Human happiness never remains long in the same place.
—Herodotus, c. 430 BCQuotes
In all the ancient states and empires, those who had the shipping, had the wealth.
—William Petty, 1690War to the castles; peace to the cottages.
—Nicolas Chamfort, 1790One should always have one’s boots on and be ready to leave.
—Michel de Montaigne, 1580Too often, where we need water we find guns.
—Ban Ki-moon, 2008The land is full of bloody crimes, and the city is full of violence.
—The BibleHe may be a patriot for Austria, but the question is whether he is a patriot for me.
—Emperor Francis Joseph, c. 1850’Tis a portentous sign / When a man sweats and at the same time shivers.
—Plautus, c. 180 BCThose 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, 1747It 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, 1625One of the saddest things is that the only thing that a man can do for eight hours a day, day after day, is work. You can’t eat eight hours a day, nor drink for eight hours a day, nor make love for eight hours.
—William Faulkner, 1958I curse the night, yet doth from day me hide.
—William Drummond, 1616The various modes of religion which prevailed in the Roman world were all considered by the people as equally true, by the philosophers equally false, and by the magistrate as equally useful.
—Edward Gibbon, 1776