Men have written in the most convincing manner to prove that death is no evil, and this opinion has been confirmed on a thousand celebrated occasions by the weakest of men as well as by heroes. Even so I doubt whether any sensible person has ever believed it, and the trouble men take to convince others as well as themselves that they do shows clearly that it is no easy undertaking.
—La Rochefoucauld, 1665
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Quotes
Honesty, for me, is usually the worst policy imaginable.
—Patricia Highsmith, 1960It’s good to remember that in crises, natural crises, human beings forget for a while their ignorances, their biases, their prejudices. For a little while, neighbors help neighbors and strangers help strangers.
—Maya Angelou, 2011How absurd men are! They never use the liberties they have, they demand those they do not have. They have freedom of thought, they demand freedom of speech.
—Søren Kierkegaard, 1843Nobody works as hard for his money as the man who marries it.
—Kin HubbardOne should either be a work of art, or wear a work of art.
—Oscar Wilde, 1894Fire is a natural symbol of life and passion, though it is the one element in which nothing can actually live.
—Susanne K. Langer, 1942Sanity is madness put to good uses; waking life is a dream controlled.
—George Santayana, 1920Sooner or later if the activity of the mind is restricted anywhere, it will cease to function even where it is allowed to be free.
—Edith Hamilton, 1930Other nations use “force”; we Britons alone use “might.”
—Evelyn Waugh, 1938The more men are massed together, the more corrupt they become. Disease and vice are the sure results of overcrowded cities.
—Jean-Jacques Rousseau, 1762Friendship itself will not stand the strain of very much good advice for very long.
—Robert Wilson Lynd, 1924Words pay no debts.
—William Shakespeare, 1601