There is no profit without another’s loss.
—Roman proverb
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Quotes
All paid jobs absorb and degrade the mind.
—Aristotle, c. 330 BCPictures made in childhood are painted in bright hues.
—Kate Douglas Wiggin, 1886The nature of God is a circle, of which the center is everywhere and the circumference is nowhere.
—Empedocles, c. 450 BCThere comes a time in every rightly constructed boy’s life when he has a raging desire to go somewhere and dig for hidden treasure.
—Mark Twain, 1876If I lose at play, I blaspheme, and if my fellow loses, he blasphemes. So that God is always sure to be the loser.
—John Donne, 1623They say, “We only have the life of this world. We die and we live, and nothing destroys us but time.” Yet, not true knowledge have they of this—only belief.
—The Qur’an, c. 620I have seen the science I worshipped, and the aircraft I loved, destroying the civilization I expected them to serve.
—Charles Lindbergh, 1948A crowded police court docket is the surest sign that trade is brisk and money plenty.
—Mark Twain, 1872More pernicious nonsense was never devised by man than treaties of commerce.
—Benjamin Disraeli, 1880The bathing was so delightful this morning, and Molly so pressing with me to enjoy myself, that I believe I stayed in rather too long, as since the middle of the day I have felt unreasonably tired. I shall be more careful another time, and shall not bathe tomorrow as I had before intended.
—Jane Austen, 1804Secrecy lies at the very core of power.
—Elias Canetti, 1960The past grows gradually around one, like a placenta for dying.
—John Berger, 1984