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Quotes

Nothing but a permanent body can check the imprudence of democracy.

—Alexander Hamilton, 1787

Men are merriest when they are from home.

—William Shakespeare, 1599

Men who are unhappy, like men who sleep badly, are always proud of the fact.

—Bertrand Russell, 1930

When you name yourself, you always name another.

—Bertolt Brecht, 1926

I shall be an autocrat: that’s my trade. And the good Lord will forgive me: that’s his.

—Catherine the Great, c. 1796

Exile lacks the grandeur, the majesty, of expatriation.

—Bharati Mukherjee, 1999

Disobedience, in the eyes of anyone who has read history, is man’s original virtue. It is through disobedience that progress has been made—through disobedience and through rebellion.

—Oscar Wilde, 1891

my mind is
a big hunk of irrevocable nothing

—E.E. Cummings, 1923

If you would help another man, you must do so in minute particulars.

—William Blake, 1804

A friend who is very near and dear may in time become as useless as a relative.

—George Ade, 1902

In its function, the power to punish is not essentially different from that of curing or educating.

—Michel Foucault, 1975

Where the telescope ends, the microscope begins. Which of these two has the grander view?

—Victor Hugo, 1862

Water is the first principle of everything.

—Thales of Miletus, c. 600 BC