Wisdom famous quotes
Last updated: Sep 5, 2024
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To truly find God, truth needs to be found independently from the opinions of others. The truth has to be found in our hearts.
-- A. H. Almaas -
You have your identity when you find out, not what you can keep your mind ON, but what you can't keep your mind OFF.
-- A. R. Ammons -
The Bible says, 'The truth shall make you free.' But let's not forget it was Spiro Agnew who said that a good lie will keep you out of jail in the first place.
-- A. Whitney Brown -
Most people use music as a couch; they want to be pillowed on it, relaxed and consoled for the stress of daily living. But serious music was never meant to be soporific.
-- Aaron Copland -
Be with Allah, You will find Allah with you.
-- Abd al-Ghani al-Nabulsi -
If the divine Mercy grants him the knowledge of himself, then his adoration will be pure; and, for him, paradise and hell, recompense, spiritual degrees and all created things will be as though God had never created them. He will not accord them any importance, nor will he take them into consideration, except to the extent that it is prescribed by the divine Law and Wisdom. For then he will know Who is the sole Agent.
-- Abdelkader El Djezairi -
O you who complain to people about your misfortunes, what good will it do you to complain to creatures? They can bring you neither benefit nor harm. If you rely on them and associate partners with the Lord of the Truth, they will make you distant from Him, cause you to fall into His displeasure.
-- Abdul-Qadir Gilani -
Seek the fellowship of those who enjoy fellowship with the Lord
-- Abdul-Qadir Gilani -
Listen to your heart and not your ego. Your ego prompts you to boast of vain assertions to obtain the glory of this world. Turn away from vanity and seek Him in the recesses of your heart and soul
-- Abdul-Qadir Gilani -
Never break a Muslim's heart by refusing what he offers you, when you know that anything that comes to you through him is in reality from Allah, and he is only His powerless and compelled means.
-- Abdullah ibn Alawi al-Haddad -
Someone who seeks to travel the path of Allah should begin with a sound repentance from all his sins.
-- Abdullah ibn Alawi al-Haddad -
When the inward is good the outward is also inevitably so, for the outward always follows the inward, whether good or evil.
-- Abdullah ibn Alawi al-Haddad -
How often it is that a small action becomes great by its intention. And how often it is that a great action becomes small by its intention.
-- Abdullah ibn Mubarak -
The beginning of knowledge is the intention, then listening, then understanding, then action, then preservation, and then spreading it.
-- Abdullah ibn Mubarak -
I studied adab for thirty years and I studied knowledge for twenty years.
-- Abdullah ibn Mubarak -
Be content with what you have Be satisfied with your dwelling place to accommodate your enterprise, Restrain your tongue, And shed tears of regret regarding past sins you committed knowingly, and those you do not recognize.
-- Abdullah, Son of Masud -
I am more and more convinced that man is a dangerous creature and that power, whether vested in many or a few, is ever grasping, and like the grave, cries, 'Give, give.'
-- Abigail Adams -
Wisdom doesn't automatically come with old age. Nothing does - except wrinkles. It's true, some wines improve with age. But only if the grapes were good in the first place.
-- Abigail Van Buren -
Sir, my concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God's side, for God is always right.
-- Abraham Lincoln -
I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts.
-- Abraham Lincoln -
I don't like that man. I must get to know him better.
-- Abraham Lincoln -
The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew.
-- Abraham Lincoln -
These capitalists generally act harmoniously and in concert, to fleece the people.
-- Abraham Lincoln -
Public sentiment is everything. With public sentiment, nothing can fail. Without it, nothing can succeed.
-- Abraham Lincoln -
As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy.
-- Abraham Lincoln -
America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.
-- Abraham Lincoln -
If you only have a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail.
-- Abraham Maslow -
To the man who only has a hammer, everything he encounters begins to look like a nail.
-- Abraham Maslow -
As there is no darkness in the moonlight. So is Mustafa (Muhammad), the well wisher, bright.
-- Abu Bakr -
Many times I heard Imam Ahmad saying (when asked to give his opinion) on controversial scholarly issues 'I do not know.'
-- Abu Dawood -
Abu Dharr once described the people of the world, says, "They breed what will they ultimately bury, they build what will eventually be destroy, they hold firm to what is emphemeral, and they forsake what is everlasting. Hence, blessed are the two cries people abominate most: Death and poverty.
-- Abu Dhar al-Ghifari -
Who are we to wish for Paradise? It will be enough if Allah spares us his wrath.
-- Abu Hanifa -
The heartbrokenness of the sinner is better than the forcefulness of the obedient
-- Abu Madyan -
It is reported from 'Ubayd ibn 'Umayr (radiAllahu anhu) that he said: "It used to be said when winter came: O people of the Qur`an, the night has become long so you can pray (more) and the day has become short for you to fast."
-- Abu Nu`aym -
The need of the hour is that your life should be revolutionised. The revolution should not be an individual one but a collective one. The change should be concerning your belief, your morals, your actions, your dealings, your decisions, and your efforts. Your life in every way should become a beacon of guidance and it should become a means for Dawah.
-- Abul Hasan Ali Hasani Nadwi -
Your life in every way should become a beacon of guidance and it should become a means for Dawah.
-- Abul Hasan Ali Hasani Nadwi -
Start doing the things you think should be done, and start being what you think society should become. Do you believe in free speech? Then speak freely. Do you love the truth? Then tell it. Do you believe in an open society? Then act in the open. Do you believe in a decent and humane society? Then behave decently and humanely.
-- Adam Michnik -
It is now conventional wisdom that Americans do not care why we went to war in Iraq, that it is enough that the world is better off without Saddam Hussein.
-- Adam Schiff -
Most perfect self-understanding is the capability to directly (immediately) transcend dilemma, all problems, all seeking.
-- Adi Da -
That which seems the height of absurdity in one generation often becomes the height of wisdom in another.
-- Adlai E. Stevenson -
Patriotism is not a short and frenzied outburst of emotion but the tranquil and steady dedication of a lifetime.
-- Adlai E. Stevenson -
The unknown, our own true nature, has the capacity to wake itself up when you start to fall in love with letting go of all the mental structures you hold onto. Contemplate this: there is no such thing as a true belief.
-- Adyashanti -
In our sleep, pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart and in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom through the awful grace of God. Quoted by Robert F. Kennedy, delivering an extemporaneous eulogy to Martin Luther King, Jr., the evening of April 4, 1968, in Indianapolis, Indiana. These words, lacking "own," have been used as one of the inscriptions at the Robert F. Kennedy gravesite in Arlington National Cemetery.
-- Aeschylus -
He that always gives way to others will end in having no principles of his own.
-- Aesop -
Do not count your chickens before they are hatched.
-- Aesop -
We would often be sorry if our wishes were gratified.
-- Aesop -
It is thrifty to prepare today for the wants of tomorrow.
-- Aesop -
Dogs are wise. They crawl away into a quiet corner and lick their wounds and do not rejoin the world until they are whole once more.
-- Agatha Christie -
A feeling of discouragement when you slip up is a sure sign that you put your faith in deeds
-- Ahmad ibn Ajiba -
Your desire to withdraw from everything when Allah has involved you in the world of means is a hidden appetite. Your desire for involvement with the world of means when Allah has withdrawn you from it is a fall from high aspiration.
-- Ahmad ibn Ajiba -
Dhikr is the reason for the life of the heart and leaving it is the reason for its death.
-- Ahmad ibn Ajiba -
Islam is a way of life which opens the heart to the meaning of existence. Thus any increase of outward splendor is usually a sign of a decrease in inward illumination
-- Ahmad Thomson -
Cease to sin, because you will not meet Allah with anything [as valuable] as few sins.
-- Aisha bint Abi Bakr -
To be satisfied with a little, is the greatest wisdom; and he that increaseth his riches, increaseth his cares; but a contented mind is a hidden treasure, and trouble findeth it not.
-- Akhenaton -
Dear friend, Your heart is a polished mirror. You must wipe it dean of the veil of dust that has gathered upon it, because it is destined to reflect the light of divine secrets.
-- Al-Ghazali -
Do not dispute with anyone in any matter as far as possible. For in argumentation lies much harm and its evil is greater than its benefit.
-- Al-Ghazali -
The hypocrite looks for faults; the believer looks for excuses.
-- Al-Ghazali -
Remember your contemporaries who have passed away and were your age. Remember the honors and fame they earned, the high posts they held, and the beautiful bodies they possessed. Today all of them are turned to dust. They have left orphans and widows behind them, their wealth is being wasted, and their houses turned into ruins. No sign of them is left today, and they lie in dark holes underneath the earth. Picture their faces before your mind's eye and ponder.
-- Al-Ghazali -
Whoever determines the truth from people alone will remain lost in the plains of bewilderment. Rather, know the truth, and you will know its people.
-- Al-Ghazali -
You possess only whatever will not be lost in a ship wreck.
-- Al-Ghazali -
In the intricate paths of life when difficulties and hardships confront a man, and the darkness of difficulty and suffering becomes long, it is patience only that acts like a light for a Muslim, that keeps him safe from wandering here and there, and saves him from the muddy marsh of disappointment, desperation and frustration.
-- Al-Ghazali -
People count with self-satisfaction the number of times they have recited the name of God on their prayer beads, but they keep no beads for reckoning the number of idle words they speak.
-- Al-Ghazali -
To completely trust in Allah is to be like a child who knows deeply that even if he does not call for the mother, the mother is totally aware of his condition and is looking after him.
-- Al-Ghazali -
A human-being is not a human-being while his tendencies include self-indulgence, covetousness, temper and attacking other people
-- Al-Ghazali -
Does money upset the hearts of learned men? He answered, "men whose hearts are changed by money are not learned"
-- Al-Ghazali -
If those who do not possess knowledge avoid the scholarly discussions, disagreement will end.
-- Al-Ghazali -
No one who possesses snow would find any hardship in exchanging it for jewels and pearls. This world is like snow exposed to sun, which continues to melt until it disappears altogether, while the next life is like a precious stone that never passes away.
-- Al-Ghazali -
The soul should take care of the body, just as the pilgrim on his way to Makkah takes care of his camel; but if the pilgrim spends his whole time in feeding and adorning his camel, the caravan will leave him behind, and he will perish in the desert.
-- Al-Ghazali -
There are two kinds of Riya - Showing off-Ostentation ie pure ostentation and adulterated ostention. In pure ostentation "Riya" a man does a good deed only for worldly benefit. In Adulterated ostentation, a man does a good deed with the intention of reaping the benefits of the world as well as of the Hereafter.
-- Al-Ghazali -
The mere physical man is like the ant crawling on the paper, who observes black lettering and attributes its production to the pen and nothing more.
-- Al-Ghazali -
Whoever passes forty without his virtue overpowering his vice, let him get ready for hellfire. This advice contains enough for people of knowledge.
-- Al-Ghazali -
It is sometimes said that we drink our religion with our mother's milk.
-- Al-Ghazali -
If your busy with yourself now, you will be busy with yourself then. If you are busy with Allah now, you will be with Him then.
-- Al-Ghazali -
Whatever the situation may be, in the recollection of death there is reward and merit. For even the man engrossed in the world benefits from it by acquiring an aversion to this world, since it spoils his contentment and the fullness of his pleasure; and everything which spoils for man his pleasures and his appetites is one of the means of deliverance.
-- Al-Ghazali -
Neglect not your time, nor use it haphazardly; on the contrary you should bring yourself to account. Structure your litanies and other practices during each day and night. This is how to bring about the spiritual blessing (baraka) in each period. If each of your breaths is a priceless jewel, Be not like the deceived fools who are joyous because each day their wealth increases while their life grows ever shorter.
-- Al-Ghazali -
Anyone who refuses to marry is shrinking his farmwork, wasting the seed, and leaving idle the appropiate tools created by God; he sins against the purpose of creation and wisdom visible in the evidence of natural structure. The man who refuses to marry has severed a chain of being, a previously unbroken chain linking his own existence to that of Adam.
-- Al-Ghazali -
Do not fix hopes on your health, and do not laugh away life. Remember how they walked and now all their joints lie separately, and the tongue with which they talked lightly is eaten away by the worms
-- Al-Ghazali -
Work for your terrestrial life in proportion to your location in it, and work for your afterlife in proportion to your eternity in it.
-- Al-Ghazali -
Ikhlaas is to forget the vision of creation by constantly looking at the Creator.
-- Al-Jahiz -
We ought not to be embarrassed of appreciating the truth and of obtaining it wherever it comes from, even if it comes from races distant and nations different from us. Nothing should be dearer to the seeker of truth than the truth itself, and there is no deterioration of the truth, nor belittling either of one who speaks it or conveys it
-- Al-Kindi -
Intention is the measure for rendering actions true, so that, where intention is sound, action is sound, and where it is corrupt, then action is corrupt
-- Al-Nawawi -
You say that you are just a body, but inside of you is something greater than the Universe.
-- Al-Shafi‘i -
Only someone who is sincere recognizes what showing off is.
-- Al-Shafi‘i -
Never do I argue with a man with a desire to hear him say what is wrong, or to expose him and win victory over him. Whenever I face an opponent in debate I silently pray - O Lord, help him so that truth may flow from his heart and on his tongue, and so that if truth is on my side, he may follow me; and if truth be on his side, I may follow him.
-- Al-Shafi‘i -
When my heart became constricted and my paths became narrow I took my hope in Your pardon and forgiveness as an opening and an escape My sins seemed very great to me but when I compared them to Your forgiveness I found Your forgiveness to be greater
-- Al-Shafi‘i -
Knowledge is not what is memorised. Knowledge is what benefits.
-- Al-Shafi‘i -
I complained to Waki' about the weakness of my memorisation, So he instructed me to abandon disobedience; He informed me that knowledge is a light, And the light of Allah is not given to a sinner.
-- Al-Shafi‘i -
The one who admonishes his brother secretly, he has advised sincerely and has honored him. If he does it outwardly (among others) then he has dishonored and shamed him.
-- Al-Shafi‘i -
All humans are dead except those who have knowledge; and all those who have knowledge are asleep, except those who do good deeds; and those who do good deeds are deceived, except those who are sincere; and those who are sincere are always in a state of worry.
-- Al-Shafi‘i -
To admonish your brother in private is to advise him and improve him. But to admonish him publicly is to disgrace and shame him.
-- Al-Shafi‘i -
There is not on the face of the earth-after the Book of Allah - a book which is more sahih than the book of Malik.
-- Al-Shafi‘i
