No poems can please long, nor live, that are written by water drinkers.
—Horace, 35 BC
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Quotes
Good fortune turns aside destruction by a great god.
—Instructions of Ankhsheshonqy, c. 100 BCIf you steal, do not steal too much at a time. You may be arrested. Steal cleverly, little by little.
—Mobutu Sese Seko, 1991I wants to make your flesh creep.
—Charles Dickens, 1837The physician should look upon the patient as a besieged city and try to rescue him with every means that art and science place at his command.
—Alexander of Tralles, c. 600Nothing can cure the soul but the senses, just as nothing can cure the senses but the soul.
—Oscar Wilde, 1890What delight can there be, and not rather displeasure, in hearing the barking and howling of dogs? Or what greater pleasure is there to be felt when a dog followeth a hare than when a dog followeth a dog?
—Thomas More, 1516He that commands the sea is at great liberty and may take as much and as little of the war as he will.
—Francis Bacon, c. 1600Man is so made that he can only find relaxation from one kind of labor by taking up another.
—Anatole France, 1881Men are able to assist fortune but not to thwart her. They can weave her designs, but they cannot destroy them.
—Niccolò Machiavelli, 1531There is no greater sorrow than to recall a happy time in the midst of wretchedness.
—Dante Alighieri, c. 1321All technologies should be assumed guilty until proven innocent.
—David Brower, 1992All those who suffer in the world do so because of their desire for their own happiness.
—Shantideva, c. 750