Quarrels would not last long if the fault was only on one side.
—La Rochefoucauld, 1665
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Quotes
Spit not in the well; you may have to drink its water.
—French proverbThe happy ending is our national belief.
—Mary McCarthy, 1947What the brain does by itself is infinitely more fascinating and complex than any response it can make to chemical stimulation.
—Ursula K. Le Guin, 1971Nothing is so easy as to deceive one’s self; for what we wish, that we readily believe.
—Demosthenes, 349 BCEducation is a weapon whose effects depend on who holds it in his hands and at whom it is aimed.
—Joseph Stalin, 1934Make the revolution a parent of settlement and not a nursery of future revolutions.
—Edmund Burke, 1790By night an atheist half believes a God.
—Edward Young, c. 1745There is a sickness among tyrants: they cannot trust their friends.
—Aeschylus, c. 458 BCThere must be quite a few things a hot bath won’t cure, but I don’t know many of them.
—Sylvia Plath, 1963Educate people without religion and you make them but clever devils.
—Arthur Wellesley, c. 1830Natural rights is simple nonsense: natural and imprescriptible rights, rhetorical nonsense—nonsense upon stilts.
—Jeremy Bentham, c. 1832An American will build a house in which to pass his old age and sell it before the roof is on.
—Alexis de Tocqueville, 1840