When poets don’t know what to say and have completely given up on the play, just like a finger, they lift the machine and the spectators are satisfied.
—Antiphanes, c. 350 BC
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Quotes
Under the pressure of the cares and sorrows of our mortal condition, men have at all times and in all countries, called in some physical aid to their moral consolations—wine, beer, opium, brandy, or tobacco.
—Edmund Burke, 1795Sometime they’ll give a war and nobody will come.
—Carl Sandburg, 1936Destiny is not a matter of chance, it is a matter of choice; it is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved.
—William Jennings Bryan, 1899All modern revolutions have ended in a reinforcement of the power of the state.
—Albert Camus, 1951We never are definitely right; we can only be sure we are wrong.
—Richard P. Feynman, 1965As usual, what we call “progress” is the exchange of one nuisance for another nuisance.
—Havelock Ellis, 1914The atavistic urge toward danger persists and its satisfaction is called adventure.
—John Steinbeck, 1941Where shall I, of wandering weary, find my resting place at last?
—Heinrich Heine, 1827If a king loves music, there is little wrong in the land.
—Mencius, c. 330 BCRidicule often checks what is absurd, and fully as often smothers that which is noble.
—Walter Scott, 1823Keep no company with those whose position is high but whose morals are low.
—Ge Hong, c. 320Some men never recover from education.
—Oliver St. John Gogarty, 1954