Men have written in the most convincing manner to prove that death is no evil, and this opinion has been confirmed on a thousand celebrated occasions by the weakest of men as well as by heroes. Even so I doubt whether any sensible person has ever believed it, and the trouble men take to convince others as well as themselves that they do shows clearly that it is no easy undertaking.
—La Rochefoucauld, 1665
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Quotes
The sea is mother-death, and she is a mighty female, the one who wins, the one who sucks us all up.
—Anne Sexton, 1971Perish the universe, provided I have my revenge.
—Savinien Cyrano de Bergerac, 1654’Tis a portentous sign / When a man sweats and at the same time shivers.
—Plautus, c. 180 BCI don’t believe you can stand for freedom for one group of people and deny it to others.
—Coretta Scott King, 1994Repetition is the mother of education.
—Jean Paul, 1807I count myself in nothing else so happy / As in a soul remembering my good friends.
—William Shakespeare, c. 1595I love everyone now that I have gray hair.
—Polatkin, c. 1855The severity of a teacher is better than the love of a father.
—Saadi, 1258Understanding is a very dull occupation.
—Gertrude Stein, 1937I mean, why on earth (outside sickness and hangovers) aren’t people continually drunk? I want ecstasy of the mind all the time.
—Jack Kerouac, 1957Had Cleopatra’s nose been shorter, the whole face of the world would have changed.
—Blaise Pascal, 1658Family! Thou art the home of all social evil, a charitable institution for comfortable women, an anchorage for house-fathers, and a hell for children.
—August Strindberg, 1886