Archive

Quotes

Treaties, you see, are like girls and roses: they last while they last.

—Charles de Gaulle, 1963

In settling an island, the first building erected by a Spaniard will be a church, by a Frenchman a fort, by a Dutchman a warehouse, and by an Englishman an alehouse.

—Francis Grose, 1787

That which is evil is soon learned. 

—John Ray, 1670

There was a great deal of drinking among us but little drunkenness. We all seemed to feel that Prohibition was a personal affront and that we had a moral duty to undermine it.

—Elizabeth Anderson, 1969

What harm is there in getting knowledge and learning, were it from a sot, a pot, a fool, a winter mitten, or an old slipper? 

—François Rabelais, 1533

Oil dependency is not just an economic attachment but appears as a kind of cognitive compulsion.

—Peter Hitchcock, 2010

A change in the weather is sufficient to create the world and oneself anew.

—Marcel Proust, c. 1920

The only justification of rebellion is success.

—Thomas B. Reed, 1878

That is happiness: to be dissolved into something complete and great.

—Willa Cather, 1918

Whoever thinks of going to bed before twelve o’clock is a scoundrel.

—Samuel Johnson, c. 1770

Commerce tends to wear off those prejudices which maintain distinction and animosity between nations.

—William Robertson, 1769

No wise man ever wished to be younger.

—Jonathan Swift, 1706

Good fortune turns aside destruction by a great god.

—Instructions of Ankhsheshonqy, c. 100 BC