Top 40 Ivan Panin Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “A half-truth does more mischief than a whole lie.”

— Ivan Panin

2. “It is not the roaring thunder that smites, but the silent lightning.”

— Ivan Panin

3. “To go through life without love is to travel through the world in a carriage with closed windows.”

— Ivan Panin

4. “Life is not meant to be hard: if it is, we make it so.”

— Ivan Panin

5. “As the sea is beautiful not only in calm but also in storm, so is happiness found not only in peace but also in strife.”

— Ivan Panin

6. “The best excuse is to have none.”

— Ivan Panin

7. “For every beauty there is an eye somewhere to see it. For every truth there is an ear somewhere to hear it. For every love there is a heart somewhere to receive it.”

— Ivan Panin

8. “History is not fable agreed upon, but truth disagreed upon.”

— Ivan Panin

9. “The wise man hath his thoughts in his head; the fool, on his tongue.”

— Ivan Panin

10. “The small charity that comes from the heart is better than the great charity that comes from the head.”

— Ivan Panin

11. “For every beauty there is an eye somewhere to see it.”

— Ivan Panin

12. “Doubt is the tax man pays for the luxury of useless knowledge.”

— Ivan Panin

13. “If silence is good for the wise, how much better is it for the foolish!”

— Ivan Panin

14. “Love has the face of a goddess, but the talons of a lion.”

— Ivan Panin

15. “Gossip is putting two and two together, and making it five.”

— Ivan Panin

16. “The furnace which melts gold, also hardens clay. Before blaming thy fate, therefore, find whether thou art gold or clay.”

— Ivan Panin

17. “Experience, if we only learn by it, is cheap at any price.”

— Ivan Panin

18. “As long as I fear my weakness, I am stronger than when I trust my strength.”

— Ivan Panin

19. “For misdirected love, the attainment of its object is, indeed, the best cure; but it cures as the guillotine cures headache.”

— Ivan Panin

20. “It may be true that love is blind, but only for what is ugly: its sight is keen enough for what is beautiful.”

— Ivan Panin

21. “As you do not sweeten your mouth by saying honey, so you do not grow virtuous by merely talking of virtue.”

— Ivan Panin

22. “Though my sight be lost, I do not yet lose my faith: when I can no longer see, I can still believe.”

— Ivan Panin

23. “Better to deserve praise without having it, than to have it without deserving it.”

— Ivan Panin

24. “Of the future, man knows least; yet, about this, he worries most.”

— Ivan Panin

25. “What we know is to what we do not know, as a grain of sand is to the beach.”

— Ivan Panin

26. “To go into temptation to find how strong you are, is as wise as to go before a mirror, with closed eyes, to find how you look when asleep.”

— Ivan Panin

27. “The danger from lightning is gone when the thunder is heard, and the worst is over when misfortune has arrived.”

— Ivan Panin

28. “If you must hate a man for the many things about which you disagree, remember that you should also love him for the many things about which you agree.”

— Ivan Panin

29. “The wealthy seldom possess wealth: oftener they are possessed by it.”

— Ivan Panin

30. “How adversity doth ope the eye! A moon can be seen by day as well as by night; but, to see the stars, you must be in darkness.”

— Ivan Panin

31. “We are not men, but promises of men.”

— Ivan Panin

32. “However bad a man, he will have some friends: however good, he will have some enemies.”

— Ivan Panin

33. “The best way to deceive a knave is to tell him the truth.”

— Ivan Panin

34. “The best life is that which makes the best of life.”

— Ivan Panin

35. “Men’s eyes are in their heads; women’s, in their hearts.”

— Ivan Panin

36. “Let not adversity oppress thee: be rather like unto the nail; the farther ’tis hammered, the firmer it holds.”

— Ivan Panin

37. “As the paper though it entereth the press white, yet when it cometh forth black is eagerly sought to be perused; so do thou let thy life, though darkened by adversity, be made all the more useful to thy fellows.”

— Ivan Panin

38. “Solve the problem of life? Live, and you solve it.”

— Ivan Panin

39. “Whether I shall be unfortunate depends also on others; whether I shall be unhappy depends only on myself.”

— Ivan Panin

40. “Experience is the only good ’tis safer to borrow than to buy.”

— Ivan Panin

41. “Hast thou fallen? Do not groan and lament: rather be thankful for the opportunity given thee to rise once more.”

— Ivan Panin

42. “From the moment we expect gratitude, we forfeit it.”

— Ivan Panin

43. “Few can tell what they know without also showing what they do not know.”

— Ivan Panin

44. “Our comforts come from God; our sorrows, from ourselves.”

— Ivan Panin

45. “Love is not like the echo, which returneth only what is given; but, rather, like the pump, which returneth by the pail what it received by the pint.”

— Ivan Panin

46. “It needs as much generosity to take as to give.”

— Ivan Panin

47. “Men are willing to admit that they are sinners, but not that they are sinning.”

— Ivan Panin

48. “I cannot emphasize it too strongly that our gifts-whether they consist in wealth, or in the ability to sing, to paint, to build, or to count-are not given unto us to be used for our pleasure merely, or as means of our advancement, weather social or intellectual. But they are given unto us that we may use them for helping those who need help.”

— Ivan Panin