Echoes

Truth is the daughter of time, not of authority.

In matters of conscience, the law of majority has no place.

A very great deal more truth can become known than can be proven.

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.

Reserve your right to think, for even to think wrongly is better than not to think at all.

Plato is my friend — Aristotle is my friend — but truth is a greater friend.

It is not truth that makes man great, but man that makes truth great.

I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with senses, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use and by some other means to give us knowledge which we can attain by them.

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

It would be better for me... that multitudes of men should disagree with me rather than that I, being one, should be out of harmony with myself.

Do not look for approval except for the consciousness of doing your best.

You should rather please yourself than the people; take thought for the quality, not the number, of judgements made about you.

Truth is sought not because it is truth but because it is good.

Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts.

I rely on two precedents: first, to similar cases our Sages applied the verse, "It is time to do something in honour of the Lord: for they have made void thy law"... Secondly, they have said, "Let all thy acts be guided by pure intentions." ...Lastly, when I have a difficult subject before me—when I find the road narrow, and can see no other way of teaching a well established truth except by pleasing one intelligent man and displeasing ten thousand fools—I prefer to address myself to the one man, and to take no notice whatever of the condemnation of the multitude; I prefer to extricate that intelligent man from his embarrassment and show him the cause of his perplexity, so that he may attain perfection and be at peace.

To find yourself, think for yourself.

Truth never turns to rebuke falsehood; her own straightforwardness is the severest correction.

Do not go by revelation; Do not go by tradition; Do not go by hearsay; Do not go on the authority of sacred texts; Do not go on the grounds of pure logic; Do not go by a view that seems rational; Do not go by reflecting on mere appearances; Do not go along with a considered view because you agree with it; Do not go along on the grounds that the person is competent; Do not go along because "the recluse is our teacher." Kalamas, when you yourselves know: These things are unwholesome, these things are blameworthy; these things are censured by the wise; and when undertaken and observed, these things lead to harm and ill, abandon them... Kalamas, when you know for yourselves: These are wholesome; these things are not blameworthy; these things are praised by the wise; undertaken and observed, these things lead to benefit and happiness, having undertaken them, abide in them.

I don't want to be interesting. I want to be good.

All formal dogmatic religions are fallacious and must never be accepted by self-respecting persons as final.

Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise; seek what they sought.

I do not speak the minds of others except to speak my own mind better.

Stubborn and ardent clinging to one's opinion is the best proof of stupidity.

Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind.

If it is not right do not do it; if it is not true do not say it.