Many / One

A database of 11,000+ illuminated guiding quotations in 40 categories from 600+ inspired books by our most brilliant and influential authors.
Compiled by JoAnn Kite

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1		"Platonist and Neo-Platonist thinkers have traditionally asserted that humans are secretly rooted in Divinity and can realize that fact through the practice of virtue, the pursuit of beauty, and philosophic inquiry (or dialectic). 'God', wrote Plotinus, 'is outside of none.'" The Future of the Body, Explorations Into the Further Evolution of Human Nature (Michael Murphy)

2		"How could anyone observe the mighty order with which our God governs the universe without feeling himself inclined…to the practice of all virtues, and to the beholding of the Creator himself, the source of all goodness, in all things and before all things?" Copernicus Living Quotations for Christians (Sherwood Eliot Wirt and Kersten Beckstrom, editors)

3		"Virtue is nothing but action according to the laws of our own nature, and is the effort to preserve our being….virtue is understanding." W. H. White, Translator Ethics (Benedict Spinoza)

4		"Labour to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial fire – conscience." George Washington One Thousand Inspirational Things (Audrey Stone Morris, Compiler)

5		"The bodhisattva seeds are in every being, and man is capable of an exalted vision leading to noble action because the universe is the natural abode of every virtue that man can discover in his own soul." Buddhism and Psychotherapy, The Healing of Heart Doctrine (Manly P. Hall)

6		"What then can we do practically to help great national affairs? This at least: that when in our presence unkind or sneering remarks are made about other nations, we can make a point of always putting forward considerations on the other side, and saying something kindly." The Inner Life (Charles W. Leadbeater)

7		"The health and the happiness of all sentient beings depend upon their mutual, humane relationship. We are all dependent upon one another for our well-being, progress, fulfilment." Basic Theosophy (Geoffrey Hodson)

8		"Illumination by the Spirit is the endless end of every virtue." St. Symeon the New Theologian, 'On Faith' The Philokalia, volume 4 (various authors, compiled by St. Nikodimos and St. Makarios)

9		"By deviating from the moral law man violates his own freedom, becomes imprisoned within himself, disrupts neighborly fellowship and rebels against divine truth." Catechism of the Catholic Church (Various)

10		"What is hateful to you do not do to your neighbor. That is the whole Torah. The rest is commentary." Hillel (fl. 30 bce – 10 ad), from the Talmud Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 16th edition (John Bartlett)

11		"The love-giving Spirit brings with Himself all virtues: 'Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, trustfulness, gentleness and self-control.' (Galatians 5:22)" Fire Within: St. Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross, and the Gospel - on Prayer' (Thomas Dubay, S.M.)

12		"Compassion and service are the ethical expression of Unity, awarness of the illusive nature of all that seems to separate and differentiate." Theosophy, A Modern Expression of the Wisdom of the Ages (Robert Ellwood)

13		"Humans…are pretty wonderful beings. In a community where there were no rules, no regulations, and no requirements, there would still be plenty of people who would do the things that need to be done. In fact, there would be very few who would not, for they would be uncomfortable being known as non-contributors." Communion with God (Neale Donald Walsch)

14		"Man has received from heaven a nature innately good, to guide him in all his movements. By devotion to this divine spirit within himself, he attains an unsullied innocence that leads him to do right with instinctive sureness." I Ching, Hexagram 25 The Essential Mystics (Andrew Harvey)

15		"Morality will conquer war, even as it has conquered human sacrifices, slavery, feuds, head-hunting and cannibalism." Max Nordau (1849-1923), German physician, author 'Morals and the Evolution of Man' The Great Thoughts (George Seldes, compiler)

16		"Humility, unostentatiousness, non-injuring, forgiveness, simplicity, purity, steadfastness, self-control; this is declared to be wisdom; what is opposed to this is ignorance." Bhagavad Gita (ca. 500 bce) The Quotable Spirit (Peter Lorie and Manuela D Mascetti, editors)

17		"Confucius regarded ethical values and ideals as grounded not simply in human nature as such but rather in the superhuman realm, in 'Heaven' or Ultimate Reality." The Nature and Truth of the Great Religions (August Karl Reischauer)

18		"Charity [love] safeguards the development of the universe and keeps it to the true path of its progress. Moral effort is the continuation in our souls of the same dynamic effort that gave us our bodies." Writings in Time of War (Pierre Teilhard deChardin)

19		"Our task is to reject any thought that secretly vilifies a fellow being." St. Thalassios the Libyan, 'Fourth Century' The Philokalia, volume 2 (various authors, compiled by St. Nikodimos of the Holy Mountain)

20		"The ideas of the moral order and of God belong to the ineradicable substrate of the human soul." 'General Aspects of Dream Psychology' Collected Works (Carl Jung)

21		"To obey the laws of nature is the only safe and sure road to the spiritual evolution of the senses of the soul." Encyclopedia of Ancient and Forbidden Knowledge (Zolar)

22		"Not guided missiles but guided morals constitute our great need today." George L. Ford Living Quotations for Christians (Sherwood Eliot Wirt and Kersten Beckstrom, editors)

23		"Living morally and honestly, one maintains his balance and doesn't topple into the reactive world of negative effects." The Child Within Us Lives!, A Synthesis of Science, Religion and Metaphysics (William Samuel)

24		"The great truths without which man's moral life is impossible – for example, knowledge of God's existence, the freedom of the will, etc. – belong to the domain of common sense, as consequences immediately deducible (proximate conclusions) from primary data apprehended by observation and first principles apprehended by the intellect. All people, unless spoiled by a faulty education or by some intellectual vice, possess a natural certainty of these truths." An Introduction to Philosophy (Jacques Maritain)

25		"I refuse to accept the idea that the 'isness' of man's present nature makes him morally incapable of reaching up for the 'oughtness' that forever confronts him." Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968), speech accepting the Nobel Peace Prize, December 11, 1964 Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 16th edition (John Bartlett)