Do you suppose it possible to know democracy without knowing the people?
—Xenophon, c. 370 BC
Archive
Quotes
The future comes like an unwelcome guest.
—Edmund Gosse, 1873Nowadays three witty turns of phrase and a lie make a writer.
—G.C. Lichtenberg, c. 1780Many need no other provocation to enmity than that they find themselves excelled.
—Samuel Johnson, 1751Language is a part of our organism and no less complicated than it.
—Ludwig Wittgenstein, 1915If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you. This is the principal difference between a dog and a man.
—Mark Twain, 1894Resentment kills a fool, and envy slays the simple.
—Book of Job, c. 600 BCWe are a commercial people. We cannot boast of our arts, our crafts, our cultivation; our boast is in the wealth we produce.
—Ida M. Tarbell, 1904Fortune brings in some boats that are not steered.
—William Shakespeare, c. 1610All law is of necessity defective in the beginning.
—Han Yu, c. 800There is a vital force in rumor. Though crushed to earth, to all intents and purposes buried, it can rise again without apparent effort.
—Eleanor Robson Belmont, 1957Charity begins at home, and justice begins next door.
—Charles Dickens, 1843Attacks on me will do no harm, and silent contempt is the best answer to them.
—James Monroe, 1808