Library, page 4

“Perception, inference, comparison and testimony are the means of valid knowledge.”

Akṣapāda Gautama · Nyāya

“The chief constitutive principle of scepticism is that to every account an equal account is opposed.”

Sextus Empiricus · Pyrrhonism

“To learn and to practise from time to time what one has learned — is this not a pleasure?”

Confucius · Confucianism

“Do not impose on others what you yourself do not desire.”

Confucius · Confucianism

“When you see a worthy person, think of becoming their equal. When you see an unworthy person, turn inward and examine yourself.”

Confucius · Confucianism

“The exemplary person understands what is right. The small person understands what is profitable.”

Confucius · Confucianism

“The way that can be spoken of is not the constant Way.”

Laozi · Daoism

“A journey of a thousand li begins beneath your feet.”

Laozi · Daoism

“Once Zhuang Zhou dreamt he was a butterfly, a butterfly flitting about, happy with himself and doing as he pleased. He did not know he was Zhou.”

Zhuangzi · Daoism

“Everyone knows the use of the useful, but nobody knows the use of the useless.”

Zhuangzi · Daoism

“The people are the most important; the altars of the land and grain come next; the ruler is the least important.”

Mencius · Confucianism

“Human nature is good just as water seeks low ground. There is no person who is not good; there is no water that does not flow downward.”

Mencius · Confucianism

“Human nature is bad; what is good in people is a matter of deliberate effort.”

Xunzi · Confucianism

“If everyone in the world would love others impartially — states not attacking one another, houses not disturbing one another — then the world would be well ordered.”

Mozi · Mohism

“Both formerly and now, what I teach is suffering and the cessation of suffering.”

The Buddha · Buddhism

“Hatred is never appeased by hatred in this world. By non-hatred alone is hatred appeased. This is an eternal law.”

The Buddha · Buddhism

“All conditioned things are impermanent. When one sees this with wisdom, one turns away from suffering.”

The Buddha · Buddhism

“Whatever is dependently arisen, that is explained to be emptiness.”

Nāgārjuna · Madhyamaka

“Right faith, right knowledge and right conduct together constitute the path to liberation.”

Umāsvāti · Jainism

“Souls render service to one another.”

Umāsvāti · Jainism

“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.”

Sunzi (Sun Tzu) · Military strategy

“To fear death is to think oneself wise when one is not: to think one knows what one does not know.”

Socrates · Socratic

“I go about persuading you, young and old, not to care for your bodies or your money as strongly as for the best possible state of your soul.”

Socrates · Socratic

“A good person should look to nothing other than whether what they do is right or wrong.”

Socrates · Socratic

“The god attached me to the city as a gadfly to a large, well-bred but sluggish horse.”

Socrates · Socratic

“One ought never to return a wrong, or do evil to any person, no matter what one has suffered.”

Socrates · Socratic

“It is not living that matters most, but living well.”

Socrates · Socratic

“Nothing can harm a good person, either in life or after death.”

Socrates · Socratic

“The god is wise, and human wisdom is worth little or nothing.”

Socrates · Socratic

“Wonder is the feeling of a philosopher, and philosophy begins in wonder.”

Plato · Platonism

“Those who practise philosophy in the right way are practising nothing other than dying and being dead.”

Plato · Platonism

“Picture people living in an underground, cave-like dwelling, with a fire behind them.”

Plato · Platonism

“It is not the function of the just person to harm anyone.”

Plato · Platonism

“Justice is nothing other than the advantage of the stronger.”

Plato · Platonism

“Love is the desire and pursuit of the whole.”

Plato · Platonism

“All human beings by nature desire to know.”

Aristotle · Aristotelianism

“Virtue is a state concerned with choice, lying in a mean relative to us, this being determined by reason.”

Aristotle · Aristotelianism

“While we are postponing, life speeds by.”

Seneca · Stoicism

“Do you ask what you should avoid above all? Crowds.”

Seneca · Stoicism

“Kindly remember that the person you call your slave sprang from the same stock, is smiled upon by the same skies, and on equal terms with yourself breathes, lives, and dies.”

Seneca · Stoicism

“The wise person will live as long as they ought, not as long as they can.”

Seneca · Stoicism

“The greatest remedy for anger is delay.”

Seneca · Stoicism

“The happy life is a life in harmony with its own nature.”

Seneca · Stoicism

“Sickness is a hindrance to the body, but not to the will, unless the will itself consents.”

Epictetus · Stoicism

“Never say of anything, 'I have lost it,' but, 'I have given it back.'”

Epictetus · Stoicism

“Remember that you are an actor in a play, of the kind the playwright wants it to be.”

Epictetus · Stoicism

“Never call yourself a philosopher, and do not talk at length among non-philosophers about your principles.”

Epictetus · Stoicism

“When something delights you, or is useful, or is deeply loved, remind yourself of what kind of thing it is.”

Epictetus · Stoicism

“It is not the person who abuses or strikes you who insults you, but your judgement that these things are insulting.”

Epictetus · Stoicism

“The soul is dyed by the colour of its thoughts.”

Marcus Aurelius · Stoicism