Sic semper tyrannis! The South is avenged.
—John Wilkes Booth, 1865Quotes
In a true democracy, everyone can be upper-class and live in Connecticut.
—Lisa Birnbach, 1980Casting lots causes contentions to cease, and keeps the mighty apart.
—Book of Proverbs, c. 350 BCThe world is wearied of statesmen whom democracy has degraded into politicians.
—Benjamin Disraeli, 1870Men are able to assist fortune but not to thwart her. They can weave her designs, but they cannot destroy them.
—Niccolò Machiavelli, 1531A lifetime of happiness! No man alive could bear it: it would be hell on earth.
—George Bernard Shaw, 1903I am leaving the town to the invaders: increasingly numerous, mediocre, dirty, badly behaved, shameless tourists.
—Brigitte Bardot, 1989The discovery of a new dish does more for human happiness than the discovery of a star.
—Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, 1825No time to marry, no time to settle down, I’m a young woman, and ain’t done runnin’ round.
—Bessie Smith, 1926Bereavement is a darkness impenetrable to the imagination of the unbereaved.
—Iris Murdoch, 1974Superstitions are habits rather than beliefs.
—Marlene Dietrich, 1962To be too conscious is an illness—a real thoroughgoing illness.
—Fyodor Dostoevsky, 1864I began to realize how simple life could be if one had a regular routine to follow with fixed hours, a fixed salary, and very little original thinking to do.
—Roald Dahl, 1984