Democracy forever teases us with the contrast between its ideals and its realities, between its heroic possibilities and its sorry achievements.
—Agnes Repplier, 1916
Archive
Quotes
When arms speak, the laws are silent.
—Cicero, 52 BCRevolutionaries are greater sticklers for formality than conservatives.
—Italo Calvino, 1957There is a sickness among tyrants: they cannot trust their friends.
—Aeschylus, c. 458 BCTo put one’s trust in God is only a longer way of saying that one will chance it.
—Samuel Butler, c. 1890No punishment has ever possessed enough power of deterrence to prevent the commission of crimes.
—Hannah Arendt, 1963The proof of the pudding is in the eating.
—Miguel de Cervantes, 1615All traveling becomes dull in exact proportion to its rapidity.
—John Ruskin, 1856Man, when perfected, is the best of animals, but when separated from law and justice, he is the worst of all.
—Aristotle, c. 350 BCTowns oftener swamp one than carry one out onto the big ocean of life.
—D.H. Lawrence, 1908Luck, in the great game of war, is undoubtedly lord of all.
—Arthur Griffiths, 1899The criminal is the creative artist; the detective only the critic.
—G.K. Chesterton, 1911To burn always with this hard, gemlike flame, to maintain this ecstasy, is success in life.
—Walter Pater, 1873