Most men employ the first years of their life in making the last miserable.
—Jean de La Bruyère, 1688
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Quotes
The true art of memory is the art of attention.
—Samuel Johnson, 1759A hick town is one where there is no place to go where you shouldn’t go.
—Alexander Woollcott, c. 1935Many need no other provocation to enmity than that they find themselves excelled.
—Samuel Johnson, 1751Time’s ruins build eternity’s mansions.
—James Joyce, 1922War has silenced all laws.
—Lucan, c. 65Men willingly believe what they wish.
—Julius Caesar, c. 50 BCIt is very foolish to attack one’s enemy openly if one can injure him in secret.
—Giambattista Giraldi, 1543There is not so contemptible a plant or animal that does not confound the most enlarged understanding.
—John Locke, 1689A change in the weather is sufficient to create the world and oneself anew.
—Marcel Proust, c. 1920Epitaph, n. An inscription on a tomb, showing that virtues acquired by death have a retroactive effect.
—Ambrose Bierce, 1906The more corrupt the state, the more numerous its laws.
—Tacitus, c. 110Superstitions are habits rather than beliefs.
—Marlene Dietrich, 1962