Ibn Khaldun Quotes

18 quotes in 349 categories

• Therefore, the Negro nation are, as a rule, submissive to slavery, because [Negroes] have little [that is essentially] human and have attributes that are quite…
• Beyond [known peoples of black West Africa] to the south there is no civilization in the proper sense. There are only humans who are closer…
• Throughout history many nations have suffered a physical defeat, but that has never marked the end of a nation. But when a nation has become…
• Businesses owned by responsible and organized merchants shall eventually surpass those owned by wealthy rulers.
• All the sciences came to exist in Arabic. The systematic works on them were written in Arabic writing.
• The sciences of only one nation, the Greeks, have come down to us, because they were translated through Al-Ma'mun's efforts. He was successful in this…
• Eventually, Aristotle appeared among the Greeks. He improved the methods of logic and systematized its problems and details. He assigned to logic its proper place…
• He who finds a new path is a pathfinder, even if the trail has to be found again by others; and he who walks far…
• We know that the Zanj (blacks) are the least intelligent and the least discerning of mankind, and the least capable of understanding the consequences of…
• The past resembles the future more than one drop of water resembles another.
• Sedentary culture is the goal of civilization. It means the end of its lifespan and brings about its corruption.
• Man is essentially ignorant, and becomes learned through acquiring knowledge.
• Government is an institution which prevents injustice other than such as it commits itself.
• Geometry enlightens the intellect and sets one's mind right. All of its proofs are very clear and orderly. It is hardly possible for errors to…
• Geometry enlightlens the intellect and sets one's mind right
• If the soul is impartial in receiving information, it devotes to that information the share of critical investigation the information deserves, and its truth or…
• The term of life of a dynasty does not normally exceed three generations. For in the first generation are still preserved the characteristic features of…
• At the beginning of a dynasty, taxation yields a large revenue from small assessments. At the end of the dynasty, taxation yields a small revenue…

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