Archive

Quotes

Whoever gulps down wine as a horse gulps down water is called a Scythian.

—Athenaeus, c. 230

The more corrupt the state, the more numerous its laws.

—Tacitus, c. 110

Alongside all swindlers the state now stands there as swindler-in-chief.

—Jacob Burckhardt, c. 1875

War to the castles; peace to the cottages.

—Nicolas Chamfort, 1790

Let me recommend the best medicine in the world: a long journey, at a mild season, through a pleasant country, in easy stages.

—James Madison, 1794

Kings and fools know no law.

—German proverb

It is hell to belong to a suppressed minority.

—Claude McKay, 1937

The more the pleasures of the body fade away, the greater to me is the pleasure and charm of conversation.

—Plato, c. 375 BC

Man’s capacity for justice makes democracy possible, but man’s inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary.

—Reinhold Niebuhr, 1944

I have been ever of the opinion that revolutions are not to be evaded.

—Benjamin Disraeli, 1844

Possessions, outward success, publicity, luxury—to me these have always been contemptible. I believe that a simple and unassuming manner of life is best for everyone, best both for the body and the mind.

—Albert Einstein, 1931

Art is our chief means of breaking bread with the dead.

—W.H. Auden, c. 1940

Men have an extraordinarily erroneous opinion of their position in nature; and the error is ineradicable.

—W. Somerset Maugham, 1896