't, because there were just so many. The stars kept coming, until they made the sky so bright that the sun got jealous. He invited the stars to his side of the world, where it was always bright. What he didn't tell them, though, was that in the daytime, they'd never be seen. So the stupid ones leaped from the sky to the ground, and they froze under the weight of their own foolishness.

The moon did her best. She carved each of these blocks of sorrow into a man or a woman. She spent the rest of her time watching out so that her other stars wouldn't fall. She spent the rest of her time holding onto whatever scraps she had left.”

Jodi Picoult (1966) Author

Stupidity, Way, Star, Tear

“There is no refuge from memory and remorse in this world. The spirits of our foolish deeds haunt us, with or without repentance.”

Gilbert Parker (1862–1932) Canadian novelist and British politician

Memory

“Not how the world is, but that it is, is the mystery.”

Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951) Austrian-British philosopher

Variant translation: The mystical is not how the world is, but that it is.
Original German: Nicht wie die Welt ist, ist das Mystische, sondern dass sie ist.
1920s, Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (1922)
Variant: The mystical is not how the world is, but that it is.
Context: It is not how things are in the world that is mystical, but that it exists. (6.44)

“I had to philosophize. Otherwise, I could not live in this world.”

Edmund Husserl (1859–1938) German philosopher, known as the father of phenomenology

“Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree.”

Martin Luther (1483–1546) seminal figure in Protestant Reformation

Earliest record is in a circular letter from Hessian Church minister Karl Lotz on 5 October 1944 and modified from a quote by Johanan ben Zakai according to [Landes, Richard Allen, Heaven on Earth: The varieties of the millennial experience, USA, Oxford University Press, 2011, 978-0-19-975359-8, https://books.google.com/books?id=seS-0JTykgoC&pg=PA48, 48]

Ref: en.wikiquote.org - Martin Luther / Disputed
Misattributed

Tree, Deep, Inspirational, Faith