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Quotes

One is never as unhappy as one thinks, nor as happy as one hopes.

—La Rochefoucauld, 1664

It is a certain sign of a wise government and proceeding, when it can hold men’s hearts by hopes, when it cannot by satisfaction.

—Francis Bacon, 1625

Style is the image of character.

—Edward Gibbon, c. 1789

I find the pain of a little censure, even when it is unfounded, is more acute than the pleasure of much praise.

—Thomas Jefferson, 1789

There’s hope a great man’s memory may outlive his life half a year.

—William Shakespeare, c. 1600

There is not a sprig of grass that shoots uninteresting to me.

—Thomas Jefferson, 1790

In all the ancient states and empires, those who had the shipping, had the wealth.

—William Petty, 1690

The men of today are born to criticize; of Achilles they see only the heel.

—Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach, 1880

Even members of the nobility, let alone persons of no consequence, would do well not to have children. 

—Yoshida Kenko, c. 1330

Machines seem to sense that I am afraid of them. It makes them hostile.

—Sharyn McCrumb, 1990

A good dog, sir, deserves a good bone.

—Ben Jonson, 1633

Whether for good or evil, it is sadly inevitable that all political leadership requires the artifices of theatrical illusion. In the politics of a democracy, the shortest distance between two points is often a crooked line.

—Arthur Miller, 2001

A man is either free or he is not. There cannot be any apprenticeship for freedom.

—Amiri Baraka, 1962