The various modes of religion which prevailed in the Roman world were all considered by the people as equally true, by the philosophers equally false, and by the magistrate as equally useful.
—Edward Gibbon, 1776
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Quotes
A false report rides post.
—English proverbLuck is not something you can mention in the presence of self-made men.
—E.B. White, 1944Once a woman has lost her chastity she will shrink from nothing.
—Tacitus, c. 100Democracy means simply the bludgeoning of the people by the people for the people.
—Oscar Wilde, 1891Lord! I wonder what fool it was that first invented kissing.
—Jonathan Swift, 1738Revolutions never go backward.
—Thomas Skidmore, 1829There is something stirring in the way civilization gapes like a savage at the achievements of nature.
—Karl Kraus, 1909The future comes like an unwelcome guest.
—Edmund Gosse, 1873I take it as a prime cause of the present confusion of society that it is too sickly and too doubtful to use pleasure frankly as a test of value.
—Rebecca West, 1939The more corrupt the republic, the more numerous the laws.
—Tacitus, c. 117Often an entire city has suffered because of an evil man.
—Hesiod, c. 700 BCFor what do we live but to make sport for our neighbors and laugh at them in our turn?
—Jane Austen, 1813