Archive

Quotes

Jokes are grievances.

—Marshall McLuhan, 1969

The less intelligent the white man is, the more stupid he thinks the black.

—André Gide, 1927

A good dog, sir, deserves a good bone.

—Ben Jonson, 1633

Water its living strength first shows, / When obstacles its course oppose.

—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 1815

Revolutions are not made by men in spectacles.

—Oliver Wendell Holmes, 1871

The best augury of a man’s success in his profession is that he thinks it the finest in the world.

—George Eliot, 1876

Freedom is always and exclusively freedom for the one who thinks differently.

—Rosa Luxemburg, 1918

Such then is the human state, that to wish greatness for one’s country is to wish harm to one’s neighbors.

—Voltaire, 1764

Iron may break gold, but water remains whole.

—Ge Hong, c. 300

I looked and there was a pale green horse! Its rider’s name was Death, and Hades followed with him.

—Book of Revelations, c. 90

Let the young know they will never find a more interesting, more instructive book than the patient himself.

—Giorgio Baglivi, c. 1696

Every man is worth just so much as the things he busies himself with.

—Marcus Aurelius, c. 175

Can you draw sweet water from a foul well?

—Brooks Atkinson, 1940