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Quotes

Seek not water, only show you are thirsty, / That water may spring up all around you.

—Rumi, c. 1260

One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.

—Virginia Woolf, 1929

Commerce has made all winds her ministers.

—John Sterling, 1843

What reason weaves, by passion is undone.

—Alexander Pope, 1972

It is He who has subdued the ocean so that you may eat of its fresh fish and bring up from its depth ornaments to wear. Behold the ships plowing their course through it. All this, that you may seek His bounty and render thanks.

—The Qur’an, c. 625

Every gift has a personality—that of its giver.

—Nuruddin Farah, 1992

A merchant shall hardly keep himself from doing wrong.

—Ecclesiasticus, c. 180 BC

To burn always with this hard, gemlike flame, to maintain this ecstasy, is success in life.

—Walter Pater, 1873

Freedom of the press is only guaranteed to those who own one.

—A.J. Liebling, 1960

Revenge may be wicked, but it’s natural.

—William Makepeace Thackeray, 1847

How absurd men are! They never use the liberties they have, they demand those they do not have. They have freedom of thought, they demand freedom of speech.

—Søren Kierkegaard, 1843

A crowded police court docket is the surest sign that trade is brisk and money plenty.

—Mark Twain, 1872

Petty laws breed great crimes.

—Ouida, 1880