Iron may break gold, but water remains whole.
—Ge Hong, c. 300
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Quotes
There’s folks ’ud hold a sieve under the pump and expect to carry away the water.
—George Eliot, 1859Usually speaking, the worst-bred person in company is a young traveler just returned from abroad.
—Jonathan Swift, c. 1730Business is other people’s money.
—Delphine de Girardin, 1852A friend who is very near and dear may in time become as useless as a relative.
—George Ade, 1902Music sweeps by me as a messenger / Carrying a message that is not for me.
—George Eliot, 1868The legislator is like the navigator of a ship on the high seas. He can steer the vessel on which he sails, but he cannot alter its construction, raise the wind, or stop the waves from swelling beneath his feet.
—Alexis de Tocqueville, 1835The gift of a common tongue is a priceless inheritance and it may well some day become the foundation of a common citizenship.
—Winston Churchill, 1943Whenever in history equality appeared on the agenda, it was exported somewhere else, like an undesirable.
—Mary McCarthy, 1971All things are filled full of signs, and it is a wise man who can learn about one thing from another.
—Plotinus, c. 255I doubt that we have any right to pity the dead for their own sakes.
—Lord Byron, 1817Democracy is the fig leaf of elitism.
—Florence King, 1989The Mughal’s nature is such that they demand miracles, but if a miracle were to be performed by some upright follower of our religion, they would say that it had been brought about by magic and sorcery. They would strike him down with spears or would stone him to death.
—Fr. Antonio Monserrate, 1590