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If these writings of the Greeks agree with the word of Allah, they are useless and need not be preserved; if they disagree, they are pernicious and ought to be destroyed.
— Omar I (581-644) 2nd Caliph, captor of Jerusalem, on the destruction of the library at Alexandria, Egypt
I don’t like religion much, and I’m glad that in the Bible the word is not to be found.
— Martin Buber (1878-19655) Austrian-born Israeli theologian, philosopher
The state employs evil weapons to subjugate evil, and is alike contaminated by the objects with which it deals and the means by which it works.
— Herbert Spencer (1820-1903) English philosopher
To become a great man it is necessary to be a great rascal.
— Guillaume DuBois (1656-1723) French cardinal, statesman
Dividing the world into a hundred parts, I am apt to believe the calculation might be thus adjusted: Pedants 15; Persons of Common Sense 40; Wits 15; Persons of a Wild Uncultivated Taste 10; Persons of original taste, improved by art 5.
— William Shenstone (1714-1763) English poet
Digressions, objections, delight in mockery, carefree mistrust are signs of health; everything unconditional belongs in pathology.
— Friedrich Nietzsche(1844-1900) 19th-century German philosopher.
An idealist is one who, upon observing that a rose smells better than a cabbage, concludes that it will also make a better soup.
— H.L. Mencken (1880-1956) 20th-century journalist, satirist, social critic, cynic, freethinker
There are in fact four very significant stumbling blocks in the way of grasping the truth, which hinder every man however learned, and scarcely allow anyone to earn a clear title to wisdom, namely, the example of weak and unworthy authority, longstanding custom, the feeling of the ignorant crowd, and the hiding of our own ignorance while making a display of our apparent wisdom.
— Roger Bacon (1220-1292) English philosopher, scientist
When you fool a fool, you strike a blow for intelligence.
— Giacomo Girolamo Casanova de Seingalt (1725-1798) Italian adventurer
We should all be obliged to appear before a board every five years and justify our existence to its satisfaction on pain of liquidation.
— George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish author
