There is a kind of revolution of so general a character that it changes the mental tastes as well as the fortunes of the world.
—La Rochefoucauld, 1665
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Quotes
Imagine a number of men in chains, all under sentence of death, some of whom are each day butchered in the sight of the others; those remaining see their own condition in that of their fellows and, looking at each other with grief and despair, await their turn. This is an image of the human condition.
—Blaise Pascal, 1669Freedom of the press is only guaranteed to those who own one.
—A.J. Liebling, 1960There is no solitude in the world like that of the big city.
—Kathleen Norris, 1931Let your boat of life be light, packed with only what you need—a homely home and simple pleasures, one or two friends worth the name, someone to love and someone to love you, a cat, a dog, and a pipe or two, enough to eat and enough to wear, and a little more than enough to drink; for thirst is a dangerous thing.
—Jerome K. Jerome, 1889An irreligious man is not one who denies the gods of the majority, but one who applies to the gods the opinions of the majority. For what most men say about the gods are not ideas derived from sensation, but false opinions, according to which the greatest evils come to the wicked, and the greatest blessings come to the good from the gods.
—Epicurus, c. 250 BCDivine nature gave the fields; human art built the cities.
—Marcus Terentius Varro, c. 70 BCWe should have a great many fewer disputes in the world if words were taken for what they are, the signs of our ideas only, and not for things themselves.
—John Locke, 1690The temple bell stops but I still hear the sound coming out of the flowers.
—Basho, c. 1690If we wait for a pandemic to appear, it will be too late to prepare.
—George W. Bush, 2005Till taught by pain, / Men really know not what good water’s worth.
—Lord Byron, 1819One should always have one’s boots on and be ready to leave.
—Michel de Montaigne, 1580Death and vulgarity are the only two facts in the nineteenth century that one cannot explain away.
—Oscar Wilde, 1891