Let us make our own mistakes, but let us take comfort in the knowledge that they are our own mistakes.
—Tom Mboya, 1958
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Quotes
They say, “We only have the life of this world. We die and we live, and nothing destroys us but time.” Yet, not true knowledge have they of this—only belief.
—The Qur’an, c. 620Everything is a miracle. It is a miracle that one does not dissolve in one’s bath like a lump of sugar.
—Pablo Picasso, 1929No free man shall be taken or imprisoned or dispossessed or outlawed or exiled, or in any way destroyed, nor will we go upon him, nor will we send against him except by the lawful judgment of his peers or by the law of the land.
—Magna Carta, 1215All men that are ruined, are ruined on the side of their natural propensities.
—Edmund Burke, 1796Few sons are equal to their fathers; most fall short, all too few surpass them.
—Homer, c. 750 BCA government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always count on the support of Paul.
—George Bernard Shaw, 1944I am a living symbol of the white man’s fear.
—Winnie Mandela, 1985Friendships begin with liking or gratitude—roots that can be pulled up.
—George Eliot, 1876You never enjoy the world aright, till the sea itself floweth in your veins, till you are clothed with the heavens, and crowned with the stars.
—Thomas Traherne, c. 1670When a coward sees a man he can beat, he becomes hungry for a fight.
—Chinua Achebe, 1960The older one grows, the more one likes indecency.
—Virginia Woolf, 1921There is not much less vexation in the government of a private family than in the managing of an entire state.
—Michel de Montaigne, 1580