There are eight levels of charity. The highest is when you strengthen a man’s hand until he need no longer be dependent upon others.
MAIMONIDESIn the beginning we must simplify the subject, thus unavoidably falsifying it, and later we must sophisticate away the falsely simple beginning.
More Maimonides Quotes
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Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.
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It should not be believed that all beings exist for the sake of the existence of man. On the contrary, all the other beings too have been intended for their own sakes and not for the sake of anything else.
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I will destroy my enemies by converting them to friends.
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If men possessed wisdom, which stands in the same relation to the form of man as the sight to the eye, they would not cause any injury to themselves or to others, for the knowledge of the truth removes hatred and quarrels, and prevents mutual injuries.
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What is lofty can be said in any language. What is mean should be said in none.
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The more necessary a thing is for living beings, the more easily it is found and the cheaper it is; the less necessary it is, the rarer and dearer it is.
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He who does not understand that a dead lion is more alive than a living dog will remain a dog.
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If a person studies too much and exhausts his reflective powers, he will be confused, and will not be able to apprehend even that which had been within the power of his apprehension. For the powers of the body are all alike in this respect.
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The whole object of the Prophets and the Sages was to declare that a limit is set to human reason where it must halt.
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It is hard for a woman with whom an uncircumcised man has had sexual intercourse to separate from him. In my opinion this is the strongest of the reasons for circumcision.
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For it is said, You shall strengthen the stranger and the dweller in your midst and live with him, that is to say, strengthen him until he needs no longer fall upon the mercy of the community or be in need.
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Lose with truth and right rather than gain with falsehood and wrong.
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Astrology is not an art, it is a disease.
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Man’s obsession to add to his wealth and honor is the chief source of his misery.
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Teach thy tongue to say ‘I do not know,’ and thou shalt progress.
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All forces that reside in the body are angels.
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Everyone entrusted with a mission is an angel.
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The second class of evils comprises such evils as people cause to each other, when, e.g. , some of them use their strength against others. These evils are more numerous than those of the first kind. They likewise originate in ourselves, though the sufferer himself cannot avert them.
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There are eight rungs in charity. The highest is when you help a man to help himself.
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Contrast the experience with something worse and you cannot help feeling happy and grateful because. The change from trouble to comfort gives us more pleasure than uninterrupted comfort does.
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The key to the understanding and to the full comprehension of all that the Prophets have said is found in the knowledge of the figures, their general ideas, and the meaning of each word they contain.
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Astrology is a sickness, not a science. It is a tree under the shade of which all sorts of superstitions thrive.
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God cannot be compared to anything.
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One should see the world, and see himself as a scale with an equal balance of good and evil. When he does one good deed the scale is tipped to the good – he and the world is saved. When he does one evil deed the scale is tipped to the bad – he and the world is destroyed.
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The goal of good health is to enable a person to acquire wisdom.
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Inspire me with love for my art and for thy creatures. In the sufferer let me see only the human being.
MAIMONIDES