Whenever there is excess, an ax remedies it.
—Sumerian proverb
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Quotes
Happiness (as the mathematicians might say) lies on a curve, and we approach it only by asymptote.
—Christopher Morley, 1919The young man must store up, the old man must use.
—Seneca the Younger, c. 63Under the pressure of the cares and sorrows of our mortal condition, men have at all times and in all countries, called in some physical aid to their moral consolations—wine, beer, opium, brandy, or tobacco.
—Edmund Burke, 1795Men willingly believe what they wish.
—Julius Caesar, c. 50 BCIn order that people may be happy in their work, these three things are needed: they must be fit for it; they must not do too much of it; and they must have a sense of success in it.
—John Ruskin, 1850Only the little people pay taxes.
—Leona Helmsley, 1989To gaze upon a drop of water is to behold the nature of all the waters of the universe.
—Huangbo Xiyun, c. 850The world is wearied of statesmen whom democracy has degraded into politicians.
—Benjamin Disraeli, 1870Friendship was given by nature to be an assistant to virtue, not a companion to vice.
—Marcus Tullius Cicero, c. 45 BCThe tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.
—Thomas Jefferson, 1787The poor have sometimes objected to being governed badly; the rich have always objected to being governed at all.
—G.K. Chesterton, 1908I have often been convinced that a democracy is incapable of empire.
—Thucydides, c. 404 BC