What is the hardest task in the world? To think.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1841
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Quotes
Most new discoveries are suddenly-seen things that were always there.
—Susanne K. Langer, 1942Fortune brings in some boats that are not steered.
—William Shakespeare, c. 1610I have said this before, but I shall say it again and again and again: your boys are not going to be sent into any foreign wars.
—Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 1940No one’s serious at seventeen.
—Arthur Rimbaud, 1870The Mughal’s nature is such that they demand miracles, but if a miracle were to be performed by some upright follower of our religion, they would say that it had been brought about by magic and sorcery. They would strike him down with spears or would stone him to death.
—Fr. Antonio Monserrate, 1590God walks among the pots and pans.
—Saint Teresa of Ávila, c. 1582Till taught by pain, / Men really know not what good water’s worth.
—Lord Byron, 1819You are dust, and to dust you shall return.
—Book of Genesis, c. 800 BCThe righteous know the needs of their animals, but the mercy of the wicked is cruel.
—Book of Proverbs, c. 500 BCAnimals are such agreeable friends—they ask no questions, they pass no criticisms.
—George Eliot, 1857Those who travel heedlessly from place to place, observing only their distance from each other and attending only to their accommodation at the inn at night, set out fools, and will certainly return so.
—Philip Dormer Stanhope, 1747No human life, not even the life of a hermit, is possible without a world which directly or indirectly testifies to the presence of other human beings.
—Hannah Arendt, 1958