The Words of Wisdom

Which Can Change Your

Perception

Collected and Arranged

By

Nadeem Y. Mufti
ƒ I never teach my pupils. I only attempt to provide the conditions in which
they can learn.

ƒ Only the curious will learn and only the resolute overcome the obstacles
to learning.

ƒ Books have the same enemies as people: fire, humidity, animals, weather,
and their own content.

ƒ Discovery consists of seeing what everybody has seen and thinking what
nobody has thought.

ƒ To accomplish great things, we must dream as well as act.

ƒ Words without actions are the assassins of idealism.

ƒ You see things; and you say, "Why?" But I dream things that never
were; and I say, "Why not?"

ƒ In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities. In the expert's mind
there are few.

ƒ Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors
go to war first and then seek to win.

ƒ Happiness is nothing more than good health and a bad memory.

ƒ One doesn't discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the
shore for a very long time.

ƒ There is no great genius without some touch of madness.

ƒ When it is not necessary to make a decision, it is necessary not to make a

decision.

ƒ Life is pleasant. Death is peaceful. It's the transition that's troublesome.

ƒ Two ways to slide easily through life; to believe everything or to doubt

everything. Both ways save us from thinking.
ƒ Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want
and deserve to get it good and hard.

ƒ Death is nothing to us, since when we are, death has not come, and when
death has come, we are not.

ƒ What worries you masters you.

ƒ The dread of evil is a much more forcible principle of human actions than
the prospect of good.

ƒ One's dignity may be assaulted, vandalized and cruelly mocked, but

cannot be taken away unless it is surrendered.

ƒ There are some defeats more triumphant than victories.

ƒ Criticism comes easier than craftsmanship.

ƒ It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.

ƒ Search others for their virtues, thyself for thy vices.

ƒ We hate some persons because we do not know them; and we will not
know them because we hate them.

ƒ Dreams that do come true can be as unsettling as those that don't.

ƒ Those who know how to win are much more numerous than those who
know how to make use of their victories.

ƒ Change your thoughts and you will change your world.

ƒ To avoid unkind criticism: say nothing, be nothing, do nothing.

ƒ The more original a discovery, the more obvious it seems afterwards.

ƒ Government is too big and too important to be left to the politicians.

ƒ A good friend can tell you what is the matter with you in a minute. He
may not seem such a good friend after telling.
ƒ As I see it, every day you do one of two things: build health or produce
disease in yourself.

ƒ One's first step in wisdom is to question everything - and one's last is to

come to terms with everything.
ƒ There can be no real individual freedom in the presence of economic
insecurity.

ƒ Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from

religious conviction.

ƒ Everything that is really great and inspiring is created by the individual

who can labour in freedom.

ƒ The bird of paradise alights only upon the hand that does not grasp.

ƒ Nothing is easier than to denounce the evildoer; nothing is more difficult

than to understand him.

ƒ If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it
would be a merrier world.

ƒ If you hate a person, you hate something in him that is part of yourself.
What isn't part of ourselves doesn't disturb us

ƒ Energy and persistence conquer all things.

ƒ Life engenders life. Energy creates energy. It is by spending oneself that

one becomes rich.

ƒ To acquire knowledge, one must study; but to acquire wisdom, one must
observe.

ƒ We often give our enemies the means of our own destruction.

ƒ Science is organized knowledge. Wisdom is organized life.

ƒ Generosity is giving more than you can, and pride is taking less than you
need.
ƒ The only way you can make a man trustworthy is to trust him and the
surest way to make him untrustworthy is to distrust..

ƒ Genius is one per cent inspiration, ninety-nine per cent perspiration.

ƒ If two men agree on everything, you may be sure that one of them is
doing the thinking.

ƒ All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.

ƒ The foolish man seeks happiness in the distance, the wise grows it under
his feet.

ƒ If you can solve your problem then what is the need of worrying? If you
cannot solve it then what is the use of worrying?

ƒ The way to win an atomic war is to make certain it never starts.

ƒ Plans are only good intentions unless they immediately degenerate into
hard work

ƒ It's not enough that we do our best; sometimes we have to do what's

required.

ƒ The evil of the world is made possible by nothing but the sanction you
give it.

ƒ The freethinking of one age is the common sense of the next.

ƒ The more I want to get something done, the less I call it work.

ƒ An expert is a person who has made all the mistakes that can be made in
a very narrow field.

ƒ I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much

liberty than those attending too small a degree of it.

ƒ Prefer loss to the wealth of dishonest gain; the former vexes you for a
time; the latter will bring you lasting remorse.
ƒ Most people can bear adversity. But if you wish to know what a man
really is, give him power.

ƒ Not to be absolutely certain is, I think, one of the essential things in

rationality.

ƒ Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.

ƒ If you want to make peace, you don't talk to your friends. You talk to
your enemies.

ƒ The true civilization is where every man gives to every other every right
that he claims for himself.

ƒ I am careful not to confuse excellence with perfection. Excellence, I can

reach for; perfection is God's business.

ƒ Use what talents you possess; the woods would be very silent if no birds
sang there except those that sang best.

ƒ The most likely way to reach a goal is to be aiming not at that goal itself
but at some more ambitious goal beyond it.

ƒ If you think you can win, you can win. Faith is necessary to victory.

ƒ A wise man gets more use from his enemies than a fool from his friends.

ƒ The foundation of every state is the education of its youth.

ƒ My doctor told me to stop having intimate dinners for four. Unless there
are three other people.

ƒ Wisdom doesn't automatically come with old age. Nothing does - except
wrinkles.

ƒ Always remember others may hate you but those who hate you don't win
unless you hate them. And then you destroy yourself.
ƒ Evil when we are in its power is not felt as evil but as a necessity, or even
a duty.

ƒ Always listen to experts. They'll tell you what can't be done and why.
Then do it.

ƒ It is healthy to be reminded that the strongest might weaken and the

wisest might err.

ƒ We do not receive wisdom, we must discover it for ourselves, after a

journey through the wilderness...

ƒ Problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of
themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts

ƒ People forget how fast you did a job - but they remember how well you
did it.

ƒ You can discover what your enemy fears most by observing the means he
uses to frighten you.

ƒ Knowledge which is acquired under compulsion obtains no hold on the

mind.

ƒ There is no cure for birth and death save to enjoy the interval.

ƒ Charity sees the need not the cause.

ƒ We never know anything thoroughly until we have tried to teach it to

another.

ƒ Opinions grounded upon prejudice are always maintained with the

greatest of violence.

ƒ No passion so effectually robs the mind of all its powers of acting and
reasoning as fear.

ƒ Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in
harmony.
ƒ Life teaches us that we are never happy except at the price of some
ignorance.

ƒ Make all you can, save all you can, give all you can.

ƒ How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live.

ƒ Anyone can do any amount of work provided it isn't the work he is

supposed to be doing at the moment.

ƒ I am a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I
have of it.

ƒ While grief is fresh, every attempt to divert only irritates. You must wait
till it be digested...

ƒ Wisdom is what's left after we've run out of personal opinions

ƒ Purchase not friends by gifts; when thou ceasest to give, such will cease to
love.

ƒ Men willingly believe what they wish to be true.

ƒ Those who wish to appear wise among fools, among the wise seem foolish.

ƒ Wealth is the slave of a wise man. The master of a fool.

ƒ It is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for what you are
not.

ƒ A goal without a plan is just a wish.

ƒ The discovery of a new dish does more for human happiness than the
discovery of a new star.

ƒ I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World
War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.

ƒ Real success is finding your lifework in the work that you love.
ƒ Under capitalism, man exploits man. Under communism, it's just the
opposite.

ƒ You can tell the ideals of a nation by its advertisements.

ƒ Truth is generally the best vindication against slander.

ƒ Many a small thing has been made large by the right kind of advertising.

ƒ With most men, unbelief in one thing springs from blind belief in
another.

ƒ A committee is a cul-de-sac down which ideas are lured and then quietly
strangled.

ƒ The greatest minds are capable of the greatest vices as well as of the
greatest virtues.

ƒ The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity.

ƒ In giving advice, seek to help, not please, your friend.

ƒ Let your hook be always cast; in the pool where you least expect it, there
will be a fish.

ƒ A bone to the dog is not charity. Charity is the bone shared with the dog,
when you are just as hungry as the dog.

ƒ The truth is rarely pure and never simple.

ƒ Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into
lazy habits of thinking.

ƒ For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public

relations, for Nature cannot be fooled.

ƒ It is good to be without vices, but it is not good to be without temptations.

ƒ I'm not young enough to know everything.

ƒ In the field of observation, chance favors only the prepared mind.

ƒ There are few nudities so objectionable as the naked truth.

ƒ Work while you have the light. You are responsible for the talent that has
been entrusted to you.

ƒ Once lead this people into war and they will forget there ever was such a
thing as tolerance.

ƒ As scarce as truth is, the supply has always been in excess of the demand.

ƒ Anger makes you smaller, while forgiveness forces you to grow beyond
what you were.

ƒ I respect faith, but doubt is what gets you an education.

ƒ f something is wrong, fix it if you can. But train yourself not to worry.
Worry never fixes anything.

ƒ It's been my experience that folks who have no vices have plaguy few
virtues.

ƒ You may be deceived if you trust too much, but you will live in torment if
you do not trust enough.

ƒ Hide not your talents, they for use were made. What's a sun-dial in the
shade?

ƒ Think of all the beauty in yourself and in everything around you and be
happy.

ƒ Don't be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an
experiment The more experiments you make the better

ƒ A banker is a fellow who lends you his umbrella when the sun is shining,
but wants it back the minute it begins to rain

ƒ never teach my pupils. I only attempt to provide the conditions in which

they can learn.
ƒ Never read a book through merely because you have begun it.

ƒ Only actions give life strength; only moderation gives it a charm.

ƒ You cannot dream yourself into a character; you must hammer and forge
yourself one

ƒ Nature magically suits a man to his fortunes, by making them the fruit of
his character.

ƒ You have to have confidence in your ability, and then be tough enough to
follow through

ƒ Too many have dispensed with generosity in order to practice charity.

ƒ People grow through experience if they meet life honestly and

courageously. This is how character is built.

ƒ They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change
them yourself.

ƒ He that climbs the tall tree has won right to the fruit.

ƒ In the business world, the rearview mirror is always clearer than the
windshield.

ƒ Faithless is he that says farewell when the road darkens.

ƒ Men are not prisoners of fate, but only prisoners of their own minds.

ƒ Character is like a tree and reputation like its shadow. The shadow is
what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.

ƒ I have found the best way to give advice to your children is to find out
what they want and then advise them to do it.
ƒ Life is either a daring adventure or nothing. Security does not exist in
nature.
ƒ Aim for success, not perfection. Never give up your right to be wrong,
because then you will lose the ability to learn

ƒ We have too many high sounding words, and too few actions that
correspond with them.

ƒ Science is an edged tool, with which men play like children, and cut their
own fingers.

ƒ My definition of a free society is a society where it is safe to be unpopular.

ƒ I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please
everybody.

ƒ There is no abstract art. You must always start with something.

Afterward you can remove all traces of reality.

ƒ Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit
atrocities.

ƒ The test of courage comes when we are in the minority. The test of
tolerance comes when we are in the majority.

ƒ Most certain test by which we judge whether a country is really free is the
amount of security enjoyed by minorities
ƒ Read not to contradict and confute; nor to believe and take for granted;
nor to find talk and discourse; but to weigh..

ƒ Politics is not a bad profession. If you succeed there are many rewards if
you disgrace yourself you can always write..

ƒ The belief in a supernatural source of evil is not necessary; men alone are
quite capable of every wickedness.

ƒ The man who doesn't read good books has no advantage over the man
who can't read them.

ƒ Death is more universal than life; everyone dies but not everyone lives.

ƒ It is impossible to defeat an ignorant man in argument.

ƒ Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent.

ƒ Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent

revolution inevitable.

ƒ The most radical revolutionary will become a conservative the day after
the revolution.

ƒ The most perfidious way of harming a cause consists of defending it

deliberately with faulty arguments.

ƒ All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is

violently opposed. Third, it is accepted..

ƒ Don't join the book burners. Don't think you're going to conceal faults by
concealing evidence that they ever existed.

ƒ The important thing in science is not so much to obtain new facts as to

discover new ways of thinking about them.

ƒ Thing that saves us from the bureaucracy is inefficiency. An efficient

bureaucracy is the greatest threat to liberty.

ƒ One is left with the horrible feeling now that war settles nothing; that to
win a war is as disastrous as to lose one.

ƒ One can't conceive anything so strange and so implausible that it has not
already been said by one philosopher or other

ƒ Advice is what we ask for when we already know the answer but wish we
didn't.

ƒ Fear is the main source of superstition, and one of the main sources of
cruelty.

ƒ You cannot have a proud and chivalrous spirit if your conduct is mean
and paltry; for whatever a man's actions are...
ƒ War is a series of catastrophes that results in a victory.

ƒ When I do good, I feel good; when I do bad, I feel bad, and that is my
religion.

ƒ With reasonable men I will reason; with humane men I will plead; but to
tyrants I will give no quarter...

ƒ Never try to reason the prejudice out of a man. It was not reasoned into
him, and cannot be reasoned out.

ƒ Order is not pressure which is imposed on society from without, but an

equilibrium which is set up from within.

ƒ Perseverance is more prevailing than violence; and many things which

cannot be overcome when they are together, yield..

ƒ Never judge a book by its movie.

ƒ The chief obstacle to the progress of the human race is the human race.

ƒ War may sometimes be a necessary evil. But no matter how necessary, it

is always an evil, never a good.

ƒ Some books are undeservedly forgotten; none are undeservedly

remembered.
ƒ Never let your sense of morals get in the way of doing what's right.

ƒ There was never a good war, or a bad peace.

ƒ The distance between insanity and genius is measured only by success.

ƒ I love power. But it is as an artist that I love it. I love it as a musician

loves his violin, to draw out its sounds..

ƒ A business that makes nothing but money is a poor business.

ƒ In the absence of justice, what is sovereignty but organized robbery?

ƒ Because things are the way they are, things will not stay the way they are.
ƒ Peace cannot be achieved through violence, it can only be attained
through understanding.

ƒ The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge
faster than society gathers wisdom.

ƒ I don't need a friend who changes when I change and who nods when I
nod; my shadow does that much better.

ƒ A man who dares to waste one hour of time has not discovered the value
of life.

ƒ Education is the key to unlock the golden door of freedom.

ƒ The only person who is educated is the one who has learned how to learn
and change.

ƒ Failing doesn't mean you are a failure it just means you haven't
succeeded yet.

ƒ History is the version of past events that people have decided to agree
upon.

ƒ Sooner or later, those who win are those who think they can.