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Quotes

I am about to take my last voyage, a great leap in the dark.

—Thomas Hobbes, 1679

There is a demon who puts wings on certain tales and launches them like eagles out into space.

—Alexandre Dumas, 1846

There are many civil questions that arise between individuals in which it is not so important the controversy be settled one way or another as that it be settled.

—William Howard Taft, 1921

I’m president of the United States, and I’m not going to eat any more broccoli!

—George H. W. Bush, 1990

Commerce tends to wear off those prejudices which maintain distinction and animosity between nations.

—William Robertson, 1769

As peace is of all goodness, so war is an emblem, a hieroglyphic, of all misery.

—John Donne, 1622

All traveling becomes dull in exact proportion to its rapidity.

—John Ruskin, 1856

For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel’s sake. The great affair is to move.

—Robert Louis Stevenson, 1879

People living deeply have no fear of death.

—Anaïs Nin, 1935

To gaze upon a drop of water is to behold the nature of all the waters of the universe.

—Huangbo Xiyun, c. 850

It is so difficult not to become vain about one’s own good luck.

—Simone de Beauvoir, 1963

Famous, adj. Conspicuously miserable.

—Ambrose Bierce, 1906

Infectious disease is one of the few genuine adventures left in the world.

—Hans Zinsser, 1935