Nowadays three witty turns of phrase and a lie make a writer.
—G.C. Lichtenberg, c. 1780
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Quotes
Art imitates nature as well as it can, as a pupil follows his master; thus it is a sort of grandchild of God.
—Dante, c. 1315Your worst enemy cannot harm you as much as your own thoughts, unguarded.
—The Dhammapada, c. 400 BCIn settling an island, the first building erected by a Spaniard will be a church, by a Frenchman a fort, by a Dutchman a warehouse, and by an Englishman an alehouse.
—Francis Grose, 1787Don’t you find it a beautiful clean thought, a world empty of people, just uninterrupted grass, and a hare sitting up?
—D.H. Lawrence, 1920Laws, like houses, lean on one another.
—Edmund Burke, 1765Drink does not drown care but waters it, and makes it grow faster.
—Benjamin Franklin, 1749No human life, not even the life of a hermit, is possible without a world which directly or indirectly testifies to the presence of other human beings.
—Hannah Arendt, 1958Luck takes the step that no one sees.
—Publilius Syrus, c. 50 BCIt raineth every day, and the weather represents our tearful despair on a large scale.
—Mary Boykin Chesnut, 1865What delight can there be, and not rather displeasure, in hearing the barking and howling of dogs? Or what greater pleasure is there to be felt when a dog followeth a hare than when a dog followeth a dog?
—Thomas More, 1516Let us have peace, but let us have liberty, law, and justice first.
—Frederick Douglass, 1878The mansion of modern freedoms stands on an ever-expanding base of fossil-fuel use.
—Dipesh Chakrabarty, 2008