Often the prudent, far from making their destinies, succumb to them; it is destiny which makes them prudent.
—Voltaire, 1764
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Quotes
There is no small pleasure in sweet water.
—Ovid, c. 10It is a certain sign of a wise government and proceeding, when it can hold men’s hearts by hopes, when it cannot by satisfaction.
—Francis Bacon, 1625Our nature lies in movement; complete calm is death.
—Blaise Pascal, c. 1640Nothing is more narrow-minded than chauvinism or racial hatred. To me all men are equal; there are flatheads everywhere and I despise them all equally.
—Karl Kraus, 1909Thought depends absolutely on the stomach, but in spite of that, those who have the best stomachs are not the best thinkers.
—Voltaire, 1770Wit enables us to act rudely with impunity.
—La Rochefoucauld, 1678What is food to one is to others bitter poison.
—Lucretius, 50 BCThe appointed thing comes at the appointed time in the appointed way.
—Myrtle Reed, 1910Despotism subjects a nation to one tyrant, democracy to many.
—Marguerite Gardiner, 1839A machine is a slave that neither brings nor bears degradation.
—Benjamin Disraeli, 1844If you must take care that your opinions do not differ in the least from those of the person with whom you are talking, you might just as well be alone.
—Yoshida Kenko, c. 1330Time, when it is left to itself and no definite demands are made on it, cannot be trusted to move at any recognized pace. Usually it loiters, but just when one has come to count upon its slowness, it may suddenly break into a wild irrational gallop.
—Edith Wharton, 1905