I know I have the body but of a weak and feeble woman, but I have the heart and stomach of a king.
—Elizabeth I, 1588
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Quotes
Though this be madness, yet there is method in’t.
—William Shakespeare, 1603Take back your golden fiddles, and we’ll beat to open sea.
—Rudyard Kipling, 1892Man is a troublesome animal and therefore is not very manageable.
—Plato, c. 349 BCIf the bird does like its cage, and does like its sugar, and will not leave it, why keep the door so very carefully shut?
—Olive Schreiner, 1883Give me chastity and continence, but not just now.
—Saint Augustine, 397Trade’s proud empire hastes to swift decay.
—Oliver Goldsmith, 1770I was born at a very early age. Before I had time to regret it, I was four and a half years old.
—Groucho Marx, 1959When they shout “Long live progress,” always ask, “Progress of what?”
—Stanisław Jerzy Lec, 1957When a coward sees a man he can beat, he becomes hungry for a fight.
—Chinua Achebe, 1960A fool’s brain digests philosophy into folly, science into superstition, and art into pedantry. Hence university education.
—George Bernard Shaw, 1903I hate the whole race. There is no believing a word they say—your professional poets, I mean—there never existed a more worthless set than Byron and his friends for example.
—Duke of Wellington, c. 1810What is the worth of human life, unless it is woven into the life of our ancestors by the records of history?
—Marcus Tullius Cicero, 46 BC