New opinions are always suspected, and usually opposed, without any other reason but because they are not already common. 

~ John Locke, philosopher (1632-1704) 

Destroying species is like tearing pages out of an unread book, written in a language humans hardly know how to read, about the place where they live. 

~ Holmes Rolston III, professor of philosophy (b. 1932) 

An idea is not responsible for the people who believe in it. 

~ Don Marquis, humorist and poet (1878-1937) 

The bitterest tears shed over graves are for words left unsaid and deeds left undone. 

~ Harriet Beecher Stowe, abolitionist and novelist (1811-1896) 

Insanity in individuals is something rare - but in groups, parties, nations, and epochs, it is the rule. 

~ Friedrich Nietzsche, philosopher (1844-1900) 

The greatest compliment that was ever paid me was when one asked me what I thought, and attended to my answer. 

~ Henry David Thoreau, naturalist and author (1817-1862) 

To read without reflecting is like eating without digesting. 

~ Edmund Burke, statesman and writer (1729-1797) 

A person may cause evil to others not only by his actions but by his inaction, and in either case he is justly accountable to them for the injury. 

~ John Stuart Mill, philosopher and economist (1806-1873) 

They defend their errors as if they were defending their inheritance. 

~ Edmund Burke, statesman and writer (1729-1797) 

You can tell whether a man is clever by his answers. You can tell whether a man is wise by his questions. 

~ Naguib Mahfouz, writer, Nobel laureate (1911-2006) 

Most institutions demand unqualified faith; but the institution of science makes skepticism a virtue. 

~ Robert King Merton, sociologist (1910-2003) 

We must not be frightened nor cajoled into accepting evil as deliverance from evil. We must go on struggling to be human, though monsters of abstractions police and threaten us. 

~ Robert Hayden, poet and educator (1913-1980) 

As I grow to understand life less and less, I learn to live it more and more. 

~ Jules Renard, writer (1864-1910) 

The fingers of your thoughts are molding your face ceaselessly. 

~ Charles Reznikoff, poet (1894-1976) 

How beautiful it is to do nothing, and then rest afterward. 

~ Spanish proverb 

In wisdom gathered over time, I have found that every experience is a form of exploration.

~ Ansel Adams

It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light.

~ Aristotle Onassis 

It is lamentable, that to be a good patriot one must become the enemy of the rest of mankind. 

~ Voltaire, philosopher (1694-1778)