The fear of the Lord is true wisdom, and he who hath it not can in no way penetrate the true secrets of magic.
—Abraham the Jew, c. 1400
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Quotes
Industrialism is the religion with “the machine” as the god going to answer all the prayers. Communism and capitalism were just competing sects.
—Dora Russell, 1983If the bird does like its cage, and does like its sugar, and will not leave it, why keep the door so very carefully shut?
—Olive Schreiner, 1883Anyone can hold the helm when the sea is calm.
—Publilius Syrus, c. 30 BCThere is no shop anywhere where one can buy friendship.
—Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, 1943Some are born to sweet delight,
Some are born to endless night.
The period of a [Persian] boy’s education is between the ages of five and twenty, and he is taught three things only: to ride, to use the bow, and to speak the truth.
—Herodotus, c. 440 BCA self-made man is one who believes in luck and sends his son to Oxford.
—Christina Stead, 1938The more enlightened our houses are, the more their walls ooze ghosts.
—Italo Calvino, 1967Art is our chief means of breaking bread with the dead.
—W.H. Auden, c. 1940Nothing is so easy to fake as the inner vision.
—Robertson Davies, 1985For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbors, and laugh at them in our turn?
—Jane Austen, 1813I have loved the stars too truly to be fearful of the night.
—Sarah Williams, 1868