Do not ask me to be kind; just ask me to act as though I were.
—Jules Renard, 1898
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Quotes
A criminal may improve and become a decent member of society. A foreigner cannot improve. Once a foreigner, always a foreigner. There is no way out for him.
—George Mikes, 1946Whenever a friend succeeds, a little something in me dies.
—Gore Vidal, 1973One’s friends are that part of the human race with which one can be human.
—George Santayana, c. 1914Nobody works as hard for his money as the man who marries it.
—Kin HubbardA jest breaks no bones.
—Samuel Johnson, 1781Why has the government been instituted at all? Because the passions of men will not conform to the dictates of reason and justice without constraint.
—Alexander Hamilton, 1787It is impossible to translate the poets. Can you translate music?
—Voltaire, c. 1732Politics, n. A strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. The conduct of public affairs for private advantage.
—Ambrose Bierce, 1906No nation was ever ruined by trade.
—Benjamin Franklin, 1774Most authors seek fame, but I seek for justice—a holier impulse than ever entered into the ambitious struggles of the votaries of that fickle, flirting goddess.
—Davy Crockett, 1834Faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what you believe.
—Saint Augustine, c. 400One form of loneliness is to have a memory and no one to share it with.
—Phyllis Rose, 1991