Top 100 Quotes About Maimonides
#1. Gone too from the world, Averroes and Moses Maimonides,
James Joyce
#2. According to Maimonides, one should always walk the King's Road, staying away from the extremes, neither surrendering completely to one's emotions nor rejecting them entirely.
Ilona Andrews
#3. Maimonides taught that it is better that 10 criminals go free than let one innocent man be executed. The Innocence Project represents that point of view.
Norman Lamm
#4. In the past some of the most influential Jewish, Christian and Muslim theologians, such as Maimonides, Aquinas and Ibn Sina, made it clear that it was very difficult to speak about God, because when we confront the ultimate, we are at the end of what words or thoughts can do.
Karen Armstrong
#5. Be angry only for a grave cause that rightly calls for indignation,' Maimonides wrote in his Mishneh Torah. What
Simon Schama
#6. Maimonides is the most influential Jewish thinker of the Middle Ages, and quite possibly of all time.
David Zulberg
#7. As an old friend of mine once said when I brought him some interesting brownies, 'You must accept the truth from whatever source it comes,'" she replied. "Haven't you read your Maimonides?
Gregory Maguire
#8. To try to be at once a Lithuanian yeshiva and a New England prep school: that was the unspoken motto of the Maimonides School of Brookline, Mass., where I studied for 12 years.
Noah Feldman
#10. When Maimonides says that the Messiah will come but that 'he may tarry,' we see the origin of every Jewish shrug from Spinoza to Woody Allen.
Christopher Hitchens
#11. 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.
Maimonides
#12. 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.
Maimonides
#13. If one avoids haughtiness to the utmost extent and is exceedingly humble, he is termed a saint, and this is the standard of saintliness.
Maimonides
#14. If men possessed wisdom, which stands in the same relation to the form of man as the sight to the eye, they would not cause any injury to themselves or to others; for the knowledge of truth removes hatred and quarrels, and prevents mutual injuries.
Maimonides
#15. The person who wishes to attain human perfection should study logic first, next mathematics, then physics, and, lastly, metaphysics.
Maimonides
#16. If the whole earth is infinitely small in comparison with the sphere of the stars, what is man compared with all these created beings!
Maimonides
#17. 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.
Maimonides
#18. 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.
Maimonides
#19. For every force charged by God, may He be exalted, with some business is an angel put in charge ...
Maimonides
#20. You will find that there is no other difference of opinion as regards any portions of the Universe, except that the philosophers believe in the Eternity of the Universe and we believe in the Creation. Note this.
Maimonides
#21. The whole object of the Prophets and the Sages was to declare that a limit is set to human reason where it must halt.
Maimonides
#23. All forces that reside in the body are angels.
Maimonides
#24. Giving is most blessed and most acceptable when the donor remains completely anonymous.
Maimonides
#25. To the totality of purposes of the perfect Law there belong the abandonment, depreciation, and restraint of desires in so far as possible.
Maimonides
#26. 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.
Maimonides
#27. 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.
Maimonides
#28. 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.
Maimonides
#29. Contrast the experience with something worse and you cannot help feeling happy and grateful because ... The change from trouble to comfort gives us more pleasure than uninterrupted comfort does.
Maimonides
#30. 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.
Maimonides
#31. For that which is without a beginning, a final cause need not be sought.
Maimonides
#32. A wise man is a greater asset to a nation than a king.
Maimonides
#33. The physician should not treat the disease but the patient who is suffering from it
Maimonides
#34. 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;
Maimonides
#35. 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.
Maimonides
#36. Inspire me with love for my art and for thy creatures. In the sufferer let me see only the human being.
Maimonides
#37. Silence is the maturation of wisdom.
Maimonides
#38. Actions are divided as regards their object into four classes; they are either purposeless , unimportant , or vain , or good .
Maimonides
#39. 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.
Maimonides
#40. 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.
Maimonides
#41. What is lofty can be said in any language. What is mean should be said in none.
Maimonides
#42. 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.
Maimonides
#43. 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.
Maimonides
#44. Lose with truth and right rather than gain with falsehood and wrong.
Maimonides
#45. Everyone entrusted with a mission is an angel.
Maimonides
#46. 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.
Maimonides
#47. 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.
Maimonides
#48. Commune with your own heart on your bed and be still.
Maimonides
#49. 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.
Maimonides
#50. 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.
Maimonides
#51. That which is produced with intention has passed over from non-existence to existence.
Maimonides
#52. Man's obsession to add to his wealth and honor is the chief source of his misery.
Maimonides
#53. 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!
Maimonides
#54. First Theory . There is no Providence at all for anything in the Universe; all parts of the Universe, the heavens and what they contain, owe their origin to accident and chance; there exists no being that rules and governs them or provides for them. This is the theory of Epicurus ...
Maimonides
#55. Form can only be destroyed accidentally, i.e., on account of its connexion with substance, the true nature of which consists in the property of never being without a disposition to receive form.
Maimonides
#56. The goal of good health is to enable a person to acquire wisdom.
Maimonides
#57. 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.
Maimonides
#58. God is identical with His attributes, so that it may be said that He is the knowledge, the knower, and the known.
Maimonides
#59. The true work of God is all good, since it is existence.
Maimonides
#60. 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.
Maimonides
#61. 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.
Maimonides
#62. 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.
Maimonides
#63. It is man's duty to love and to fear God, even without hope of reward or fear of punishment.
Maimonides
#64. The being which has absolute existence, which has never been and will never be without existence, is not in need of an agent.
Maimonides
#65. Transient bodies are only subject to destruction through their substance and not through their form, nor can the essence of their form be destroyed; in this respect, they are permanent.
Maimonides
#66. 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.
Maimonides
#67. 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.
Maimonides
#68. Management [ Providence ], knowledge, and intention are not the same when ascribed to us and when ascribed to God.
Maimonides
#69. 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.
Maimonides
#70. 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.
Maimonides
#71. 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.
Maimonides
#72. 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.
Maimonides
#73. Your purpose ... should always be to know ... the whole that was intended to be known.
Maimonides
#74. 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.
Maimonides
#75. 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.
Maimonides
#76. Further, there are things of which the mind understands one part, but remains ignorant of the other; and when man is able to comprehend certain things, it does not follow that he must be able to comprehend everything.
Maimonides
#77. 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.
Maimonides
#78. The philosophers likewise assume that in Nature there is nothing in vain, so that everything that is not the product of human industry serves a certain purpose, which may be known or unknown to us.
Maimonides
#79. 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.
Maimonides
#80. 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.
Maimonides
#81. Do not imagine that these most difficult problems can be thoroughly understood by any one of us.
Maimonides
#82. 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.
Maimonides
#83. Eliphas never abandoned his belief that the fate of man is the result of justice, that we do not know all our shortcomings for which we are punished, nor the way how we incur the punishment through them.
Maimonides
#84. Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.
Maimonides
#85. 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.
Maimonides
#86. In accordance with the divine wisdom, genesis can only take place through destruction.
Maimonides
#87. The risk of a wrong decision is preferable to the terror of indecision.
Maimonides
#88. It is better and more satisfactory to acquit a thousand guilty persons than to put a single innocent one to death.
Maimonides
#89. Every man whose character traits all lie in the mean is called a wise man.
Maimonides
#90. All attributes ascribed to God are attributes of His acts, and do not imply that God has any qualities.
Maimonides
#91. 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.
Maimonides
#92. Astrology is not an art, it is a disease.
Maimonides
#93. I will destroy my enemies by converting them to friends.
Maimonides
#94. 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.
Maimonides
#95. 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.
Maimonides
#96. Anticipate charity by preventing poverty.
Maimonides
#97. the laws remain undisturbed (ch. xxvii.). Apparent exceptions, the miracles, originate in these laws, although man is unable to perceive the causal relation.
Maimonides
#98. Astrology is a sickness, not a science ... It is a tree under the shade of which all sorts of superstitions thrive.
Maimonides
#99. Whatever form it has, it [matter] will be disposed to receive another form; it never leaves off moving and casting off the form which it has in order to receive another ... It is therefore clear that all corruption, destruction, or defect comes from matter.
Maimonides
#100. 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.
Maimonides
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