Archive

Quotes

The best augury of a man’s success in his profession is that he thinks it the finest in the world.

—George Eliot, 1876

Happiness is a warm puppy.

—Charles Schulz, 1971

The deed is everything, the glory naught.

—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 1832

I have loved war too well.

—Louis XIV, 1715

A maid that laughs is half taken.

—John Ray, 1670

The period of a [Persian] boy’s education is between the ages of five and twenty, and he is taught three things only: to ride, to use the bow, and to speak the truth.

—Herodotus, c. 440 BC

Nature never jests.

—Albrecht von Haller, 1751

‘Tis a superstition to insist on a special diet. All is made at last of the same chemical atoms.

—Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1860

Well now, there’s a remedy for everything except death.

—Miguel de Cervantes, 1605

Because the newer methods of treatment are good, it does not follow that the old ones were bad: for if our honorable and worshipful ancestors had not recovered from their ailments, you and I would not be here today.

—Confucius, c. 515 BC

We should have a great many fewer disputes in the world if words were taken for what they are, the signs of our ideas only, and not for things themselves.

—John Locke, 1690

Understanding is a very dull occupation.

—Gertrude Stein, 1937

If anything affects your eye, you hasten to have it removed; if anything affects your mind, you postpone the cure for a year.

—Horace, 20 BC