One is never as unhappy as one thinks, nor as happy as one hopes.
—La Rochefoucauld, 1664
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Quotes
It is a certain sign of a wise government and proceeding, when it can hold men’s hearts by hopes, when it cannot by satisfaction.
—Francis Bacon, 1625Style is the image of character.
—Edward Gibbon, c. 1789I find the pain of a little censure, even when it is unfounded, is more acute than the pleasure of much praise.
—Thomas Jefferson, 1789There’s hope a great man’s memory may outlive his life half a year.
—William Shakespeare, c. 1600There is not a sprig of grass that shoots uninteresting to me.
—Thomas Jefferson, 1790In all the ancient states and empires, those who had the shipping, had the wealth.
—William Petty, 1690The men of today are born to criticize; of Achilles they see only the heel.
—Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach, 1880Even members of the nobility, let alone persons of no consequence, would do well not to have children.
—Yoshida Kenko, c. 1330Machines seem to sense that I am afraid of them. It makes them hostile.
—Sharyn McCrumb, 1990A good dog, sir, deserves a good bone.
—Ben Jonson, 1633Whether for good or evil, it is sadly inevitable that all political leadership requires the artifices of theatrical illusion. In the politics of a democracy, the shortest distance between two points is often a crooked line.
—Arthur Miller, 2001A man is either free or he is not. There cannot be any apprenticeship for freedom.
—Amiri Baraka, 1962