Maimonides Quotes

#1. The business conduct of the disciples of wise men is truthful and faithful ... He does not allow himself to be made a surety or a guarantor and does not accept the power of attorney ... He lends money and is gracious. He shall not take away business from his fellow man.

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#2. I believe with perfect faith that the Creator, blessed be his name, is not a body, and that he is free from all accidents of matter, and that he has not any form whatsoever.

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#3. If one avoids haughtiness to the utmost extent and is exceedingly humble, he is termed a saint, and this is the standard of saintliness.

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#4. The person who wishes to attain human perfection should study logic first, next mathematics, then physics, and, lastly, metaphysics.

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#5. A small amount of wine such as three or four glasses is of benefit for the preservation of the health of human beings and an excellent remedy for most illnesses.

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#6. It is thus necessary to examine all things according to their essence, to infer from every species such true and well established propositions as may assist us in the solution of metaphysical problems.

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#7. For every force charged by God, may He be exalted, with some business is an angel put in charge ...

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#8. Hold firmly to your word.

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#9. All forces that reside in the body are angels.

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#10. Giving is most blessed and most acceptable when the donor remains completely anonymous.

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#11. Those who believe that ... detailed rules originate in a certain cause, are as far from the truth as those who assume that the whole law is useless.

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#12. For it is said, "You shall strengthen the stranger and the dweller in your midst and live with him," that is to say, strengthen him until he needs no longer fall upon the mercy of the community or be in need.

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#13. You must consider, when reading this treatise, that mental perception, because connected with matter, is subject to conditions similar to those to which physical perception is subject.

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#14. How individuals of the same species surpass each other in these sensations and in other bodily faculties is universally known, but there is a limit to them, and their power cannot extend to every distance or to every degree.

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#15. For that which is without a beginning, a final cause need not be sought.

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#16. A wise man is a greater asset to a nation than a king.

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#17. The physician should not treat the disease but the patient who is suffering from it

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#18. The definition of a thing includes its efficient cause; and since God is the Primal Cause, He cannot be defined, or described by a partial definition. A quality, whether psychical, physical, emotional, or quantitative, is always regarded as something distinct from its substratum;

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#19. It should not be believed that all beings exist for the sake of the existence of man. On the contrary, all the other beings too have been intended for their own sakes and not for the sake of anything else.

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#20. Inspire me with love for my art and for thy creatures. In the sufferer let me see only the human being.

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#21. Silence is the maturation of wisdom.

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#22. There are four different theories concerning Divine Providence; they are all ancient, known from the time of the Prophets, when the true law was revealed to enlighten these dark regions.

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#23. The question, "What is the purpose thereof?" cannot be asked about anything which is not the product of an agent; therefore we cannot ask what is the purpose of the existence of God.

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#24. What is lofty can be said in any language. What is mean should be said in none.

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#25. The so-called evils are evils only in relation to a certain thing, and that which is evil in relation to a certain existing thing, either includes the non-existence of that thing or the non-existence of some of its good conditions.

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#26. Man's shortcomings and sins are all due to substance of the body and not to its form, while all his merits are exclusively due to his form.

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#27. Lose with truth and right rather than gain with falsehood and wrong.

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#28. Truth does not become more true by virtue of the fact that the entire world agrees with it, nor less so even if the whole world disagrees with it.

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#29. We naturally like what we have been accustomed to, and are attracted towards it. [ ... ] The same is the case with those opinions of man to which he has been accustomed from his youth; he likes them, defends them, and shuns the opposite views.

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#30. Commune with your own heart on your bed and be still.

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#31. All this is applicable to the intellectual faculties of man. There is a considerable difference between one person and another as regards these faculties, as is well known to philosophers.

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#32. Be convinced that, if man were able to reach the end without preparatory studies, such studies would not be preparatory but tiresome and utterly superfluous.

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#33. Man's obsession to add to his wealth and honor is the chief source of his misery.

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#34. The Prophets even express their surprise that God should take notice of man, who is too little and too unimportant to be worthy of the attention of the Creator; how, then, should other living creatures be considered as proper objects for Divine Providence!

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#35. The goal of good health is to enable a person to acquire wisdom.

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#36. It is necessary to bear in mind that Scripture only teaches the chief points of those true principles which lead to the true perfection of man, and only demands in general terms faith in them.

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#37. God is identical with His attributes, so that it may be said that He is the knowledge, the knower, and the known.

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#38. The true work of God is all good, since it is existence.

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#39. You will certainly not doubt the necessity of studying astronomy and physics, if you are desirous of comprehending the relation between the world and Providence as it is in reality, and not according to imagination.

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#40. We are obligated to be more scrupulous in fulfilling the commandment of charity than any other positive commandment because charity is the sign of a righteous man.

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#41. The more necessary a thing is for living beings, the more easily it is found and the cheaper it is; the less necessary it is, the rarer and dearer it is.

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#42. It is man's duty to love and to fear God, even without hope of reward or fear of punishment.

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#43. The being which has absolute existence, which has never been and will never be without existence, is not in need of an agent.

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#44. Every ignoramus imagines that all that exists, exists with a view to his individual sake; it is as if there were nothing that exists except him. And if something happens to him that is contrary to what he wishes, he makes the trenchant judgement that all that exists is an evil.

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#45. The great sickness and the grievous evil consist in this: that all the things that man finds written in books, he presumes to think of as true-and all the more so if the books are old.

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#46. Management [ Providence ], knowledge, and intention are not the same when ascribed to us and when ascribed to God.

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#47. However great the exertion of our mind may be to comprehend the Divine Being or any of the ideals, we find a screen and partition between Him and ourselves. Thus the prophets frequently hint at the existence of a partition between God and us.

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#48. There are eight levels of charity ... The highest is when you strengthen a man's hand until he need no longer be dependent upon others.

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#49. If a person studies too much and exhausts his reflective powers, he will be confused, and will not be able to apprehend even that which had been within the power of his apprehension. For the powers of the body are all alike in this respect.

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#50. The first kind of evil is that which is caused to man by the circumstance that he is subject to genesis and destruction, or that he possesses a body.

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#51. The key to the understanding and to the full comprehension of all that the Prophets have said is found in the knowledge of the figures, their general ideas, and the meaning of each word they contain.

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#52. All the great evils which men cause to each other because of certain intentions, desires, opinions, or religious principles, are likewise due to non-existence, because they originate in ignorance, which is absence of wisdom.

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#53. It is hard for a woman with whom an uncircumcised man has had sexual intercourse to separate from him. In my opinion this is the strongest of the reasons for circumcision.

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#54. The second class of evils comprises such evils as people cause to each other, when, e.g. , some of them use their strength against others. These evils are more numerous than those of the first kind ... they likewise originate in ourselves, though the sufferer himself cannot avert them.

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#55. All the evils that men cause to each other because of certain desires, or opinions or religious principles, are rooted in ignorance. [All hatred would come to an end] when the earth was flooded with the knowledge of God.

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#56. Do not imagine that these most difficult problems can be thoroughly understood by any one of us.

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#57. The soul is subject to health and disease, just as is the body. The health and disease of both ... undoubtedly depend upon beliefs and customs, which are peculiar to mankind.

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#58. Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.

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#59. There is no difference between the worry of a human mother and an animal mother for their offspring. A mother's love does not derive from the intellect but from the emotions, in animals just as in humans.

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#60. In accordance with the divine wisdom, genesis can only take place through destruction.

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#61. The risk of a wrong decision is preferable to the terror of indecision.

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#62. It is better and more satisfactory to acquit a thousand guilty persons than to put a single innocent one to death.

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#63. Every man whose character traits all lie in the mean is called a wise man.

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#64. The passage, "And He rested on the seventh day" (Exod. xx. 11) is interpreted as follows: On the seventh Day the forces and laws were complete, which during the previous six days were in the state of being established for the preservation of the Universe. They were not to be increased or modified.

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#65. Astrology is not an art, it is a disease.

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#66. I will destroy my enemies by converting them to friends.

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#67. In so far as the soul is a force residing in the body; it has therefore been said that the properties of the soul depend of the condition of the body.

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#68. The basic principle is that there is a First Being who brought every existing thing into being, for if it be supposed that he did not exist, then nothing else could possibly exist.

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#69. Anticipate charity by preventing poverty.

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#70. Astrology is a sickness, not a science ... It is a tree under the shade of which all sorts of superstitions thrive.

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#71. The fact that laws were given to man, both affirmative and negative, supports the principle, that God's knowledge of future events does not change their character. The great doubt that presents itself to our mind is the result of the insufficiency of our intellect.

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#72. Let nothing which can be treated by diet be treated by other means.

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#73. You must accept the truth from whatever source it comes.

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#74. Nobody is ever impoverished through the giving of charity.

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#75. It is of great advantage that man should know his station, and not imagine that the whole universe exists only for him.

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#76. He who does not understand that a dead lion is more alive than a living dog will remain a dog.

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#77. While one man can discover a certain thing by himself, another is never able to understand it, even if taught by means of all possible expressions and metaphors, and during a long period; his mind can in no way grasp it, his capacity is insufficient for it.

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#78. No disease that can be treated by diet should be treated with any other means.

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#79. He who immerses himself in sexual intercourse will be assailed by premature aging, his strength will wane, his eyes will weaken, and a bad odour will emit from his mouth and his armpits, his teeth will fall out and many other maladies will afflict him.

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#80. In the beginning we must simplify the subject, thus unavoidably falsifying it, and later we must sophisticate away the falsely simple beginning.

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#81. God cannot be compared to anything. Note this.

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#82. It is well known among physicians that the best of the nourishing foods is the one that the Moslem religion forbids, i.e., Wine. It contains much good and light nourishment. It is rapidly digested and helps to digest other foods.

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#83. Even the existence of this corporeal element, low as it in reality is, because it is the source of death and all evils, is likewise good for the permanence of the Universe and the continuation of the order of things, so that one thing departs and the other succeeds.

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#84. In the realm of Nature there is nothing purposeless, trivial, or unnecessary

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#85. Do not consider it proof just because it is written in books, for a liar who will deceive with his tongue will not hesitate to do the same with his pen.

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#86. Medical practice is not knitting and weaving and the labor of the hands, but it must be inspired with soul and be filled with understanding and equipped with the gift of keen observation ...

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#87. Those who are incapable of attaining to supreme religious values include the black coloured people and those who resemble them in their climates. Their nature is like the mute animals. Their level among existing things is below that of a man and above that of a monkey.

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#88. Teach thy tongue to say 'I do not know', and thou shalt progress.

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#89. Astrology is a disease, not a science.

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#90. The more we desire for that which is superfluous, the more we meet with difficulties; our strength and possessions are spent in unnecessary things, and are wanting when required for that which is necessary.

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#91. There are eight rungs in charity. The highest is when you help a man to help himself.

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#92. Those who grieve find comfort in weeping and in arousing their sorrow until the body is too tired to bear the inner emotions.

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#93. No form remains permanently in a substance; a constant change takes place, one form is taken off and another is put on.

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#94. The knowledge of God, the formation of ideas, the mastery of desire and passion, the distinction between that which is to be chosen and that which is to be rejected, all these man owes to his form ...

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#95. God who preceded all existence is a refuge ...

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#96. Do not imagine that what we have said of the insufficiency of our understanding and of its limited extent is an assertion founded only on the Bible: for philosophers likewise assert the same, and perfectly understand it,- without having regard to any religion or opinion.

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#97. He, however, who begins with Metaphysics, will not only become confused in matters of religion, but will fall into complete infidelity.

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#98. It is possible that the meaning of wisdom in Hebrew indicates aptitude for stratagems and the application of thought in such a way that the stratagems and ruses may be used in achieving either rational or moral virtues, or in achieving skill in a practical art, or in working evil and wickedness.

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#99. Just as a person is commanded to honor and revere his father, so he is under an obligation to honor and revere his teacher, even to a greater extent than his father; for his father gave him life in this world, while his teacher instructs him in wisdom, secures for him life in the world to come.

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#100. In finances, be strict with yourself, generous with others.

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