A bad reputation is easy to come by, painful to bear, and difficult to clear.
—Hesiod, c. 700 BC
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Quotes
Money speaks sense in a language all nations understand.
—Aphra Behn, 1677My face looks like a wedding cake left out in the rain.
—W.H. Auden, c. 1967Credulity forges more miracles than trickery could invent.
—Joseph Joubert, 1811I’ve got some shit I’m conservative about and some shit I’m liberal about. Crime—I’m conservative. Prostitution—I’m liberal.
—Chris Rock, 2008What 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 BCThe life of a sailor is very unhealthy.
—Francis Galton, 1883The world is wearied of statesmen whom democracy has degraded into politicians.
—Benjamin Disraeli, 1870The moon is a friend for the lonesome to talk to.
—Carl Sandburg, 1934In a court of fowls, the cockroach never wins its case.
—Rwandan proverbNothing from nothing ever yet was born.
—Lucretius, c. 58 BCThe legislator is like the navigator of a ship on the high seas. He can steer the vessel on which he sails, but he cannot alter its construction, raise the wind, or stop the waves from swelling beneath his feet.
—Alexis de Tocqueville, 1835A miracle entails a degree of irrationality—not because it shocks reason, but because it makes no appeal to it.
—Emmanuel Lévinas, 1952