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Quotes

Spies are of no use nowadays. Their profession is over. The newspapers do their work instead.

—Oscar Wilde, 1895

As matron and mistress will differ in temper and tone, so will the friend be distinct from the faithless parasite.

—Horace, c. 20 BC

I am dying with the help of too many physicians.

—Alexander the Great, c. 323 BC

O flesh, flesh, how art thou fishified!

—William Shakespeare, c. 1596

God is our father, but even more is God our mother.

—Pope John Paul I, 1978

The mere existence of nuclear weapons by the thousands is an incontrovertible sign of human insanity.

—Isaac Asimov, 1988

That which the sober man keeps in his breast, the drunken man lets out at the lips. Astute people, when they want to ascertain a man’s true character, make him drunk.

—Martin Luther, 1569

Those who make the worst use of their time are the first to complain of its brevity.

—Jean de La Bruyère, 1688

The severity of a teacher is better than the love of a father.

—Saadi, 1258

The best quarantine is hygiene.

—Richard D. Arnold, 1871

I haven’t been everywhere, but it’s on my list.

—Susan Sontag, 1977

Life is the art of being well deceived.

—William Hazlitt, c. 1817

What water gives, water takes away.

—Portuguese proverb