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Al-Ghazali

Al-Ghazali (c. 1058-1111)

“One does not point to the light of the sun but, rather, to the sun. In the obvious sense of this example, everything in existence is related to God just as light is related to the sun.”

  • From The Niche of Lights (chapter 1) by Al Ghazālī, translated by David Buchman. Utah: Brigham Young University Press, 1998.

 

Confucius

Confucius (c. 551-479 BCE)
“Chi Wen Tzu used to think thrice before acting. The Master hearing of it said, Twice is quite enough.”
  • The Analects of Confucius (Book V, section 19) translated by Arthur Waley (Vintage Books, 1989).

 

John Calvin

John Calvin (1509-1564)
“I confess, indeed, that I am not poor; for I desire nothing more than what I have.”
  • From John Calvin’s preface to his Commentary on Pslams (Originally published c. 1557), translated by J. Dillenberger (c. 1971), and reprinted in A Reformation Reader: Primary Texts with Introduction, edited by Denis R. Janz (Fortress Press, 2008).

 

1st Viscount Field Marshal Herbert Plumer

Field Marshal Herbert Plumer (1857-1932)

“Gentlemen, we may not make history tomorrow, but we shall certainly change the geography.”

  • Field Marshal Herbert Plumer reportedly made this statement prior to detonating tunnels filled with between 500-600 tons of explosives before the Battle of Messines on June 7th, 1917.

Isaac Newton

Isaac Newton (1643-1727)
“Nature does nothing in vain, and more causes are in vain when fewer suffice. For nature is simple and does not indulge in the luxury of superfluous causes.”
  • From Isaac Newton’s Principia: Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy (Book 3, rule 1), translated/edited by I. Bernard Cohen and Anne Whitman (University of California Press, 1999).

 

The Buddha

The Buddha (words recorded 3rd century BCE)
“Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who has said it, not even if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own common sense.”

 

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968)
“Take the first step in faith. You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.”

 

Benjamin Franklin

Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)
“So convenient a thing it is to be a reasonable Creature, since it enables one to find or make a Reason for every thing one has a mind to do.”
  • From The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, edited by Kenneth Silverman (Penguin Classics, 1986).

Marcus Aurelius

Marcus Aurelius (121-180 CE)
“Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present.”
  • From Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations (7.8)

 

Sir Thomas More

Sir Thomas More (c. 1478-1535)
“To my mind, no amount of property is equivalent to a human life.”
  • From “Humanistic Solutions to Social Problems” from Thomas More’s Utopia, reprinted in The Western World: Age of the Protestant Reformation Primary Readings, edited by Mark Kishlansky Et al. Boston: Pearson, 2010.