Calamities are of two kinds: misfortune to ourselves, and good fortune to others.
—Ambrose Bierce, 1906
Archive
Quotes
And then, sir, there is this consideration: that if the abuse be enormous, nature will rise up and, claiming her original rights, overturn a corrupt political system.
—Samuel Johnson, 1791Every gift has a personality—that of its giver.
—Nuruddin Farah, 1992Life is the art of being well deceived.
—William Hazlitt, c. 1817It is not light that we need, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake.
—Frederick Douglass, 1852Conjecturing a Climate
Of unsuspended Suns –
Adds poignancy to Winter
The Revolution is made by man, but man must forge his revolutionary spirit from day to day.
—Che Guevara, 1968Insurgents are like conquerors: they must go forward; the moment they are stopped, they are lost.
—Duke of Wellington, c. 1819Happy is the man who hath never known what it is to taste of fame—to have it is a purgatory, to want it is a hell!
—Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1843How gloriously legible are the constellations of the heavens!
—Anthony Trollope, 1859Once a woman has lost her chastity she will shrink from nothing.
—Tacitus, c. 100To blow and to swallow at the same time is not easy; I cannot at the same time be here and also there.
—Plautus, c. 200 BCEvery house: temple, empire, school.
—Joseph Joubert, 1800