"Luther was guilty of two great crimes - he struck the Pope in his crown, and the monks in their belly."

"Your library is your paradise."

"The desire to write grows with writing."

"What is popularly called fame is nothing but an empty name and a legacy from paganism."

"In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king."

"The summit of happiness is reached when a person is ready to be what he is."

"The chief element of happiness is this: to want to be what you are."

"He who allows oppression shares the crime."

"War is delightful to those who have had no experience of it."

"The main hope of a nation lies in the proper education of its youth"

"Only a very few can be learned, but all can be Christian, all can be devout, and – I shall boldly add – all can be theologians."

"Give light, and the darkness will disappear of itself."

"‎If you keep thinking about what you want to do or what you hope will happen, you don't do it, and it won't happen."

"The most disadvantageous peace is better than the most just war."

"Bidden or unbidden, God is present."

"Before you sleep, read something that is exquisite, and worth remembering."

"Now what else is the whole life of mortals, but a sort of comedy in which the various actors, disguised by various costumes and masks, walk on and play each ones part until the manager walks them off the stage?"

"Everybody hates a prodigy, detests an old head on young shoulders."

"At last concluded that no creature was more miserable than man, for that all other creatures are content with those bounds that nature set them, only man endeavors to exceed them."

"At last concluded that no creature was more miserable than man, for that all other creatures are content with those bounds that nature set them, only man endeavors to exceed them."

"A good portion of speaking will consist in knowing how to lie."

"I doubt if a single individual could be found from the whole of mankind free from some form of insanity. The only difference is one of degree."

"Given a choice between a folly and a sacrament, one should always choose the folly—because we know a sacrament will not bring us closer to god and there’s always the chance that a folly will."

"Human affairs are so obscure and various that nothing can be clearly known."

"War is sweet to those who have not experienced it."

"It is wiser to treat men and things as though we held this world the common fatherland of all."

"...it is a sneaking piece of cowardice for authors to put feigned names to their works, as if, like bastards of their brain, they were afraid to own them."

"I put up with this church, in the hope that one day it will become better, just as it is constrained to put up with me in the hope that I will become better."

"By burning Luther's books you may rid your bookshelves of him, but you will not rid men's minds of him."

"The highest form of bliss is living with a certain degree of folly."

"Young bodies are like tender plants, which grow and become hardened to whatever shape you've trained them."

"How do you like our England, you will say? Believe me when I assure you that I have never liked anything as much before."

"The nearer people approach old age the closer they return to a semblance of childhood, until the time comes for them to depart this life, again like children, neither tired of living nor aware of death."

"I know this is overused...but it is accurate! When I have a little money, I buy books; and if I have any left, I buy food and clothes."

"Tis the part of a truly prudent man not to be wise beyond his condition, but either to take no notice of what the world does, or run with it for company"

"I hate one that remembers what's done over the cup."

"When I get a little money, I buy books. If any is left, I buy food and clothes."

"And so when the whole man will be outside himself, and happy for no reason except that he is so outside himself, he will enjoy some of the ineffable share in the supreme good which draws everything into itself."

"It is wisdom in prosperity, when all is as thou wouldn't have it, to fear and suspect the worst."

"Do your little bit of good where you are; it's those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world."

"Don't raise your voice, improve your argument." [Address at the Nelson Mandela Foundation in Houghton, Johannesburg, South Africa, 23 November 2004]"

"We may be surprised at the people we find in heaven. God has a soft spot for sinners. His standards are quite low."

"Differences are not intended to separate, to alienate. We are different precisely in order to realize our need of one another."

"When the missionaries came to Africa they had the Bible and we had the land. They said "Let us pray." We closed our eyes. When we opened them we had the Bible and they had the land."

"We learn from history that we don't learn from history!"

"When we see others as the enemy, we risk becoming what we hate. When we oppress others, we end up oppressing ourselves. All of our humanity is dependent upon recognizing the humanity in others."

"If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor."

"Like when you sit in front of a fire in winter — you are just there in front of the fire. You don't have to be smart or anything. The fire warms you."

"Language is very powerful. Language does not just describe reality. Language creates the reality it describes."

"Religion is like a knife: you can either use it to cut bread, or stick in someone's back."