Alongside all swindlers the state now stands there as swindler-in-chief.
—Jacob Burckhardt, c. 1875
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Quotes
Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.
—Mao Zedong, 1938Ocean. A body of water occupying about two-thirds of a world made for man—who has no gills.
—Ambrose Bierce, 1906Africa has her mysteries, and even a wise man cannot understand them. But a wise man respects them.
—Miriam Makeba, 1988To teach is to learn twice over.
—Joseph Joubert, c. 1805Gossip is the opiate of the oppressed.
—Erica Jong, 1973The work of art, just like any fragment of human life considered in its deepest meaning, seems to me devoid of value if it does not offer the hardness, the rigidity, the regularity, the luster on every interior and exterior facet, of the crystal.
—André Breton, 1937When a man dies, and his kin are glad of it, they say, “He is better off.”
—Edgar Watson Howe, 1911I have seen the science I worshipped, and the aircraft I loved, destroying the civilization I expected them to serve.
—Charles Lindbergh, 1948I am not Athenian or Greek but a citizen of the world.
—Socrates, c. 420 BCNothing worth knowing can be understood with the mind.
—Woody Allen, 1979We are to go to law never to revenge, but only to repair.
—Samuel Pepys, 1661The law looks at no one’s face.
—Gabriel Okara, 1964