Laughter always arises from a gaiety of disposition, absolutely incompatible with contempt and indignation.
—Voltaire, 1736
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Quotes
Too many people have decided to do without generosity in order to practice charity.
—Albert Camus, 1956One’s body, hair, and skin are a gift from one’s parents—do not dare to allow them to be harmed.
—Classic of Filial Piety, c. 200 BCWithout music life would be a mistake.
—Friedrich Nietzsche, 1889The hatred of relatives is the bitterest.
—Tacitus, 117Whoever expects to walk peacefully in the world must be money’s guest.
—Norman O. Brown, 1959It is one thing to slander, another to accuse.
—Marcus Tullius Cicero, 56 BCNow there is fame! Of all—hunger, misery, the incomprehension by the public—fame is by far the worst. It is the castigation by God of the artist. It is sad. It is true.
—Pablo Picasso, c. 1961I wants to make your flesh creep.
—Charles Dickens, 1837Most men employ the first years of their life in making the last miserable.
—Jean de La Bruyère, 1688There are many civil questions that arise between individuals in which it is not so important the controversy be settled one way or another as that it be settled.
—William Howard Taft, 1921I am tormented with an everlasting itch for things remote. I love to sail forbidden seas and land on barbarous coasts.
—Herman Melville, 1853Whole nations have melted away like balls of snow before the sun.
—Dragging Canoe, 1775