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THE ONLY ONE who has been unjust to me is the one to whose brother I have been unjust.
When you see a man led to prison say in your heart, "Mayhap he is escaping from a narrower prison." And when you see a man drunken say in your heart, "Mayhap he sought escape from something still more unbeautiful."
Oftentimes I have hated in self-defense; but if I were stronger I would not have used such a weapon.
How stupid is he who would patch the hatred in his eyes with the smile of his lips.
Only those beneath me can envy or hate me. I have never been envied nor hated; I am above no one. Only those above me can praise or belittle me. I have never been praised nor belittled; I am below no one.
Your saying to me, "I do not understand you," is praise beyond my worth, and an insult you do not deserve.
How mean am I when life gives me gold and I give you silver, and yet I deem myself generous.
When you reach the heart of life you will find yourself not higher than the felon, and not lower than the prophet.
Strange that you should pity the slow-footed and not the slow-minded, And the blind-eyed rather than the blind-hearted.
It is wiser for the lame not to break his crutches upon the head of his enemy.
How blind is he who gives you out of his pocket that he may take out of your heart.
Life is a procession. The slow of foot finds it too swift and he steps out; And the swift of foot finds it too slow and he too steps out.
If there is such a thing as sin some of us commit it backward following our forefathers' footsteps; And some of us commit it forward by overruling our children.
The truly good is he who is one with all those who are deemed bad.
We are all prisoners but some of us are in cells with windows and some without.
Strange that we all defend our wrongs with more vigor than we do our rights.
Should we all confess our sins to one another we would all laugh at one another for our lack of originality. Should we all reveal our virtues we would also laugh for the same cause.
An individual is above man-made laws until he commits a crime against man-made conventions; After that he is neither above anyone nor lower than anyone.
Government is an agreement between you and myself. You and myself are often wrong.
Crime is either another name of need or an aspect of a disease.
Is there a greater fault than being conscious of the other person's faults?
If the other person laughs at you, you can pity him; but if you laugh at him you may never forgive yourself. If the other person injures you, you may forget the injury; but if you injure him you will always remember. In truth the other person is your most sensitive self given another body.
How heedless you are when you would have men fly with your wings and you cannot even give them a feather.
Once a man sat at my board and ate my bread and drank my wine and went away laughing at me. Then he came again for bread and wine, and I spurned him; And the angels laughed at me.
Hate is a dead thing. Who of you would be a tomb?
It is the honor of the murdered that he is not the murderer.
The tribune of humanity is in its silent heart, never its talkative mind.
They deem me mad because I will not sell my days for gold; And I deem them mad because they think my days have a price.
They spread before us their riches of gold and silver, of ivory and ebony, and we spread before them our hearts and our spirits.; And yet they deem themselves the hosts and us the guests.
I would not be the least among men with dreams and the desire to fulfill them, rather than the greatest with no dreams and no desires.
The most pitiful among men is he who turns his dreams into silver and gold.
We are all climbing toward the summit of our hearts' desire. Should the other climber steal your sack and your purse and wax fat on the one and heavy on the other, you should pity him; The climbing will be harder for his flesh, and the burden will make his way longer. And should you in your leanness see his flesh puffing upward, help him a step; it will add to your swiftness.
You cannot judge any man beyond your knowledge of him, and how small is your knowledge.
I would not listen to a conqueror preaching to the conquered.
The truly free man is he who bears the load of the bond slave patiently.
A thousand years ago my neighbor said to me, "I hate life, for it is naught but a thing of pain." And yesterday I passed by a cemetery and saw life dancing upon his grave.
Strife in nature is but disorder longing for order.
Solitude is a silent storm that breaks down all our dead branches; Yet it sends our living roots deeper into the living heart of the living earth.
Once I spoke of the sea to a brook, and the brook thought me but an imaginative exaggerator; And once I spoke of a brook to the sea, and the sea thought me but a depreciative defamer.
How narrow is the vision that exalts the busyness of the ant above the singing of the grasshopper.
The highest virtue here may be the least in another world.
The deep and the high go to the depth or to the height in a straight line; only the spacious can move in circles.
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