All successful revolutions are the kicking in of a rotten door. The violence of revolutions is the violence of men who charge into a vacuum.
—John Kenneth Galbraith, 1977
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Quotes
Men are able to assist fortune but not to thwart her. They can weave her designs, but they cannot destroy them.
—Niccolò Machiavelli, 1531The day unravels what the night has woven.
—Walter Benjamin, 1929’Tis the sport to have the engineer / Hoist with his own petard.
—William Shakespeare, c. 1600It is a certain sign of a wise government and proceeding, when it can hold men’s hearts by hopes, when it cannot by satisfaction.
—Francis Bacon, 1625Feasts must be solemn and rare, or else they cease to be feasts.
—Aldous Huxley, 1929One race there is of men, one of gods, but from one mother we both draw our breath.
—Pindar, c. 450 BCA criminal may improve and become a decent member of society. A foreigner cannot improve. Once a foreigner, always a foreigner. There is no way out for him.
—George Mikes, 1946Anyone who in discussion quotes authority uses his memory rather than his intellect.
—Leonardo da Vinci, c. 1500Though this be madness, yet there is method in’t.
—William Shakespeare, 1603Water has many ways of reminding us that when we are in it we are out of our element.
—Christopher Hitchens, 2008Not all heads have a brain.
—French proverbNothing so fortifies a friendship as a belief on the part of one friend that he is superior to the other.
—Honoré de Balzac, 1847