’Tis the destroyer, or the devil, that scatters plagues about the world.
—Cotton Mather, 1693
Archive
Quotes
The law’s made to take care o’ raskills.
—George Eliot, 1860My stern chase after time is, to borrow a simile from Tom Paine, like the race of a man with a wooden leg after a horse.
—John Quincy Adams, 1844No man has any natural authority over his fellow man.
—Jean-Jacques Rousseau, 1762Among famous traitors of history, one might mention the weather.
—Ilka Chase, 1969A private sin is not so prejudicial in this world as a public indecency.
—Miguel de Cervantes, 1615Man has here two and a half minutes—one to smile, one to sigh, and half a one to love; for in the midst of this minute he dies.
—Jean Paul, 1795Suffering has its limit, but fears are endless.
—Pliny the Younger, c. 108For what do we live but to make sport for our neighbors and laugh at them in our turn?
—Jane Austen, 1813To make laws that man cannot and will not obey serves to bring all law into contempt.
—Elizabeth Cady Stanton, 1860All moanday, tearsday, wailsday, thumpsday, frightday, shatterday till the fear of the Law.
—James Joyce, 1939See one promontory (said Socrates of old), one mountain, one sea, one river, and see all.
—Robert Burton, c. 1620If you stain clear water with filth, you will never find a drink.
—Aeschylus, 458 BC