On the loftiest throne in the world, we still sit only on our own rump.
—Michel de Montaigne, 1580
Archive
Quotes
Toil is man’s allotment; toil of brain, or toil of hands, or a grief that’s more than either, the grief and sin of idleness.
—Herman Melville, 1849For most of us, nighttime dreaming brings us closer to our identities and our power than any activity in the waking world.
—Walter Mosley, 2000Often an entire city has suffered because of an evil man.
—Hesiod, c. 700 BCI imagined it was more difficult to die.
—Louis XIV, 1715To put one’s trust in God is only a longer way of saying that one will chance it.
—Samuel Butler, c. 1890If you would help another man, you must do so in minute particulars.
—William Blake, 1804Real education must ultimately be limited to men who insist on knowing—the rest is mere sheep herding.
—Ezra Pound, 1934The period is not very remote when the benefits of a liberal and free commerce will, pretty generally, succeed to the devastations and horrors of war.
—George Washington, 1786Keep no company with those whose position is high but whose morals are low.
—Ge Hong, c. 320A college degree is a social certificate, not a proof of competence.
—Elbert Hubbard, 1911The winds and the waves are always on the side of the ablest navigators.
—Edward Gibbon, 1788Disease generally begins that equality which death completes.
—Samuel Johnson, 1750