Revolutionaries are greater sticklers for formality than conservatives.
—Italo Calvino, 1957
Archive
Quotes
Life is a farce, and should not end with a mourning scene.
—Horace Walpole, 1784A person who sees only fashion in fashion is a fool.
—Honoré de Balzac, 1830The sleep of reason produces monsters.
—Francisco Goya, 1799Nothing from nothing ever yet was born.
—Lucretius, c. 58 BCNothing is more unpredictable than the mob, nothing more obscure than public opinion, nothing more deceptive than the whole political system.
—Marcus Tullius Cicero, 63 BCHe is the best physician who is the most ingenious inspirer of hope.
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge, 1833What harm is there in getting knowledge and learning, were it from a sot, a pot, a fool, a winter mitten, or an old slipper?
—François Rabelais, 1533Children and fools cannot lie.
—John Heywood, 1546Quarrels would not last long if the fault was only on one side.
—La Rochefoucauld, 1665Speak and speed; the close mouth catches no flies.
—Benjamin Franklin, c. 1732Television has made dictatorship impossible, but democracy unbearable.
—Shimon Peres, 1995To doubt everything or to believe everything are two equally convenient solutions; both dispense with the need for thought.
—Henri Poincaré, 1903