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Top 100 Quotes on QuoteLineage

Browse 100 quotations ordered by QuoteLineage's stored importance and quality scores, with author names and topics.

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This top-100 collection displays 100 entries from QuoteLineage, ordered by stored importance score, then quality score. These database scores are used for ordering; they do not establish historical influence, citation frequency, or authenticity.

Authors in this selection include Plato, Aristotle, Socrates, René Descartes, John Locke.

Recorded topic labels in this selection include Philosophy, Ethics, Politics, Literature, love.

Attributed to Plato, entry #10: "Necessity is the mother of invention." Recorded year: 380 BCE.

The Ranked List

"Necessity is the mother of invention."
— PlatoPhilosophy96

380 BCE

2
"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it."
— AristotlePhilosophy92

340 BCE

3
"Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom."
— AristotlePhilosophy92

340 BCE

4
"Education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel."
— SocratesPhilosophy88

399 BCE

5
"Courage is knowing what not to fear."
— PlatoEthics88

380 BCE

6
"Wise men speak because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something."
— PlatoPhilosophy84

380 BCE

7
"The unexamined life is not worth living."
— SocratesPhilosophy84

399 BCE

8
"At his best, man is the noblest of all animals; separated from law and justice he is the worst."
— AristotlePolitics84

340 BCE

9
"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit."
— AristotleEthics84

340 BCE

10
"The reading of all good books is like a conversation with the finest minds of past centuries."
— René DescartesLiterature82

1637

11
"The life of man in a state of nature is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short."
— John LockePolitics82

1651

12
"Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind,And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind."
— William Shakespearelove81
13
"I loved her against reason, against promise, against peace, against hope, against happiness, against all discouragement that could be."
— Charles Dickenslove81
14
"He who is in love is wise and is becoming wiser, sees newly every time he looks at the object beloved, drawing from it with his eyes and his mind those virtues which it possesses."
— Ralph Waldo Emersonlove81
15
"One's life has value so long as one attributes value to the life of others, by means of love, friendship, and compassion"
— Simone de Beauvoirfriendship81
16
"When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they can seem invincible, but in the end, they …"
— Mahatma Gandhilove81
17
"Perhaps all the dragons in our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us act, just once, with beauty and courage. Perhaps everything that frightens us is, in its deepest essence, somethin…"
— Rainer Maria Rilkelove81
18
"Believe in a love that is being stored up for you like an inheritance, and have faith that in this love there is a strength and a blessing so large that you can travel as far as you wish without ha…"
— Rainer Maria Rilkelove81
19
"he British workman has more to hope for from the rising tide of Tory democracy than from the dried up drain-pipe of Radicalism."
— Winston ChurchillPolitics81
20
"Their superstition exposes them to the rapacity and tyranny of a numerous priesthood ‘Mullahs,’ ‘Sahibzadas,’ ‘Akhundzadas,’ ‘Fakirs,’"
— Winston ChurchillPolitics81
21
"The God who gave us life, gave us liberty at the same time; the hand of force may destroy, but cannot disjoin them."
— Thomas JeffersonReligion81
22
"As long as Man continues to be the ruthless destroyer of lower living beings, he will never know health or peace. For as long as men massacre animals, they will kill each other. Indeed, he who sows…"
— Pythagoraslove81
23
"You have killed my love. You used to stir my imagination. Now you don't even stir my curiosity. You simply produce no effect. I loved you because you were marvelous, because you had genius and inte…"
— Oscar Wildelove81
24
"And he knew, also, what the old man was thinking as his tears flowed, and he, Rieux, thought it too: that a loveless world is a dead world, and always there comes an hour when one is weary of priso…"
— Albert Camuslove81
25
"You can’t, if you can’t feel it, if it neverRises from the soul, and swaysThe heart of every single hearer,With deepest power, in simple ways.You’ll sit forever, gluing things together,Cooking up a…"
— Johann Wolfgang von Goetheart81
26
"They believe that the Congress of the United States has no power under the Constitution to interfere with the institution of slavery in the different States."
— Abraham LincolnPolitics81
27
"Brief Biographical Sketch of George Washington", The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County, and Other Sketches (1867), ed. John Paul"
— Mark TwainAesthetics81
28
"Apology for Printers" (1730); later in Benjamin Franklin's Autobiographical Writings (1945) edited by Carl Van Doren"
— Benjamin FranklinPolitics81
29
"Promise to give me a kiss on my brow when I am dead. --I shall feel it."She dropped her head again on Marius' knees, and her eyelids closed. He thought the poor soul had departed. Eponine remained …"
— Victor Hugolove81
30
"O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo? Deny thy father refuse thy name, thou art thyself thou not a montegue, what is montegue? tis nor hand nor foot nor any other part belonging to a man What i…"
— William Shakespearelove81
31
"Lovers and madmen have such seething brains,Such shaping fantasies, that apprehendMore than cool reason ever comprehends.The lunatic, the lover and the poetAre of imagination all compact:One sees m…"
— William Shakespearelove81
32
"Let me not to the marriage of true minds Admit impediments. Love is not love Which alters when it alteration finds, Or bends with the remover to remove. O no, it is an ever-fixed mark That looks on…"
— William Shakespearelove81
33
"Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate: Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, And summer's lease hath all too short a date: Sometimes too hot the ey…"
— William Shakespearelove81
34
"Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms (1775); Jefferson composed the first draft of this document, but the final work was done by John Dickinson, working with his original draft…"
— Thomas JeffersonPolitics81
35
"The unqualified truth is, that when I loved Estella with the love of a man, I loved her simply because I found her irresistible. Once for all; I knew to my sorrow, often and often, if not always, t…"
— Charles Dickenslove81
36
"What is divine is full of Providence. Even chance is not divorced from nature, from the inweaving and enfolding of things governed by Providence. Everything proceeds from it."
— Marcus AureliusReligion81
37
"A lively and lasting sense of filial duty is more effectually impressed on the mind of a son or daughter by reading King Lear, than by all the dry volumes of ethics, and divinity, that ever were wr…"
— Thomas JeffersonEpistemology81
38
"When love has fused and mingled two beings in a sacred and angelic unity, the secret of life has been discovered so far as they are concerned; they are no longer anything more than the two boundari…"
— Victor Hugolove81
39
"When the Superior Man ( Junzi) eats he does not try to stuff himself; at rest he does not seek perfect comfort; he is diligent in his work and careful in speech. He avails himself to people of the …"
— ConfuciusPhilosophy81
40
"In the middle ages of Christianity opposition to the State opinions was hushed. The consequence was, Christianity became loaded with all the Romish follies. Nothing but free argument, raillery & ev…"
— Thomas JeffersonReligion81
41
"In reality there are as many religions as there are individuals.... Religions are different roads converging to the same point. What does it matter that we take different roads, so long as we reach…"
— Mahatma GandhiMetaphysics81
42
"Now there is a final reason I think that Jesus says, "Love your enemies." It is this: that love has within it a redemptive power. And there is a power there that eventually transforms individuals. …"
— Martin Luther King Jr.love81
43
"We are our own slaves, not of the British. This should be engraved on our minds. The whites cannot remain if we do not want them. If the idea is to drive them out with firearms, let every Indian co…"
— Mahatma GandhiPolitics81
44
"The Indians do not regret that capable natives can exercise the franchise. They would regret if it were otherwise. They, however, assert that they too, if capable, should have the right. You, in yo…"
— Mahatma GandhiEpistemology81
45
"Leo Tolstoy's life has been devoted to replacing the method of violence for removing tyranny or securing reform by the method of non­resistance to evil. He would meet hatred expressed in violence b…"
— Mahatma GandhiReligion81
46
"The English have taught us that we were not one nation before and that it will require centuries before we become one nation. This is without foundation. We were one nation before they came to Indi…"
— Mahatma GandhiHuman Nature81
47
"Why, of all places in Johannesburg, the Indian location should be chosen for dumping down all kaffirs "wikipedia:Kaffir (racial term)") of the town, passes my comprehension. Of course, under my sug…"
— Mahatma GandhiEpistemology81
48
"During the two years that the British flag had floated over Chakdara and the Malakand the trade of the Swat Valley had nearly doubled. As the sun of civilisation rose above the hills, the fair flow…"
— Winston ChurchillPolitics81
49
"The Body of B. Franklin Printer; Like the Cover of an old Book, Its Contents torn out, And stript of its Lettering and Gilding, Lies here, Food for Worms. But the Work shall not be wholly lost: For…"
— Benjamin FranklinPolitics81
50
"I have seen Chinamen abused and maltreated in all the mean, cowardly ways possible to the invention of a degraded nature, but I never saw a policeman interfere in the matter and I never saw a China…"
— Mark TwainEthics81
51
"The honest ratepayer and his healthy family have no doubt often mocked at the dome-like forehead of the philosopher, and laughed over the strange perspective of the landscape that lies beneath him.…"
— Oscar WildeHuman Nature81
52
"You say that the magistrate's decision is unsatisfactory because it would enable a person, however unclean, to travel by a tram, and that even the Kaffirs would be able to do so. But the magistrate…"
— Mahatma GandhiEthics81
53
"I do not wish to suggest that because we were one nation we had no differences, but it is submitted that our leading men travelled throughout India . . . They learned one another's languages . . . …"
— Mahatma GandhiMetaphysics81
54
"History will also afford frequent Opportunities of showing the Necessity of a Publick Religion, from its Usefulness to the Publick; the Advantage of a Religious Character among private Persons; the…"
— Benjamin FranklinReligion81
55
"A general belief seems to prevail in the colony that the Indians are little better, if at all, than the savages or natives of Africa. Even the children are taught to believe in that manner, with th…"
— Mahatma GandhiMetaphysics81
56
"I hope I am over wary; but if I am not, there is, even now, something of ill-omen, amongst us. I mean the increasing disregard for law which pervades the country; the growing disposition to substit…"
— Abraham LincolnEpistemology81
57
"Freedom of speech is a principal pillar of a free government; when this support is taken away, the constitution of a free society is dissolved, and tyranny is erected on its ruins. Republics and li…"
— Benjamin FranklinPolitics81
58
"We are not wrong, we are not wrong in what we are doing. If we are wrong, the Supreme Court of this nation is wrong. If we are wrong, the Constitution of the United States is wrong. And if we are w…"
— Martin Luther King Jr.Religion81
59
"Whatever we do, we must keep God in the forefront. Let us be Christian in all of our actions. But I want to tell you this evening that it is not enough for us to talk about love, love is one of the…"
— Martin Luther King Jr.Religion81
60
"We are here, we are here this evening because we're tired now. And I want to say that we are not here advocating violence. We have never done that. I want it to be known throughout Montgomery and t…"
— Martin Luther King Jr.Religion81
61
"The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves."
— William ShakespeareLiterature80

1599

62
"The whole is more than the sum of its parts."
— AristotlePhilosophy80

340 BCE

63
"I know that I know nothing."
— SocratesPhilosophy80

399 BCE

64
"Measure what is measurable, and make measurable what is not so."
— Galileo GalileiScience79

1620

65
"The day the power of love overrules the love of power, the world will know peace."
— Mahatma Gandhilove77
66
"Amor Fati – “Love Your Fate”, which is in fact your life."
— Friedrich Nietzschelife77
67
"Those who have never known the deep intimacy and the intense companionship of happy mutual love have missed the best thing that life has to give."
— Bertrand Russelllife77
68
"Love. The reason I dislike that word is that it means too much for me, far more than you can understand."- Anna Karenina {Anna Karenina}"
— Leo Tolstoylove77
69
"Keep love in your heart. A life without it is like a sunless garden when the flowers are dead. The consciousness of loving and being loved brings a warmth and a richness to life that nothing else c…"
— Oscar Wildelife77
70
"Love moderately. Long love doth so.Too swift arrives as tardy as too slow.*Love each other in moderation. That is the key to long-lasting love. Too fast is as bad as too slow.*"
— William Shakespearelove77
71
"Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that."
— Martin Luther King Jr.love77
72
"And yet,to say the truth, reason and love keep little company together nowadays."
— William Shakespearelove77
73
"My life-my whole life- take it, and do with it what you will. I love you-love you as I have never loved any living thing. From the moment I met you I loved you, loved you blindly, adoringly,madly!Y…"
— Oscar Wildelove77
74
"I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant."
— Martin Luther King Jr.love77
75
"Oh Jake," Brett said, "We could have had such a damned good time together."Ahead was a mounted policeman in khaki directing traffic. He raised his baton. The car slowed suddenly, pressing Brett aga…"
— Ernest Hemingwaylove77
76
"Man has three ways of acting wisely. First, on meditation; that is the noblest. Secondly, on imitation; that is the easiest. Thirdly, on experience; that is the bitterest."
— ConfuciusPhilosophy77
77
"This that I am, whatever it be, is mere flesh and a little breathe and the ruling Reason"
— Marcus AureliusEpistemology77
78
"Any one thing in the creation is sufficient to demonstrate a Providence to an humble and grateful mind."
— EpictetusEpistemology77
79
"I pass with relief from the tossing sea of Cause and Theory to the firm ground of Result and Fact."
— Winston ChurchillPolitics77
80
"Since it is Reason which shapes and regulates all other things, it ought not itself to be left in disorder."
— EpictetusEpistemology77
81
"A stanza of Lincoln's "On Seduction" (1837-39) as conveyed by James H. Matheny (1865 or 1866)"
— Abraham LincolnPolitics77
82
"Barring that natural expression of villainy which we all have, the man looked honest enough."
— Mark TwainAesthetics77
83
"Fine words and an insinuating appearance are seldom associated with true virtue."
— ConfuciusEthics77
84
"...and when one of them meets the other half, the actual half of himself, whether he be a lover of youth or a lover of another sort, the pair are lost in an amazement of love and friendship and int…"
— Platolove77
85
"Before I go," he said, and paused -- "I may kiss her?"It was remembered afterwards that when he bent down and touched her face with his lips, he murmured some words. The child, who was nearest to h…"
— Charles Dickensdeath77
86
"A young man should serve his parents at home and be respectful to elders outside his home. He should be earnest and truthful, loving all, but become intimate with humaneness. After doing this, if h…"
— ConfuciusPhilosophy77
87
"I believe there is one Supreme most perfect being. ... I believe He is pleased and delights in the happiness of those He has created; and since without virtue man can have no happiness in this worl…"
— Benjamin FranklinEthics77
88
"Truth will do well enough if left to shift for herself. She seldom has received much aid from the power of great men to whom she is rarely known & seldom welcome. She has no need of force to procur…"
— Thomas JeffersonEpistemology77
89
"In this instance of the fire-arms, the Asiatic has been most improperly bracketed with the native. The British Indian does not need any such restrictions as are imposed by the Bill on the natives r…"
— Mahatma GandhiPolitics77
90
"You know my friends, there comes a time when people get tired of being trampled by the iron feet of oppression. There comes a time my friends, when people get tired of being plunged across the abys…"
— Martin Luther King Jr.Metaphysics77
91
"If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants."
— Isaac NewtonScience77

1675

92
"I do not agree with what you have to say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it."
— VoltairePolitics76

1759

93
"All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players."
— William ShakespeareLiterature76

1599

94
"To be, or not to be, that is the question."
— William ShakespeareLiterature76

1603

95
"No man's knowledge here can go beyond his experience."
— John LockePhilosophy76

1689

96
"Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere."
— Albert EinsteinScience76

1929

97
"Existence precedes essence."
— Jean-Paul SartrePhilosophy75

1945

98
"E pur si muove. (And yet it moves.)"
— Galileo GalileiScience75

1633

99
"I think, therefore I am."
— René DescartesPhilosophy74

1637

100
"LoveEmbracing Tao, you become embraced.Supple, breathing gently, you become reborn.Clearing your vision, you become clear.Nurturing your beloved, you become impartial.Opening your heart, you become…"
— Lao Tzulove74

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