If a man will observe as he walks the streets, I believe he will find the merriest countenances in mourning coaches.
—Jonathan Swift, 1706
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Quotes
I came upon no wine, / So wonderful as thirst.
—Edna St. Vincent Millay, 1923The snotgreen sea. The scrotumtightening sea.
—James Joyce, 1922Who sleepeth with dogs shall rise with fleas.
—John Florio, 1578Imagine a number of men in chains, all under sentence of death, some of whom are each day butchered in the sight of the others; those remaining see their own condition in that of their fellows and, looking at each other with grief and despair, await their turn. This is an image of the human condition.
—Blaise Pascal, 1669See one promontory (said Socrates of old), one mountain, one sea, one river, and see all.
—Robert Burton, c. 1620From a man’s face, I can read his character. If I can see him walk, I know his thoughts.
—Gaius Petronius Arbiter, c. 60What delight can there be, and not rather displeasure, in hearing the barking and howling of dogs? Or what greater pleasure is there to be felt when a dog followeth a hare than when a dog followeth a dog?
—Thomas More, 1516You shall judge of a man by his foes as well as by his friends.
—Joseph Conrad, 1900There is not so contemptible a plant or animal that does not confound the most enlarged understanding.
—John Locke, 1689All revolutions devour their own children.
—Ernst Röhm, 1933I have always been of the mind that in a democracy, manners are the only effective weapons against the bowie knife.
—James Russell Lowell, 1873Exchange is no robbery.
—German proverb