The friend of all humanity is no friend to me.
—Molière, 1666
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Quotes
Whether for good or evil, it is sadly inevitable that all political leadership requires the artifices of theatrical illusion. In the politics of a democracy, the shortest distance between two points is often a crooked line.
—Arthur Miller, 2001Is this dying? Is this all? Is this all that I feared when I prayed against a hard death? Oh, I can bear this! I can bear it!
—Cotton Mather, 1728All men recognize the right of revolution, that is, the right to refuse allegiance to, and to resist, the government, when its tyranny or its inefficiency are great and unendurable.
—Henry David Thoreau, 1849Do not do unto others as you would that they should do unto you. Their tastes may not be the same.
—George Bernard Shaw, 1903Corporations have neither bodies to be punished nor souls to be damned.
—Chinese proverbThe self is like an infant: given free rein, it craves to suckle.
—al-Busiri, c. 1250A private sin is not so prejudicial in this world as a public indecency.
—Miguel de Cervantes, 1615The drunken man is a living corpse.
—St. John Chrysostom, c. 390Do you suppose it possible to know democracy without knowing the people?
—Xenophon, c. 370 BCI am ill every time it blows hard, and nothing but my enthusiastic love for the profession keeps me one hour at sea.
—Admiral Horatio Nelson, 1804Each night’s new terror drives away the terror of the night before.
—Sophocles, c. 450 BCIt is not my design to drink or sleep; my design is to make what haste I can to be gone.
—Oliver Cromwell, 1658