The links listed here are to some of my favorite thinkers. The link to Malcolm X is here because, having read his autobiography (as told to Alex Haley) I could see that he was an intellectually honest human being and his evolution as a man might serve as an example for all followers of “The Truth.”
The other links are to the philosophers who have had the greatest impact on me. The interesting thing about them, though, is that none really showed me anything new. The truths they spoke simply resonated with what was already within me. Emerson even acknowledged this phenomenon, calling it the “Universal Mind” and stating that all humans can tap into this body of wisdom.
These philosophers also minced no words. They all spoke clearly and concisely. This would be expected, I suppose, since their profound descriptions of the essence of life needed no embellishment.
HENRY DAVID THOREAU
(From “Walden” , Chapter Titled “Where I Lived, and What I Lived For”)
“Shams and delusions are esteemed for soundest truths, while reality is fabulous. If men would steadily observe realities only, and not allow themselves to be deluded, life, to compare it with such things as we know, would be like a fairy tale and the Arabian Nights’ Entertainments. If we respected only what is inevitable and has a right to be, music and poetry would resound along the streets. When we are unhurried and wise, we perceive that only great and worthy things have any permanent and absolute existence – that petty fears and petty pleasures are but the shadow of the reality.”
http://www.online-literature.com/thoreau/
RALPH WALDO EMERSON
(From his essay “Circles”)
“The great man will not be prudent in the popular sense; all his prudence will be so much deduction from his grandeur. But it behooves each to see, when he sacrifices prudence, to what god he devotes it; if to ease and pleasure, he had better be prudent still; if to a great trust, he can well spare his mule and panniers who has a winged chariot instead. Geoffrey draws on his boots to go through the woods, that his feet may be safer from the bite of snakes; Aaron never thinks of such a peril. In many years neither is harmed by such an accident. Yet it seems to me that with every precaution you take against such an evil you put yourself into the power of the evil. I suppose that the highest prudence is the lowest prudence.”
http://www.transcendentalists.com/1emerson.html
MARCUS AURELIUS
(From Book Eight of his “Meditations”)
“A man may stand by a clear spring of sweet water and heap abusive words upon it, yet it still goes on welling up fresh and wholesome; he may even cast in mire and filth, but it will quickly dissolve them and wash them away, and show no stain. How be lord yourself of such a perennial fountain? By safeguarding the right to be your own master every hour of the day, in all charity, simplicity, and modesty.”
http://classics.mit.edu/Antoninus/meditations.html
KAHLIL GIBRAN
(From his essay “Of Wisdom”)
“He who understands you is greater kin to you than your own brother. For even your own kindred may neither understand you nor know your true worth.
Friendship with the ignorant is as foolish as arguing with a drunkard.
God has bestowed upon you intelligence and knowledge. Do not extinguish the lamp of Divine Grace and do not let the candle of wisdom die out in the darkness of lust and error. For a wise man approaches with his torch to light up the path of mankind.”
MALCOLM X
“That was a bad scene, brother - the sickness and madness of those days. I’m glad to be free of all that. It’s a time for martyrs now, and if I’m to be one, it will be in the cause of brotherhood. That’s the only thing that can save this country. I learned it the hard way, but I learned it.”