All successful revolutions are the kicking in of a rotten door. The violence of revolutions is the violence of men who charge into a vacuum.
—John Kenneth Galbraith, 1977
Archive
Quotes
No matter how much cats fight, there always seem to be plenty of kittens.
—Abraham LincolnNatural rights is simple nonsense: natural and imprescriptible rights, rhetorical nonsense—nonsense upon stilts.
—Jeremy Bentham, c. 1832Drive out nature with a pitchfork, and she will always come back.
—Horace, c. 25 BCOur allotted time is the passing of a shadow.
—Book of Wisdom, c. 100 BCMisfortune, n. The kind of fortune that never misses.
—Ambrose Bierce, 1906’Tis the sport to have the engineer / Hoist with his own petard.
—William Shakespeare, c. 1600Man must be doing something, or fancy that he is doing something, for in him throbs the creative impulse; the mere basker in the sunshine is not a natural, but an abnormal man.
—Henry George, 1879The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.
—Aristotle, c. 350 BCNo one gossips about other people’s secret virtues.
—Bertrand Russell, 1961He who travels by sea is nothing but a worm on a piece of wood, a trifle in the midst of a powerful creation. The waters play about with him at will, and no one but God can help him.
—Muhammad as-Saffar, 1846The severity of a teacher is better than the love of a father.
—Saadi, 1258It is wretched business to be digging a well just as you’re dying of thirst.
—Plautus, c. 193 BC