Quotations

"Philosophy is written in this vast book, which continuously lies open before our eyes. But it cannot be understood unless we understand the language and recognize the characters in which it is written. It is written in the language of triangles circles, geometrical figures. Without such means, it is impossible for us humans to understand a word of it, and to be without them is to wonder around in vain through a dark labyrinth."

— Galileo Galilei, Italian astronomer, born 1564

"Mathematics is the language with which God has written the universe."

— Galileo Galilei, Italian astronomer, born 1564

"I stop writing the poem to fold the clothes. No matter who lives or who dies, I'm still a woman. I'll always have plenty to do. I bring the arms of his shirt together. Nothing can stop our tenderness. I'll get back to the poem. I'll get back to being a woman. But for now there's a shirt, a giant shirt in my hands, and somewhere a small girl standing next to her mother watching to see how it's done."

— Tess Gallagher, American poet, born 1943

"Now I am thirty-six and I am in Nepal and I am finally remembering what I was told I would forget. The voice inside the mountain speaks to me, tells me again not to be afraid, tells me that there is only love in this world.
Our choice is to be in love or to be in fear. But to choose to be in love means to have a mountain inside of you, means to have the heart of the world inside you, means you will feel another’s suffering inside your own body and you will weep.
You will under­stand that this pain is your own because you are not separate, from life, or from anyone or anything else. But you will fall into a forgetting. You may die before you remember. You will forget that you know this, again and again. Do not be afraid. The body remembers, it never forgets. It is your own knowing that you hide from and do not know."

— China Galland, American author

"From diamonds nothing is born, from dung flowers bloom."

— Andrea Gallo, Italian priest, born 1928

"With this salt I am shaking the foundations of the British empire."

— Mohandas Gandhi, Indian lawyer and activist, born 1869

"I hold myself to be incapable of hating any being on earth. By a long course of prayerful discipline, I have ceased for over forty years to hate anybody. I know this is a big claim. Nevertheless, I make it in all humility."

— Mohandas Gandhi, Indian lawyer and activist, born 1869

"It is better in prayer to have a heart without words than words without a heart."

— Mohandas Gandhi, Indian lawyer and activist, born 1869

"The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong."

— Mohandas Gandhi, Indian lawyer and activist, born 1869

"When I despair, I remember that all through history the ways of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants, and murderers, and for a time they can seem invincible, but in the end they always fall. Think of it - always."

— Mohandas Gandhi, Indian lawyer and activist, born 1869

"Mr. Hitler was big on me. He kept writing and inviting me to come to Germany, and if the war hadn't started when it did, I would have gone and I would have taken a gun out of my purse and shot him, because I am the only person who would not have been searched."

— Greta Garbo, Swedish-American actress, born 1905

"Every one of us lives this life just once, if we are honest, to live once is enough."

— Greta Garbo, Swedish-American actress, born 1905

"I never said, I want to be alone. I only said, I want to be left alone. There is all the difference."

— Greta Garbo, Swedish-American actress, born 1905

"I mean, whatever kills you kills you, and your death is authentic no matter how you die."

— Jerry Garcia, American singer, born 1942