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Quotes

Fortune resists half-hearted prayers. 

—Ovid, 8

Every communist must grasp the truth: “Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.”

—Mao Zedong, 1938

Animals are such agreeable friends—they ask no questions, they pass no criticisms.

—George Eliot, 1857

I can’t see (or feel) the conflict between love and religion. To me they’re the same thing.

—Elizabeth Bowen, c. 1970

Usually speaking, the worst-bred person in company is a young traveler just returned from abroad.

—Jonathan Swift, c. 1730

All attempts to adapt our ethical code to our situation in the technological age have failed.

—Max Born, 1968

If you stain clear water with filth, you will never find a drink.

—Aeschylus, 458 BC

Of all the creatures that breathe and creep on the surface of the earth, none is more to be pitied than man.

—Homer, c. 750 BC

If you were to ask me if I’d ever had the bad luck to miss my daily cocktail, I’d have to say that I doubt it; where certain things are concerned, I plan ahead.

—Luis Buñuel, 1983

When we see a natural style we are quite amazed and delighted, because we expected to see an author and find a man.

—Blaise Pascal, c. 1657

A watch is always too fast or too slow. I cannot be dictated to by a watch.

—Jane Austen, 1814

I wish to have no connection with any ship that does not sail fast, for I intend to go in harm’s way.

—John Paul Jones, 1778

Two crimes undid me: a poem and a mistake. 

—Ovid, 10