44 Quotes So Deep They Shifted the Course of Humanity
There are words that do more than inspire.
They break old worlds and build new ones.
They travel across centuries, whispered in classrooms,
shouted in revolutions,
and carried in the quiet moments of a changed mind.
These are not merely clever turns of phrase—they are intellectual
and moral earthquakes. They redefined truth, justice, power, and love.
They gave voice to the voiceless and questioned the unquestionable.
To read them is to touch the moments when human thought
took a sharp turn, altering our collective path forever.
Quotes
“The unexamined life is not worth living.” — Socrates
“I think, therefore I am.” — René Descartes
“An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind.” — Mahatma Gandhi
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” — Edmund Burke
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal…” — Thomas Jefferson, The Declaration of Independence
“Cogito, ergo sum.” (I think, therefore I am.) — René Descartes
“The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways; the point is to change it.” — Karl Marx
“God is dead.” — Friedrich Nietzsche
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” — Martin Luther King Jr.
“Be the change that you wish to see in the world.” — Mahatma Gandhi
“I have a dream…” — Martin Luther King Jr.
“The medium is the message.” — Marshall McLuhan
“Eppur si muove.” (And yet it moves.) — Galileo Galilei (attributed)
“Knowledge is power.” — Sir Francis Bacon
“War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.” — George Orwell, *1984*
“One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” — Neil Armstrong
“The personal is political.” — Carol Hanisch
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” — Aristotle
“The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.” — Nelson Mandela
“Give me liberty, or give me death!” — Patrick Henry
“Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country.” — John F. Kennedy
“All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.” — George Orwell, Animal Farm
“I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” — Evelyn Beatrice Hall (summarizing Voltaire)
“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” — Franklin D. Roosevelt
“To be, or not to be, that is the question.” — William Shakespeare, Hamlet
“The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” — Theodore Parker (popularized by Martin Luther King Jr.)
“Four score and seven years ago…” — Abraham Lincoln, The Gettysburg Address
“Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains.” — Jean-Jacques Rousseau
“Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” — Thomas Jefferson, The Declaration of Independence
“From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.” — Karl Marx
“That’s one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind.” — Neil Armstrong
“The heart has its reasons which reason knows not.” — Blaise Pascal
“Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.” — Aldous Huxley
“Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” — Lord Acton
“The pen is mightier than the sword.” — Edward Bulwer-Lytton
“We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately.” — Benjamin Franklin
“History is a set of lies agreed upon.” — Napoleon Bonaparte
“I came, I saw, I conquered.” — Julius Caesar
“The love of money is the root of all evil.” — The Bible, 1 Timothy 6:10
“There is a tide in the affairs of men, which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune…” — William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar
“The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.” — Sun Tzu
“A house divided against itself cannot stand.” — Abraham Lincoln
“The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.” — Socrates
“You must be the change you wish to see in the world.” — Mahatma Gandhi
