Do not lessen the time of following desire, for the wasting of time is an abomination to the spirit.
—Ptahhotep, c. 2350 BC
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Quotes
All civilization has from time to time become a thin crust over a volcano of revolution.
—Havelock Ellis, 1921The surest guide to the correctness of the path that women take is joy in the struggle. Revolution is the festival of the oppressed.
—Germaine Greer, 1970If the bird does like its cage, and does like its sugar, and will not leave it, why keep the door so very carefully shut?
—Olive Schreiner, 1883Though this be madness, yet there is method in’t.
—William Shakespeare, 1603Money, not morality, is the principle of commercial nations.
—Thomas JeffersonA college degree is a social certificate, not a proof of competence.
—Elbert Hubbard, 1911This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or their revolutionary right to dismember or overthrow it.
—Abraham Lincoln, 1861Music is our myth of the inner life.
—Susanne K. Langer, 1942Had Cleopatra’s nose been shorter, the whole face of the world would have changed.
—Blaise Pascal, 1658Drink today and drown all sorrow; / You shall perhaps not do it tomorrow.
—John Fletcher, 1625Trade is a social act.
—John Stuart Mill, 1859The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.
—H.L. Mencken, 1921