A criminal may improve and become a decent member of society. A foreigner cannot improve. Once a foreigner, always a foreigner. There is no way out for him.
—George Mikes, 1946
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Quotes
The more corrupt the state, the more numerous its laws.
—Tacitus, c. 110How sweet it is to have people point and say, “There he is.”
—Persius, c. 60I began to realize how simple life could be if one had a regular routine to follow with fixed hours, a fixed salary, and very little original thinking to do.
—Roald Dahl, 1984Thou art not to learn the humors and tricks of that old bald cheater, time.
—Ben Jonson, 1601None 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 planet keeps to the astronomer’s timetable, but the wind still bloweth almost where it listeth.
—John Henry Poynting, 1899The character which results from wealth is that of a prosperous fool.
—Aristotle, c. 322 BCThe history of the world is the record of the weakness, frailty, and death of public opinion.
—Samuel Butler, c. 1902What is food to one is to others bitter poison.
—Lucretius, 50 BCOne of the most time-consuming things is to have an enemy.
—E.B. White, 1958Kings and fools know no law.
—German proverbIf God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him.
—Voltaire, 1764