Anscombe, Elizabeth

"The natural law is written in the hearts of all men, if they would only read it."

"To know oneself requires courage and honesty."

"The pursuit of truth is the highest form of human activity."

"Without virtue, knowledge becomes merely an instrument of vice."

"The modern world has lost the sense of the sacred."

"We cannot escape our nature; we can only fulfill it or corrupt it."

"Good intentions are not enough; they must be backed by good understanding."

"The power of language lies in its ability to reflect reality."

"Meaninglessness is not the human condition; it is a failure of understanding."

"We are responsible not only for what we do, but for what we fail to do."

"The concept of freedom without virtue is merely the freedom to enslave oneself."

"To be rational is not to be passionless; it is to order one's passions aright."

"The good person is not one who never struggles with evil, but one who continues to pursue the good."

"Understanding others requires understanding ourselves."

"The human being is the only creature that can ask 'why?'—and this is both our glory and our burden."

"We cannot live well by accident; we must know what we are doing."

"The deterioration of language reflects the deterioration of thought."

"Pride masquerades as virtue when it lacks substance."

"True courage is not the absence of fear, but action in spite of it."

"The pursuit of happiness often leads away from happiness."

"Virtue requires both knowledge and practice."

"We are shaped by our choices, but we are not determined by them."

"The human will can be enslaved by habit, but it can also be liberated by virtue."

"One must love the truth more than one loves being right."

"The common good is not the sum of individual goods, but something higher."

"We mistake the map for the territory far too often in our thinking."

"Moral progress requires constant vigilance and effort."

"The modern world's greatest temptation is the temptation to despair."

"Understanding is not passive reception; it is an active engagement with reality."

"The good life is not achieved in isolation, but in community."