Archive

Quotes

A woman’s greatest glory is to be little talked about by men, whether for good or ill.

—Pericles, c. 450 BC

Despotism achieves great things illegally; democracy doesn’t even take the trouble to achieve small things legally.

—Honoré de Balzac, 1831

Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it.

—George Bernard Shaw, 1903

The man in constant fear is every day condemned.

—Publilius Syrus, c. 50 BC

Rebellion is no less a sin than divination.

—Book of Samuel, c. 550 BC

Disease makes men more physical, it leaves them nothing but body.

—Thomas Mann, 1924

Families, I hate you! Shut-in homes, closed doors, jealous possessions of happiness.

—André Gide, 1897

Death and vulgarity are the only two facts in the nineteenth century that one cannot explain away.

—Oscar Wilde, 1891

And then, sir, there is this consideration: that if the abuse be enormous, nature will rise up and, claiming her original rights, overturn a corrupt political system.

—Samuel Johnson, 1791

There lurks in every human heart a desire of distinction which inclines every man first to hope and then to believe that nature has given him something peculiar to himself. 

—Samuel Johnson, 1763

A family’s photograph album is generally about the extended family—and, often, is all that remains of it.

—Susan Sontag, 1977

It is shameful and inhuman to treat men like chattels to make money by, or to regard them merely as so much muscle or physical power.

—Pope Leo XIII, 1891

Nature is often hidden, sometimes overcome, seldom extinguished.

—Francis Bacon, 1625