Archive

Quotes

I would much rather have men ask why I have no statue than why I have one.

—Cato the Elder, c. 184 BC

The 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

Do that which consists in taking no action, and order will prevail.

—Laozi, c. 500 BC

In our family, as far as we are concerned, we were born and what happened before that is myth.

—V.S. Pritchett, 1968

I always think of nature as a great spectacle, somewhat resembling the opera.

—Bernard de Fontenelle, 1686

If a king loves music, there is little wrong in the land.

—Mencius, c. 330 BC

If people think Nature is their friend, then they sure don’t need an enemy.

—Kurt Vonnegut, 1988

There is no profit without another’s loss.

—Roman proverb

Kill a man, and you are an assassin. Kill millions of men, and you are a conqueror. Kill everyone, and you are a god.

—Jean Rostand, 1939

The highest possible stage in moral culture is when we recognize that we ought to control our thoughts.

—Charles Darwin, 1871

I hate the whole race. There is no believing a word they say—your professional poets, I mean—there never existed a more worthless set than Byron and his friends for example.

—Duke of Wellington, c. 1810

Conservation is not merely a thing to be enshrined in outdoor museums, but a way of living on land.

—Aldo Leopold, 1933

Repetition is the mother of education.

—Jean Paul, 1807