Of my friends, I am the only one I have left.
—Terence, 161 BC
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Quotes
All paid jobs absorb and degrade the mind.
—Aristotle, c. 330 BCI don’t believe in an afterlife, although I am bringing a change of underwear.
—Woody Allen, 1971Power is so apt to be insolent, and Liberty to be saucy, that they are very seldom upon good terms.
—George Savile, c. 1690The Mughal’s nature is such that they demand miracles, but if a miracle were to be performed by some upright follower of our religion, they would say that it had been brought about by magic and sorcery. They would strike him down with spears or would stone him to death.
—Fr. Antonio Monserrate, 1590The populace may hiss me, but when I go home and think of my money, I applaud myself.
—Horace, c. 25 BCDon’t hit a man at all if you can avoid it, but if you have to hit him, knock him out.
—Theodore Roosevelt, 1916The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.
—H.L. Mencken, 1921No man will take counsel, but every man will take money: therefore money is better than counsel.
—Jonathan Swift, 1702The human working stock is of interest only insofar as it is profitable.
—Simone de Beauvoir, 1970Speak and speed; the close mouth catches no flies.
—Benjamin Franklin, c. 1732Let us make our own mistakes, but let us take comfort in the knowledge that they are our own mistakes.
—Tom Mboya, 1958I'm all for bringing back the birch, but only between consenting adults.
—Gore Vidal, 1973