Why has the government been instituted at all? Because the passions of men will not conform to the dictates of reason and justice without constraint.
—Alexander Hamilton, 1787
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Quotes
It is remarkable that only small birds properly sing.
—Charles Darwin, 1871Plough deep while sluggards sleep.
—Benjamin Franklin, 1758There is nothing sillier than a silly laugh.
—Catullus, c. 60 BCIt is hard when nature does not respect your intentions, and she never does exactly respect them.
—Wendell Berry, 1985A fool and water will go the way they are diverted.
—Ethiopian proverbIn large states public education will always be mediocre, for the same reason that in large kitchens the cooking is usually bad.
—Friedrich Nietzsche, 1878Fate leads the willing and drags along those who hang back.
—Cleanthes, c. 250 BC’Tis the sport to have the engineer / Hoist with his own petard.
—William Shakespeare, c. 1600There comes a time in every rightly constructed boy’s life when he has a raging desire to go somewhere and dig for hidden treasure.
—Mark Twain, 1876Where the telescope ends, the microscope begins. Which of these two has the grander view?
—Victor Hugo, 1862If the present be compared with the remote past, it is easily seen that in all cities and in all peoples there are the same desires and the same passions as there always were.
—Niccolò Machiavelli, c. 1513Talk to me about the truth of religion and I’ll listen gladly. Talk to me about the duty of religion and I’ll listen submissively. But don’t come talking to me about the consolations of religion or I shall suspect that you don’t understand.
—C.S. Lewis, 1961