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Quotes

Quarreling must lead to disorder, and disorder exhaustion.

—Xunzi, c. 250 BC

Fire destroys that which feeds it.

—Simone Weil, c. 1940

That 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, 1569

Writing cannot express words fully; words cannot express thoughts fully.

—The Book of Changes, c. 350 BC

Even a paranoid can have enemies.

—Henry Kissinger, 1977

The nature of God is a circle, of which the center is everywhere and the circumference is nowhere.

—Empedocles, c. 450 BC

Thanks 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, 1662

Luck is not something you can mention in the presence of self-made men.

—E.B. White, 1944

Whatever the apparent cause of any riots may be, the real one is always want of happiness.

—Thomas Paine, 1792

People will never fight for your freedom if you have not given evidence that you are prepared to fight for it yourself.

—Bayard Rustin, 1986

The merchant always has fresh losses to expect, and the dread of base poverty forbids his rest.

—Decimus Magnus Ausonius, c. 390

There 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, 1714

Slang is a language that rolls up its sleeves, spits on its hands, and goes to work.

—Carl Sandburg, 1959