Men are able to assist fortune but not to thwart her. They can weave her designs, but they cannot destroy them.
—Niccolò Machiavelli, 1531
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Quotes
If I lose at play, I blaspheme, and if my fellow loses, he blasphemes. So that God is always sure to be the loser.
—John Donne, 1623To lose confidence in one’s body is to lose confidence in oneself.
—Simone de Beauvoir, 1949Music is a beautiful opiate, if you don’t take it too seriously.
—Henry Miller, 1945‘Tis a superstition to insist on a special diet. All is made at last of the same chemical atoms.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1860Your mind’s got to eat, too.
—Dambudzo Marechera, 1978The poor man is ruined as soon as he begins to ape the rich.
—Publilius Syrus, c. 50 BCOne should always play fairly when one has the winning cards.
—Oscar Wilde, 1895Dance tunes are always right.
—Dylan Thomas, 1936Hunting is all that’s worth living for—all time is lost what is not spent in hunting—it is like the air we breathe—if we have it not we die—it’s the sport of kings, the image of war without its guilt.
—Robert Smith Surtees, 1843The enlightened man says: I am body entirely and nothing beside.
—Friedrich Nietzsche, 1883Every revolution by force only puts more violent means of enslavement into the hands of the persons in power.
—Leo Tolstoy, 1893Ah! Freedom is a noble thing!
—John Barbour, 1375