Archive

Quotes

The noblest kind of retribution is not to become like your enemy.

—Marcus Aurelius, c. 175

Many need no other provocation to enmity than that they find themselves excelled.

—Samuel Johnson, 1751

I do desire we may be better strangers.

—William Shakespeare, 1600

Of troubles none is greater than to be robbed of one’s native land.

—Euripides, 431 BC

Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it.

—Hebrews, c. 60

Such then is the human state, that to wish greatness for one’s country is to wish harm to one’s neighbors.

—Voltaire, 1764

Other nations use “force”; we Britons alone use “might.”

—Evelyn Waugh, 1938

When you name yourself, you always name another.

—Bertolt Brecht, 1926

In settling an island, the first building erected by a Spaniard will be a church, by a Frenchman a fort, by a Dutchman a warehouse, and by an Englishman an alehouse.

—Francis Grose, 1787

Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.

—George W. Bush, 2004

Intolerance is evidence of impotence.

—Aleister Crowley, c. 1925

The almost insoluble task is to let neither the power of others, nor our own powerlessness, stupefy us.

—Theodor Adorno, 1951
  •