Some things are privileged from jest—namely, religion, matters of state, great persons, all men’s present business of importance, and any case that deserves pity.
—Francis Bacon, 1597
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Quotes
Formula for success: rise early, work hard, strike oil.
—J. Paul GettyLaughter always arises from a gaiety of disposition, absolutely incompatible with contempt and indignation.
—Voltaire, 1736I find the pain of a little censure, even when it is unfounded, is more acute than the pleasure of much praise.
—Thomas Jefferson, 1789The man in constant fear is every day condemned.
—Publilius Syrus, c. 50 BCDemocracy is the menopause of Western society, the grand climacteric of the body social. Fascism is its middle-aged lust.
—Jean Baudrillard, 1987Men have written in the most convincing manner to prove that death is no evil, and this opinion has been confirmed on a thousand celebrated occasions by the weakest of men as well as by heroes. Even so I doubt whether any sensible person has ever believed it, and the trouble men take to convince others as well as themselves that they do shows clearly that it is no easy undertaking.
—La Rochefoucauld, 1665Peace is a natural effect of trade.
—Montesquieu, 1748To desire immortality for the individual is really the same as wanting to perpetuate an error forever.
—Arthur Schopenhauer, 1819The one thing the world will never have enough of is the outrageous.
—Salvador Dalí, 1953Sometime they’ll give a war and nobody will come.
—Carl Sandburg, 1936To think ill of mankind, and not wish ill to them, is perhaps the highest wisdom and virtue.
—William Hazlitt, 1823As natural selection works solely by and for the good of each being, all corporeal and mental endowments will tend to progress toward perfection.
—Charles Darwin, 1859