Our Centers for Ethics:

Quotations: Karma

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We are here to awaken from the illusion of our separateness.
— Thich Nhat Hanh, French-based Vietnamese Buddhist monk, peace activist and author (b. 1926)

Such is the moral construction of the world that no national crime passes unpunished in the long run... Were present oppressors to reflect on the same truth, they would spare to their own countries the penalties on their present wrongs which will be inflicted on them in future times. The seeds of hatred and revenge which they [sow] with a large hand will not fail to produce their fruits in time. Like their brother robbers on the highway, they suppose the escape of the moment a final escape and deem infamy and future risk countervailed by present gain.
— Thomas Jefferson, American Founding Father and U.S. president (1743-1826), letter to Francois de Marbois, 1817

Men are not punished for their sins, but by them.
— Elbert Hubbard, American entrepreneur and philosopher (founder of the Roycroft firm) (1856-1915)

Whoso diggeth a pit shall fall therein.
— Proverbs

The liars punishment is not in the least that he is not believed, but that he cannot believe anyone else.
— George Bernard Shaw, Anglo-Irish dramatist and wit (1856-1950)

Everybody comes from the same source. If you hate another human being, you're hating part of yourself.
— Elvis Presley, American rock 'n' roll icon (1935-1977)

The jealous are troublesome to others, but torment to themselves.
— William Penn, American colonial leader (1644-1718)

By a divine paradox, wherever there is one slave there are two. So in the wonderful reciprocities of being, we can never reach the higher levels until all our fellows ascend with us.
— Edwin Markham, American poet (1852-1940)

No man who continues to add something to the material, intellectual and moral well-being of the place in which he lives is left long without proper reward.
— Booker T. Washington, American educator (1856-1915)

Did ever a man try heroism, magnanimity, truth, sincerity, and find that there was no advantage in them -- that it was a vain endeavor?
— Henry David Thoreau, American writer, philosopher and
naturalist (1817-1872)

Do good with what thou hast, or it will do thee no good.''
— William Penn, American colonial leader (1644-1718)

Watch your thoughts, for they become words.
Watch your words, for they become actions.
Watch your actions, for they become habits.
Watch your habits, for they become character.
Watch your character, for it becomes your destiny.
— Unknown
(Editor's note: This quote is widely attributed to Frank Outlaw on the Web, but we've found no confirmation that this is the correct source. Popular quotation books — including Bartlett's Familiar Quotations (17th ed., 2002), Roget's International Thesaurus of Quotations (1970) and The Harper Book of Quotations (3rd ed., 1993) — do not include this quote or any reference to Frank Outlaw. In July 2003, we received an e-mail message from Elizabeth C., who claims to have penned the verse and sent it in 1998 to members of an e-mail group of people living with lupus. Another e-mailer, however, notes that he first came upon this quote in 1996 at a workshop in the UK.)

Thoughts lead on to purposes; purposes go forth in action; actions form habits; habits decide character; and character fixes our destiny.
— Unknown
(Editor's note: This quote is commonly attributed to Tryon Edwards, a 19th-century American theologian and editor. Note the similarity of this quote to the one above.)

They who live have all things; they who withhold have nothing.
— Hindu proverb

Those who are free of resentful thoughts surely find peace.
— Buddha (Siddhartha Gautama), Indian philosopher and founder of Buddhism (c. 563-c. 483 B.C.)

No man is more cheated than a selfish man.
— Henry Ward Beecher, American preacher (1813-1887)

Our life is what our thoughts make it.
— Marcus Aurelius, Roman emperor and Stoic philosopher (121-180 A.D.)

People pay for what they do, and still more, for what they have allowed themselves to become. And they pay for it simply: by the lives they lead.
— Edith Wharton, American novelist (1862-1937), from The Age of Innocence

Luck is a word devoid of sense. Nothing can exist without a cause.
— Voltaire (Francois-Marie Arouet), French author, wit and philosopher (1694-1778)

We awaken in others the same attitude of mind we hold in them.
— Elbert Hubbard, American entrepreneur and philosopher (founder of the Roycroft firm) (1856-1915)

Act so as to elicit the best in others and thereby in thyself.
— Felix Adler, American educator and reformer (1851-1933)

Doubt breeds doubt.
— Franz Grillparzer, Austrian dramatist and poet (1791-1872)

We are shaped and fashioned by what we love.
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, German statesman, poet, novelist, dramatist and scientist (1749-1832)

Any man will usually get from other men just what he is expecting of them. If he is looking for friendship he will likely receive it. If his attitude is that of indifference, it will beget indifference. And if a man is looking for a fight, he will in all likelihood be accommodated in that.
— John Richelsen

If you keep on saying things are going to be bad, you have a good chance of becoming a prophet.
— Isaac Bashevis Singer, Yiddish-American writer (1904-1991)

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