If a king loves music, there is little wrong in the land.
—Mencius, c. 330 BC
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Quotes
All art is a revolt against man’s fate.
—André Malraux, 1951I’ve never understood why people consider youth a time of freedom and joy. It’s probably because they have forgotten their own.
—Margaret Atwood, 1976There is no small pleasure in sweet water.
—Ovid, c. 10What is food to one is to others bitter poison.
—Lucretius, 50 BCSobriety diminishes, discriminates, and says no; drunkenness expands, unites, and says yes.
—William James, 1902Yes to a market economy, no to a market society.
—Lionel Jospin, 1998Once something becomes discernible, or understandable, we no longer need to repeat it. We can destroy it.
—Robert Wilson, 1991It is impossible to please all the world and one’s father.
—Jean de La Fontaine, 1668Don’t hit a man at all if you can avoid it, but if you have to hit him, knock him out.
—Theodore Roosevelt, 1916Too often, where we need water we find guns.
—Ban Ki-moon, 2008Once a woman has lost her chastity she will shrink from nothing.
—Tacitus, c. 100Under the pressure of the cares and sorrows of our mortal condition, men have at all times and in all countries, called in some physical aid to their moral consolations—wine, beer, opium, brandy, or tobacco.
—Edmund Burke, 1795