There is no greater sorrow than to recall a happy time in the midst of wretchedness.
—Dante Alighieri, c. 1321
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Quotes
Jesters do oft prove prophets.
—William Shakespeare, c. 1605Rivalry adds so much to the charms of one’s conquests.
—Louisa May Alcott, 1866It is He who has subdued the ocean so that you may eat of its fresh fish and bring up from its depth ornaments to wear. Behold the ships plowing their course through it. All this, that you may seek His bounty and render thanks.
—The Qur’an, c. 625A regime which combines perpetual surveillance with total indulgence is hardly conducive to healthy development.
—P.D. James, 1992People can say what they like about the eternal verities, love and truth and so on, but nothing’s as eternal as the dishes.
—Margaret Mahy, 1985I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use.
—Galileo Galilei, 1615The mind is led on, step by step, to defeat its own logic.
—Dai Vernon, 1994One need merely visit the marketplace and the graveyard to determine whether a city is in both physical and metaphysical order.
—Ernst Jünger, 1977Let me tell you what I think of bicycling. I think it has done more to emancipate women than anything else in the world: it gives women a feeling of freedom and self-reliance. I stand and rejoice every time I see a woman ride by on a wheel. The picture of free, untrammeled womanhood.
—Susan B. Anthony, 1896Unexemplary words and unfounded doctrines are avoided by the noble person. Why utter them?
—Dong Zhongshu, c. 120 BCThe first requirement of a statesman is that he be dull.
—Dean Acheson, 1970There is only one antidote to mental suffering and that is physical pain.
—Karl Marx, 1860