If you must take care that your opinions do not differ in the least from those of the person with whom you are talking, you might just as well be alone.
—Yoshida Kenko, c. 1330
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Quotes
It is far, far better and much safer to have a firm anchor in nonsense than to put out on the troubled seas of thought.
—John Kenneth Galbraith, 1958To be sick is to enjoy monarchal prerogatives.
—Charles Lamb, 1833No human life, not even the life of a hermit, is possible without a world which directly or indirectly testifies to the presence of other human beings.
—Hannah Arendt, 1958The waters are nature’s storehouse, in which she locks up her wonders.
—Izaak Walton, 1653Man is no man, but a wolf, to a stranger.
—Plautus, c. 200 BCIf you find excrement somewhere in the village, the chief was the one who put it there.
—Congolese proverbHappy is the man who hath never known what it is to taste of fame—to have it is a purgatory, to want it is a hell!
—Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1843Hunting is all that’s worth living for—all time is lost what is not spent in hunting—it is like the air we breathe—if we have it not we die—it’s the sport of kings, the image of war without its guilt.
—Robert Smith Surtees, 1843If you can’t go through an obstacle, go around it. Water does.
—Margaret Atwood, 2005Possessions, outward success, publicity, luxury—to me these have always been contemptible. I believe that a simple and unassuming manner of life is best for everyone, best both for the body and the mind.
—Albert Einstein, 1931To need to dominate others is to need others. The commander is dependent.
—Fernando Pessoa, c. 1935The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt.
—Leviticus, c. 600 BC