Ridicule often checks what is absurd, and fully as often smothers that which is noble.
—Walter Scott, 1823
Archive
Quotes
The basis of optimism is sheer terror.
—Oscar Wilde, 1891No real friendship without absolute liberty.
—George Sand, 1866Man is a tool-using animal. Nowhere do you find him without tools; without tools he is nothing, with tools he is all.
—Thomas Carlyle, 1836Every country has the government it deserves.
—Joseph de Maistre, 1811Men argue, nature acts.
—Voltaire, 1764The most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed.
—Steve Biko, 1971The self is like an infant: given free rein, it craves to suckle.
—al-Busiri, c. 1250The play is the tragedy “Man,” And its hero the conqueror worm.
—Edgar Allan Poe, 1843Worry over what has not occurred is a serious malady.
—Solomon ibn Gabirol, 1050The 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, 1804I shall soon be six-and-twenty. Is there anything in the future that can possibly console us for not being always twenty-five?
—Lord Byron, 1813Credulity forges more miracles than trickery could invent.
—Joseph Joubert, 1811