Do you suppose it possible to know democracy without knowing the people?
—Xenophon, c. 370 BC
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Quotes
The fear of war is worse than war itself.
—Seneca, c. 50It costs a lot to make a person look this cheap.
—Dolly Parton, 1994I always think of nature as a great spectacle, somewhat resembling the opera.
—Bernard de Fontenelle, 1686We are tied to the ocean. And when we go back to the sea—whether it is to sail or to watch it—we are going back whence we came.
—John F. Kennedy, 1962To make laws that man cannot and will not obey serves to bring all law into contempt.
—Elizabeth Cady Stanton, 1860I’m president of the United States, and I’m not going to eat any more broccoli!
—George H. W. Bush, 1990Our crime against criminals is that we treat them as villains.
—Friedrich Nietzsche, 1898The purest joy is to live without disguise, unconstrained by the ties of a grave reputation.
—Al-Hariri, c. 1108Lord! I wonder what fool it was that first invented kissing.
—Jonathan Swift, 1738Revenge may be wicked, but it’s natural.
—William Makepeace Thackeray, 1847There is no small pleasure in sweet water.
—Ovid, c. 10The work of art, just like any fragment of human life considered in its deepest meaning, seems to me devoid of value if it does not offer the hardness, the rigidity, the regularity, the luster on every interior and exterior facet, of the crystal.
—André Breton, 1937