There lurks in every human heart a desire of distinction which inclines every man first to hope and then to believe that nature has given him something peculiar to himself.
—Samuel Johnson, 1763
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Quotes
Nothing is so easy as to deceive one’s self; for what we wish, that we readily believe.
—Demosthenes, 349 BCA little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest.
—Book of Proverbs, c. 350 BCYes to a market economy, no to a market society.
—Lionel Jospin, 1998Imagine a number of men in chains, all under sentence of death, some of whom are each day butchered in the sight of the others; those remaining see their own condition in that of their fellows and, looking at each other with grief and despair, await their turn. This is an image of the human condition.
—Blaise Pascal, 1669Seafarers go to sleep in the evening not knowing whether they will find themselves at the bottom of the sea the next morning.
—Jean de Joinville, c. 1305Many need no other provocation to enmity than that they find themselves excelled.
—Samuel Johnson, 1751The most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed.
—Steve Biko, 1971There are chance meetings with strangers that interest us from the first moment, before a word is spoken.
—Fyodor Dostoevsky, 1866I know what I have given you. I do not know what you have received.
—Antonio Porchia, 1943When law can do no right,
Let it be lawful that law bar no wrong.
To get back my youth I would do anything in the world, except take exercise, get up early, or be respectable.
—Oscar Wilde, 1891Does anybody really want to attend to cities other than to flee, fleece, privatize, butcher, or decimate them?
—Jane Holtz Kay, 1992