What is popularly called fame is nothing but an empty name and a legacy from paganism.
—Erasmus, 1515
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Quotes
Alongside all swindlers the state now stands there as swindler-in-chief.
—Jacob Burckhardt, c. 1875Men, my dear, are very queer animals—a mixture of horse nervousness, ass stubbornness, and camel malice.
—T. H. Huxley, 1895Every ass thinks himself worthy to stand with the king’s horses.
—Gnomologia, 1732Think where man’s glory most begins and ends, / And say my glory was I had such friends.
—W.B. Yeats, 1937Let me tell you what I think of bicycling. I think it has done more to emancipate women than anything else in the world: it gives women a feeling of freedom and self-reliance. I stand and rejoice every time I see a woman ride by on a wheel. The picture of free, untrammeled womanhood.
—Susan B. Anthony, 1896I cannot live without books, but fewer will suffice where amusement, and not use, is the only future object.
—Thomas Jefferson, 1815They are trying to make me into a fixed star. I am an irregular planet.
—Martin Luther, c. 1530There are some who, if a cat accidentally comes into the room, though they neither see it nor are told of it, will presently be in a sweat and ready to die away.
—Increase Mather, 1684True friendship withstands time, distance, and silence.
—Isabel Allende, 2000All water has a perfect memory and is forever trying to get back to where it was.
—Toni Morrison, 1987Laughter almost ever cometh of things most disproportioned to ourselves and nature. Laughter hath only a scornful tickling.
—Philip Sidney, 1582There is nothing more tyrannical than a strong popular feeling among a democratic people.
—Anthony Trollope, 1862