One is never as unhappy as one thinks, nor as happy as one hopes.
—La Rochefoucauld, 1664
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Quotes
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, 1690Men have written in the most convincing manner to prove that death is no evil, and this opinion has been confirmed on a thousand celebrated occasions by the weakest of men as well as by heroes. Even so I doubt whether any sensible person has ever believed it, and the trouble men take to convince others as well as themselves that they do shows clearly that it is no easy undertaking.
—La Rochefoucauld, 1665To live for a time close to great minds is the best kind of education.
—John Buchan, 1940A crust of bread and a corner to sleep in / A minute to smile and an hour to weep in.
—Paul Laurence Dunbar, 1895There is no work of human hands which time does not wear away and reduce to dust.
—Marcus Tullius Cicero, 46 BCPeace is a natural effect of trade.
—Montesquieu, 1748Those who make the worst use of their time are the first to complain of its brevity.
—Jean de La Bruyère, 1688There is no shop anywhere where one can buy friendship.
—Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, 1943War to the castles; peace to the cottages.
—Nicolas Chamfort, 1790To get back my youth I would do anything in the world, except take exercise, get up early, or be respectable.
—Oscar Wilde, 1891Till taught by pain, / Men really know not what good water’s worth.
—Lord Byron, 1819We want a lot of engineers in the modern world, but we do not want a world of engineers.
—Winston Churchill, 1948