God sells us all things at the price of labor.
—Leonardo da Vinci, c. 1500
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Quotes
The bathing was so delightful this morning, and Molly so pressing with me to enjoy myself, that I believe I stayed in rather too long, as since the middle of the day I have felt unreasonably tired. I shall be more careful another time, and shall not bathe tomorrow as I had before intended.
—Jane Austen, 1804Hang work! I wish that all the year were holiday; I am sure that Indolence—indefeasible Indolence—is the true state of man.
—Charles Lamb, 1805If the people be the governors, who shall be governed?
—John Cotton, c. 1636A private sin is not so prejudicial in this world as a public indecency.
—Miguel de Cervantes, 1615Every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future.
—Oscar Wilde, 1893If you are a dog and your owner suggests that you wear a sweater, suggest that he wear a tail.
—Fran Lebowitz, 1981The most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed.
—Steve Biko, 1971An election is coming. Universal peace is declared, and the foxes have a sincere interest in prolonging the lives of the poultry.
—George Eliot, 1866Why has the government been instituted at all? Because the passions of men will not conform to the dictates of reason and justice without constraint.
—Alexander Hamilton, 1787The young man must store up, the old man must use.
—Seneca the Younger, c. 63We should not say that one man’s hour is worth another man’s hour, but rather that one man during an hour is worth just as much as another man during an hour. Time is everything, man is nothing; he is, at most, time’s carcass.
—Karl Marx, 1847Inventor, n. A person who makes an ingenious arrangement of wheels, levers, and springs and believes it civilization.
—Ambrose Bierce, 1911