Echoes

If the public thought elevates you above the generality of men, let the other humble you, and hold you in a perfect equality with all mankind, for this is your natural condition.

If you act externally with men in conformity with your rank, you should recognize, by a more secret but truer thought, that you have nothing naturally superior to them.

Think lightly of yourself and deeply of the world.

You are not a drop in the ocean. You are the entire ocean, in a drop.

We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

I exist as I am, that is enough.

I know that I know nothing.

Ten thousand do not turn the scale against a single man of worth.

Toleration is good for all, or it is good for none.

The needs of a human being are sacred. Their satisfaction cannot be subordinated either to reasons of state, or to any consideration of money, nationality, race, or colour, or to the moral or other value attributed to the human being in question, or to any consideration whatsoever. There is no legitimate limit to the satisfaction of the needs of a human being except as imposed by necessity and by the needs of other human beings. The limit is only legitimate if the needs of all human beings receive an equal degree of attention.

There is no man in the world free from trouble or anguish, though he were King or Pope.

Democracy is based upon the conviction that there are extraordinary possibilities in ordinary people.

To account nothing of one’s self, and to think always kindly and highly of others, this is great and perfect wisdom.

Virtue can only flourish amongst equals.

Every individual matters. Every individual has a role to play. Every individual makes a difference.

The only real, dignified, human doctrine is the greatest good of all, and this can only be achieved by uttermost self-sacrifice.

Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves.

Your thought advocates Judaism, Brahmanism, Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam. In my thought there is only one universal religion, whose varied paths are but the fingers of the loving hand of the Supreme Being. In your thought there are the rich, the poor, and the beggared. My thought holds that there are no riches but life; that we are all beggars, and no benefactor exists save life herself.

It would be better for me that the whole world should disagree with me than that I, being one, should be out of harmony with myself.

There is in fact a manly and legitimate passion for equality that spurs all men to wish to be strong and esteemed. This passion tends to elevate the lesser to the rank of the greater. But one also finds in the human heart a depraved taste for equality, which impels the weak to want to bring the strong down to their level, and which reduces men to preferring equality in servitude to inequality in freedom.

When will the world learn that a million men are of no importance compared with one man?

Whatever you are, be a good one.

Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.

Insist on yourself; never imitate.

Not-knowing is true knowledge. Presuming to know is a disease.