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Quotes

Language is the archives of history.

—Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1844

Without doubt God is the universal moving force, but each being is moved according to the nature that God has given it. He directs angels, man, animals, brute matter, in sum all created things—but each according to its nature—and man having been created free, he is freely led. This rule is truly the eternal law and in it we must believe.

—Joseph de Maistre, 1821

I shall soon be six-and-twenty. Is there anything in the future that can possibly console us for not being always twenty-five?

—Lord Byron, 1813

When poets don’t know what to say and have completely given up on the play, just like a finger, they lift the machine and the spectators are satisfied.

—Antiphanes, c. 350 BC

No man ever distinguished himself who could not bear to be laughed at.

—Maria Edgeworth, 1809

An appeal to the reason of the people has never been known to fail in the long run.

—James Russell Lowell, c. 1865

If one hears bad music, it is one’s duty to drown it by conversation.

—Oscar Wilde, 1890

Happiness depends on being free, and freedom depends on being courageous.

—Pericles, c. 431 BC

Big head, little wit.

—French proverb

Anyone who in discussion quotes authority uses his memory rather than his intellect.

—Leonardo da Vinci, c. 1500

The spirit of revolution, the spirit of insurrection, is a spirit radically opposed to liberty.

—François Guizot, 1830

Had Cleopatra’s nose been shorter, the whole face of the world would have changed.

—Blaise Pascal, 1658

Revenge may be wicked, but it’s natural.

—William Makepeace Thackeray, 1847