To hold a throne is luck; to bestow it, virtue.
—Seneca the Younger, c. 45
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Quotes
Machines do not run in order to enable men to live, but we resign ourselves to feeding men in order that they may serve the machines.
—Simone Weil, 1934To place oneself in the position of God is painful: being God is equivalent to being tortured. For being God means that one is in harmony with all that is, including the worst. The existence of the worst evils is unimaginable unless God willed them.
—Georges Bataille, 1957Power is so apt to be insolent, and Liberty to be saucy, that they are very seldom upon good terms.
—George Savile, c. 1690Better sleep with a sober cannibal than a drunken Christian.
—Herman Melville, 1851I have given up considering happiness as relevant.
—Edward Gorey, 1974What a heavy burden is a name that has become too famous.
—Voltaire, 1723Fame is no sanctuary from the passing of youth. Suicide is much easier and more acceptable in Hollywood than growing old gracefully.
—Julie Burchill, 1986He that would eat the nut must crack the shell.
—Plautus, c. 200 BCThe day unravels what the night has woven.
—Walter Benjamin, 1929These landscapes of water and reflection have become an obsession.
—Claude Monet, 1908Being a star has made it possible for me to get insulted in places where the average Negro could never hope to go and get insulted.
—Sammy Davis Jr., 1965We cherish our friends not for their ability to amuse us but for ours to amuse them.
—Evelyn Waugh, 1963