💬 Quotes

"The color of truth is grey."

"It is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for what you are not."

"Coutumes, you are a shield; but you are also a prison."

"The object of this treatise is to enlighten a religious man who has been trained to believe in the truth of our holy Law, who conscientiously fulfills his moral and religious duties, and yet has stumbled upon difficulties regarding the principles of belief."

"Every description of God by means of affirmative attributes is inadmissible, because they either imply corporeality, or are relative; and all relative terms concerning God are utterly inadmissible."

"A man's comprehension of God is proportionate to the degree of his own perfection."

"Do not imagine that the heavens are for man's sake; the whole mankind is insignificant in comparison with the universe, and how much more an individual human being."

"All the actions of God—that is to say, the laws of nature—are the result of absolute wisdom and not of mere arbitrary will."

"Man's highest perfection is to become conformed to the intellect, and to know God as far as man is able to know Him, for this knowledge brings man to true eternal bliss."

"Nothing is miserable unless you think it so; and on the other hand, nothing brings happiness unless you are content with it."

"The very opposite of what they desire is what the wicked achieve; for they strive after happiness, but wickedness itself cuts them off from it."

"O you who sow your seed in the fields of human thought, why do you seek a harvest of vain glory when you can have the sure rewards of philosophy?"

"What is this fleeting thing you call fame? Think on the vastness of eternity and the boundless reaches of space, and you will blush at the narrow limits of your renown."

"All fortune is good fortune, whether it be joyful or sorrowful; for it is either a reward for the good, a correction for the wicked, or a trial for the strong."

"And I must tell you that the Great Kaan is the monarch who holds the greatest domain, the greatest power, and the greatest treasure that ever was in the world."

"When you have ridden and gone through this country, you come to a province named Tangut... The people are idolaters, and have a strange language."

"And the people of this city are all subjects of the Great Kaan, and use paper-money as currency. The way it is made is so simple that it is quite a marvel."

"The women of this country are of great beauty, and live in such a state of freedom that they may do as they please, provided they commit no crime."

"They are a people who live by trade and crafts, and they have great abundance of silk, from which they weave stuffs of great price."

"And I will tell you all about it because I have written it down in this book, and because I saw it with my own eyes, so that none can say it is false."