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Quotes

Worldly fame is but a breath of wind that blows now this way, now that, and changes names as it changes in direction.

—Dante Alighieri, c. 1315

 Do not lessen the time of following desire, for the wasting of time is an abomination to the spirit.

—Ptahhotep, c. 2350 BC

Power is so apt to be insolent, and Liberty to be saucy, that they are very seldom upon good terms.

—George Savile, c. 1690

What delight can there be, and not rather displeasure, in hearing the barking and howling of dogs? Or what greater pleasure is there to be felt when a dog followeth a hare than when a dog followeth a dog?

—Thomas More, 1516

Until you’ve lost your reputation, you never realize what a burden it was or what freedom really is.

—Margaret Mitchell, 1936

Religion! How it dominates man’s mind, how it humiliates and degrades his soul. God is everything, man is nothing, says religion. But out of that nothing God has created a kingdom so despotic, so tyrannical, so cruel, so terribly exacting that naught but gloom and tears and blood have ruled the world since gods began.

—Emma Goldman, 1910

To lose confidence in one’s body is to lose confidence in oneself.

—Simone de Beauvoir, 1949

We have just enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to make us love one another.

—Jonathan Swift, 1706

Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring.

—Book of Proverbs, c. 150 BC

Real friends offer both hard truths and soft landings.

—Anna Quindlen, 2012

And, after all, what is a lie? ’Tis but the truth in masquerade.

—Lord Byron, 1822

Make the revolution a parent of settlement and not a nursery of future revolutions.

—Edmund Burke, 1790

The world began without man, and it will end without him.

—Claude Lévi-Strauss, 1955