Avoid the talk of men. For talk is mischievous, light, and easily raised, but hard to bear and difficult to be rid of. Talk never wholly dies away when many people voice her: even talk is in some ways divine.
—Hesiod, c. 700 BC
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Quotes
Animals hear about death for the first time when they die.
—Arthur Schopenhauer, 1819The people are the foundation of the state. If the foundations are firm, the state will be tranquil.
—Classic of History, c. 400 BCWants keep pace with wealth always.
—Timothy Titcomb, 1859Whatsoever was the father of a disease, an ill diet was the mother.
—George Herbert, 1651None who have always been free can understand the terrible fascinating power of the hope of freedom to those who are not free.
—Pearl S. Buck, 1943The most radical revolutionary will become a conservative on the day after the revolution.
—Hannah Arendt, 1970How sad a sight is human happiness to those whose thoughts can pierce beyond an hour!
—Edward Young, 1741Too many people have decided to do without generosity in order to practice charity.
—Albert Camus, 1956An old man is twice a child, and so is a drunken man.
—Plato, c. 360 BCIt is more blessed to give than to receive.
—Acts of the Apostles, c. 80Wherever commerce prevails there will be an inequality of wealth, and wherever the latter does a simplicity of manners must decline.
—James Madison, 1783Those who are awake have a world that is one and common, but each of those who are asleep turns aside into his own particular world.
—Heraclitus, c. 500 BC