No man but a blockhead ever wrote, except for money.
—Samuel Johnson, 1776
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Quotes
Such then is the human state, that to wish greatness for one’s country is to wish harm to one’s neighbors.
—Voltaire, 1764The ceaseless, senseless demand for original scholarship in a number of fields, where only erudition is now possible, has led either to sheer irrelevancy, the famous knowing of more and more about less and less, or to the development of a pseudo-scholarship which actually destroys its object.
—Hannah Arendt, 1972To get back my youth I would do anything in the world, except take exercise, get up early, or be respectable.
—Oscar Wilde, 1891Democracy produces both heroes and villains, but it differs from a fascist state in that it does not produce a hero who is a villain.
—Margaret Halsey, 1946Let the people think they govern, and they will be governed.
—William Penn, 1693It belongs to a nobleman to weep in an hour of disaster.
—Euripides, 412 BCCurses are like young chickens, they always come home to roost.
—Robert Southey, 1809God walks among the pots and pans.
—Saint Teresa of Ávila, c. 1582We should always presume the disease to be curable until its own nature proves it otherwise.
—Peter Mere Latham, c. 1845A change in the weather is sufficient to create the world and oneself anew.
—Marcel Proust, c. 1920Keep running after a dog, and he will never bite you.
—François Rabelais, 1535Some of us would be greatly astonished to learn the reasons why others respect us.
—Marquis de Vauvenargues, 1746