Felix Adler Quotes
The past speaks to us in a thousand voices, warning and comforting, animating and stirring to action.
People may be said to resemble not the bricks of which a house is built, but the pieces of a picture puzzle, each differing in shape, but matching the rest, and thus bringing out the picture.
Act so as to encourage the best in others, and by so doing you will develop the best in yourself.
The freedom of thought is a sacred right of every individual man, and diversity will continue to increase with the progress, refinement, and differentiation of the human intellect.
The unique personality which is the real life in me, I cannot gain unless I search for the real life, the spiritual quality, in others.
Where the roots of private virtue are diseased, the fruit of public probity cannot but be corrupt.
To care for anyone else enough to make their problems one's own, is ever the beginning of one's real ethical development.
What I state as certain is certain for me. It has approved itself as such in my experience. Let others consult their experience, and see how far it tallies with that which is here set forth.
Few are there that will leave the secure seclusion of the scholar's life, the peaceful walks of literature and learning, to stand out a target for the criticism of unkind and hostile minds.
No one can fail to see that the power of the Church among large numbers in many communities is today diminishing, or has already ceased.
The platform of an Ethical Society is itself the altar; the address must be the fire that burns thereon.
In order to join vigorously in the moral work of the world I must believe that somehow the best I can accomplish will endure, will leave its trace on things, will aid the final consummation.
No religion can long continue to maintain its purity when the church becomes the subservient vassal of the state
Love is the expansion of two natures in such fashion that each include the other, each is enriched by the other.
We cannot adopt the way of living that was satisfactory a hundred years ago. The world in which we live has changed, and we must change with it.
The Infinite, from which comes the impulse that lead us to activity, is not the highest Reason, but higher than reason; not the highest Goodness, but higher than goodness.
The Ethical Society, therefore, is like a Church in maintaining, and emphasizing the importance of maintaining the custom of public assemblies on Sunday.
If you desire information on some point of law, you are not likely to ponder over the ponderous tomes of legal writers in order to obtain the knowledge you seek, by your own unaided efforts.
Perhaps a hundred people assembled one evening, May 15, 1876, at the time when the country was celebrating the hundredth anniversary of its political independence.
People may be said to resemble the pieces of a puzzle, each unique, yet each essential to bring out a complete picture.
We stand, as it were, on the shore, and see multitudes of our fellow beings struggling in the water, stretching forth their arms, sinking, drowning, and we are powerless to assist them.
The ethical manifold, conceived of as unified, furnishes, or rather is, the ideal of the whole.
Ethical religion can be real only to those who are engaged in ceaseless efforts at moral improvement. By moving upward we acquire faith in an upward movement, without limit.
Every dogma, every philosophic or theological creed, was at its inception a statement in terms of the intellect of a certain inner experience.
But even our pleasures are calculated and business like. We measure our enjoyments by the sum expended. Our salons are often little better than bazaars of fashion.
You do not build your own houses, nor make your own garments, nor bake your own bread, simply because you know that if you were to attempt all these things they would all be more or less ill done.
The hero is one who kindles a great light in the world, who sets up blazing torches in the dark streets of life for men to see by.
