Ibn Khaldun Quotes

#1. Therefore, the Negro nation are, as a rule, submissive to slavery, because [Negroes] have little [that is essentially] human and have attributes that are quite similar to those of dumb animals, as we have stated.

Ibn Khaldun

#2. The sciences of only one nation, the Greeks, have come down to us, because they were translated through Al-Ma'mun's efforts. He was successful in this direction because he had many translators at his disposal and spent much money in this connection.

Ibn Khaldun

#3. Throughout history many nations have suffered a physical defeat, but that has never marked the end of a nation. But when a nation has become the victim of a psychological defeat, then that marks the end of a nation.

Ibn Khaldun

#4. Islam is under obligation to gain power over all nations.

Ibn Khaldun

#5. The Berbers belong to a powerful, formidable, and numerous people; a true people like so many others, the world has seen - like the Arabs, the Persians, the Greeks and the Romans.

Ibn Khaldun

#6. Sedentary culture is the goal of civilization. It means the end of its lifespan and brings about its corruption.

Ibn Khaldun

#7. At the beginning of a dynasty, taxation yields a large revenue from small assessments. At the end of the dynasty, taxation yields a small revenue from large assessments.

Ibn Khaldun

#8. We know that the Zanj (blacks) are the least intelligent and the least discerning of mankind, and the least capable of understanding the consequences of actions.

Ibn Khaldun

#9. The past resembles the future more than one drop of water resembles another.

Ibn Khaldun

#10. People are largely ignorant of the interests of the human species.

Ibn Khaldun

#11. All the sciences came to exist in Arabic. The systematic works on them were written in Arabic writing.

Ibn Khaldun

#12. Geometry enlightlens the intellect and sets one's mind right

Ibn Khaldun

#13. Man is essentially ignorant, and becomes learned through acquiring knowledge.

Ibn Khaldun

#14. Businesses owned by responsible and organized merchants shall eventually surpass those owned by wealthy rulers.

Ibn Khaldun

#15. He who finds a new path is a pathfinder, even if the trail has to be found again by others; and he who walks far ahead of his contemporaries is a leader, even though centuries pass before he is recognized as such.

Ibn Khaldun

#16. Government is an institution which prevents injustice other than such as it commits itself.

Ibn Khaldun

#17. Eventually, Aristotle appeared among the Greeks. He improved the methods of logic and systematized its problems and details. He assigned to logic its proper place as the first philosophical discipline and the introduction to philosophy. Therefore he is called the First Teacher.

Ibn Khaldun

#18. Man is the child of customs, not the child of his ancestors.

Ibn Khaldun

#19. Habits are qualities of the soul.

Ibn Khaldun