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Quotes

Nature has planted in our minds an insatiable desire to seek the truth.

—Marcus Tullius Cicero, 45 BC

As to the sea itself, love it you cannot. Why should you? I will never believe again the sea was ever loved by anyone whose life was married to it. It is the creation of omnipotence, which is not of humankind and understandable, and so the springs of its behavior are hidden.

—H.M. Tomlinson, 1912

Don’t ever wear artistic jewelry; it wrecks a woman’s reputation.

—Colette, 1944

As the saying goes, an old woman is always uneasy when dry bones are mentioned in a proverb.

—Chinua Achebe, 1958

Everyone complains about his memory, and no one complains about his judgment.

—La Rochefoucauld, 1666

The more corrupt the state, the more numerous its laws.

—Tacitus, c. 110

My face looks like a wedding cake left out in the rain.

—W.H. Auden, c. 1967

Hate must make a man productive. Otherwise one might as well love.

—Karl Kraus, 1912

Night affords the most convenient shade for works of darkness.

—John Taylor, 1750

Oligopoly, plutocracy, kleptocracy: All things that are good for a shareholder. 

—James J. Cramer, 2006

Some of us would be greatly astonished to learn the reasons why others respect us.

—Marquis de Vauvenargues, 1746

The fear of the Lord is true wisdom, and he who hath it not can in no way penetrate the true secrets of magic.

—Abraham the Jew, c. 1400

Our allotted time is the passing of a shadow.

—Book of Wisdom, c. 100 BC