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Quotes

There are truths that prove their discoverers witless.

—Karl Kraus, 1909

You must not grow used to making money out of everything. One sees more people ruined than one has seen preserved by shameful gains.

—Sophocles, c. 442 BC

A person who sees only fashion in fashion is a fool.

—Honoré de Balzac, 1830

Luck is not something you can mention in the presence of self-made men.

—E.B. White, 1944

The only thing that really worried me was the ether. There is nothing in the world more helpless and irresponsible and depraved than a man in the depths of an ether binge. And I knew we’d get into that rotten stuff pretty soon. Probably at the next gas station.

—Hunter S. Thompson, 1971

Man is always a wizard to man, and the social world is at first magical.

—Jean-Paul Sartre, 1939

The conquest of the earth, which mostly means the taking it away from those who have a different complexion or slightly flatter noses than ourselves, is not a pretty thing when you look into it too much.

—Joseph Conrad, 1899

If you are a dog and your owner suggests that you wear a sweater, suggest that he wear a tail.

—Fran Lebowitz, 1981

I am a living symbol of the white man’s fear.

—Winnie Mandela, 1985

Some nights are like honey—and some like wine—and some like wormwood.

—L.M. Montgomery, 1927

Labor disgraces no man; unfortunately, you occasionally find men who disgrace labor.

—Ulysses S. Grant, 1877

Seaward ho! Hang the treasure! It’s the glory of the sea that has turned my head.

—Robert Louis Stevenson, 1883

A bad reputation is easy to come by, painful to bear, and difficult to clear.

—Hesiod, c. 700 BC