Never trust her at any time when the calm sea shows her false alluring smile.
—Lucretius, c. 60 BC
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Quotes
In times of pestilence, gaiety and joyousness are most profitable.
—Jacme d’Agramont, 1348The believer in magic and miracles reflects on how to impose a law on nature—and, in brief, the religious cult is the outcome of this reflection.
—Friedrich Nietzsche, 1878Once suspicion is aroused, everything feeds it.
—Amelia Edith Barr, 1885Superstitions are habits rather than beliefs.
—Marlene Dietrich, 1962History in its broadest aspect is a record of man’s migrations from one environment to another.
—Ellsworth Huntington, 1919Friendship itself will not stand the strain of very much good advice for very long.
—Robert Wilson Lynd, 1924The root of the kingdom is in the State. The root of the State is in the family. The root of the family is in the person of its Head.
—Mencius, c. 270 BCThe snotgreen sea. The scrotumtightening sea.
—James Joyce, 1922All voting is a sort of gaming, like checkers or backgammon, with a slight moral tinge to it.
—Henry David Thoreau, 1849The nature of God is a circle, of which the center is everywhere and the circumference is nowhere.
—Empedocles, c. 450 BCYou may drive out nature with a pitchfork, yet she’ll be constantly running back.
—Horace, 20 BCTo do nothing at all is the most difficult thing in the world, the most difficult and the most intellectual.
—Oscar Wilde, 1891