Laughter almost ever cometh of things most disproportioned to ourselves and nature. Laughter hath only a scornful tickling.
—Philip Sidney, 1582
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Quotes
Death from the bubonic plague is rated, with crucifixion, among the nastiest human experiences of all.
—Guy R. Williams, 1975Death keeps no calendar.
—George Herbert, 1640The friend of all humanity is no friend to me.
—Molière, 1666They say that gifts persuade even the gods.
—Euripides, 431 BCWe have just enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to make us love one another.
—Jonathan Swift, 1706Do you not see how God is praised by those in the heavens and those on earth? The very birds praised Him as they wing their way.
—The Qur’an, c. 620Put national causes first and personal grudges last.
—Sima Qian, c. 91 BCA real leader is somebody who can help us overcome the limitations of our own individual laziness and selfishness and weakness and fear and get us to do better, harder things than we can get ourselves to do on our own.
—David Foster Wallace, 2000An irreligious man is not one who denies the gods of the majority, but one who applies to the gods the opinions of the majority. For what most men say about the gods are not ideas derived from sensation, but false opinions, according to which the greatest evils come to the wicked, and the greatest blessings come to the good from the gods.
—Epicurus, c. 250 BCOn no other stage are the scenes shifted with a swiftness so like magic as on the great stage of history when once the hour strikes.
—Edward Bellamy, 1888For most of us, nighttime dreaming brings us closer to our identities and our power than any activity in the waking world.
—Walter Mosley, 2000Insurrection of thought always precedes insurrection of arms.
—Wendell Phillips, 1859