Great Throughts Treasury

"The highest and most difficult of all moral lessons, to forgive those we have injured."

"Differences are likely to lead to... the world's advancement, and add to the charms of social intercourse. Nothing leads to boredom more than uniformity of manners and thoughts."

"Judaism matters to the whole world because it is a system for making human beings decent, for turning men into menschen. The timeless mission of the Jews is to make the world better by making people better."

"Forgiveness is the highest and most difficult of all moral lessons."

"For 3,500 years, Jews have been telling themselves, their children, and the rest of the world: Be good. Be kind. Be honest. Be ethical. Be moral. It is the most revolutionary message in human history."

"Something has clearly gone awry when students at prestigious institutions of higher learning cannot bring themselves to denounce Auschwitz and Treblinka. Too many Americans now shrink from appearing "judgmental" or "moralistic" - the very words themselves are now used only as pejoratives. The prevailing attitude is: "Who's to say what's right or wrong?""

"The successful men of action are not sufficiently self-observant to know exactly on what their success depends."