Plough deep while sluggards sleep.
—Benjamin Franklin, 1758Quotes
They say, “We only have the life of this world. We die and we live, and nothing destroys us but time.” Yet, not true knowledge have they of this—only belief.
—The Qur’an, c. 620Freedom is about the willingness of every single human being to cede to lawful authority a great deal of discretion about what you do.
—Rudy Giuliani, 1999Where the telescope ends, the microscope begins. Which of these two has the grander view?
—Victor Hugo, 1862Friendship is a plant that loves the sun—thrives ill under clouds.
—Bronson Alcott, 1872I have been a stranger here in my own land all my life.
—Sophocles, c. 441 BCI shall curse you with book and bell and candle.
—Thomas Malory, c. 1470Art transcends its limitations only by staying within them.
—Flannery O’Connor, 1964Happiness (as the mathematicians might say) lies on a curve, and we approach it only by asymptote.
—Christopher Morley, 1919Those who travel heedlessly from place to place, observing only their distance from each other and attending only to their accommodation at the inn at night, set out fools, and will certainly return so.
—Philip Dormer Stanhope, 1747He who is afraid of his own memories is cowardly, really cowardly.
—Elias Canetti, 1954Every communist must grasp the truth: “Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.”
—Mao Zedong, 1938The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there.
—L.P. Hartley, 1953