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Quotes

Fame is but the empty noise of madmen.

—Epictetus, c. 100

He who is afraid of his own memories is cowardly, really cowardly.

—Elias Canetti, 1954

It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard for their own interest.

—Adam Smith, 1776

Reading is learning, but applying is also learning and the more important kind of learning at that.

—Mao Zedong, 1936

Friends are ourselves.

—John Donne, 1603

This is a fault common to all singers, that among their friends they will never sing when they are asked; unasked, they will never desist.

—Horace, c. 35 BC

All the married heiresses I have known have shipwrecked.

—Benjamin Disraeli, 1880

What can you conceive more silly and extravagant than to suppose a man racking his brains and studying night and day how to fly?

—William Law, 1728

The strength of a family, like the strength of an army, is in its loyalty to each other.

—Mario Puzo, 2001

Why listen to me? I can only predict epidemics and plagues.

—Larry Kramer, 1992

The passion for setting people right is in itself an afflictive disease.

—Marianne Moore, 1935

What keeps the democracy alive at all but the hatred of excellence, the desire of the base to see no head higher than their own?

—Mary Renault, 1956

Among all nations, through the darkest polytheism glimmer some faint sparks of monotheism.

—Immanuel Kant, 1781