Moses ben Maimon commonly known as Maimonides and also referred to by the acronym Rambam was a medieval Sephardic Jewish philosopher who became one of the most prolific and influential Torah scholars of the Middle Ages. In his time, he was also a preeminent astronomer and physician, serving as the personal physician of Saladin. Born in Córdoba, Almoravid Empire (present-day Spain) on Passover Eve, he worked as a rabbi, physician, and philosopher in Morocco and Egypt. He died in Egypt on 12 December 1204, whence his body was taken to the lower Galilee and buried in Tiberias. These Maimonides Quotes will motivate you.
Best Maimonides Quotes
- “Truth does not become more true by virtue of the fact that the entire world agrees with it, nor less so even if the whole world disagrees with it.” ~ Maimonides
- “We each decide whether to make ourselves learned or ignorant, compassionate or cruel, generous or miserly. No one forces us. No one decides for us, no one drags us along one path or the other. We are responsible for what we are.” ~ Maimonides
- “Teach thy tongue to say ‘I do not know,’ and thou shalt progress.” ~ Maimonides
- “I will destroy my enemies by converting them to friends.” ~ Maimonides
- “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.” ~ Maimonides
- “Every man should view himself as equally balanced: half good and half evil. Likewise, he should see the entire world as half good and half evil…. With a single good deed he will tip the scales for himself, and for the entire world, to the side of good.” ~ Maimonides
- “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” ~ Maimonides
- “Do not consider it proof just because it is written in books, for a liar who will deceive with his tongue will not hesitate to do the same with his pen.” ~ Maimonides
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“Silence is the maturation of wisdom.” ~ Maimonides
- “Let nothing which can be treated by diet be treated by other means.” ~ Maimonides
- “The physician should not treat the disease but the patient who is suffering from it” ~ Maimonides
- “There is no difference between the pain of humans and the pain of other living beings, since the love and tenderness of the mother for the young are not produced by reasoning, but by feeling, and this faculty exists not only in humans but in most living beings.” ~ Maimonides
- “Man’s obsession to add to his wealth and honor is the chief source of his misery.” ~ Maimonides
- “You must accept the truth from whatever source it comes.” ~ Maimonides
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“Lose with truth and right rather than gain with falsehood and wrong.” ~ Maimonides
- “There are eight rungs in charity. The highest is when you help a man to help himself.” ~ Maimonides
- “The risk of a wrong decision is preferable to the terror of indecision.” ~ Maimonides
- “A wise man is a greater asset to a nation than a king.” ~ Maimonides
- “At times the truth shines so brilliantly that we perceive it as clear as day. Our nature and habit then draw a veil over our perception, and we return to a darkness almost as dense as before. We are like those who, though beholding frequent flashes of lightning, still find themselves in the thickest darkness of the night.” ~ Maimonides quotes
- “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.” ~ Maimonides
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“God who preceded all existence is a refuge.” ~ Maimonides
- “In finances, be strict with yourself, generous with others.” ~ Maimonides
- “The soul, when accustomed to superfluous things, acquires a strong habit of desiring things which are neither necessary for the preservation of the individual nor for that of the species. This desire is without limit, whilst those which are necessary are few in number and restricted within certain limits, but what is superfluous is without end.” ~ Maimonides
- “What is lofty can be said in any language. What is mean should be said in none.” ~ Maimonides
- “It is man’s duty to love and to fear God, even without hope of reward or fear of punishment.” ~ Maimonides
- “It is well known among physicians that the best of the nourishing foods is the one that the Moslem religion forbids, i.e., Wine. It contains much good and light nourishment. It is rapidly digested and helps to digest other foods.” ~ Maimonides
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“A truth does not become greater by repetition.” ~ Maimonides
- “Giving is most blessed and most acceptable when the donor remains completely anonymous.” ~ Maimonides
- “The goal of good health is to enable a person to acquire wisdom.” ~ Maimonides
- “A small amount of wine such as three or four glasses is of benefit for the preservation of the health of human beings and an excellent remedy for most illnesses.” ~ Maimonides
- “God cannot be compared to anything. Note this.” ~ Maimonides
- “All the evils that men cause to each other because of certain desires, or opinions or religious principles, are rooted in ignorance. [All hatred would come to an end] when the earth was flooded with the knowledge of God.” ~ Maimonides
- “The soul is subject to health and disease, just as is the body. The health and disease of both . . . undoubtedly depend upon beliefs and customs, which are peculiar to mankind.” ~ Maimonides
- “Every ignoramus imagines that all that exists, exists with a view to his individual sake; it is as if there were nothing that exists except him. And if something happens to him that is contrary to what he wishes, he makes the trenchant judgment that all that exists is an evil.” ~ Maimonides
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“He who does not understand that a dead lion is more alive than a living dog will remain a dog.” ~ Maimonides
- “No disease that can be treated by diet should be treated with any other means.” ~ Maimonides
- “Just as a person is commanded to honor and revere his father, so he is under an obligation to honor and revere his teacher, even to a greater extent than his father; for his father gave him life in this world, while his teacher instructs him in wisdom, secures for him life in the world to come.” ~ Maimonides
- “I believe with perfect faith that the Creator, blessed be his name, is not a body, and that he is free from all accidents of matter, and that he has not any form whatsoever.” ~ Maimonides
- “Anticipate charity by preventing poverty.” ~ Maimonides
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“Hold firmly to your word.” ~ Maimonides
- “Astrology is a sickness, not a science … It is a tree under the shade of which all sorts of superstitions thrive.” ~ Maimonides
- “In the beginning, we must simplify the subject, thus unavoidably falsifying it, and later we must sophisticate away the falsely simple beginning.” ~ Maimonides
- “Actions are divided as regards their object into four classes; they are either purposeless, unimportant, or vain, or good .” ~ Maimonides
- “Nobody is ever impoverished through the giving of charity.” ~ Maimonides
- “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.” ~ Maimonides
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“Everyone entrusted with a mission is an angel.” ~ Maimonides
- “Commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still.” ~ Maimonides
- “The great sickness and the grievous evil consist in this: that all the things that man finds written in books, he presumes to think of as true-and all the more so if the books are old.” ~ Maimonides
- “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.” ~ Maimonides
- “That which is produced with intention has passed over from non-existence to existence.” ~ Maimonides
- “It is better and more satisfactory to acquit a thousand guilty persons than to put a single innocent one to death.” ~ Maimonides
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“Hear the truth from whoever says it” ~ Maimonides
- “Medical practice is not knitting and weaving and the labor of the hands, but it must be inspired with soul and be filled with understanding and equipped with the gift of keen observation . . .” ~ Maimonides
- “Medical practice is not knitting and weaving and the labor of the hands, but it must be inspired with soul and be filled with understanding and equipped with the gift of keen observation . . .” ~ Maimonides
- “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.” ~ Maimonides
- “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.” ~ Maimonides
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“Astrology is not an art, it is a disease.” ~ Maimonides
- “The knowledge of God, the formation of ideas, the mastery of desire and passion, the distinction between that which is to be chosen and that which is to be rejected, all these man owes to his form.” ~ Maimonides
- “Inspire me with love for my art and for thy creatures. In the sufferer let me see only the human being.” ~ Maimonides
- “The people who are abroad are all those that have no religion, neither one based on speculation nor one received by tradition. Such are the extreme Turks that wander about in the north, the Kushites who live in the south, and those in our country who are like these. I consider these as irrational beings, and not as human beings; they are below mankind, but above monkeys, since they have the form and shape of man, and a mental faculty above that of the monkey.” ~ Maimonides
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“Do not imagine that these most difficult problems can be thoroughly understood by any one of us.” ~ Maimonides
- “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.” ~ Maimonides
- “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.” ~ Maimonides
- “While one man can discover a certain thing by himself, another is never able to understand it, even if taught by means of all possible expressions and metaphors, and during a long period; his mind can in no way grasp it, his capacity is insufficient for it.” ~ Maimonides
- “Consequently he who wishes to attain to human perfection, must therefore first study Logic, next the various branches of Mathematics in their proper order, then Physics, and lastly Metaphysics.” ~ Maimonides
