The only competition worthy a wise man is with himself.
—Anna Jameson, 1846
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Quotes
All things are filled full of signs, and it is a wise man who can learn about one thing from another.
—Plotinus, c. 255We cannot say what the woman might be physically, if the girl were not allowed all the freedom of the boy in romping, climbing, swimming, playing whoop and ball.
—Elizabeth Cady Stanton, 1848As is the face, so is the mind.
—Roman proverbFear has a smell, as love does.
—Margaret Atwood, 1972Well now, there’s a remedy for everything except death.
—Miguel de Cervantes, 1605Hygienic law, like martial law, supersedes rights in crises.
—Samuel Hopkins Adams, 1913Revolutions have never lightened the burden of tyranny, they have only shifted it to another shoulder.
—George Bernard Shaw, 1903Ridicule often checks what is absurd, and fully as often smothers that which is noble.
—Walter Scott, 1823Revolution begins in putting on bright colors.
—Tennessee Williams, 1944The tendency of democracies is, in all things, to mediocrity.
—James Fenimore Cooper, 1838A traveler’s chief aim should be to make men wiser and better, and to improve their minds by the bad—as well as good—example of what they deliver concerning foreign places.
—Jonathan Swift, 1726Is it only the mouth and belly which are injured by hunger and thirst? Men’s minds are also injured by them.
—Mencius, 300 BC