The ingrained idea that, because there is no king and they despise titles, the Americans are a free people is pathetically untrue.
—Margot Asquith, 1922
Archive
Quotes
Laughter almost ever cometh of things most disproportioned to ourselves and nature. Laughter hath only a scornful tickling.
—Philip Sidney, 1582A difference of taste in jokes is a great strain on the affections.
—George Eliot, 1876People commonly travel the world over to see rivers and mountains, new stars, garish birds, freak fish, grotesque breeds of human; they fall into an animal stupor that gapes at existence, and they think they have seen something.
—Søren Kierkegaard, 1843An old man is twice a child, and so is a drunken man.
—Plato, c. 360 BCAnyone who in discussion quotes authority uses his memory rather than his intellect.
—Leonardo da Vinci, c. 1500The whole secret of fencing consists but in two things, to give and not to receive.
—Molière, 1670I would much rather have men ask why I have no statue than why I have one.
—Cato the Elder, c. 184 BCHuman happiness never remains long in the same place.
—Herodotus, c. 430 BCThere’s plenty of fire in the coldest flint!
—Rachel Field, 1939Many need no other provocation to enmity than that they find themselves excelled.
—Samuel Johnson, 1751As matron and mistress will differ in temper and tone, so will the friend be distinct from the faithless parasite.
—Horace, c. 20 BCAh! Freedom is a noble thing!
—John Barbour, 1375