Friendship was given by nature to be an assistant to virtue, not a companion to vice.
—Marcus Tullius Cicero, c. 45 BC
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Quotes
Nothing but a permanent body can check the imprudence of democracy.
—Alexander Hamilton, 1787The belly is the reason why man does not mistake himself for a god.
—Friedrich Nietzsche, 1886A hick town is one where there is no place to go where you shouldn’t go.
—Alexander Woollcott, c. 1935Imitate the ass in his love to his master.
—St. John Chrysostom, c. 388The brain may be regarded as a kind of parasite of the organism, a pensioner, as it were, who dwells with the body.
—Arthur Schopenhauer, 1851The Romans would never have found time to conquer the world if they had been obliged first to learn Latin.
—Heinrich Heine, 1827Water is the first principle of everything.
—Thales of Miletus, c. 600 BCA man is either free or he is not. There cannot be any apprenticeship for freedom.
—Amiri Baraka, 1962All voting is a sort of gaming, like checkers or backgammon, with a slight moral tinge to it.
—Henry David Thoreau, 1849The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.
—Saint Augustine, c. 390Your worst enemy cannot harm you as much as your own thoughts, unguarded.
—The Dhammapada, c. 400 BCResorting to the law to resolve a dispute is a declaration of spiritual bankruptcy.
—Quentin Crisp, 1984