Three may keep a secret, if two of them are dead.
—Benjamin Franklin, 1735
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Quotes
Friendship was given by nature to be an assistant to virtue, not a companion to vice.
—Marcus Tullius Cicero, c. 45 BCI am a friend of the workingman, and I would rather be his friend than be one.
—Clarence Darrow, 1932When night in her rusty dungeon has imprisoned our eyesight, and that we are shut separately in our chambers from resort, the devil keeps his audit in our sin-guilty consciences.
—Thomas Nashe, 1594A criminal may improve and become a decent member of society. A foreigner cannot improve. Once a foreigner, always a foreigner. There is no way out for him.
—George Mikes, 1946Without a decisive naval force, we can do nothing definitive, and with it, everything honorable and glorious.
—George Washington, 1781The highest possible stage in moral culture is when we recognize that we ought to control our thoughts.
—Charles Darwin, 1871The gift of a common tongue is a priceless inheritance and it may well some day become the foundation of a common citizenship.
—Winston Churchill, 1943The hour of departure has arrived, and we go our ways—I to die, and you to live. Which is better, only the god knows.
—Socrates, 399 BCThere is something stirring in the way civilization gapes like a savage at the achievements of nature.
—Karl Kraus, 1909It is so difficult not to become vain about one’s own good luck.
—Simone de Beauvoir, 1963Never make a defense or apology before you be accused.
—Charles I, 1636What can you conceive more silly and extravagant than to suppose a man racking his brains and studying night and day how to fly?
—William Law, 1728