Animals, in their generation, are wiser than the sons of men, but their wisdom is confined to a few particulars, and lies in a very narrow compass.
—Joseph Addison, 1711
Archive
Quotes
Death keeps no calendar.
—George Herbert, 1640Even though counting heads is not an ideal way to govern, at least it is better than breaking them.
—Learned Hand, 1932The gratitude is greater than the gift.
—Pierre Corneille, 1641Living is an ailment that is relieved every sixteen hours by sleep. A palliative. Death is the cure.
—Sébastien-Roch Nicolas Chamfort, c. 1790The only authors whom I acknowledge as American are the journalists. They indeed are not great writers, but they speak the language of their countrymen, and make themselves heard by them.
—Alexis de Tocqueville, 1840In meeting again after a separation, acquaintances ask after our outward life, friends after our inner life.
—Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach, 1880God gave us memory so that we might have roses in December.
—J.M. Barrie, 1922We call them dumb animals, and so they are, for they cannot tell us how they feel, but they do not suffer less because they have no words.
—Anna Sewell, 1877How absurd men are! They never use the liberties they have, they demand those they do not have. They have freedom of thought, they demand freedom of speech.
—Søren Kierkegaard, 1843Someone will remember us
I say
even in another time.
The most advanced nations are always those who navigate the most.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1870We’ve got to live, no matter how many skies have fallen.
—D.H. Lawrence, 1928