Life is the art of being well deceived.
—William Hazlitt, c. 1817
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Quotes
In every ill turn of fortune, the most unhappy sort of unfortunate man is the one who has been happy.
—Boethius, c. 520The first requisite to happiness is that a man be born in a famous city.
—Euripides, c. 415 BCHunting is all that’s worth living for—all time is lost what is not spent in hunting—it is like the air we breathe—if we have it not we die—it’s the sport of kings, the image of war without its guilt.
—Robert Smith Surtees, 1843One is never as unhappy as one thinks, nor as happy as one hopes.
—La Rochefoucauld, 1664I have often said that if I wish to name-drop, I have only to list my ex-friends.
—Norman Podhoretz, 1999Opposition is not necessarily enmity; it is merely misused and made an occasion for enmity.
—Sigmund Freud, 1930There’s plenty of water in the universe without life, but nowhere is there life without water.
—Sylvia Alice Earle, 1995One has to spend so many years in learning how to be happy.
—George Eliot, 1844The most beautiful makeup of a woman is passion. But cosmetics are easier to buy.
—Yves Saint Laurent, 1978There is no greater sorrow than to recall a happy time in the midst of wretchedness.
—Dante Alighieri, c. 1321There never was a good war or a bad peace.
—Benjamin Franklin, 1773The conquest of the earth, which mostly means the taking it away from those who have a different complexion or slightly flatter noses than ourselves, is not a pretty thing when you look into it too much.
—Joseph Conrad, 1899