Revolutions are not made by men in spectacles.
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, 1871
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Quotes
O citizens, first acquire wealth; you can practice virtue afterward.
—Horace, c. 8 BCYou can’t find the soul with a scalpel.
—Gustave Flaubert, c. 1880Music is a beautiful opiate, if you don’t take it too seriously.
—Henry Miller, 1945Do not lessen the time of following desire, for the wasting of time is an abomination to the spirit.
—Ptahhotep, c. 2350 BCI began revolution with eighty-two men. If I had to do it again, I do it with ten or fifteen and absolute faith. It does not matter how small you are if you have faith and plan of action.
—Fidel Castro, 1959
Necessity knows no law except to conquer.
—Publilius Syrus, c. 50 BCOne form of loneliness is to have a memory and no one to share it with.
—Phyllis Rose, 1991I tell you, there is such a thing as creative hate!
—Willa Cather, 1915Religion! How it dominates man’s mind, how it humiliates and degrades his soul. God is everything, man is nothing, says religion. But out of that nothing God has created a kingdom so despotic, so tyrannical, so cruel, so terribly exacting that naught but gloom and tears and blood have ruled the world since gods began.
—Emma Goldman, 1910Nothing is more unpredictable than the mob, nothing more obscure than public opinion, nothing more deceptive than the whole political system.
—Marcus Tullius Cicero, 63 BCNature never jests.
—Albrecht von Haller, 1751Few sons are equal to their fathers; most fall short, all too few surpass them.
—Homer, c. 750 BC