Quarreling must lead to disorder, and disorder exhaustion.
—Xunzi, c. 250 BC
Archive
Quotes
Fire destroys that which feeds it.
—Simone Weil, c. 1940That which the sober man keeps in his breast, the drunken man lets out at the lips. Astute people, when they want to ascertain a man’s true character, make him drunk.
—Martin Luther, 1569Writing cannot express words fully; words cannot express thoughts fully.
—The Book of Changes, c. 350 BCEven a paranoid can have enemies.
—Henry Kissinger, 1977The nature of God is a circle, of which the center is everywhere and the circumference is nowhere.
—Empedocles, c. 450 BCThanks be to God: since my leaving drinking of wine, I do find myself much better and do mind my business better, and do spend less money, and less time lost in idle company.
—Samuel Pepys, 1662Luck is not something you can mention in the presence of self-made men.
—E.B. White, 1944Whatever the apparent cause of any riots may be, the real one is always want of happiness.
—Thomas Paine, 1792People will never fight for your freedom if you have not given evidence that you are prepared to fight for it yourself.
—Bayard Rustin, 1986The merchant always has fresh losses to expect, and the dread of base poverty forbids his rest.
—Decimus Magnus Ausonius, c. 390There never is absolute birth nor complete death, in the strict sense, consisting in the separation of the soul from the body. What we call births are developments and growths, while what we call deaths are envelopments and diminutions.
—Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, 1714Slang is a language that rolls up its sleeves, spits on its hands, and goes to work.
—Carl Sandburg, 1959