Whoever thinks of going to bed before twelve o’clock is a scoundrel.
—Samuel Johnson, c. 1770
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Quotes
Man, when perfected, is the best of animals, but when separated from law and justice, he is the worst of all.
—Aristotle, c. 350 BCThe noblest kind of retribution is not to become like your enemy.
—Marcus Aurelius, c. 175Let the French but have England, and they won’t want to conquer it.
—Horace Walpole, 1745Friend! It is a common word, often lightly used. Like other good and beautiful things, it may be tarnished by careless handling.
—Harriet Jacobs, 1861He who would be happy should stay at home.
—Greek proverbIn psychoanalysis nothing is true except the exaggerations.
—Theodor Adorno, 1951Divine nature gave the fields; human art built the cities.
—Marcus Terentius Varro, c. 70 BCA miracle entails a degree of irrationality—not because it shocks reason, but because it makes no appeal to it.
—Emmanuel Lévinas, 1952Were I called on to define, very briefly, the term art, I should call it “the reproduction of what the senses perceive in nature through the veil of the soul.” The mere imitation, however accurate, of what is in nature, entitles no man to the sacred name of “artist.”
—Edgar Allan Poe, 1849A sick child is always the mother’s property; her own feelings generally make it so.
—Jane Austen, 1816Ridicule often checks what is absurd, and fully as often smothers that which is noble.
—Walter Scott, 1823It is very foolish to attack one’s enemy openly if one can injure him in secret.
—Giambattista Giraldi, 1543