Man punishes the action, but God the intention.
—Thomas Fuller, 1732
Archive
Quotes
Epitaph, n. An inscription on a tomb, showing that virtues acquired by death have a retroactive effect.
—Ambrose Bierce, 1906The boy is, of all wild beasts, the most difficult to manage.
—Plato, c. 348 BCThe ingrained idea that, because there is no king and they despise titles, the Americans are a free people is pathetically untrue.
—Margot Asquith, 1922An electoral choice of ten different fascists is like choosing which way one wishes to die.
—George Jackson, 1971Two things only the people anxiously desire, bread and the circus games.
—Juvenal, c. 121To know the abyss of the darkness and not to fear it, to entrust oneself to it and whatever may arise from it—what greater gift?
—Ursula K. Le Guin, 1975Whoever gulps down wine as a horse gulps down water is called a Scythian.
—Athenaeus, c. 230An election is coming. Universal peace is declared, and the foxes have a sincere interest in prolonging the lives of the poultry.
—George Eliot, 1866Television has made dictatorship impossible, but democracy unbearable.
—Shimon Peres, 1995A woman’s greatest glory is to be little talked about by men, whether for good or ill.
—Pericles, c. 450 BCWhen the missionaries first came to Africa they had the Bible and we had the land. They said, “Let us pray.” We closed our eyes. When we opened them, we had the Bible and they had the land.
—Desmond Tutu, 1984Let me tell you what I think of bicycling. I think it has done more to emancipate women than anything else in the world: it gives women a feeling of freedom and self-reliance. I stand and rejoice every time I see a woman ride by on a wheel. The picture of free, untrammeled womanhood.
—Susan B. Anthony, 1896