The spirit of liberty is the spirit which is not too sure it is right.
—Judge Learned Hand, 1944
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Quotes
We have to distrust each other. It is our only defense against betrayal.
—Tennessee Williams, 1953If there is a word in the dictionary under any letter from A to Z that I abominate, it is energy.
—Charles Dickens, 1865I am sure of this: that if everybody was to drink their bottle a day, there would not be half the disorders in the world there are now.
—Jane Austen, c. 1798As he brews, so shall he drink.
—Ben Jonson, 1598Reminiscences make one feel so deliciously aged and sad.
—George Bernard Shaw, 1886It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me, but it can keep him from lynching me.
—Martin Luther King Jr., 1962No preacher is listened to but time, which gives us the same train and turn of thought that elder people have in vain tried to put into our heads before.
—Jonathan Swift, 1706Envy is the basis of democracy.
—Bertrand Russell, 1930If I see something sagging, dragging, or bagging, I’m going to go have the stuff tucked or plucked.
—Dolly Parton, 2003Thou art not to learn the humors and tricks of that old bald cheater, time.
—Ben Jonson, 1601War is fear cloaked in courage.
—William Westmoreland, 1966Commerce has made all winds her ministers.
—John Sterling, 1843