All modern revolutions have ended in a reinforcement of the power of the state.
—Albert Camus, 1951
Archive
Quotes
If you find excrement somewhere in the village, the chief was the one who put it there.
—Congolese proverbTell us your phobias and we will tell you what you are afraid of.
—Robert Benchley, 1935Patriotism is an ephemeral motive that scarcely ever outlasts the particular threat to society that aroused it.
—Denis Diderot, 1774We have to distrust each other. It is our only defense against betrayal.
—Tennessee Williams, 1953I work for a government I despise for ends I think criminal.
—John Maynard Keynes, 1917The right to the pursuit of happiness is nothing else than the right to disillusionment phrased in another way.
—Aldous Huxley, 1956To outwit an enemy is not only just and glorious but profitable and sweet.
—Plutarch, c. 100How sickness enlarges the dimension of a man’s self to himself! He is his own exclusive object.
—Charles Lamb, 1833He that raises a large family, does indeed, while he lives to observe them, stand…a broader mark for sorrow; but then he stands a broader mark for pleasure too.
—Benjamin Franklin, 1786I think it makes small difference to the dead if they are buried in the tokens of luxury. All this is an empty glorification left for those who live.
—Euripides, 415 BCMake human nature your study wherever you reside—whatever the religion or the complexion, study their hearts.
—Ignatius Sancho, 1778Fame is but the empty noise of madmen.
—Epictetus, c. 100