Archive

Quotes

I am dying with the help of too many physicians.

—Alexander the Great, c. 323 BC

Sick, irritated, and the prey to a thousand discomforts, I go on with my labor like a true workingman, who, with sleeves rolled up, in the sweat of his brow, beats away at his anvil, not caring whether it rains or blows, hails or thunders.

—Gustave Flaubert, 1845

Many a man who thinks to found a home discovers that he has merely opened a tavern for his friends.

—Norman Douglas, 1917

From the cradle to the coffin, underwear comes first.

—Bertolt Brecht, 1928

Some folks want their luck buttered.

—Thomas Hardy, 1886

Democracy cannot be static. Whatever is static is dead.

—Eleanor Roosevelt, 1942

There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact.

—Arthur Conan Doyle, 1891

A dog starved at his master’s gate / Predicts the ruin of the state.

—William Blake, 1807

Knowledge itself is power.

—Francis Bacon, 1597

I know I have the body but of a weak and feeble woman, but I have the heart and stomach of a king.

—Elizabeth I, 1588

Your piping-hot lie is the best of lies.

—Plautus, c. 200 BC

All water has a perfect memory and is forever trying to get back to where it was.

—Toni Morrison, 1987

Where happiness fails, existence remains a mad and lamentable experiment.

—George Santayana, c. 1905