A dead enemy always smells good.
—Aulus Vitellius, 69
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Quotes
We are to go to law never to revenge, but only to repair.
—Samuel Pepys, 1661Seven years would be insufficient to make some people acquainted with each other, and seven days are more than enough for others.
—Jane Austen, 1811God is a concept by which we measure our pain.
—John Lennon, 1970Writing cannot express words fully; words cannot express thoughts fully.
—The Book of Changes, c. 350 BCThe Mughal’s nature is such that they demand miracles, but if a miracle were to be performed by some upright follower of our religion, they would say that it had been brought about by magic and sorcery. They would strike him down with spears or would stone him to death.
—Fr. Antonio Monserrate, 1590Man’s capacity for justice makes democracy possible, but man’s inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary.
—Reinhold Niebuhr, 1944If not us, who? If not now, when?
—Czech slogan, 1989It has always been my practice to cast a long paragraph in a single mold, to try it by my ear, to deposit it in my memory, but to suspend the action of the pen till I had given the last polish to my work.
—Edward Gibbon, c. 1790Traveling is like gambling: it is ever connected with winning and losing, and generally where least expected we receive more or less than we hoped for.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 1797It is difficult for a woman to define her feelings in language which is chiefly made by men to express theirs.
—Thomas Hardy, 1874Nothing is hidden from the eyes of the observing world.
—Aleksandr Pushkin, 1837I have often said that if I wish to name-drop, I have only to list my ex-friends.
—Norman Podhoretz, 1999