An institution or reform movement that is not selfish must originate in the recognition of some evil that is adding to the sum of human suffering or diminishing the sum of happiness.

As to happiness in this life it is hardly compatible with that diminished respect which ever attends the relinquishing of labour.

I take it that the good of mankind means the attainment by every man of all the happiness which he can enjoy without diminishing the happiness of his fellow men.

To describe happiness is to diminish it.

A great empire like a great cake is most easily diminished at the edges.

Absence diminishes mediocre passions and increases great ones as the wind extinguishes candles and fans fires.

A man can no more diminish God's glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word 'darkness' on the walls of his cell.

The earth we abuse and the living things we kill will in the end take their revenge for in exploiting their presence we are diminishing our future.

By failing seriously to confront the most predicable economic crisis in our nation's history the President's policies are committing us and our children to a diminished future.

We believe it wrong ever to take a dollar from a free citizen without a very necessary public purpose because each such taking diminishes the freedom to spend that dollar as its owner would prefer.

One certain effect of war is to diminish freedom of expression.

I never discuss a novel while I'm writing it for fear that talking about it will diminish my desire to write it.

I've always felt that if you back down from a fear the ghost of that fear never goes away. It diminishes people.

I have learned over the years that when one's mind is made up this diminishes fear knowing what must be done does away with fear.

The curse of the romantic is a greed for dreams an intensity of expectation that in the end diminishes the reality.

Any man's death diminishes me because I am involved in Mankind And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls it tolls for thee.

Courage enlarges cowardice diminishes resources. In desperate straits the fears of the timid aggravate the dangers that imperil the brave.