What experience and history teach is this—that nations and governments have never learned anything from history or acted upon any lessons they might have drawn from it.
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, 1830
Archive
Quotes
He laughs best who laughs last.
—French proverbDiseases, at least many of them, are like human beings. They are born, they flourish, and they die.
—David Riesman, 1937The most may err as grossly as the few.
—John Dryden, 1681The drunken man is a living corpse.
—St. John Chrysostom, c. 390The less intelligent the white man is, the more stupid he thinks the black.
—André Gide, 1927Secrecy lies at the very core of power.
—Elias Canetti, 1960It was funny how I could feel all alone and under surveillance at the same time.
—Cory Doctorow, 2013Being offended is the natural consequence of leaving one’s home.
—Fran Lebowitz, 1981One of the saddest things is that the only thing that a man can do for eight hours a day, day after day, is work. You can’t eat eight hours a day, nor drink for eight hours a day, nor make love for eight hours.
—William Faulkner, 1958Put national causes first and personal grudges last.
—Sima Qian, c. 91 BCMost men employ the first years of their life in making the last miserable.
—Jean de La Bruyère, 1688He knows the water best who has waded through it.
—Danish proverb