„Men accept servility in order to acquire wealth; as if they could acquire anything of their own when they cannot even assert that they belong to themselves.“

„Know that death comes to everyone, and that wealth will sometimes be acquired, sometimes lost.“

—  Pythagoras ancient Greek mathematician and philosopher -585 - -495 pred n. l.

As quoted in Divine Harmony: The Life and Teachings of Pythagoras by John Strohmeier and Peter Westbrook. (1999)
The Golden Verses
Kontext: Know that death comes to everyone, and that wealth will sometimes be acquired, sometimes lost. Whatever griefs mortals suffer by divine chance, whatever destiny you have, endure it and do not complain. But it is right to improve it as much as you can, and remember this: Fate does not give very many of these griefs to good people.

„And we cannot change this order of things; but what we can do is to acquire stout hearts, worthy of good men, thereby courageously enduring chance and placing ourselves in harmony with Nature.“

—  Seneca the Younger, kniha Epistulae morales ad Lucilium

Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium (Moral Letters to Lucilius), Letter CVII: On Obedience to the Universal Will

„There is little to be said of seniority. It is evident that when men grow older they acquire experience, unless they are completely idle, stupid, or too obstinate to learn anything. But there are many types of old men, and no one has ever maintained that, in order to pick out the best of the, it is enough to look at their birth certificates. Therefore appointments have to be made.“

—  André Maurois French writer 1885 - 1967

Un Art de Vivre (The Art of Living) (1939), The Art of Leadership

„And truly it is a very natural and ordinary thing to desire to acquire, and always, when men do it who can, they will be praised or not blamed; but when they cannot, and wish to do it anyway, here lies the error and the blame.“

—  Niccolo Machiavelli, kniha Vladár

Zdroj: The Prince

„He must learn to understand the motives of human beings, their illusions, and their sufferings in order to acquire a proper relationship to individual fellow-men and to the community.“

—  Albert Einstein German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity 1879 - 1955

"Education for Independent Thought" in The New York Times, 5 October 1952. Reprinted in Ideas and Opinions (1954)
1950s
Kontext: It is not enough to teach a man a specialty. Through it he may become a kind of useful machine but not a harmoniously developed personality. It is essential that the student acquire an understanding of and a lively feeling for values. He must acquire a vivid sense of the beautiful and of the morally good. Otherwise he—with his specialized knowledge—more closely resembles a well-trained dog than a harmoniously developed person. He must learn to understand the motives of human beings, their illusions, and their sufferings in order to acquire a proper relationship to individual fellow-men and to the community. These precious things are conveyed to the younger generation through personal contact with those who teach, not—or at least not in the main—through textbooks. It is this that primarily constitutes and preserves culture. This is what I have in mind when I recommend the "humanities" as important, not just dry specialized knowledge in the fields of history and philosophy.

„The '80s were about acquiring — acquiring wealth, power, prestige. I know. I acquired more wealth, power, and prestige than most. But you can acquire all you want and still feel empty. What power wouldn't I trade for a little more time with my family? What price wouldn't I pay for an evening with friends? It took a deadly illness to put me eye to eye with that truth, but it is a truth that the country, caught up in its ruthless ambitions and moral decay, can learn on my dime. I don't know who will lead us through the '90s, but they must be made to speak to this spiritual vacuum at the heart of American society, this tumor of the soul.“

—  Lee Atwater American political consultant and strategist 1951 - 1991

Zdroj: Interview in Life (January 1991)

„There is no use of simply acquiring titles or amassing wealth if one has no self-respect and scientific knowledge.“

—  Periyar E. V. Ramasamy Tamil politician and social reformer 1879 - 1973

Quoted in “Collected works of Periyar E.V.R.” p. 511.
Society

„The greatness of a man is not in how much wealth he acquires, but in his integrity and his ability to affect those around him positively“

—  Bob Marley Jamaican singer, songwriter, musician 1945 - 1981

„O Euclid, you will acquire a power of managing sophists, but not of governing men.“

—  Socrates classical Greek Athenian philosopher -470 - -399 pred n. l.

Diogenes Laertius

„Things severed shall be united and shall acquire of themselves such virtue that they shall restore to men their lost memory:—That is the papyrus sheets, which are formed out of several strips and preserve the memory of the thoughts and deeds of men.“

—  Leonardo Da Vinci Italian Renaissance polymath 1452 - 1519

XLV Prophecies

„Man needs freedom, but few men are so strong as to be happy with complete freedom. A man needs to be part of a group, with accepted and respected relationships. Some men join foreign legions for adventure; still more swear on a bit of paper in order to acquire a framework of duties and obligations, customs and taboos, a time to work and a time to loaf, a comrade to dispute with and a sergeant to hate—in short, to belong.“

—  Robert A. Heinlein, kniha Between Planets

Zdroj: Between Planets (1951), Chapter 7, “The Detour” (p. 83)

„No, my son, do not aspire for wealth and labor not only to be rich. Strive instead for happiness, to be loved and to love, and most important to acquire peace of mind and serenity.“

—  Og Mandino, kniha The Greatest Salesman in the World

Zdroj: The Greatest Salesman in the World

„Fortunate is he who has acquired a wealth of divine understanding, but wretched the one whose interest lies in shadowy conjectures about divinities.“

—  Empedocles ancient Greek philosopher -490 - -430 pred n. l.

fr. 132
Variant translations:
Blessed is he who has acquired a wealth of divine wisdom, but miserable is he in whom there rests a dim opinion concerning the gods.
tr. Arthur Fairbanks
Purifications
Originál: (el) ὄλβιος, ὅς θείων πραπίδων ἐκτήσατο πλοῦτον,/δειλὸς δ’, ὧι σκοτόεσσα θεῶν πέρι δόξα μέμηλεν.
Zdroj: Fairbanks, Arthur. (1898). The First Philosophers of Greece https://archive.org/stream/cu31924029013162. Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co. Ltd. p. 201.

„The extreme emphasis upon the accumulation of wealth as a symbol of success in our society militates against the completely effective control of institutionally regulated modes of acquiring a fortune.“

—  Robert K. Merton American sociologist 1910 - 2003

Zdroj: Social structure and anomie (1938), p. 59

„Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things can not be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.“

—  Mark Twain, kniha The Innocents Abroad

Vol. II, Conclusion http://books.google.com/books?id=f4EwNleAjJAC&q=%22Travel+is+fatal+to+prejudice+bigotry+and+narrow-mindedness+and+many+of+our+people+need+it+sorely+on+these+accounts+Broad+wholesome+charitable+views+of+men+and+things+cannot+be+acquired+by+vegetating+in+one+little+corner+of+the+earth+all+one's+lifetime%22&pg=PA333#v=onepage
Zdroj: The Innocents Abroad (1869)
Kontext: Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.

„The main business of religions is to purify, control, and restrain that excessive and exclusive taste for well-being which men acquire in times of equality.“

—  Alexis De Tocqueville, kniha Democracy in America

Book One, Chapter V.
Democracy in America, Volume II (1840), Book One

„There is no more difficult art to acquire than the art of observation, and for some men it is quite as difficult to record an observation in brief and plain language.“

—  William Osler Canadian pathologist, physician, educator, bibliophile, historian, author, cofounder of Johns Hopkins Hospital 1849 - 1919

On the Educational Value of the Medical Society (1903)
Kontext: There is no more difficult art to acquire than the art of observation, and for some men it is quite as difficult to record an observation in brief and plain language. <!-- p. 333

„When men hire themselves out to shoot other men to order, asking nothing about the justice of their cause, I don’t care if they are shot themselves.“

—  Herbert Spencer English philosopher, biologist, sociologist, and prominent classical liberal political theorist 1820 - 1903

"Patriotism", p. 126 http://books.google.com/books?id=zBQRAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA126
Facts and Comments (1902)

„In former days, men sold themselves to the Devil to acquire magical powers. Nowadays they acquire those powers from science, and find themselves compelled to become devils. There is no hope for the world unless power can be tamed, and brought into the service, not of this or that group of fanatical tyrants, but of the whole human race, white and yellow and black, fascist and communist and democrat; for science has made it inevitable that all must live or all must die.“

—  Bertrand Russell logician, one of the first analytic philosophers and political activist 1872 - 1970

Zdroj: 1930s, Power: A New Social Analysis (1938), Ch. 2: Leaders and Followers