Archive

Quotes

Worldly fame is but a breath of wind that blows now this way, now that, and changes names as it changes in direction.

—Dante Alighieri, c. 1315

The law makes ten criminals where it restrains one.

—Voltairine de Cleyre, 1890

All civilization has from time to time become a thin crust over a volcano of revolution.

—Havelock Ellis, 1921

The believer in magic and miracles reflects on how to impose a law on nature—and, in brief, the religious cult is the outcome of this reflection.

—Friedrich Nietzsche, 1878

The march of the human mind is slow.

—Edmund Burke, 1775

I love everyone now that I have gray hair.

—Polatkin, c. 1855

A private sin is not so prejudicial in this world as a public indecency.

—Miguel de Cervantes, 1615

We must select the illusion which appeals to our temperament and embrace it with passion if we want to be happy.

—Cyril Connolly, 1944

Medication alone is not to be relied on. In one half the cases medicine is not needed, or is worse than useless. Obedience to spiritual and physical laws—hygiene of the body and hygiene of the spirit—is the surest warrant for health and happiness.

—Harriot K. Hunt, 1856

I imagined it was more difficult to die. 

—Louis XIV, 1715

Let him who desires peace prepare for war.

—Vegetius, c. 385

Without music to decorate it, time is just a bunch of boring production deadlines or dates by which bills must be paid.

—Frank Zappa, 1989

On no other stage are the scenes shifted with a swiftness so like magic as on the great stage of history when once the hour strikes.

—Edward Bellamy, 1888