I shall be an autocrat: that’s my trade. And the good Lord will forgive me: that’s his.
—Catherine the Great, c. 1796
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Quotes
The most socially subversive institution of our time is the one-parent family.
—Paul Johnson, 1989When the physician said to him, “You have lived to be an old man,” he said, “That is because I never employed you as my physician.”
—Pausanias, c. 450 BCIt is shameful and inhuman to treat men like chattels to make money by, or to regard them merely as so much muscle or physical power.
—Pope Leo XIII, 1891Do that which consists in taking no action, and order will prevail.
—Laozi, c. 500 BCI have given up considering happiness as relevant.
—Edward Gorey, 1974We have forgotten how to be good guests, how to walk lightly on the earth as its other creatures do.
—Barbara Ward, 1972The wrath of the lion is the wisdom of God.
—William Blake, 1793Bad men live that they may eat and drink, whereas good men eat and drink that they may live.
—Socrates, c. 430 BCThe best physician is he who can distinguish the possible from the impossible.
—Herophilus, c. 290 BCReligion is by no means a proper subject of conversation in mixed company.
—Philip Dormer Stanhope, 1754A fool’s brain digests philosophy into folly, science into superstition, and art into pedantry. Hence university education.
—George Bernard Shaw, 1903The best way to fill time is to waste it.
—Marguerite Duras, 1987