Without a decisive naval force, we can do nothing definitive, and with it, everything honorable and glorious.
—George Washington, 1781
Archive
Quotes
Where shall I, of wandering weary, find my resting place at last?
—Heinrich Heine, 1827I always thought of photography as a naughty thing to do—that was one of my favorite things about it—and when I first did it, I felt perverse.
—Diane Arbus, c. 1950A difference of taste in jokes is a great strain on the affections.
—George Eliot, 1876All the daughters of music shall be brought low.
—Ecclesiastes, c. 400 BCHoping for new friendship from old enemies is / Like expecting to find a rose in a furnace.
—Muhammad Baqir Najm-i Sani, 1612Reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.
—George Washington, 1796Because 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 BCYou can’t find the soul with a scalpel.
—Gustave Flaubert, c. 1880The mill will never grind with water that is past.
—Daniel McCallum, 1870If they prescribe a lot of remedies for some sickness or other, it means that the sickness is incurable.
—Anton Chekhov, 1904The populace may hiss me, but when I go home and think of my money, I applaud myself.
—Horace, c. 25 BCIn the past, men created witches; now they create mental patients.
—Thomas Szasz, 1970