Every country has the government it deserves.
—Joseph de Maistre, 1811
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Quotes
Reading is learning, but applying is also learning and the more important kind of learning at that.
—Mao Zedong, 1936The more enlightened our houses are, the more their walls ooze ghosts.
—Italo Calvino, 1967Commerce tends to wear off those prejudices which maintain distinction and animosity between nations.
—William Robertson, 1769He that hath wife and children hath given hostages to fortune; for they are impediments to great enterprises, either of virtue or mischief.
—Francis Bacon, 1625The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.
—Thomas Jefferson, 1787The strength of a family, like the strength of an army, is in its loyalty to each other.
—Mario Puzo, 2001The law is established from above but becomes custom below.
—Su Zhe, c. 1100Unfortunately, humanitarianism has been the mark of an inhuman time.
—G.K. Chesterton, 1932Treaties, you see, are like girls and roses: they last while they last.
—Charles de Gaulle, 1963Nothing is more unpredictable than the mob, nothing more obscure than public opinion, nothing more deceptive than the whole political system.
—Marcus Tullius Cicero, 63 BCHe that commands the sea is at great liberty and may take as much and as little of the war as he will.
—Francis Bacon, c. 1600Ah! Freedom is a noble thing!
—John Barbour, 1375