Lo, this only have I found, that God hath made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions.
—Ecclesiastes, c. 250 BC
Archive
Quotes
I detest war. It spoils armies.
—Grand Duke Constantine of Russia, c. 1820Time’s violence rends the soul; by the rent eternity enters.
—Simone Weil, 1947Those who give the first shock to a state are the first overwhelmed in its ruin; the fruits of public commotion are seldom enjoyed by him who was the first mover; he only beats the water for another’s net.
—Michel de Montaigne, 1580The future, like everything else, is no longer quite what it used to be.
—Paul Valéry, 1931We must consider that we shall be a city upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us, so that if we deal falsely with our God in this work we have undertaken, and so cause Him to withdraw His present help from us, we shall be made a story and a byword through the world.
—John Winthrop, 1630Every house: temple, empire, school.
—Joseph Joubert, 1800As man disappears from sight, the land remains.
—Maori proverbMen are what their mothers made them.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1860The traveler with nothing on him sings in the robber’s face.
—Juvenal, c. 125Do you suppose it possible to know democracy without knowing the people?
—Xenophon, c. 370 BCGood fortune turns aside destruction by a great god.
—Instructions of Ankhsheshonqy, c. 100 BCAll our enemies are mortal.
—Paul Valéry, 1942