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Quotes

Make the revolution a parent of settlement and not a nursery of future revolutions.

—Edmund Burke, 1790

If we pretend to respect the artist at all, we must allow him his freedom of choice, in the face, in particular cases, of innumerable presumptions that the choice will not fructify. Art derives a considerable part of its beneficial exercise from flying in the face of presumptions.

—Henry James, 1884

Seize from every moment its unique novelty, and do not prepare your joys.

—André Gide, 1897

Epitaph, n. An inscription on a tomb, showing that virtues acquired by death have a retroactive effect.

—Ambrose Bierce, 1906

Each night’s new terror drives away the terror of the night before.

—Sophocles, c. 450 BC

Rewards and punishment are the lowest form of education.

—Zhuangzi, c. 286 BC

By nature, men are nearly alike; by practice, they get to be wide apart.

—Confucius, c. 500 BC

One sees great things from the valley; only small things from the peak.

—G.K. Chesterton, 1911

The human working stock is of interest only insofar as it is profitable.

—Simone de Beauvoir, 1970

There be beasts that, at a year old, observe more, and pursue that which is for their good more prudently, than a child can do at ten.

—Thomas Hobbes, 1651

If the world were good for nothing else, it is a fine subject for speculation.

—William Hazlitt, 1823

If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him.

—Voltaire, 1764

The brain is an unreliable organ, it is monstrously great, monstrously developed. Swollen, like a goiter.

—Aleksandr Blok, c. 1920