There is not so contemptible a plant or animal that does not confound the most enlarged understanding.
—John Locke, 1689Quotes
The Romans would never have found time to conquer the world if they had been obliged first to learn Latin.
—Heinrich Heine, 1827The more laws, the more lawbreakers.
—Tao Te Ching, c. 500 BCTime rushes toward us with its hospital tray of infinitely varied narcotics, even while it is preparing us for its inevitably fatal operation.
—Tennessee Williams, 1951In politics, what begins in fear usually ends in folly.
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge, 1830Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent.
—Ludwig Wittgenstein, 1921All voting is a sort of gaming, like checkers or backgammon, with a slight moral tinge to it.
—Henry David Thoreau, 1849He that will cheat you at play, will cheat you any way.
—Thomas Fuller, 1732People will never fight for your freedom if you have not given evidence that you are prepared to fight for it yourself.
—Bayard Rustin, 1986The populace may hiss me, but when I go home and think of my money, I applaud myself.
—Horace, c. 25 BCThe sleep of reason produces monsters.
—Francisco Goya, 1799I was born at a very early age. Before I had time to regret it, I was four and a half years old.
—Groucho Marx, 1959One man’s loss is another man’s profit.
—Michel de Montaigne, c. 1580